14ymedio – Page 281 – Translating Cuba

Cuba: Before and After July 11

How many of those who protested at the Maleconazo remain on the Island today, how many survive? (Karel Poort)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Desde Aqui, Havana, August 5, 2021 — The popular program Escriba y Lea [Write and Read] familiarized viewers with one of the most delicate operations a historian can make: dating the beginning and end of an era. When the panelists had to figure out, sometimes by guessing, the historical fact or character suggested in a riddle, they first asked questions such as whether it was before or after the French Revolution. Or if it was post WWII. Knowing the time period, they figured out the answer.

The formula relied on a wide variety of jokes, especially those that mocked events celebrated in official propaganda: Before the ration book? After the Special Period? In the chocolate milk era?

In conversations in which different generations overlap, confusion often arises about continue reading

what is meant by “before.”

For the septuagenarians, “before” means anything prior to 1959. Up until the late 1970s, if you wanted to find out where dissimilar objects of a certain quality had come from — a lamp, a skirt, a kitchen gadget — you had to first find out if it was “from somewhere else” or “from before.” If the object was said to be “from here” or “from now,” this was not necessary because, by then, everything came from the rationed market. What was “from before” was held in the same esteem as what came “from somewhere else.”

Those born in the the new age of “Revolution” reached adulthood in the 1980s. They saw the dawn of “liberated” markets, were moved by Nueva Trova songs and enjoyed the benefits of what was commonly known in its heyday as “the Soviet pipeline.” They were also the ones who filled the boats fleeing the port of Mariel, those who were victims or perpetrators of acts of repudiation.

Twenty-seven years have passed since the Maleconazo, the Malecón uprising, a watershed event that took place on August 5, 1994. Those who were not old enough to participate, or who had not yet been born, are today in the under-35 age range, when one can still be considered unquestionably young.

How many protestors from that uprising remain on the island today? How many are still alive? Surely, a few of them took to the streets on July 11.

Those who did have earned the right to measure historical time in a new way: before or after July 11.

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Otero Alcantara’s Lawyer Visited Him in Prison and Will Ask for a Change of Measures

Otero Alcántara was arrested on Sunday July 11 and is accused of “assault”, “resistance” and “contempt”. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, August 5, 2021 — The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who as of this Thursday has been detained for 26 days, received a visit from his lawyer Clemente Morgado in the maximum security prison of Guanajay, in the province of Artemisa. This Friday, the lawyer will present a request for a change of conditions so he can have a “clear and substantive” conversation with the leader of the San Isidro Movement.

“Luis is in good health and in good spirits, but he is naturally concerned about his legal situation,” the art curator Claudia Genlui, who accompanied the lawyer to prison, explained on her social media. “He asked that I convey to ’Luisma’ that he is not alone, that he has the support of all the people who love him. He knows it; he trusts us as we trust him,” she said.

She also said that, before Otero Alcántara could say goodbye to the lawyer, he was handcuffed and that seconds before being transferred from the room where they were meeting he looked at her and shouted: “Tell Maykel [Castillo Osorbo] and Esteban [Rodríguez] that we are connected. Homeland and life!”

Genlui has spoken several times with the artist by phone and he has always expressed concern continue reading

for those arrested as a result of the July 11 protests as well as for his friends, Osorbo, a protest rapper, and Rodríguez, an independent journalist.

Otero Alcántara was arrested that same Sunday, July 11, and is accused of “assault,” “resistance” and “contempt” for the events that occurred outside the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement on April 4. They are the same crimes charged against Osorbo, imprisoned since May 18. Both cases, Genlui informed 14ymedio, are in the same file, number 24.

Genlui points out that the demonstration organized that April 4 on Damas Street, in Old Havana, was “where they sang ‘Díaz-Canel singao’ [motherfucker] when they were about to open the exhibition dedicated to children at the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement.”

From that day, the iconic image spread of Osorbo with his wife tied to his wrist after escaping the arrest of the political police. The harassment by both branches of State Security has not stopped since then.

On April 25, Otero Alcántara went on a hunger and thirst strike to demand that his rights be respected, after a month-long police siege at his home. The political police had also destroyed many of his works. After several days of fasting, on May 2 he was taken from his home against his will and taken to the Calixto García hospital, where, without official explanation, he was detained for 29 days.

Then on May 21, Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience and urged President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez and other Cuban authorities to release him immediately and unconditionally.

Currently, the United Nations Working Group against Arbitrary Detention is examining the case of Otero Alcántara.

Translated by Tomás A.

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The Cuban Prosecutor’s Office Denies There Were Forced Disappearances on July 11

Two agents subdue one of the protesters on July 11, in Havana. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, August 5, 2021 — Of the 62 people who have been tried for their participation in the July 11 demonstrations, 53 were sanctioned for public disorder and others for “resistance, contempt, instigation to commit a crime and damage,” according to the official data offered this Wednesday by Joselin Sánchez Hidalgo, Magistrate of the People’s Supreme Court, and Director of Supervision and Attention to the Population, to Cubadebate.

The statement focuses on praising the supposed guarantees of the Cuban judicial system, which the testimonies belie, and makes clear the annoyance that the accusations of “forced disappearances” have generated among the authorities.

According to the official version, those who ended up in court did so for their “aggressive, violent, and damaging” conduct, and the crimes for which they were tried carry penalties of one year in prison, a fine of 300 pesos or both. “In the case of the most violent or serious events that occurred on July 11, they are still under investigation and therefore have not reached the Court,” adds Sánchez Hidalgo.

This official confirmed the difficulties of escaping the weight of the regime’s laws by indicating that only one of all the accused was acquitted. Other details offered continue reading

by the judge were the appearance in oral trial of 22 of the defendants assisted by a lawyer, and the appeals filed against the sentences, a total of 45 of which 40 have already been assigned a lawyer.

Pointing to presumed recidivism or previous misconduct, the official emphasized that 21 of those sanctioned were on probation or serving “subsidiary” penalties not including imprisonment. “When the investigative actions were carried out, it was determined that they had breached the obligations imposed by the law and that the benefit of the subsidiary sanction was revoked.”

On July 24 (the last time the Supreme Court offered data on processes related to July 11) 59 people had been tried, so the number has risen by only three. The statement spends numerous paragraphs talking about the rights that the law establishes, although it does not mention the discretion with which they are applied.

