14ymedio – Page 318 – Translating Cuba

The Cuban Bishops Ask for a Dialogue Between Those Who Have ‘Differing Opinions’

The message of the bishops was added to several voices who in recent weeks have criticized from within the Catholic Church the distressing situation that is being lived on the island. (IglesiaCubana)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 December 2020 — On Saturday, Cuba’s Catholic bishops published their traditional Christmas message which, this year, includes calls “for dialogue and negotiation between those who have different opinions,” a few words that arrive in the middle of a strong defamation campaign on the part of the government against its critics.

“As pastors we are looking at a tired and overwhelmed people,” warns eleven bishops and Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez, who signed the text. “Material deficiencies, spiritual fatigue, personal, family and national economic insufficiencies that severely affect life in the present and cast a shadow over the future.”

Some problems that “are weighing on the souls of the vast majority of Cubans. The existing economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequences of natural phenomena cause fears and uncertainties within the population,” they itemized. continue reading

According to the signatories, gathered at the Conference of Bishops of Cuba, these difficulties especially strike “the most disadvantaged: pensioners, the unemployed, single mothers, the sick, prisoners and the elderly living alone and in need.”

“In the midst of this situation, in addition to the proposals for a solution provided by the authorities of the country, so many others have been expressed, the result of the genuine love and commitment of Cubans,” some proposals that “must be heard and attended to,” the priests claim.

The message includes a list of the good news that Cubans need to hear, such as that “the burden of getting food becomes a serene sharing of daily bread as a family” and also “that the announced readjustment of the national economy, far from raising the concerns of many, will help everyone to sustain their family with decent work, with sufficient pay and with the ever-necessary social justice.”

Avoiding “violence, confrontation, insult and dismissiveness, to create an atmosphere of social friendship and universal fraternity” is also part of those good news that the population hopes for, along with “intolerance giving way to a healthy plurality, dialogue and negotiation among those who have different opinions and criteria.”

What the bishops long for is that “Cubans not to have to look outside the country for what we should find within; that we don’t have to wait for them to give us from above what we ourselves should and can build from below.” In addition to “ceasing all blockades, external and internal, and giving way to creative initiative, the liberation of productive forces and laws that promote initiative.”

Only in this way will “everyone feel and be able to be the protagonist of their life project and, in this way, the Nation will move towards comprehensive human development,” consider the signatories of the message. The text concludes with a Christmas message for “all Cubans, wherever they are.”

The message of the bishops comes in addition to several voices who in recent weeks have criticized, from within the Catholic Church ,the plight that is being lived on the island. Last November, the Cuban Conference of Religious (Conferencia Cubana de Religiosos y Religiosas, CONCUR) condemned that it was not right what “is happening with the supposed currency exchange, which has become an almost permanent and threatening shadow.”

CONCUR, which brings together the consecrated nuns and priests of the Catholic Church, thus joined with several priests of the island and the diaspora who in recent weeks have raised their voices to blame the Government for the lack of freedoms and food suffered by the country.

The first was the priest Jorge Luis Pérez Soto, parish priest of San Francisco de Paula, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, in Havana, who in October claimed in a homily that the Church should get involved in politics.

A few days later, another priest, Laureano Hernández Sasso, lamented the deafness of Cuban leaders. “Why do we have to beg? Why does President Miguel Díaz-Canel speak and speak and never say anything? Or is it that we have to tell our president that we can’t go on like this?” the priest wrote on his Facebook account.

On November 1 st, it was the Camagueyan priest Alberto Reyes, who spoke of the fear toward the regime and the situation that is being lived on the island. “Cuba is a big jail where, if you misbehave, they put you in a smaller one. And as in a prison, at last, we felt controlled,” he denounced in his social networks.

From Miami, he was supported by the rector of Ermita de la Caridad (the National Sanctuary Hermitage of Charity), Fernando Heria, who called on the bishops of Cuba to speak out against the regime, since Cuban priests “are tired of living under two types of dictatorships: ecclesiastical and government.”

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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Cubanize

The author would like to tell Leopoldo López that hopefully Cubans will ‘Venezuelanize’. (EFE / Miguel Gutiérrez)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 14 December 2020 — In the middle of this week, the prominent Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López said, during a press conference in Bogotá: “What we cannot allow is for Venezuelan society to become Cubanized in the sense that it stops dreaming, of having hope.”

My first reaction was to answer Leopoldo that we Cubans have not stopped dreaming nor have we lost hope. Later I amended the claim clarifying that this is true for “not all of us” and I ended up concluding that there are still some Cubans who dream, who have hope, although ultimately, I did not send the message to the Venezuelan opposition figure.

Until now we could feel happy, proud, that somewhere in the world composers are Cubanizing their music; restaurants, their food; bars, their cocktails; dancers, their movements; and any other manifestation of life where the seal of this identity is appreciated (or imagined) to the pride of our incurable nationalism. continue reading

But that Cubanized can be understood as a despicable qualifier is, at the very least, painful; and Leopoldo López is not the culprit for a powerful reason: everyone who heard him understood what he meant. He didn’t have to explain it.

Already in social networks it is common for some Cubans who live in other countries to denigrate the residents of the island by calling them eunuchs, sheep, pushovers, chickens and other expletives alluding to cowardice.

After the massive parades for May 1, these insults are renewed every year. This also happened after the referendum that approved the Constitution of the Republic and it is the case right now when the so many calls for a social uprising are not productive and instead we see a multiplying of the regime’s repudiation rallies against the nonconformists, along with the acts of “revolutionary reaffirmation.”

The meekness with which a good part of the population accepts price increases, stores in which they cannot pay for things with the currency they earn from their work, the information secrecy, the absence of political rights and the restrictions on economic initiatives, can only be explained in two ways: either the regime is doing the right thing and there are no reasons to speak out against it, or fear is winning the battle.

If I wanted to send any message in response to Leopoldo López, it would be to express my optimism with regards to how close Venezuelans seem to be to shaking off their unpresentable president and beginning a process of national healing. Hopefully soon. Hopefully, contaminated by example, Cubans will Venezuelanize.
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An Unrealistic Peso-Dollar Exchange Rate as Cuba Unifies its Currency

The newly announced date for currency unification is perhaps the latest bequest from the Castros. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Valencia, December 11, 2020 — O.K. So now we know. All the official news media outlets made the big announcement: there will be one single currency for the entire economy, the transition* will begin January 1, 2021, and we know what the official peso-to-dollar exchange rate will be. Postponement is not an option, no doubt about it. What’s done is done.

With this decision the fates of Raul Castro and Miguel Diaz-Canel are forever linked. They have set in motion a process that people have talking about since the summer, though the initial decision was announced way back in 2011.

Henceforth, January 1 will be a day for celebrating more than just the “Triumph of the Revolution.” It is clearly the latest unwanted bequest from Fidel to his brother. After today January 1 will commemorate the triumph of the currency unification. But perhaps we will have to first wait and see if it turns out to be a bust or not. continue reading

Diaz-Canel used the first part of his speech to make it abundantly clear this decision was made with the full backing of the State and the Party, which control the fate of every Cuban. Just in case.

