14ymedio – Page 299 – Translating Cuba

Cuban Farmer Thanks the Revolution for Being Able to Buy a Tractor in Dollars

The Belarus 82.1 tractor is manufactured by the Republican Unitary Enterprise Minsk Tractor Plant of Belarus. (Gelma)

14ymedio, Havana, 10May 2021 — The farmer Herminio Martínez Gens thanked the Revolution on Monday for being able to buy a tractor for $27,000 USD. The producer was the first in the province of Villa Clara to acquire this type of vehicle, model Belarus 82.1, in the store of the Agricultural Supplies Company, which sells only in foreign currency.

Martínez, who belongs to the José Martí Credit and Services Cooperative in the municipality of Camajuaní, said that he never thought of buying a tractor. “I am grateful to the Revolution for this opportunity. And the tractor will help me to increase the production that the people need so much,” he said when interviewed by the official press.

“Today I am the happiest farmer in Cuba, I have bought a tractor for the service of my farm, for my two brothers and for everyone who needs it in the cooperative or in any other in the municipality,” added Martínez who says he has more than 60 hectares in under lease and also dedicates himself to raising cattle.

The farmer asserts that, with the purchase of the vehicle — which he paid for in cash — he will increase production because having a tractor “makes it easier to prepare and cultivate the land.” This type of machinery is highly demanded on the Island where most farmers use oxen to plow or old tractors with more than half a century of use. continue reading

Martínez affirms that anyone who “can get the money” will also buy a tractor. “And more so now that the farmer can even export his production. That means improvement for the farmer and development for the country. The Revolution is giving new offers and possibilities to the farmers and eliminating obstacles, allof which favors production. Improving technology means producing more.”

This Monday, in Pinar del Río, the farmer Emiliano Hernández Rodríguez also acquired a tractor of the same brand in freely convertible currency (MLC). The Logistics Business Group of the Ministry of Agriculture (Gelma), which is dedicated to the commercialization of vehicles, reported the purchase on its social networks.

The Belarus 82.1 tractor is manufactured by the Republican Unitary Enterprise Minsk Tractor Plant of Belarus. It has a capacity of 81 horsepower and the engine runs on diesel. Havana has a long history of agreements with the Alexander Lukashenko regime and, recently, the State newspaper Granma reported the sale of 14 tractors from that nation, which were destined for seven provinces of the country.

María del Carmen Fages Plasencia, vice president of Gelma, then explained that the vehicles are the result of an agreement between the Central Company for Supply and Sales of Heavy Transport Equipment and its Parts (Transimport) and are destined for stores that take payment in MLC. The vehicles are characterized by being “small power” and some have air-conditioned cabins.

To buy the tractors, the interested parties must meet some requirements: present a document issued by the municipal delegation of agriculture that proves that they are an agricultural producer and have an account in MLC with the necessary balance for the purchase.

In 2018, the American tractor manufacturing company Cleber was excluded from the projects approved to locate in the Mariel Special Development Zone. The firm offered a compact, light piece of equipment, nicknamed Oggún, very close to the needs of the island’s farmers.

Two years later the authorities promoted the national Magric 80.2 prototype in the official press, for which, according to one of its creators, they “took advantage of the experience acquired with the rebuilding of Yumz tractors in the 90s and the availability of resources related to the manufacture of hopper.”

The equipment “will be tested soon,” added an article on the subject published in Granma at the time, without further details being known.

Since last September, farmers have been able to buy in foreign currency part of the inputs and equipment — including machetes and oxen yokes — they need to work the land. Gelma justified the decision by saying that, amid the “shortage of marketing networks, the sector requires a system that facilitates producers access to inputs, equipment, parts, pieces and accessories of a specialized nature, and other assortments, which allow the increase in agricultural production.”

____________

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.

The Decline of the Polyclinic That Was a Benchmark of Cuban Medicine

The polyclinic, which serves an area where a little more than 18,000 people live, has the character of a university. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 12 May 2021 — The Plaza de la Revolución Teaching Polyclinic in Havana, which claims to be a center of national reference since it was founded in 1974, is sinking these days between poor hygienic conditions and the chronic shortage of medical supplies and medicines.

The three-story building, located on Ermita Street, a few meters from the Granma newspaper and the Ministry of the Armed Forces, underwent repairs about two and a half years ago, but the botched jobs soon became evident. In the absence of specific pipes for the installation of the hydraulic system, they used insulating pipes of electricity glued with PVC, which causes water leaks in the walls and ceilings that have forced the closure of offices, consultations, the children’s gym and, now, on numerous occasions, the adult facility which is in danger of collapse.

In addition, toilets and sinks are frequently clogged, according to reports from workers at the center, thus generating outbreaks of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, carriers of the dengue and Zika viruses. continue reading

“It is difficult for us to deal directly with patients, because when it comes to washing our hands we have to go to a facility down below, and it is precisely there where the clogging is accentuated and therefore where there are more mosquitoes,” an employee of the physiotherapy area tells 14ymedio.

As if this were not enough, the deterioration of the equipment is evident and medical supplies such as cotton and lidocaine are lacking. “Alcohol, gauze and syringes are in short supply,” says another healthcare worker. “We understand the situation in the country, but this is not the way to work,” he laments. “Sometimes patients take us to task for it and I really do not think we are to blame, but we are the ones who stand up. Add to that the working conditions have become difficult. Many cases with Covid come to the respiratory area that we improvised for the issue of the pandemic and the situation with water is not resolved. “

Last March, they removed the X-ray equipment, and if a patient needs an X-ray, they have to be referred to another location.

In the polyclinic, which provides primary health care services and is also one of the campaign centers for the clinical trials of the candidate vaccine against coronavirus, Soberana 02, reagents for the laboratory are also lacking.

For this reason, sources from the center report, they are only collecting samples in a limited way. When a patient urgently needs a blood test, they send them to another hospital.

