14ymedio – Page 435 – Translating Cuba

Powdered Eggs

14ymedio, Marcelo Hernández, Havana, 5 July 2018 — Egg production in Cuba is experiencing difficult times after the damages left by Hurricane Irma and the floods of tropical storm Alberto. The unrationed supply of eggs is way down and several areas of the country and the amounts being delivered to the rationed markets are also down. To provide some relief, the authorities are importing powdered eggs.

“Powdered eggs available,” reads a sign outside a Havana bodega where the clerk confirmed that people don’t know how to use them. “Can you make an omelette or scrambled eggs with these?” asks a retired woman looking at a one kilo packet selling at 65 Cuban pesos (CUP), a third of her monthly pension. Ultimately, the high costs and the unfamiliarity are enough to disuade her and she decides not to buy them.

The dehydrated egg, coming from Brazil, is a great help to those businesses selling sweets which have had to reduce their production because of the scarcity of ingredients. “It’s better because we don’t have to refrigerate it, it doesn’t spoil easily, and there are no surprises when you open it,” says a seller of tarts and cupcakes.

“The problem is that when it first arrived you could find them everywhere but now you have to walk all over the place to find them,” says the self-employed baker, who fears that the dried version of the product will suffer the same fate as the fresh version, “it will run out and we’ll have to find another substitute.”

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Huron Azul, Ten Years Since the Fall From Grace of a ’Paladar’

Before and after at the corner where the Huron Azul paladar was located. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 5 July 2018 — A few yards from the busy Rampa in Havana’s Vedado district, is quiet Humboldt Street, once filled with dozens of tourist and Cuban diners who came in search of the paladar (private restaurant) Huron Azul, now taken over by the authorities and converted into a state restaurant.

“Ten years ago they killed us in this neighborhood,” says Eduardo, a retiree who claims to have earned “plenty in tips” looking after the vehicles of those who came to enjoy one of the most important gastronomic businesses in Havana at the turn of the century.

Now, the blue facade with naval motifs that attracted attention is covered by a scaffolding and two builders are covering the old ornaments with cement. “A capital remodeling is underway to reopen it soon with a new menu,” one of them explains, reluctantly, to 14ymedio. continue reading

Since the restaurant was transfered to state management, its name disappeared from tourist guides and among customers the place has entirely lost its reputation as “a good table and pleasant atmosphere,” says Eduardo. The block has also suffered from that fall and now, he says, “doesn’t attract a single peso.”

In December 2008, the Technical Directorate of Investigations (DTI) opened a case against the owner of Hurón Azul, Juan Carlos Fernández García, then 47 years old. The accusations against him accumulated, fueled by presumed illegalities in the management of the business, as he had “acquired several homes” and had a “high standard of living.”

In the Cuba of those years, it was strictly forbidden to buy and sell homes, to have more than 12 chairs in a private restaurant, and to sell dishes based on lobster or shrimp. Some of those restrictions were abolished shortly afterwards with the so-called “Raulist reforms,” but for Fernández García it was too late.

“They started to investigate and ask the neighbors, until one day we woke up and there were a lot of patrol cars out there,” says a resident of the upper floors of the building. “As soon as we saw the police, we knew it was against Juan Carlos, because the business had prospered greatly and it was a matter of time before they acted against him,” she says.

In a Power Point presentation made by the police and filtered to independent media in mid-2009, a photo taken inside the paladar showed more tables than allowed. Fernandez Garcia had been buying part of the adjoining houses and managed to expand the space, initially small.

“What most annoyed the authorities were the trips abroad that he made with his wife to import supplies, in addition to an exhibition that he financed as an art patron in homage to Carlos Enríquez.” When some leader saw his face on television, he ensured his own disgrace,” says the sculptor and painter Mario, a fictitious name for this article for fear of reprisals.

Fernández García had developed an interesting system to attract fine artists to the place. “You gave him a work and he paid you for it in quantities of meals and diners. It was a good deal for everyone, the painter could invite his friends to a good meal, and the piece was exhibited in the restaurant,” recalls Mario.

“In five of the occupied dwellings, hundreds of works of art were found,” the investigator wrote in the report prepared after the operation. “An important part of these works were by different contemporary artists, who in many cases delivered them on consignment to write off the costs,” adds the text.

During the raid, two more paladares fell into the hands of the authorities, which, according to the officers, were also owned by Fernández García. The prosperous businessman ended up in jail and the Huron Azul began a new phase, characterized by empty tables and uneven service.

In the app ’A la mesa’, a tool that offers an extensive list of places to eat across the entire whole Island, where the former paladar converted into a state-run restaurant does not appear. “The food is bad, the rice overheated and the workers always seem tired,” says Yudiel, a 42-year-old tour guide who makes independent routes, summarizing his experience.

“The first time I went, in 2007, it was a paladar and they served us in the wine cellar, it was a spectacular night,” he recalls. “After that I came back with some tourists about four years ago and I wanted to cry, most of the paintings on the walls were gone and there was a stink of reheated fat everywhere.”

Above the premises an hand-lettered “For sale” announces that the owners who live upstairs are looking for a new place. “In this neighborhood there were several rental houses, guides, Spanish teachers and even masseuses, who all made a living from all the activity around this paladar,” says Eduardo the car-parker.

“There are many good restaurants in this area and tourists prefer to visit the private places, because the state does not have the same quality,” says a waitress from nearby Toke, a private place frequented by foreign visitors. “The Huron Azul was a reference point, we were all a little inspired by him, but now there are only memories left.”

On the streets of Havana, the case of Huron Azul provoked all kinds of opinions. “That man should have been appointed Minister of Tourism, not put in prison,” was one of the most frequently heard comments. Others criticized what they considered “hoarding” and luxury. Today, opinions are still divided.

During these years other restaurant owners have, like Fernández García, been prosecuted for irregularities. Many have emigrated in search of new horizons and a handful survive in spite of the constant difficulties.

Since last August, the authorities have launched a process of restructuring “self-employment” and temporarily stopped issuing licenses to private restaurants and tourist rental houses, among other activities, to curb illegalities and “deviations” and to “correct deficiencies.”