In his historic address he cited the support of the Politburo as well as the Communist Party Central Committee as expressed during the VII Party Congress and later in the “Conceptualization of the [Economic] Model,” which established guidelines for monetary policy, exchange rates, taxation, credit, pricing, salaries and miscellaneous personal income.

He also cited Statutory Guideline #40, which describes the process of monetary and currency unification as a decisive step in the country’s financial transition process. As though that were not enough, the” 2020 Economic and Social Strategy” document describes it as a key structural component of the entire Cuban economy.

It seems that, after almost a decade, the process of putting together the necessary legal and statutory framework is finally complete. Making the announcement in this way rather than during an appearance on the Roundtable TV program is an indication that, this time around, the authorities are playing for keeps. It’s the last chance they have to set the economy on the right course.

There is no point in criticizing the decision to move forward with monetary and exchange reform. The time has come to do away with the convertible peso, the CUC — an absurd, fictitious currency created by Fidel Castro — and restore the old Cuban peso to its role as the country’s sole legal tender. The decision makes sense. It points the country in the right direction, towards financial sovereignty, and should have been done years ago.

What the regime will not do, however, is renounce, monitor or analyze any individual economic policy decisions that have caused distortions in the economy and worsened the standard of living for all Cubans.

The first thing to note is that the new exchange rate of twenty-four Cuban pesos to the dollar is not the most appropriate. Nor does it represent a “significant devaluation” as the chairman of the Economic Policy Commission, Marino Murillo, said during a recent Roundtable interview. Murillo lied.

This type of rate is designed specifically for the business sector which, until now, was using a one-to-one exchange rate to the dollar for accounting purposes. But the leap of faith from the CUC to the CUP for consumer purchases is the first indication that this rate of exchange will not last much longer. Soon Cubans will be trading the CUP for the same rate that once applied to the now doomed CUC.

The policy authorities have adopted is an attempt to correct the serious shortcomings of the state-owned business sector. There are doubts, however, that it will benefit Cubans more broadly. The artificial status quo it creates for the CUP will not last very long. We will have to wait and see what the informal markets have to say. They are the ones to determine what the real value of the Cuban peso will be relative to other currencies. Will twenty-four Cuban pesos really be equivalent to one dollar?

The official communiqué now makes it clear that authorities’ commitment is to business and that they are disinterested in using the CUP exchange rate to benefit the population: “The monetary transition also creates conditions so that the business system can react positively by increasing benefits for all its workers and for society.”

The priorities behind this decision are obvious: to provide oxygen to the state-run business sector in hopes it will export more and import less. But it is yet to be seen if the planned devaluation of the currency, which is already steeply discounted, actually takes place. In reality, the collective interests of the Cuban people must once again take a back seat. Correcting the course of this economy with interventionist measures and communist fiscal control is a serious mistake.

Diaz-Canel acknowledges that the monetary transition “is not without risk” and justifies it, as usual, by blaming it on the “blockade” [i.e., the US embargo]. The Cuban economy, he points out, is not having one of its best moments and the current international outlook is not bright. He acknowledges that the threat of inflation is just around the corner and that this new system of monetary exchange will not solve the consumer goods shortages the economy is suffering. He also fails to offer any solution that might raise production levels.

The government communiqué states, “As always, we are open to public comment. Steps have been taken that allow us to make sure no one will be left helpless. People will not be subject to shock therapies in socialist Cuba.” Perhaps this is because the authorities fear the worst or don’t want to acknowledge it. Diaz-Canel must know that helplessness could result from setting the CUP exchange rate at a level that would not benefit, for example, people who rely on remittances from overseas or even foreign visitors at the country’s privately owned restaurants.

The communist leadership acknowledges that the transition “is not a magic bullet that will solve all the problems of the economy.” They are right to show caution because this is likely not the end of the story. In the coming months Cubans will see devaluations in the rate of exchange. A value of twenty-four pesos to one dollar is not realistic or sustainable and cannot be justified from any rational economic standpoint.

With the transition set to take effect, will the significance of January 1 be forever changed. Is this perhaps the bequest of Raúl Castro?

*Translator’s note: Cuban officials have been using the clumsy term tarea ordenamiento, translatable as “statutory task,” to refer to what is more widely known as “monetary unification.” Both terms refer to the consolidation of Cuba’s two currencies into a single currency. For purposes of clarity, these terms have been translated here as “currency unification,” “monetary unification” or simply “transition.”

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Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the blog Cubaeconomía and is reproduced here with permission of the author.

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The Strength of the Voice

The podcast Ventana 14 is celebrating its second birthday.

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 13 December 2020 — “Bitter and always necessary,” I repeat every morning from Monday to Friday while stirring a coffee that on occasion is strong, often watery, and other times simply hot water passed through beans already used many times over. It matters little, the sip is just a pretext, but the fuel is the news about the Cuban reality. It’s called “cafecito informativo” and is two years old.

In December of 2018 access to internet services took its first steps on Cuban cellphones. Although it took several months for the connection to stabilize in the neighborhood where I live, the direct broadcasts via Facebook or Periscope were not economically sustainable, given the elevated cost of each kilobyte sent, nor could I enjoy a smooth flow, thanks to the continuous cuts.

And then I returned to my voice, the original one. Only the sound that came out of my mouth would be the protagonist, the other could be recreated: a place, a freshly poured cup of coffee, a close conversation between someone who lives on this island and another who is far away or around the corner. Thus was born the podcast Ventana 14 – 14^th Window – which today is blowing out the candles for its second anniversary. Broadcast on several platforms, the program has opened, for me, a different audience than the one I have through my blog Generation Y, or when I publish in the newspaper 14ymedio.

Although in two years there has been no lack of friends and listeners who have asked me to open a video channel through YouTube or Facebook to comment on the news, I have preferred to remain only in sound for obvious reasons in a country with such little connectivity to the web: I want to reach people who live in the heart of Cuba, either directly through the audio – with about three megabytes – which I send out Monday to Friday, or forwarded as so many users do through Bluetooth or wifi.

My goal is to catch the ear of the farmer in a field in Alquízar, or the self-employed who tries to keep his business open despite so many obstacles in Sancti Spíritus, or the housewife in the Havana neighborhood of Cayo Hueso who is torn between eating the bread she got on the rationbook, or saving it until the next day for her child to take to school for a snack. These are my main audience.

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Price Controls Put an End to Sandwiches, Pizzas and Soft Drinks in Artemisa

Price controls have dragged down profits in a sector hard hit by Covid-19 restrictions.

14ymedio, Bertha K. Guillén, Candalaria, December 10, 2020 — After months-long closures due to the pandemic, private businesses in Artemisa province have a new problem: the imposition of price controls on many of the foods they offer in their cafes. Provincial authorities have ordered price caps on items such as pizzas, sandwiches and peanut nougat.