“A few days ago I went to be given an aerosol, because I am asthmatic, and they had to change the mouthpiece twice because it did not nebulize,” complains Ernesto, a regular patient, who claims to have witnessed a nurse demanding from a doctor for prescribing medications that were not in the inventory. “I only have tramadol for pain, he told the doctor.”

The polyclinic, which serves a neighborhood where a little more than 18,000 people live, has a university character. In its consultation and of care areas, classes are taught to Medical and Nursing students. The health authorities consider it as a “provincial and national benchmark,” but complaints about the center have accumulated in recent years.

The crisis in the hospitals of Havana goes back a long time. Before the arrival of Covid-19 on the island, there was already a shortage of materials in centers such as Calixto García, where it was usual to find the emergency room crowded with patients, but without gloves, serums or needles.

The Joaquín Albarrán Clinical Surgical Hospital was another of those that revealed their lack of supply and some patients even told 14ymedio that they brought their own materials. “I brought everything, various sizes of disposable syringes, alcohol and the sterile cottons that my daughter sent me from Miami,” said a woman with a leg injury.

At the beginning of 2019, a reader of this newspaper wrote a letter to denounce the unfortunate state of the Abel Santamaría Hospital, in Pinar del Río, where a foreign friend on vacation on the island was poorly treated and was only able to find the best care at the Cimeq (Research Center Medico Quirúrgircas), which can not be accessed by ordinary Cubans. However, even at this exclusive hospital, considered the jewel in the Cuban crown, the roof collapsed in 2015.

____________

Cuban Authorities Still Haven’t Explained Why Alcantara Can’t Leave the Hospital

Otero Alcántara was transferred to the Calixto García Hospital on the 2nd, allegedly good condition, but nine days later he is still there. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 11 May 2021 — The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is still hospitalized despite the fact that he was admitted to the Calixto García in Havana nine days ago and the authorities released clinical data indicating that his health was more than good.

The Provincial Directorate of Health of Havana released a statement on Tuesday in which it assures that the opponent “has voluntarily ingested liquid and solid food, which has provided him with the necessary calories.” Also, and according to his request, he was treated in dermatology, although they do not specify the purpose of the consultation.

In the note, the agency adds that Otero Alcántara is asymptomatic and walks accompanied by the medical team through the common areas of the hospital. He also maintains that the activist of the San Isidro Movement” has given his agreement to the health personnel who treat him so that they can share information on his clinical evolution and at all times he has been grateful for the care received.” continue reading

In the statement, it is emphasized that the artist entered the hospital on May 2 with a diagnosis of “referred voluntary starvation,”,which contrasts with the information provided the day after, when it was said that there were no “signs of malnutrition” and that his “clinical and biochemical parameters” were normal.

Around that date, the pro-government media published multiple opinion columns in which they even attributed the good data of an alleged analysis to a high consumption of meat. In its intense campaign of discrediting, Cuban Television had also said in the previous hunger and thirst strike that the opponent carried out in November that there was evidence that he had bought large quantities of food.

The Havana Health authorities take advantage of the case to praise the Calixto García hospital, which has been widely criticized recently for the poor condition of its facilities, and refers to it as an “institution of high level of specialization and tradition in services” which “guaranteed the recovery of his health, complying with the hospital care protocols established for these cases, the principles of Cuban medical ethics, and taking into account the guidelines contained in the Declaration of Malta.”

This Tuesday is a week since the opponent was exhibited by the authorities in a video in which he was heard saying: “The medical staff has been spectacular, beyond that I will continue to demand my rights as an artist, but we cannot To say that the treatment has been bad, you have to know how to differentiate between the profession of doctor and other occupations such as State Security.”

The event was interpreted in a different way, because while some understood that he was giving up his combative attitude by lending himself to make those statements, others affirmed that he had been threatened, coerced or even over-medicated for the recording.

Days later, last Friday, Otero Alcántara appeared in the area outside a pavilion and made a subtle gesture with his hand, the “L” that opponents use to demand freedom.

On the other hand, the San Isidro Movement assured this Monday that they know, from the only relatives who are allowed visits, that Otero Alcántara ingests liquids but “maintains his demands.” The artist is also not allowed to use his cell phone or make calls from the facility’s phones. “Outside the immediate family, any type of contact or communication has been prevented, and we have testimonial information that any person who tries to visit him is subject to police arrest and questioning,” the opposition group denounced.

____________

The Back Seats of Cuba’s Electric Tricycles are Not for Sitting

A passenger riding in the back of an electric tricycle in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, May 6, 2021 — Dayron’s first thought when he heard the police siren was that it would be a routine document check, but what he actually heard left him confused. “You may not transport anyone on the back of your tricycle,” the officer told him, pointing to the young woman who was riding in the electric vehicle’s back seat. “It’s not our fault; it’s outlawed by the Transport Ministry,” the cop added.

The restriction is an attempt to prevent owners of private vehicles from operating as taxi drivers by pretending to be transporting family or friends. At least, that is what an official at the Ministry of Transport told 14ymedio on Thursday after several attempts to contact the ministry’s offices by phone.

“We’ve asked the police to enforce this because we know that there are people profiting from delivering merchandise or transporting passengers without a license to do so,” explained the manager, who wished to remain anonymous. “Since the pandemic we’ve heard of many people trying to fly under the radar by driving without a license and we’ve gotten numerous reports of tricycle drivers doing just that.” continue reading

The official could not cite the number or quote the text of the resolution governing this restriction but did detail the reasons that have led agents to redouble their surveillance on tricycles. “Since these vehicles don’t consume gasoline, they can be very profitable for their owners, who are basically taking advantage of the emergency situation we’re in.”

Dayron’s model is one of the first such vehicles to go on sale in Cuba. For several weeks similar vehicles have been selling at prices between $3,895 and $6,900. Regardless of differences in type and cost, however, they are now all under police scrutiny.

“Why do they sell tricycles with back seats if they’re going to prevent people from taking full advantage of them?” asks Dayron. “Now, after spending all this money, you’re going to tell me I can’t use it for what it was intended? It’s ridiculous and abusive, especially since right now they’re issuing almost no work permits for messenger drivers.”

