“For Me, it Was a ‘Shock’ to See a Minister and Vice-Ministers Dealing Blows”

The Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, together with the Vice Minister Fernando Rojas and other officials, left the Ministry of Culture in a group and advanced towards the group of artists. (Screen Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 28 January 2021 — Mauricio Mendoza still does not understand what he did to make the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, slap him and, with it, unleash the fury of a mob that came out of their offices and attacked artists who had arrived at their doors after performing a tribute to José Martí this Wednesday. “I was doing my job, reporting live, without offending anyone, asking Fernando Rojas questions,” he tells 14ymedio.

Vice Minister Rojas, a character at the meeting on November 27th with some thirty of the more than 300 artists gathered before the Ministry of Culture, had already gone out several times to speak with the group, made up of twenty artists, including Julio Llopiz-Casal, Solveig Font, Maykel Osorbo, Carolina Barrera and Reynier Leyva Novo.

In some of the released videos, Rojas can even be seen stating that they could enter the ministry but without cell phones. The young people refused and demanded, at the same time, the withdrawal of the police officers who surrounded them, so Rojas turned around and went back into the building. continue reading

Suddenly, Mendoza remembers, “everyone comes out”: not only Rojas, but Minister Alonso himself and other officials. “One by one, I began to introduce who they were for the live broadcast, and I didn’t finish the first sentence when he slapped me and that triggered everything. A mob came out of the ministry and came at us”.

The 22-year-old independent journalist, who was also present at the Ministry on November 27th, asserts that “it was a low blow”. The minister even called him “a girl” because of his long hair. “The campaign has been brutal, they said that the minister approached me to shake my hand. A crude excuse they are using, they think we are little children,” criticizes the young man, who thinks that Alpidio Alonso “is nothing more than a joke.”

For Novo, it was incredible to see “that group which included a Minister, Vice-Ministers and officials acting like they were the police, beating, pushing, overwhelming a group of peaceful young people”

Reynier Leyva Novo, another of those attacked, simply cannot believe it. “The reaction of that group that included a Minister, Vice-Ministers and officials, acting as if they were the police, beating, pushing, overwhelming a group of peaceful young people in front of their institution …”, he explains. “That was a shock to me”.

Solveig Font is of the same opinion.  Initially, she was speaking on her phone, on the side, and only felt a growing noise. “I see a horde, the fury of the Minister and the Vice-Minister coming up on us, pushing Mauricio”. Font recalls that she and Julio Llopiz-Casal tried to separate the Minister and the Vice-Minister and another official, whom everyone calls Chicho, and said to Alpidio Alonso: “Minister, calm down, calm down”, at the same time she joined in separating them.

Novo hardly managed to press his camera’s shutter, but he did take two photographs, the graphic testimony of a Cuban Minister of Culture throwing himself on top of a peaceful citizen. Immediately, he received “strong shoves against the crowd” to get on a bus, arrested. Font describes them as “Old people, their gray hair nicely done, new glasses, new shirts, pushing us…”

In front of Novo were other officers pushing Oscar Casanella, but the door was blocked. “He was reluctant to get on the bus, and while the State Security agent beat him, Oscar looked him in the eye and told him that he was not going to get on.” Up until that moment Novo had not resisted because they had not hit him yet, but as soon as he got up, he received a blow from behind in the lower part of the head.

“It was a very strong blow that knocked my hat off. When I looked back, several people were screaming and what I remember the most, which keeps coming back to me, were Camila Lobón and Celia González screaming while they were being strangled”.

The screams and blows inside the vehicle were recorded in audios and videos recorded by the artists themselves.

The situation was so violent that Font thought they were going to break a bone. They threw her against the step of the bus and put pressure on her body. “The first thing I saw when I looked up was an older person from State Security who gave Chino Novo a tremendous blow on his head from behind. Then I fainted, I couldn’t take any more”, she recounts.

The situation was so violent that Font thought they were going to break a bone. They threw her against the step of the bus and put pressure on her body

 Before the bus started, the artists saw through the window the faces of Fernando Rojas and Alpidio Alonso who, together with the Ministry workers, shouting slogans while they held a Cuban flag.

Julio Llopiz-Casal’s feelings are contradictory, because he believes in dialogue, but at the same time he’s filled with “deep disappointment… I am getting closer and closer to thinking that dialogue is not going to happen”, he confesses, “especially because they don’t want it to happen, because they are looking for all the excuses in the world to obstruct it”.

Llopiz sees it as a shame that Cubans and the entire international community have seen the Minister of Culture behaving “like a common criminal… It seems to me that it is essential that Alpidio Alonso be separated from his duties”, he believes. “He should resign if he had a little dignity”.

For the art historian Carolina Barrera, what happened this Wednesday is “so extremely severe that it calls into question not only the legitimacy of the Government, but its power to exercise its functions, its sanity… The Ministers and Vice-Ministers are public officials, and as such, they are indebted to the citizens. How is it possible that a Minister of Culture and his entourage of Vice-Ministers lash out with violence against young people who read poetry, against citizens whom they should serve?” he wonders, in puzzlement.

What happened, she says, “is unacceptable” but, above all, “illegal”: “A punishable act that in any part of the world would be sufficient reason not just for immediate dismissal or resignation, but for criminal prosecution”.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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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.

When Life Prevails over Bureaucracy

It is rare for customers to get what they want if they do not get in line for bread, the pharmacy or a retail store by dawn.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 26 January 2021 — The line starts forming at dawn. It has been this way since the national “situation” and the global pandemic coincided on the island. It does not matter if the line is for bread, the pharmacy, the peso store, the hard currency store or the bank. If you do not get their first thing in the morning, you will likely not have access to any of their products or services, all of which are essential.

A thin young woman with disheveled hair bites her nails as she sits on the curb, constantly checking for messages on her cell phone. It is noon and she has been here for hours, guarding her place in line at the hard currency store at Fifth and 42nd in Havana’s Playa district. She hopes to buy chicken breasts, cheese, yogurt and jam for her young son. When she looks up, she chats with the woman next to her, explaining that she has to take good care of herself because she lives with her 81-year-old grandmother. She no longer thinks about “fatherland or death” because there is nothing to eat at home anymore.

“When my son says he’s hungry, it breaks my heart,” she says. “I have nothing to give him. Not even bread with something we have on-hand. And what’s to come is even worse.” continue reading

The woman listening to her has come with her husband and son. Though it is a hard currency store and prices are high, there are some limits on how many items one customer may buy. “That’s why the three of us came. We want to get things for my mother and mother-in-law because they are too old to wait in long lines where you don’t know when, or even if, you’ll get in,” she says as she takes off her coat.” Though it was chilly in the morning, the sun is now high in the sky, baking the pavement.

The hours pass slowly. Groups of ten customers at a time are allowed in. They come out twenty to thirty minutes later. The employee who opens the store in the morning reassures the customers in line: “There’s enough merchandise for everyone. Don’t worry.” There are indeed things to buy but what is in short supply is time. By 5:30, with more than twenty people still waiting to get in, a police security guard intervenes. “No one else is allowed inside today. Come back tomorrow,” he says.