Almost a year later there are no signs of when these permits will be issued again, but “entrepreneurship is in his blood and Juan Carlos Fernández García left prison years ago and runs a business in Havana,” says Eduardo. “He opened a paladar on 26th Street, which has done very well.”

This newspaper tried to get an interview with him, but the former owner of Huron Azul now avoids the media. He knows that excelling has a high cost.

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The Cuba of Humboldt and Ruiz Urquiola

Ariel Ruiz Urquiola believes that the authorities want to seize his family’s farm. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 5 July 2018 — At the entrance to Humboldt University in Berlin, an inscription in Spanish says that the statue of the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt that stands there was a gift from the University of Havana, in homage to the man who has been called “the second discoverer” of Cuba. Cuban biologist Ariel Ruiz Urquiola repeatedly passed that statue with its serene face during his time at that institution of higher learning.

In recent days the name of this young researcher, 43, has graced the covers of numerous international media, for having maintained a hunger strike for more than two weeks. With that strict fast, Ruiz Urquiola demanded his release after being sentenced to one year in prison for the alleged offense of “contempt,” in a flawed case plagued by irregularities. Thus, the scientist put his life at risk to demand freedom, using his own body as a lever of complaint against what he considered an injustice. continue reading

On Tuesday, the Cuban authorities yielded in their stubbornness and released Ruiz Urquiola. For health reasons he was granted a parole which does not totally annul his sentence, but it does permit him to return to his home and to the agro-ecological project he manages in Viñales. Although his tenacity allowed him to win this battle, he knows that the eyes of the ruling party will be watching for any false step in hopes of making him shoulder “the blame” for his public demands, putting the Government on the spot and, above all, denouncing the ecological damage that it commits in that protected area of the Cuban West.

If Alexander von Humboldt lived during a time of discoveries and explorations, Ruiz Urquiola is living during a hard time of complicity on this Island. The German explorer helped to expand knowledge of the geography, flora, fauna and even the topography of a country that he himself barely knew, but more than two centuries later the Cuban scientific community is trapped between a lack of resources and excessive state control. Researchers are now evaluated based not only on their abilities and the results of their projects, but most importantly on their ideological fidelity.

It comes as no surprise, therefore, that during all the days the biologist refused to eat, there were no pronouncements of solidarity, nor even a call to review his case, on the part of functionaries, educators and staff of Cuba’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment. Nor did any official entity linked to agricultural production, the care of the ecosystem or the study of fauna raise a single voice to demand justice for Ruiz Urquiola.

The official media never mentioned the case, although social networks lit up with messages that demanded his prompt release and his face was a constant presence on the alternative information networks that cross the country. Meanwhile, in contrast to the silence of the national scientific community, colleagues from other parts of the world put their names to the #FreeAriel movement.

More than 200 years ago Humboldt came across a country to explore, study and report on, now Ruiz Urquiola inhabits a nation where researchers are wary of every word and prefer silence.

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This text was originally published on Deustche Welle’s Latin America page.

Biologist Ariel Ruiz Urquiola Released

Ariel Ruiz Urquiola and his family believe that the authorities’ aim is to seize their farm in Viñales, Pinar del Río, to punish him for his opposition to the government. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 3 July 2018 — The biologist Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, sentenced to one year in prison for the alleged crime of “contempt of authority,” was released on Tuesday, 14ymedio confirmed through sources related to the case.

“I feel alive, I do not fear death, but I can not stop thanking all the people inside and outside of Cuba who helped me to survive,” Ruiz Urquiola told Radio Martí after being released.

The family reported that the extrapenal license granted to the scientist was for “anxiety depression affective syndrome” and that the authorities could return him to prison whenever they choose. continue reading

Ruiz Urquiola had been transferred on Monday to a civil ward of Abel Santamaría Hospital in the city of Pinar del Río, after spending two weeks on hunger strike demanding his release.

A nurse confirmed to this newspaper last night that the biologist’s condition was considered “good, satisfactory,” that he was in a “progressive care” room, and that he had already taken “two little drinks of juice.”

The case of the biologist has generated a wave of national and international solidarity, which was joined by even pro-government voices such as singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez.

In his blog Segunda Cita, Rodríguez exchanged opinions with a commentator on the biologist’s situation and the solidarity that his cause was attracting on an international level. “Hopefully our authorities will analyze the case with serenity and not allow themselves be provoked by these circumstances and resolve everything with dialogue, inclusion and maturity.” The artist said that “when they went to arrest him, he recorded the conversation with the forest rangers. A guilty person does not do that.”

Ruiz Urquiola manages an agro-ecological project on a farm that he leases from the government in Viñales, Pinar del Río, and after an altercation with some officials in the area he was sentenced to one year deprivation of liberty, the maximum penalty for the crime of “contempt” which is frequently used to bring charges against opponents and activists.

During his professional career the biologist has repeatedly denounced the damage to the Cuban ecosystem, such as the indiscriminate felling of trees, the hunting of endangered species and the dumping of toxic substances in the waters of the Viñales Valley.

According to Cubanet , the scientist’s father, Máximo Omar Ruiz Matoses, was a senior officer of the Cuban army and “served 17 years in prison for challenging the Castro regime.” After his sentence, he went into exile in Spain and says that the case against his son is “revenge for the family history.”

Amnesty International declared Ruiz Urquiola a prisoner of conscience and took urgent action to demand his release. Last Tuesday, the United States asked Cuba for the “immediate” release of all political prisoners on the island and expressed its special concern for the cases of Eduardo Cardet and Ariel Ruiz Urquiola.

“The cases of Dr. Ariel Ruiz Urquiola and Dr. Eduardo Cardet, both highlighted by a human rights organization as ‘prisoners of conscience’, are just two examples of how the Cuban government continues to silence the peaceful opposition of its own citizens,” said US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

Last week the bishop of Pinar del Rio, Jorge Serpa, visited the biologist at the hospital and spoke in favor of “a review of the case and the judicial process” against him, as he told 14ymedio.

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Who’s Watching toDus?

The latest app developed on the island has been baptized toDus and is presented as a Cuban WhatsApp.

