14ymedio – Page 325 – Translating Cuba

The Mask, a New Political Battlefield

Masks like this one, designed by Rebeca Monzó, are not allowed in state workplaces and schools. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 23 October 2020 — That piece of cloth that for months we have been forced to wear over our faces threatens to become a new political battlefield. The mask has already entered the radar of the censors, who are beginning to want to dictate rules about the design, the artwork or the message they convey.

In recent months, this new apparel, which everything points to will be with us for a long time, has undergone a process of individualization and adjustment among those who want to wear more than just a piece of fabric over their mouth and nose. In search of difference and to make the most of it aesthetically, different models appear every day, which may or may not comply with health standards.

Masks with flags, sequins, family shields, hilarious mouths and scary fangs… all that and more is seen in the streets. But as state workplaces have restarted their working hours and schools in several provinces reopened their classrooms, masks have run into the same official restrictions that limit other pieces of clothing. continue reading

Several friends and acquaintances have told me that at their companies they are already beginning to hear the commands, warning they they will not allow facemasks with foreign flags, especially the United States, or with written messages of any kind, or with political images, criticisms of the Cuban regime, or erotic content.

In a society where the scissors of censorship have tried to cut back everything from the length of male students’ hair to the way pants or blouses fit, masks are the new piece that must be tamed. “We are not going to allow you to come with an offensive poster on your face,” an administrator told a young worker from the Cultural Property Fund who wrote the word “change” across his.

“Those red bars and those little stars cannot be brought into this classroom,” reproached the Holguin teacher who teaches a friend’s daughter. She questioned where she was going to get another facemask, since the one she was wearing was the only one she had been able to obtain on her own. The teacher shook her head from side to side in response, and the woman insisted: “Who said that this is part of the uniform? Are you going to distribute some olive green?”

The pulse is just beginning. Let’s not rule out that in a few weeks a clear list will come out with the designs or motifs allowed on the masks, and which others are outright banned. A country of prohibitions.
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Cuban Government Opponent Pablo Moya Moved to a Prison in Santiago de Cuba

Pablo Moya is currently self-employed after being a sailor for about 40 years. (Unpacu)

14ymedio, Havana, 22 October 2020 — Pablo Moya Delá, an opposition figure who is a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) has been transferred to the Aguadores prison in Santiago de Cuba, according to his son, Daineris Moya García, who spoke with the newspaper Cubanet.

According to Daineris, “From early hours I was in the PNR (People’s Revolutionary Police) to receive information. The very angry guard officer told me: I have told you three times that he was taken to prison. I complained about the bad form and threw me out of the place,” said Daineris, who defined as the news “hard.”

Moya Delá, 65, was arrested while protesting against the shortages in the stores and the repression, and he was then taken to the Eleventh Police Station of San Miguel Padrón, Havana. There he maintained a 23-day hunger strike despite having a delicate health due to various unspecified pathologies, according to his family, and he was later transferred to Santiago de Cuba as an “illegal” — that is lacking the residency papers required live in Havana — where he was held in La Territorial police station, in the municipality from Palma Soriano, until Monday. continue reading

“At the head of the case was the repressor Norbelis, with license plate number 24471, who told me that it was the courts’ fault that my father was in prison, and, of course, I replied that the courts, the prosecution and the PNR, they were still the same thing, all in the hands of the regime,” his son told Cubanet.

Moya Delá, self-employed, is former sailor and promoter of the Cuba Decides initiative. He has lived with his wife in Havana for years, where he maintains his opposition activity; but the authorities consider his residence illegal and, each time he has been detained, he has been taken back to Santiago de Cuba, where he is from.

On this occasion, the transfer back to Santiago de Cuba has been slow to occur due to the Covid-19 control measures that impede interprovincial circulation, according to his colleague Zaqueo Báez, who affirms that Moya is accused of tax evasion, but the reasons for his detention are ideological.

According to the latest report by the Cuban Prisoners Defenders organization, in the last year in Cuba 52 new political prisoners have been added to the list, bringing the total to 138 of which 49 belong to Unpacu.

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“For a Dialogue to be Positive Political Guarantees Must Exist,” says Reinaldo Escobar

Reinaldo Escobar believes that for a comprehensive process of socio-political reform to take place, it will be necessary to wait for the historical generation to complete its biological cycle. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Roberto Veiga González, Murcia/Havana | 18 October 2020 — Reinaldo Escobar participates in the most sensitive issue of Cuban political reality and, in addition, he does so in a direct, concrete way. The editor-in-chief of 14ymedio seeks to find the definitive starting point for a valid solution to our social problems. The change, the dialogue, the agendas …

Roberto Veiga González: What is the current social and economic state of Cuba? Are solutions appreciated?

Reinaldo Escobar: The current economic and social state of the country can be summed up in one word: uncertainty.

To the economic mismanagement that persists in favoring the “socialist State enterprise” and controlling everything from above through centralized planning, two external factors are added: the intensification of the restrictions imposed by the United States Government and, more recently, the consequences of covid-19 that caused tourism to collapse, the paralysis of the production of goods and the provision of services and even a decrease in the entry of family remittances from abroad, to which substantial internal expenses to face the situation are added. continue reading

The lack of supplies in the markets has complicated the lives of consumers and has unleashed a wave of resellers and “coleros” (people who stand in line for others, for pay), hoarding deficit merchandise and diversion of basic products from warehouses. The Government has rigorously attacked the consequences but continues to neglect the causes of these scourges.

The new formula of opening stores dealing only in their own merchandise through magnetic (debit) cards fed with freely convertible currency, has generated greater differentiation between those who have financial resources from abroad and those who do not.

The solutions that the State has proposed in relation with its intention of expanding the development of non-state forms of production are moving in the right direction, but they lack the necessary depth and are being implemented too slowly.

Roberto Veiga González: What would be the necessary solutions? How much probability do they have?

Reinaldo Escobar: One thing is the necessary solutions and another the solutions with probabilities.

For a radical sector, solutions in Cuba go through the process of “overthrowing the dictatorship.” This purpose only has the possibility of being carried out through a massive and violent popular revolt, a coup, or a foreign invasion (which could be the consequence of either of the first two options). Along these lines are those who favor a resurgence of the embargo and promote acts of civil disobedience within Cuba. The probability that something like this will happen seems low.

The more moderate sector is committed to a bloodless and gradual change from above that implies a process of reconciliation among Cubans

The more moderate sector is committed to a bloodless and gradual change from above that implies a process of reconciliation among Cubans and inevitably a definitive settlement to the dispute with the United States. This will be possible to the extent that the actors of the historical generation leave the stage and that there is a change in policy towards Cuba on the part of her northern neighbor with the aim of promoting rapprochement. The supporters of this option are in a position to dialogue with the government, but paradoxically, that dialogue can only occur when the government cannot withstand the pressure of those who want to overthrow it.

The most “reactionary” sector professes an immobility inclined towards continuity. They are the octogenarians of the historical generation and their cohort of sycophants who have the power to repress and manage the opening measures as escape valves to reduce the demands of the violent and excite the moderates. It gives the impression that they have made a secret pact with the reformists, still disguised inside government spheres, consistent in asking them for an old age death grant in exchange for being included in the list of heirs.

The question of how many possibilities each of these options have should not be answered based on the eventuality of success inherent in their purposes, but based on their possibility of reaching beneficial objectives.

Obviously, the overthrow by any of the planned violent means would cause a total and rapid fracture, but could leave the nation in uncontrollable chaos after a power vacuum with high cost in human lives, a presumed destruction of the already deteriorated economic heritage and long consequences of revenge.

The transition from above, in agreement with the internal opposition and foreign lobbyists, would initially have to be slow and gradual.

The transition from above, in agreement with the internal opposition and foreign lobbyists, would initially have to be slow and gradual. In the give and take, essential in an agreed transition, neither party would have capitulated.

Everything can start from the decision of the State to establish a market economy with greater economic freedoms, keeping the promise to defend social justice and having successive political openings that guarantee freedom of expression and association.

The participants in this process will need prudence not to go too far or too fast, but they will have to be bold so as not to be left behind or act too slow.

The worst variant would be the intransigent position of those who do not want to change anything or who propose to change the minimum so that the essential does not change. Their stubbornness puts the moderates at a disadvantage, who end up being described as “accomplices of the dictatorship” and gives reason to the violent ones as a formula to make the possibility of change more costly.

They control all power, but time is against them. They have no future.

Roberto Veiga González: What would be the “nuclear” political element capable of ensuring the beginning of a comprehensive process of socio-political reform?

Reinaldo Escobar: Unfortunately, that element does not currently exist. In order to start that “comprehensive process of socio-political reform”, it will be necessary to wait for the historical generation to complete its biological cycle and for the current heirs to leave the game, due to the provisional fulfillment of their functions. It will also be necessary to hope that viable proposals that include the possibility of being shared and will win an electorate will be articulated within the environment of the civil society and the political opposition.

Roberto Veiga González: Such a process demands inclusion and dialogue. This, in turn, requires the preexistence of subjects (individual and group) that are somehow established and legitimized in some way. Do “transnational” Cuban society and the State have these actors?

Reinaldo Escobar: Before reaching legitimized subjects, conditions of legitimation of the presumed subjects is required. Inclusion would have to come from the political will of the rulers to decriminalize political disagreement and accept the possibility of a dialogue that implies the existence of spokespersons recognized by both parties.

The first step must be taken by the State, and it entails at least creating the preconditions for the recognition with full legitimacy of the presumed actors of change as the only alternative to violence. Those preconditions are as follows:

- Rejection of the belief that the Communist Party is, by law, the leading force of society
- Summoning a Constituent Assembly to draft a new Magna Carta.
- A new electoral law.
- A law of associations that allows the legalization of political parties and the existence of an independent civil society, alien to the concept of the transmission pulley that prevails today.
- A law that guarantees functioning of the independent press and other forms of freedom of artistic, academic and public expression.
- A law that guarantees religious freedoms.
- Elimination of current restrictions on Cubans living abroad when they visit, invest in businesses, or establish themselves in Cuba.

Roberto Veiga González: What should be the characteristics of this dialogue? How to enable it?

Reinaldo Escobar: The first condition is that all parties can participate.

For a dialogue of this nature to have positive results, political guarantees must be present. Those who govern cannot intend to imprison their spokespersons, and opponents should not take advantage of the opportunity to assault power.

This requires the existence of guarantors, preferably foreign governments and international institutions.

This requires the existence of guarantors, preferably foreign governments and international institutions. Ideally, the dialogue should take place in a neutral territory outside Cuba.

What we might call “this side of the dialogue table” should consist of not only the moderates who insisted so much on dialogue, but also of those who have always believed that to participate in dialogue constituted betrayal, and to be able to take credit for having seated the regime at the table.

The power side must be represented by the highest governmental and partisan power or, in its place, by those with the capacity to make decisions. The military should not be included.

The dialogue agenda must be fed with proposals from both sides. If this dialogue were to take place before the seven preconditions that we listed in the previous answer have been met, the objective of the agenda “on this side of the table” should be to ensure that these conditions are met.

Translated by Norma Whiting

In Havana Stickers Will be Put on the Houses Suspected of Having Covid Cases

“Stay at home, for your family, for ours, for everyone,” says the sticker the authorities have distributed to identify the homes where there are quarantined people, suspected of having Covid or of being contacts of positive cases. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 October 2020 — Havana authorities will reinforce the surveillance of the homes where people live who are suspected of having Covid-19, or who might be contacts of positive cases. The capital’s Provincial Defense Council (CDP) insisted on this Monday, calling for “efficient home isolation of contacts and suspected cases.”

The local press is reporting the statements of Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar, president of the Council, and Reinaldo García Zapata, vice president: “It is essential to insist on the control and participation of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), the Federation of Cuban Women and the People’s Power.” To fulfill their mission successfully, they continue, “they must have contacts with their superior organs and maintain permanent check ins.”

The objective is to know “through supervisory actions, what is happening with household income, if the protocols are being followed, if the neighborhoods have the conditions to serve these families and make sure that everything is done well.” continue reading

This includes stickers to identify homes with isolated people, which they say were distributed this Tuesday. The next day, some of these stickers were already visible in houses near Zanja Street, Centro Habana, where a new quarantine zone is reported.

The CDP also asks “the inspection bodies” to enforce regulations such as the incorrect use of masks or the presence in the streets of children without the necessary protection.

This weekend, authorities report, 384 fines were imposed, 184 of them for violations of hygienic-sanitary regulations.

The Council stressed that “current indicators for the pandemic are favorable and at the same time the capital is taking on other battles for the economy and services,” again calling for electricity consumption “to be reduced in homes, in the face of current usage rates slightly above what is in the plans.”

Of the 3,592 samples analyzed the day before, according to official data, only four tested positive for the coronavirus. Three of them had already been admitted to hospitals, suspected of being infected, and one was identified “in a risk group investigation.”

Twenty-five active outbreaks persist in the capital. At the end of the day one person had died of Covid in Havana and four patients were in intensive care.

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The Telegram App is Still Down in Cuba

This Tuesday, it is only possible to access Telegram through some VPNs (Virtual Private Networks).

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 20 October 2020 – I have read in various media about the supposed reestablishment of the Telegram app in Cuba. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but on the morning of Tuesday, October 20, Cuban Culture Day, it is only possible to access the tool through some Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), the few they have not yet been able to block.

At least this is what I have verified with Android, iOS, MacOs and Windows through several friends and colleagues living in Havana, Sancti Spíritus, Santiago de Cuba and Pinar del Río. Although I would like to hear from other witnesses and their experiences.

What else would I like to see fixed? But better to be cautious with the headlines, lest the censors are playing at confusion and attrition.

I know that strategy because of the blockade against this blog, Generation Y, since 2008.

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Cuban Prosecutor asks for 12 Years Imprisonment for the Nurse who Vaccinated the Girl Paloma Dominguez

Little Paloma Domínguez Caballero, who died in October 2019, after having been vaccinated in Havana.

14ymedio, Havana, 18 October 2020 – Yaima Caballero, mother of the girl Paloma Domínguez, announced that the trial of the nurse who vaccinated her daughter was held on Friday. After the vaccination the little girl, only 1 year old, died on October 9, 2019.

“They have already tried the nurse who killed Paloma; she acknowledged that she did everything wrong, although she hardly said she was sorry, but that she was very sorry because she had opted for the right to remain silent if she wished…,” Caballero posted on her Instagram account.

“The prosecutor is asking for a 12-year sentence of deprivation of liberty, for murder and injury,” the mother said, reporting that she did not have all the details of the trial, although she went on to say that the defendant’s representative did not agree with the prosecutor’s request. continue reading

“Her lawyer appealed, because she says five to seven years would be correct, because she’s the best nurse in the world. We have to wait six business days to see what they say, this nightmare is not over,” she said. “Do you have any idea, how they changed laws, 12 years ago?” the mother questioned at the conclusion of her message on the social network.

The trial was scheduled to start on last August 14, but was postponed by Havana’s health situation following the reemergence of the new coronavirus. “I can’t go, you know if I go back they won’t let me out,” the little girl’s mother said to 14ymedio a month before that first date.

She explained that she would not be able to attend because she was not in Cuba, but in Mexico. “It’s all very complicated, what more could I want than to be there.” Caballero confirmed that the trial was attended by several of her friends, in addition to her parents, Paloma Dominguez’s grandparents, her brother and her paternal aunts.

At a meeting with health authorities before leaving Cuba, State Security, present at the meeting, warned the mother that she could go to prison if she persisted in making “unfounded accusations,” against Cuban Public Health. The situation led her to go into exile with her husband on Mexican territory.

Yaima Caballero’s life turned around a year ago when she took her daughter to get her PRS vaccine (MMR, against mumps, rubella and measles) at Polyclinic Enrique Betancourt Neninger, in Alamar, Havana. A few days later, the little girl passed away.

“They killed my daughter,” was her complaint on social media from the first moment, and then she also made public her disagreement with the results of the investigation that was released by the Ministry of Public Health a month after Paloma’s death, and which pointed to a “bad handling” of the vaccine.

According to the health authorities, the severe reaction presented by the little one was caused by “violations of the standards established for vaccination” and “negligence during the process of conservation, preparation, handling and exposure of the syringe used.”

According to those results of the investigation, the nurse who vaccinated Paloma was punished with a firing from the National Health System, along with disqualification from the practice of the profession and the criminal investigation process.

Since then, Caballero has waged a personal battle to thoroughly investigate what happened, so that it might not happen again. Although she never complained about the medical care received by her daughter, on the contrary, she thanked the doctors, but soon came the retaliation against her for raising her voice.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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A Week of Violent Homicides in Havana

The young Dariel Fonseca had been missing since October 11th. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 16 October 2020 — Safety and the absence of robberies and street crime were always a symbol of the Cuban regime. That was not the case these last few days, when various murders took place in Havana, without a single mention from the official press. As in other similar instances, the sources of information were close contacts and social media.

This Friday, it became known that the theater producer René Pita was found dead in his home on Thursday, where he lived with his mother. Close contacts of the victim, like the presenter and critic Oni Acosta Llerena, claim that he was assassinated in his own home.

“It has been horrible because of the nature of what happened. I am also from the neighborhood and we used to chitchat from time to time. I hope that everything is cleared up and justice is done,” Acosta Llerena said on her social networks. continue reading

The historian Julio Pagés also shared details about Pita’s death on his Facebook feed: “His violent death demands justice, at this moment there is a criminal investigation.” He detailed that Pita’s lifeless body was found by his mother, an elderly woman who was under his care for being a centenarian.

“I can’t can’t help but think about his elderly mother, what will become of her now. Pita was everything to her. May he rest in peace and justice be done,” said Monica Gonzalez.

On the same Thursday, Dariel Fonseca was also found dead in Playas del Este. The young man, 21 years old and resident of Bejucal, had been missing since the previous Sunday, and was found near the place where he was last seen in El Mégano beach.

The news was revealed on the Facebook page of Dariel’s brother Yasel Fonseca, who had been recounting every step the family took to find him. Along with the post, he also published a photograph of the area where the yellow police tape can be seen, which limits the area where the experts’ investigation takes place. The young man’s brother said that when he was found he did not have any identification or his cell phone with him.

On the other hand, this Thursday it was also confirmed that the murder of Cary Vidal, 24 years old, the young woman whose body was found on Monday in a field in East Havana, was a crime at the hands of her former partner, according to people close to the family. The page #YoYoCreoenCuba denounced the event, which occurred last Saturday, October 11, at the entrance of zone 23 in Alamar, as a “violent femicide.”

So far none of the three incidents have been reported by the official press, which, as a rule, do not report on murders or other violent events. Nevertheless, the independent press maintains a detailed police blotter that has served in recent years to divulge the real situation in the homes and streets of Cuba.

Likewise, the official statistics do not reflect violent deaths in detail, despite the fact that international organizations and Cuban activists have repeatedly requested statistics on afflictions such as femicides, domestic violence, homicides and robberies.

Only in 2019, after many complaints and as part of the National Report for the Implementation of the Agenda 2030 for Development, presented to the UN, the authorities publicized the annual femicide rate on the island, which stood at 0.99 per 100,000 women, a figure that raised doubts and questions.

Translated by: Rafael Osorio

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The Dollar Seizes the Carlos III Shopping Center in Havana

The place, also popularly known as “the palace of consumption”, had been closed for months due to the pandemic.

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez / Mario J. Pentón, Havana / Miami, 12 October 2020 — Carlos III Plaza Commercial, one of the largest shopping areas in the Cuban capital, reopened this Monday with an important change: from now on you can only buy in foreign currency. The same has happened with most of the large stores in cities in the country’s interior.

“Ten stores are open at the moment. All of them have a sign in front of them saying that they only accept MLC (freely convertible currency — that is US dollars, euros and other foreign money). There are clothing stores, household supplies, hardware and other items. Other stores are also getting ready to sell in hard currency,” a customer who visited the facilities early in the morning told 14ymedio.

It is one of the largest shopping centers in Havana, also popularly known as “the palace of consumption” and located on an important avenue. It had been closed for months and in recent weeks it was rumored it might reopen as a hard currency store. continue reading

It was an open secret that the remodeling the imposing building was undergoing was intended to make it ready for the new genre of commercial establishment, which began at the end of last year, when The Executive opened its first electrical appliances stores and then ones for food and toiletries in foreign currencies in order to alleviate the country’s deep financial liquidity crisis.

For over two decades, Plaza Carlos III has been the commercial heart of Centro Habana, especially in the neighborhoods of Pueblo Nuevo, Cayo Hueso and Los Sitios. Along with the official product lines in their stores, there is an extensive network of informal vendors and private businesses who survive thanks to the flow of customers who shop there every day.

Before being reopened with great fanfare in the 90’s and starting to sell in dollars and later in convertible pesos, the Plaza was but a shadow of what we see today. “They had a dirty agricultural market on the ground floor, a fishmonger on the first floor, and the rest of the building was a state-owned company dedicated to making teaching tools such as dolls to instruct in the structure of human organs,” Luisa, a who lives in nearby Peñalver street tells 14ymedio.

It is not the first dollarization of Carlos III, it already happened in the 90’s, before changing to CUC. (14ymedio)

“This neighborhood came back to life when Carlos III was turned into a shopping center in the 90’s. Most of the people here shop or survive thanks to that place,” adds the lady. “Although the government changed the name of the street many years ago to Avenida Salvador Allende, nobody has ever called it that, and when they reopened the Plaza, they named it after the King of Spain.”

Others believe that the new sales method will save Carlos III from the deterioration it had experienced in recent years. “This had become a place for drunks and fights, especially the ground floor area, which had several cafeterias where one couldn’t even go because there were aggressive people drinking beer all the time,” says Orestes, a resident of Calle Salud, who used to take his grandchildren there to play on electronic devices until “the situation became untenable.”

Orestes believes that now, “with a smaller customer base and enjoying a better economic position, it is possible that the environment will improve,” although he acknowledges that he will not be able to shop there for now. “I don’t have access to foreign currency, but this is not the first dollarization of Carlos III. When they opened it in the 90’s, you paid in fulas (slang for dollars) and it seemed to me that I would never be able to shop there, but in the end, I became a regular customer, so I am hoping that now it starts out for a few and then the dollarization might spread.”

The news of the market reopening as a foreign currency store started to spread on the very day that the national television is expected to broadcast a special program announcing new economic measures. But still, many of the residents in the vicinity don’t know of the important change that is taking place inside the Plaza, the only remodeled work in Cuba in the last half century that bears the name of a Spanish king.

In the rest of the country, the dollar is also strengthening. In Cienfuegos, the population has seen how, one by one, the dollar has been conquering the largest stores in the city.

“We are going to be left with no place to shop. La Mimbre, La Pecera, La Nueva Isla, Imago, Mercado Habana, Eureka… everything will sell in dollars, a currency in which I don’t trade in or have the means to obtain,” says Mercedes Bernal, a 51-year-old state worker.

“The other day I went to a store and saw so many products and such a short line that I was amazed. When I asked about the price of an item, I was told it was in dollars and it needed to be paid by a magnetic card. I don’t know how long we are going to be able to hold on,” she adds.

At the moment, 10 stores are open in Plaza Carlos III, all of them take freely convertible currency. (14ymedio)

In Cienfuegos, the lines to create bank accounts in dollars are very long, and begin at dawn. The bank only allows 50 customers per day, and delivery dates for the cards are slated for the second week of December.

“Customers do not need to bring dollars to open the account. Only their identity card is enough. The objective of these accounts is for their relatives to eventually send them transfers from abroad so that they can shop in MLC stores,” an employee of Banco Popular de Ahorros told El Nuevo Herald by phone.

For Felicia Carballo from the Pastorita neighborhood and for others who don’t have access to said currency, the situation is becoming increasingly complicated.

“In the Pastorita points-of-sale there is nothing. No soap, no deodorant, nothing. It seems that the TRD stores [where you buy in Cuban convertible pesos – CUC] became the property of Ciego Montero*, because all they have is water,” he commented.

*Translator’s note: Ciego Montero is a Cuban brand of bottled water, part of Nestle’s Waters, owned by the Cuban society Los Portales.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Cuba Will Subsidize Unprofitable State Companies After Monetary Unification

Marino Murillo Jorge, known as “the czar of reforms” on the island, reiterated that the Cuban peso (CUP) will be the currency that will circulate after monetary reform. (Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 October 2020 — The elimination of the country’s dual currency is delayed, according to the latest statements by Cuban leaders who are at the forefront of the so-called “regulatory task.” In the Roundtable TV program on Tuesday the issue was addressed but without giving details about the date on which the monetary unification will be made or what the exchange rate will be for the currency taken out of circulation.

Marino Murillo Jorge, head of the Commission for the Implementation of the Guidelines and known as “the czar of reforms” on the Island, reiterated that the Cuban peso (CUP) will be the currency that will circulate and reiterated on several occasions that the end of the monetary duality will not eliminate the problems of the national economy which “has structural problems.” The Cuban convertible peso (CUC) will be taken out of circulation.

In addition, he warned that the government will temporarily subsidize some of the state-owned companies that will face losses to avoid the fall in employment and guarantee the production of basic goods. The existence of various exchange rates between the two currencies has so far made it difficult to know the real state of the accounting of state-owned companies and experts consider that with the reform, a good number of companies that are now apparently solvent will be operating in the red.

Amid growing popular expectations about the start of the process, Murillo commented that the unification will probably take place on the first day of a month but without specifying which month, he did not even say whether it will happen this year. “One day you wake up and the Central Bank of Cuba says that the CUC no longer circulates and from that moment you have only one currency.”

Regarding the circulation of the CUC, Murillo indicated that there will be a period of around six months for people to exchange the currency or spend it. “Do what you understand most appropriate until the State collects them all,” he said, adding that, if in that period there are signs that the currency continues to circulate, there will be an analysis of whether or not to extend the expected time.

“Those who have CUC, be calm, it will have value, it is an official money of Cuba and no one is going to lose the value of the CUC or the 24 current pesos (CUP). If the exchange rate was 20 pesos, or at the time they are collected they are exchanged for 24 pesos, they will be paid at the value of the current exchange rate,” he argued.

Murillo also indicated that the base salary is going to rise 4.9 times, social security pensions five times and “social assistance will increase depending on the number of vulnerable groups that have to be helped.” The aspiration, he affirmed, is that all “employees are in better conditions than where they started from.”

The official also referred to the risk of inflation. All wholesale prices will rise because the value of imported products will increase, said the official, adding that there will be a devaluation of the peso “seeking competitiveness.”

“Price growth is synonymous with inflation and we are talking about wholesale prices. The issue is how long it takes for the increase in wholesale prices to be reflected in retail prices, and this is called the devaluation pass-through process.” This moment, as indicated, may take several months, but “it comes.”

Regarding the type of change that will be implemented, he did not make any suggestion: “For that we have to wait a little more, so nobody in the world says, in due course everything will be said, although today we will say more than we have said other times.”

“Applying exchange rates leads to devaluation, and anywhere in the world leads to adjustments. It puts pressure on the business system,” he said. He called again to “be more efficient at work and it must be done so that the economy moves naturally.”

Murillo asserted that a “very administrative” guide to the economy has to be made, referring to the price system that does not “give clear signals to producers, and it is not that we are saying that Cuba is going to a market economy, but the market exists independently of our will, and the producers must receive signals from that market.”

Alejandro Gil, the Minister of Economy and also a guest on the Roundtable program, took advantage of the television space to call the population to optimism. “This is not a setback, this is to encourage us,” he stressed, while ensuring that the monetary unification will change the lives of Cubans in a positive way, without giving details, or how and when it will occur.

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“I didn’t even have time to take my wallet, so I was left with nothing”

The collapse of a building on Lucena and San Rafael streets, in Centro Habana, leaves several families homeless. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 14 October 2020 — A deafening screech, like metal bending, was the signal received by the residents of a three-story building on Lucena Street, between San Miguel and San Rafael, in Centro Habana, before their home collapsed, leaving them without nothing.

“It was around 3:30 in the morning. A neighbor who was watching television at that time began to warn everyone, alerted by the noise of the building that was giving way and gradually cracking, which allowed everyone to get out,” a resident told this newspaper.

“The dog began to bark very excitedly and no one knew what was happening to him,” says another resident of the property who, after seeing his pet’s nervous reaction, decided to go outside carrying him. “I didn’t even have time to pick up my wallet, so I was left with nothing.”

Neighbors living near the building also told 14ymedio that they felt a deafening noise “like metal bending” that allowed people to run and wake up other residents. “When they came out, at that very moment, it fell.”

According to a neighbor who still has not gotten over the scare, the rear part of the property and the entire interior collapsed: “The doors of a store on the ground floor came off and were left outside.”

At a corner near the collapse, in front of the community medical office, the inhabitants who escaped the collapse crowd together. “I suppose they are taking their blood pressure,” commented someone who was passing by.

A strong operation around the site of the collapse extended for several blocks. (14ymedio)

The long faces reflect the feeling of the group that they have lost everything and don’t even know where they will sleep at night. A crying man sitting on the sidewalk is part of the sad scene of those who, in the best of cases, will have to go to one of the overcrowded shelters in the city, where the average waiting time to move into a house exceeds ten years.

Others will go to the home to a relative while they finish processing the news that they no longer have a home of their own. Some neighbors take the opportunity to try to recover a brick that has fallen on the street after the collapse, and the former residents ask the police to prevent anyone from entering so that they do not steal their belongings that might have been saved after the collapse.

In the blocks the lead into the site, the securing of the site with yellow tape and the deployment of about twenty agents to prevent access are striking.

The area, which had only just begun to pick up its pace after the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, has several highly affluent state businesses such as bakeries, a pizzeria and other stores. This Wednesday some of them have remained closed as they are in the area cordoned off by the police.

The collapse of this Wednesday is located a few yards from the building on the corner of Belascoaín and San Miguel where last July a worker from the Communales company died when part of a wall fell on him while he was sweeping the street. “This area is in very bad condition, buildings have not been rehabilitated here for a long time,” says a resident.

Sites of building collapses in Havana in 2020 so far.

Centro Habana, lacking the colonial beauty of Old Havana or the modern buildings of El Vedado, has for decades been a municipality characterized by the high presence of tenements, infrastructure problems, overcrowding and a high population density. Many of its buildings are from the early 20th century and have not received repairs for more than fifty years, not even paint on their facades.

At the end of September, 14ymedio also reported the collapse of a multifamily building on Amargura Street, between Aguacate and Compostela, in Old Havana, in which a 74-year-old woman lost her life.

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After Six Years, Cuba’s Port of Mariel Continues to Move Little Cargo

A celebration at the Mariel Special Development Zone container terminal of the handling of a total of two million TEUs (20-Foot Container Units) since the creation of the enclave. (ZEDM)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 October 2020 — The Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM) reported this Wednesday through its website that its container terminal has handled two million TEUs since its inauguration in January 2014 (the unit of measurement in maritime transport that is equivalent to one 20 foot container).

“A new milestone,” the official press said, detailing what was achieved in six years, ZEDM’s own record, says the station, dedicated to health workers, especially the Cuban brigades that fight against Covid -19 on the Island and in other latitudes of the world.”

However, the achievement is blurred when the figure is compared with those of neighboring countries. In just two years, for example, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica have each processed more than two million TEUs, for example, according to data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). continue reading

There are no international comparisons in the official note, which states that the result “is part of the contribution made by the terminal in Cuba’s modernization and economic development project” and that the ZEDM provides “a first-class productive and logistics platform, that facilitates a higher level of national production, reduces import costs, boosts growth, creates jobs and facilitates foreign direct investment.”

The historical maximum of investments in the Special Zone occurred in 2018, at more than 481 million dollars. According to official data, the total figure for the whole five year period is 2.166 billion dollars in investments, far from the initial forecast of 2.5 billion dollars annually.

The industrial enclave, created in November 2013, occupies an area of 465.4 square kilometers in a point of strategic importance for maritime traffic due to its geographical location around one of the main ports on the north coast of Cuba.

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There is No Local Origin Coffee in Cuba, Not Even in Hard Currency

Cuban coffee continues to be exported while the director of Cafe-Cuba admits that it is not for internal consumption. (Overcome)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 October 2020 — In recent weeks, coffee has become one of the most sought-after products — unsuccessfully — by consumers throughout the Island, who stand in long lines when the product reaches the stores but who, now, cannot obtain the bean even in the informal market.