The young woman on the curb leaps up, puts her cell phone away and approaches the policeman with tears in her eyes. “Look, officer,” she says. “I can’t come back tomorrow. I’ve left my son with my grandmother and she is too old to run errands like this. I sacrificed a whole day to be here and I can’t do this again. I’ve been worrying about my son the whole time, about him and my grandmother all alone while I’m here waiting my turn. And now you tell me I can’t buy anything. It’s criminal but, of course, you don’t understand because you don’t have children.” She turns and walks away, without waiting for a reply.

The one who does seem to have the weaponry to battle indolence, however, is the lady who came with her family. Flanked by her husband and son, she heads towards the uniformed officer, who sticks to the script: it’s out of his hands.

However, the woman manages to convince him to go find an employee and after ten minutes the manager comes out.

“I understand how you all feel,” he tells her slowly, “but you have to understand our position. I have workers who live far away, some of them in Guanabo. Even if we close at six o’clock, we can barely manage to get out of here with everything squared away by seven. That’s why I can’t let you in. We have are jam but selling it really slows things down, “he explains.

The woman looks him in the eye and says, “Look, almost everyone has already left. We’ve spent hours in line. All we want to do is buy some chicken and cheese. It wouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes of your time.”

Her plea now meets with little resistance. “I will let you in but on the condition that you do not buy anything other than chicken and cheese.” A murmur of satisfaction spreads through the line.

Browsing through the aisles, a girl who has so far remained been silent grabs yogurt containers of various flavors and runs to the cashier with a photo of her son on her cell phone. “Look, this is my boy. He loves yogurt. Will you let me get some?”

The employee nods her head and says, “Grab what you can but be quick so the boss doesn’t see me.”

A few minutes after six o’clock the employees close the doors while the last customers walk away with their blocks of cheese, frozen chicken and even jam. A real accomplishment for these times. Some of them have been in line for more than six hours but they now have something to take home to feed their families. They will have to do it all over again next week.

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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.

Cuban Communist Party 8th Congress: The Continuity of the Useless

At the beginning of December of last year, Machado Ventura confirmed that the date of the next Party Congress will be April 16 to 19. (EFE / Archive)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 26 January 2021 — It is very difficult not to be repetitive when talking about recidivism.

Before referring to the expectations regarding the VIII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), scheduled for the middle of April, I reviewed what I had published on the eve of the VII Congress, held in 2016 and, except for some details, I discovered the title could be the same this time: “Neither more of the same nor surprising news.”

To argue that it would not be more of the same, I said then: “Those who rule in Cuba know that they are obliged to change something or at least to give the impression that they are willing to do so,” and to illustrate the absence of novelties I introduced this paragraph that I allow myself to reproduce here now:

“There will be no surprising news such as opening the door to the multiparty system or launching a privatization program. No one will speak at this event of reconciliation between Cubans or dialogue with the opponents. An amnesty will not be decreed for political prisoners nor will the legitimacy of the alternative civil society, nor freedom of expression to the independent press be recognized.” continue reading

It is curious that that VII congress was held under a sign of hope, given that President Barack Obama was willing to put an end to the long dispute between Cuba and the United States. Seven months later, Donald Trump’s victory frustrated all the optimism that had been harbored about the possibility that Hillary Clinton could continue the policy of a thaw.

Now, as they say in Cuba, “the movie is running backwards” and the dire prognoses that could have shaded the great partisan gathering is corrected by the illusion that Joe Biden intends to reduce the belligerence and return to rapprochement. There will be someone in the White House writing down what they say at this event and they know it.

In another field of news, perhaps the most notorious is that Raúl Castro will no longer lead the PCC. The one who once inherited the top leadership from his brother suggested that his successor could be Miguel Díaz-Canel, but the latter’s poor performance in the role of president of the Republic has raised doubts about the proposal. Yet hardly anyone ventures to mention the name of another possible candidate.

A disturbing question is who will relieve the almighty José Ramón Machado Ventura. At 90 years of age and after two terms as second secretary of the PCC, it seems obvious that he will go into retirement. Whoever occupies his position has a good chance of one day succeeding the person who remains in command of the party. I hope it’s a woman.

New faces will join the Central Committee (CC), among them most likely the three men who have risen the fastest in the chain of command: Manuel Marrero, current prime minister; Alejandro Gil Fernández, Minister of Economy and Planning, and Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, the former spy who was appointed a member of the Council of State in December 2020. In the case of the latter, it should be specified why his biography does not identify him as a Party member.

Among the material for analysts will be the questions around who leaves the CC of the PCC and its Political Bureau, and the old list of pending individuals who have never entered the select team, among whom are Alejandro Castro Espín and Mariela Castro Espín, the only two (and last) opportunities for a member of that family to remain in a position of power, at least publicly.

At the beginning of December of last year, Machado Ventura confirmed that the date of the next Party Congress would be April 16 to 19. His theoretical contribution consisted in stating that this would be “the Congress of historical continuity.”

In late November, the Covid-19 pandemic still seemed a controllable threat, but just over two months after the announcement, more than 500 daily infections are reported and the introduction of the vaccine is no more than a headline in the triumphant press.

As the National Assembly of People’s Power has brought together the deputies in a virtual way, to avoid contagion, there would be nothing extraordinary in something similar being done on this occasion.

Although no one has mentioned the possibility of a postponement, it is striking that at this point the candidate nomination process has not begun nor have the traditional provincial events that precede each congress been announced.

In the midst of the hardships suffered by Cubans due to shortages and the high cost of living, it is unlikely that any interesting news can be expected to come out of the agreements that the communists make in their Cenacle. Perhaps some delegate dares to question the controversial stores the offer their products only in exchange for foreign currencies, or to denounce the untenable situation of the retirees, but no one will know. It will be the continuity of the useless.

Like those grandmothers who every Christmas Eve presage “next year I will no longer be with you at the Christmas holidays,” there are many who, on the eve of these congresses, predict that this one will be the last to be held. I resist falling into such stubbornness, but I find it hard to believe that, on these same dates in 2026, I will have to repeat myself in the face of another repeat offense.

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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 Hunt for Hard Currency Never Ends

While a Cuban farmer plows the land with oxen, the Cuban government is hoping to be able to sell the farmers tractors. (CC)

14ymedio biggerElías Amor Bravo, Economist, January 26, 2021 — The emergence of retail stores that only accept freely convertible currency — known in Cuba as MLC stores — and a system governing exports by private entrepreneurs are two recent developments that have attracted attention from analysts and observers of the Cuban economy due to their significant short, medium and long-term repercussions. These instruments share many common elements but that are hard to find in other countries, two features which accentuate the unusual nature of Cuba’s communist economic model.

