14ymedio – Page 433 – Translating Cuba

The Name Alberto is Cursed in Artemis

The greatest damages caused by the storm are to crops and homes on the outskirts of Candelaria. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Bertha K. Guillén, Candelaria, 1 June 2018 — The rains of subtropical storm Alberto have focused their gaze towards the center of the country, the area most affected by the floods, but in the West the damages are also considerable. In many areas of Candelaria in the province of Artemisa residents are still “up to their ankles in water,” and are taking stock of the losses in agriculture and housing.

The town of Candelaria is mostly agriculture and the raising of small livestock, and it is one of the most important suppliers of food to the city of Havana. Along with others such as San Antonio de los Baños, Güira de Melena and Alquízar, their fields yield root crops, beans and vegetables, destined for the capital.

In mid-2017 the province of Artemisa, in which these municipalities are located, supplied about 200 food outlets in Havana, according to information provided to the official press by Tomás Rodríguez, director of the Agricultural and Forestry Group. continue reading

“When these towns can not get their produce to town, the situation becomes very difficult for them, because what is raised in these fields is what Havanans buy in their markets,” 14ymedio was told by was told by Luis Romero, the driver of a “spider,” a two-wheeled vehicle pulled by horses and used to transport goods.

Returning to normal daily routines in difficult in a village with areas still quite wet. (14ymedio)

This Thursday afternoon some anxious customers arrived in Candelaria from Havana to stock up onions, garlic and pork. “But there is not much to sell because most of the crops are still under water and others are spoiled,” laments Romero, who managed to sell some bananas before they went bad.

Among the most affected crop in the Candelarian territory is rice, with hundreds of acres still under water, while in the mountainous area of Soroa crops such as corn and cassava and fruit trees, such as bananas, suffered severe damage from the heavy rains.

In the streets, sewage still mixes with the floods left by the rains and has flowed into many houses, especially in the lower lying areas. Residents have been taking their furniture and personal items outside to dry them, with the first rays of the sun in two weeks.

A family has hung a piece of plastic to prevent the leaks caused by the rain from falling on the bed. (14ymedio)

An unbearable plague of mosquitoes has joined the damages left by Alberto, and families with young children take precautions to avoid the spread of diseases. “We send to Pinar del Río for water because our well is contaminated and there are two small children in the house,” explains one grandmother in charge of her three grandchildren.

The situation of chronic patients was also complicated with the passage of the storm, because the nearest hospital is in San Cristóbal. Asthmatics, hypertensives and diabetics have suffered the most and, as of Wednesday, those who in the worst physical condition have begun to be transferred to hospitals.

Others are living with the anguish of a possible collapse of their homes damaged by excess wetness.

“Passed through the water” says Caridad, describing the situation of her family living in the center of town. They have placed a dozen cans, buckets and other containers to collect leaks that fall from their ceiling made up of wooden beams.” The downpour has not given us a break,” she says.

“We also put this nylon over the beds to prevent them from getting wet, but the rest of the things are piled up in the only corner that does not get wet,” Caridad explains as she points to the ceiling.

Although subtropical storm Alberto has already moved away from Cuba, the rains continue to fall in Artemisa. (14ymedio)

“I’m desperate, I sent my daughter with her child to my sister’s house and we stay here,” she says. “This construction is one of the oldest in the town, it was declared a heritage site and it costs a lot of money to fix it, in addition to the permits and restrictions on building that are imposed on us because it is a heritage site,” she complains.

In the neighboring municipality of San Cristóbal, the most damaged in the province according to the authorities, the local press reports that families lost an incalculable number of appliances and about 400 mattresses.

Most of Candelaria’s streets are not paved and the rain has made it difficult to travel on them. (14ymedio)

In the towns of Taco Taco and Santa Cruz, the mere mention of the name Alberto creates uneasiness among the residents. In 1982, a hurricane of the same name caused severe flooding and now the nightmare has been repeated.

“No one here is going to give any child born the name Alberto because people have very bad memories of that name,” says a resident of Taco Taco who still has water up to his knees in the living room of his house.

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Bismarck, Another Young Idealist Who Dies in Nicaragua in the Struggle for Democracy

Bismarck Badilla López during the mission in the Mactzul communities of Guatemala. (14ymedio).

14ymedio, Mario J. Pentón, Miami, 30 may 2018 — “Hard news arrives from Nicaragua,” a friend writes. “Bismarck, our brother, passed away.”

Confusion, disbelief, a feeling of emptiness. These were my first reactions. It was Sunday night when I received the news from Guatemala. The next day his death was confirmed by family and close friends. Bismarck Badilla López was found hanged in one of the rooms of the house he rented in the municipality of Santa Teresa, where he served as a doctor fulfilling his social service. He was 25 years old.

“Bismarck was under a lot of pressure from the government, they threatened him,” a close relative tells me; for security reasons, I will allow him to remain anonymous. continue reading

“In these last weeks of repression I saw so many injustices inside the health center and had to remain silent for weeks, until I came to a safe place where I could scream everything that was happening,” he says.

Bismarck was originally from Estelí, a city three and a half hours from the place where he performed his social service.

Bismarck Badilla in the community of La Puya, on the outskirts of Guatemala City. (14ymedio)

“He witnessed how the boys [the students] were allowed to die because the government did not allow them to be attended to just because they thought differently: the police, the doctors and the Sandinista youth were behind causing the greatest possible harm to the wounded,” explains the relative.

Was it suicide or murder? We will probably never know. Some close friends said that he was killed and that peretrators tried to hide it by faking a suicide. It would not be the first. Since April 18 when the country erupted in protests against President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, his wife, more than 80 people have been killed, most of them young and civilians.

Allegations of torture, assassinations and disappearances have been documented by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, but the Ortega government remains deaf to the popular clamor and clings to power like its ideological allies in Caracas and Havana.

Bismarck’s close friends say he died because he helped “those he shouldn’t help,” that is, the protesters. Other people claim that he was present at a demonstration. How could such a generous heart deny help to those who needed it? It was serve or die. He chose the first.

I can not believe that Bismarck, El Gordo, as we affectionately called him, committed suicide. I met him in 2015 in Guatemala. At that time I had not exchanged the habits of a Marist brother for career in journalism and he was an aspirant in the community of brothers in Chinautla, Zone 6, in the Guatemalan capital.

Bismarck was a cheerful boy, very tall (over six feet), very intelligent and sensitive. We studied theology it Landívar University and, like all young people, we believed that we could change the world and make it more humane and fraternal.

I remember the endless conversations about politics, about the difficult situation of democracy in our countries. At that time, we were part of the community of brothers from Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Spain, Nicaragua and Cuba.

Both for Bismarck and for me the support that the populist movements had among the most underprivileged social strata in Guatemala was a surprise. In a country so marked by inequality, the messianic discourse — in those years backed by Chavez petrodollars — triumphed.

