14ymedio – Page 380 – Translating Cuba

Cuban Government Blames Gas Shortage on Increase in Vehicles

A line of cars waiting to refuel at a gas station in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 July 2019 — After days of complaints on social networks and long lines at gas stations, this Friday Tomás Pérez Álvarez, the marketing director of the state oil company, Cupet, said in Havana on the television news that one of the causes of the deficit of gasoline is the “large number of vehicles circulating” in the country.

The shortage, which has caused lines hundreds of yards long in several gas stations in the Cuban capital, has affected gasoline D-90 and B-94, known as “regular” and “special”, said the official. The sale of the first will be restored tomorrow Saturday “in the afternoon,” he said, while the offer of special gasoline “should be resolved on Monday or in the early hours of Tuesday.”

“In the case of B-90, we are at this moment, as part of the logistics that has been structured to respond to this situation, bringing tanks of support from other provinces,” he added. The official did not make any reference to problems with the importation of crude, nor, to any, technical difficulties in the four refineries of the country.

“Consumption is 20% above previous stages, even 10% more than the previous summer”, added Pérez, who blames the increase on the fact that “the country has made an extraordinary effort, especially with regards to taxis, and all this results in a greater consumption of these two types of gasoline.”

As of May, there are 24 minibus routes in the capital with a capacity of 12 passengers, using Russian made vehicles. In January, 450 of these vehicles entered the country, and with them the authorities seek to alleviate the serious problems of public transport.

However, the greater presence of these vehicles in the streets of Havana has also coincided with a decrease in the number of cars operating in the private service of fixed-route shared taxis, known as almendrones*, due to a package of new regulations that came into force in December 2018 and that has caused dismay among self-employed drivers providing this service.

This Thursday, 14ymedio reported long queues in the service centers of Havana. Just two days earlier, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Raúl García, had denied on Cuban television any problem with the supply of fuel to the energy sector as a cause of the blackouts that the island has experienced in the last week.

The long line for gasoline ave 23 and 24. #somoscontinuidaddicen #micubasufre pic.twitter.com/CksyhyfBo2– Tocororo (@ Tocororo11) July 18, 2019 [Note, this appears to be a video of several blocks of parked cars, but in fact it is a line for a gas station]

The situation has caused a flood of complaints and photos on social networks, especially on Facebook and Twitter. Users demand an explanation and link the shortage of gasoline with food shortages and power outages. “The crisis is seen everywhere, they can not cover the sun with a finger,” writes a young man who relates his odyssey trying to get fuel and his tour of “five gas stations without being able to fill the tank.”

The problems with the supply of fuel have also limited the fumigation work in Havana municipalities where the presence of the dengue virus has been detected. In the area of La Timba and Nuevo Vedado the fumigations planned for Thursday and Friday could not be carried out because “the fuel did not arrive for the backpacks [fumigation equipment],” said a source at the April 19 Polyclinic, who preferred anonymity.

“The last fuel we received had to use to fumigate the houses of the patients that had already been confirmed with dengue, but since Tuesday we have not been able to continue the task,” an official who works in the antivectorial campaign against the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, transmitter of the viral disease, commented to this newspaper.

“We hope that next week new supply will arrive because that is what we have been told by the Ministry of Public Health, but right now we are at a standstill, we are only doing focal inspections to detect where there are outbreaks of the mosquito,” he adds.

*Translator’s note: The vehicles used in this type of service are largely classic American cars; the nickname “almendrones” is a reference to the ’almond-shape’ of the vehicles.

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The Generation of the Heirs

The young people who were born since the 70s can lead a change in Cuba in the coming years. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 19 July 2019 — No study on the behavior and scope of a generation can be circumscribed schematically to the data that is identified with the date of birth. Although age is one of the factors to be taken into account, it will always be possible to find, in a human group, people who identify more with generations previous to, or later than, their own.

The events that occur in an era, the ways of life and the imprint of the influential personalities tend to be markers of greater intensity to define belonging to a given generation.

The so-called historical generation of the Cuban Revolution was mainly nurtured by people born between 1910 and 1940, so that in 2020 the youngest of these will be octogenarians and in 2030 they will definitely be characters of the past. continue reading

Behind this group came another (following the demographic norm of framing a generation as a period of 30 years), that entered the world between 1940 and 1970. They are those who lived the most important part of their youth and adulthood starring in or witnessing the events most notable in recent history.

In a vertiginous summary of these decisive events, we should mention the literacy campaign, the battles of Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs), the missile crisis, the Escambray civil war, the death of Ernesto Guevara, the sugar harvest of the 70s, the military campaigns in Africa, the first socialist Constitution, the exodus of the Mariel boatlift, the defeat in Granada, the execution of General Arnaldo Ochoa and the collapse of the socialist camp.

These are the years dominated by atheism, homophobia and political intolerance, and a time when the support of families depended exclusively on a salary provided by the State; when to obtain a home it had to be built by the microbrigade system; and to acquire appliances it was essential to accumulate labor and social merits; while the rationed-subsidized market “covered” most of the needs.

This generation, which was formed listening to the speeches of Fidel Castro and waiting for him and only him to make the decisions, was the object of a massive indoctrination campaign that started at the beginning with the Revolutionary and Prolonged Instruction Schools with the introduction of Marxism-Leninism as a compulsory subject in all university degrees. They were convinced that they were living through the transition period between capitalism and socialism, that the communist future was already in sight in the Soviet Union and that the United States was humanity’s main enemy.

Those who were children were integrated into the Pioneers, while teenagers were initiators of the Association of Young Rebels, which became the Union of Young Communists. They were instilled with the idea that they had a debt to the previous generation that they could only pay with obedience and absolute devotion to the unpostponable tasks of the Revolution, that would anticipate the bright future.

Many of them joined the Cuba Communist Party (PCC) displaying their credentials of having participated in these revolutionary tasks, striving to be exemplary workers and combative defenders of the process in the face of any ideological deviation; but also, in many cases, hiding their religious beliefs or their sexual preferences and removing from their biographies everything that would distance them from that favored letter of introduction: having a humble origin.

This generation, the immediate heir of the one that had achieved the revolutionary triumph, also had the task of obtaining professional training that would allow them to occupy various political, military and administrative positions that could not be filled by the old combatants, many of whom were semi-illiterate.

