14ymedio – Page 434 – Translating Cuba

Renewal of Vows: The Red Scarf

Cuban schoolchildren during the ceremony where they take on the red scarf. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 14 June 2018 –Three decades later, the woman is facing a familiar scene. A row of children dressed in their elementary school uniforms receive the new red scarf that replaces the blue one they had previously knotted around their necks. Like a déjà vu, she listens to her daughter repeat the same slogan she shouted out in her own childhood. The little girl, one knee on the ground, swears to follow the example of Ernesto Che Guevara, just like her mother had promised to do so long ago.

The school’s morning assembly started early this Thursday, June 14, the day chosen for the initiation of students who completed the third grade. They now become part of the José Martí Pioneers Organization and have started down a path where ideological excesses and political manipulation will follow them forever. The ceremony has all the traces of a religious initiation, almost mystical, despite of its being centered on an atheist guerrilla, who this very day would have turned 90. continue reading

To conclude the moment, the loudspeakers broadcast a song dedicated to Fidel Castro at full volume. “Louder, Louder!” the school principal shouts to the students, who must sing the boring tune verse by verse. “Louder, louder to be heard up there!,” he reiterates as he points to the sky, where, he believes, his Commander-in-Chief must have gone.

The music is over, the children shout the slogan that they will repeat in the coming years: “Pioneers for Communism, we will be like Che.” Then they leave the ranks and return to the unruly games of any child. The political “renewal of vows” is over.

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The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.

Human Rights Group: "Cuba Has 120 Political Prisoners"

The Cuban Government refuses to cooperate with international bodies that are experts in prisons. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 11 June 2018 — The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) estimates that there as many as 120 political prisoners in Cuba in a report published on Monday. The independent group states that this figure “is very difficult to arrive at when the Government of Cuba refuses to cooperate” with international organizations.

On the island there are between 65,000 and 70,000 people imprisoned and it is “very difficult to define an exact number of political prisoners because they are intermixed,” the report states. “The Castro Gulag is composed of between 150 and 180 high security prisons, correctional centers, settlements and camps.”

This high number of prisons located throughout the Island make up what, in the opinion of the Commission, is a “huge and top-heavy prison system.” continue reading

Cuban authorities refuse to collaborate with international organizations such as the International Red Cross, United Nations agencies or other organizations that can monitor real data inside the prisons.

“In the total of 120 people imprisoned for political reasons, recognized as of May 31,” the CCDHRN has identified “96 people who are opponents of or disaffected toward the regime and 24 prisoners who are accused of employing or planning to use some form of force or violence to perform acts against the security of the State.”

The report emphasizes that the country urgently needs a Law of the Penitentiary System, and “at the same time the Government of the Island must demilitarize the system and subordinate it to a civil organization.”

The report contains two appendices, one that lists “the cases of ten former prisoners of conscience, released on parole — the so-called “extra-penal license” — who remain subject to all kinds of draconian measures, including the prohibition to travel freely abroad with the right to return to Cuba.”

The second appendix details the “21 prisoners who have served between 15 and 27 years in the prisons of the Island under the known subhuman and degrading conditions that prevail in all of them.”

“They are, without a doubt, some of the oldest political prisoners in the Western Hemisphere,” concludes the text’s introduction.

The figure of 120 is slightly lower than the 140 political prisoners that the CCDHRN had estimated on the island as of May 2017.

In March 2016, during the visit of US President Barack Obama to Cuba, a journalist questioned Raúl Castro at a press conference about the existence of political prisoners on the island. “Give me the list of political prisoners now, to release them. Or give it to me after the press conference and before nightfall they will be released,” the leader replied.

Castro, who traditionally did not answer questions from the national or international press, was visibly annoyed by the question from CNN reporter Jim Acosta.

Amnesty International (AI) contends that the Havana government uses ambiguous legal terms to punish dissidents.

“The laws regarding ’public disorder’, ’contempt’, ’lack of respect’, ’dangerousness’ and ’aggression’ are used to prosecute or threaten to prosecute, for political reasons, opponents of the government,” Amnesty International said in its report on Cuba.

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Cuban Bishops Express "Their Good Wishes" in a Message to Miguel Diaz-Canel

The Cuban bishops entrusted the new Government to the Virgin of Charity. (COCC)

14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami | Junio 12, 2018 — The Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba (COCC) sent a private message to recently appointed president Miguel Díaz-Canel “in support of the eminent national service he had assumed,” as confirmed by the president of the Episcopal Conference, Emilio Aranguren, to 14ymedio.

“I sent him a simple epistolary greeting expressing good wishes in support of the eminent national service that he had assumed and I included a quote from the Pope’s speech in Cesena on October 1, 2017 in which he alludes to good politics,” explained the Bishop of the Diocese of Holguín.

In Cesna, Pope Francis defined good politics as “neither servant nor patron, but friend and collaborator, neither fearful or reckless, but responsible and therefore courageous and prudent at the same time.” continue reading

Francis also emphasized the need to increase the participation of people, “their inclusion and progressive participation” in the search for the good of the entire community.

“A politics that can harmonize the legitimate aspirations of individuals and groups keeping the rudder firmly in the interest of all citizens,” the Pope added.