“In this cafe the only thing we are selling is fruit juice because we can’t afford ham for the sandwiches,” explains Abelardo, a private sector worker who, until the beginning of this year, had a thriving business in San Cristobal, with an expansive menu offering popular takeout boxes.

It was rare for us not to have steak, sautéed pork and chicken cubes, which we served with rice, a green vegetable and a salad,” recalls Abelardo. “We can’t find those products now at the market so now we aren’t selling boxes anymore.” He reworked the menu to deal with the changed circumstances and started offering sandwiches and pizzas instead. But the new items did not last long. continue reading

“The government told us we couldn’t charge more than 10 pesos for the breads that we normally served with omelet, croquettes, ham or steak,” says Abelardo. “Our hands are tied. At that price we can’t turn a profit so it isn’t worth it for us to sell them,” he explains.

Price controls are dragging down profits in a sector that has been hard hit by Covid-19 restrictions. Last May authorities reported that, throughout the country, the number of private sector workers who had let their licenses lapse* had risen in a few weeks from 139,000 to 222,723.

In mid-April 22% of self-employed workers had lost their source of income. One month later the figure had climbed to 35% of private employment license holders in pre-pandemic Cuba. The situation is most serious in small towns where, in addition to new limitations, cafes and restaurants owners must cope with supply shortages.

In the Candelaria neighborhood Tamara manages a private cafe that teeters between being shut down permanently or kept afloat by selling fruit juice until the situation improves. The price of her popular peanut nougat has been capped at 2 CUP while the ingredient costs to make it are at least 6 CUP.

Pizza, another item in high demand, is one of the products subject to price controls. Ham cannot be sold for more than 15 pesos, less the than price cafe owners say they need to charge to recover their investment costs. For example, a sack of flour comes to around 2,200 CUP, a pound of cheese goes for more than 50 and ham costs 65 at farmers markets.

The little capital most of these entrepreneurs have will not cover the cost of raw materials because the months-long closure of their businesses left them with practically no savings. The hope that they could recoup some of their losses led many to reopen as soon as the province began easing the strictest Covid-19 restrictions.

Prices for items such as the so-called frozen [in English] a light ice cream in high demand, have also been capped in Artemisa. It cannot be sold for more than 2 CUP, less than half of the 5 CUP price it normally goes for in privately owned businesses. To discourage business owners from ignoring price controls, authorities have stepped up inspections.

Inspectors not only check to ensure that the businesses are not charging more than is legally allowed, but also to verify that raw materials have been purchased through the network of state-run hard currency stores (MLC), including those that opened last July to sell food and personal hygiene products.

The measure has led to the disappearance of foreign and domestic soft drinks from privately owned cafes, which can only acquire them at stores which price goods exclusively in hard currency. As such, price controls make it impossible fo sell them for a profit.

There is never any rest for the private sector. Though many business owners have made desperate pleas for a rescue package that includes preferential credit, no such economic lifeline has been provided. The government has only offered them jobs in the public sector, postponement of their license fees and the option to temporarily suspend their work permits.

*Translator’s note: Cubans with self-employment licenses pay monthly fees simply to have the license, plus additional taxes on their earnings.

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January 1st is the Date Set for Currency Unification in Cuba

For months signs have appeared in many private businesses and taxis informing customers that convertible pesos (CUCs) are not accepted. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, December 10, 2020 — One of the most frequently asked questions in Cuba in recent years has finally been answered: currency unification will begin January 1, 2021, putting an end to the Cuban convertible peso* (CUC). The date was announced by President Miguel Díaz-Canel during a special broadcast on national television.

It will be done “at an exchange rate of twenty-four Cuban pesos* to the the dollar,” said the president, who was seated next to the leader of the Communist Party, Raul Castro, who did not utter a word. The transition “is not by itself a magic bullet,” warned Díaz-Canel, who described it as one of the most complex reforms “the country has implemented.”

Speculation about when “Day Zero” will take place had been growing in recent weeks. Knowing the exact date had become important in determining the costs of many things, from the price of goods in the informal market to the price of real estate. As a result, many people have tried to pierce through the veil of official secrecy to figure out the exact timing of the Cuban convertible peso’s demise. continue reading

Cuba’s dual currency system took effect on August 13, 1993 during the most critical phase of the Special Period. (14ymedio)

For months private businesses and independent taxi drivers have displayed signs informing customers they do not accept CUCs. Increasingly, black market transactions are done in Cuban pesos (CUP) or dollars, whose growing presence on the island is a response to anxiety over impending currency unification.

Last October, Marino Murillo Jorge, head of the Commission for the Implementation of Legal Statutes and known as the island’s “reform czar,” indicated that the government would provide temporary subsidies to some state enterprises that undergo financial losses. The move is an effort to stave off unemployment and guarantee production of basic goods.

Until now, the varying exchange rates* between the two currencies have made it difficult to determine the actual value of state-owned companies. Experts believe that the reform will show that a large number of businesses that now appear to be solvent are actually in the red.

Widespread circulation of convertible peso bills, popularly known as chavitos, began in Cuba in 2004. The currency was intended to be a substitute for the dollar, which had burst upon in the island’s economic scene after its possession was decriminalized in 1993.

In those years the government set the value of the CUC to the CUP at one to one for state owned enterprises while the rate for individuals was one to twenty-five, which distorted the national economy.

The existence of two currencies created a marked disparity between those who had access to hard currency in the form of CUCs and those who had to rely on the less valuable CUP. This was especially notable since state workers were paid in CUPs, which could not be used in hard currency stores, known as shoppings, which only accepted CUCs.

In an attempt to advance the unification process, in 2014 stores were authorized to accept both currencies. But the chasm between those who relied on a salary and those who were receiving remittances from overseas, or who had some other form of acquiring hard currency, remained.

*Translator’s note: The relationship between Cuba’s two currencies, and the related exchange rate relative to the dollar and other foreign currencies, has long been a ’slippery’ concept. The Cuban convertible peso (CUC) has been nominally equal to one US dollar, although CUCs are not actually convertible to any world currency and it is illegal to take them out of the country. Meanwhile, 24 or 25 Cuban pesos (CUP) are the equivalent of one CUC. The recent introduction of State stores that only accept foreign currencies (abbreviated MLC), which must first be loaded onto a magnetic card at State banks, has complicated the picture still further, and recently all the exchange rates have fluctuated.

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Cuba Courts Foreign Capital but Investors Aren’t Interested

Earnings on foreign investment have totaled 1.91 billion dollars out of a projected 12.5 billion, only 9.5% of what the government had forecast.

14ymedio, Havana, December 9, 2020 — The official press ran a story in which it made passing reference to one of the most significant changes in the government’s economic policy of the last few years: the end of the requirement that the state be a majority or equal shareholder in joint venture projects. It was announced in a brief paragraph at the end of an article on the 2021 Business Opportunities Portfolio to explain what could be a big step towards privatization of foreign investments.

By contrast, the ruling party opted for a splashy headline: “More than 500 foreign investment projects in Cuba” The figure is correct but it tells only half the story. Though presented as a great triumph, the number actually falls far short of projections made in 2014 when the foreign investment law was passed.