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 2 July 2018 — While Cubans are counting the days until internet service is available for mobile phones, the saga of offline tools is writing a new chapter. The latest app developed on the island has been baptized ‘toDus’ and is presented as a Cuban WhatsApp.

The free messaging application, available in a version for Android, can be downloaded from the first made-in-Cuba apps store Apklis, where it shares space with tools designed, for example, to find products in the shortage-plagued markets of the island, or a video biography of Ernesto Guevara, among others.

ToDus, created by the University of Computer Science (UCI) in collaboration with the state telecommunications monopoly Etecsa, is one example of a trend that official entities have promoted with little success among the users of the Island: the creation of rivals as substitutes for apps from popular American companies that have spread around the world such as Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and Wikipedia. continue reading

Despite the high prices to browse the web and the small number of households with connections, Internet users on the island seem to prefer universal tools and have become accustomed to the same social networks that can be used by someone in Berlin, Montevideo or New York, so for many the choice to use a national impersonation is not convincing.

In a country with a high level of emigration, interaction in chats, forums and social networks on internationally available apps is vital for everything from getting a visa to receiving remittances. In the five-year period between 2012 and 2017, Facebook accounted for 87.17% of web traffic from Cuba on social networks, followed by Twitter with 8% and Pinterest with 3%, according to data from the measurement and analysis tool StatCounter Global Stats.

In this context, the greatest and almost unique attractions of a national chat variant lies in its free nature and its offline operation. The first will be a factor in its lifespan, given the precarious wages earned by Cubans, but the second could be about to change if Etecsa sells data packages that allow the use of WhatsApp or Telegram.

The most significant reason for choosing foreign variants is the security and privacy of conversations. Although UCI’s director of networks, Tadier Perdomo, said that all messages “travel encrypted and are not stored on the servers,” but only on the devices of the sender and receiver, users don’t know what “other eyes” are observing the content.

Although UCI’s director of networks, Tadier Perdomo, said that all messages “travel encrypted and are not stored on the servers,” but only on the devices of the sender and receiver, users don’t know what “other eyes” are observing the content.

The “Terms and conditions of use” specify that the user should not “make comments that are offensive or contrary to morality, as well as those that denigrate or offend the government or government policies.” The warning refers directly to political issues frequently blocked by Etecsa, which filters even text-only messages (SMS) with the words “dictatorship” or “democracy.”

In order to use all the features of toDus, the customer must accept that the tool has access to the photos, videos, multimedia content and general files on their device. However, when that premise is accepted, it is clear that the official program, created and promoted by the Government, has access to everything on the phone.

Just as the great giants of technology, such as Facebook or Google, have been questioned about the use they make of their clients’ personal data, toDus is vulnerable to the same problems. In the Cuban case, the information would go to the authorities instead of to companies who intend to use it to generate financial returns.

So far it is unknown if a message sent through toDus can be used as evidence in court or shown in the national media, as has often been the case with the private correspondence of activists and opponents. The consequences to a user who openly criticizes the president of the country or an institution through the service are also unknown.

Clarifying these questions and defining the limits of the privacy of this new tool would go a long way towards allaying the fears and mistrust it is already generating. In some Havana neighborhoods, with a heavy does of irony, the application has already been baptized “the ‘cederista’ chat,” a reference to the national Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) blockwatch committees that maintain files on and inform on all citizens with a focus on “counterrevolutionary activity.”

Despite the suspicions surrounding toDus, the tool has been downloaded almost 200,000 times since it was announced on June 20. A fact that is less surprising given that the students and workers of the University of Computer Science and the state-managed Young Computer Club have been given “the task” of swelling the numbers of customers, as 14ymedio was able to confirm.

Beyond the headlines in the international press, which reports that the “Cuban WhatsApp” is causing a furor on the island, toDus faces the test of time.

In its beta version, there is still much about the app that needs to be improved, including the delay, often excessive, the SMS registration, unforeseen crashes that end with the tool closing, messages that are sent but never reach their recipients, and the fact that it is still not possible to make voice or video calls. All issues that technically undermine the app’s performance.

However, the hardest battle to fight against is the preferences of Cubans themselves. These tend to point the internauts’ compasses towards services accessible world-wide, which make them feel part of the great global village and a little bit safe from the strict eyes of State Security.

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"The Night Will Not Be Eternal" by Oswaldo Paya is Published

Cover page of the book “The Night Will Not Be Eternal”, by Oswaldo Paya. (@rosamariapaya)

EFE, via 14ymedio, Miami, 3 July 2018 — With the title “The Night Will Not Be Eternal,” an unpublished book by the late Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya, with proposals for Cubans to emerge from their situation, will go on sale on Amazon this July 5 before its presentation in Miami.

Rosa Maria Paya, daughter of the dissident who died in 2012, said that on July 25 the book will be presented in the Varela room of Ermita de la Caridad, where the Cuban exile received her father in 2002, after he received the Sakharov prize.

The book, subtitled “Dangers and Hopes for Cuba,” has a preface by Paya’s widow, Ofelia Acevedo, and its purpose, as explained by its author, is none other than “to help to discover that we can, indeed, live through the process of liberation and reconciliation and move into the future in peace.” continue reading

“In this book my father reflects on how and why we Cubans have come to this point in history and how we can emerge from it,” says Rosa Maria Paya, director of the Cuba Decides movement which promotes holding a plebiscite so that the Cuban people can decide what political system they want for their country. “A process of liberation is possible,” says the dissident about what her father left in writing before being “assasinated,” in her words.

The family of Paya, founder of the Christian Liberation Movement in 1988, asserts that the car crash in which he and dissident Harold Cepero also died on July 22, 2012, was caused by agents of the Castro regime.

Rosa Maria Paya says that that same year her father asked her mother and her to remind him that he had to make time for the book that now is going on the market at 282 pages. After the epilogue, the book includes the most important political documents of his organization Proyecto Varela (The Varela Project).

The message of “The Night Will Not Be Eternal” is now even more current than when when it was written, says the author’s daugther, for whom reading this book is like listening to her father speak.

Paya begins by explaining his “intention” in writing this book, in which he reflects on, among other things, “de-Christianization,” “the culture of fear” and the “assault on the family,” but also on education, economics, corruptions, social classes and the “hour of change” in Cuba.