Bismarck was always a boy critical of the Ortega government. He was not deceived by the Christian veneer of a disguised dictatorship that sought to permeate all the institutions of the nation to turn them into an arm of Sandinismo. That hodgepodge of Party-Nation-State, so typical of the totalitarianisms inspired by Cuba’s Plaza of the Revolution, was repulsive to him.

Like every young person he liked to enjoy life. If anything characterized him is was his loud laughter, which could be felt throughout the house. “You are a rogue,” he would tell me when we joked, taking selfies while we prayed the rosary in the hall or when we ate the olives that the good brother Jesús Balmaseda bought for us in secret.

He was also a person very sensitive to the pain of others. I remember how he was moved — to tears — on a mission we did with the Mactzules indigenous communities in the Guatemalan Quiché. In the midst of shocking poverty I had never seen him so happy. He found his raison d’être in the service of his neighbor, especially the most neglected children.

The Gospel says that if the seed does not fall to the ground and dies, it will not bear fruit, that to live fully, you must first pass through the cross and die. Bismarck knew how to die, as do dozens of his compatriots, in search of a better country, democratic, free of tyranny and oligarchies of any kind.

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians, said the ancient fathers of the Church. Today perhaps we can say that the blood of the heroes who give their lives in the streets of Managua and other Nicaraguan cities is the seed of freedom.

Unlike me, who took the path of exile, my brother returned to his homeland to work for his people. He could have stayed in Guatemala, where a doctor has a better salary and living conditions, or emigrated to the United States, but he did not want it that way. He went to serve and died with his boots on.

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Finding Food: The New Challenge for Cubans After the Rains

The residents of Nuevo Vedado stand in a long line in the rain at the ration market to buy the chicken that arrived two weeks late. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 31 May 2018 — The first announcement of “Cookies for Sale!” was heard this Wednesday in Havana’s Los Sitios neighborhood, mobilizing dozens of neighbors. After more than a week of the state shops being empty and the black market paralyzed, the seller was greeted with relief, in a city where the storm Alberto has exacerbated the shortage of food.

“The downpours came at a time when we already had problems,” Eduardo tells 14ymedio. Eduardo sells products in 17th and K agricultural market managed by the Youth Labor Army, which belongs to the armed forces and is made up of compulsory military service recruits.

“The last few weeks the supply of tubers and vegetables has not been good for several reasons, such as the controls on the roads over the trucks that bring products and the fines they are assessing,” says the merchant. “In this month of May very few farmers have been able to harvest anything from the fields because it doesn’t stop raining.” continue reading

Reality confirms Eduardo’s words. InSan Antonio de los Baños, Alquízar and Güira, three of the municipalities of Artemisa that supply the most agricultural products to the capital, the fields are waterlogged and all the harvests have stopped. “So there is no one working the land,” says Juan Carlos Ruíz, a producer of beans in Pulido, a local town.

“Working in these conditions is impossible, because most of the farmers in this area do not have waterproof boots, no raingear and no truck wants to haul the harvest out of the field with so much mud because it can get stuck,” Ruíz adds. “It’s not worth it to harvest anything, because then it just rots in the field.”

On the stands in the San Rafael agricultural market, one of the best stocked in the capital, the picture is not encouraging either. Zero fruits, few vegetables and little pork with a row of anxious buyers despite a price of 50 Cuban pesos per pound, the salary of two working days of a professional.

The market for rationed products has also suffered. This week the distribution of chicken on the ration book has begun in some of Havana’s municipalities, half a month late. Other areas are still waiting for the chicken to arrive; poultry is all that is available to Cuban adults who can’t claim special rations because of health problems, in a ration market where meat and fish were formerly also distributed.

Odalys Escandell García, vice minister of Internal Commerce, told the official media that they are working “to guarantee on-time distribution of the foods for the ’family basket’, social consumption and special diets in the territories affected by the heavy rains.”

As of May 28th the products included in the basic ration basket for the month of June began to be sold in advance: 7 pounds of rice, 4 pounds of sugar, 20 ounces of beans and half a pound of oil, but the measure has not been able to alleviate the needs. Although the authorities have said that the 4,602 centers of commerce and food service in Havana are functioning, many have empty shelves or very little merchandise.

This Thursday rationed potatoes also began to be sold in some state outlets but in several places visited by this newspaper the amount available was not enough to supply all the registered consumers. The distribution of eggs has been irregular, especially in neighborhoods on the periphery of the capital.

“It is not a question of not having supplies, but that many products had to be moved from the points of sale to stores or warehouses where they were more protected,” explains a source from the Ministry of Domestic Trade (Mincin), who preferred anonymity.

In the streets people are beginning to despair. “I have toured several agricultural markets to try to buy some taro roots because my mother can only eat puree, but there aren’t any,” a young woman on the outskirts of the 26th street market in the Plaza of the Revolution municipality said this Thursday morning.

Private businesses, from elegant paladares (private restaurants) to small food kiosks, offer bribes to get supplies. “There is no pizza or juice,” reads a poster on Infanta Street outside a small café run by two sisters.

The situation in the villages in the center of the island, where the waters caused serious flooding, is even worse. “We had to make do with what we had saved but we have lost part of the rice we had in sacks and also the corn flour,” explains Mario Pelayo, a resident of Sagua la Grande in Villa Clara, by telephone.

“The flooding has devastated the crops,” says the farmer. “Between what came from the Alacranes dam and the river that crosses the city that overflowed, here most of the neighbors have been left with very little and the bakeries have not worked for days,” says Pelayo.

“People are waiting for some food to be delivered but still nobody has come here to give us anything,” he says.

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Cuban Police Seize APLP Equipment After Search of its Headquarters

Police patrols at the entrance of the APLP headquarters in Managua. (Cubanet)

14ymedio, Havana, 30 May 2018 — The police search that took place on Wednesday against the headquarters of the Pro Free Press Association (APLP) resulted in the seizure of two computers, two external hard drives, twelve USB memory sticks, three printers and dozens of documents, Amarilis Corty, head of the public relations of the independent organization, told 14ymedio.

The officers explained to the activist that they would take away everything that the APLP might need to carry out its work. The group is dedicated to the protection of the union of independent journalists and to assessing the freedom of the press on the island.

The APLP has its headquarters in the house where José Antonio Fornaris, director of the Association, and his wife Amarilis Cortina Rey reside, located in the Managua district of the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo in Havana. continue reading

Cortina says that according to her neighbors the officers had been in the neighborhood since before seven in the morning but it was not until nine that they approached her home. “They went for the garage, very forcefully, they brought a search warrant but I could not see it, they only showed it to Fornaris who was the one who opened the door and accompanied them during the search.