The two actions arose out of the communist regime’s need to find a stable source of hard currency at a time when tourism, exports of goods and services, foreign investment, Venezuelan petroleum and even remittances are down as a consequence of the economic crisis brought on by Covid-19. Cuba’s eternal economic dependency on other countries, which goes back to the Soviet era, has only gotten worse and the state seems incapable of finding a solution in the current era of globalization.

Little more can be said about the MLC stores other than they have met expectations. Through clever design they have become an instrument for funneling remittances from overseas while at the same time diminishing the activity of so-called “mules,” which had reached spectacular proportions in recent years. continue reading

Shopping at these stores requires a customer to use a debit card. So far, nothing unusual about that. The problem is that the card has to be linked to a checking account at a state bank. Again, nothing strange. The symbolic importance, however, is that the funds in the account must be dollars or other hard currency because prices for merchandise at these stores are denominated in foreign currency, not in the country’s own legal tender.

The shortages some of these establishments have experienced in recent days is further confirmation of the policy failures of Cuba’s communist system. It is unfathomable that stores that stock their shelves with merchandise purchased with the same currency with which the items are sold (and at substantial markups to boot) cannot continuously restock their shelves and avoid these uncomfortable shortages, endless queues and uncertainties, not to mention ever higher prices?

Shortages are an impediment to increasing sales. If there is no revenue, profits fall and less merchandise can be purchased, which again creates shortages in spite of stable demand. The eternal, vicious cycle of the Cuban economy.

When these stores were announced by the economics minister almost two years ago, the idea was that they would sell only “high-end” products. But reality is stubborn. What MLC stores sell is practically everything that is hard to find in the rest of the country’s retail sector.

Management at these stores is provided by corporations linked to the army and state security apparatus, which supply the government with the hard currency required to meet its needs. These entities are not displaying the expected level of responsibility when it comes to paying suppliers or to logistics and supply management. What is even worse is that they are not providing the hard currency the regime needs to, for example, pay its debts to foreign creditors.

It is very likely that, once tourism picks up again, these stores will be phased out. Authorities have acknowledged on several occasions that their existence is not compatible with “revolutionary” values but that they are currently the only option for controlling the flow of hard currency coming into the country, largely in the form of remittances. Except in some tourist resorts and other places geared to short-term travelers, no other country in the world has a retail model similar to it. The brutal segmentation caused by MLC stores in the Cuban consumer market could be a harbinger of social disruption, especially for those without access to foreign exchange, which are most people.

Though the system set up to handle exports by private entrepreneurs is a different phenomenon, it shares the same objective as the MLC stores: providing the regime with hard currency. In this case it involves a government intermediary, an agency “specializing” in foreign trade, which helps the entrepreneur manage his foreign trade operations in exchange for a fixed percentage of sales. Certainly, there are such export promotion agencies in other countries but they do not charge for their services. They are funded through taxation and certainly do not assume the role they have in the Cuban system: negotiating with the foreign buyer.

In this way the regime prohibits a private entrepreneur from freely exporting his goods to a foreign business, Spanish or Italian, by forcing him to go through a government middleman. In order to be able to export, the entrepreneur must also agree to become part of a “map” drawn up by government bureaucrats which, you can bet, favors those entrepreneurs who agree to its conditions.

This statutory intrusion into a free market economic activity such as foreign trade is justified on the basis of maintaining quality, solvency and company size. In the reality of global economics, small and medium-sized companies export by tapping into international supply chains without the need for state involvement. This means that, in the short term, some of these private Cuban exporters might experience strong revenue growth, something the regime does not allow because of its obsession with maintaining control over the economy.

Unlike MLC stores, which will probably be phased out once tourism revives or foreign investment picks up, the system of private sector exports appears to have a level of permanence and continuity within the regime’s economic framework. It is all a matter of whether enough goods can be produced for export and producers can maintain a steady supply. And this depends on whether prices for exported goods are remunerative and levels of profitability in the Cuban economy improve, which should be easy. International buyers will also be able to determine if the prices for Cuban exports are competitive with respect to those from other countries, assuming the currency exchange rate is correct.

Though neither the MLC stores nor the system governing exports by private entrepreneurs are part of the series of recent currency reform measures, they are both undoubtedly related to them. If the dollar-to-peso exchange rate gradually rises, as is already happening in the informal market, it wil be very difficult for Cubans who do not get dollars from overseas to access hard currency, open bank accounts or obtain debit cards for MLC stores.

On the other hand, exporters that carry out their activities continuously and retain 80% of their foreign exchange earnings as authorized by the regime will receive increasing infusions of hard currency. The regime is already doing this for the chain of stores in the Logistics Business Group of the Ministry of Agriculture (Gelma). The funds will be used to acquire tools and supplies for their MLC stores following the model mentioned above. There is even talk of them selling tractors. Will they manage to get there?

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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.

Cuba is Dedicated to Conquering Columbia

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, 29 January 2021 — It appeared in the weekly Semana. They published a secret dossier, written by the intelligence bodies for Colombian President Iván Duque. This happened after the entry in the publication of the “Gilinski Group.” The sensational content reveals Cuban manipulation and interference in internal political affairs. Semana is a very important Colombian magazine directed by journalist Vicky Dávila.

Colombia is in the sights of “the Cubans.” Naturally, the president of Cuba himself, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has denied it, but the mark is very clear. Why is Havana dedicated to conquering Colombia? For at least three reasons. Because they already rule in Venezuela and the country has been thoroughly looted and destroyed. Cuba needs to replace the sources of oil supply and economic funds. The Island has an absolutely parasitic and unproductive system at the service of the military and doesn’t want to change it.

Second, because it counts on old apparatchiks like Gustavo Petro and Iván Cepeda. It’s no longer necessary to knock down the old structures of the Republic with cannon fire. It’s enough to participate in the elections and win. The Quislings are inside the country, as happened with Chávez and Maduro. And third, because Cuba has always done it and has done it “well.” Fighting bulls charge because they charge. It’s not necessary to find the guilty ones or play psychoanalysis. It’s in their nature. continue reading

Iván Duque will have to decide what to do with the Havana regime. He already knows that Cuban ambassador José Luis Ponce Caraballo is a smiling and skilled intelligence officer trained to penetrate and win friends, as former Cuban intelligence officer Enrique García, exiled in Miami, told me. And besides, he knows that Colombia is a desired target because of its oil production (although it has diminished substantially), and its ability to produce food for the hungry Cuban people.

If he breaks relations with Cuba, “the Cubans” assure sotto voce, they will release their internal pack of dogs, including the ELN, created by them half a century ago. But if he doesn’t, Cuban political operators will find a way for Petro to win the election. “Chávez had less than 5% when we started to operate in 1998. At the end we defeated Henrique Salas Römer by a wide margin,” they say with pride.