“From November of last year to November of this year thirty-four new businesses were approved… for a total of 1.885 billion dollars,” reported the minister of Foreign Commerce and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca. These were mainly in food production, tourism, construction, mining, energy and manufacturing. “We do not feel these are the results we need,” he admitted without specifying exactly which “approved” projects have been completed. continue reading

When the Mariel Special Development Zone opened at the end of 2013, the government forecast it would generate at least 2.5 billion dollars annually and a total of 12.5 billion in its first five years. But according to official statistics, at the end of the first five-year period, only a total of 1.19 billion dollars had been collected, 9.5% of what had been projected.

In an attempt, so far unsuccessful, to attract the attention of foreign investors, Malmierca presented on Tuesday a traditional portfolio of offerings at the 2020 Cuban Business Forum. This year’s selection included 503 projects worth a total of 12 billion dollars. The event, which this year was virtual, ended on Thursday.

When the new measure was unveiled, it became clear that the government was taking a step back and allowing foreign companies to be majority stakeholders in businesses such as tourism, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and retail. The minister admitted that the government’s lifting of previous restrictions was intended to be part of a series of “general adjustments to provide more flexibility.”

The government still requires “majority participation by the Cuban state with respect to extraction of natural resources and the provision of public services.”

This was not the only surprising “flexibilization” the minister announced. He also said that the Government now promotes “the participation of investment funds,” a financial instrument heretofore demonized by the ruling party. He added that companies who supply all of a project’s investment capital can set up business in technology and science parks like one that already exists in Havana.

Additionally, there will be a small, unspecified investment opportunities for Cubans living abroad, provided they are willing to settle for a small slice of the pie. As Malmierca pointed out, these will be “small-size projects” to attract investment from small and medium-sized companies” and “from Cubans living abroad.”

The minister’s statements reflect a desire to improve liquidity and introduce reforms in order to encourage foreign companies to enter the Cuban market. They were made at an event focused exclusively on foreign trade. There are no similar investment opportunities for Cubans living on the island, who remain divorced from the macroeconomy of their own country.

“What we have here is, without a doubt, probably one of the most significant structural changes to the Cuban economy, especially in that it precludes Cubans themselves from participating in a process over which the regime wants to retain control,” writes Cuban-based economist Elías Amor Bravo in a post published on Wednesday entitled “Has the privatization of the Cuban economy begun yet?”

Amor Bravo believes the annual Foreign Trade and Investment event calls attention to claims that the U.S. embargo is damaging the nation’s economy. “One way or another, this hubbub of international activity might have something to do with that situation, which the Cuban regime never tires of denouncing any chance it gets. If there really were an economic blockade [as the Cuban government calls the US embargo], the number of these projects would not be increasing year after year,” he says.

From this Amor Bravo draws two conclusions. First, Cuba’s means of production is for sale, “but only to foreigners, who will take over as majority stakeholders.” Second, Cubans will continue being poor and, even worse, “will watch as the ruling communist political class sells off the nation’s assets, which they used to tell us were collective, to foreigners.”

In other words, according to Elias Amor Bravo “the Castro’s piñata party has already started [but] Cuban’s aren’t anywhere near the piñata.”

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‘I Can Destroy Your Life With One Stroke of the Pen,’ the Cuban State Security Official Told Me

The author with Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. (Clive Rudd Fernández)

14ymedio, Clive Rudd Fernández, Miami, 10 December 2020 — I just got back to Florida after a five-day trip to Cuba. It had been about five years since I went, but a series of factors came together that led me to opt for Havana, and not the Bahamas or Cancun.

The most important of all was my mother. At 82, you never know when the last time you see her will be. The second factor was a chain of events that began with the rebellion of the San Isidro Movement for the unjust imprisonment of Denis Solís, to which we added the decision of the writer Carlos Manuel Álvarez and the artist Tania Bruguera to leave the comfort of their homes, with their security and full freedoms outside of Cuba, to risk their existence in the steady increase of the repression. I had no way out but to go there.

I arrived in Cuba with my wife on Tuesday, December 2, very early and two hours later we were at my mother’s, who lives in El Vedado. The images of the street corners and places that marked my life sped past me all the way. The architecture and the streets remain the same as 25 years ago. As if they could not stand up to one more hole. As if the houses had given up painting like an old woman who hates rouge. continue reading

But there was something new. One of the national pastimes, standing in line, is experiencing a boom like never before. Not only that, there are also more, and worse, reasons to do it. It is as if the value of Cubans’ time has been devalued like an old and discarded currency.

There are crowds and long lines to get some laundry detergent or a piece of chicken. And this in the midst of a pandemic that the Government has used to strengthen its control over citizens. Over some more than others.

I spent a few days talking with my mother and arguing with my wife about the best time to visit the people who were juggling their days for us. We agreed that, knowing the reactions of the Government, we would leave a possible conversation (which we had not yet arranged) with Tania Bruguera, for the last days of our stay.

But in Cuba planning something is impossible, especially if the people you want to meet are under constant harassment. For example, Tania was arrested in the middle of the street by State Security and we didn’t hear from her again.

The opportunity came when a friend of the family invited us to a session with a troubadour we love very much, coincidentally a few blocks from San Isidro, so we decided to stop by the house where everything had started, at Damas 955.

There was not a single police patrol there. Inside the house there was light and several people talking, and we asked them about Luisma’s [Otero Alcántara] health.

One of the women in the room asked me, half-jokingly half-seriously, if Cuban President Diaz-Canel had sent me. I was still laughing when, from the center of the poorly lit street, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara appeared and, without ever having seen us in his life and without asking any kind of questions, extended his hand to us.

– Welcome to San Isidro.

I grabbed his hand and used it as a handle to give him a big hug and say closely:

– “You are not alone. Cuba is with you!”

Luis Manuel showed us the still fresh evidence of the acid that had been thrown through the roof and the shattered door that State Security had crushed a few days ago with the intention of creating terror and confusion. He also told us that the State had installed multiple surveillance cameras.

After a short visit, we said our goodbyes and went to listen to our friend who, with his guitar, awoke with the memories of a Cuba that does not fade but exists only in memory.

When I got home, my mother greeted me with, “I have bad news. The police were here.”

As she had not opened the door, she did not receive a summons, but the police officer made it clear that I should be at the Zapata y C station the next day for a “police interview.”

We initially decided not to go. “How are we going to surrender so easily and voluntarily to the police without an official summons?” said my wife, with good reason.

But after 10:00 AM we learned why there was no option but to go.

Captain Radames telephoned the house to ask how was it possible that we were not at the station yet, and he let it be understood that, although we would be traveling soon, my mother was staying in Cuba. Faced with this veiled threat, it became clear to us that we had to go.

Four people were waiting for us: Captain Radamés, one whom they called the politician and who never gave his name, and two women who said they were from the Health department.

My wife had never been in a police station, but her father was interrogated and harassed years ago by State Security, so she was very tense. I, for my part, was ready for anything.