At present the members of this offspring constitute the majority of the current Central Committee of the PCC, of the Councils of State and of Ministers and of the Parliament and occupy the full spectrum of the academic environment and the control of state enterprises. Their main responsibility has been to maintain the docile unanimity under the watchful eye of a handful of survivors of the so-called historical generation.

It is a domesticated generation (not to say castrated) that knew that the slightest deviation from the official line could result in ostracism, imprisonment or the firing squad, the only alternative being to leave the island forever leaving behind property, families and dreams.

A man who was not eligble to vote for the 1976 Constitution, because he was 65 days short of the required age, was the first and will be the last Cuban president contributed by the generation of the heirs.

Promising to maintain continuity, Miguel Díaz-Canel has served as president of the Councils of State and of Ministers and will be appointed at the end of this year or the beginning of the next one in the new position of President of the Republic where (if he serves a second term) will remain until 2030.

By that date the younger contemporaries of Diaz-Canel will already be preparing their retirement while “the older ones,” born starting in the 1940s, will vegetate in the asylums or rest in the cemeteries.

If events do not take a dramatic turn, whoever replaces Díaz-Canel will be someone born no later than 1970 and before 2000, fulfilling the requirements of the current Constitution. This new breed of Cuban political personalities will also occupy a large part of the ranks of the Parliament, the ministerial portfolios and the seats of the Central Committee of the Party. Maybe that is the generation of change. It will have to draw its own portrait.

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There is No Name for What is Happening in Cuban Baseball

When the fourth and last game in Nicaragua was suspended by rain on Tuesday, the team led by Rey Vicente Anglada had been officially swept.

14ymedio, Ernesto Santana, Havana, 18 July 2019 — At this point, to say that Cuban baseball suffers from an unprecedented crisis doesn’t begin to describe what is happening. The game against Nicaragua, closing the preparation for the Pan American Games in Lima, has surprised even many skeptics.

When the fourth and last game was suspended for rain on Tuesday, the team led by Rey Vicente Anglada had been officially swept away in the most surprising way by a team that, it was supposed, did not even come close in quality, but that won twice (4-1 and 4-3) and tied once.

When that tie occurred, in the first match, Nicaragua had played 23 games without beating a Cuban team and, nevertheless, won the next two games. The visitors only came up with 15 hits in those three games, including a double from César Prieto, the only one, and batted for a fabulously miserable average of 167. continue reading

Previously, since June 14, Cuba had played five series of three matches in the CanAm League, against different squads from Canada and the United States. In total, it won eight games, with two blanks, sweeping the Capitals and the Boulders, and suffering a sweep against the Aigles. The offense averaged a discrete 257.

Those who worried about these results later saw how the American university students beat the Cubans in the traditional annual match-up with a lower batting average (224). They lost four of five games and hit just three doubles and a home run, scoring 11 runs in 45 innings. The pitching, without surprises, appeared very vulnerable in this tour of North America, throwing balls of 85 miles and less.

Although the CanAm League certainly does not have a remarkable quality, its pitchers showed the Cubans, in general, a speed and a variety of pitches that they are not used to facing. But in North Carolina, facing the students, they were overwhelmed by an overwhelming efficiency.

Among the young Americans, some 19 or 20 years old, 15 were about to sign professional contracts. In total, these guys exemplify the current revolution of American baseball, especially the students, with a level of competitiveness todaynever before known.

Their pitchers easily reach 95 miles per hour and have a reserve of three or four secondaries, and there is no way to compare them with Cuban pitchers, who also lack a well-thought-out sequence. As a result, our hitters struck out 38 times and pitching gave away 19 bases on balls.

Undoubtedly, it was easy to lose four of five games against a team like that, but neither can it be said that the Cubans won in experience, taking into account what happened shortly after against Nicaragua. The escape of three players — who left the team to play in the United States: Yoelkis Céspedes, Norge Carlos Vera and Orlando Acebey — was not decisive. Fortunately, and for a reason that is still unknown, the United States will not participate in the hemispheric match up, thus saving our national team a serious problem.

The worst of the sweep before the Nicaraguans has less to do, basically, with the lack of a winning pitching staff as with the absence of combativity itself, of the live game and creativity. What was the value of altitude training in Mexico and the months of intensive preparation in different countries, which not a few have criticized since it was announced?

According to the specialized press, the selection that will go to the Pan American Games will be more complete than this one, as it will be reinforced by up to a third of the lineup with players from foreign leagues, but it has already happened in the past that those players, exhausted and without time to recover, have not turned in the expected performance.

Cuba has become accustomed to losing against inconceivable rivals — let’s remember Germany — against strong and weak, against countries with a baseball tradition and without one, with the pitching or the offense of opponents, dues to the lack of timely batting and due to the lack of pitchers with sustained efficiency.

Before the shipwreck in Central America, Yosvani Aragón, leader of the Cuban team, declared: “We can not think of anything other than winning the Pan American Games in Lima and for that we carefully prepared and it ended with blanks in Nicaragua.” What would he say now? Surely he keeps thinking with the same optimism, as do all the nefarious baseball bureaucracy.

But fans believe something very different. They are not blind and they know that there is no name for what is happening in Cuban baseball.

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Cuban President Diaz-Canel Gives the Mules a Reprieve Until Further Notice

The Cuban minister of economy raised the alarm in his speech on Tuesday, when he announced that imports made by natural persons would be regulated. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 4 July 2019 — Cuban State Television’s Roundtable show has needed two days to explain, with Miguel Diaz-Canel and his Economy Minister, Alejandro Gil Fernandez, the salary increase for state sector employees announced last Thursday.

Among the few novelties outlined by the duo responsible for the economic march of the nation was the advancement of a new regulation to reduce “the flight of foreign currency from the country” through the so-called “mules” that buy merchandise abroad to resell in the island.