If Cuba conquered Venezuela when Fidel was alive and there was some hope that it would improve the quality of life of the Cuban people, today there is almost no one on the island who thinks the same regarding Colombia. All have watched with fear the gradual destruction of the country. The plummeting drop in oil production. Caracas’s inability to produce food or to meet its financial obligations. The blackouts. The sudden exile of almost six million Venezuelans. In short, they have seen in Venezuela what happens when the Cuban model is copied.

What’s the purpose of subjecting the people of Colombia to Venezuelan or Cuban horror? Why should they take the same path if Cubans are rehearsing or studying how to eliminate the Soviet model copied from the USSR in the sixties, when the USSR existed, and when Fidel, Raúl, Che Guevara and a dozen “revolutionaries” more believed the tale of Marxism and imposed an implacable dictatorship? What will they do after destroying Colombia? Will they try the same in Brazil?

Joe Biden administration’s officials in charge of Latin American affairs should ask themselves these questions. Over many years, since Clinton and his successor George W. Bush administrations, they have invested billions of dollars in strengthening Colombia, an effective and sincere ally in the fight against drug trafficking and for the preservation of democracy. Will they allow all that effort to fade away? Will they allow the sacrifices and the deaths to be without a purpose?

One of the symptoms of Third-Worldism is to completely ignore the predecessor’s acts of government. Not everything Trump did was wrong. One of his last decrees was to include Cuba once again among the nations that sponsor terrorism. Presumably, President Obama hastened to eliminate the description of the Cuban state as “terrorist,” thinking that the good intentions of one of the two contenders were enough for the other to change its behavior. He hadn’t realized that fighting bulls are programmed to charge. It’s their nature.

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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.

Dentists, Lawyers, Journalists, in Cuba Everyone Wants to Work for Themselves

Dentists who graduated after 1959 cannot practice privately. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 29 January 2021 — Ana Laura is not her name but telling her story with her real identity would lead to incalculable problems, so better to be cautious. The living room of her house is nothing more than a domestic decoration to camouflage the small dental clinic she has in the next room. Passing the cat, the grandmother, and the family sofa, we emerge into a gleaming room, with a poster promoting good tooth brushing and an armchair with everything she needs to care for patients.

For years, Ana Laura has dedicated herself to providing her services as a dentist in an illegal and private manner, while at the same time continuing her work in a dilapidated state polyclinic and teaching several groups of students in Havana who are studying to become dentists. Her dream is to one day to be able to stop hiding, hang an advertisement at the entrance of her small clinic and “come out of the closet of the forbidden,” she says. Only a true economic opening could allow this excellent professional to practice autonomously.

“I would not be the only beneficiary,” recognizes Ana Laura. “I have two assistants and my husband would also take care of the purchase of supplies, so in this office there would be work for about four people,” the veteran dentist calculates. Until recently, most of her clients were foreigners visiting Cuba who found out about her services through an extensive network of houses rented to tourists, with which she maintains contact. The foreigners take advantage of their stay on the Island for a much cheaper repair than they can get in their countries of origin. But the pandemic has converted her clientele to almost only nationals, and has fueled her desire to be able to legalize the small practice. continue reading

As she obtained her university degree after 1959 and in a “revolutionary university,” Ana Laura is banned from private practice as a dentist. The situation is the same for doctors who graduated after that date, along with journalists, lawyers and a long list of professionals who survive on their bad state salaries amid the frustrations of not being able to start a business based on their vocations. This limitation has filled the streets of Cuba with surgeons who drive taxes, sociologists who mix the drinks in bars, and waiters who once graduated with a degree in chemistry.

Like Ana Laura, thousands of professionals in this country are waiting to be allowed to practice their professions privately. Lawyers who dream of opening their own law firm, architects who aspire to open a firm along with engineers and designers in a nation with a great deficit in real estate. All of them would not only provide much-needed services, but would help to hire a good share of those employees that the ailing state sector cannot absorb.

Recently, Marino Murillo warned that with the monetary adjustments of the “Ordering Task”*, it is likely that many state-owned companies will “end the year with losses.” Currently, in these dysfunctional entities there are “more than 300,000 people employed. And the solution is not unemployment, but nor is it financing inefficient companies for life,” insisted the “czar of reforms in Cuba,” as the foreign press calls him. At least some of these workers would have a better chance of finding a job if restrictions against the pursuit of professional service professions were lifted.

The will for change and progress is not a matter of burning headlines or slogans repeated over and over again. The intention to steer the country in a direction that provides well-being and prosperity for Cubans must be expressed in concrete deeds and actions, not in lengthy speeches, which we are already exhausted by. Decreeing, beforehand and with all the guarantees, that the self-employment sector can be joined by professionals working for themselves, exercising what they spent so many years studying for, this would be a sign.

Can we imagine that the editorial staff of the daily 14ymedio could come out of hiding? Hang a sign at the entrance, sell our newspaper at the newsstands, and hire reporters, photographers, designers and columnists in a transparent and open way? In this editorial team alone we could help more than a dozen Cubans earn a living legally, paying their taxes to contribute to the national coffers, and incidentally do what they like the most: inform, narrate the deep Cuba and report reality.

Legalize, legalize, legalize. Legalizing the professional private sector is essential to prevent tens of thousands of Cubans from being unemployed and unable to support their families. What are they waiting for?

*Translator’s note: The so-called “Ordering Task” (Tarea Ordenamiento) is a series of measures that include ending Cuba’s dual currency system and resetting wages and prices.

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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 Party Reigns in Cuba in the Style of the Medieval Church”

After ‘Civic Ghost’ and ‘Contraindicated’, singer and songwriter David D Omni has just released the album ‘Hierro’, pure ‘hip hop’. (Artist’s file)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana | 24 January 2021 — A decade ago, alternative art in Cuba had a name, Omni Zona Franca, and its heart beat in the Alamar neighborhood in eastern Havana. David Escalona, who calls himself David D Omni, was part of that group of multifaceted artists – musicians, poets, graffiti artists and performers.

After Civic Ghost and Contraindicated, the singer-songwriter just released the pure hip hop album Hierro [Iron], punctuating, again in his style, critical and irreverent lyrics.

Regarding his latest work, David D Omni talks with 14ymedio about the times of La Casa de la Cultura de Alamar and the hard struggle in unofficial musical production, while reflecting on the alternative culture, the political panorama in Cuba and that future that sometimes seems to be approaching and other times slips from the forecasts.

14ymedio: Many of the Omni Zona Franca artists have emigrated. Why are you still living in Cuba?

David D Omni: This is my home and my culture. We have unique values that deserve to be saved. If I stay here it’s because I see a light and also because of a hunch, because I always put my heart first in this type of decision. If someone wants to make an honest living from their work and their talent, obviously this is not the place, and it still seems to me hugely illogical to stay in Cuba doing something other than working on change that fosters the freedom and prosperity that so much we dream about. continue reading

I think it’s a huge narrow-mindedness to put up borders. I have taken pleasure in art, religion, philosophy, science and masonry

14ymedio: In the musical theme Mídanse, [Measure Yourselves] from your new album, you says: “If I want to, I can be an artist or a politician”, mixing two concepts that many strive to separate. How far or close are both in today’s Cuba?