For example, Sánchez Hidalgo spoke of the right to a lawyer to assist any defendant, as well as the right to provide evidence in their defense, testify, or abstain and appeal the sentence. But the facts and a multitude of testimonies reveal that State Security pressures families to waive these guarantees that exist on paper, even advising them not to seek legal advice with the warning that it may count against them.

“We can assure you that the oral trials held by the court against 62 defendants have been carried out with strict adherence to these guarantees established by the Criminal Procedure Law and also endorsed in the Constitution of the Republic,” the judge claims, without addressing what happens in practice.

In addition to insisting on the right to have a lawyer, which the law grants, he insisted that otherwise the rule provides a public defender for those who wish to have the services of one. But it is rare for this type of defense to confront the authorities.

Dixán Fuentes Guzmán, chief prosecutor of the Directorate of Attention to Citizens of the Office of the General Prosecutor of the Republic (FGR), has also spoken with the official newspaper to reinforce the presumed guarantees of the system. According to his version, all those who have filed a complaint in relation to the arrests related to the July 11 demonstrations will have an answer within the required period.

“This is how our Constitution defines it, since addressing and solving the problems posed by citizens and doing it with quality, also has to do with the essence of the socialism that we build. And there is no efficient socialism if we do not have a group of institutions that protect the rights of the people,” he said.

The prosecutor indicated that the judicial system must work more to avoid errors, but at the same time justified the correct action of the justice system. Between January and July, the FGR served 47,000 people and received more than 9,000 complaints, a fact that, in his opinion, is a sign of the confidence that Cubans have in their institutions. “Nobody asks an institution for something if they don’t trust it,” he defended.

With respect to the July 11 demonstrations, 215 people were processed, of whom 47 filed complaints. The official distinguishes that some of these were requests for information by relatives of the detainees, the most common being about the place to which they were taken after their arrest.

“Is this forced disappearance? No. People didn’t know at first where they were being detained, and the prosecutors have the responsibility of verifying that the Ministry of the Interior has complied with the provisions established by law of communicating immediately to the next of kin the place of detention and the reasons,” he said.

Also, he explained, it is common for families to complain of the inconvenience of the place where the detainee is, the way in which the arrest took place – which very frequently includes violence – and the precautionary measures imposed, in addition to questions about arresting people who were just filming, as was the case of Yoan de la Cruz, who broadcast the first protest of San Antonio de los Baños, among others.

Sánchez said that it is very common for the Prosecutor’s Office to review a sentence and modify it when evidence is provided, and also that minors who have reached the age of 16 can be charged because they are subject to criminal accountability, as provided by law.

Translated by Tomás A.

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In Havana’s Trillo Park an Official Act Cannot Compete With the Line to Buy Potatoes

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 5 August 2021 — The photo above is from this Thursday morning and shows the line to buy potatoes in the rationed market near Parque Trillo, in Centro Habana. The image below was taken at a Fair organized by the University Student Federation (FEU) in that same park.

The FEU Fair came to complement the unfortunate official caravan that traveled along the Malecón this morning as well. Either by necessity or by obligation, it seems that we Cubans are condemned to not be able to avoid the crowds and tumult in the midst of the most terrible of the Covid-19 outbreaks that this Island has experienced.

To paraphrase the poet and playwright Virgilio Piñera … “I don’t know about you, but I am afraid, very afraid” that the virus, together with the scarcities that we are suffering and the arrogance of those who control this country, will end up taking more lives … many more lives.

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With the Upsurge in Covid, the Bad Odors from the Ciego de Avila Cemetery Invade Homes

Local officials argue that the project to extend the cemetery was planned before the pandemic. (Collage)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus , 2 August 2021 — The upsurge of Covid-19 in the Cuban province of Ciego de Ávila has accelerated the works to expand its main cemetery, some works that have been rejected by the closest neighbors who have been denouncing bad smells, the hectic bustle of corpses and the use of some of their patios for burials.

“The residents of Calle 8 and Pedro Martínez have been complaining for more than a week because we wouldn’t wish on anyone what we are experiencing, it is like being in a horror movie,” Moraima Lugo, one of those affected by what she calls “the expansion of the cemetery at full speed.”

The woman explains that her patios are adjacent to the Ciego de Ávila cemetery, near the Central Highway, and several neighbors have suffered the demolition of their fences “overnight” because “the authorities need more space to build niches.”

“They say that they no longer have capacity in the oldest part of the cemetery and this is disrespectful because continue reading

they have filled us with the dead everywhere, in my house you can’t even eat in the bad smell,” she says. “Girón buses are constantly arriving with bags with bodies.”

Lugo adds that the neighborhood has always had problems with water and that a year ago, the residents themselves had to pay for a well to supply themselves. Now, she complains that “the little water supply we have is contaminated and in the worst way, with waste derived from deceased people, some of them as a result of Covid-19.”

“The fences that have been pulled down for the works of the cemetery surround the patios of people who have lived here for a long time,” she continues. “Some have the deeds for their entire land and others do not, but their children were born in those houses, they deserve respect and not that the dead are placed a few meters from the windows of the rooms where they sleep.”

Yasmany González, another neighbor affected by the situation, even wrote a letter to Miguel Díaz-Canel. “We are dissatisfied with the place chosen for the expansion of the cemetery in Ciego de Ávila,” he complains, and insists that with these works “Cuban Norm No. 93-01: 1985” is being violated, which establishes that the cemetery must be located at a distance about 300 meters from the urban perimeter.

“In each of these houses there is a child under eight years old and the only thing they see when they go out to the patio are the deceased, weeping families and hearses every 45 minutes,” complains this neighbor. “Not much is known yet [about this pandemic, and yet] they build a cemetery here overnight without a prior study of the consequences for all these families.”

But the problems are not only due to the bad smells and the disturbing images of the cars with corpses, according to González. “This whole neighborhood benefits from the water of a well which is 17 meters away from the last vault and with a difference of 15 centimeters below the ground level of the terrace of the niches.”

The location of the well makes it contaminated with funeral waste when it rains. “My opinion as a civil engineer is that this project must be carried out outside the city. I leave the decision and responsibility to you for what may happen here,” he writes.

The authorities have responded to the complaints and classified as fake news the complaints of alleged burials in mass graves in the cemeteries of the cities of Morón and Ciego de Ávila, although they do not deny the expansion of the cemetery to occupy areas of the patios of cemetery neighbors.

The local press acknowledged that the daily average of up to 10 deaths has doubled in the Ciego de Avila necropolis, where the gravediggers have had to “bury up to 20 people in one day during this pandemic peak, a circumstance that makes understandable the logical delay in the sealing of the niches,” according to one of the complaints of the neighbors.