The Plaza and Central Havana Municipal Office of Employment confirms this. “We are not issuing any transportation related licenses at this time,” says an employee at the office on Zanja Street.

Last August the state’s severe restrictions on self-employment began to lessen when the limit of 123 legally permitted areas of private sector employment was lifted, something entrepreneurs had been demanding for years. The news was well received but reaction was cautious. Suspicion has been growing with each passing month as the process remains stalled by delays, lack of information and bureaucracy.

Obtaining a license to transport passengers requires, among other things, first opening a bank account, filing an application with the giant military-run Fincimex corporation for a permit to buy fuel, and confirming the vehicle meets certain technical requirements. Some of this paperwork now takes months rather than weeks to process due to coronavirus restrictions.

Technical requirements for transport vehicles — emergency exits, seats in the same position as that of the driver, adequate lighting — were not written with electric tricycles in mind.

“As usual, they changed the law and then reality upended it,” says Luis Alberto Suárez, a tricycle driver who transports produce for Havana’s San Rafael market. “A lot of times I have to transport not only what I am selling but the buyer too. But now with this latest thing, I can’t do that.”

“The Transport Ministry didn’t foresee how tricycles would be used. They thought they were going to sell these vehicles and people were just going to use them the way the manuals said,” he notes ironically. “Well, I’ve already seen them being used as an ambulance, a moving van, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them used for weddings, with a bride in a veil, or for anything else. How are they going to stop it?”

The Transport Ministry official who spoke with 14ymedio acknowledged the delay. “The issuing of licenses to tranport goods or passengers in Havana is a little behind schedule and that discourages many from completing the process,” she warns. “Those who already have a license can keep working legally under the new regulations.”

With the bureaucracy chugging slowly along, tricycle drivers, especially those who purchased a vehicle in the past year, are feeling the heat. Inspections, arrests and fines have been increasing. What was once routine now often feels like a pressure campaign on drivers of three-wheeled vehicles.

“Last week they fined me for going the wrong way. As it turns out, it was a part of the city I know well but the street sign was in bad condition and I didn’t notice it,” says another driver. “Every day they stop me for something or other but I feel this was just too much. They fined me sixty pesos and I lost twelve ’meat points’ [from the ration book].”

“But what was really interesing was when I got to the office to pay the fine, most of the people there were tricycle drivers. It was like a three-wheeled vehicle club and everyone there had been fined for one thing or another,” he says.

Many of the electric vehicles in circulation on the island were assembled at Caribbean Electric Vehicles (Vedca) in Mariel Special Development Zone. In addition to the high sticker price, owners face the additional costs of electricity, which rose early this year, and battery replacement.

“These vehicles are very easy to steal so you need a secure parking space. That adds hundreds or thousand of pesos a month to your operating costs,” notes Mauricio Limonta, owner of one of the most popular models, which includes ample cargo space. “If they don’t let us keep working, we’ll lose everything.”

Andy is another electric tricycle owner who has waited in line several times to pay a fine. “It’s not even noon and the police have already stopped me twice,” he reports. “To top it off, they tell me that I can’t have anyone in the passenger seat in front or in the two back seats.”

“I didn’t buy this vehicle in Panama or Mexico. I paid for it [in dollars] at a state-run dealership in Havana. I got it to drive my wife and parents around whenever I want,” he complains. “They don’t stop you only when someone else is with you. I’ve been stopped so they can check a box or bag I happen to be carrying and I’ve had to convince them I’m not making unlicensed commercial deliveries.

Electric tricycles are very popular with private delivery drivers, who use them to transport products such as fruits and vegetables. Not too long ago they ran on pedal power alone but in recent months electric versions have brought speed and efficiency to home delivery for restaurants and cafes.

Andy recalls his lastest encounter with the police who, for the umpteenth time, pulled him over and asked to see his documents even though he was following all the rules. “It irritated me. I told him that, instead of going after tricycle drivers, they ought to be fixing the streets, which are in very bad repair.”

The officer didn’t hold his tongue: “The potholes slow you down so you don’t speed. And if you keep questioning me, you’re going to get slapped with contempt. So you’d better get out of here while I’m still in a good mood.”

____________

Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, Limits Rationed Bread to Children and Elderly Only

Some residents consider that the now restricted product can no longer even be called “bread.” (Escambray)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 11 May 2021 – In the city of Sancti Spíritus, the bread sold in the rationed market will be available only to the city’s children and the, state employees have informed customers. “Due to the shortage of flour, we cannot guarantee the product for all consumers,” a worker from a local site in the Kilo 12 neighborhood confirmed to 14ymedio.

“Bread will be sold only for minors or the elderly,” details the state employee, who gave the bad news to buyers who came to the counter this Tuesday. “We still do not know if it will be a measure for a short time, but it may be that it will take weeks before we can sell to everyone again.”

“Children up to the age of eight and those over 65 from each family nucleus will be the ones who will be able to receive the product,” he explains. “It will be bread made partly from wheat flour with other mixtures, but we will try to ensure that every day all consumers who meet these requirements receive it.” continue reading

The supply cut has been anticipated for weeks, because unrationed bread, which is sold from the so-called special bakeries, has disappeared. “At first they had a larger bread, with a hard crust, but later the raw material stopped coming and they started making soft bread at six pesos each,” recalls Lizabel Fundora, a regular buyer.

“Before, I used to come as often as twice a day and buy that bread, which was more expensive but also a little tastier than the rationed bread,” says Fundora. “But these bakeries are now empty or closed, the only possibility that remained was the rationed bread and with this latest news some of us will also no longer be eating it.”

The supply cut has been anticipated for weeks, because unrationed bread, which is sold from the so-called special bakeries, has disappeared. (14ymedio)

Others believe that the now restricted product can no longer even be called “bread.” “Without fat, without salt, without yeast and it still costs one peso,” Ana María, the grandmother of two children, tells this newspaper. Her two grandchildren will continue to receive their regulated quota, but as she has not yet reached 65 years, they will not sell any for her.