“The troops went around room by room looking for anything that had to do with our work and asking about each paper they found. In the end, they took Fornaris’s phone and they took him away, but they never told me to which police station,” she says. According to her testimony, two agents and a State Security major, a doctor, three police officers and a couple of witnesses from the same neighborhood participated in the search.

“The older one told me that my husband would be released right away and that they only took him to detention to talk to him but I do not trust them,” the woman complains. “The search lasted until around midnight and then they took Fornaris but I still do not know where he is.”

In February of this year four members of the APLP, who were on their way to Trinidad and Tobago to participate in a journalism workshop, were prevented from leaving the country by the immigration authorities, according to José Antonio Fornaris, president of the independent organization speaking to this newspaper. In addition, they have been victims of threatening interrogations carried out by State Security officials to try to make them abandon their work. The Pro Free Press Association is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that helps promote freedom of the press and expression on the island. Its work also includes the publication of the magazine Vocablo (Word). Last December the group sent a report on press freedom in Cuba to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

In 2016 there was the case of the police assault on Cubalex, the independent Center for Legal Information, and a year later the headquarters of Convivencia. Then there was the search of the headquarters of Somos+, in the house of its president Eliécer Ávila, and in El Círculo Gallery-Workshop, coordinated jointly by the artist Luis Trápaga and the activist Lia Villares.

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A Country Narrated By Its People

Image of the incident recorded by one of the first residents of the area who ran to help the victims of Cubana de Aviacion flight DMJ-972 in Havana. (CC)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 29 May 2018 — In recent days the images of two unfortunate events have jumped from one mobile phone to another across the country. First were the videos of the Cubana de Aviacion crash on May 18 and then the films of the floods in the center of the island. In both the tragedy and in the emergency the citizen information channels have been faster and more effective than the official media.

The press controlled by the Communist Party has been seen to act clumsily, compared to the rapid and viral news transmission Cubans have achieved on their own, thanks to new technologies. Even Granma’s “minute-by-minute” updates on its digital site suffer from the delays cause by having to wait for authorizations about what events can be talked about and how they must be addressed. continue reading

The nationally circulating newspapers distributed in the network of government-run kiosks have silenced all the statements from pilots, flight attendants and experts who point out the technical problems and penalties that have characterized the Mexican company Global Air in recent years. Cubans have learned about these circumstances entirely through alternative networks.

In a Havana high school in the Plaza of the Revolution municipality, the teenagers have exchanged at least a dozen videos about the air disaster, including interviews with a former employee of the firm who denounced the technical problems of its planes. To silence the existence of these testimonies in the news only increases the distance between official journalism and reality.

While the television broadcasts, over and over, the face of president Miguel Diaz-Canel in the place where the Boeing 737 fell out of the sky, videos circulating in the streets show not only the first neighbors who arrived to help the survivors, but also the vandals who tried to take wallets, cellphones and money from the wreckage of the plane. Thanks to these images filmed by amateurs, the ineptitude of the rescue team has also become known.

In the recent days of heavy rains it is also the cellphones and cameras of ordinary people that have allowed us to see the collapse of the bridges over the Zaza and Sancti Spiritus rivers, and the dramatic situation of families with their flooded houses or lost harvests.

National television, on the other hand, has chosen to give more space to the visits of the officials inspecting the state of the tobacco in Pinar del Rio and the boring meetings of party cadres dressed in olive-green who insist that everything is “safeguarded.”

Meanwhile, Civil Defense didn’t bother to release information, an alert or an alarm for the affected territories, but the residents of the sites with the most damage advised their families and people living in nearby villages about the advance of the waters from a dam or the increase in the flow of a river. Not only has the news travelled from one cellphone to another, but the warnings and proofs of life have as well.

One can imagine this same scenario under the absolute information control of the government. Would the antecedents of an accident or the magnitude of a natural disaster come to light if Cubans didn’t have their own sources to learn about them? The experience from the years when the official press completely dominated the scene tell us that the answer is no.

The dangers of this new scenario, however, are also many. Apocryphal images, falsified videos and photos attributed to one moment that actually belong to another, also abound in this avalanche of content that has been unleashed on the island. Even the official sites have republished some of these hoaxes as authentic.

However, beyond the risk of ‘fake news’ and the morbid reproduction of some of these images, the final balance is much more positive than alarming: Cubans are informed now they have their own narrative of the country and have left, far in the past, that informational innocence that served such nefarious purposes. news

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Eduardo Cardet Denied Visits for Six Months Because His Family is Accused of “Spreading False News” About His Case

Eduardo Cardet has been in prison for a year and a half for the crime of “attack on authority.” (ObservaCuba)

14ymedio, Havana, 29 May 2018 — The authorities who run the Cuba Sí prison in Holguín province have suspended Eduardo Cardet’s visiting privileges for six months. Cardet, a member of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), has been in prison since 30 November 2016, serving a three-year sentence for the crime of “attack on authority.”

According to the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN), the reason given to the opponent’s family to deny him the right to visits is that they have been “spreading false news” about his case.

“On May 26 we went to the Cuba Sí prison for a visit that was planned by Eduardo’s mother, his sister, my children and me, and they prevented us from seeing him. The prison authorities said Eduardo has had his visits suspended for six months,” Cardet’s wife, Yaimaris Vecino Leyva reported to Marti Noticias. continue reading

“This is a new arbitrariness against Eduardo and I seriously fear for his physical safety,” Vecino Leyva added. The dissident, a doctor by profession, has served a year and a half in prison as of this week, which means that under Cuban law he could be eligible for parole, having served half his sentence.

Since the death of Oswaldo Payá in 2012 Cardet has held the position of National Coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL).

This newspaper has been unable to communicate with Vecino Leyva but was able to confirm this information through the CCDHRN. A member of that independent organization says that, according to reports he received, the family “has not received a response on the condition” and “they are not being allowed visits.”

Amnesty International considers the activist a prisoner of conscience. In March of last year the NGO launched an “urgent action” calling for Cardet’s unconditional release and the CCDHRN also demanded his immediate release.

“Cuban authorities have sentenced human rights defender Eduardo Cardet to three years in prison after holding him in the Holguin prison in the southeast of Cuba, since November 2016. He is a prisoner of conscience, so he must be released immediately and without conditions,” Amnesty International said in its statement.

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Two Activists File Complaint with the Attorney General over Travel Bans

Cuban dissident Moisés Leonardo Rodríguez and the director of the program “Lente Cubano,” Iliana Hernández, after delivering their complaint to the Office of the Attorney General. (Courtesy)

14ymedio, Havana, May 24, 2018 — Cuban dissident Moisés Leonardo Rodríguez and the director of the online video program “Lente Cubano,” Iliana Hernández, filed a complaint on Wednesday with the Office of the Attorney General after several activists were barred from travelling.