The last part is dedicated to reconciliation. The epilogue significantly is entitled “We Must Dream.”

In the prologue, Ofelia Acevedo says that Oswaldo Paya enjoyed his work as an electrical engineer, but his “true vocation” was the “unending search for peaceful paths that will permit Cubans to win the fundamental rights that have been denied us by the Castro dictatorship.”

“Hence, the strength of his leadership, which conveyed confidence, security and optimism to those who listened to him, giving us a new hope,” says his widow.

Acevedo emphasizes that in this book Oswaldo Paya invites us to “look to the future with confidence, to keep hope alive, to realize that by ourselves we can leave the apathy where the Cuban dictatorship wants to see us sunk.”

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

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Diaz-Canel: A New Image and an Old Dogma

Miguel Díaz-Canel during a meeting with the youth in Granma in which he asked them if they all had internet. (La Demajagua)

14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 2 July 2018 — In recent weeks, the presence of Díaz-Canel in the official media has become frequent to the point of saturation, in stark contrast to the opacity he maintained during his years in training as the dauphin of former president, Raúl Castro, with the exception — if anything — of the days before being elected by the deputies of the National Assembly, when he began to appear more regularly among the old hierarchs of the historical generation as a prelude to his future position as head of the Government.

It could be said that the de facto leader has not only inherited the Castro’s throne, but also the gift of ubiquity of the historic leader, who during his 47-year reign of omnipotence seemed to be everywhere at the same time.

So many and such public media presentations seem to pursue the intent of dressing up Raul Castro’s chosen with the legitimacy that was never verified at the ballot boxes with the votes of the electorate, and with prestige that does not even belong to him, the supposed historical distinction that the members of the almost extinct guerrilla cast of the yacht Granma or of the Sierra Maestra have granted onto themselves. continue reading

This would explain, to some extent, the forced importance that the official media give to this young president of stony temperament and impenetrable expression, whose strong attachment to the script of his predecessors confers the inevitable aura of a puppet, subject to the will of his superiors. Thus, orphaned of authority, prestige, true capacity for decision, charisma and ability for communication, the real power urges him to manufacture his doll props leadership, by cultivating that image as energetic guide, laborious, human, familial, committed to the direction of the country and very in touch with the people.

So many and so public media presentations seem to pursue the intent of appointing Raúl Castro’s chosen with the legitimacy that was never verified at the urns with the votes of the electorate

Thus, as a superhero capable of saving the nation in these turbulent times of crisis, we have seen the new president in the most varied circumstances and contexts: in shirt sleeves at the scene of an air disaster just one hour after this occurred, with an interest in the details of the tragedy, and endorsing an in-depth investigation of the facts and a complete and transparent information of what happened; on a tour of several provinces, where he has thoroughly immersed himself in the people, visiting the Sanctuary of La Caridad del Cobre, patron saint of Cuba; reverencing, as in appearance of deep reflection, before the stone that guards Fidel Castro’s ashes; leading important meetings, among others, those of the Council of State; receiving ambassadors and other distinguished visitors or attending a popular music concert where he was congratulated by one of the artists and cheered by those present.

And uncaringly and unexpectedly, taking a walk through the streets with his wife. The socialist Cuba finally debuts a first lady who appears on the asphalt in lycra and low-heeled shoes, taken by the hand of the president and slightly behind his firm step, or in a snug-fitting dress at a solemn ceremony. She does not wear fashion designer clothes or a stylish haircut; for that would not be a very dignified image of the companion of a communist president.

At the same time, there is a special interest in programming the image of a modern, carefree president, aware of what goes on in social networks and in international media, an active participant in the economic, social and cultural life of the country, distant from the stiffness and rigidity of the olive-green gerontocracy that was the visible face of power for decades.

Everything suggests an implicit will to rejuvenate the image of power, which, however, contrasts with the prevalence of the old discourse of Fidel’s revolutionary orthodoxy

Everything suggests an implicit will to rejuvenate the image of power, which, however, contrasts with the prevalence of the old discourse of Fidel’s revolutionary orthodoxy. New wine in old wineskins. Thus, paradoxically, a renewal of form coexists with a propping up of the old dogma. Just a change of appearance, a symbolic leadership that overlaps the survival of an autocratic leadership that, under the guise of evolution, continues to show its seams.

And as is to be expected, all this flapping of apparent changes is unleashing a barrage of opinions. There is no shortage of those who, even from the “enemy” of the Castros’ press, support the idea that Díaz-Canel “is winking” at the intentions of reforms for Cubans on the Island, or those who fall back into the trap of populism (“Díaz-Canel does mix with the people”), unconsciously paving the way for a renewed autocracy.

Because, it is well known, the media has great power, even to demonstrate that what is good and new is perhaps harmful and old. This very president, who now monopolizes the attention of the Castro press monopoly, has been one of the most furious Torquemadas to whip up independent journalism, incite control over the press and promote the total control of internet administration by the Government.

A modern, reformist, youthful, accessible president? As far as I’m concerned, he will remain the same as his mentors until he demonstrates the opposite with very clear actions.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Court Lifts Embargo Against a Cargo of Russian Oil Destined for Cuba

Cienfuegos Refinery, an investment abandoned by the Government of Nicolás Maduro. (EFE)

14ymedio, Miami, 26 June 2018 — An oil tanker prevented for more than a month from delivering Russian oil bought by Venezuela’s state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), to send to Cuba, has been unloaded in the Caribbean. Another ship with Russian oil for Havana paid for by Caracas, will also unload very soon, according to sources quoted by Reuters.

The Aframax Advante Atom tanker, detained after a dispute between PDVSA and ConocoPhillips, based in Texas, had not been able to deliever the oil purchased Russia in May to support Venezuela’s Caribbean ally. Conoco obtained a court order that allowed it to confiscate assets, inventories and shipments of PDVSA for a value of two billion dollars to satisfy a lawsuit against Caracas. continue reading

Although a part of the measures were repealed, Venezuela has not been able to fully utilize its refining and storage facilities in the region and has been forced to divert oil shipments, which delays its exports.