Gil raised the alarm in his speech on Tuesday on the matter, when he announced imports made by natural persons for the private sector would be regulated, mainly from countries such as the United States, Panama and Mexico. A day later, he added nuance to his words stating that it is not about “prohibiting the current ways” but the State will launch “competitive offers” to counteract the phenomenon. continue reading

‘Mules’ are the main suppliers of clothing, footwear and appliances in the informal Cuban market. Many private businesses dedicated to hairdressing services, massages, repairs of electronic devices and even food preparation are supplied with some of the raw materials they need through the personal luggage of travelers.

Hence, after Gil’s first statements on Tuesday, many feared a cut in the amount and variety of products that can be imported. At the moment, the General Customs of the Republic maintains a strict regulation of personal imports, limiting even the number of copies of the same product that can be brought into the Island.

Regarding the salary increase, Díaz-Canel clarified that, since the measure will begin to go into effect this July, “we are working in an accelerated way” so that the changes also reach the education sector, which is on pause this month for summer vacation.

For the Cuban economist Elías Amor, resident in Spain, there will be time enough to realize the ineffectiveness of these decisions. “It will soon be seen that increasing wages does not benefit the budgeted sector, nor the economy, it is bread for today and hunger for tomorrow,” he criticized in his blog Cubaeconomía .

Amor warns that “the price increases will certainly happen, and will not come from the demand, that is the big mistake, because the salary increase is very limited, and does not support a big boost in spending.”

The economist thinks that the supply will not increase and that “without support for productivity the unit production costs will increase, and this will be transferred to the rest of the economy.”

In addition, he belives that “if you practice regulation measures and price controls, or price caps, the situation will be the same as always, and even worse.”

The Roundtable addressed the new economic measures for two consecutive programs, mainly focusing on the salary increase and tiptoeing around the rest of the actions, still to be finalized in the coming months.

There were allusion to a near term end of the dual currency system — the Cuban peso and the Cuban convertible peso — without specifying a date, and mentions of the possible use of cryptocurrencies caught the attention of many, but the ministers did not delve into these issues.

On Tuesday, Díaz-Canel insisted that the measures taken are not populist and, although he denied categorically that the current moment is similar to the so-called Special Period — a time characterized by a devastating shrinkage of the Cuban economy after the fall of the Soviet Union and the withdrawal of its support for Cuba — he did call to resuscitate ideas from that time.

“Also taken into account were all the directives of the Commander in Chief for the Special Period, which were issued at two moments in the 1990s. There are documents that are in the territories, that have to be dusted off, that everyone has to study, because there are things that we did in those moments that gave us a lot of results and then, unfortunately, we dismantled them and we have to return to development at the local level.”

The fear that the recent rise in wages will bring an increase in prices has been growing on the streets of Cuba after the official announcement of a plan of economic measures that will come into force gradually. Diaz-Canel, on the other hand, refused to go to that extreme and asked the population to help avoid inflation: “We are calling [on people] to act and think as a country,” he said.

In the program on Tuesday, the Minister of Finance and Prices, Meisi Bolaños, indicated that actions are already anticipated in the private sector, very focused on food services and transportation. “In this task the institutions responsible for monitoring and reviewing the behavior of prices, both wholesale and retail will participate.”

Previously, the Government has used the imposition of price caps to regulate product prices in agricultural markets and in private shared-taxi services in several municipalities of the country.

An extensive body of inspectors focused on the self-employment sector has been another of the tools to prevent inflation in the last year, but those decisions have not yielded the expected results. The price of the pound of pork has practically doubled in recent months, as has the cost of the average ride on an almendrón — privately-operated shared fixed-route taxi — as well.

Many private merchants responded to the price caps by taking their products to the black market, which has represented a very important source of supply in the lives of Cubans for more than half a century.

On this occasion, voices of concern have also begun to be heard, such as that of economist Pedro Monreal, who posed the question on his Twitter account “supposing prices are ‘frozen’ to prevent the supply and demand gap from manifesting as open inflation in legal markets, how much is the level of inflation on the black market estimated to be?”

Monreal warned that the increase in salary will bring an “increased demand for food in the second half of 2019 (2.550 billion CUP — Cuban pesos)”, which “would represent an increase of 49.3% compared to food sales in the 2nd semester of 2018. In order for such an increase to not be inflationary, a proportional increase in supply is needed.”

The wage increase establishes that minimum monthly salaries will rise from 225 Cuban pesos or CUP (equivalent to 9.3 dollars) to 400 (16.6 dollars). The median salary will rise from 767 Cuban pesos (30.6 dollars) to 1,067 pesos (44.4 dollars) and the maximum will rise to 3,000 pesos (125 dollars).

In the contributions of Diaz-Canel on Tuesday’s Roundtable the role of the eternal enemy and the usual dose of the ‘epic’ was not missing. The president said that Cuba will achieve “prosperity” despite the financial and commercial embargo imposed by the United States and hoped to correct the “internal blockade,” referring to productive inefficiency and excessive bureaucracy, a concept that until recently was only used by government opponents and the most critical voices.

So far, all the measures outlined have been aimed at the state sector, but self-employed workers trust that there will be reforms directed at them. For years they have been clamoring for a reduction in taxes, the legal capacity to import and export independently and a wholesale market with real preferential prices.

Another demand of this sector, which was only authorized on the island in the 90s, precisely during the Special Period, is that licenses be extended to the exercise of qualified professions, which now can only be practiced in state-run companies and institutions.

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Lack of Funding and Legal Security Delay Renewable Energy in Cuba

The seminar was held at the end of June in Madrid and was organized by Carlos Malamud. (@sllaudes)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 July 2019 — In tune with the energy crisis currently facing the island, a Spanish-Cuban seminar organized in Madrid by the Elcano Royal Institute has analyzed the role of renewable energies in the EU-Cuba Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement signed in 2016.

Cuba’s weakness with regards to energy in the last sixty years has been revealed on two occasions that coincide with the collapse of its partners, the Soviet Union in the 1990s, and Venezuela now. The blackouts of recent days, reminiscent of the times of the so-called Special Period — after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the withdrawal of its subsidies for Cuba — although the Government attributes today’s blackouts to breakdowns rather than oil shortages, are the latest evidence that Havana’s dependency on other countries is a severe problem not only for the population, but for the whole of the economy, since it affects strategic sectors such as health and industry. continue reading

To alleviate the energy crisis, the Government proposed in recent years to resort to the exploitation of its own resources and promote renewable energy, a sector that would have prospects to prosper if not for the eternal problem of legal uncertainty that exists for potential foreign investors.