Local officials also appeal to the fact that the project to extend the cemetery was planned before the pandemic. “For 15 years, the expansion of the Ciego de Avila municipal necropolis has been gradually budgeted, but the peak of the current upsurge has forced investment to be accelerated with the construction of new niches,” said Jorge Enrique Pérez González, municipal director of Communal Services in Ciego de Avila.

For his part, the provincial director of that state entity, Luis Alberto Pérez Olivares, told the newspaper Invasor that during this expansion, “150 niches have already been completed in the cemetery of the provincial capital and 350 more are being worked on.” According to a “staggered schedule… a total of 2,000 niches and 900 ossuaries” will be completed.

However, the explanation does not seem to satisfy the readers of the local newspaper. Yainier Lopez Bravo says that his grandfather died on July 15 in Morón and at the funeral home they assured him that “the mausoleum was collapsed, that the only thing there was was a grave on the ground, with capacity for 3 or 4 coffins, that is, a common grave.” During the funeral “we were able to verify the sad reality. The grave we put my grandfather in had to be left open to wait for another person to die to fill the quota and close it, and there were two more open.”

Another reader, Héctor, confirms the story: “I uploaded that video where my first cousin is shown exposed without covering 15 days after his funeral. That day I went to bury my mother and I left with the bitter experience not only of losing my mother but to see how several coffins were exposed days after their supposed burial.”

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Cuba: Incorrect Resolutions. Means of Buying Time

The stands in state agricultural markets in Cuba are frequently largely empty. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, August 2, 2021 — In difficult times, anything is possible. Including privately leasing state-owned vehicles that aren’t being used [Resolución 207/2021, published in the Official Gazette of the Republic number 68]. So the Cuban communist regime, faced with the most serious economic crisis since “Special Period” times, has decided to adopt a series of legal norms to “overcome some of the obstacles that prevent the agile and efficient functioning of the economy.” They’re late, they know it, but just like that, they all jump into a pool in which there is less and less water. The path of failure is served. Let’s see why.

I’m referring, first of all, to Resolution 320 of the Ministry of Finance and Prices (MFP) published in the Official Gazette No. 68 Extraordinary, of July 30, 2021, which proclaims the generic objective of stimulating the increase in agricultural production.

In the end, after a half-dozen experiments in the commercial sphere, the regime has realized that the agricultural problem is in the sphere of production. But it refuses to recognize the origin of the disaster and goes back to its old ways, with patches like this Resolution which, instead of fixing the problems, may end up continue reading

enlarging them.

In fact, this rule is intended to put an end to the failure of a previous one, Resolution 18 of the MFP, of February 15, 2021, which established that, in price agreements with non-state forms of management, they took into account the maximum prices set by the provincial councils and the municipal administrations, establishing the famous “price cap” according to which they could not exceed two times the price in agricultural products.

What do they do now? Well, just the opposite, in order to reverse the economic aberration of the capped prices. As they have seen that this policy is the origin of scarcity and lack of supply by producers, who see their efforts as not cost-effective, well nothing, with the new rule they abolish the price caps, and with this they again point out that the objective is to improve marketing policy, while not losing the repressive reference “without prejudice to continuing to confront abusive and speculative prices.”

So Resolution 320 annuls what is established for maximum stockpile and wholesale prices of agricultural products, but, and here comes the technical error of the rule, “only those that are destined for social consumption, medical diets and those designated to the Family Care System (malanga, taro, plaintain, banana, and sweet potato).”

At this point it’s worth asking why they’re removing price caps for only these agricultural products, and not for all in general? Is it becuse in this case the government wants to buy cheaper from its suppliers, because it has less money, and with this decision it’s sending a signal that it cares very little about what happens to the rest of the consumers?

It is true that the state budget is running out, and there are fewer and fewer resources for subsidies, but does this mean that the prices of services associated with social consumption, etc., are going to be aligned with market prices perhaps?

The MFP says on its website that the measure aims to “create better conditions for price coordination and contracting with producers, both for social consumption and for sale in the retail market, since it recognizes the current costs to starting from the economic limitations of the country are due to the tightening of the blockade, the effects of covid-19, and the global economic crisis,” but other consumers who can exert pressure on demand (such as those who buy products for processing), are left out.

What communists should learn is that the market is a comprehensive resource allocation instrument that works efficiently when all decisions are within its purview. Fragmenting the market and pointing out who can assign via supply and demand, and who cannot, because they must do so from political power, is a serious mistake that has very negative consequences in terms of relative prices, profits and income and costs. And the worst may not yet have come.

In addition to Resolution 320 that eliminates the capped prices of products intended for certain social consumption, in the same Gazette, the Ministry of Finance and Prices issued Resolutions 321 and 323. By means of the the first, authorized entities are exempted from paying customs tax to provide the import service to non-state forms of management, for the importation of inputs and raw materials that they contract for the exercise of their activities, until December 31, 2021. Are these the entities of the “Malmierca model,” or can they also be the self-employed who dedicate themselves to these tasks? Is this measure going to apply to both?

The measure is somewhat complex and will oblige those who engage in these activities to declare which products they bring in from abroad are consigned for sale in the market, with special reference to those inputs and raw materials destined for agricultural production, not applying to finished products. Once again the authorities generate confusion with this measure, by not clearly defining who is exempted from paying customs tax and who is not, and especially why.

The rule establishes in its wording that its objective “is to reduce costs and stimulate the production of goods and the provision of services by non-state forms of management, which will benefit other actors in the economy and the population.” If they really wanted to achieve this, what would be advisable is tax relief on all goods from abroad. The patches only go so far.

For its part, Resolution 323 exempts from the payment of taxes on personal income and on sales to natural persons who carry out “garage sales,” in accordance with the regulation published a few days ago by the Ministry of Internal Trade. The rule says that “the tax treatment for these sales is established taking into consideration that they do not have a systematic nature, and are intended to boost trade and diversify product offerings to the population.” That garage sales can help the Cuban economy work better is a limited-scope idea whose results will not take long to verify.

Finally, Resolution 322 of the MFP, published in the Official Gazette No. 69 Extraordinary, of July 30, 2021, exempts natural persons from paying customs duties for the non-commercial importation of equipment that takes advantage of renewable sources of energy and energy efficiency, their essential parts and pieces, complying with the provisions of the Minister of Energy and Mines.