Hernández and Rodríguez along with Félix Navarro, a Black Spring political prisoner, compiled the names of every dissident who has been prevented from leaving the country since the Emigration Reform law was passed in January of 2013. They submitted the list along with their complaint. continue reading

Rodríguez stated that Corriente Martiana, a disident organization which he leads, also forwarded the cases to the United Nations’ special representative for human rights.

The attorney general’s office is required to respond to the the activists’ complaint within 60 days as prescribed by the Cuban constitution, which states that “every citizen has the right to submit complaints and petitions to the authorities and to receive attention or a pertinent response within the appropriate timeframe.”

The plaintiffs point to the constitution as the legal basis for their complaint, noting that several of the people denied permission have turned to government agencies but that “in no instance” have they been given a reason for the denial of an exit visa.

The complaint alleges this is a limitation “on freedom of movement,” which they add is “a right proclaimed in Article 13 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” to which Cuba is a sponsor and signatory.

On the same day the complaint was submitted, the reporter Boris González and the attorney Wilfredo Vallín, president of the Legal Association of Cuba, were denied permission to travel by officials at José Martí International Airport in Havana.

“We were traveling to Mexico for a meeting of the Roundtable for United Democratic Action (MUAD) but the authorities denied us that option,” he said.

The official ban on the right of dissidents to travel is one more in a long list of abuses which include arbitrary arrest and confiscation of personal property as well as raids on their homes and the filing criminal charges against them.

Recently, the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights denounced Cuban authorities for, on several occasions, blocking human rights activists from travel outside the country. It also denounced measures that have caused many passengers to miss their flights, making them unable to attend meetings abroad, some of which had been organized by United Nations agencies.

It also urged the Cuban authorities to respect the universal right to freedom of expression and movement, and to ensure that human rights activists and representatives of civil society do not face difficulties leaving the country.

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Alberto Causes Serious Floods in Central Cuba Forcing More Than 5,000 Evacuees

The Yayabo River flooded the streets of the city of Sancti Spíritus. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 May 2018 — The intense rains of subtropical storm Alberto, the first of the Atlantic hurricane season, have left more than 5,000 evacuees in Cuba, flooded villages and damage to extensive agricultural areas, especially in the western and central areas of the island, according to information gathered by 14ymedio.

Saturday and Sunday have been especially difficult for residents in several areas of Villa Clara province, Cienfuegos and Sancti Spíritus where the flooding of rivers and the opening of dams caused locally serious floods, which have been easing off in the first hours of today.

The local media reports some 3,600 evacuees in Sancti Spíritus, 1,000 in Villa Clara and 352 in Cienfuegos. In this last territory the most affected towns are El Santo, Pavón, Siete Pazos, Vega Redonda and others, of the Encrucijada municipality. The number of people in shelters could grow as updates of the situation are published. continue reading

In the San Lázaro de Cienfuegos district, there was a notable rise in the level of the river, but without any damage to human lives. In the area, characterized by low-income housing and a precarious road infrastructure, the very first rains associated with Alberto were enough to soak the interior of many houses and the residents had to move their possessions to somewhere safe.

The damage to services also kept residents of the area in suspense on Sunday. “For two days they have not sold bread in the ration stores, everything is wet and being hungry in addition, it is all too much,” says Norma, a resident of 47th Ave. and 72nd Street of the slum area where the garbage piled up in the corners was washed away by the water currents.

Neighbors of English creek, in Cienfuegos, were affected by the sudden rise of the river. (14ymedio)

Schools have been suspended, in order to use the facilities for the evacuees. The province’s dams average 104% full and at this time all reservoirs are being opened to let some of the water drain.

The Cienfuegos municipality of Aguada de Pasajeros received just over 7 inches of rain in the last hours, Abreus and Rhodes both over 6 inches, Palmira and Cumanayagua 7 inches, Lajas just over 7, Cruces 7 inches and the provincial capital, Cienfuegos, 6 inches.

In the neighboring province of Sancti Spíritus the Zaza dam accumulated 949 million cubic meters of water, exceeding the established limit of 920 million. Its six gates have remained open since Saturday morning, releasing about 50 million cubic meters of water.

This situation is echoed in eight of the nine dams in Sancti Spiritus, according to the Escambray digital website.

Samuel Estepes, a resident of Tunas de Zaza, in the southern zone of Sancti Spíritus, is evacuated with his family to the school, according to a telephone interview with this newspaper. “The rain has not stopped since Saturday,” he said before detailing the extensive damage that the waters are leaving in the area.

At least two building collapses have been reported in the Dos Condado settlement and another two in Trinidad, a city with very old homes of heritage value. The situation of the buildings is much more tense in Algaba, a settlement of the Municipality of Fomento, where at least fifty houses have suffered partial or total damage from floods.

In Yaguajay at least 20 buildings collapsed as a result of the rainfall and flooding of rivers. Farmers in the area report the loss of small livestock, such as rams and pigs. Classes are suspended in all schools in these municipalities and 14 schools are being used to house evacuated families from flooded areas, according to the activist Aimara Peña, a resident of the Las Tozas town of La Paz, who spoke with this newspaper.

The storm Alberto formed a week before the official start of the hurricane season in the Atlantic and intensified in the last hours with its winds reaching 45 miles per hour according to data from the National Hurricane Center (CNH) in the United States.

In the west, the provinces of Pinar del Río, Havana, Artemisa and Mayabeque are also among the most affected. The tobacco crop in Pinar del Rio has been seriously damaged by the abundant rainfall at a time when the growers are deeply engaged in the harvest.

Civil Defense called Saturday for a reduction in the risks from disasters and called on “the governing bodies, state agencies, economic entities and social institutions and territories” to take the necessary measures in situations like this.

“The water rose half a meter and flooded everything, the mattresses are wet,” a Cienfuegos resident tells this newspaper. (14ymedio)

In the Cuban capital, in the municipalities of Centro Habana and La Habana Vieja, countless families evacuated to the homes of neighbors and relatives for fear their homes would collapse.

“We can not enter our house because the leaks have soaked all the wooden beams of the roof and we are afraid that it will come down,” Matilde, 62, a resident of Gervasio Street in Havana, told this newspaper. “Around here there are many families that are in the same situation, because in this neighborhood we have several tenements in very bad condition.”

In the block where Matilde lives, a few yards from Havana’s Malecón, the residents haven’t forgotten the bad memories left by Hurricane Irma last September. “That time it was the penetrations of the sea but now it has been the rains,” says the woman. “It scares us that the sun comes out suddenly, because that can be worse.”

In 24 hours, from eight o’clock on Saturday morning until the same time this Sunday, the most significant accumulated rainfall recorded was: Jovellanos 10 inches, in the province of Matanzas, 7 inches in the city of Santa Clara, almost 5 inches in the city of Cienfuegos, and well over 8 inches in Sancti Spíritus.