At the meeting on June 26 at the Spanish Study Center it was concluded that the take-off of renewables is being hindered by financing, since foreign investment faces several risks, among them non-payment of debts, Cuba’s dual currency system, the lack of transparency, the absence of a clear regulatory framework with professional and independent supervision, and the lack of guarantees and reliable mediation mechanisms.

The meeting found that, in 2018, 96.5% of Cuba’s primary energy came from oil and the Government’s 2020 renewable energy targets are far from being met. As for the forecast for 2030, if the authorities intend to meet it, it needs attract about 4 billion euros to install more than 2,000 MW of renewable sources.

Gonzalo Escribano, director of the Energy and Climate Change Program, explained the details of the meeting and its conclusions in the blog of the Elcano Royal Institute, where he gave an account of the renewable resources that Cuba intends to exploit.

The expert indicated that, although there are plenty of solar and wind resources, “it highlights the potential of biomass, which is to be exploited with the construction of 25 new large bioelectric plants and more than 500 smaller biogas plants. The potential of biomass comes from bagasse, a residue of sugarcane, and marabou [a highly invasive shrub that has spread across Cuba]. (…) Consequently, biomass, despite not eliminating greenhouse emissions, does have other positive environmental externalities, such as complementarity with the cultivation of sugarcane and control of an invasive species.”

In recent years, Cuba has signed several agreements with countries such as Russia or Algeria to alleviate the energy emergency due to the Venezuelan debacle, but the cost of imports is a burden that the Plaza of the Revolution can not afford even in the advantageous conditions that these allies offer.

The Agreement with the EU seeks to promote inclusive sustainable development and the 2030 Agenda through different forms of cooperation, such as technical and financial assistance, scientific and technological cooperation, and Cuba’s participation in related European programs to develop capabilities for technology transfer and management of the electricity sector and improvement in its operation, and the generation of investment opportunities. But, according to experts, the goals achieved are poor to date and, if nothing changes, they will continue to not be achieved.

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France Will Contract for Cuban Doctors for its Overseas Territories

Cuban doctors will have to demonstrate their professional and linguistic skills if they are to work in French territories. (OPS)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 July 2019 — On Tuesday the French parliament approved on a project to reform the health system that includes a small article that will benefit Cuba. Pressure from the senators for Guadeloupe, Dominique Théophile, and Martinique, Catherine Conconne, achieved a provision that provides that the territories of the French Antilles can hire doctors and health personnel from outside the European Union, a rule designed to facilitate the recruitment of the Cuban specialists, as its promoters have expressly indicated.

“We are very happy that the wording of this provision allows us to make use of a resource available an hour by plane from our homes, and I am referring to the Cuban doctors. It will soon be possible not to have to wait for more than a year and a half to have an appointment with a cardiologist, an ophthalmologist or even a gynecologist,” said Conconne. continue reading

French legislation forbids hiring doctors, dentists, midwives or pharmacists from countries that do not belong to the European Union or the countries with which they have agreements, such as Morocco or Tunisia. The only exception to date was Guyana, which since 2005 had an ordinance that allowed it to hire personnel from other countries on a temporary basis.

hat exemption caused a controversy in February when the president of the French territory in South America, Rodolphe Alexandre, held several meetings with Cuban health authorities to hire a hundred doctors from the island. The idea met with the resistance from the professionals of Guyana, who questioned the technical and linguistic skills of Cubans who have been covering the country’s health needs for the last decade

According to local health authorities, this system “has led to recruitment of a poor quality” and the population has lost confidence in doctors who barely speak French. “We maintain a clear refusal against any massive importation of Cuban doctors; we do not agree with some local elected officials,” they say.

The rule, which will be in effect until 2025 in Guyana, Martinique and Guadeloupe, will also apply in the French department of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, a small archipelago located off the coast of Canada. The local authorities must verify the qualifications of the professionals and validate them, and the Council of the Order of Physicians must validate their registration and verify that the applicant has a sufficient level of French. Finally, during the first year of practice, doctors will have a professional in the field who supervises their work.

The senator for Guadalupe, Dominique Théophile, was also very satisfied with the approval of the article: “Today, thanks to the amendment adopted, with a doubly favorable opinion, from the Government and the Commission, new opportunities are opened for the arrival of Cuban doctors to the French Antilles to fight against medical ’desertification’,” he explained.

According to data from the French National Institute of Statistics, in Paris there are 246 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 140 in Guadeloupe and 143 Martinique.

The approval of this rule comes at a time when there are several complaints in the International Criminal Court against the Cuban Government, which is accused of enslaving its doctors. Cuban health professionals serving abroad barely receive between 10% and 25% of the salary paid for their services and the rest goes to the coffers of the State, which has come to realize amounts exceeding 8 billion dollars annually under this concept, which have become the largest source of income for the Cuban Government.

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Law Restricting Asylum in US Comes Into Force

According to official figures of the US, between October 2017 and September 2018, 13,168 asylum protections were granted out of more than 162,000 petitions made. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, July 17, 2019 — Requests for asylum in the United States have become complicated for thousands of applicants, a large many of them Central Americans and Cubans, with the entry into force this Tuesday of the new law to put a check on immigration.

The order, published in the Federal Registry last Monday, grants the right to request political asylum at the southern border of the country only to those migrants, of any nationality, who have had their refuge requests rejected in a third country.

“An alien who enters or attempts to enter the United States across the southern border after failing to apply for protection in a third country” other than his country of origin, nationality, or last legal residence, is ineligible for asylum, says the new regulation. continue reading

The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security affirmed in a statement that the new order intends to “improve the integrity of the process” by imposing more restrictions and limits of eligibility on the foreigners seeking asylum in the US.

This measure affects a good number of the Cubans who emigrate to the United States by leaving other countries that they use as a platform because they have more lax visa policies, as in the case of Guyana, Panama, and Nicaragua.