The equipment that benefits from this measure — solar heaters, photovoltaic pumps, small wind turbines, geomembrane biodigesters, biogas motor pumps, solar lighting, and solar air conditioning systems, as well as the essential parts and pieces of this equipment — are not part of the non-commercial import value authorized for natural persons, and must be presented to Customs separately from the rest of the imported articles.

Through this measure, it is intended to encourage the importation of this equipment, with the aim of diversifying the development of renewable energy sources and increasing their participation in the country’s electricity generation matrix. Are we perhaps facing a bullish rally of non-renewable energies? Permit me to smile.

On a more serious note. With a state deficit above 20% of GDP and all sources of income down due to the serious economic crisis, is the regime in a position to accept lower tax revenues from tax bases with supposedly increasing activity? Where’s the catch?

[1] Resolución 207/2021, publicada en la Gaceta Oficial de la República número 68

Translated by Tomás A.

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Silvio Rodriguez Calls for Immediate Measures to Address Social Stress in Cuba

In conversation with a Spanish newspaper, the singer-songwriter describes himself as a centrist who rejects extremist positions. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 4 August 2021 — Silvio Rodriguez believes the protests of July 11 mark a before and after point, not another chapter. “It’s something serious that causes us to reflect and, I hope, to take immediate action,” says the Cuban singer-songwriter speaking to the Spanish newspaper El País in an interview published on Tuesday. He makes it clear that he continues to support the revolution and does not dislike the single party system but says, “It must be very open, inclusive, ecumenical, even if it has strategic goals.”

In the interview, Rodriguez and the newspaper’s Cuba correspondent, Mauricio Vicent, focus their attention on economic factors and the US embargo in a discussion about recent demonstrations that took place in more than forty different locations on the island. At no point do either of them use the word ’libertad ’ (freedom), which has become the byword for young street protestors and on social networks since July 11.

The artist takes a middle ground throughout the conversation and defends it unambiguously. “The centrist thing doesn’t scare me. It’s the extremes I can’t accept.” His very moderate criticisms of the Cuban government are mixed with accusations against the United States and demands for change in the current Cuban system.

“In Cuba we are experiencing a growing state of social stress that I am aware cannot be blamed solely on continue reading

the blockade,” he explains. “For years economists, political scientists and citizens have complained about economic measures that were supposed to have been adopted but inexplicably never took effect. All these delays are also responsible for what has happened.”

Rodriguez believes it is inevitable that political change will accompany economic change and acknowledges that plans on paper have not yet been put into practice, though he attributes this to the party’s old guard, to which he belongs. “One presumes, since there has been no explanation, that these changes were delayed by currents of thought more attuned to the old socialist manuals than to reality. They’re also being slowed by a well-off, sluggish bureaucracy,” he says.

He attributes the July 11 protests to a social malaise caused by a complicated economic environment made even worse by the pandemic and measures taken by the former US administration, which have not yet been reversed, that are exacerbating the embargo.

Though he believes the demonstrations cannot be ignored, he rejects accusations they are simply acts of vandalism orchestrated from abroad. While he acknowledges having seen violent incidents, he considers them to be isolated events: “I do not subscribe to the overly simplistic description of the protesters, even though videos do show some acts of vandalism within the broadly diverse crowds.” He points to specific cases of fake videos, some of which were shared on his own blog, Segunda Cita, that mobilized some government supporters.

In terms of the subsequent repression, the singer says he rejects all forms of violence but denies there has been a significant amount. “The demonstrators walked through the main streets, passed by municipal government offices, walked past party headquarters and even past the police. There wasn’t any repression, though later, in other cities, there definitely was. Because it’s Cuba, repression gets amplified, though we know that those who are pointing it out witness much more brutality in their own countries,” he says.

Rodriguez claims the summary trials are a holdover from a 19th century Spanish law. He justifies their use by claiming that the legal system was overwhelmed within a few hours. After having consulted, he says, with a lawyer, he learned this type of proceeding is typically used for minor crimes that only involve fines. “When you are talking about prison, it becomes more critical because of the need for guarantees,” he says. On his blog he has called for the release of the peaceful protesters.

The artist claims that for years he has tried to convince the government to make seemingly inconsequential changes — he cites the modernization of recording studios — that were not carried out even when economic conditions were better, suggesting authorities’ resistance to change. However, his criticisms are tempered with a mention to the technological limitations imposed by US sanctions.

Rodriguez, who used the interview as an opportunity to criticize certain decisions such as the sale of essential goods in hard currency stores, asserts the solution to the country’s problems lies in talking to those with differing opinions. “We all have the right to to be respected, listened to and cared for,” he says, especially given the discontent on the part of young people, who are being called upon to change the country and solve its problems.

That is why he is calling for dialogue, without failing to mention, of course, the country to the north. “Do we not hold discussions with the superpower that treats us badly in word and in deed? What would be so difficult about discussing things among ourselves? We must listen to all voices, and even more so to our own.”

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Cuba Brings 200 Doctors Home from Venezuela to Deal With the Desperate Situation in Ciego de Avila

The Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, in the center, with a score of Cuban doctors recently returned from Venezuela. (PCC)

14ymedio, Havana, 4 August 2021 — Faced with the catastrophic panorama that Ciego de Ávila is experiencing due to the covid, the Government has sent for a ’mission’ Cuban doctors who were serving in Venezuela. About twenty of them arrived at the Jardines del Rey International Airport on Tuesday and were received by the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda. On Wednesday, another large group is scheduled to land, about 200 in total.

“You have not come to supervise, you have come to mobilize, to put your heart to the complexity, you are going to find many problems, but we know that you have the capacity to solve them,” Portal Miranda told the newcomers.

When informing the doctors of the reception, the website of the Communist Party of Cuba does not hesitate to say that the province presents “a resounding mortality rate that is out of step with the national context.” continue reading

The same text specifies that the doctors, “who held management positions” in the mission, will join the health areas of the main municipality and the Antonio Luaces Iraola Provincial Hospital “to also implement a new protocol, designed from the current availabilities of drugs.”

“At the same time, they are tasked with better management of the human resource capacity so that, for example, in the hours of greater patient care, the consultations have more doctors and the wait is shortened,” the report continues.

In a short note, Radio Surco details that the doctors, originally from Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Las Tunas, Villa Clara and Pinar del Río, gave up their vacations “to support this central province with the difficult epidemiological situation.”