According to Reuters, the cargo of Aframax Advante Atom was transferred from ship to ship in the vicinity of the Cayman Islands, south of Cuba. The agency also reports that the Aframax British Cygnet, which was carrying Russian crude for re-export to Cuba, was diverted to the Aruba transfer area at the beginning of June to unload its cargo.

The crisis of the Venezuelan oil company, once the jewel in the country’s crown, has led it to buy oil abroad to meet its commitments. Venezuela was sending around 100,000 barrels a day of oil to Cuba as part of a collaboration agreement signed between Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. In return, Cuba continues to send thousands of professionals to Venezuela.

After the collapse of the Venezuelan economy, shipments have been reduced to 40,000 barrels per day, putting in check the fragile Cuban economy, which recorded red numbers for the first time in more than two decades last year.

Venezuela has abandoned important investments in Cuba , such as the Cienfuegos refinery, which started with money from Caracas but was recently handed over to the Cuban side.

“PDVSA exported an average of 765,000 barrels per day of crude and refined products to its customers in the first two weeks of June,” Reuters says, representing a 32% drop in production. The number of active platforms fell in May to 28, compared with 54 in the same month of 2017.

Sources from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries estimated that Venezuela’s production fell to 1.3 million barrels of oil in May, the lowest production since the 1950s.

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Kenya’s President Celebrates the Deployment of Cuban Doctors

President Uhuru Kenyatta attended the event and subsequently posted images of the moment on his Twitter account. (@UKenyatta)

14ymedio, Havana | 28 June 2018 — After the controversy and a short course at the School of Sciences in Nairobi, the Cuban doctors in Kenya left Wednesday from the capital, sent off by crowds of people, to the counties where they will undertake their work.

The president himself, Uhuru Kenyatta, attended the event and subsequently published images of the moment on his Twitter account, writing: continue reading

“The 100 Cuban doctors specializing in cardiology, nephrology and neurosurgery, among other specialties, are now ready to move to the counties and I am delighted to formally send them off to provide much-needed services to the Kenyan population, let us embrace and support them.” He also posted photographs in which the healthcare workers are seen on buses bidding farewell to the authorities, Cuban flag in hand.

The doctors arrived in the country on June 6 pending the resolution of a complaint that tried to challenge their hiring. Three unemployed Kenyan doctors had filed the case in the Employment and Labor Relations Tribunal arguing that doctors in Kenya should have priority over Cubans.

On June 19, Judge Onesmus Makau dismissed the complaint alleging that it was not proven that the rights of doctors and other specialists had been violated by the decision to import Cuban doctors.

The Union of Doctors and Dentists of Kenya (KMPDU) had also opposed recruitment on the grounds that it would cost taxpayers billions of shillings.

“The Cuban doctors will cost the taxpayer more than 2 billion shillings (about 20 million dollars) plus the additional costs of security, transportation, housing and food from the governments of the counties,” said the general secretary of the union, Ouma Oluga.

The President issued a statement on Wednesday explaining that in the next 100 days his Government will launch a campaign to immunize 400,000 children, which is expected to increase coverage, currently some 80%.

In the same communication, he took the opportunity to talk about Cuban health workers, praising the agreement and the benefits it will bring to Kenya.

“Our ratio of 1 doctor to every 16,000 Kenyans remains an obstacle to achieving universal health care coverage. Local specialists are few and far between, however, their services are in great demand in the country. The bilateral agreement between Kenya and Cuba, therefore, will improve health collaboration in the provision of specialized services and will also develop the skills of our local doctors,” said Kenyatta.

Cuba’s ambassador in Kenya, Ernesto Gómez Díaz, attended the event and said that the deployment of medical specialists was key to consolidating the growing bilateral relationship between Kenya and Cuba.

As a part of the pact, Kenya and Cuba are negotiating an agreement on the control of malaria vectors through the use of biolarvicide technology available on the island.

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Mexico Moves to the Left Against the Imaginary Pendulum

Andrés Manuel López Obrador has an inveterate addiction to promising subsidies. (Morena)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 1 July 2018 — This article could not be published in Mexico right now. The elections are on Sunday July first and as of Thursday the ban has been declared. The purpose is to avoid influencing the voters who, supposedly, meditate on whom they will elect as president. In fact, the great national concern is the World Cup and the fact that Mexico has chances to win it.

What a stupid measure! In the times of our majesty the internet all that is useless. As of several days ago, 99.99% of the voters have made their decision. Polls show Andrés Manuel López Obrador – AMLO to Mexicans – of the MORENA Party as the winner with 45% intending to vote for him. The distant second is Ricardo Anaya (PAN-PRD) with 19%, and José Antonio Meade of PRI is third with just 15%. The difference is so great that if there had been a second round* AMLO would clearly defeat Anaya. continue reading

Why is Mexico moving to the left, against the imaginary pendulum, when almost all of Latin America seems to be moving in the other direction? Probably, because of AMLO who, despite being a politician of the system (he has been a member of the PRI and the PRD), has some of the attributes of the caudillo outsider, and the fact that the vast majority of Mexicans are tired of traditional politicians incapable of alleviating the very serious problems of increasing violence and great corruption.

Also, because Mexico is a country only lightly related to Latin America. It has its rich pre-Columbian history, its powerful colonial viceroyalty and its republican history without Simón Bolívar and without José de San Martín. It has its cuisine, its myths, its literature, its cinema, its music, and, ultimately, its rich and varied culture at the service of the almost 130 million Mexicans who live in the country and many of the 40 million located in the United States.

To which is added a remarkable phenomenon: the only foreign nation that really influences Mexico’s social mentality is the United States. Not withstanding that in two slashes the United States took half of Mexico’s territory. The first cut was Texas in 1836, and the second, ten years later, was the rest of what is now the southwestern US, including California.

Neither Spain, which is the distant past of the gachupines (native Spaniards in Mexico), nor Latin America, with whom the country shares a language and many features of a common identity bequeathed by the Motherland, are present in the daily life of Mexicans. The Mexican obsession is the United States.

I remember that, after participating in a seminar with Samuel Huntington at Harvard organized by Larry Harrison, the American thinker expressed his concern about the strong Mexican presence in the west of the country, given that they might eventually try to link to Mexico. I was then invited to give a lecture in Monterrey and, when I finished, I explained and asked my Mexican listeners about Huntington’s conjecture.