In recent years, especially since the end of the wet foot/dry foot policy in January 2017, Cubans have opted for these routes and, additionally, for remaining temporarily in countries like Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil, with the final objective of being accepted by the United States. In these cases the asylum route will remain closed, if the courts do not annul the new law.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has stated that it will take legal measures. “The Trump administration is trying to unilaterally reverse our country’s legal and moral commitment to protect people who are fleeing danger. This new rule is patently unlawful. We will sue swiftly,” it wrote on its official Twitter account.

In the event that the lawsuits succeed, a judge could temporarily or permanently suspend the law, which has also been condemned by organizations like the UN Agency for Refugees (UNHCR), and politicians like the Democratic candidate Julián Castro, who wrote on Twitter: “[Trump] wants to replace the torch in the hand of the Statue of Liberty with a middle finger. He must be defeated.”

The acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Kevin K. McAleenan, said that the funds meant to control immigration are not sufficient if the laws aren’t changed. “Until Congress can act, this interim rule will help reduce a major ’pull’ factor driving irregular migration to the United States,” he said.

The new law also provides for certain exceptions. Those who have requested asylum in a third country and been denied can request it in the US, as can those who can prove they have been victims “of a grave form of human trafficking.” Also included in exceptions are those who transited through countries that have not ratified the international protocols on political asylum, like the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the 1967 Protocol, or the Convention against Torture.

Washington has attempted to make Mexico become the “secure third country” along with the only other country that is now: Canada. However, and although negotiations continue, Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard has expressly rejected it in the last few hours.

“A secure third country means that Mexico would process, in Mexican territory, the asylum procedure for entering the United States. That is not going to occur with this law,” said the Mexican Foreign Secretary at a press conference in Mexico City.

The Foreign Secretary criticized that “what this law means is a limitation on the right to asylum with which Mexico does not agree,” but he rejected that Central American migrants be able to undergo the process in Mexican territory as occurs in Canada.

According to official figures from the US, between October 2017 and September 2018, 13,168 asylum protections were granted out of more than 162,000 petitions made.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Cuban Government Creates a Prices Observatory to Stop Inflation

Fearing inflation, the authorities have capped the prices of several agricultural products. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 July 2019 — Concerned about the risk of inflation after the salary increase decreed by the Government two weeks ago, on Monday the Ministry of Finance and Prices published a list of prices, in convertible pesos (CUC) and in national currency (CUP), for products that are sold in the network of state stores and agricultural markets.

A Price Observatory will be created to evaluate, at the municipal level, the “trends and behaviors” of the internal market. The inventory of products, barely twelve pages, includes food but also some appliances, such as televisions and coffee makers, as well as two types of cement and cigarettes.

The agency will rely on “the participation of specialists from various administrative entities” and, according to the official press, may sanction state or private establishments that violate the regulated price lists. continue reading

The president of the Parliament, Esteban Lazo Hernández, spoke of “the battle” against those who try to raise prices for goods and services. “It is won with the people, with control and denunciations,” he said, warning of possible irregularities by administrators or employees. A call for customers themselves to report price cap violations have been frequent in the last year, with the increase in the prices of the basic products, cleaning supplies and private passenger transport.

In a country where the minimum monthly salary does not exceed 16 CUC (Cuban convertible pesos, roughly $16 US), the Ministry of Finance and Prices decrees that the cheapest coffee package sold in state stores costs about 0.85 CUC and the most expensive — always produced domestically — costs 14.45 CUC.

In those same premises, a 20-liter bottle of oil, another product that has been scarce this year, has a price of 38.40 CUC while a kilogram of spaghetti is 1.65 CUC and a 22 kg box of chicken thighs is 37.40 CUC.

The Ministry also disclosed a list of maximum prices in national currency for products marketed in state-managed agricultural markets. A pound of black beans is set at 10 Cuban pesos (roughly 40¢ US) and fruits and vegetables will have prices regulated by season.

The president of the National Assembly alluded in his words to privately managed agricultural markets and regretted that in some of these establishments “in the capital a pound of pork these days is priced at 70 Cuban pesos with lemons at 35.” Lazo explained that “as a result immediate and vigorous action by the corresponding authorities these prices were lowered to 45 and 15, respectively.”

The president of the Assembly of People’s Power in Havana, Reynaldo García Zapata, said that prices had fallen because of the “actions of the authorities.” However, this week meat prices remained the same in the markets in the capital.

Díaz-Canel and his cabinet have devoted ample space on state television to ensure that the dreaded price increase will not happen. On a recent Roundtable TV show, the Cuban leader defended himself against those who criticized the wage increase and denied that it was a populist measure at a time of crisis.

Economy Minister Alejandro Gil Fernandez said that “the rules of the game remain the same and from the point of view of the cost of production everything will continue as before.” Gil Fernandez dismissed that the prices are rising because according to him the law of supply and demand “does not apply” to the Cuban economy.

Since the end of 2016, the imposition of price caps began on the island, initially in the province of Artemisa, reaching all the municipalities of Havana, Cienfuegos, Villa Clara and other regions of the country. Most consumers have celebrated the lower prices but regret the drop in quality and supply.

The prices have also led to the diversion of agricultural products to the black market, an increasingly common practice on the roads of the island, where unlicensed merchants offer products hard to find in markets, such as onions, garlic, beans and pork.

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Cuban Government Prepares New Rules to "Stop Illegalities" in the Private Sector

Up to May 2019, 605,908 self-employed workers worked in the 128 authorized activities. (Alfonso B.)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 July 2019 — Authorities will approve a new package of measures to “stop illegalities” in the private sector, Margarita González Fernández, Minister of Labor and Social Security, announced Tuesday during a session of the National Assembly of People’s Power.

The official explained during, a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Affairs, that the new rules will tackle “illegality with impunity” that “provokes discontent among the self-employed who do comply with their obligations and see that in their environment there are others who violate the provisions”.

The notification of these regulations, the details of which have not yet been specified, comes a few days after the Government announced a package of economic measures that include a salary increase and greater internal flexibility in state companies. continue reading

In what is considered as an attempt to prevent inflation, both President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Economy Minister, Alejandro Gil Fernández, called on citizens to denounce merchants who raise prices after the increase in salaries. A list of products with their corresponding prices was published, as a guide for consumers to demand compliance from merchants.