David D Omni: I think putting up borders is extremely narrow-minded.  I have taken pleasure in art, religion, philosophy, science and masonry, I have guarded the bathroom door for someone, I have worked the land, I have experimented with politics, green medicine, and the fact that staying in one element more than in another it is my personal decision, not an obligation. It is hard for me to understand that there is a mental aberration striving to limit human freedom, but it does exist, and if you knock on my door, I will sing a song for you. Politics and art in Cuba, at least in me, become imbued with each other in the same way that nothing is separate in the universe.

14ymedio: In the last two decades, the distribution of audiovisual content and music in Cuba has been significantly transformed. Home studios have sprung up and the packet* reaches everywhere. Do you think there is a saturation of options?

David D Omni: The issue is that anything that happens in the world reaches Cuba decades too late. As long as State Security continues to control what comes out in the packet, as long as independent artists and journalists remain entrenched and quartered in their homes and as long as there is a single party that reigns even above the law, whatever happens in the world, for better or for worse, will continue to be late in reaching us. As Cubans, we would like to have a real problem of excess of options, or the problem of representativeness that takes place in democracies, to give another example.

14ymedio: Guanabacoa, where you live, seems to be a forgotten area of Havana. What’s happening in the independent art scene in one of the oldest neighborhoods in the capital?

David D Omni: Guanabacoa is one of the oldest human settlements in the capital, with its own cultural manifestations that have influenced the network fabric of the nation, putting a mark and a stamp on what it means to be Cuban. The problem is more in being independent than in being an artist, living in a dictatorship.

The theaters, as well as the cinemas, galleries and public spaces belong to the Government, and the few spaces for art that are outside an official institution are under constant scrutiny and penetrated by State Security. Maintaining an open position or creating avant-garde art that proposes and renews reality, as good art or noble science historically does, is to declare war on the Party, which reigns in Cuba in the style of the medieval Church.

What can you expect from a reign where technological advances, like a drone or a satellite antenna, are on the list of enemies of the state, and terms such as “released-controlled chicken” are invented? It seems to me that the consequences of such liberalism have a negative impact on the quality not only of art, but of Cubanness in general, creating a “culture of mediocrity.” How sad, right? It only remains for me to think about these words of [José] Martí: “without freedom, the writer does not write, nor does the speaker speak, nor the legislator meditate; to act with freedom becomes to act with greatness”.

If I start to analyze it coolly, I am risking my youth here and my family’s future, having the ability to do better. I see a change, and I see it as long as I can change myself

14ymedio: There is a defiant and rebellious line in your new album, but also humility, recognizing the fragility of any citizen. Do you hope for a democratic change in Cuba in the short term?

David D Omni: The act of living here reaffirms my hope. If I start to analyze it coolly, I am risking my youth here and my family’s future, having the ability to do better. I see a change, and I see it as long as I can change myself, since one can only give what one has. That is why I speak about fragility and citizen fear in my songs, since, with few exceptions who did suffer the consequences of a direct confrontation with the dictatorship, there is a huge number of Cubans inciting those most vulnerable into doing what they never did, disposing of all their personal frustrations and hatreds on a fragile and long-suffering people.

It is not easy to go out on the street, get beaten and arrested, and then to come home and find your name in the news, turning on the shower and having no water come out, eating a plate of rice with a flour croquette and a glass of water, spending long hours of your life the next day in some human agglomeration under the sun to buy a bottle of oil.

I believe it is pertinent to incite the fight, though that knowledge lives in actions, not in words: inciting from experience inspires, inciting from ignorance exacerbates hatred for hatred. What can be clearly seen is the lack of love and the enormous distance that currently exists between the people and the State. Both what is said on the streets and the follies of the system give evidence of an imminent change.

14ymedio: Chivatón [Big Snitch] is a pretty hard song against the collaborators and informers of the regime. In the Cuba you dream of, what will happen to them?

David D Omni: The life a snitch leads is quite hard. My song is about a collection of true stories assembled over an instrumental one. I believe that envy, lack of self-esteem, mediocrity and authoritarianism are loaded with equal regret on the soul, whether in this Cuba or in the one we dream of.

14ymedio: The health of Cuban hip hop today? Good, with the flu, or in intensive care?

David D Omni: The variety of styles and timbre of hip hop in Cuba is enormous, compared to other countries in the region. It can be said that despite the censorship and the constant war between the Cuban State and this culture, it is inevitable that Cuban rap is one of the most influential in Latin America.

But it is no secret that the Cuban Communist Party (owner of the only Cuban Rap Agency) does not sympathize with this genre, therefore, succeeding in this race in Cuba is not guaranteed at all. And look, I deem doing rap that is not social as a respectable occupation, but doing it in Cuba seems totally lacking in wisdom, since you may, at most, get to sing in some country town or some little national television program.

If what you want is to talk about having a good time, cockiness or romanticism, my advice is to start doing reggaeton now, to earn money and succeed as real artists. At some point, the most respectable Cuban rappers realize they have mistaken the musical genre or the country, if they intend to make a living from music.

In my case, I keep one of the ‘hip hop’ commandments, which is to maintain a business separate from your music. This way, I avoid having to compromise the content of my work

In my case, I keep one of the commandments of hip hop, which is to have a business apart from your music. This way, I avoid having to compromise the content of my work, which I do for sheer pleasure and in total freedom.

14ymedio: Last November 27th, a group of artists planted themselves in front of the Ministry of Culture. What repercussions do you think this act has brought and will bring?

David D Omni: The 27N effect is irreversible. I declare myself an accomplice and in total harmony with the San Isidro Movement, Instar [Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism] and all the intellectuals and groups that met on that day. The truth is that they managed to sensitize a group in society much larger than the one that existed before in open disagreement with power. The subsequent reprisals orchestrated by the government did not go further than just pretending that nothing had happened. A possibility opened up and experience was gained, and, like the song says: “that’s nuthin’, get ready for what’s to come”.

*Translator’s note: El Paquete (Semanal) The (Weekly) Packet: A one terabyte collection of digital material distributed since around 2008 throughout the underground market in Cuba as a substitute for broadband Internet.  In 2015 it was the primary source of entertainment for millions of Cubans.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Havana Hopes Biden Will Reverse US Policy Toward Cuba ‘Rapidly’

Raúl Castro and Barack Obama, during the latter’s visit to Havana in 2016. (Fotograma)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 21 January 2021 — The Cuban government hopes that the new US president, Joe Biden, will “quickly” reverse the hard line towards the island of his predecessor, Donald Trump, and resume the thaw initiated by Barack Obama in 2014. This was stated to Reuters by Carlos Fernández de Cossío, the top Cuban Foreign Ministry official in charge of relations with the country to the north.