My hosts laughed. Had neither Huntington nor I had heard of the Tex-Mex world, very rich in culinary and musical expressions? It was the other way around: what could happen, according to them, was that one day northern Mexico would ask for its annexation to the United States. There was, they said, a very strong force of attraction from Texas that made residents of Monterrey feel more emotionally close to the Texan culture than to Mexico City.

In short, who is afraid of AMLO and why? Fearing him, with reason, are employers and society’s elite. The fear comes from his inveterate addiction to promising subsidies. AMLO’s populist features arouse the terror of business groups and domestic and foreign investors. He will raise public spending to terrible levels.

Many assume he could be another Hugo Chávez. I do not think so. He doesn’t seem as foolish. I suspect he will choose another mode of disaster, but one less severe. Maybe it will be like the first term of Peru’s Alan García, or the initial years of Venezuelan Rafael Caldera’s second term, until reality made him change direction.

The unfortunate thing is that his term will overlap with that of Donald Trump. A right-wing populist and a left-wing populist will mutually reinforce their worst instincts. In any case, Trump must be thinking of adding thirty feet to his border wall while AMLO is thinking nothing will be done to stop the flood of emigrants. The train crash is all but certain.

*Translator’s note: There are no run-offs in Mexican presidential elections. The highest vote getter wins, even without a majority. The president serves only one six-year term.

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The Unfinished Tasks of Pope Francis

Pope Francis assumed the throne of Saint Peter with the aura of renewal. (Twitter)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 1 July 2018 — The scandal has transcended Chile and reached the doors of the Vatican itself. The earthquake provoked by accusations of sexual abuse and cover-ups against several Chilean priests has also challenged Pope Francis, who accepted the resignation of five Chilean bishops but is aware that the problem extends throughout the world’s Catholic Church.

Among the prelates and seminarians themselves, opinions on how to solve the current crisis remain divided and polarized. While some see the denunciations as an attack to the Christian faith and an attack against the ecclesiastical institution, others urge the implementation of important changes that would diminish the incidence of these scourges. Placed above this mountain of criticism, the Pope seems like a figure made of paper at the mercy of the storm. continue reading

The man who became the Bishop of Rome surrounded by an aura of renewal, has been able to do little to introduce real changes in the temples and convents that would contribute to modernizing the Church, opening it to a changing world where “the rule of law” must govern everyone, without complicities or silences. Francis has failed the victims of these abuses by not fostering the transformations necessary to prevent them from continuing to happen.

The discussion on the subject has special connotations in Latin America, since this region has more than 425 million Catholics, a figure that represents almost 40% of the Catholic faithful on the planet. The debate has been ignited even in countries such as Cuba where scandals of clerical abuse have not yet reached the front pages of the papers, due to the prudish secrecy of the official press and the fear of those affected.

Sotto voce, in Cuban corridors and sacristies, the news about the events in Chile inflames discussions. Few can escape taking sides given what happened.

“Eliminate the obligation of celibacy,” a young Cuban who studied at a seminar on the island proposes without blinking. “The ordination of women, greater transparency in the management of resources, the democratization of the communities and even the acceptance of homosexual marriage,” round out the demands of this potential priest who finally hung up his habit without seeing his dreams materialize.

“These scandals will pass because the Church is millenarian and has withstood worse attacks, we are going to weather the storm and continue,” says the elderly priest of a Havana parish. “We can not all be evaluated by the actions of some and celibacy must remain intact because it is something that distinguishes us and reinforces our chastity,” he adds.

Between the weathered priest and the young ex-seminarian is an abyss carved out by their differences. Both share religious faith but there is a vast difference in their beliefs about how the institution to which they belong should function. Both are Catholics, but while one clings to the traditions and the old ways, the other inhabits the church of the future, the one that Pope Francis has not managed to promote.

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Note: This column was originally published in the Latin American edition of Deutsche Welle.

The Cuban Roots of Mexican Presidential Candidate Lopez Obrador

Andrés Manuel López Obrador is the favorite to win the Mexican elections this Sunday. (EFE)

14ymedio, Ruben Cortes, Mexico, 28 June 2018 — It is impossible to separate Cuba from the political essence of Mexican presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, often referred to as AMLO. In his 50s, he has only left Mexico twice: both times he went to Cuba

“López Obrador will be the person with the most moral and political authority in Mexico when the system collapses and, with him, the mafia of power,” Fidel Castro wrote before dying. “Commander Fidel is a social and political fighter of great dimensions,” said AMLO after the death of the Cuban dictator.

And the populist roots of AMLO come from Cuba, from Fidel’s political preceptor: Eduardo Chibás. continue reading

So just 130 miles from Cancun there have been no elections since 1947, thanks, precisely, to Chibas, one of the first populists of the continent and from whom AMLO takes his slogan of “Valiant Honesty.”

In 1945, with the motto “Shame versus money,” Chibás burst into Cuba’s democracy, the first in the continent to achieve the vote for women, eliminate racial segregation by law and establish the eight-hour workday, as well as benefits for the workers.

Populist and demagogue, Chibas fought against corruption and verbally assaulted his adversaries, riling up the crowds against institutions that had held seven free elections when, for example, in Mexico, there had been none.

The same institutions that had turned Cuba into one of the most prosperous countries in the world, and legalized the Communist Party, while 90 miles away in the United Statest the party was persecuted and some of its members were fried in the electric chair by McCarthyism.

But the populist Chibas insisted on the need for a “fourth transformation” in Cuba, leading the crowds as a great sower of distrust and suspicion in the already thriving Cuban democracy of the 1940s.

The flamboyant discourse of Chibás destroyed the political class and Cuban democratic institutions forever. As a systematic sniper at the system, he psychologically prepared the Cuban people for the acceptance of the end of the democratic life that had been built since 1902.

Chibás committed suicide on August 5, 1951, shooting himself in the stomach on a live a radio program, because he could not present evidence of corruption against a minister. With the end of his life the political party he had created with friends and family to win the presidency also ended.