The Cuban bishops, including the first black prelate in the history of Cuba, entrusted the new Government to the Virgin of Charity, the image of Mary that Catholics venerate as the patroness of Cuba. Aranguren said that the new president responded to the gesture with a brief message in which he showed his appreciation for the communication received.

As part of an Extraordinary Assembly of the COCC, the official site of the Catholic Church on the island, Aranguren revealed the established communication with the new government, which caused speculation on the sites of the independent Cuban press.

The Catholic Church has traditionally had the largest number of faithful in the country. According to data from the Pontifical Yearbook, more than half of Cubans are baptized under Catholic rites, although participation in Sunday services is relatively small.

The Cuban bishops have, in the past, issued numerous criticisms of the Government. With the turn towards the Soviet Union and the implantation of Marxism-Leninism as an official ideology, the Church hardened its discourse in favor of individual liberties. In 1993 the pastoral letter Love Hopes All Things — in which the Cuban clergy denounced the difficult conditions in which the people lived and the harassment of State Security — provoked an angry reaction from the government, which carried out massive demonstrations against the Church.

In 2013 the bishops published Hope Does Not Disappoint, a critical and hopeful look at the national reality, in which they recommended, among other things, replacing the paternalist state with a participatory one and creating a new political order with the participation of all the actors of society and promoting the creative potential of the country.

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Che’s Face Sets Off a New Controversy in Rosario

Trolleybus Line Q honors Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara in his hometown of Rosario, Argentina, on his 90th birthday. (@ MonicaFein)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 June 2018 – The image of Ernesto Che Guevara has reawakened a controversy in Rosario, his hometown, ninety years after his birth. As of this Monday, the Q Line trolleybuses circulate through this Argentinian city with the guerrilla’s face plastered on the vehicles.

The Mayor of Rosario, Monica Fein, announced on her Twitter account that the images on the buses are meant as a tribute on the anniversary of Guevara’s birth, and invited citizens to join the commemorative activities with the hashtag #90VecesChe.

Among the events published on the city’s official website are “The Che Route,” a series of offerings in the square that bears his name, art shows and musical presentations. continue reading

According to the local press, the controversy immediately broke out on social networks between supporters and detractors. The councilman from the Cambiemos (Let’s Change) coalition, Gabriel Chumpitaz, opposed the measure, posting on Twitter that the municipality “should honor Rosarinos who through their daily activities enhance our city, and not spend money on this figure who is so controversial and who brought nothing to Rosario.”

Last year, Fundación Bases, a liberal non-profit organization in the city, collected signatures to remove the monument to Che Guevara in Rosario.

“The murderous legacy of communism and this figure do not deserve homages from the state, of a party-ideological nature, financed by taxes paid by all citizens,” read the petition published on the Change.org platform, which obtained around 3,400 signatures but did not achieve its goal of removing the statue.

“Guevarismo in Cuba resulted in 10,723 people killed by the communist regime, 78,000 dead trying to escape the island, 14,000 dead in military interventions abroad, 5,300 dead in the Escambray rebellion (mostly peasants and children), persecution of intellectuals, homosexuals and dissidents,” said the petition, which also called for the elimination of other tributes to the Argentine guerrilla, such as plaques and murals.

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Fear of Losing Political Control Explains Cuba’s Technological Backwardness

Video: Cuba’s Minister of Communications talking about the implementation of cellular internet. (Not subtitled)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 13 June 2018 — Facing a mountain of medical records the nurse looks for the patient’s history. She flips through the pages, pulls out the folders, but the clinical report does not appear. “It’ll have to be done again,” she tells the disgruntled gentleman who, that very morning, had read in the official press about the “advances in computerization” in Cuba’s Public Health system.

The VI Latin American Telecommunications Congress, held in Varadero, is serving these days as a launch pad for triumphant headlines in the official press. Those who pay attention only to the reports emerging from this technology congress may come to believe that, on the island, many procedures are accessibly by a click, but the reality is very different. continue reading

A country where the vast majority of people have never completed an online financial transaction, never been able to buy a product from a virtual store, and do not know the enormous potential of distance courses that would allow them to learn from home, cannot be categorized as a computerized nation.

To this we add the poverty level wages that prevent many professionals from signing up on international online resource sites related to their fields, where they could keep abreast of the latest trends. Paying a day’s salary to connect for one hour in a public wifi zone is not an indicator of a connected society, but rather an indicator of the economic penalty that weighs on Cuban internet users.

On the one hand, the Deputy Minister of Education, Rolando Forneiro Rodríguez, stood in front of congress delegates painting an optimistic scenario with a large number of teachers for the subject of Computer Science. However, on the other hand, in countless schools in the country students’ so-called ‘machine time’ comes with an absence of teachers and the deterioration of infrastructure.

Children under the age of ten learn more about technology by exchanging video clips through mobile apps such as Zapya than they do attending boring computer classes where ideology is intertwined with HTML code and the computer programs offered on the official list have more to do with politics than with fun.

For more than two decades, the teaching of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has also suffered from the Government’s attempts to create a “corralito” – a little corral – of filtered content. Those intentions are responsible for sites such as Ecured, a poor imitation of Wikipedia; the unpopular Mochila (Backpack) created to compete with the weekly packet and the failed Tendedera (Clothesline) born to wipe away Facebook.