“Sometimes they sold it hard, with a medium greenish color or with an acid smell,” the woman details. “But for many families that bread, even as bad as it was, was an important support that is now limited.” Ana María thinks that “adolescents eat a lot of bread, especially now that so many areas are closed and they cannot leave their homes. And why isn’t there bread for them?”

The bread situation has worsened throughout the country and the crisis has reached the Cuban capital where this week it was announced that the products sold outside the rationed market “will be reduced by approximately 30%” as of this Monday due to “the effects on the availability of wheat flour.”

During the last year, but especially since January, buying bread in the unrationed market is only possible in the capital, and requires standing in a several hours long line at private businesses where bread that a few months ago cost 25 pesos now sells for 50. Similarly, the prices of sweets, pizzas and all products made with flour have doubled.

According to the official press, Cuba expects to purchase 770,000 tons of wheat in the international market of this year, at a cost of 240 million dollars.

____________

There is No Wheat to Make Bread, Havana’s Authorities Warn

The lack of flour will “probably” last until July. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 May 2021 — In the midst of a profound crisis, the Cuban authorities have announced one more piece of terrible news: the bread sold outside the rationed market “will be reduced by approximately 30%” as of Monday due to “the effects on the availability of wheat flour,” as reported this Monday by the Government of Havana.

The note of the announcement also specifies that “the delivery of this product to the food network and state agencies will be reduced by 50%,” but the sale of rationed bread and that destined to prioritized sectors such as Healthcare and Education will be fully guaranteed.”

Julio Martínez Roque, coordinator of Goals and Programs for the Government of Havana, explained that “due to the difficult economic scenario” the country is experiencing “the daily quota of wheat flour assigned to the capital has been limited” and for that reason the production of sweet cookies and salty crackers will also be affected. continue reading

According to Roque’s forecast, the lack of flour will “probably” last until July.

For her part, Yoanka Gámez Poronda, head of the Technical-Productive Department of the Cuban Bread Chain, said that as a result of these limitations, 20% of the wheat flour with which the breads are made will be replaced by corn flour. She promised that this “will affect the texture of the crusts” of the product, but not its flavor or quality.

During the last year , but especially since January, buying bread in the unrationed market is only possible in the capital after standing in long lines — lasting two, three and even four hours — and from private businesses where bread that previously cost 25 pesos now sells for 50. In the same way, the prices of sweets, pizzas and all products made with flour has doubled.

The crisis since the beginning of the year includes not only the shortage of bread at the bakery counters, but also in many of the municipalities of Havana where state points of sale for unrationed bread closed for several days due to the lack of bread.

The news this Monday is another bucket of cold water for many families that basically support themselves eating “bread with ‘something’,” a substitute for other recipes that are in retreat in Cuban homes due to the worst economic crisis that the country has experienced since the beginning of this century.

According to the official press, Cuba expects to purchase 770,000 tons of wheat in the international market of this year, at a cost of 240 million dollars.

Bread with oil, bread with mayonnaise or bread with sugar are some of the most popular preparations to substitute for the lack of other foods. Private businesses that still continue to deliver takeout food, amid the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, base their menus basically on sandwiches, snacks, pizzas and other recipes made with flour.

In 2018, the country went through a similar crisis with the supply of this product and in the face of consumer complaints, the Minister of the Food Industry, Iris Quiñones Rojas, explained that the lack of flour was due to the poor condition of the mills that process wheat on the island.

____________

Cuba Closes the Worst Sugar Harvest in More Than a Century and Will Have to Import for the Domestic Market

A farmer works on the sugar cane crop in Maduga, Maraeque. (EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa)

14ymedio, Havana, 11 May 2021 — Catastrophe in the Cuban sugar industry. The preliminary results of this year’s harvest are worse than expected and production is hitting rock bottom. With a harvest of just 816,000 tons of sugar, 68% of the 1.2 million planned, the Island has the worst figure since 1908.

The state monopoly Azcuba has also confirmed in a note released by Prensa Latina that at the end of April only 71% of the planned sugarcane had been milled.

With these numbers, Cuba would only have 416,000 tons of sugar available for national consumption, since it has committed to sell China an annual total of 400,000 tons. The Island annually consumes between 600,000 and 700,000 tons of the product.

The data that describe the shortfall are very precise: 57% is attributed to lack of fuel; 25% to the breakdown of machinery and transport; and 7% to industrial issues. The rest is attributed to humidity in the fields, for 9%, and Covid-19, for 2%. continue reading

All these numbers, according to the state company and the official press, have a responsible party: The United States. The report, entitled Sugar harvest in Cuba receives negative impacts from the US blockade on Radio Cadena Agramonte, in Camagüey, maintains that the country’s economic-financial and energy sector crisis has been accentuated by “the intensification of the blockade,” as the Cuban government refers to the embargo.

Another negative element is that of the industrial performance, which should be 9.53% and reaches 8.62%. The authorities attribute this to the low maturity of the raw material. But milling has also contributed. Azcuba planned to have 38 plants available to mill the sugar, but 12 of them delayed their start, seven due to the humidity of the fields and five due to the delay in the arrival of resources.

The harvest in Cuba runs from November to May, so April 30 is considered the closing date. However, Juan Carlos Santos, vice president of the state company, said that the work will continue if the rains in May are delayed.

Previously, the worst data since the 1959 Revolution was that of the 2009-2010 harvest, when 1.1 million tons were reached, which forced the importation of sugar from France, made with beets.

Of the 156 sugar mills that were in operation before 1959, only 56 remain. In that year, 5.6 million tons of sugar were produced, which increased in the 1970s and 1980s to seven and eight million tons.
____________

Why Can’t a Cuban Farmer Buy a Tractor With Cuban Pesos?

A Cuban farmer plows the land with oxen (CC)

Elias Amor Bravo, Economist, 8 May 2021 — It is hard to imagine a Spanish or French agricultural producer wanting to buy a tractor and having pay for it in dollars in a store in Spain or France. I comment on this circumstance here and my interlocutors are surprised. Then comes the tentative question, can’t a Cuban farmer buy a tractor and pay for it in his country’s currency, the Cuban peso (CUP)? And I have to answer, No.