It is the second time that the regime uses its international brigades to help in the internal crisis. At the beginning of July, some 200 Henry Reeve doctors and nurses joined the health centers of Matanzas, then the epicenter of the pandemic on the island.

Knowledgeable sources inform 14ymedio that they are gathering doctors abroad to tell them that, during their vacations, they will have to go to Cuba “because of the collapse of Healthcare” and “to calm the people.” In recent weeks, there has been criticism of the fact that thousands of doctors are serving abroad while there are no hands on the island.

However, the return of the brigades, the main source of foreign currency for Havana, is not on the horizon. “The mission will remain,” say the same sources. “They are not going to stop sending doctors to Venezuela.”

This Wednesday, 1,192 new cases of the coronavirus were reported in Ciego de Ávila, which is again in second place in number of infections, only behind Havana (1,445), which has four times the population, and followed by Cienfuegos (1,032).

The desperate situation made the Government send Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca to the provincial hospital on Monday, which, the official press recognized, is in an extreme situation.

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‘Communism in Cuba is Throwing Its Final Temper Tantrum’

Fr. Ruben Orlando Leyva Pupo, a priest with the Congregation of the Mission, last year in Havana. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 3 August 2021 — Another priest is raising his voice in opposition to the repression unleashed after demonstrations on July 11. Like most of the protesters that Sunday, he is also very young. His name is Rubén Orlando Leyva Pupo, a computer scientist who was ordained a Vincentian father just last year.

“Those who hold political, military and economic power in Cuba now have the chance to finish burying this obsolete, absurd and dark system that is communism and that is now throwing its final temper tantrum,” wrote Leyva Pupo on his social network page last Sunday .

“Cuba is dying,” he wrote, adding that he cannot close his eyes to “the harshness of this reality.” He noted that people are dying in hospitals and in Covid-19 isolation centers due to a shortage of medicines. “Malnourished and unvaccinated people from a very vulnerable population are becoming ill due to hunger and poor nutrition.”

The young priest, who serves in Santiago de las Vegas on the outskirts of Havana, writes, “There is always hope… This whole nightmare will pass. These 62 years of silence and numbing fear already continue reading

came to an end on July 11.”

Cuba, he argues, now has the chance to write a new history, “to be brave, to turn off this bumpy road… to retake the path it should never have abandoned, that of a democratic Republic that is truly free in its political, social and economic participation.”

In his post, he maintained that the armed forces and police have the option to join those “who should serve and not repress the people,” adding that the current government has “the opportunity to craft a different legacy and future for new generations, who look upon this ineffective ideology of hatred and subjugation, clinging to power, with clarity and disgust.”

Fr. Leyva Pupo called upon all Cubans to play leading roles in a new nation, “with true rights” and economic and entrepreneurial freedom. “You have just been made aware, you who govern in the midst of popular discontent, that Marxism is not loved by the children of this nation, that communism is a ruinous Soviet import, which did not even worked for them,” he declared.

In conclusion, Fr. Lepo Pupo expressed his desire for a country where “ideology no longer reigns, where everyone has a place, where the streets belong to everyone, where power does not oppress or repress, or lash out… where people do not have to hide or lower their voices to express what you think and believe is correct.”

After the July 11 protests and the wave of repression that the regime unleashed on protesters, several religious leaders — some of whom had already made their position against the regime public — clearly reiterated that they are on the side of the people. The Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed “its discomfort at the deterioration of the economic and social situation” on the island.

“We not only we see the situation get worse but that we are also moving towards a rigidity and hardening of positions that could give rise to negative responses, with unpredictable consequences that would harm us all,” the bishops stated, insisting that “a favorable solution cannot be imposed by decree or by calls for confrontation.”

For its part, the Cuban Conference of Religious Men and Women requested “the prompt release of all those who have been unjustly arrested simply for exercising their right to demonstrate, to express their grievances.” It also noted, “It is a legitimate and universal right of every citizen to express his or her grievances in an orderly and peaceful manner in public space that is not the monopoly and privilege of any particular ideological group.”

A week after the protests, Pope Francis expressed his concern over the situation in Cuba and urged “dialogue and solidarity” in the country.

“My thoughts are with the beloved Cuban people at this difficult time, especially with the families, who are suffering the most. I pray that Lord will help build in peace, dialogue and solidarity an increasingly just and fraternal society,” said the pontiff.

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The New Address of the Cuban Embassy in Washington is Oswaldo Paya Way

Caption: Oswaldo Payá Way is in front of the Cuban embassy in Washington. (EFE)

EFE, via 14ymedio, Miami, 3 August 2021 — U.S. Senators from both parties approved on Monday the naming of the Washington street in front of the Cuban Embassy in honor of the late Cuban opposition leader Oswaldo Payá (1952-2012).

Cuban-American Senator Marco Rubio said yesterday that the change pays “a tribute to the life and legacy of one of the island’s most important civic leaders who paid the ultimate price in defense of the democratic future.”

For Rosa María Payá, daughter of the deceased dissident, Oswaldo Payá Way will be “a permanent reminder of the urgency of stopping the regime’s impunity.”

“My father’s legacy lives on in the struggle for freedom and the rights of the Cuban people,” the activist told EFE when the project was presented. continue reading

The approval comes in the midst of the protests that have erupted in Cuba since July 11 against the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel and which have been echoed in various demonstrations of support around the world, especially in Miami and Washington.

“Following the historic protests led by Cuban Americans in front of the regime’s embassy in our nation’s capital last Monday, another symbol of the tenacity of the Cuban people in their quest for freedom will be etched for eternity,” Rubio added.

Payá founded the Christian Liberation Movement (MLC) in 1988 to promote democracy and civil liberties through peaceful resistance.

A decade later, the organization created the Varela Project, which sought to advance democratic reforms under a provision of the Cuban Constitution that allowed the public to introduce bills.

Changing the name of the street “is a small but significant step that will force all those who visit or write to the embassy to remember not only Payá, but all those who have challenged the cruelty and oppression of the Cuban communist government.”

Payá’s family has maintained that the car crash in which the opposition leader and dissident Harold Cepero died on July 22, 2012 was caused by agents of the Castro regime.

Payá and Cepero were traveling in a car that went off the road. The car was driven by the young Spanish conservative politician Ángel Carromero, who was sentenced to prison in Cuba for voluntary manslaughter, but was repatriated to serve his sentence in Spain, where he was released within a few days .