At a time when the internet is strengthening its role as an environment for activism and a place for debate on issues as hot as the contradictions of democracy, racism or gender violence, Cuban authorities are still trying to domesticate the network and lock the Island’s users into their little guarded plot.

In hospitals and polyclinics the picture is similar. The bulky bureaucracy of the Public Health system still works with paper. The loss of a single sheet can mean months of delay in a treatment and medical appointments, most of the time, are first come first served, to the discomfort of the sick and their relatives.

In the classrooms of the faculties of medicine, the blackboard, the chalks and the plastic models of the human body have not given way to other technologies that might make the Island’s doctors modern professionals. Saving lives, today, can also happen due to the dominance of devices such as mobile phones or the ability to search for information in the great world wide web.

The fear of the social impact of connectivity and the loss of political control that would be implied by access to other news channels has been the real brake on Cubans’ ability to disembark in the 21st century, an era characterized precisely by social networks, digital content consumption and connectivity.

This fear of the ruling party has a cost not only in national economic development but also in quality of life and education. We don’t have to wait to see result of that delay because it is already visible in each classroom and during each consultation.

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Photographer and Activist Claudio Fuentes Released 24 Hours After His Arrest

The Cuban opponent Claudio Fuentes. (María Matienzo)

14ymedio, Havana, 8 June 2018 — More than 24 hours after he was arrested, opposition photographer Claudio Fuentes was released in Havana, opposition sources confirmed to this newspaper. The dissident was subjected to an intense interrogation filled with threats toward his rebellious work. Activists of the Patriotic Union of Cuba confirmed to 14ymedio the release of Zaqueo Báez, who was also arrested on Friday when he was trying to visit a political prisoner in Holguin.

“Since yesterday morning we had been trying to call him by phone and we could not establish contact with him,” said former political prisoner Ángel Moya. “As the day progressed, we learned that he was being detained,” he adds. continue reading

An officer on duty at the San Miguel del Padrón police station informed the family via telephone that the activist was being held at that station, but “when they got there, they were told he was not there.”

On several occasions, he has also been the victim of arbitrary arrests and other repressive actions, such as confiscation of his means of work.

Among his most famous works are the filming of several interviews with Cuban activists for the documentary Patria o muerte (2016), directed by filmmaker Olatz López Garmendia and premiered by the American production company HBO.

In an interview he criticized those artists of the Island who “spend their time, like peacocks, on their own work and generally that work has its back to a reality that has already collapsed.” A behavior that has led him to feel “shame” for that guild and that pushed him to “go another way.”

Fuentes also collaborated in the edition of the debate program Razones Ciudadanas (Citizens’ Reasons), which for two years issued several episodes in which activists and dissidents discussed hot topics of the Cuban reality such as the press, internet access and racism.

The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) verified 128 arbitrary short-term detentions for political reasons last May.

During these arrests, “the peaceful dissidents were interned, as always, under inhuman and degrading conditions, in the police barracks designed for such ends,” denounced the independent organization.

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he 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.

"The Meat Hasn’t Arrived and Less is Expected"

The private restaurants, known in Cuba as ’paladares’, are among the most affected by the rationing in the quantities of products that are given to each customer in the Villa Clara shops. (Lime)

14ymedio, Santa Clara, 11 June 2018 — The markets of Villa Clara started the day this Monday under new measures of control over the sale of food. Local authorities imposed price caps on agricultural markets and rationed products previously sold outside the ration market throughout the province as a result of the damages caused by the subtropical storm Alberto.

The measure, agreed on June 7, has been met with conflicting opinions among the residents of the region. Some receive it as a short-term solution to the shortage of food, but others fear it will continue over time and boost the black market.

The Villa Clara Provincial Administration Council (CAP) justified the new controls as a way to “avoid hoarding and speculation,” according to information published in the local press. Although the duration of the measures has not been specified, it is known that they will be in effect for at least three months, as the authorities have announced that they will be reviewed on a quarterly basis. continue reading

The price reductions are mandatory, ranging from 20% to 80% of the prices of some products before the heavy rains, and include the state agricultural markets, and those managed as cooperatives and privately, along with the so-called ’points of sale’ (smaller) and the cart vendors.

Among the regulated goods are rice and beans, as well as root crops, vegetables and pork. One pound of the latter can not be sold for more than 16 Cuban pesos, a price that is almost 40% less than before the passage of the storm Alberto.

Of the products derived from pigs, among which is also lard, only 10 pounds can be sold to each consumer.

The independent swine sector does not welcome the establishment of these maximum prices. “What many breeders are going to do is sell the animals as soon as they are weaned, rather than care for them until they are ready to be slaughtered,” Amancio, a resident of Santa Clara’s periphery, explains to 14ymedio.

“For weeks I’ve only been selling piglets for people to raise themselves because we have problems with the feed and because many families want to guarantee having the animal in their yard,” says the producer. “A price of 16 pesos a pound doesn’t make sense as a business for anyone, neither the person who breeds it nor for the one that sells it,” he affirms.