I explain that the communist regime has devised a network of stores for the agricultural sector that sell only in freely convertible currency. In these stores you can find all kinds of inputs, fertilizers or tools for agricultural production, but you have to pay in dollars. This measure of the Logistics Business Group of the Ministry of Agriculture (Gelma) has been underway for some time as another of the mechanisms devised by the regime to take possession the scarce foreign currency that circulates in the country.

They have already done it with the stores in MLC (freely convertible currency) to collect the foreign currency that reaches families in the form of remittances from abroad. Now with the Gelma stores they want to collect the resources from the agricultural sector. So when, this Friday, the first 14 tractors were moved to the shopping centers of seven provinces for sale exclusively to agricultural producers, more than one had to use a calculator to check how much they should pay for that means of production which, for some, is essential, especially for those producers who have the most land under cultivation, who are the fewest in number overall. continue reading

For this reason, the tractors to be sold are of small power, according to reports in the state newspaper Granma, of 32, 80 and 82 horsepower, with the latter even coming with air-conditioned cabins. The first units have been directed to stores in the provinces where requests have been received from producers, that is: Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Mayabeque and Villa Clara, as well as Sancti Spíritus, Santiago de Cuba and Granma.

Apparently, as the authorities have pointed out, these vehicles are the result of the negotiation of a consignment from the Central Company of Supply and Sales of Heavy Transport Equipment and its Parts (Transimport) to be marketed in Gelma stores in MLC. They will be joined by another ten that will arrive with the same purpose. The source of the tractors is international industry, so their sale will not entail any benefit to the Cuban productive sector.

In short, to be able to buy this equipment, Cuban farmers with the Cuban pesos (CUP) they generate on their farms have to have the necessary financing, in dollars, to do so (from a bank or in the case of a remittance, they will have to explain the origin of the funds).

In the current situation of the economy, there are doubts about the possibility of obtaining financing in dollars or any other currency, so the funds must have another origin (such as money from sales to the hotel sector, which is also at a minimum, as a consequence of the collapse of tourism). Most likely, the Cuban farmer who cannot pay in Cuban pesos, will have to go to the informal exchange markets to get dollars.

In fact, you can forget about the official exchange in the cadecas — the government exchanges — because they do not function. Instead, the farmers will have to accept the exchange rate offered by the operators in the informal economy, which is around 53 pesos per dollar, which will mean an unjustified increase in the price of the tractor, as the government’s plan is to not lower prices, even if the tractors go unsold.

Once the dollars have been obtained and deposited in a bank account in MLC in one of the state banks authorized to do so, the buyer will have to make the payment through the magnetic card backed by the account. Then they can take possession of the tractor. What would be easier would be to go to Gelma’s store with the value of the tractor in Cuban pesos, pay it and let Gelma be in charge of obtaining the foreign exchange.

But this is not possible, of course, because the regime wants to collect the dollars from the informal circuits, where the farmer goes to get the dollars, even if this makes what he has to pay in national currency twice as expensive. The regime doesn’t care. The farmer who needs the tractor will be the person who gets the foreign exchange for the government, as do those who buy food or cleaning products in stores that sell only in MLC.

By the way, this occurs because foreign exchange in the Cuban economy is so scarce that the regime has devised whatever ways are necessary to capture it in order to meet its needs. In Spain or France, the mechanism is as stated. The tractor is bought in euros, and if it has had to be imported, for example, from China, this has already been done by a private importer who paid in Chinese currency after having managed the euros.

Any resemblance to the Cuban reality is impossible. To make it all worse, the Cuban farmer who is going to buy a tractor must not forget to take with him his certificate from the municipal Delegate of Agriculture, which accredits him as a producer. It is the same as always, without authorization from the local communist, nothing can be accomplished. There is not even the freedom to buy a tractor.

____________

A Cuban Enters a ‘Dollar Store’ For the First Time and is Frightened

The only shopping complex in the country named after a king of Spain enters the realm of dollarization. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 10 May 2021 — From the outside it still looks the same, but inside the Plaza de Carlos III a silent battle is taking place. On the one hand, the best-stocked stores that accept payment only in foreign currency, and on the other, a few stores that still sell in the national currency. For many Cubans, walking through its corridors is an immersion in the economic divide that separates the island.

“I entered the stores [that requirement payment] in MLC (freely convertible currency) in Carlos III, I had never visited them closely,” a Havanan told 14ymedio. After touring the stores that take payment only in foreign currency in this centrally located business in the Cuban capital, this Cuban did not know whether to be happy to find products that are barely seen in the other stores or to be saddened by the “monetary apartheid” that separates citizens.

“What a sadness, I have shopped in those stores for about ten years, but now all, except the food supermarket, [accept payment only] in MLC,” he laments. “Even the children’s flip-flops are being sold in dollars.” continue reading

“All the Suchel perfumes and also the imported ones, the shampoos that they sold for a lifetime there in the store for 1 CUC, are now also in dollars,” says this 41-year-old Havanan, born in the 1980s when the Soviet subsidy allowed well-stocked markets and better-stocked display windows. “It was a very strange and sad feeling.”

When he was a child, this Havanan knew the Plaza de Carlos III as a market for food and vegetables. “Dirty, but it also had a fish shop with plenty of offerings and you could buy it with the same currency with which they paid us our salaries.” In the 90s the place was reborn under the dollar and was reopened as the main commercial center of the Cuban capital.

Now, the only shopping complex in the country that bears the name of a king of Spain is entering the realm of covert dollarization that has meant opening stores in MLC where you can only pay with magnetic cards. “This reminds me of the ‘Diego Velázquez houses’,” evokes the frustrated customer.