They informed us that the PCR test for Covid-19 that we were given when entering the country was negative, but that when we left home we were committing the crime of propagation of epidemics that could lead to a penalty of deprivation of liberty for three months to one year. That was not what I expected. One year in jail for leaving home when my test was negative? But the conversation continued in another direction. The visit we made seemed to matter more than the pandemic.

After half an hour of discussions, including an epidemiology debate in which the nurse seemed more like a jailer than someone interested in her profession, the captain asked the “health workers” to leave the office and leave us alone with the politicals.

“We are aware that you went to visit Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara,” he snapped, as if he had been waiting for that moment to display his power.

I said to him: “We are going to shorten the time, because you know that I have no legal representation here, much less any rights. Tell us what you want to do.”

The policeman interrupted to tell us that, this time, we were going to leave with a fine. “But know that we are already on to you, and if you take one wrong step we will apply the full force of the law,” he added.

We left the station shit-scared, knowing that with the arbitrariness of a country where the law is applied at the whim of a few and in an expeditious manner, our five-day vacation could be transformed into the hell of a Cuban jail.

We spent the next two days without leaving the house, terrified, and with the paranoia of seeing police everywhere.

On Monday at 4:00 am the alarm went off and it was time to leave. The flight was at 8:00 am, but first we had to go through immigration.

I was reaching that moment when the body and mind are so fatigued with fear that you begin to feel immune to it. You start to laugh nervously at everything and it is enough for someone to look at you for more than 30 seconds for you to spontaneously curse him out.

“This is over. Not one more fear. Fear is a natural human reaction, but courage is a decision. Today, the two of us are going to make that decision and we will not let these people have power over us,” my wife said to me.

She got through immigration in less than three minutes. They told me that my passport needed further review, to step aside and let other passengers go through.

An hour passed and I began to see how uniformed officials from the Ministry of the Interior went from one place to another with my passport. First a major, then one without a uniform, and finally a colonel.

Flight time was approaching and there were no signs that my issue would be resolved with a happy ending, so I prepared myself for the worst. I thought: “I hope Liliet gets on the plane. My only protection is that she calls the media and denounces my arbitrary detention on the social networks.”

Finally, the colonel from State Security calls me to an interrogation room where the politician I met at the Zapata y C station was also there. At this point I was prepared for anything.

– What did you come to do in Cuba? the colonel asked me.

– I came to see my mother, I replied.

– We are going to stop this farce, we know that you came to meet Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, the interrogator rebuked me.

– There is no farce. I came to see my mother, but I had the tremendous luck to meet Luis Manuel, whom I admire a lot for the fight he has embarked on.

As the interrogation progressed, during which they asked me about my links with the news site Martí Noticias – where I have not worked for more than two years – and about my relationships with Eliécer Ávila and with other members of the San Isidro group – whom I have not I had the honor to meet – I realized that fear no longer existed. I began to feel a great inner peace and enough serenity to disagree with whatever empty argument they pulled out of their arsenal.

For me it was something unexpected, how I went from a paralyzing panic to feeling myself controlling the interrogation and all the arguments of the issues we addressed.

Finally, he told me that I was not going to convince him, but to be very careful, that with one stroke of the pen he could destroy my life. The interrogation ended when I told him that I already knew that, that we, too, have pens and that they have more impact than they imagine.

After that they released me and I went to wait for the boarding of a totally paralyzed flight that they did not allow to leave until noon.

Once we were in the air, Liliet told me that she had raised the alarm on social networks about their holding me and that she had also been interrogated for half an hour.

Leaning back against the seat, I tried in vain to doze. I felt very tired, but unable to sleep. In the midst of all the images that ran through my head about the interrogation I had a feeling of joy, something strange, amongst so much filth.

I think that when I lost all fear and told the interrogator everything I thought to his face, without nuance or concealment, I felt free in Cuba for the first time.

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Wanted by Everyone, Caught by Few, Cuban Rice is Now for Sale in Dollars

According to the text, the national rice for sale has “great acceptance in the national and international market.” (TNC)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 8 December 2020 — Until recently, coffee shops advertised “rice with steak”, “congrí (black beans and rice) and yucca,” “yellow rice with sausage,” and other combinations where the grain reigned, as it does in every Cuban table. But the product, missing from the unrationed market, is now only found on the black market and in dollar stores.

An article published this Monday in the State newspaper Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth) has added salt to the wound of the rice shortage, boasting that in less than 24 hours almost three tons of the domestically produced grain were sold through a virtual store in foreign currency. The page that hosted the text has been showing an error message all day, which suggests that the critics have forced the withdrawal of the article.

The rice harvested at the Empresa Agroindustrial de Granos Sur del Jíbaro, in Sancti Spíritus, was marketed on a portal where people abroad can make purchases for delivery to the island, a channel frequently used by emigrants to help their families with products missing from the network of State stores. continue reading

Orland Linares Morell, general director of one of the largest rice producing companies in the country, explains it to the Communist youth newspaper without hiding his pride. The official considers it an opportunity for Cuban emigrants living abroad “to acquire the grain to be consumed by residents of the national territory.”

According to Linares, the grain that is sold is of the Galano 1967 brand , registered in the Cuban Industrial Property Office, “with great acceptance in the national and international market.” One kilo of the product, sold by state-owned Fruta Selecta, is offered on various digital sites at the cost of $1.78 plus home delivery costs.

In freely convertible currency (MLC) stores that have been selling food and hygiene products since last July, the rice sold is mostly imported and one kilogram of the variant popularly known as “bolito,” which comes from Spain, can exceed $4.50.

With the approach of Christmas and its traditional dinners based on rice, beans, pork, cassava and vegetable salad, the demand for the grain has skyrocketed and it is common for it to be scarce even in foreign exchange stores, despite its high prices. On the black market, the price is also on the rise and is close to 50 Cuban pesos per pound, a figure that may grow as the end of the year approaches.

In his statements this Monday, Linares pointed out that at the moment the supply from Granos del Sur del Jíbaro is only available in Sancti Spíritus, but will be extended to Havana through the Grupo Excelencias y la Industria Alimentaria. It did not specify, however, if there were limitations on the amount that each customer can buy.

The users of these on-line sites selling food are almost entirely people who live outside the Island, since residents in the country do not have credit or debit cards that can be used in digital commerce. For Islanders, the alternative is the TuEnvio.cu store, marked by technological problems, delays in deliveries and a shortage of merchandise.

To address the grain shortage, many private businesses have replaced the commonly offered side dishes of “Moors and Christians” (black beans and white rice) or white rice alone with ones of fried plantains, sautéed vegetables or bread. “We don’t have rice, but I can accompany the pork with some plantain tostones,” explains one of the most popular home delivery services in Havana by phone.

“It is not business to sell dishes with rice because every day it costs more for each pound,” the owner of Sabor a ti, a small business that offers a simple takeout from Monday to Friday for customers in the Cuban capital, tells this newspaper. “All our dishes are now coming out with cassava, taro or plantain but we cannot guarantee the rice.”