However, among pensioners and people with lower incomes, the CAP decision has been well received. “The abuse is over,” reiterated a pensioner outside La Feria market on Sunday morning, one of the most popular in Santa Clara. “They were taking advantage of the rains to raise prices and this puts an end to it,” says the woman.

With very little available on the stands, at La Feria only a few pieces of pork were sold this weekend. “The meat isn’t coming and less is expected,” Maikel, an employee, told this newspaper. “The guajiros prefer to sell it directly to paladares (private restaurants), coffee shops and fixed customers,” he says.

Outside the market, a man who was offering two lemons for 1 Cuban peso (CUP) — a higher price than the 2.50 CUP per pound required by the new regulations — disappeared with his merchandise when he saw a policeman arrive in the area.

Groups of inspectors patrol the markets to avoid violating the prices established by the CAP. The Ministry of the Interior has been involved in these reviews in which “the pertinent measures will be taken in the face of violations or breaches of the agreement.”

The new regulations also address sales in the so-called hard currency stores, the “shopping.” In the case of the stores of the state chains CARIBE, CIMEX and Palmares, the sale of food, cleaning products and beverages has been regulated up to certain amounts per client.

Some of the limits in the network of state retail stores are ten cans of soda, four liters of water and a kilogram of cheese . Villa Clara residents can only buy five soaps per person and two floor-cleaning clothes.

The sale of frozen chicken by the box has also been suspended, a measure that self-employed workers who work in the food sector do not not look on kindly.

“It is an emergency situation but they haven’t informed us how long this measure will continue, which reduces many chances to buy merchandise to maintain our businesses,” laments Enrique Proenza, an employee of a restaurant who was trying without success, this Sunday, to buy several kilos of chicken.

“The fear people have is that this measure will be in force for a long time and ends up ruining the cafes and paladares in the area,” he laments. “Anyway, some are already planning to go to Matanzas or Havana to buy the products needed to keep their businesses open.”

Last November, in the neighboring province of Cienfuegos, food prices were decreed as a result of the damage to agriculture from Hurricane Irma.

Regulations

1. Rationing of the sale of products [previously] unrationed in parallel markets, food bodegas, is as related below:

• Rice: 10 pounds per customer.
• Beans: 5 pounds per customer.
• Fine salt: 2 kilograms per customer.
• Refined and raw sugar: 10 pounds of each type per customer.
• Peas: 5 pounds per customer.
• Crackers or cookies: 2 packages of any weight per customer.
• Soft drinks: 10 units (bags, cans, small bottles) per customer.
• Soft drinks in boxes of 1500 ml: 2 per customer.
• Jams (Africanitas, sorbetos and others): 5 packages per customer.
• Soda cookies: 1 – 80 CUP bag per customer.
• Dulce de leche and chocolate: 2 units per customer.
• Cheese: 1 kg per customer.
• Frozen chicken: 5 kg per customer.

2. The sale of boxes of frozen chicken is suspended. The [chicken] will be sold fractionally according to the per capita limits established above.

3. Maintain, in the case of eggs, the regulated sale of the family basket at a rate of 5 units per consumer, and the same per capita as that sold at 1.10 CUP. At the conclusion of the sales cycles, they will be sold unrationed and in equal proportions to the consumers [registered at each outlet], writing it down in the supply book to avoid hoarding.

4. In the case of the Cleaning and Hygiene products that are sold in the network of Non-Food Products Sales Stores, the following is regulated:

• Lis and Daily Soap: 5 units of each assortment per client.
• Liquid detergent in 1 liter or similar containers: 2 bottles per customer.
• Floor cloths: 2 units per customer.
• Toothpaste: 2 tubes per client.
• Chlorine (packed or bulk): 2 liters per customer.

TRD Caribe-CIMEX:

1. Ration the sale, in all our Commercial Units, Points of Sale and Kiosks, of the following products:

• Fine iodized salt: 2 packages per customer.

• Crackers or cookies: 5 packages of any weight per customer.

• Jams: 5 packets per customer.

• Soft drinks: 10 units (cans, 330 ml bottles, instant) per customer.

• Soft drinks over 1500 ml: 2 bottles per customer.

• Malts and juices: 10 units per customer.

• 500 ml water: 10 units per client.

• Water 4 liters: 2 units per customer.

• Cheese: 1 kg per customer.

• Sausages: 1 kg per customer.

• Processed chicken: 2 packages per customer.

• Sausages: 5 packages per customer.

• Toilet soaps: 5 units per client.

• Detergent powder up to 250 gr: 5 packages per customer.

• Detergent powder up to 1000 gr: 2 packages per customer.

• Floor cloths: 2 units per customer.

• Toothpaste: 2 units per client.

2. The outlets that sell the chicken for the bulk mode will only sell the amount of 5 kg.

3. The sale of frozen chicken by boxes is suspended.

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Instar Launches First Independent Fund For Audiovisual Creation In Cuba

14ymedio, Havana, 11 June 2018 – The Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism (Instar) has launched the first independent fund for the creation of audiovisuals in Cuba. The call for project proposals has been posted on the project’s online site, created by the artist Tania Bruguera, and is open from June 8 to September 8, 2018.

Instar invites “filmmakers and aspiring filmmakers” from all over the country to participate in the first edition of PM: INSTAR fund for audiovisuals in Cuba, the site announces. Those interested can submit unpublished projects that should be the first short film by the director.