The authorities in the state of Florida, in the United States, declared a state of emergency this Saturday regarding the rains and winds associated with the subtropical coastal strip from Dry Tortugas to Bonita Beach, in the limits between Mississippi and Alabama.

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Residents of Old Havana Sleep in the Portico Fearing the Collapse of Their Home

Residents prefer to spend the night out in the open rather than see their houses collapse on their heads.

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 28 May 2018 — A crib, a large bed and a baby stroller are the first objects passersby come across as they walk through the porticos of Zulueta Street in Old Havana. In number 505, the most desperate of the nine families living in the ramshackle building, which has been declared uninhabitable by the authorities, preferred to spend the last few days in the open for fear that subtropical storm Alberto’s intense rains could cause their home to collapse.

This Saturday, several of them, including a baby just two months old, remained in the portico outside their front door. Iraida Alberto is one of those neighbors who, during the rainy days, decided on desperate measures to get the attention of the authorities. Last Tuesday she put her belongings out in the public passageway, blocking access to the sidewalk with her furniture, because of her fear that the roof over her head would collapse. continue reading

The comings and goings through the covered walkway is incessant in a densely populated area of Old Havana, near the Central Railway Station. The family — the mother, grandmother and older daughter — spends the night in a bed covered with a brightly colored blanket, right in the middle of the covered walkway.

The interior of the apartment house on Zulueta Street, which has already experienced 23 partial collapses. (14ymedio)

Nights in the portico can also be dangerous. When, at dawn, a person keeps approaching them, the worried grandmother thinks that they want to steal from her and tells this newspaper, “you can’t sleep with such a fright.”

“On Thursday I woke up because there was a person in front of me shooting pictures of me,” says the woman. “It doesn’t bother me that the press comes because I want to tell what is happening to me, but waking up like this at three in the morning is terrible.”

“This building has already had 23 partial collapses, eight families live upstairs in our house, although some have gone to shelters,” she tells 14ymedio, in a worried voice. Iraida Alberto, grandmother of a four-year-old girl and another two-month-old who was born prematurely, laments the indifference of the state institutions.

The police, in the form of two motorized officers, show up in the portico, which is blocked by appliances and bundles. They are joined by some patrol cars and a dozen uniformed people who seem to understand the precariousness of the situation. Nevertheless, they demand that Iraida Alberto not disturb the peace by living in the walkway and “blocking the traffic.” Then they leave.

“Neither the Government nor the (Communist) Party have come here,” she explains. The only representatives of some official entity that have passed through the place are those in charge of hostels in Havana, the temporary shelters for victims of hurricanes and building collapses. However, Iraida Alberto knows that moving to these places is a dead end in many cases.

Cuba has a housing deficit of more than 800,000 homes. Of the 3.8 million residential properties on the island, at least a third of them are in a physical state classified as regular or bad, according to official data.

When a family suffers the loss or collapse of their home, they are often relocated to a shelter. The length of stay in these sites averages 20 years and in the 120 shelters located in the capital, most of which are in old inns or industrial warehouses, more than 126,000 people are crowded, while another 34,000 struggle to find a place within them.

Iraida Alberto spent fifteen years of her life in one of those places. “They tricked me into moving here two years ago, after living for fifteen years in a shelter with my children,” she recalls. The lack of privacy and the poor conditions of that accommodation increased the family’s desperation to leave the place.

The family’s primary possessions are in the building’s portico, which is also a public passageway. (14ymedio)

“When I arrived at the building, there was no scaffolding and officials told me to sign [the papers to accept the housing] before going inside because another family wanted to sneak in.” The woman did not think twice.

“After a few days and when I spoke with the neighbors I knew that they had already suffered eight partial collapses and that the property was declared uninhabitable. Nevertheless, they had given it to us as if it were a final solution,” she complained.

The hardest thing for the woman to accept is the helplessness she feels. “The government has not given us any support, not even some food for the children. Sometimes I have to go inside the house despite the danger of collapse to be able to cook,” says Iraida Alberto.

Some of the neighbors have become aware of the family’s situation and help by letting the baby, who still has some health problems due to her premature birth, spend the night in their homes.

In an interview published this Sunday, the Historian of Havana, Eusebio Leal Spengler warned that “it is as important to recover the social fabric as [it is to recover] the city itself.” On Monday, the official press focused on the matter, stating president Miguel Díaz-Canel has urged that the housing program be given priority. Cases like that of Iraida Alberto continue to wait for those words to come true.

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A New Crypto-currency is Born in Cuba, The "Etecso"

A Cubacel user on the mobile web network (EFE)

14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, Havana/Miama, 26 May 2018 — The Telecommunications Company of Cuba (Etecsa) announced Thursday on Round Table program that beginning on June 5 people will be able to make three balance transfers daily between cell lines in the country and the charge for this service will be 20 cents CUC for this service instead of the current 30.

The measure triples the number of times that was permitted to send money from one phone to another and facilitates transactions for those who use the cell phone balance as a virtual currency. It is not clear if this practice is legal or not, but it spreads every day.

“This is very good,” says Yosvany, a clandestine clothing and footwear seller on the Cienfuegos boulevard. The man laments that the company does not allow an unlimited number of transfers, which according to him, would facilitate his business. continue reading

“It’s not the same having to carry CUCs and pesos to make a transfer from cell to cell,” he says.

The fear of a sudden and announced monetary unification, the poor quality of the bills as well as the presence of fake bills or simply the convenience of carrying out transactions without the need to count cash means that many Cubans prefer to use the phone balance transfers as their payment currency.

“For me this is marvelous. My son reloads my phone every month from abroad and I pass some of the money to each of my relatives,” Angelina Verdecia, resident of Gloria street, told this newspaper by phone. The woman, 68 years old, says that she does not understand much about technology, but her grandson uses the cell phone “even to pay the courier who runs errands for the bodega.”

Verdecia, however, laments that the transfers that she makes through her phone do not count for extending mobile lines’ annual contract. In Cuba, one must add a balance before the year ends so that the line does not expire. If the line owner does not, he loses the 40 dollars he paid for it.

The balance transfer is a service that Etesca implemented for prepaid customers (most cell phone users on the Island) in 2015, with a cost of 30 cents CUC for each transfer. After this Friday the service will have a cost of 20 cents CUC (about five pesos in the CUP national currency).

In order to transfer balances from one cell to another one enters the access code *234# and follows the system instructions. From once cent CUC up to 2,999 CUC can be sent. “Within the company many of us are aware that there is a group of unscrupulous people who improperly use this service that Etecsa provides,” says an Etesca director from Santa Clara; he prefers not to reveal his identity because he is not authorized to speak with independent media. The telephone company manager is referring to the use of the cell balance as money to pay for products or services or carry out commercial transfers. “Those citizens should know that they could be committing a crime, and the company could cancel the contracts of those phone line owners who are involved,” he added.