At home, the panorama repeats itself. “My family consumes little rice and it is enough for me, but for example at my mother’s house it is impossible, after the first 10 days of the month and she has to go out to look for the product in the street,” Mayelin Ramírez, a resident of the municipality of Plaza de Revolución told 14ymedio.

“Hopefully this offer reaches Havana, my mother is having a hard time without being able to have rice the whole month. She does not have a card in MLC but my brother who lives abroad can buy it without problems,” she explained.

In the stores that sell in MLC, the rice that is sold is mainly imported. (Collage)

Ramírez believes that what is happening is that “other products are also missing” and that is why rice becomes the main dish in many households. “There are no root vegetables, no pasta, every day the options are fewer,” laments the woman, the mother of a little girl. “At home there are only three of us, with my husband and daughter, and I am always inventing. I like to balance our diet, but everyone does not have that possibility because they are very attached to the custom of always eating with rice.”

The unrationed sale of the grain was suspended in the country at the beginning of the pandemic. According to calculations by official sources, of the 700,000 tons necessary to ensure the distribution of rice for the basic market basket sold in the ration stores, this year less than 163,000 tons will be produced in the network of rice companies.

In this context, five pounds of rice per month can be purchased in the rationed market for each consumer at a subsidized price, and an additional two pounds but without the subsidy. This summer, an additional three pounds were added as part of a group of measures announced “to alleviate the impact” of the pandemic on food.

The official version, released by the media, maintains that the ’blockade’ [i.e., the U.S. embargo], the climate and the international crisis that has followed the pandemic, together with the island’s financial problems, are the causes of the shortage.

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Dollar Stores Subsidize Social Justice, Says Cuba’s Economy Minister

The Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil Fernandez, appeared on Thursday’s “Roundtable” State TV program to discuss MLC stores.(Capture)

14ymedio, December 4, 2020 — Economy and Planning Minister Alejandro Gil Fernandez appeared on Thursday’s “Roundtable” State TV program in an effort to calm the growing popular discontent over hard-currency stores. His words, however, had the opposite effect.

The minister’s statements outraged many Cubans, who expressed disagreement on the streets and in social media. Most disconcerting was Gil’s assertion that the decision to open hard-currency stores to sell groceries and cleaning products in July was “a decision of social justice and socialism.”

“An undersupplied market does not attract foreign currency,” the minister explained, referring to what many Cubans describe as “monetary apartheid,” which divides society into those who have dollars to buy products in these stores, known locally as MLCs, and those who must make do with the network of stores selling goods in the Cuban pesos (CUP). continue reading

“The way you acquire [hard currency] is to sell things in freely convertible foreign currency in order to be able to redistribute and guarantee a minimum level of supply in the national currency, which we know is very limited and far from meeting consumer demand,” explained Gil, who alluded to the supposedly “high and medium range” products these stores offer.

Cubans complain, however, that both convertible peso (CUC) stores and foreign currency stores suffer from shortages. In stores whose merchandise can only be purchased with magnetic debit cards denominated in dollars or other foreign currencies, customers must wait in long lines. Popular items are also often sold out by noon or can never be purchased at all.

“I waited in line for three hours at the hard-currency store on the corner of Boyeros and Camaguey [in Havana]. I was part of the second group that was let in, around 10:00 AM,” says a regular customer of one of these stores. “The only things they had in the meat section were Gouda cheese and some very expensive imported shrimp. No meat, no ground beef, no sausage.”

A resident of Santiago de Cuba had a similar experience and told 14ymedio that after spending a month looking for certain grocery items, she went to MLC stores believing she would find them there. “All they had was some very expensive cheese and mortadella, nothing else,” she observed.

After Gil’s appearance on television on Thursday, a young man in Old Havana expressed disagreement with the minister’s statements: “He flat out tells us, ’Oh, you don’t want MLC stores? Well, then no more bread or milk.’ It’s insulting. My God, it’s immoral.”

In response to Gil’s arguments, the Cuban economist Pedro Monreal claimed on social media shortly after the television appearance, “It is not necessary to price consumer goods in hard currency in order to acquire hard currency. That is done at currency exchange bureaus and banks.”

“This is not about having well-stocked CUC stores. I say, let’s start selling for dollars the things we used to sell for CUCs,” said the minister. He justified the policy by saying that government resources “are directed mainly at acquiring medicines, food and cleaning products as well as in supporting the energy sector.”

Among other issues, Gil noted that MLC stores arose due to a concern among the Cuban public over the growth of a “parallel market of Cuban nationals who traveled abroad and brought back products that the country was not able to offer in its CUC stores.”

According to the minister, the public asked that “something be done because hard currency was not being tapped. It was not benefitting the nation’s industry and we were not attracting dollars for the country’s economic and social development.”

But in his analysis, Monreal claims, “Undersupplying CUC/CUP stores is not a good mechanism for currency allocation. It is a deficiency in distribution, not a way to build hard currency reserves.” To the economist, operating MLC stores in a country planning on doing currency unification is a contradiction.

The economist argues that the sale of food and personal hygiene products for hard currency creates “a closed retail loop disconnected from the work efforts of most employees, gradually disincentivizing the work ethic.”

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Denis Solis Transferred to Combinado del Este, Cuba’s Largest Prison

Guards and prisoners in the Combinado del Este prison, in Havana, Cuba, during a visit made by the national and foreign press accredited to the island. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 8 December 2020 — The Cuban rapper Denis Solis González, whose sentence to eight months in prison lit the fuse of the protests of the San Isidro Movement in recent weeks, has been transferred from the Valle Grande prison in Havana to the Combinado del Este Penitentiary Center, according to Vladimir González Scull, the activist’s uncle, speaking to Cubanet.

The family does not know when the transfer occurred and admits that the news has been an unpleasant surprise, since Combinado del Este is a maximum security prison and Solís is serving a sentence for a crime of contempt. However, he is not the only prisoner of conscience in the same situation.

The journalist Héctor Luis Valdés has denounced the situation through his social networks, pointing out that the high security center should house criminals convicted of serious crimes such as murders, rapes, drug trafficking or embezzlement, and serving penalties that exceed eight years of deprivation of freedom.

“The Ministry of Justice, in complicity with the Ministry of the Interior, circumvented any code of ethics when carrying out this sanction. Now they commit another arbitrariness and another breach,” laments Valdés, who adds that, in any case, according to the law Solís’s sentence should be “served in Valle Grande and from there he should go to a forced labor camp.”

Denis Solís, a member of the San Isidro Movement, was arrested on November 9 on the street. From there, he was transferred to the Vivac de Calabazar and later to Valle Grande, where his communications have been very limited, something that his colleagues attribute to an attempt to limit the support he is receiving from abroad and which has led to a protest movement unusual in Cuba.