In 2012, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution honoring the life of the Cuban opposition leader and calling for an impartial investigation into his death.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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Cuban State Security Continues to Harass Activists After the July 11 Protests

Sadiel González was taken out of his house in handcuffs on Monday night and his family is still unaware of the legal situation in which he finds himself. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 4 August 2021 — “If you have nothing to hide, come join us, let’s talk”. With the arrogance that characterizes the political police in Cuba, several agents showed up at Sadiel González’s house to take him away this Monday.

He’s not the only one. Since July 11^th, social networks have been flooded with posts denouncing the arbitrary arrest of dozens of Cubans who filmed or participated in the protests.

This Sunday afternoon, González had broadcast live images of young people on the streets of Old Havana with the text: “Barrio de Jesús María, youth poured into the streets. Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life]“. As of this Tuesday, he still has not been released, so his relatives and friends fear that he is being detained.

The “visit” of State Security to his home occurred after nine o’clock at night, at which time the city of Havana initiates a curfew that prohibits citizens from going out into the street or moving from a place to another.

On his Facebook profile, González was able to denounce, through a live broadcast, the moment when the agents arrived, arrested him and took continue reading

him to the police station without presenting a warrant. When the young man, a resident of the municipality of 10 de Octubre, complained to the authorities that he must be summoned at least 24 hours in advance, the agent replied “you’re leaving with me now.”

“Sadiel, you are making it difficult for me (…) if you have nothing to hide, please join us (…) we are going to talk to the police”, said the officer, who identified himself as “the head of State Security in the municipality”.

As confirmed to ‘14ymedio’ by independent reporter Iliana Hernández, Sadiel González participated in the April 30^th protest and in the one on July 11^th

In the video, the activist’s mother is heard saying that they are taking him “to the sixth station” while the man specifies: “It’s an interview mother, don’t worry.” When González finally comes out to the police patrol in handcuffs, with the officers, the State Security agent explains to his mother:

“Your son is committing counterrevolutionary acts, about a month or two ago he was involved in a counterrevolutionary provocation in Havana (the Obispo Street protest of April 30^th) and we have been following him since that date. Today your son did a direct one, inciting the people to carry out violent acts and to hold demonstrations. He is inciting the population to take to the streets”.

He also told her that, after July 11^th, everything that her son has been doing “is wrong… He is telling lies, saying that it was a demonstration when all it was were young people playing in the street, he is manipulating information and that is a crime”, referring to a live broadcast carried out on Monday afternoon from the Jesús María neighborhood in Old Havana.

“I arrived with a lot of respect, but I almost had to threaten him to open the door for me, I told him ‘either you open the door or I’m looking for an order to knock it down’, (which I can do, too). If I come with an order and I knock down the door, how would you feel? With what money will you fix that? the officer added and concluded: “We cannot allow what your son is doing.”

As confirmed to 14ymedio by independent reporter Iliana Hernández, Sadiel González participated in the April 30^th protest and in the one on July 11^th.

Of the demonstrators who protested on Obispo Street, seven are still detained, awaiting trial and, as of this week, and have been deprived of liberty for three months. All were arrested on April 30^th at the demonstration on Obispo Street when they tried to get to the house of artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who was on his sixth day of a hunger and thirst strike so that the siege to which State Security has subjected him would cease. During this protest, the participants shouted “Homeland and Life” and “Down with communism”.

Reporter Esteban Rodríguez, ADN Cuba correspondent, is in the Combinado del Este prison; activist Thais Mailén Franco Benítez, is imprisoned in the Guatao women’s prison, in La Lisa, Havana; Christian youth Yuisán Cancio Vera, is in the Combinado de la Construcción Augusto César Sandino Prison, in Pinar del Río; and Inti Soto Romero in the Taco Taco Prison.

Ángel Cuza Alfonso also remains in jail while journalist Mary Karla Arés and activists Nancy Vera and Leonardo Romero Negrín are under a precautionary measure of house arrest.

Other activists who have taken to the streets to protest peacefully are also in prison awaiting trial. This is the case of Luis Robles Elizastigui, the young man arrested on December 4^th during a protest on Havana Boulevard. His brother, Landy Fernández Elizastigui, reported to 14ymedio this Tuesday that he has not received calls from him for almost a month.

“I still haven’t received a call from Luis since last July 4^th,” he told this newspaper. He also said that the lawyer had received a new refusal of a change of precautionary measure that he requested last month but that he presented a new one on August 2^nd.

“The lawyer showed me a new application that he presented this August 2^nd and it is based on the words of the President of the Supreme Court, who said in a press conference on July 24^th that thinking differently, questioning what the process is doing, or demonstrating does not constitute a crime”, he pointed out.

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International, the Inter-American Press Association, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the United States government, the European Parliament, and the International PEN have spoken in favor of the immediate release of the Cuban protesters.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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‘Free Rice Will Not Silence Us,’ Say the Residents of Punta Brava, Cuba

The Punta Brava bodega (ration store), in the Havana municipality of La Lisa, where the distribution of free food modules is carried out. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 1 August 2021 — Since Friday, the line has not stopped outside the bodega (ration store) at 251st and 50th streets in Punta Brava, a Havana neighborhood of La Lisa. But unlike other times, customers only need their ration book and a bag, because the food module that is distributed is free.

“People don’t believe it yet, that’s why half the town has come today, so they won’t regret it later and start charging us,” jokes Juan, one of the surprised residents in the vicinity of the premises who returned home with two bags of pasta, some sugar, two packages of peas and three of rice.

The products are part of a free distribution that the Cuban government has started in a hurry to try to calm things down after the popular protests on July 11. The first places where the distribution began on July 30 coincide with the neighborhoods of the capital where the demonstrations were most intense.

“Here the people rushed out into the street, and the people of Bauta, which is the nearby town, also joined to go from here to the center of Havana. There were many of us and we reached the checkpoint but they blocked us with a bus and several police cars to continue reading

prevent us from leaving,” Yantiel, age 25, told 14ymedio.

“In Punta Brava there are still many young prisoners, whose mothers have not even been able to see them since that day they were arrested,” he laments. “Although there have not been other protests like that one, it has happened that the neighbors have stoned the houses of the thugs who hit the people that day.”

Products included in the free modules distributed in the neighborhood of Punta Brava. (14ymedio)

María Elena, 64, also believes that “none of this would be distributed, much less for free, if it were not for the fact that people took to the streets.” According to this worker in an industrial products store, “we are living very badly here, there is hardly any food to be found and our electricity is cut off all the time.”