For many Cubans, walking through the corridors of Carlos III is an immersion in the economic divide that separates the island. (14ymedio)

He was referring to the Gold and Silver Exchange Houses, opened on the island in 1987, where valuable jewels were exchanged for vouchers to buy basic necessities. “My grandmother left everything in that scam: her wedding ring, her hanging crucifix that her mother had left her and even some pieces of gold from her teeth,” explains Mabel, a neighbor of the Plaza de Carlos III who now survives by renting her doorway to a self-employed person who does business there.

“At that time it was clear that they were robbing us,” she adds. Hence the name “Diego Velázquez,” the governor whom popular legend describes as the promoter of deceiving the Cuban natives, exchanging national gold for little mirrors brought from the old continent. “That was an assault and this is a new version of the same robbery,” she says.

“Look at where they sell the james, all in MLC stores. The delivery truck has in its advertising a child and everything, how cruel!”, comments another resident of Centro Habana when he realized that they were unloading merchandise from a Stella company truck into the Panamericana Royal Palm store, on the Boulevard of Calle San Rafael. Stella is a trading company that belongs to the government’s Ministry of the Food Industry and markets chocolate products.

A truck from the Stella company delivering goods this Monday to the Panamericana Royal Palm store, on the Boulevard of San Rafael Street. (14ymedio)

“My nephews can practically never eat jams. We do not have dollars and when we buy them it is very little, because we do it on the black market and the resellers sell them at exorbitant prices,” adds the Havanan.

In mid-October, the state newspaper Granma published an article stating that the country “will not dollarize its economy” and that the stores in MLC “are necessary but temporary.” In the article, the official organ of the Communist Party quotes Economy Minister Alejandro Gil, who assures that the monetary system “is designed” so that Cuba “works with a single currency: the Cuban peso.”

Raúl Castro himself, in his report to the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party, acknowledged that “the stores in MLC were created to encourage remittances from abroad.” But, at the same time that they collect foreign exchange, they are generating a deep malaise due to the social inequalities they make obvious.

____________

Diaz-Canel Congratulates Cuban Women on Mother’s Day and Gets Burned

The image of Díaz-Canel’s congratulations to Cuban women on Mother’s Day. (Twitter)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 May 2021– Cuba’s head of state dedicated a tweet this Sunday to congratulate Cuban mothers on their day and was mocked by hundreds on the social networks. Miguel Díaz-Canel’s message was disturbing not so much because of its words as because of the image that accompanied it.

“Congratulations to all Cuban Mothers, whose love for the family is also the support of the nation. Our love and admiration. #CubaViva #SomosCuba,” wrote the first secretary of the Communist Party.

The image that sparked the controversy shows three white women, two with blonde hair and one redhead, dressed in long-sleeved plaid shirts and hats, a scene that seemed more likely to have been taken from a Nordic country than from this Caribbean island. continue reading

So distant from the reality that Cuban mothers live every day in the streets of the country, the unfortunate photograph did not appear only in the tweet. The president chose the same one to send as a postcard with his signature to women considered personalities of culture, sports, science and politics.

The presidential publication sparked dozens of memes with images of northern countries but with recognizable phrases in scenes from Cuba. For example, this one with a very blond couple taking pretzels from the oven: ” The colleagues from the Kneading the Revolution bakery join in the congratulations on this day.

Others use photographs from series and movies such as Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings: “The president of the Yoruba Association of Cuba can’t help but echo your congratulations to Cuban mothers.”

From her Twitter account, Finca Marta (Marta’s Farm) replied that the women in the photo (mother and two daughters) “are all three peasants” and “get up every day at 5 am to work and soil their hands with dirt.” Without going any further, they are farm workers, as confirmed by this newspaper, with sources close to the “agroecological” company, located in the municipality of Caimito, Artemisa.

“They are as Cuban as most,” Finca Marta insisted in another tweet. “They suffer the rigors of scarcity and hardship and fight day by day for their family and for their country. They stand in lines and have uncertainties. How should they appear? Dirty, lining up?”

“But it is a tweet from the Presidency, not from Finca Marta, which enunciates and talks about all Cuban mothers,” said designer Roberto Ramos in the controversy. “My black neighbor also gets up at 5 am, to grab an A40 (bus) and go off to fight for food her children. She’s Cuban too!”

After more than 60 years of a policy of “equality” that claimed to defend the Cuban Revolution, racism is still in force on the Island. When Raúl Castro assumed the presidency, one of his policies was aimed at including black people in public office and in the media, mainly on television.

In 2019, the regime approved the National Program against Racism and Racial Discrimination, entrusted to a government commission directed by none other than Díaz-Canel and created with the objective of “combating and definitively eliminating the vestiges of racism, racial prejudice and racial discrimination that persist.”

____________

Searching for the ‘Conceptualization’ With a Member of the Cuban Communist Party

After much searching, the important documents that will govern part of the life of the country did not appear. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Desde Aqui, Havana, 6 May 2021 — A former colleague of the microbrigade that built the building where I have lived for 36 years, visited me on Wednesday afternoon to help him search on the internet for the update of the Conceptualization of the Cuban Economic and Social Model of Socialist Development that was recently prepared in the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party.

My neighbor, who has been a Party member for more than 40 years, assumed that since May 5th is Karl Marx’s birthday, the date would be propitious to publicize what is supposed to be “the theoretical, conceptual and action guide for the construction of socialism in Cuba.”

When we searched the sites that are dedicated to these topics, the only link that appeared refers to the text that was approved during the Seventh Congress, but there is no trace of the updated document or the “update project.” continue reading

Another old link where the reader is invited to “read the definitive texts of the Conceptualization of the Model” announced to us with its embarrassed face that “this page does not work.”

An intense search on the official sites for Granma and Cubadebate only yielded the resolution issued by a commission of the Eighth Congress, chaired by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, where in its first agreement what was called “the actualization project” of the aforementioned conceptualization”] “with the modifications incorporated.” But obviously a resolution to approve a document is not the document itself.

It is true that the aforementioned resolution offers some clues, but strictly speaking, what stands out the most are the obvious, such as that Cuban society is in the historical period of construction of socialism, that the Communist Party of Cuba — unique, following José Martí, following Fidel Castro, Marxist and Leninist — reaffirms its leading role and that the ultimate goal is to achieve a nation “Sovereign, Independent, Socialist, Democratic, Prosperous and Sustainable,” presented thus with all the terms capitalized.