Now the Minister of Labor and Social Security has joined those appeals and blames many of the illegalities that are committed in the self-employed sector on the fact that citizens “look away and don’t confront them in a timely manner. “

Among the illegalities mentioned by the official, is the sale by private merchants of “products imported or coming from the national trade network” — that is the sale of products stolen from the state. Since December 2013, the Government has banned the sale of imported clothing and footwear and other merchandise from state stores.

Merchants’ stands, as they are known, are in high demand, especially because they offer household supplies, toiletries, disposable batteries, scouring pads and a wide range of plastic goods that merchants often buy in bulk and then sell at retail.

As of May 2019, there were 605,908 self-employed workers in the country in the 128 authorized activities for which licenses may be grated, explained the minister. Havana, Matanzas, Villa Clara, Camagüey, Holguin and Santiago de Cuba, account for 65% of the total non-state labor force, which has grown in the last decade but is still a small share of total employment.

In the first five months of this year, there were 185,000 new license registrations in the sector, especially in activities related to the preparation and sale of food, transportation, beauty services, producer or seller of various items, and contract workers.

But there were also 77,522 licenses canceled, mostly in the areas related to food services, masonry, beauty services and hired workers. This figure includes both workers who decided to cancel their permission to work in the private sector, and those whose licenses were canceled at the request of the National Tax Administration Office (ONAT) for non-compliance with tax obligations.

The ONAT reported 41,311 self-employed workers with defaults in their tax obligations, most of them in the capital, Matanzas and Las Tunas. In that period, more than 43,000 bank accounts were also opened, with a total of just over than 84 million pesos; more than half corresponding to lessors of houses, rooms and premises.

So far it is not clear whether, in the parliamentary sessions of this week, there has been debate about the demands that the private sector has pushed for years, including a reduction of taxes, the legal capacity to import and export directly and the access to wholesale markets with truly preferential prices.

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More Than 4,000 Cubans Entered Mexico in the First Months of This Year

A Cuban migrant with passports to deliver to the National Institute of Migration after crossing the Suchiate River between Guatemala and Mexico. (Patrick Farrell / Miami Herald Archive)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 July 2019 — In the first five months of this year, 4,225 Cubans entered Mexican territory. The figure is 30 times higher than the 135 that arrived in Mexico in the same period the previous year, according to data from the National Migration Institute of Mexico.

There are many fewer Cubans than Central Americans, but they contribute to the increase in a route that also includes migrants from Asia and Africa who cross Mexico to try to reach the border with the United States.

Currently, Cubans have grown more than any other group this year, according to data published by the Immigration Policy unit of the Ministry of the Interior. continue reading

Last week a hundred Cuban migrants in Mexico rioted near the US border in protest at the slow pace of their asylum process. The islanders were stationed in one of the international bridges that connect Mexico and the United States in the state of Tamaulipas, in front of the facilities of the National Institute of Migration (INM).

“The National Institute of Migration is not receiving us (…) They do not take our names, they do not call anyone, and some of us have already been here four months, others even longer, we are desperate, we can no longer live in these conditions,” they related through social networks.

Finally, the immigration authorities met with several of the protesters and explained that the delays are due to the United States, on whom the bureaucratic process depends. While waiting for a response from the United States, many of these migrants have camped on the banks of the Rio Grande in tents.

Between last March and April, at least 300 Cubans were deported from Mexico back to the Island on five flights that arrived at the José Martí International Airport in Havana. The National Migration Institute reported that these were migrants who had an ‘irregular’ stay in Mexico and were returned according to current legal procedures and in agreement with Cuban authorities.

Washington has demanded that Mexico work to reduce the flow of migrants, mostly Central Americans who are escaping poverty and violence in their countries, but also Cubans, Haitians and Africans. President Donald Trump has threatened his neighboring country with applying tariffs to Mexican imports if that demand is not met.

Between January and June of this year, Mexico arrested more than 74,000 migrants and deported more than 53,000. In May 2016, a memorandum of understanding between Cuba and Mexico entered into force in which Havana committed to receiving back its citizens who arrive in Mexico with an irregular migration status.

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Former Cuban Political Prisoner Ricardo Bofill Dies in Miami

Amnesty International adopted Ricardo Bofill as a prisoner of conscience in 1985. (Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 July 2019 — Former political prisoner Ricardo Bofill Pagés, a renowned human rights activist in Cuba, died at the crack of dawn in Miami at 76 years old, according to friends and family members speaking to Radio y Televisión Martí.

“I received a call with the bad news from Yolanda Miyares, his partner in the struggle and a neighbor. The competent professionals of 911 had already done their work. By this means I transmit to his relatives and to human rights activists and friends the sad news Yolanda has told me just now,” wrote Oscar Peña, his friend and fellow fighter for human rights. continue reading

“For Ricardo Bofill, my respect for his tenacity, his courage and intelligence. Like Father Varela yesterday, today he taught us to think. Rest in Peace, civil rights professor,” Peña added.

Miyares confirmed to Radio y Television Martí that Bofill had died at three in the morning at home and that he suffered from hypertension and heart disease.

On January 28, 1976, Bofill founded the Cuban Committee for Human Rights (CCPDH) along with Elizardo Sánchez Santacruz, Adolfo Rivero Caro, Edmigio López Castillo and Enrique Hernández Méndez.

In 1967 Bofill was sentenced to 12 years in prison for “enemy propaganda” in the process known as the “microfraction,” where former members of the Popular Socialist Party, critical of the authoritarianism of Fidel Castro, fell. In 1972 Bofill was released on parole.

He was imprisoned again, for two and a half years, in 1980 after divulging the document Cuba: Human Rights in Permanent Crisis. He was then accused of maintaining links with Western diplomats and drawing up “counter-revolutionary documents.” Amnesty International adopted him as a prisoner of conscience in 1985.

Between August 1986 and January 1987, he was a refugee at the French Embassy in Havana and left when the French government received a commitment from the Cuban authorities that the dissident would not be arrested. A year later, the Cuban government authorized him to leave the island, but he could only do so on the condition that it would be a final exit.

In a ceremony held at the school in 2015, Miami Dade College presented him with a special recognition for his fight for freedom.

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Statue of Nicolas Guillen Raises Controversy Over Its Lack of Resemblance to the Poet

“They achieved the miracle of turning Nicolás Guillén into another person,” an Internet user said ironically about the newly inaugurated sculpture. (Art for Excellencies)

14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 12 July 2019 — With a smile from ear to ear, a sparkling look, a mane grown long and a mischievous phrase sticking to his lips, is how so many remember the poet Nicolás Guillén. As of this Wednesday, however, those who pass from through the Alameda de Paula, in Old Havana, come across a statue accompanied by a sign with his name but which bears very little resemblance to the writer from Camagüey.

On July 10, on the 117th anniversary of Guillén’s birthday, the bronze piece made by the sculptor Enrique Angulo was officially inaugurated. But the image of a man who looks at the bay in a suit and tie, hardly evokes the one who was also president of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and to whom the Cuban government awarded the epithet of “national poet,” which is still attached to him in books, manuals and institutional events. continue reading

The controversy was not long in coming and a few hours after the sculpture was presented to the public, several of those who knew the poet personally have criticized the few similarities between the figure and the author of the poem Tengo.

“They have just inaugurated a statue of Nicolás Guillén in Havana, which looks nothing, absolutely nothing, like Nicolás.I have seen many pictures of the poet in different stages of his life and apart from that, I personally saw him since 1971, when he was 41 years old, and in successive years, so I have a clear image in my memory,” composer and musicologist Rodolfo De La Fuente Escalona commented on his Facebook account.

“They achieved the miracle of turning Guillen into another person,” said another Internet user who also evoked some of the poet’s most repeated verses, especially those in which he said “I have, let’s see, / I have the pleasure of going about my country / owner of all there is in it.” Now, “besides that nothing that he said came to pass, with this statue they have taken from him his true face,” he said.

“It’s better that people do not know who this sculpture man is because if they realize that he’s the one who said ’I have what I now have / a place to work / and earn what I have to eat’, they’ll come here to make a protest,” ventured a neighbor of the Alameda, who didn’t fail to notice that “Guillen has his back to the city and is looking out to the North.”

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Cuba Denies Entry to Cuban Poet Jorge Luis Arcos / 14yMedio

Jorge Luis Arcos is an associate professor of literature at the National University of Río Negro, Argentina. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 July 2019 — Cuban authorities denied entry to Cuba to the poet and essayist Jorge Luis Arcos. The academic was not allowed to board a flight in Santiago de Chile because airline employees informed him that he could not enter the island, according to a press release from the Betania publishing house.

“We denounce this arbitrary situation, which violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (signed by Cuba), and we show our solidarity with this brilliant Cuban intellectual, who has seen his rights — as a Cuban citizen — trampled,” the text adds.

Arcos was exiled to Madrid in 2004 and since 2010 has been based in Argentina. Three years ago he traveled to Cuba to present a book on the poetry of Raúl Hernández Novás in the Casa de las Américas and recently he had his passport authorized for travel to the island at the Cuban Consulate in Buenos Aires.

Born in 1956, Arcos is one of the most important Cuban literary critics of recent decades and one of the most renowned scholars of the so-called Orígenes group. He is currently working as an assistant professor of literature at the National University of Río Negro, Argentina. Between 1995 and 2004,in Havana, he directed, along with Enrique Saínz, the literature and art magazine Unión.

He is the author, among others, of books of essays: On The Poetic Work of Fina García Marruz (1990); The Unitiva Solution; On the poetic thought of José Lezama Lima (1990); Origens: Irradiating Poverty (1994) and Kaleidoscope; The poetics of Lorenzo García Vega (2012).

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Turn Off the Cuban Summer and Turn On the AC

Many Cuban travelers import air conditioning equipment for domestic use or for resale in the informal market. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 10 July 2019 — He was one of the first to obtain the ‘purchase card’ that Panama authorized for Cubans as of last October. Since then he has traveled four times to that country to bring varied goods, including three air conditioning units, popularly known as splits. “My business is cold, so people don’t sweat,” Sendry explains to 14ymedio.

With temperatures exceeding 85F every day, summer in Cuba is that time of the year when a breath of refreshing air is greatly appreciated. “This business is not what it was before because the prices of the devices have dropped a lot,” says Sendry. “There is too much supply and now you make less and it takes more time to sell the merchandise.”

If two years ago a device of this type with the capacity to produce one tonne of refrigeration (TRF) cost more than 750 CUC (roughly the same in US dollars) in the informal Cuban market, now they can be less than 550, which leaves a smaller profit margin to the private importers who buy them in retail stores in other countries, pay the costs of airfares and customs duties. continue reading

In Sendry’s house, in a corner of the room, several boxes are piled up with the different parts that make up the splits, the status symbol of an emerging social class that does not want to be dripping fat drops of sweat all day. “I’ve had these here for more than two months and I have not been able to sell them although I am giving them away at 600 CUC which is the cheapest thing that can be found right now”.

In 2013, in the midst of the reforms promoted by Raúl Castro, Cubans not only saw the rules governing travel and immigration relaxed, allowing them to leave the island, but they were also authorized — after eight years of prohibitions — to import air conditioning units, electric stoves, refrigerators and microwave ovens. Both measures unleashed a real rush of personal imports.

But the “split bubble” seems to be deflating. For six years a constant trickle of these devices has landed on the island. “On my flight from Cancun, there were seven and most of them are people who bring them to sell,” says Anayansi, a woman from Matanzas who is also a naturalized citizen of Spain. She makes the trip frequently to bring clothes and shoes. “I do not deal with household appliances because they are complicated and the market here is saturated.”

The drop in enthusiasm is not only due to a greater supply, but also affected by the costs of electricity service. Although compared to other countries in the region, the island does not have the highest rates, the price of kilowatts consumed is high compared to wages.

In October 2010 electricity rates increased in the residential sector. With the current prices, the Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) begins charging 9 centavos for each kilowatt-hour (kWh) below the first 100 consumed, a rate that grows exponentially until reaching a price of 5 CUP (roughly 20¢ US) for each kWh higher at 5,000.

According to data from the last population census, published in 2012, of the 3,880,000 households in the country, about 579,000 had air conditioners. A figure that must have increased significantly in recent years, not only because of the legalization of travel, but because the State began selling these devices in their network of stores in the country, after decades without offering them.

“Before, to have air conditioning one had to be a ’vanguard worker’, or have gone to fight the war in Angola, be a sugar can cutter, and behave well, but now it is different. Those who don’t have to put up with the heat are those who travel, have hard currency, a business or family abroad” explains Richard, a 47-year-old engineer who, along with another friend, has a small AC repair team.

“The minimum you will pay for electricity, to run a modern AC all night, is about 350 CUP per month,” he tells 14ymedio . “Although modern equipment is more and more efficient, that constant expense can not be assumed by many people, so there are families who have the device installed but use it very little,” explains the technician.

For those who have a business renting rooms to tourists, it is not a choice. “We have four rooms with their respective air conditioners, all recently installed and quite efficient, but still what we have to pay monthly electricity exceeds 2,000 CUP,” says Rosendo, owner of a house on the beach of Guanabo, east of Havana.

“These devices are a costly investment, not only for the value of each and then to keep paying for electricity consumption, but also in our case we also had to put bars around the outdoor unit to protect it from thieves,” he adds. On several digital sites, second-hand and “well-maintained” AC units are offered.

Most likely, these devices come from a theft or, above all, from users who can no longer pay the electricity bill.

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Cuban Schools Lagging in Sports

In Cuba there is a deficit of 1,736 Physical Education teachers and many sports areas are in poor condition. (Sue Kellerman)

14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 11 July 2019 — “Breathe deeply, touch your shoulders with your hands”, the young PE teacher instructs some children who laugh, leave the line and from time to time follow the instructions of the teacher, while they play an improvised football match with a handball.

The scene takes place in the Havana neighborhood of El Cerro, in a square with a cracked pavement with the grass growing through it. It must be one of those 10,700 sports areas with problems, of which 3,863 are evaluated as poor or bad, according to the report presented this week before the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP).

This deterioration and the deficit of 1,736 teachers of Physical Education, which the document also mentions, means that in many elementary schools physical education period has become a time to run around or have a snack, but not to do sports. continue reading

Despite the fact that every year hundreds of students graduate from the Provincial School of Physical Education (EPEF), many teachers of this subject migrate to other better-paid activities and many recent graduates do not even teach classes to fulfill their two years of social service. Some end up in the schools practicing this professions, more out of family pressures so they don’t “hang around the house doing nothing,” their true vocation.

“I started with tremendous enthusiasm but along the way I realized that this is very hard,” 14ymedio hears from Osniel Villafuente, a 23-year-old who, five years ago, began to teach Physical Education classes in a high school in San Miguel del Census. A few months passed and he lost the taste for work because “the lack of resources limits everything you dream about during the years you spend learning the profession,” he explains.

Right now, the authorities of the Ministry of Education are in a process of reforming the programs in the subject. For decades, two sports were practiced in elementary school, but after the adjustments in the program this may be expanded to six, and the teachers will choose which sports disciplines they teach, in line with the facilities of each school.

The metal frame of an old school table serves as a goal in a sports area on Carlos III Street that several schools in the area use. A student has brought his own ball to practice with his classmates. The group that arrived later was not so lucky and could only train doing some racing and some squatting.

In the absence of teachers and sports equipment, the Physical Education period is often used to snack, run or play. (James Emery)

For Osniel Villafuente the reform that the authorities seek in the subject could, instead of alleviating the problems, end up aggravating them. “With two sports it is already difficult for us to complete the study program because there are few resources. Having a ball is a problem and the areas where we do exercises are in very bad condition. So what is going to happen when new sports are incorporated?”

“In addition, we have a lack of interest among the students because they were born and live in this century, but they are receiving a course conceived and designed in the last century that is not interesting,” adds the teacher, who now works in a small workshop repairing mobile phones. “These teenagers today have grown up with video games and manga cartoons, they make fun of you when you tell them to raise an arm or raise a leg.”

The president of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder), Osvaldo Vento Montiller, explained this week to parliamentarians about the need to “make the subject of Physical Education an attractive activity for students”. An urgency in an era “where digitization and computer products prevail, in which recreation is associated with a sedentary lifestyle”.

The official acknowledged that the physical education taught in schools across the island continues to generate “dissatisfaction and does not meet the expectations of students.” On the other hand, he pointed out that there is not a good recruitment of talents among children and teens to prepare them as athletes, an absence that is undermining the foundations of Cuban sport.

“I have five students out of a total of 17 who almost never come to Physical Education,” laments a teacher of the subject who twice a week trains her students in a park in the neighborhood of La Timba, near the Plaza of the Revolution. “Four other students have medical certificates that say they can not do physical education, but everyone knows they are justifications that are invented with the complicity of parents to skip this period.”

In schools where teachers are missing, it is common practice for the subject to be graded automatically with the maximum score in the students’ file. A situation that increases disrespect towards the discipline.

“My daughter has three periods without a physical education teacher and at that time what they do is go out to the playground and start playing,” laments Yanelis, mother of a student at the José Luis Arruñada elementary school in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución. “In several meetings with the school’s management, we have demanded that the problem be solved, but we are told that they do not have teachers, that nobody wants the position.”

The mother considers that now is a good time to alleviate the situation with the salary increase announced at the end of June and that will benefit, starting this month, more than 2.7 million public workers, including employees of the Ministry of Education.

“We’re going to see if that motivates many of those graduates to go back to school and stand in front of a group,” says the woman. “If this is not the case, I do not know how this can be fixed because the longer these children do not receive Physical Education classes, the more they will have less interest in sports, something that will hold them back for the rest of their lives,” says Yanelis.

In universities the picture is not very different. In these centers of higher education the practice of sports is usually limited to students who have the ability to compete and represent their faculty in the University Games. Those who have no talent can barely access the facilities where those who already know how to play basketball, volleyball or baseball are trained, and they must settle for going around the track and doing a little warm-up.

The prominence achieved by Cuba in sports has decreased markedly in the last 20 years. We are already talking with nostalgia about the times when the Island had won trophies in all the regional events and even surpassed first world countries in the Olympics.

Yanelis is clear: “How are we going to have Olympic champions if right now there are children who spend the Physical Education shift throwing stones or playing with a mobile phone?”

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