The absence is so apparent that the official press addressed the issue this Friday with an interview with Antonio Alemán Blanco, general director of the Cuba-Café Company. The official unequivocally admitted that the supply will not be able to satisfy the demand, at least until the end of the year.

“You ask me for data, but there is a reality, coffee is not available and we cannot increase the supply now. I explain it simply: we are not in a position to satisfy current demand,” he said emphatically to Cubadebate. continue reading

Alemán attributes the rise in demand to the pandemic, which has forced tens of thousands of Cubans to spend more time at home, which has affected the forecasts for demand. “The plan that we draw up as a company, even with all the objective limitations we have, could be met until the end of September. I believe that social isolation has led to people drinking more coffee and this has triggered demand.”

Cuba-Café produces four brands of coffee for the domestic market, although the product is sold only in hard currency: Turquino, Serrano, El Arriero and Regil. But the director knows that as soon as it reaches the stores it is sold out in a heartbeat. Although Alemán does not give specific figures, he places the decline in production at 10%, which is the equivalent of “several tons.”

“So we have not had the opportunity to replenish the market to supply a demand that under normal conditions, we could,” he insists. The official, although he admits that this is not an excuse, does not miss an opportunity to point out the impact of the US embargo, which in his opinion makes it impossible to import the raw materials necessary for the preparation of the product, including the packaging.

Alemán has said that the government currently focused on meeting the need to supply coffee to the rationed market, which accounts for 85% of the company’s total production. La Torrefactora de Cabaiguan produces 49 tons of grain for the ration stores, which is processed a month in advance. Thus, he assures that the supply scheduled for November is ready.

“We hope that by the end of the year there may already be an improvement and consequently a greater presence of coffee in the hard currency stores. The coffee harvest has begun and our actions are also directed there. It is about increasing production levels; the people and the company need it.”

Alemán asks Cubans to have confidence and adds that the problems will be overcome sooner rather than later. “The final aspiration is the productive chain and an increase in the supply,” he says, although for the moment it is complicated. “I have spoken to you very clearly, and bluntly, even when we make a titanic effort, it is still not going to be possible to achieve the level of inventory that is needed.”

Meanwhile, Cuba continues to export coffee to other countries. Last week, Cimex, the Cuban military conglomerate that distributes one of the most popular brands on the island, Cubita, boasted of having the brand registered “in a hundred countries where it is also marketed.” In addition, it alerted customers to an alleged falsification of the product which is being sold online on Amazon.

Social networks expressed outrage when people saw that a 250-gram package of Cubita costs 3.45 CUC on the island, while a kilo cost 16.35 CUC, equivalent to almost half of the average monthly salary (879 Cuban pesos, approx. $35 US). Meanwhile, it is being sold in other countries at a price up to 30% lower.

Some users reproached the corporation for the fact only Gourmet brand coffee can be found in the island’s stores, a product exported to Cuba by the Spanish food group GM Foods, with Chinese participation. This coffee is made with 70% robusta, from Vietnam and Uganda, and 30% Arabica from Brazil, according what the company told 14ymedio; with no Cuban coffee content, it is one of the cheapest on the market. In contrast, Cubita, which is of much higher quality as it is 100% pure Arabica, is unavailable.

In addition, in the first half of this year, the Asdrúbal López de Guantánamo Coffee Processing Company sold 702 tons of beans to Cubaexport, the highest figure in the last four years.

For this year, a harvest of about 10,000 tons is expected, a little more than the previous year, but well below the production of 60,000 tons registered in 1961, when Cuba supplied the national market and exported its surpluses. The product is one of the great emblems of the island’s identity, along with rum and tobacco.

The coffee grown in eastern Cuba is Arabica and one ton costs almost 8,000 dollars in the international market. According to the information provided to the official press, in 2020 Cuba plans to export 10,000 tons, which corresponds to the entire national production.

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Cuban Prosecutor Asks for 6 to 12 Years for Men who Covered Busts of Jose Marti in Blood

The alleged members of the Clandestinos group, in images broadcast on official television after their arrest. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 October 2020 — The Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Cuba requested sentences of between 6 and 12 years in prison for three opponents who were allegedly members of Clandestinos, a group that earlier this year covered busts of José Martí with pig blood and called to “overthrow the dictatorship,” reported Diario de Cuba.

Panter Rodríguez Baró and Yoel Prieto Tamayo, along with a third detainee, Jorge Ernesto Pérez García, were accused of the crimes of “defamation of institutions and organizations and of heroes and martyrs of a continuing character,” and “damage to cultural heritage assets.”

The public prosecutor’s office of the Plaza of the Revolution municipality requested 12 years in prison for Rodríguez Baró and 10 for Prieto Tamayo. The prosecutor asked for a six-year sentence for Pérez García disseminating the actions of Clandestinos on social networks. continue reading

The fourth detainee, Guillermo Rodríguez Torroella, was released a few months after the government media referred to the events. According to Diario de Cuba, he has an open file for “drug use and trafficking,” as does Rodríguez Baró.

The Clandestinos case captured public attention at the beginning of the year when busts of National Hero José Martí sprinkled with pig’s blood began to appear in Havana. Through social networks, an intense campaign of support was deployed by some activists in exile, until the authorities announced that they had arrested four people involved 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 called by the Clandestinos group was to paint messages against the Government in all provinces, cities and towns, or to do the same on the doors of the houses of the regime’s “informers.”