The free module is “a patch to cover the gap,” she adds, but it does not solve the serious problems of a neighborhood with more than 140,000 inhabitants, very affected by mobility restrictions with the Cuban capital. “They want to shut us up with a little rice, but don’t forget that this area is called Punta Brava [Brave Point] and it is for a reason.”

The delivery has begun in Havana, the epicenter of the protests, and will spread to other provinces with high population densities and where the demonstrations were also very numerous, such as Matanzas, Ciego de Ávila, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Guantánamo and Isla de La Juventud, before reaching the entire country.

The information was expanded on Friday by the Minister of Internal Trade, Betsy Díaz Velázquez, on the Roundtable television program. The minister explained that it was decided to distribute these modules after a donation from Russia and “after learning about offers and donations from Mexico, Bolivia, Vietnam and other nations.”

“In this way, a delivery schedule has been set up. In parallel, to those who are not receiving this module in the first 15 days, other products that are arriving will be delivered and others that will be received will continue to be delivered so that there is a benefit.”

The authorities have also announced the sale of an additional three pounds of rice per consumer from August to December, an increase that the minister justified from the profits of the unpopular stores that take payment only in freely convertible currency (MLC). “The result of the sales in those stores, it was always said, is for the benefit of the people,” said Díaz.

“They have not been able to do like in other times when they have sent donations and they have ended up selling them,” says a resident of Punta Brava. This sign at the ration store lists the items residents will receive for free. (14ymedio)

In a few hours, the report of the official’s words, published by the official press, has generated hundreds of comments, many of them critical. Several commenters alluded to the limited variety and quantity of the module’s products. “Minister, is there no chance of an increase in coffee?” Asked a netizen who identified himself as Luma.

But an official from the Ministry of Internal Trade responded that coffee “is not one of the donation products,” a statement that sparked another barrage of complaints from customers who have seen the popular drink disappear from stores in Cuban pesos, to remain available for sale in foreign currency or at sky-high prices on the black market.

“They have not been able to do like other times they have sent donations and have ended up selling them,” adds another neighbor who was waiting in line this Friday to acquire his family’s module. Last April, several Internet users denounced on social networks the sale in the rationed market of vegetable oil donated to the Island by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).

At that time, the criticisms rose so much in tone that the Ministry of Internal Commerce had to come up with a statement in which it assured that the product “will be replaced” when the breakdowns in the national industry were repaired, but this action has not been reported so far by the official press.

Billboard near the ration store in Punta Brava, La Lisa, where the free food modules from international donations are distributed. “In La Lisa, Yes we could, yes we can, yes we will.” (14ymedio)

This was not the first time that this type of complaint came to light on the island. In 2017, after the onslaught of Hurricane Irma, numerous governments, non-governmental organizations and UN agencies sent donations to Cuba to alleviate the shortages in food, medicines, water and construction materials. Several victims then complained that they had to pay the state for mattresses, stoves and even charcoal.

In Punta Brava they feel they have won a little battle. “At least this time they are not going to get money from us for something that was donated for the people,” adds the neighbor. “But here we are still very upset with the situation and a little macaroni is not going to calm that down.”

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Help From China Has Arrived in the Collapsed Hospitals of Ciego de Avila

Visit of the Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca this Monday to the Doctor Antonio Luaces Iraola Provincial Teaching Hospital, in Ciego de Ávila. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 3 August 2021 — The alarms are ringing in Ciego de Ávila. With 1,434 coronavirus infections detected this Monday, it is the only province that casts a sad shadow over Havana where — with four times the population — 1,698 cases of covid-19 were diagnosed yesterday.

Although the incidence data for every 100,000 inhabitants at 14 days has not been updated for weeks, the province already far exceeded a rate of 2,000 infections, well ahead of the capital, which then reported a rate of 478 cases.

The situation is so serious that the official press does not skimp on details, and even this Monday the Government sent Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca on a visit to the Doctor Antonio Luaces Iraola Provincial Teaching Hospital. This Tuesday, the newspaper Invasor published an article, How can the hospital in Ciego de Ávila be helped?, which gives an account of the extreme healthcare situation in the area and asks for volunteers.

“The hospital lacks hands and this is not a metaphor that I write: it is an emergency. Hands are lacking for continue reading

its elevators, to carry stretchers, to clean rooms, to put juice to a patient’s lips, to assist them with food or in the bathroom, so nurses could then take care of procedures that other hands would not know how to do,” he explains.

Help, for now, has come from China, according to the official press, in the form of respirators donated by the Asian giant. The provincial hospital received five of them, ChenWei brand, in addition to 80 oxygen concentrators. Meanwhile, the Roberto Rodríguez Hospital, in Morón, and the Nguyen Van Troi Psychiatric Hospital, enabled to care for coronavirus cases, received two ventilators each, in addition to dozens of oxygen concentrators.

The population, meanwhile, speculates on another option coming from Beijing: vaccines. Comments on the possibility that this serum is being used in the province’s vaccination campaign have been taking shape through social networks and have reached the readers of the official press, without being denied, so far.

The rumor stems from a meeting of the temporary working group for confronting Covid-19 held in the province last week and in which, according to one of the participants, the option of immunizing Ciego de Ávila residents with the Chinese vaccine was mentioned.

Since then, readers have asked Invasor journalists directly about the alleged vaccination with Sinovac or another of the Chinese vaccines, and demanded transparent information and, although no explanation has been given, they have not been denied the rumor. “You can be convinced that the moment we have that information we will publish it. What we cannot do is publish unconfirmed or official information,” replied an editor of the official newspaper last Friday to those who asked her to clarify what they considered an “open secret.”

This newspaper has not been able to verify that the Ciego de Ávila population or people in any other part of Cuba has been inoculated with Chinese drugs as of yet, but a delay in vaccination with the Cuban Abdala has been verified, which apparently only applies to the rate planned for the city of Ciego de Ávila and the municipality of Morón.

In several calls made by 14ymedio to polyclinics in Chambas and Ciro Redondo, health workers confirmed that the only vaccine being used is the Abdala, but not for the general population, but rather pregnant and postpartum women. With regards to the Chinese vaccine, they claim to know nothing.

In several communities of the rural municipality Primero de Enero, vaccination with Abdala has been postponed for a week. This Tuesday, when they were to start in some cooperatives, it was announced that immunization is postponed until tomorrow.