“Everything could be reversed in the short term if that is the will of the government,” he says in an interview with the British agency. Havana is open to dialogue, he says, but acknowledges that it will not make “political concessions” in exchange for a relaxation of sanctions.

Fernández de Cossío points out that Biden’s promises suggest he will restart the process where he left off when he was Obama’s vice-president. continue reading

Fernández de Cossío is also optimistic that Biden’s team will include officials with experience in relations with Cuba, “who would not be swayed by simplified narratives…This team has more experience than any other in the last 60 years,” he said.

The last measure against the Island’s regime by the Trump administration came just five days before leaving office, with the sanctions imposed on the Cuban Ministry of the Interior and its head, General Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas, for “serious human rights abuses.”

Earlier that same week, the US included Cuba in the list of countries sponsoring terrorism; it had been removed from the list in 2015 during the Obama Administration.

Last May, Washington included the island in the list of countries that “do not fully cooperate” with US anti-terrorism efforts, and, among other sanctions, banned the sending of remittances to Cuba through companies controlled by the Cuban Armed Forces, and included in its black list companies “controlled” by the military, such as Gaesa, Fincimex and Kave Coffee.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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Cuban Charcoal Makers in Las Tunas Get a Wage Increase After Protests

The charcoal makers decided to return to work this Tuesday but warned that they are watching to make sure that all the agreements are kept. (Trabajadores)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 26 January 2021 — The workers of the Integral Agropecuaria de Las Tunas have won the fight with the directors of that state entity after the tensions of the last days. According to the Martí Noticias newsite, the authorities gave in to the demands of the coal workers who had gone on strike due to the low wages they received in January.

According to the president of the Missionary Church of Cuba, Yoel Demetrio, speaking to Martí Noticias, this Monday morning several directors of the Company visited the charcoal makers and presented them with an offer to ease tensions and get them to return to work.

“They showed up right there in the coal shed where they work, which is the place where they were protesting, and they showed up every morning and sat there waiting for a response. They brought the charcoal makers 1,000 pesos on loan with payment plans, a change of clothes, also a pair of shoes, as well as a file and a mocha,” Demetrio explained. continue reading

The pastor explains that “they prepared conditions” for them to return to their jobs and they guaranteed that as of next February 10 they would receive “the basic salary” which is 2,100 pesos in national currency. The directors also pointed out that in the case of “overproduction” they would be paid “extra.”

Regarding the payment that is defined as “exports,” the officials reported that at the moment the amount of charcoal that is being sent abroad is low because of the Covid-19 pandemic. After the meeting, the charcoal makers decided to return to work this Tuesday, but warned that they are watching to make sure that all the agreements are kept, according to the apostolic pastor.

“The case cannot be closed yet, but that they gave in, they gave in, and that they are afraid, they are afraid,” said Demetrio.

The charcoal makers began the strike on January 19 after having received just 113 pesos this month, to which should be added the advance of 1,000 pesos received in December. The sum of both amounts is just over half the minimum wage announced by the Government for 2021: 1,910 pesos for 40 hours and 2,100 pesos for 44.

In addition, they did not receive the stipend that they usually receive for the benefits of a sector considered strategic by the Government, which from 2005 to 2019 (the last year for which there is consolidated data) has exported more than 266,100 tons of the product, bringing about 100 million dollars to State coffers, about 700 million of which was in 2019.

Despite the fact that many of them received pressure and threats from the authorities and State Security to abandon the protest, they maintained their demands.

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Cuban Court Sentences Three Members of Clandestinos From 1 to 15 Years in Prison

Rodríguez Baró received a 15-year sentence of deprivation of liberty, Prieto Tamayo was given nine years, and Pérez García one year. (Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 26 January 2021 — The Provincial People’s Court of Havana announced on Tuesday the sentence of the three accused of belonging to the Clandestinos group after the trial that took place on December 21. The defendants received sentences of between one and 15 years in prison.

Pánter Rodríguez Baró (43 years old), Yoel Prieto Tamayo (29 years old) and Jorge Ernesto Pérez García (43 years old) were charged with crimes of “defamation of institutions and organizations and of heroes and martyrs of a continuing nature” and “damages to cultural heritage,”,for having covered busts of José Martí in the capital and in Santiago de Cuba with pig blood.

Rodríguez Baró received a 15-year sentence of deprivation of liberty, Prieto Tamayo was given nine, and Pérez García was sentenced to one year. Unlike Rodríguez Baró, who the Prosecutor’s Office had requested 12 years in prison, the remaining defendants received less time behind bars than was initially proposed by the prosecution. continue reading

The court reported that the defendants, “reached a common agreement to discredit the image of José Martí,” and bought six rocks of cocaine “with part of the money received by a Cuban citizen residing in the United States.” They later consumed the drug to carry out “criminal acts.”

As described in the press release, “taking advantage of the darkness of the night and the shortage of people in the streets,” the defendants “in the early morning of January 1, 2020, began to spill pig’s blood on the many busts and banners of our National Hero and other heroes of the Revolution that were placed on public roads. “

Among the damaged works “was the bust of José Martí located outside the offices of Bohemia magazine, declared cultural heritage of the Cuban nation,” the statement details.

It was also reported that the actions were recorded with Pérez García’s mobile phone. The material was “forwarded to their US-resident links,” who posted it on social media and other digital platforms.

The note ended by recalling that those sanctioned and the Prosecutor’s Office “have the right to file an appeal.”

According to the testimony of relatives collected by 14ymedio, Rodríguez Baró acknowledged having committed the acts, while the other two defendants, Yoel and Jorge Ernesto, said they had acted at the request of Pánter, “without receiving any benefit.”

“My son Pánter acted for ideological motivations and is unjustly imprisoned in Detachment 47 of the Combinado del Este prison, reserved for the dangerous and fugitives. My son is nothing of the kind and must be released,” said Esther Baró Carrillo, mother of the main accused, speaking to this newspaper.

The supposed images of the monuments covered in red, accompanied by hooded men like those that appear in the Spanish series La casa de papel , came to light at the beginning of the year and were immediately the subject of an intense campaign of support by some activists in exile. Days later, the authorities announced that they had arrested four people implicated in the events.

The group had said that the blood on Martí represented the suffering of the Cuban people and their disgust with “the dictatorship.” Another of the actions to which the Clandestinos were called was to paint messages against the Government in all provinces, cities and towns, or to do the same with the doors of the houses of the regime’s “informers.”

The group took their name from the film Clandestinos, by the director Fernando Pérez.

The group’s arrest was accompanied by a smear campaign that accused them of being mercenaries paid by the Cuban artist living in Miami, Ana Olema Hernández Matamoros.

The Cuban authorities showed videos on Cuban television with the confessions of the alleged perpetrators, as well as photos of alleged money transfers through the Western Union agency, from Ana Olema to Pánter Rodríguez Baró, the main accused.