At the beginning of this month, the Cuban Prisoners Defenders association, in collaboration with the Cuban Center for Human Rights (CCDH), issued an updated list of political prisoners on the island which included Panter Rodríguez Baró and Yoel Prieto Tamayo, who were not shown as affiliated with any organization but identified as alleged members of the Clandestinos group.

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Coffee Exports Leave Cuban Consumers without their Daily Cup

Coffee exports have become a top priority in the Cuban government’s desperate search for hard currency, making it difficult to find in the island’s retail stores. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 October 2020 — Coffee exports have become a top priority in the Cuban government’s desperate quest for hard currency. This has impacted the nation’s consumers, for whom coffee is nowhere to be found.

In the first quarter of this year Cubaexport, a government-owned corporation which sells Cuban food and beverage products on the international market, bought 702 tons from the coffee processing company Café Asdrubal Lopez de Guantanamo, the most it has produced in four years.

“I haven’t had my little cup of coffee for days. I can’t even find it at the religious centers. A neighbor had been selling it to me by the tablespoonful for three pesos, or twenty for the small can, but she hasn’t had any for over a month. And of course it wasn’t pure coffee,” said a resident of Santiago de Cuba who, like thousands of other Cubans, complains about the current shortage. continue reading

The Guantanamo-based processor will continue its sales of ground coffee, as well as cocoa, to overseas buyers until November. In an interview with the state-owned newspaper Venceremos, the company’s director, Osmel de la Cruz Cala, said that enough beans have already been delivered to the its processing plant to meet more than 80% of its production needs.

The director also stated that the company will be acquiring equipment that will allow it to to offer “roasted and ground coffee in different formats to high-end hotels before taking it to other countries.”

“Right now I have a very small amount of ground coffee that my niece bought at hard currency store. It comes from Spain. It’s outrageous that this is happening in a country that grows so much coffee. Hard to believe but true,” lamented the Santiago resident. She was referring to Bee Hive, a Spanish brand sold at her local hard currency stores.

At the beginning of September police in the province carried out a sting operation, seizing more than two tons of coffee, which were found in two state-owned trucks. On the same day, the local press announced the start of coffee season in the region, which is the nation’s largest producer.

It is projected that the country will produce 10,000 tons this year, slightly more than last year but well below the 60,000 tons produced in 1961, when Cuba was able to meet domestic consumer demand and export a surplus. The product is one of the great emblems of the island’s identity, along with rum and tobacco.

A ton of arabica beans, the kind grown in eastern Cuba, goes for $8,000 on the international market. According to published accounts in the official press, the government projected it would sell 10,000 tons in 2020.

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In Ecuador, Cubans Protest in Front of Consulate Over Costs to Extend Stay

Consulate of Cuba in Quito, Ecuador. (Google Maps)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, 13 October 2020 — The announcement of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs this Sunday, regarding Cubans or foreigners residing on the island to extend their stay abroad until October 12, 2021 without losing the right to return, came with a condition that was not reported and that has outraged the expatriate community: the cost of the process.

The price depends on the country where they are located. In any territory of the European Union, for example, the application costs 25 euros, plus 40 euros for each month that you want to extend your stay between this October 12th and the following year, that is, 480 euros for the whole year. In addition, if the procedure is carried out by a third person, you have to pay another 25 euros.

But those who are in the United States bear the worst burden: 20 dollars per application, plus 150 dollars for each month of extension (1,800 for the whole year) and another 20 if the interested party does not present it directly. continue reading

In Ecuador, the Cuban community organized a “sit-in” for Tuesday in front of the Cuban consulate in Quito to protest the fees. “I learned that to extend my residence I have to pay 40 dollars per month. It is unfair, it is not my fault that Cuba and the world had to close their borders, it is an abuse. Why do I have to pay so much money if I have sufficient time to enter Cuba?” a Cuban who resides in the Andean country told this newspaper.

With the hashtags #EliminenPrórrogas (Eliminate Exension [fees]), #LosDerechosNoExpiran (Rights Don’t Expire), #SomosCubanosDePorVida (We Are Cubans for Life) and #ReformaMigratoriaYa (Reform Migation Now), they also ask “to have an effective consular representation for all members of our community.”

The indignation is greater for having learned the news informally; many hear it through audios that circulate among the community where the consul supposedly refers to the costs.

This is how Hiram H. Castro, a Havanan who is studying for a doctorate at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Ecuador, found out. “In my case, November 2 marks my 24 months and the José Martí airport is still closed. I cannot travel or buy a ticket in those uncertain circumstances. The question is: should I still pay 40 dollars for each month that passes without being able to travel to Cuba?” he laments in a group that brings together Cubans in that country.

Another woman, a mother from Villa Clara, insists that this new provision does not benefit her at all: “On the contrary, I had my trip prepared for July, because I have a five-year-old girl who is here with me, and I planned my trip to last a month, but because of the coronavirus everything fell apart.”

“I’ve spent several months without working and had to pay for everything, I ran out of money. Now I have to save again for another trip, but my Cuban residence has already expired and I have no money for that extension. And I am the one who supports my mother in Cuba. I mean, I can’t go enter as a tourist and that’s it. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t want to lose my residence rights, but I don’t have money either,” she told 14ymedio desperately.

The amounts that Cubans have to pay for consular procedures have always been the subject of criticism and complaints. From the price of the passport, one of the most expensive in the world, and its extensions, to the confirmations of university degrees, which cost around 1,200 dollars, something that migrants describe as “a whole business” set up by the Government of the Island to squeeze their pockets.

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