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

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Diaz-Canel Does Not Believe Hostile Stance of US Toward Cuba Will Go On Forever

The new Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel in a file photo. (ACN)

14ymedio, 24 May 2018 — Cuba’s new president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, does not believe that “the current position of the United States Government towards the Island is eternal,” and he believes that “points of contact remain” and there is a “will” to continue advancing in a relationship based on respect and equality.

Diaz-Canel offered these reflections on Thursday during a meeting in Havana with some of the artists who participated in the Festival of the Arts of Cuba, held this month in Washington, which, according to the Cuban president, demonstrated how art can build bridges between the two countries. The comments were published in Cuban state media on Thursday.

“I do not believe that the position that exists right now is eternal and events like the one you participated in in Washington (…) can open the way,” said the president, who emphasized that the artists “in addition to talent and commitment, showed that Cuba must be respected.” continue reading

At the meeting, which took place in a cultural center in Havana, Diaz-Canel recalled that the Donald Trump administration is making “an effort to roll back the process of reestablishment through which we wanted to move towards a normalization of relations.” But “there are points of contact and there is a will that if there is respect and if there is equality, we can continue advancing in that construction,” he added.

In his opinion, the artists who traveled to the United States — among them great names of Cuban culture such as the dancer Alicia Alonso, the singer Omara Portuondo and the painter Roberto Fabelo — also proved the quality of the island’s system of education in the arts. ” You showed that we can live in peace despite our differences,” said the Cuban president.

He also proposed to staging a show in Havana that would bring together the content of the Arts of Cuba festival and the artistic presentations that took place in Lima last April on the occasion of the VIII Summit of the Americas.

Between May 8 and 20 the Kennedy Center, which has been called a temple to the arts in Washington DC, hosted the largest Cuban festival ever seen in the US, with more than 50 events and the participation of some 400 artists who represented the worlds of music, dance, theater, cinema, fashion, design and even cooking.

This is a hopeful event in the relationship between the two countries, which are experiencing moments of renewed tension since Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House, in contrast to the approach initiated in 2014 by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

The Republican president has frozen the process of normalization and has restricted trade and travel to the island, in addition to deploying only minimum staffing at the embassy in Havana, in response to the alleged sonic attacks suffered by US officials on the island, which the Cuban government denies having anything to do with.

On May 20, Trump called for a “better and freer future” for the Cuban people and denounced that the “Communist regime” that extinguishes “individual freedom and the right of self-determination” for its citizens. In a message marking the anniversary of Cuba’s independence — an event that the Havana government does not recognize — the New York mogul sent his “warmest wishes” and those of the first lady, Melania Trump, “to the people of Cuba who yearn for true freedom” and to Americans of Cuban origin in the United States. For the moment, the Cuban executive has not responded to these statements by the US president.

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Hero in Miami, Criminal in Havana, Luis Posada Carriles Dies at 90

Mario J. Penton/Newsroom, Miami/Havana | Mayo 23, 2018 — Luis Posada Carriles, one of the Cuban regime’s most bitter enemies and a former CIA agent, died Wednesday in Miramar, southeast Florida, at 90 years of age after a long illness.

The activist died around 5:00 am local time “in a government veterans home,” said his lawyer, Arturo Hernandez, who told El Nuevo Herald that the anti-Castroite had been ill for a long time.

“I am very sorry because I spent five years of my life defending him and in that time he showed himself to be a great person, at least he tried to do something for Cuba,” Hernández emphasized. continue reading

In the legendary Versailles restaurant, recognized as the heart of anti-Castroism, the bakery continued serving customers as it does every day. At the rhythm of piña coladas, croquettes and cakes, the topics of conversation ranged from a shooting at a Texas school to the situation in Venezuela. The death of Posada Carriles is not a priority issue and among some customers it is even a matter of indifference.

His friends and “companions in the struggle,” however, remembered him with genuine fervor. “I knew Posada Carriles for many years, he was a great fighter against Castro’s tyranny, men like him do not come along very often, and when a person like that dies, you have to pay tribute to them,” said the politician Enrique Ruano in the popular Miami café.

Gonzalo Lopez, a 77-year-old Cuban exile who has lived in the United States for 55 years, called Posada Carriles “a tremendous patriot.”

“Unfortunately, good people are dying while the bad guys continue on in Cuba.” An opponent of the Cuban government, Lopez believes that the situation in Cuba will not change as long as citizens fail to rise up “against the dictatorship” and affirms that “Luis Posada Carriles’ methods of struggle have been tarred with many accusations that are not true. He was charged with the crash of the Cubana de Aviación airplane [in 1976] and that’s not true, behind those accusations are the communists and their allies in this country. “

Antonio Tony Calatayud, a partner with the deceased in the brigade that launched the invasion of the Bay of Pigs and a former news director for WQBA La Cubanísima, remembered Posada Carriles as a man who was “very good, very affectionate, helpful, a brother and a patriot.”

“He is an icon of the struggle for the freedom of Cuba.When the true history of the struggle for the independence of Cuba and what happened in relation to our struggles is written, it will be seen how much is defamation and how much is true, but history will recognize that Luis Posada Carriles, for us, his brothers, was a tireless patriot in the struggle for Cuba’s freedom from communist tyranny,” said Calatayud.

At the moment it is unknown what the funeral arrangements will be, although his friends and “compañeros de lucha” believe that it will be a massive and heavily attended event.

A survivor of throat cancer, of attacks attributed to the Cuban State Security and of a stroke, the health of the anti-Castro militant had deteriorated significantly after he suffered several broken bones in a traffic accident in 2015.

Posada Carriles was undoubtedly one of the worst and longest nightmares of the Cuban regime and dedicated his life, for decades, to a constant attempt to assassinate the president of the island, Fidel Castro. In the year 2000, Castro denounced an assassination plan against him in Panama, where he was attending an Ibero-American Summit.

“Luis Posada Carriles has been turned into a controversial personality for Cuban indoctrination and communist propaganda, he is a patriot and a freedom fighter, not only for Cuba but also for Venezuela,” his fellow prisoner in Panama, Pedro Remón Rodríguez, told 14ymedio.

Remón, who was detained along with Posada and spent four years in prison in Panama, remembers the late anti-Castro fighter as a sensitive, affectionate and family person. “Luis Posada Carriles had nothing to do with the blowing up of the Cubana de Aviación airplane in Barbados, absolutely not, I shared with him and he told me that was a kind of struggle that he did not believe in. We even wrote a book that was titled Fidel Castro, the Real Terrorist where we deal with this.