And Cuba fell into chaos: Batista’s coup on March 10, 1952, Fidel Castro’s dictatorship in 1959, political persecutions, purges, exiles…

Today, AMLO revives that Cuban movie from Chibás, with his idea of the “fourth transformation of Mexico.” And those “transformations” (let’s not forget) are always demagogic ways of naming different types of dictatorships.

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Some 14 Families Camp Out on a Tourist Street in Havana to Demand Housing

Policemen in front of the building where the collapse occurred. They have forbidden neighbors to talk to the independent press. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana | 30 June 2018 — A few yards from the place where tourists are trying to take a photo with the sign for Cuba Street, in Old Havana, a dozen people have planted themselves outside a half-demolished building to demand a decent home. At least 14 families have been out in the open for five days, according to statements collected by 14ymedio.

After an intense downpour last weekend a part of the roof collapsed at number 662 Cuba Street. Camping out on the sidewalk since Monday, the residents are demanding that the authorities relocate them to another building or one of the many vacant state offices in the area.

This Friday, under the strong midday sun, some residents sought shelter in a narrow shadow under the projecting facades, waiting for an official response to their demands. continue reading

Tourists walk through the neighborhood, oblivious to the scene of a row of families who use the street as if it were communal housing, where a baby sleeps in his cradle while a little coffee is brewed using an extension cord run from the interior of a building whose neighbors are offering solidarity.

The housing situation in Cuba is one of the biggest problems in the country. (14ymedio)

“It’s dangerous to enter the building, that’s why we’re here to protect you from being crushed,” one of the officers explained to 14ymedio, while playing with his nightstick. The warning has little effect because inside the building are all the belongings of the families and some take risks to recover them.

“If we do not take our things they will be lost, explains a resident who initially told this newspaper his name, but a few minutes later he asks for anonymity to avoid “suffering repression after the article comes out on the internet.” Nobody wants to put at risk their chance that their complaint will get them a safe roof.

However, the disagreement is source of great stress. “We are on the street, no one has come from either the Government or the Housing Institute, the only response we have received is that we must wait and that there is no capacity in the shelters,” the resident adds.

At the end of last year, after the damage in the Cuban capital left by Hurricane Irma, the availability of spaces to house those who lost their homes was exhausted in the shelters, collective temporary locations where families can wait up to two decades for a house.

The conditions in which thousands of Havanans live are extremely dangerous, in buildings that are about to collapse. (14ymedio)

The authorities recognize that the housing problem is the primary social need in Cuba, with a deficit of more than 800,000 homes. This problem is aggravated because in the last decade the construction of new houses has fallen by 20%. At the end of 2015, it barely exceeded 23,000, more than half raised through private management.

Outside the semi-ruined building on Cuba Street, a young woman says that the building was “declared uninhabitable” in 1980 and although they have lived through hell all this time “luckily on the day of the collapse no one was hurt.”

The woman is pessimistic and believes that nothing will be resolved because “the people are not united,” she explains. “No one wants to talk to the press because they are afraid and then the police come to ask who was talking to the journalists.”

After an intense downpour last weekend a part of the roof of the building collapsed at number 662 of Cuba Street. (14ymedio)

The protest that they are carrying out supposes a push with the Government and the Office of the Historian of the City, that manages the entire zone from a heritage perspective. What’s more, in the midst of the planning for the celebrations for Havana’s 500th anniversary in 2019, which is coming at a time of the celebrations for the 500 years of Havana that are fulfilled in 2019 and that come at a time of decline and difficult straits for the capital.

This week the historian of the city, Eusebio Leal, called for recovering “the dignity” of Havana and “not humiliating it” by painting “her in colors she doesn’t know,” throwing garbage in its streets or urinating in its corners. “Dignity begins with the people, through the homes,” a resident claims as he fans himself outside 662 Cuba Street.

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Pinar Del Rio’s Bishop Asks For “A Review of the Case” of Ruiz Urquiola

The Bishop of Pinar del Río, Jorge Serpa, and the biologist Ariel Ruiz Urquiola. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, Miami, 30 June 2018 – On Friday, shortly after visiting biologist Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, on hunger strike over his sentence of one year in prison, the bishop of the Catholic diocese of Pinar del Rio, Jorge Serpa, spoke in favor of “a review of the case and of the process.”

Serpa made these comments in the course of a telephone call with 14ymedio. He explained that he spoke for more than an hour with the prisoner and was left with the impression that he was “a person with whom one can talk, with his views and convictions.”

The bishop clarified that he can not talk about the religious advice he lent to Ruiz Urquiola because, although it is not a secret of confession, it is something private. However, Serpa agreed to give a few details about the striker’s health status. continue reading

“Some people call me telling me that he is in a condition where his life is in danger. That’s not the case,” Serpa said.

“A person who can coherently carry on an hour’s conversation can not be said to be debilitated, although if his protest continues he will end up that way. Anyone who spends several days in that situation ends up debilitated.”

“He is protesting for justice to be done, so that the process in which he was condemned is reviewed. I think he’s right and it’s his right to protest.”

“Everyone who protests, if they are right, should do it. This protest is based on a conviction that Ruiz Urquiola considers flawed, and for that the best thing is to review the case and the process that led to that conviction. Everyone has the right to ask for that,” explained the bishop.

Ariel Ruiz Urquiola was sentenced last month to one year in jail for “contempt” in the Municipal Court of Viñales (Pinar del Río) after a trial that the family believed was manipulated by State Security. Urquiola was arrested on the farm he leases from the State in that locality, after calling the area’s officials “rural police,” a term that ended up with his arrest and a charge of “contempt.”

Two weeks ago, Amnesty International declared Ruiz Urquiola a prisoner of conscience and took urgent action to demand his release. On Tuesday, the United States asked Cuba for the “immediate” release of all political prisoners on the island and expressed its special concern for the cases of Eduardo Cardet and Ariel Ruiz Urquiola.

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Revolutionary Hunger in Venezuela

Looking in the trash for something to eat has become an alternative for some Venezuelans. (EFE)

14ymedio, Reyes Theis, Caracas, 26 June 2018 — “My husband and I eat only vegetables, yucca or potato, we leave for the kids what the box brings. Sometimes I give them rice with butter in the morning and another little bit at night.” So says Aurimar, seated on the wall of the San Bernardino church, sheltering herself from the sun, as she waits for the community soup that is delivered every Saturday to needy people. She is 26 years old but looks older.