“They are going to vaccinate 30 people a day, no more,” a resident told this newspaper. “And we even have to prepare a snack and food for the health personnel,” he complains, while pointing out that the Government does not guarantee the feeding of the doctors and nurses who will vaccinate.

The extreme situation is experienced on all fronts and not only in hospitals. There is a lack of capacities in cemeteries, it takes time to transfer patients, the tests are analyzed with a slowness that leaves infections uncontrolled, and that collapse only generates more and more cases.

Maria Elena Soto, head of the Department of Primary Health Care of the Ministry of Public Health, announced this Monday that immunization in the capital had concluded after having injected 1.3 million people with Cuba’s vaccines, Soberana and Abdala, including all pregnant women. According to the data provided, which will be expanded on Tuesday on the Roundtable television program, 23% of Cubans over the age of 19 have received the complete series of vaccinations and the goal is to continue with children and adolescents.

According to two doctors consulted by the state agency Prensa Latina, the majority of those vaccinated have not had adverse effects and have not suffered from Covid in a serious way, although there is no data yet to support their beliefs. The truth, according to official figures, is that more than 50% of Havanans who had received all doses of the vaccine were infected with coronavirus, unusual numbers in other countries. But it is not known how many of them had severe Covid or were hospitalized.

This Wednesday, the total number of reported cases, with yesterday’s data, is 9,629, and it is already the third day in which more than 9,000 cases have been reported. The deceased were 80, for a total of 2,993 confirmed deaths so far, always according to official figures that some organizations consider far below reality.

Cuba, with a population of 11.2 million people, currently has an incidence rate of 1,111 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and the triumphalist tone of Díaz-Canel himself has collapsed. “We will have difficult weeks” in which “much remains to be done and we cannot allow mistakes,” he wrote in a tweet this Tuesday.

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More than 187,000 Cubans Participated in 584 protests During July

A young man is arrested by police and State Security agents during the July 11 protests in Havana. (Capture)

14ymedio, Madrid, 2 August 2021- – The massive demonstrations of July 11 “transformed Cuba”. The latest report of the Observatorio Cubano de Conflictos (OCC/Cuban Observatory of Conflicts) is conclusive in this regard: more than 187,000 Cubans participated in a total of 584 demonstrations throughout the island last month.

Not only has the number of protests in Cuba increased, notes the Miami-based NGO, but, above all, the number of people involved in them. The growth is dramatic compared to June, when 1,600 Cubans took to the streets in 249 protests, most of them small acts by a few or one individual.

“The public has been incubating a deep resentment fueled by the indolence of the authorities in the face of growing misery and their disastrous management of the Covid-19 pandemic,” says the Observatory, which notes that the song Patria y Vida “galvanized this sentiment on a national scale and became an anthem of national insubordination.”

Faced with this, the organization denounces, the response was “police and paramilitary brutality… The repressive method is continue reading

no longer a surgical one against organizations and dissidents but a massive one: neighborhood raids, beatings, expeditious sentences,” details the OCC, which includes the figures of detainees from Cubalex and Human Rights Watch: 745 people.

“The military caste has found that the citizenry has lost its fear of the repressive apparatus, so now they turn to terror,” the report says. “This is a war against all the people.”

The Observatory points out that of the protests in July, 435 (74%) were related to political and civil rights, and the remaining 149 (26%) were linked to the demand for economic, social and cultural rights.

It also highlights the “public break of renowned artists with legal trade union institutions (UNEAC), the denunciations of relatives and friends in support of the prisoners and disappeared, as well as the graphic documentation of repressive brutalities” in the second half of the month.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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Eliminating Price Controls on Agricultural Products In Not Enough, Say Two Cuban Economists

Price controls reduce earnings in the private sector, already hit hard by Covid-19 restrictions. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, August 2, 2021 — The Cuban government is walking back the price controls it had put in place during the first half of 2021. A new resolution published on Friday voids measures adopted in February and April that limited how much private-sector producers could charge for agricultural products and for certain items (taro, bananas, sweet potato, mango, guava, papaya and tomato) destined for “social consumption” (crops farmers are required to sell to the state).

The Ministry of Finance and Prices announced that the current decision was made as a recognition of agricultural producers’ current costs and with the goal of “stimulating an increase in production.” It acknowledges the need to “create better conditions for price agreement and contracting with producers, both for social consumption and for sale in the retail market.”

The complex formulation is a veiled admission that the measures taken since January had failed to encourage production by capping prices, which in most cases prevented producers from continue reading

recouping their operating costs.

Private-sector price controls on agricultural products, which took effect in mid-February, were set by provincial and municipal councils, and could not be exceeded by more than double.

Another resolution was passed in April that imposed price controls on the collection and purchase of agricultural products for social consumption, medical diets, family service programs and industry have now also been lifted.

However, prices for all other products will remain capped in an effort to contain “abusive and speculative prices,” says the ministry.

Cuban economist Pedro Monreal supports the measure though he believes the decision to do away with price controls reflects the realization that they were not effective in the early months of 2021 at controlling inflation caused by currency unification.

Monreal argues that price controls could have a favorable impact if combined with support for private farmers and subsidies for poor families that do not have the resources to feed themselves.

“The sequence in which price caps on agricultural products were lifted was not done properly but that could be remedied relatively quickly with measures to support private agricultural producers. The effect would not be immediate. Magic doesn’t work in economics,” he says.

After analyzing the data from several provinces, Monreal found that in some cases there were increases of more than 30%, even after January when currency unification had already made prices substantially more expensive. “The demand for food is ’inelastic’. People must eat and rising prices do not substantially reduce the demand for food. People cut back on other things to buy food. As a result, changes in supply have a large effect on prices,” says Monreal.

Elias Amor Bravo, a Cuban economist based in Spain, welcomes the government’s about-face but believes it is too limited. “Why lift price controls only on those agricultural products and not for prices in general?” he asks on his blog, Cubaeconomía. “Is it that the government wants to pay its providers less because it has less money to spend?”

“Fragmenting the market and deciding who can and can not make allocations based on supply and demand… is a serious mistake with very negative consequences for related prices, rents, income and costs,” he adds.

Another related resolution was announced on Friday in the Official Gazette. It lifts customs duties on entities importing inputs and raw materials for non-state companies and cooperatives though it does not appear to apply to self-employed workers.

The text of the resolution reads, “The objective is to reduce costs and stimulate production of goods and the rendering of services by non-state forms of management.” Amor wonders, however, why such duties are not lifted from all imported goods if that is the goal. In his words, “Patches go only so far.”

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