Applications are open in fiction, documentary and new media categories, while the projects must not exceed 30 minutes. The projects selected in each category will receive a cash amount of 5,000 CUC. continue reading

The Fund seeks to “promote the diversity of voices in the independent Cuban audiovisual sector, promote directors, producers and script writers from under-represented communities and their stories.”

Although “the topic is free and uncensored,” the organizers will give “priority to projects about pressing social issues in Cuba today and in the future” and “innovative methods of audiovisual production will be evaluated and, in the case of the documentary, the rigor of the investigation,” will be considered.

Similarly, the evaluation will consider “projects that assume in their budgets fair pay to the work teams and decent filming conditions.” A frequent complaint in the guild of filmmakers in Cuba is the low salaries and the appalling conditions of the state sector.

Those interested in participating should send their projects by email in PDF format to the electronic address: INSTARaudiovisuales@artivismo.org. The subject line must include the name of the project and a pseudonym.

Instar, based in Havana, is a “space for civic literacy on the Island that emerged as a result of the public action #YoTambienExijo,” which Bruguera carried out in 2014.

Initial reactions to the call from Cuban filmmakers on social networks have been positive. “Excited,” wrote producer Marta María Ramírez on her Facebook profile.

One of the petitions launched by the group El Cardumen in its recent statement “Words from Cardumen, declaration of young Cuban filmmakers,” included among its demands that national institutions create a promotion fund for the production of national cinema. However, Bárbara Betancourt Martínez, Director of Cultural Programs at the Ministry of Culture, described the young people’s statement as “anarchic demagoguery” and stated that they were motivated only by the intention to “raise a hubbub.”

The request for the creation of the fund is a common denominator in the minds of Cuban filmmakers and was one of the demands from the assemblies of filmmakers who made up the G-20.

PM was a documentary by Saba Cabrera Infante and Orlando Jiménez, censored in 1961, because for just a few minutes it showed Cubans dancing and drinking in bars.

The image annoyed the government and the censorship of the film gave rise to a sequence of events eventually became “the PM case.” It was in this context that Fidel Castro condemned intellectuals at the beginning of his mandate, and in a major speech declared: “Within the Revolution, everything; against the Revolution, nothing,” which established the rules that define the cultural policy of the Government still today.

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Cuba’s Real Estate Market Is Going Through Tough Times

On the Paseo del Prado in Havana, an open-air classifiedad site, for every ten sellers there are two buyers. (EFE)

14ymeido, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 10 June 2018 — On the web site Revolico, with more than 40,000 classified ads for houses for sale, thousands of ads are maintained for months without finding a buyer. The lack of money, the slowdown of the diplomatic thaw between Cuba and the United States together with the freeze on the delivery of licenses to the private sector have shrunken the Island’s real estate market.

At the end of 2011, when Raul Castro’s government authorized the sale of houses after decades of prohibition, a frenzy overtook many Cubans ready to acquire or get rid of a house. The measure was a starting point in a country with 3,700,000 dwellings, some 85% of them the property of individuals. continue reading

Fewer than two years after the ban was lifted, the emerging real estate market reached some 80,000 transactions, according to information offered then by Aniuska Puente Fontanella, specialist from the Directorate of the Commercial Property Registry and of Assets of the Ministry of Justice.

Now the scene is different. Although there are no new official figures about the behavior of the sector, sellers complain of less demand and buyers complain of high prices. Real estate agents point to a deceleration of the sector.

On Paseo del Prado in Havana, an outdoor site for classified ads, for every ten sellers there are two buyers. “There’s a lot on offer and little demand,” Luis Oscar Gomez, a permutero (broker) who ended up in real estate management. “Five years ago it was different because there were many more people buying,” he recalls.

“Many people who were buying did it because they believed that the country was going to fill up with Americans, but that hasn’t happened.”

“Others bought in order to do business, like starting a restaurant or a guesthouse for foreigners but right now they are not giving out licenses for that, which discourages investment in houses,” adds Gomez. The end of the US wet foot/dry foot policy also is, in his judgment, a factor that negatively influences the market.

“May people sold houses at lower prices in order to pay for leaving the country, but now that has diminished with the closing of the path to the United States and the road to emigrate is longer because the fees have increased,” he adds. “A house that three years ago went for 50,000 dollars, now that same family wants 75,000.”

Nevertheless, Gomez recognizes that “many sellers also have had to repeatedly lower their prices because there is no money for buying.” In his judgment, the lack of liquidity, due to the fall in tourism and “the country’s situation which does not improve and the possibility of saving money for a house is very difficult in this situation.”

A few meters from the Paseo del Prado, a wide colonial mansion with columns and arches has a “For Sale” sign hanging on the balcony. “We have spent a year waiting, but this is the kind of house that is bought for business because it is located in Old Havana and has very big rooms, perfect for a restaurant or tourist rental,” explains Rosa, the owner.

“I had a buyer who was enchanted but last August when they stopped giving licenses for self-employed work the man changed his mind,” she recalls. “Spending 80,000 CUC on a house like this and not being able to make money is crazy.”

The boom in private real estate firms arising from the liberalization of the section has also experienced a slump.

Many of those private offices, which operate under a manager’s license for the sale and exchange of homes, have been closed. Some because they were left behind by the intense competition, others prosecuted in the courts when it was proven that they charged the client a commission for the transaction, something prohibited by the law.

In practice, these managers pocket between 10% and 25% of the total figure that the buyer pays, but legally they can only charge for connecting and informing people interested in carrying out these kinds of deals.

“The whole real estate market is fed also buy the construction sector,” points out Loraine Garcia, an employee of one of the real estate firms closed by the police. “The new houses that go on sale greatly influence the dynamism of that market in any part of the world but in Cuba that is an element that suffers a lot of stagnation.”

Cuba registered a deficit of more than 880,000 houses at the end of 2016, and last year only 21,827 new houses were finished, according to data from the National Statistics Office.

“The market is tainted because hardly any new houses come on, and the offerings that have not met with success are mostly houses that are too much above the buyers’ means,” adds Garcia.

“Houses that are under 30,000 CUC did not move much at first,” but with the passage of time “those houses changed hands and those that were higher than that were left for sale and have less demand,” she points out.

Garcia thinks that the changes in the tax rates for these operations also have burdened the market.

Initially the authorities set a 4% tax on the exchange of goods and estates to those buying and on personal income of those who sold. In practice, however, a good number of transactions were made with amounts much higher than the figure declared in order to avoid the taxes.

In 2017 the Ministry of Finance and Prices tried to correct the problem and modified the payment of taxes on the sale and donation of dwelling between individuals. Now the value of the encumbrance is established by its characteristics, location and size and not the amount reflected as the value of the property.

“Many camouflaged a sale as if it were a gift in order to pay lower taxes, but right now that is almost impossible because the law establishes the family ties that are needed to do something like that,” explains the former real estate agent.

In spite of those setbacks, Garcia believes that the housing market “is going to raise its head.” Her hopes are based on the fact that “these types of swings are normal, and a real estate boom cannot be maintained permanently,” but “if the country opens investment and permits small or medium businesses, sales will take off again.”

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

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Havana’s Sickness

Havana looks sick. Dirty, stinking, clogged with waste. It seems like a lie to call it a marvelous city. (BDLG)

14ymedio, Laidi Fernandez de Juan, Havana, 7 June 2018 — Havana looks sick. Dirty, stinking, clogged with waste. It seems like a lie to call it a marvelous city. When I walk around the city, an immense grief replaces the contemplation of its most sacred buildings, those that we used to show to others as an example of our architectural eclecticism.

Instead of pointing out: “Look at the beauty of art deco,” “Look at those nineteenth-century gates,” “Those decorative lances that point to the sky are called guardavecinos (neighbor guards),” “There are no portals in the world comparable to these,” we make our way around hills of trash, we avoid walking under balconies whose miraculous static is an imminent threat, and, worst of all, we must cover our noses and mouths, because flies swarm, and an unbearable stench greets us in many blocks. continue reading

As a sign of indolence bordering on impudence, I come across signs that say “Do not throw garbage. PNR (People’s Revolutionary Police)” which are barely visible because they have been buried by empty cans, the remains of toilets, broken flower pots, wet cartons, mattresses that have lost their springs, and other debris. The trash bins, their original covers missing and overflowing, adorn the corners or the middle of the street: macabre decorations.

The neighborhood of El Vedado, so noble, wooded and magnificent, is a part of the mess. Its sidewalks, cracked and with holes big enough to swallow Moby Dick, aggravate the walker and offer nothing but danger. Aside from the displeasure it is all proof of how little we care about anyone. Or, to be more exact, how little we care for ourselves, how weak is our self-love.

Canine droppings force us to constantly avoid nasty mounds, which, if you count the potholes, roots, garbage, and cracks in the street, instead of going for a walk to ward off daily tensions, we are burdened with new discomforts. Far from motivating us, it makes us depressed to tour the neighborhood. It is not the recommended endorphins that flood us, but rather unpleasant odors, pitfalls and sounds. We can’t ignore the frightful noise that assails us, in sync with the stink of dead animals and the vision of a city that appears to have been bombed.

In Havana there is no shoe that can resist the attacks of the pavement, no skeleton that can stand up to the zigzags required to walk, no olfactory cells that do not ache, no ears that can withstand the decibels of reggaeton, no retinas that can block the pain of the images that assail the pupils.

In the end, the heart shrinks. Because we do not love each other. Because nobody seems pained by so much injustice, and because we always believe it is not our fault. And while it is true that there is nothing we can do in construction, concrete, sand, cement and bricks, it is also true that we are responsible for the repugnance, the dirt, the open filth, and “what someone else did” that we try to shield ourselves from.

And no matter how much it hurts to admit it, the only thing that seems cared for is that space where some private business has planted their sign. Some in doubtful taste, others laudable, perhaps overloaded with lights or soberly adorned, the stretch of a block that leads to the creation of a private business, the work of someone self-employed, is clean and sown with flowers. Like a city oasis those few square yards remind us that we are in a city and not on a battlefield.

And that is when we ask ourselves, is this the only way to rescue our magnificence of yesteryear. Is this how we will protect the legacy of a marvelous city? Or will we succumb to grief, reluctance and apathy?