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The Red Supremacists

The journalist Reinaldo Escobar (back left, purple shirt) as the victim of an act of repudiation in November 2009, Havana. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 8 December 2020 — Although I collect dictionaries, I suffer from an incurable allergy to citing them, so I leave it to the readers to search, where they see fit (the RAE – Real Academia Española – dictionary has not yet incorporated it), the meaning that the concept of “supremacist” has had since the last century.

In any case, I advance that someone may deserve that epithet when they believe that the group of people to which they belong should lead or have control over other groups of people because they think they are better. The word usually has an adjective and the most used is “white” to refer to racists who consider Blacks, Latinos, Jews or humans of any other ethnic origin classified as “non-white” as inferior beings.

In Cuba, since the middle of the 20th century, the belief has been fostered that those who carry a red card in their pocket have the privilege of determining how the economy works, under what conditions it is allowed to associate, which trends of thought should be disseminated and which prohibited. They believe they have the right to decide who can travel abroad, who can be a university professor, journalist or deputy to Parliament. continue reading

Communists, those who have a red card, consider themselves the sole heirs of the best patriotic traditions, those that were harvested since those who were born here discovered that they were Cubans and not Spanish looters of an island in the Caribbean. It is true that then there were no communists and that is why a well-known official tongue twister was coined where it is established that those, today, would be like them and that they, then, would have been like those.

Unlike white supremacists, Reds are not frowned upon by the official media (where there are white supremacists there are no official media). Not only are they not punished by the laws, but they also enjoy an article in the Constitution that grants them the status of being “the superior leading political force of society and the State.” If they had spared the term “superior” it would not be so easy to mark them here as supremacists.

Historically supremacisms end badly. This is how it was in Nazi Germany when those who believed themselves Aryans tried to annihilate those who were left over. This is how it was in Rwanda when the Tutsi population was almost exterminated by the Hutus. This is how it is in the Arab world where the bloody differences between Shiites and Sunnis are based on the dispute over the inheritance of the Prophet Muhammad.

While the supremacists feel predominant and the directed silently obey, the imposed authority is exercised under a cloak of paternalistic nobility. But it is enough for a couple of voices to clash in the chorus of the feigned assents for the despotic anger, in all its ferocity, to be shown in those who claim a superiority that only works when it is irrefutable.

Today in Cuba we are seeing that anger, the child of a supposed class hatred that has no reason to exist where everyone is dispossessed. An anger fueled by a paranoid nationalism that perceives, in the political dissent of a person who loves his country, a traitor who wants to sell the country to the foreign enemy.

In the fragile fabric of a society there are threads that must never be broken because there is a risk that they can never be restored, repaired, healed.

That is perhaps the gravest danger that threatens Cuba at the moment. Worse than the shortage in the markets or the lack of liquidity of the money that is obtained through honest work; worse still, is that ideological epithets succeed in dissolving our identity.

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Letter to Fernando Rojas, Cuba’s Vice-Minister of Culture

The first group of artists to plant themselves in front of the Ministry of Culture on November 27. (Reynier Leyva Novo)

14ymedio, Ines Casal, Havana, December 7, 2020 — Fernando: If you find it disrespectful for me to address a letter to you in this way, I ask your pardon. And I assure you, I do it this way because I have no other way to communicate with you. Who knows if you won’t read this thing I write, either, but “just because my message might never be received doesn’t mean it’s not worth sending.”

I also apologize for addressing you informally as “Tú”, but this “letter” is addressed to the human being I met years ago (although maybe you don’t remember me), and not the official you are today. And I have a hard time treating you as a “you” [the more formal “Usted”], when I met you as Fernandito, as your parents called you. I trust you don’t see it badly either.

I know the lineage from where you come. Your parents were my co-workers, my bosses and my friends for a long time at the University of Havana. Your father, Fernando Rojas, Rector of the UH for several years, was an upright and honest man, who dedicated his whole life to his country and his Revolution, who educated, together with sweet Fefa, four children with a sense of truth and honesty, first and foremost. Although some wretched people (there always are) may have criticized him and even charged him for some “human weaknesses,” but never of being corrupt or opportunistic. continue reading

But since as I know your family well, you may have forgotten where he comes from and who my son Julius César Llópiz Casal is.

My son also comes from upright, honest parents who gave all their strength, all their energies, all their knowledge, all their revolutionary dreams to the UH and to their country. And they also educated their two children to respect truth and decorum, which is what people have when they don’t hide what they think.

I know what the duties of a post or a party are. I was a militant of the PCC [Partido Comunista de Cuba, the Communist Party of Cuba] for almost 30 years, and I was conscientious, because I believed in the Revolution, from the heart. Although for years I have felt betrayed in my purest dreams. But no office, no party position made me lie or betray my conscience. Luckily, I was always surrounded by colleagues who were able to discuss what we didn’t understand. When I felt betrayed by the Revolution (because it wasn’t me who did the betraying), I just stopped believing in it.

My son, Fernando, is not a terrorist, and you know it.

My son, Fernando, doesn’t seek to destabilize the system, let alone incite a popular uprising, and you know it.

My son, Fernando, is not manipulated, managed, paid for by any foreign government, by any organization, by any means of the press, and you know it.

My son, Fernando, is not a criminal, he is a Cuban artist who also works by Cuba and for Cuba, and you know it.

My son, Fernando, says what he thinks, anywhere and under any circumstance, and you know it.

My son, Fernando, is a good man, and you know it.

That is why, from the bottom of my heart, I ask you to try, now from your duty as an official, in time to put a stop to a defamatory and cowardly campaign that has broken out in the official media against peaceful people who have only wanted to be heard. This media circus can have unimaginable and terrible consequences.

And that, Fernando, you also know.

With all my respect and consideration, Inés Casal Enríquez.

Ed. note: This letter was originally published in the social network Facebook.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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‘The Counterrevolution Sneaked Into the Fabric of the Culture’, Complains Abel Prieto

The Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, admitted that the meeting was taking place as a result of the protests on November 27. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 7 December 2020 — Actor Reinier Díaz and some other artists who attended last Saturday’s meeting with officials from the Ministry of Culture deny the interpretation that the official press is giving of what happened at the Abelardo Estorino theater. There were forceful interventions in favor of the San Isidro Movement and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, until officialdom led by Abel Prieto took control of the situation

“The meeting started very well, people with tough ideas, without skimping,” Reinier Díaz tells 14ymedio. “The first to speak was Humberto Díaz, a visual artist who read the demands of 27N [for ’November 27th’] and put the meeting in context.” According to the actor, the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, admitted that the meeting was taking place as a result of the protests on November 27.

The actor describes as “wonderful” the intervention of the theater director Carlos Celdrán, who criticized the “digital blackout” after the protests and described it as “fascism.” He also denounced the acts of repudiation, something that has been very present in his work. continue reading

“From my intervention the newscast only took the presentation, they did not put the heart of my speech, not even when I assumed responsibility for the 30 who participated in the first meeting (with Vice Minister Fernando Rojas) and signed the letter (with the conditions for the next meeting that did not occur),” laments the interviewee. “I spoke as part of the [group of] 30 and said that we are totally opposed to acts of repudiation, police repression, constant violations of the Constitution by the Ministry of the Interior, which acts outside the law, and how many people in the group had agents standing outside their houses to prevent them from leaving,” he notes.