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In Havana, Around Fifty People Wait in Line to Buy Cars for Sky-High Prices

Outside a used car dealership owned by Cimex on 20th Street in Havana’s Playa district. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, January 18,  2021 — When it opened on Monday morning, the used car dealership on 23rd Street between Third and First avenues in Havana’s Playa district was greeted with a line of about fifty people. They were eagerly waiting on a shipment of cars to be sold for hard currency that were scheduled to arrive that day. Despite sky-high price tags, there is a waiting list to buy them.

“People in line are saying they should be here in a few minutes,” a potential buyer tells 14ymedio. “The list is very detailed because some people want to buy as many as two cars. Everyone is waiting for the shipment to arrive but the real scramble is for the Renault Talisman and the Geely CK,” he explains.

The dealership is owned by Cimex, a subsidiary of the military-run conglomerate Gaesa, which has a monopoly on auto sales in the country. At the moment the only cars available are a few “clunkers,” which the buyers ignore. “Everyone is talking about the new arrivals. That’s why there are two lists, one for each model,” says the man. continue reading

Around fifty customers gather to get on a waiting list to buy cars.

“You can come and go as you like, my brother. I’ve got everybody’s name written down on the list here,” yells a man near the front of the line to another who wants to leave for a few minutes without losing his place.

According to the dealership’s notice board, the cars for sale at the moment are the Chinese-made Geely CK for $32,000 and two models from the French manufacturer Peugeot: a Partner for $63,971 and a 508 for $ 72,000. The coveted Renault, however, is not on the list.

“In this part of the block you can hear the money talking. You can really hear it,” jokes a neighbor as she walks by the car lot.

Cimex had been selling the cars for convertible Cuban peosos but as of February 2020 customers could only buy them with freely convertible foreign currency. Prices for the roughly thirty available models range from 34,000 to 90,000 USD.

The car dealership’s notice board showing prices for new models. (14ymedio)

According to the dealership, the new prices come with a 10% discount. Customers must pay for a car in full using a debit card.

Since the new purchasing process was introduced, customers have complained about mechanical problems that arose after shelling out a huge amount of cash.

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Cuban Taxi Drivers are Going Through a Bad Time

Most taxi drivers work more than 14 hours a day, avoid taking vacations and get behind the wheel even when they’re sick. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Claudia Collazo, Havana, 25 January 2021 – From the moment the yellow car turned the corner, the neighbors knew that there was “a man with money” inside — the driver. But in the last year, the neighborhood taxi drivers have only accumulated debt. The payments to rent the car from the State, the fall in tourism, and the monetary unification which has ended Cuba’s dual currency system, all these circumstances are a knock-down blow to what was an occupation that guaranteed a good standard of living.

“When I go out, I tell my wife not to open the door to anyone because I owe thousands of pesos and, if it’s someone who wants to sell us something, we don’t have enough to buy anything either,” Darío, a 39-year-old from Havana, tells 14ymedio. Dario alternates with a partner driving a modern Peugeot linked to the state company Taxis Cuba.

Until two years ago, Darío and his family spent vacations in hotels in Varadero, they were able to redo their bathroom and kitchen with top-quality materials, they bought a small apartment for their mother-in-law, and even allowed themselves a trip to Russia to see Moscow. All of that, the man remembers today as if they were the stories os someone else’s life. continue reading

“Now all that is impossible,” he laments. “I no longer want to do this job but the way things are, there is no way to find another way to earn a living.” Since those vacations in the most famous spa in Cuba, problems have accumulated. Some nobody could foresee, like the pandemic; but others everyone could see coming for years.

Darío belongs to a clan of taxi drivers. His father and uncle were among the first to take the helm of the Panataxis, a service that emerged with the Pan American Games in Havana in 1991. Those cars were exclusively for foreign customers but with the decriminalization of the dollar, two years later, nationals could also use them by paying in foreign currency.

The first taxi drivers were considered members of an aristocracy and their economic position was enviable. Direct access to tourists, tips, possible gifts, customers who, on their return visits to the island, would bring the drivers things they ordered, and a lot of skill in ‘sneaking’ rides and conveniently hiding the meter kept the money flowing.

With the Raulista reforms promoted at the beginning of the last decade, the authorities shook up the sector. From being state workers with a fixed salary, they went to a more autonomous system. Currently they must pay 625 pesos a day to Taxis Cuba for the rental of vehicles, be it high or low tourist season; in good weather or in the middle of a hurricane. If they do not pay the amount of the lease, the car is taken away.

The taxi drivers then achieved a long-dreamed of feat: being able to take the car home. But the responsibility for any repairs, scrubbing, changing parts or fixing a simple flat tire also fell on their pockets. That, coupled with the fact that they no longer receive subsidized fuel, has significantly undermined their once attractive earnings.

Although the company must meet certain obligations with the drivers, in practice this has not been the case. “Even the existence of reserve cars was projected so that, when there was any damage, the taxi driver could continue working,” recalls Javier, a driver who laments the deterioration of his Chinese-made vehicle for which he can barely find parts.

Parts replacements are largely based on the “cannibalism” of cars that have crashed or have a fault. “In the company’s warehouse you can barely find motor oil and it is not of the required quality,” he says. “Even many Geely-made cars have had their engines blown because they did not use the right lubricant, especially in Havana’s Agency 4,” he says.

In their new circumstances, the solution so that the money earned doesn’t disappear in lease payments and technical issues, the taxi drivers began to dream of achieving a contract with a state company that needed rides for its employees. The most appealing were those that allowed them to comply with the agreed schedule but left them several hours free to provide service to other customers.

“Many drivers weathered the tourism crisis, which began in the middle of last year,” says Alfredo, a worker for one of the taxi agencies, “thanks to the contracts that the Government to give rides to Public Health workers, and with the Stores to deliver purchases made on-line. But now that the ‘reordering’ has begun, things got screwed up.”

When the taxi driver does not have a contract, he earns less, but he can hide part of his personal income to pay less in taxes. With the arrival of Covid-19, airports at half-capacity and measures that restrict mobility, it has become impossible to pay the lease rate without a contract with an entity.

The worst was yet to come. The government authorized an increase in the rates charged by taxi drivers — which have risen between four and six times compared to the previous price — but in a proportion that they consider insufficient to cover the new costs for car maintenance.

In addition, the ordinance put an end to “the party of contracts.” Before the monetary unification and the elimination of the convertible peso (CUC), in the state business sector the CUC was valued at parity with the Cuban peso (CUP), which made it cheap for these entities to have taxis carry their officials and managers. In reality, the non-state exchange rate between the CUC and the CUP was 24 to one, and with the elimination of the CUC the price of this service has multiplied by 24, which makes it a luxury that the state business sector cannot afford.

“The issue is that as these cars were, originally, primarily serving tourism, their prices were already high,” continues Alfredo, “Now the money we earn is less, and to top it off, with the decline in tourism, because of the pandemic, the consequences have worsened.”