Mireya Moscoso, then president of Panama, pardoned him before leaving office, after which he traveled to El Salvador and from there entered the United States illegally in 2005, for which he had to face justice there.

He was acquitted in 2011 of 11 counts of perjury, fraud and obstruction in proceedings in a Texas immigration court and since then he has been living in retirement in Miami.

Another terrorist episode allegedly linked to Posada Carriles points to him as a participant in the explosion of a bomb at the Copacabana hotel in Havana in 1997, which killed an Italian tourist.

According to declassified documents from the State Department, Posada Carriles was a paid informant of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), for which he traveled to different Latin American countries where he worked against communist and leftist movements.

In fact, he worked in the 1960s and 1970s for the espionage services of Venezuela, Guatemala and El Salvador in the anti-guerrilla struggle.

Cuba and Venezuela consider Posada Carriles the intellectual author of the blowing up of a commercial Cubana de Aviación airplane in Barbados in 1976 and they attempted to capture him in order to try him for terrorism.

Born in Cienfuegos, in 1928, Posada Carriles was imprisoned in Venezuela for blowing up the plane, but in 1985 he escaped from prison, disguised and with a false document.

Cafe Versailles in Miami this Wednesday. (14ymedio)

The former CIA agent belonged, in addition, to the United States Army between 1962 and 1963, reaching the rank of second lieutenant, and participated in the failed Bay of Pigs landing.

On the death of Fidel Castro in November 2016, Posada Carriles said he considered it “unjust” for his sworn enemy to die in the “best hospital” on the island and “so late,” although he still considered his death a “triumph.”

He acknowledged then that he tried to kill the Cuban leader several times, but “fate” did not help him.

“Castro was looking for the opportunity to kill me and I to kill him,” Posada Carriles said in the interview.

“Posada is a brother in the struggle who is leaving us,” remarked Tony Calatayud in Miami. “If we count how many of the freedom fighters for Cuba have already gone through such a long process, I would say it’s 95%, we are a kind of dinosaurs, an extinct race, where some of us are still alive. The next generations must take the step forward, the future of Cuba belongs to the young and it is only left to us to document the history to avoid. “

Cuban official propaganda labeled Posada Carriles as a “black beast” of anti-Castroism. His face often appeared on public billboards and in partisan media which tried to link him to the peaceful opposition on the island.

His death was announced in the first newscast on Wednesday, on the Buenos Días show, clarifying that the he had died “without paying for his crimes” against Cuba.

While Fidel Castro was alive, especially in the last years of his mandate, the campaign against Posada Carriles became especially intense, to the point that the population of the Island came to see the exile as an alter ego of the Commander in Chief.

In some state workplaces the information was included in the morning assembly attended by employees, and throughout the morning the news spread through the streets of Havana.

“He never came before a court for what he did, but he had to face the tribunal of history and the conscience of the Cuban people,” says Amaury Rosales, a worker at a hard currency store in Havana’s El Cerro neighborhood.

In the same store a teenager avoids answering the question about the death of Posada Carriles because “it is better not to talk about politics,” she says.

Others say that they prefer to know a little more before taking a position. “One day I would like to read something more impartial about his life in order to understand the motivations of what he did, because television here paints him as if he were a devil and nobody is like that,” explains a retired economist who prefers to remain anonymous.

The official machinery, however, did not appear to be particularly effective this Wednesday. After noon, the Granma newspaper still did not carry the news on the front page of its digital site.

In keeping with his own request, the remains of Posada Carriles will be cremated and the ashes thrown in the vicinity of the coasts of Cuba, as reported to this newspaper Humberto Lopez, member of the board of directors of the Brigade 2506, the former Bay of Pigs fighters. “His brothers in the struggle will be your honor guard at his funeral,” he added.

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Heavy Rains Threaten Pinar del Rio Tobacco Crop

The tobacco drying houses are built with light roofs which are susceptible to leaks and getting wet when it rains. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, San Juan y Martínez | Mayo 24, 2018 — “Everything was going well and then the rains came,” says Manuel García, summarizing the situation of Hoyo de Monterrey, in Pinar del Río, where the best tobacco in the world is grown. The intense showers of recent days in the western part of the Island in the middle of the harvest are making the situation difficult.

“The harvesting of the leaf is a very delicate moment,” Garcia explains to 14ymedio. “A lot of humidity damages tobacco.” In his drying houses, close to the land of the Rigoberto Fuentes Cooperative in the San Juan y Martinez municipality, water seeps in everywhere and the tobacco grower fears that “the leaf will deteriorate and can’t be sold at the same price.” continue reading

The cigar makers must sell their products to the State, which rates the leaves by quality parameters, among which are size, smoothness and color. “With so much rain it is to be expected that there will be losses because the farmer who sowed expecting to have a first quality leaf, will have to sell it cheaper if it deteriorates,” says the producer.

García grows the tapada variety, which grows under a cloth that filters sunlight and produces the leaves for the outer layers of the most sought-after cigars. “The product that comes from here goes mainly to the cigars that are exported or sold in stores in hard currency,” he explained. “That’s why they are very demanding,” he says.

The tobacco that is already drying is affected by the humidity. (Adriana Gomez)

The tobacco is planted by private farmers, cooperatives and producers who lease land from the state, in the Tabaco Business Group of Cuba, (Tabacuba), an extensive state structure composed of more than 45 companies including agricultural, agroindustrial, twisted tobacco, marketing and research.

In total, the Group manages 96 factories where cigars are made by hand and almost half of them are dedicated exclusively to exports. The rest, where industrially produced cigars and cigarettes are produced, go to the national market.

For Tabacuba these days of May are vital, because the leaf that is harvested in the fields and begins to dry will define the amount of their production and their ability to fulfill international commitments.

In a sector that contributes more than 400 million dollars a year from exports, tension is felt everywhere. After the last weather reports that assure that the rains will continue, the alarm has grown even more between the cultivators and the state administrators.

“By the middle of this month we already had about 30 million cujes collected and we thought we could harvest up to 20,000 hectares,” says an employee of Tabacuba in Pinar del Río. “This was going to be one of the biggest crops in recent years but the weather may force us to redefine those initial plans.”

Tobacco occupies fourth place in the Cuban economy and employs, in the normal season, about 150,000 workers, and up to a quarter of a million during the harvest. Among the most recognized Cuban brands in the world are Cohiba, Montecristo, Partagas and Romeo y Julieta.

The Vueltabajo area, where the Hoyo de Monterrey is located, produces approximately 70% of the national tobacco production. The damage caused by heavy rains, with waterlogged lands and soggy drying houses takes a special toll on the farmers.