Diaz relates that the most critical interventions occurred, one after another, at the beginning of the meeting. “Lots of people lashed out at the media.” An art critic vindicated the talent of Otero Alcántara and denounced the smear campaign that was being carried out against him “without giving anything conclusive, not even a piece of information, neither proof nor a conviction in hand.”

Another of those present referred to the “evident manipulation of the press media” and the way in which material about the San Isidro Movement and ’27N’ is published. In addition, he rejected police violence in his country.

In another intervention, singer Jesus Barrios said that the security forces doused him with a spray to prevent him from approaching the Ministry of Culture on the day of the protests. Reinier Díaz himself reported that his partner suffered a similar attack and got dermatitis caused by the same product.

What had been going well until then took a turn when another young man, whom Díaz says he does not know, intervened and “began to talk about the Revolution and express himself in a tone that was like a small act of repudiation.” Although the actor repeatedly asked to speak, he wasn’t able to speak again.

“There began the speech of those who assume the critical attitude but from the position of a revolutionary. They spoke of the mercenaries, the annexationists, the flag, the financing and the millions that the United States pays. And even the last speaker ended up offering an ode to the Revolution and said that we are the last socialist bastion in the world and that we cannot lose it.”

In his telling, Díaz also refers to the attitude of Abel Prieto (president of Casa de las Américas), who practically “recognized that the Revolution has to defend itself and that acts of repudiation must be carried out.” The counterrevolution sneaked into the fabric of culture (…) We mixed one thing with the other and in a really perverse situation’, he said at one point.”

For Reinier Díaz, the most clarifying moment of the meeting occurred when Prieto asked if it was necessary to let as many people come out to shout out in the street with the San Isidro Movement, even if there were hundreds.

“Many of us said yes, like Celdrán, Humberto Díaz or me, although others were silent; but Prieto continued with his speech. I believe that they are not prepared for a dialogue. They do not understand that if they want people to trust them they have to tell everything that was said there and not just part of it. The news program blatantly lies, Carlos Celdrán told him several times.”

Díaz was not the only one present to react negatively against what has transpired since the meeting. The director Joseph Ross has expressed his discontent on social networks. “I regret that reports in the media (the official media and the non-official), until now, are so superficial (…). I hope that the press in the next few hours will take a responsible attitude with respect to everything that has been said in these seven hours and and give wide and transparent coverage to all the opinions,” he wrote. The director believes that, although the meeting could have been more plural, there was a clear message that the officials needed to hear.

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Pinar del Rio’s Tobacco Growers Foresee a Bad Harvest Due to Excessive Rains

The fields of Pinar de Río were flooded by the rains linked to Hurricanes Delta and Eta. (Telepinar)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 December 2020 — The bad news is piling up in Cuba. One of the most emblematic products of the Island, tobacco, does not promise a good harvest after the blows of Hurricane Eta flooded the fields of Pinar del Río, where 70% of the country’s leaf is usually grown. In October there was twice the rains because of a previous storm, Delta.

As a result, the authorities have been forced to deduct 3,500 hectares from the 19,700 of the initial plan. And it remains to be seen if even that figure will be reached, as the damage caused and the delay make it an almost impossible effort to meet the plan.

Tobacco is a huge source of income for a government that cannot afford to lose any more dollars now. Only last year, the profit from tobacco exports was almost 270 million dollars, somewhat better than the previous year but far from the 400 million dollars reported in 2017. continue reading

Joel Hernández, director of the Integral and Tobacco Company of Pinar del Río, has indicated that of the 4,000 hectares initially planned in the province, the total has been reduced to 3,400 and only half can be planted before the end of the year. The delay has consequences, according to the producers themselves, since it implies leaving too much product to be sown for January and February, which in turn delays the harvest until April, a month complicated by pests and adverse weather.

Just one of those fears materialized for the tobacco growers of the Hoyo de Monterrey, a place that is considered the epicenter of the best tobacco grown in Cuba and one of the highest quality in the world. Producers in the area were severely affected by the constant rains left by Hurricane Eta in early November, a time when the seedlings are at their most fragile stage.

“Everything we flooded, lost more than half of the positions and surviving longer give you a snuff of the highest quality because they suffered a lot , ” he told 14ymedio Jose Carlos, a tobacco of the municipality whose family has been dedicated to the cultivation almost a century. “This is very bad news because we depend on tobacco to survive,” he adds.

Tobacco, like coffee, sugar cane, potatoes and cocoa are a commercial monopoly of the State. The farmers can cultivate these crops but they are obliged to sell them to the official entities that distribute and export them. A damaged crop can mean the loss of most of the income for farmers who are practically exclusively dedicated to tobacco.

“We are trying to go against the clock and re-plant seedlings but the rains have continued, the land is quite flooded and this is already late for tobacco, it won’t be able to reach the height or the quality of the leaf that is needed for the more select cigars,” explains Urbano, José Carlos’ father and a man with extensive experience in the cultivation of the so-called layer leaves, which are grown in covered tobacco fields.

“It is not only what was lost in plantings, but time. When the downpours began we had everything organized, the day laborers hired and the whole family ready to tend the crops but now the calendar is stuck on Christmas and hiring people in these times is more expensive and difficult,” explains Urbano to this newspaper.

“There are years that we caught the train in good time, but this year, the train has left the station without us. What remains is to try not to lose the work already done and to continue taking care of the plants even if we know it will not be a good harvest,” he says . “I think that the flowers and papayas that we have planted in part of the farms are the ones that will guarantee us a plate of food next year, because the tobacco is not going to be there.”

Of more than 7,000 hectares that should have been planted at the end of November, only 1,289 were planted. In addition, 12,000 seedbeds were completely ruined by the rains and another 16,000 were partially damaged. Faced with this situation, the Government has praised the 16 hour marathon days being put in by producers and calls for the voluntary effort of the people of Pinar del Río — “appealing to the 16,000 yoke of oxen existing in the province” — to arrive at figures that allow one to maintain certain levels of optimism.

Despite several testimonies from optimistic farmers cited by the state newspaper Granma, the newspaper does not hide the bad situation. Virginio Morales, who has been a specialist in the Tabacuba Business Group for 47 years, explained to the official press that it is not strange that the consequences of a meteorological phenomenon seriously affect the Cuban fields but admits that he has never seen such a case. “We have not had any like this one, because the events have been consecutive,” he told the official press.

Nelson Rodríguez, a Doctor of Science and director of the San Juan and Martínez Tobacco Experimental Station, also told Granma that the damage is greater than usual. “November is the optimal month for sowing, and it was hardly possible to take advantage of it,” he explains. “As we move away from the optimal period, the quality suffers.”

José Ramón Machado Ventura, second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, recently visited the area to see the damage caused by the hurricane, where he saw that work was being done to make up for lost time, but urged better use of the land and increasing the production of food without harming tobacco.

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