And let’s not even talk about labor rights. Most taxi drivers work more than 14 hours a day, avoid taking vacations and get behind the wheel even when they’re sick. Any pause can lead to their cars being taken away. But, the current tough situation has forced many of them to turn in their cars, as they are unable to continue paying the vehicle lease.

In their neighborhoods, those taxi drivers without vehicles no longer receive visits from the informal vendors who with great frequently used to knock on their doors to sell them all kinds of products. And this has meant an end to the abundant family meals in those houses where the silhouette of a yellow car is no longer there.

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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.

Havana’s Alma Mater Bookstore is Flooded With Sewage Waters

A dark liquid comes out of the Alma Mater bookstore, overflowing through the door and reaches the beautiful granite floor at the entrance. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 25 January 2021– A woman with a baby in her arms steps down from the doorway and heads down the sidewalk on tiptoes at the corner of Infanta and San Lázaro in Havana. Without taking her eyes off the ground, the young woman tries to avoid the filth of the sewage waters that have flowed from the interior of the Alma Mater bookstore, which has been closed to the public for weeks because of the foul flood.

The bookstore offers a selection focused on university bibliography, history, philosophy and sociology manuals, while from the building a dark liquid flows out through the door and reaches the beautiful granite paving, with wavy figures, in front of its entrance. Passersby hurry their steps and tighten their masks as they pass.

The scene is not new. The bookstore has suffered several closures over the years due to the deterioration in the drainage system of the apartment building where it is located. The last repair was completed in October last year, but a few months after its reopening, the premises had to close again. continue reading

“You can’t stand here because of the bad smells,” complains a customer of the post office — located several meters from the bookstore – whose line traditionally ran along the covered sidewalk but had to move because of the stench. “You take all this infection home,” laments another customer from a nearby office who has come to buy some stamps.

A “closed” sign can be read on the door of Alma Mater, although its old opening hours are still written above it: Monday to Friday and part-time on Saturdays. In the stained-glass windows, dirty and covered with pieces of brown paper, is a faded poster with the face of José Martí, who curiously has his gaze directed just towards the most flooded area of ​​the portal.

From outside you can hear the sound of sewage dripping into the premises. The leak has destroyed most of the false ceiling and pieces of it are on the ground. However, the bookstore’s Facebook page does not mention its current status, showing only past images from its collection, where books on Fidel Castro and Ernesto Guevara abound.

In the stained-glass windows of Alma Mater, dirty and covered with pieces of brown paper, is a faded poster with the face of José Martí. (14ymedio)

A local employee tells 14ymedio that the warehouse located in the basement is flooded. “Efforts have been made by the workers to get that water out of there, but they have been unsuccessful so far,” laments the worker. “I don’t understand why they don’t come with an engine to extract it, the situation can turn into a serious health problem.”

The residents of the building are desperate. The bad smell is spreading throughout the area and they feel like they are living a “cyclical curse,” with similar breaks from time to time. At the beginning of last year, a neighbor tried to solve a blockage in his apartment by putting a metal bar through the pipes and ended up causing a break that also forced the bookstore to be evacuated. The current break is attributed to the poor condition of the infrastructure and the lack of maintenance of the property, but one never knows in a block with dozens of residents.

Where the battered bookstore is located today was once the famous Quesada Lamps store, a symbol of Havana from the middle of the last century, where appliances and other home decor were offered. The firm had subsidiaries in several Latin American countries and was nationalized after the Revolutionary Triumph.

But beyond its commercial life, the location of this corner made it one of the emblematic points of the Cuban capital, surrounded by businesses and food service options, on the border between the glamorous neighborhood of El Vedado and the popular and bustling Centro Habana. Even the most famous vagabond in Cuban history, the Knight of Paris, frequented the portal that today has become impassable from the plague.

After a long time of neglect, in 2013 the Alma Mater cultural center was inaugurated on the premises, which had an intranet navigation room on the mezzanine and a small room for events and conferences. In its early days, interesting volumes could be found on the bookstore floor, but as time passed ideological excesses and political pamphlets littered its shelves.

The decadence continued its course and the trade began to sell poorly produced handicrafts and clothes with official slogans. And then, again and again, came the floods. Sometimes it forced them to close for a few days, then weeks that turned into months without service to the public. The wreck of the Alma Mater bookstore has been long and harrowing, and the blame should go not only to the sewage leaks.

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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 Cuban Government Announces Electricity Rate Options for the Private Sector

These modifications are carried out “based on the criticism” that the Government received after the new electricity prices. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 23 January 2021 — The authorities have taken a small step back and, in the face of protests from the private sector for discriminating against them in the reduction of electricity prices announced last December, they are offering them several options not to pay so much.

The Minister of Energy and Mines, Liván Arronte Cruz, acknowledged this Thursday, on the national television program The Roundtable, that these modifications are carried out “based on the criticism” they received after the new electricity prices, which were lowered after announcing that they would go up from January 1.

Arronte, who said that the increase in the price of electricity was made “to encourage savings,” assured that “everything that is owed and that can be corrected, it will be done in an effective way” but that if demand is not met, there will be blackouts. continue reading

The deputy minister of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Tatiana Amarán, detailed the options. The first is to pay for all electricity consumption at the rate approved for the residential sector. In the second, that consumption can be paid for the rate that today applies to the state sector, connected to low voltage, while the third option involves a combination of the two previous rates.

This third, she specified, will be applied to common services within multi-family buildings.

Amarán gave as an example some figures to illustrate that with low consumption, both in the first option and in the third, the same would be paid, but as consumption increases, the third variant “will always be more economical for the forms of non-state management that carry out their activity within the home.”

The objective, she said, is “not to charge non-state forms of commerce with a greater increase in the electricity tariff.”

“The best option is the third, but of course, we must bear in mind that whoever has their business outside their home cannot avail themselves of this possibility,” a private sector worker told 14ymedio .

With an experience of more than a decade as an entrepreneur, the young woman ensures that this can also be used for new people who want to pay less. “All they need to do is take out a license and pay for it and they would already benefit from this option,” she commented.

“They did not make many changes, the difference is minimal if we are talking about a business, but yes, this benefits the private sector a little. The best option is the third, comparatively speaking,” said a specialist in the field consulted by this newspaper.

Amarán also announced that the resolution approving these new rates was issued this Friday morning, which is why the electricity companies will not begin contracting until this Saturday.

For his part, Arronte acknowledged that Cuba has “no additional sources at this time” and that electricity is generated “to the same extent that it is demanded by the population and the economy.”

“If consumption increases because the rates do not regulate it and the cost of the generated kilowatt exceeds what is expected in the analyses carried out, depending on fuel prices and the generation levels that are achieved, we could be spending 5,000 million pesos per above 17,800 million foreseen for the subsidies of the tariffs, “he detailed.

The minister recalled that 48% of the fuel used in the country to generate electricity is imported and no less than 95% of the electricity consumed in the country comes from fossil fuels. The other 5% comes from clean energy, far from the minimum 20% set by the 2030 Agenda.

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