“The weather situation is disastrous because all the tobacco that gets wet in the fields loses between 30 and 40% of quality,” explains Alfredo Pérez González, who lives on La Isleña farm and is in charge of the administrative part of this family enclave where several generations have traditionally cultivated the leaf.

“The problem is that the tobacco that is now spoiling in the fields because of the excess rain is not covered by insurance,” explains the young man. The National Insurance Company (Esen) only protects the tobacco crops that were “planted before January 31 and are the ones that have already been collected,” he adds.

The tobacco growers, however, take the risk every year to make a second planting after that time to be picked in the month of May. “It is a risky bet, luckily and truthfully, because if tobacco is lost or the harvest is damaged, the State does not pay a single peso,” says Pérez.

“Although May is always a rainy season, it’s been more than 30 years since we saw a month with so much rain.” A considerable part of the harvest “was still in the field and another part was recently harvested and that too is endangered by the increase in relative humidity that prevents the tobacco from drying as it should in the drying houses.”

“The affects are immense and the farmer has no support for what is happening,” says Pérez.

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Bar Silvia is Empty

Yandro Enrique González Méndez was the manager of Bar Silvia, with which he had revitalized a corner of Centro Habana. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 23 May 2018 — Bar Silvia is deserted. The closed doors inform customers who approach of the bad news, which quickly spread through the neighborhood. “The bar manager died in that plane,” neighbors tell each other, as if no other details are needed to explain what happened.

Yandro Enrique González Méndez, who died on Friday in the Cubana de Aviación crash, was the manager of this bar on a corner in Central Havana, which had become a major destination.

The bar, which for a long time had been known as “dead,” was reborn by the efforts of Gonzalez as a non-farm cooperative, a type of business arrangement for the self-employed promoted by Raul Castro’s government beginning in 2012. continue reading

In just under six years, more than 420 Non-farm Cooperatives (CNA) have been authorized in the country, with more than 12,000 members, the vast majority of them dedicated to food service, commerce, other services, construction and industry. Although the cooperatives are going through uncertain times because of the fear of an announcement of measures that would restrict their autonomy, that of the González brothers had the wind in its sails.

With its 15 seats around the bar in the shape of a knife on the fashionable corner of Vapor and Principe, the establishment attracted a parade of announcers and actors from nearby Radio Progreso, regulars from the surrounding neighborhood, and even ecstatic foreigners who came looking for the real authentic touch that Silvia’s still retains.

The corner was renewed. The facades etched by humidity received new paint and the wooden bar, polished by the elbows of its customers and their glasses, was restored. In a videoclip of the song Más Macarena*, recorded by Gente de Zona and Los Del Río, the transformation that was beginning was already visible. Above the bar is a tourist accommodation with large windows that rents through Airbnb.

Gonzalez and the employees managed to maintain the atmosphere of yesteryear, but added new features, such as a large television screen where people came to watch baseball and soccer games. “People who would never have stepped on this decadent site began to frequent it,” confirms Natacha, a young medical student who lives a few yards away.

Bar Silvia’s new managers exploited a part of the local folklore that revolves around their bar, a real tourist magnet. The recommendation of the house remained a double rum in cheap glasses.

The venue has also been the setting for numerous films (including Clandestinos, directed by Fernando Pérez), video clips and photo shoots for national and international fashion houses that have chosen that iconic corner as a backdrop.

Located between an agricultural market and a bodega, Bar Silvia is in the middle of the incessant coming and going of people who are sometimes looking to take a break and relax.

The Gonzalez family has spent these last days wrapped in mourning for the loss of the young man of 33, born in Manzanillo in the distant Granma province.

Since he settled in Havana with his parents when he was a child, life seemed to smile on Gonzalez. “Everything he achieved was thanks to his hard work and a natural ability to do business,” recalls Yosvani, a colleague with whom he attended high school.

The bar’s neighbors and the customers can hardly assimilate the news. “The whole neighborhood is very sad because that young man had rescued a place that until recently was very deteriorated.”

“Yandro fought hard to stay alive,” says a neighbor who looks out over one side of the bar from her balcony. “The family told us that he survived the plane crash and was one of the four people who were taken to the hospital, but he died on the way.”

*Translator’s note: Bar Silvia is the small building behind the pink car, at 1:28 in the video here.

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Cuba’s Labor Justice Agency Nullifies Dismissal of Actress Lynn Cruz

14ymedio, Havana, 21 May 2018 — Cuba’s Labor Justice Agency has ruled in favor of Lynn Cruz with regards to the claim presented by the actress after the Performing Arts Artistic Agency (Actuar) put an end to her contract last April without complying with the mandatory 30-day notice period. The artist was informed of the decision on Friday, 11 days after the five members of the court agreed with her.

The document issued by the Labor Justice Agency specifies that there was a violation of Resolution 44 that regulates labor relations in organizations overseen by the Ministry of Culture.

For Lynn Cruz, this ruling makes clear that Jorge Luis Frías Armenteros, director of Actuar, violated article 297 of the penal code with the “unwarranted imposition of a disciplinary measure.” continue reading

The president of the Labor Justice Agency, Iván Rodríguez, told Cruz that after this ruling, “it did not make sense to go to the municipal court” because Actuar was going to continue to “represent her without problems.”

As of now, the actress could be hired again but after what happened she does not trust that she will be able to return to her work, because she believes that the agency can work behind her back to prevent her name from being chosen by a director who is interested in her work.

For Cruz, there is no way to repair the “psychological and moral damage” this measure has caused her, in addition to the “loss of work” she suffered in this case.

The actress also wonders if this step was taken to protect Frías, that is to avoid a criminal complaint. This Friday, when asking Ivan Rodriguez if the director of Actuar would be sanctioned for his error, the president of the Labor Justice entity replied that the agency “could not sanction its own director.”

“Evidently they are protecting Frías, the procedure he used in my case was clumsy since the contract was violated, but there is an intention to protect him after that blunder he committed,” Cruz believes. Cruz is of the opinion what was decisive in her case — unlike the cases of Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, Oscar Casanella or Yanelis Nuñez — was that she recorded the public hearing and “made the recording public,” a hearing in which the director acknowledged his error in not notifying her 30 days in advance before canceling the contract.

At the public hearing Frías said that Actuar’s decision to terminate her contract had been taken due to the actress’s “demonstrations on the internet” against “the main leaders” of the Party and the government and acknowledged that they had made a mistake” in the procedure.”

Lynn Cruz (born 1977) has developed her career between theater and cinema, although she has also participated in some television shows. She has worked on several Cuban films including Larga Distancia and La Pared.

Cruz has a special performance in the documentary Nadie, directed by Miguel Coyula, which includes testimonies of the poet Rafael Alcides, an intellectual censored on the island. This film was presented at the independent El Círculo gallery with the presence of Alcides himself, without major incidents. However, another presentation was repressed by State Security, which blocked public access.

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