Platitudes aside, those who want to know if the updated conceptualization would prohibit or regulate the concentration of property and wealth, will have to wait until the text is finally made public. In this regard, there are only two exhausting paragraphs in the resolution that express the terror with which the timid reformists try to hint at their riddles.

Here I quote them verbatim so that the most intelligent can determine if they are closing in order to open or if they are opening in order to close.

“Recognize, regulate and achieve an adequate functioning of the market, so that centralized administrative measures, in interaction with macroeconomic policies and others, induce economic actors to adopt decisions in accordance with the interests of the whole society.”

“As part of this, it is defined that it is necessary to prevent producers or marketers from imposing bad practices, speculation and conditions contrary to the interests and principles of society, regardless of the form of ownership or management.”

Perhaps the publication of this resolution could have the objective of making people believe that they had already read the updated conceptualization and, additionally, be intended mislead analysts. The fact that more than fifteen days have passed since the end of the partisan event and that its most important result continues to be unknown is a blow to the communication policy of the PCC.

In the end, I think I only managed to make my neighbor nervous, as he asked me not to tell anyone that he was searching for these things, lest it be taken as a lack of discipline.
____________

The Police in Santiago de Cuba Will Fine Families Who Don’t Follow the ‘Teleclasses’

Since March 15, a “new grid” began in the programming of the Educational Channel, which includes the subjects that were not being taught until now. (Radio Rebelde)

14ymedio, Manuel Calvo, Santiago de Cuba, 5 May 2021 – Parents of students who do not transcribe the content of teleclasses that are taught on television due to the pandemic will face a fine of up to 2,500 pesos. “Teachers have the duty to go to the homes and review the notebooks. The family of the student who has not written the content will be reprimanded,” an official of the Ministry of Education in Santiago de Cuba confirms to 14ymedio.

The measure, which is already in force throughout the province, seeks to encourage greater discipline among students when it comes to attending and systematizing the knowledge that is taught through these television broadcasts. “We realized that many children were not following the classes, they were not doing the tasks they were directed to do, and all that with the consent of their parents,” explains the directive.

“At least once a week the teacher has to check that the student has copied the content, and he or she can do it by visiting the home or by asking for a photo of the pages of the notebook with the copied material,” he adds. “If the teacher sees delays or deficiencies, he or she must inform the school management so that the police can be notified.” continue reading

The information has been confirmed by several teachers who teach at the primary, secondary and pre-university levels in the province. “They brought us together to tell us that we should report on delinquent students who do not copy the classes, but I am a mother myself and I know the difficulties people are having at home to get children to pay attention to the television, so I warned every one of the parents of the new measure before reporting any of them,” says Maité, a Spanish teacher.

“I told them to catch up with the classes and that if they had to copy it themselves they should not stop doing it because the teachers are not the only ones who are going to supervise. Education methodologists and commissions created just for that who are above us they will also visit some homes,” she adds.

In the neighborhood of San Agustín, where the supervision process has already begun, Dayana Espinosa has updated the notebooks of her two children. “I had to do it on the run but luckily they warned me in advance in a WhatsApp thread where several mothers are,” she explains. “They even handed me all the texts that I had to transcribe before the inspectors arrived.”

“In the end, this is more workload for the family when we are already quite overwhelmed with the situation of the children at home all day, because many of those classes are boring and there is no way to make the kids spend all that time time in front of the screen taking notes. If we don’t write it ourselves, then the fine is a certainty.”

In Cuba, the first closure of schools was decreed at the end of March 2020 as a result of the arrival of the Covid pandemic that has now left 62,206 infections and 373 deaths. Since then, classes have been temporarily restored in several provinces, but with the current upsurge in the disease they have been suspended again. The authorities have developed a teaching program through television to alleviate the problem of closed schools.

“The teacher is irreplaceable,” Eugenio González Pérez, Vice Minister of Education, recently told the official press, insisting on the importance of watching teleclasses “as a complement.” However, the concern of parents increases as this alternative to school lengthens in time, especially due to how unattractive the students find it.

Since last March 15, a “new grid” began in the programming of the Educational Channel, which includes the subjects that were not being taught until now. The broadcasts are directed to all the provinces and municipalities in the phase of limited transmission, except Pinar del Río, which has its own program.

Among the new subjects that are already being transmitted are Geography, sixth grade; English, from third to sixth; History, seventh and eighth; and Chemistry, Physics, and Biology, in twelfth grade.

“My son has the notebooks up to date but it is only to avoid the fine. Already a neighbor of ours was verbally admonished and warned that the next time she will have to pay 2,500 pesos, so I prefer not to get into trouble,” Espinosa tells 14ymedio. “Nobody wants to risk it.”

____________

Newspaper Reports Sancti Spiritus Residents Consume 3.5 Tons of Food a Month

After news of a crackdown early this year, many people lined up outside government offices to remove the names of relatives living overseas from ration card rolls. (La Demajagua)

14ymedio, Havana, May 3, 2021 — If figures from the Sancti Spíritus Wholesale Food Company are to be believed, the province’s residents consume about 3.5 tons of food a month. By failing to have their names removed from the ration card registry, as required by law, residents currently living overseas are “bleeding the economy dry” according an article published on Sunday in the Escambray, a state newspaper.

The local daily reported that 12,400 residents remained on the rolls, which are maintained by Oficoda, even though they are living abroad. A recent audit found that more than 460 households in the province were operating as though their relatives overseas were still living in Cuba

Jorge Luis Domínguez Sánchez, a commercial specialist with the Sancti Spíritus Wholesale Food Company, told Escambray that after an audit of the province’s ration rolls, figures indicated that “more than 65,800 tons of the food alloted to each family — rice, grains and cooking oil as well as raw and refined sugar — goes to 12,400 Spiritus citizens living abroad. Not included in this analysis are items such as yams, plantains, milk and meat which are set aside for medically prescribed diets.” The results of this audit indicate a level of rationed food consumption that is as spectacular as it is incredible. continue reading

The Escambray article points out that workers at Oficoda’s forty-one provincial offices have had to make a huge effort to update the rolls because all population tracking measures have failed. “Who knows if a neighbor on any given block is on an overseas mission, is incarcerated, or went to Russia for fifteen days and decided to spend the year travelling?” it asks.