Today, Havana is almost a nightmare from which we have a civic duty to awaken once and for all. Because this is our cradle, our house, our foundation. We must wake up to love Havana, before it reaches its five hundred years so sick, so absorbed in this unforgivable oblivion.

This text was initially published in the Boletín del Centro Pablo.

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Candelario Martinez, A Cuban Doctor Working in Venezuela, is Murdered

The whole community was alarmed when they heard cries of help from Candelario Martínez’s roommate. (upatadigital)

14ymedio, Miami, 7 June 2018 — Venezuelan police are investigating the murder of the Cuban doctor Candelario Martinez, 54, who served as director of a Comprehensive Diagnostic Center. The crime occurred in the Salto Angel residential estate, located in Unare, an area of eastern Venezuela known for high rates of violence.

According to local media reports, neighbors were alarmed when they heard the cries for help from Martínez’s roommate, who found the body with a bullet in the head and a cut on the face. continue reading

Bolivar State Police are not ruling out that the motive for the crime was robbery. Among the victim’s belongings that have not been found are his car, a Ford Fiesta Power, and several household items. According to local reports, the locks of the house were not forced.

The body was taken to the Pathological Anatomy Unit to perform the forensic autopsy. So far, the Cuban Medical Mission in Venezuela has not issued a statement on the matter.

Cuba maintains a large group of professionals in Venezuela, working in the so-called “missions” that are part of a collaboration agreement between both countries and that Caracas pays for with the oil that it sends to the Island. The export of professional services is the main source of income in the Cuban economy. According to official figures, Cuba’s national treasury takes in about 10 billion dollars annually for the services of Cuban medical personnel, who are sent to many different countries.

Venezuela is one of the most dangerous countries in the world. In 2017 there were almost 27,000 murders, of which more than 5,000 were attributed to the security forces. That same year 20% of the population was a victim of crime, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence.

Although the contract terms of the Cuban medical collaboration are not public, in other cases of murders in Venezuela it has been discovered that the relatives of the Cuban victims do not receive compensation.

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Kenyan Judge Blocks Cuban Doctors From Starting Work

Cuba exports medical services to more than 60 countries. (USAID)

14ymedio, 7 June 2018 — Fifty Cuban doctors arrived in Kenya on Tuesday, but will not be able to work, at least for now, because of a ruling on Wednesday by Judge Onesmus Makau of the Court on Employment and Labor Relations.

The controversial hiring by the Kenyan government of one hundred medical personnel from Cuba is again confronting the demand by local doctors who say that there is no need in Kenya for foreign doctors, what is needed is to improve working conditions for local doctors. An additional 50 Cuban specialists will arrive this Thursday. continue reading

So far Cuba has not commented on the issue.

Three local doctors who are unemployed filed a lawsuit because they believe that nationals should have priority in hiring, under the Constitution. The fate of Cuban doctors in the African country will be decided on June 19.

“The laws of Kenya prohibit the issuance of work permits for non-Kenyans until the statutory mandatory provisions are met, with the central objective of protecting Kenyan citizens in relation to job opportunities,” Anangwe Maloba, attorney for the plaintiffs, told local media.

He also accused the government of discriminating against local doctors by paying more to their Cuban colleagues. According to Kenya’s Minister of Health, Sicily Kariuki, the agreement with Cuba establishes a payment of 390,270 shillings (about 3,800 dollars) for the lowest wages while the highest salary will be 450,660 shillings (4,460 dollars). A Kenyan receives an average of 150,000 shillings (about 1,500 dollars) for the same work.

The export of medical services is the primary source of foreign exchange for the Cuban Government, which has deployed health professionals in more than 60 countries. According to official sources, Cuba receives annually at least ten billion dollars for the professionals it has working in countries such as Venezuela, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

Most of the money paid by countries or international institutions for Cuban medical services go directly to the coffers of the Cuban government, which gives doctors about a third of the amount in the contracts. Various international organizations have denounced this as a violation of human rights and a form of modern-day slavery.

Furthermore, the Cuban government punishes doctors who escape from these missions by prohibiting their return to Cuba for eight years. In addition, a portion of the money paid to them is set aside in accounts in Cuba and not paid to them until they return home at the end of their assignments. When they break the contract, they lose the right to the money they have accumulated.

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Cuban Coalition in Miami Announces Media Campaign Against Cruise Trips to the Island

The cruise ship ‘Adonia’ has already provoked protests in Miami by anti-Castro groups. (14ymedio)

EFE, via 14ymedio, Miami, 7 June 2018 — The Cuban Resistance Assembly kicked off in Miami a new media campaign, No Colabores [“Do Not Collaborate”] against cruise-ship trips to Cuba and insisted on no support of tourism to the Island because it “directly finances the repression” of the opposition.

Orlando Gutiérrez, director of the Assembly composed of organizations within and outside the Island, explained during a press conference that this activity additionally contributes to the “exploitation” of Cuban workers and makes use of confiscated properties, e.g. the piers where the ships dock. continue reading

“Cruise ships cannot function without the exploitation of the Cuban people, who, besides, have always been harmed by Cuba’s dual currency,” Gutiérrez asserted.

The campaign includes TV spots and two billboards installed near busy avenues and streets adjacent to the Miami neighborhood of Little Havana. It calls those who travel to Cuba by cruise ship “accomplices” to the stampedes that occur on the Island towards cruise-ship travelers.

During the press conference, Sylvia Iriondo, president of Mothers and Women Against Repression (MAR), claimed that there is a direct connection between the revenue that the Cuban government receives from tourism, and the ill-treatment to which opposition members such as the Ladies in White are subjected.

“Tourism increases the repression; it is one of the major sources of income for the military,” and it is difficult to separate it from the hostilities inflicted on dissidents, Iriondo said.

She assured besides that this money, estimated at $3-billion annually, never goes to the people of the Island. “It does not better the lives of Cubans–it increases the resources for the regime to carry out repression,” Iriondo added.

Javier Garcés, who spoke on behalf of Cubans whose properties were confiscated 60 years ago “in violation of national and international laws,” said that they cannot remain “silenced” while in Cuba “they use our properties.”

Meanwhile, the Mexican judge René Bolio, who presides over the Justicia Cuba (JC) commission, stated that the functionaries who manage tourism on the Island are “directly” linked to the human rights violators under investigation by this international group of activists, with the objective of bringing them to justice.

During the press conference, Bolio mentioned Alejandro Martínez, manager of the Hotel Nacional de La Habana, as an example of individuals being investigated by JC.

On the other hand, the director of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance announced that next Saturday they will collect signatures supporting a request to US President Donald Trump for legislative changes that would permit JC to try those responsible for repression in Cuba.

Along those lines, Iriondo pointed out that the Cuban ex-president, Raúl Castro, should be tried for the deaths of four pilots with Hermanos al Rescate [Brothers to the Rescue] who were shot down by Cuban fighter-bombers in 1996.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

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Photographer and Activist Claudio Fuentes Detained in Havana

14ymedio, Havana, 8 June 2018 — The photographer and activist Claudio Fuentes, a member of the Foro por los Derechos y Libertades (Forum for Rights and Freedoms), was arrested on Thursday in Havana and is in “whereabouts unknown” according to information from former political prisoner Ángel Moya speaking to 14ymedio.

“We have tried to call him starting yesterday morning and we have not been able to establish contact with him,” explained Moya. “As the day progressed we learned that he was being detained and so far we do not know the reason for that arrest,” he adds.

Moya believes that Fuentes “is ‘disappeared’ since family members and associates have not been able to see him and do not know where he is.” An officer on duty at the San Miguel del Padrón police station informed the family via telephone that the activist was being held at that station, but “when they got there, they were told he was not there.” continue reading

On several occasions Fuentes, who also edits videos and films, has been a victim of arbitrary arrests and other repressive actions, such as confiscation of the tools of his work.

Among his most famous works are the filming of several interviews with Cuban activists for the documentary Patria o muerte (2016) (Fatherland or Death), which was directed by filmmaker Olatz López Garmendia and premiered by the American production company HBO.

The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) verified 128 arbitrary short-term detentions for political reasons last May.

Moya also denounced the arrest of the opponent Zaqueo Baez, member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, who traveled to Holguín to visit the family of a political prisoner and “was arrested by police forces and beaten.”

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Pollution Without Punishment

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 7 June 2018 — The activists arrive in the woodlands to sink their hands in the oil spilled over the forest, thousands of miles from a hot air balloon displaying a banner denouncing CO2 emissions near a crude oil extraction platform where a group is protesting. Actions of this kind are barely seen in Cuba and it is not because the environment is respected.

Last week the people of Cienfuegos woke to the news of an oil spill in their bay. The heavy rains from subtropical storm Albert caused the pools of the nearby refinery waste treatment plant to overflow, spilling more than 3 million gallons of water mixed with crude oil into the bay. The official news programs made haste to minimize the damage and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (Citma) kept a complicit silence. continue reading

No environmental group showed up with posters to stand outside the refinery, not a single chemical engineer raised their voice in the national media to warn of the danger to human health, nor were the voices of marine biologists heard detailing the negative effects on local wildlife. The official version prevailed and on television we saw a group of smiling workers cleaning the stains off the tourist boats.

The mistakes made by the authorities at the Cienfuegos refinery were not analyzed and no official journalist questioned the entity about the bad management practices over their waste that led to an ecological disaster. As in many known cases, the lack of independence of the judiciary, the press and social organizations allowed impunity to surround an event that deserved huge headlines, fines and a public commitment that such things will not happen again.

With the same state approval and “protection,” hydrocarbons are poured into the sewers from vehicle repair shops, the polyclinics throw medical waste into neighborhood dumpsters, and several companies continue to drain their dangerous miasmas into the rivers, just like the sad case of the Almendares River in Havana.

The State does not punish itself for these excesses and the lack of freedom prevents civil society from expressing itself in a clear and public manner. Despite small environmental groups that collect litter along the coastline and digital sites that promote a culture of respect for nature, Cuba lacks an environmental movement that can bring pressure, there is no seat in parliament from which to raise a complaint, nor is there the ability to demonstrate in the streets to defend our natural heritage.

In the absence of these voices, the island’s ecosystem is at the mercy of negligence, outrages and silence.

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