Aurimar has three children, the youngest five months, but she is surrounded by more children. “They are my nieces and nephews. I bring ten in all, because they have nothing to eat, either,” she explains.

The young woman lives in a house in a popular part of San Bernardino with her partner, a security guard who earns the Venezuelan minimum wage set at 2,555,500 bolivars (a dollar a month on the black market exchange rate). A kilo of meat is worth between four and five million bolivars. continue reading

The box from the Local Production and Supply Committees (CLAP) helps the family a lot in feeding their kids, but it is not enough. “It comes once a month and doesn’t last,” laments Aurimar.

The box which the Government sells through a network associated with the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) may contain rice, lentils, beans, powdered milk, oil, corn flour and pasta. Most of the products are from Mexico and of questionable quality. A newspaper investigation revealed the low quality of the powdered milk which also has a high sodium content and low protein, which can cause health problems for consumers.

Other works by journalists and the National Assembly have denounced a framework of corruption around CLAP, and the former attorney general of the Republic, Luisa Ortega Diaz, has accused Nicolas Maduro’s presumed front men of being involved in the bad management of that assistance program.

In order to get the CLAP box, one must have the Heritage ID, an instrument of political and social control that was widely used in the presidential election of last May 20.

Aurimar says that in her home they rarely taste animal protein, “that’s why we appreciate the attention they give us in the Church,” she comments.

Father Numa Rivero is a native of Puerto Cumarebo, in the state of Falcon, and was assigned as parish priest of San Bernardino in January 2017. “One day I was in the office, I heard noises and was startled to see what was happening. There were people eating from the trash. It really moved me because I had never seen that even when I was in India,” he says.

The priest then started the solidarity pot project by which parishioners donate food that is prepared by volunteers. “In March of last year we started giving out 80 bowls of soup, currently we give about 180. We give it first to the children, then to the elderly, if anything is left we send it to the area’s nursing homes where there is also a lot of malnutrition,” he explains.

The solidarity pots have multiplied across the country, thanks to a combination of private initiatives and religious organizations like Caritas, an association of the Catholic Church very active in humanitarian assistance whose fundamental purpose in Venezuela is to find cases of malnutrition in children in order to be able to help them, assist the family in recovery and refer to the public health system those cases that warrant it, says its website.

In its corresponding report at the end of the fourth quarter of 2017 and with data from 42 parishes in seven of the country’s states, Caritas found 66.6% of children evaluated already had some level of nutritional deficit or were at risk of it.

In terms of the seriousness of the malnutrition, the records indicated that 16.2% of children had moderate or sever malnutrition (global acute malnutrition), 20.9% mild, 30.3% are at risk of malnutrition and barely 32.6% have no nutritional deficit.

Maria Carolina is a senior technician in administration and administrative manager in a medium-sized company. Her salary comes to about 10 million bolivars (some four dollars) and she lives with her 12-year old son and her elderly mother. Each of them has lost about 20% of their body weight in the last year, and blood test results show the three have anemia and are receiving low nutrient levels.

“The CLAP box arrives once a month, but it’s not enough. Also, my money doesn’t go far enough to buy cheese, meat or chicken,” she complains. Pasta with tomato sauce or plain rice are part of their diet.

The Bengoa Foundation, a private, non-profit organization, has been investigating the Venezuelan food reality. “There was a very critical period in the Soviet Union during which its people lost on average six kilograms of weight. The first measurement of the survey about Conditions of Life in Venezuela (Encovi) in 2016 said that the average Venezuelan weight loss was around eight kilos, and we are now going on 11 kilos,” comments Marianela Herrera, doctor and member of its board.

The doctor explains that for an average adult man of 70 kilos, the loss of 11 kilos represents more than 10% of body mass in a year. “It is serious,” she says. In the case of children, the situation is even more critical.

In a survey that the Bengoa Foundation did in conjunction with the Andres Bello Catholic University, when they measured children between zero and two years of age, 33% of the children under three years of age in a representative sample of Venezuelans was suffering stunted growth according to the height-age index.

“This worries us greatly, it is a serious problem because in the first 1,000 days children must be protected because that is when the brain develops. It is when proper interventions can be made for them to recover and it is when problems manifest themselves that later are going to be very hard to solve, like cognitive development. Then that child will not be teachable or he is going to drop out of school, because he will feel that he can’t,” says Herrera. She adds that the child will have in the future a significant risk of suffering from chronic diseases like diabetes or cancer.

The cases of Aurimar and Maria Carolina confirm the findings about the pattern of food consumption in Venezuela.

Pre-cooked corn flour has been replaced by Mexican flour from the CLAP boxes, which is not enriched with vitamins and minerals, and there is a great increase in the consumption of tubers. Animal protein has practically disappeared from the Venezuelan table.

“It is serious that only yucca, yams and rice are being eaten. The diet should be varied so that there is a contribution of micronutrients, essential nutrients, calories, proteins and healthy fats that meet the human being’s requirements. A normal pattern is what we had before: Between 35 and 40 different foods per day. If you take the number of foods that were in a creole breakfast: corn cakes, butter, scrambled eggs with onion and tomato, cheese, coffee and juice, we have there at least ten foods,” explains the doctor.

The serious Venezuelan nutritional situation is a result of the collapse of purchasing power. Venezuela suffers currently from the highest inflation in the world, at 1,995.2%, according to the National Assembly. The expropriations, confiscations and controls carried out by the Bolivarian Revolutions have weakened the Venezuelan private sector.

Inflation makes prices vary daily and the effect is exacerbated by the black market in currency, which has run wild because the country depends on imports. These two factors mean the average citizen doesn’t have enough money to buy essential goods, and if he does have it, he probably cannot find the product.

This is why many Venezuelans rummage through garbage containers in search of food. Nevertheless, it is surprising that well-dressed mothers are doing the same.

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The alliance of Vencuba with 14ymedio and the Venezuelan daily Tal Cual has allowed the production of this reportage.

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

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