At the beginning of March, the Central State Administration began demanding that people who leave the country for “work, study or cooperation for a period greater than three months” have their names removed from the rolls. Though this requirement has been in place since 1991 — it has normally applied to individuals who are incarcerated, in nursing homes or permanently hospitalized — the measure expressly exempts healthcare workers, athletes and other professionals on official missions overseas. While working abroad, they still are still entitled to their monthly quota of rationed, subsidized food and cleaning supplies.

The requirement that the names of emigrant family members be removed from ration card registry has largely been ignored. This means thousands of people throughout the island can still receive their relatives’ monthly quotas, which they are free to consume or resell. Now, with tighter controls, Cubans wonder if the surplus food will be redirected, and under what conditions, to the open market.

According to the article, updating the records is part of the ’Ordering Task’*, which includes the currency unification process. Rates of compliance with the regulation is highest when those being removed from the rolls are prison inmates, residents of elder care facilities, physically handicapped or in orphanages.

At the beginning of the year a wave of people were suddenly ready to tackle the paperwork necessary to remove their ineligible relatives from the rolls when it was revealed that there would be hefty fines for heads of households with emigrants listed on their ration books. Though no penalties have been imposed so far, at least not in a significant way, fear of being sanctioned has prompted thousands of people to take action that they have been postponing, sometimes for years.

*Translator’s note: The ‘Ordering Task’ [Tarea ordenamient0] is a collection of measures that includes eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and other measures related to the economy.

____________

The Cuban Military and the Indian Chain MGM Muthu Will Open Three New Luxury Hotels

The site of the Gran Muthu Habana is located in Miramar, very close to the national aquarium. (Virtual image MGM Hotels)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 May 2021 — Impassive in the face of the health crisis and the collapse of international tourism, the Cuban military consortium Gaviota is already preparing to open a new hotel with a shopping center in Havana with the participation of a large Indian chain based in Portugal, MGM Muthu Hotels. According to the corporate general director of the brand in Cuba, Rafael López, the Gran Muthu Habana, at 3rd and 70th streets in Havana, is the main project but it will not be the only one.

The opening of the Grand Muthu Almirante Beach, in the Guardalavaca resort, is also imminent, scheduled for July 1. This five-star hotel has 514 rooms and a lobby with ocean views.

The firm’s manager also told the official press that another tourist center is being planned in Holguín, in the Yuraguanal area, with some 480 rooms. continue reading

MGM Muthu Hotels has been on the Island for three years, the only destination in the Caribbean where it is present. The chain already has five hotels in Cuba, among which is the Grand Muthu Plaza in Havana, currently closed for repairs.

In addition, it has the Muthu Playa Varadero, in the popular resort of Matanzas and three more in Ciego de Ávila: Cayo Guillermo, Imperial and Rainbow. The latter two were included, in November 2019, on the blacklist of Cuban companies with which Americans are prohibited from doing business, because they are controlled by the military.

Greater Muthu Habana harbored a serious coronavirus outbreak in September last year, when 23 of the Indian workers who worked at the facility tested positive for Covid-19.

The Indian workers arrived in Cuba in 2016 hired by the French construction company Bouygues to work on the Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski, in the Manzana de Gómez building, in Havana.

Although it was initially speculated that their arrival was due to the exception of the Foreign Investment Law, which authorizes “special regulations” for foreign workers in “special circumstances,” the situation was not confirmed and shortly after it was learned that they were working for Almest , a real estate arm of the Cuban military.

The official press then insisted that their work was of a very high quality and that they did “three or four times” the work a Cuban would. “Their presence is makes a high use of the working day, which results in greater productivity,” Juventud Rebelde said in a 2016 article.

According to the international press, the salary Bouygues paid to Indian workers was around 1,600 dollars a month, 53 times more than that paid to Cubans for the same work.

____________

Water Will Arrive Only Every Third Day in the Havana Neighborhoods of El Canal and La Vibora

In Cuba, according to official data, “47% of the population receives water daily or every other day.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 May 2021 — Disgusted and resigned, the residents of the Havana districts of El Canal (in the Cerro municipality) and La Víbora (in Diez de Octubre) are preparing to experience more cuts in the drinking water service.

The measure, according to a statement published this Thursday by the state monopoly Aguas de La Habana (Havana Waters), establishes that the service will begin to be provided every three days rather than on alternate days as has happened until now.

“In order to guarantee the supply of piped water to the users associated with these distributions, it is necessary to undertake a group of adjustments in the schedules and distribution cycles, which will allow a better distribution of the water that we have,” says the note. continue reading

The reason for the new supply design is due “to the intense drought that the country is going through,” says the state-owned company, which details that “the groundwater levels of the main supply sources that supply the city are very depressed.” For this reason, there are “effects due to lack of water and low pressure in some areas and distributions of the central system.”

In the case of El Canal, the new distribution design will begin this Saturday, and on Sunday in La Víbora.

The state company apologized to the affected users and stated that once “the water levels in the main supply sources have recovered, the distribution cycles will be reestablished in their normal hours.”

Residents in the El Canal neighborhood did not take the news well, as it is an area of the city with a high volume of overcrowding, tenements, and houses in a very precarious state, inhabited by many low-income families. In Cuba, according to official data, “47% of the population receives water daily or every other day.”

The service was subsidized, and according to a report published in Cubadebate, with 80% of the expenses of the State going to electricity.

The supply of drinking water is one of the services that, with the elimination of subsidies on January 1, increased considerably in price. In this case, from 1.75 pesos to 7 pesos per cubic meter (roughly 265 gallons).

____________

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: