Cuban Authorities Secretly Disinter Remains of Céspedes and Grajales

Pantheon of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes in the cemetery of Santa Ifigenia, in Santiago de Cuba. (Coexistence)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 9 October 2017 – Months ago, surrounded by strict discretion, the remains of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and Mariana Grajales were exhumed in the Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba. The operation was led by the same specialist who, two decades ago, led the search for the remains of Ernesto Che Guevara in Bolivia.

This time the task was easier because there was no need to travel to other latitudes. All it took was opening the tombs of the Father of the Fatherland and the mother of General Antonio Maceo, dismantling the pantheons in which both were buried, and moving the sepulchers to within a few yards of the place where former Cuban president Fidel Castro lies.

This Tuesday, they will repose in the new location after a military ceremony with more than 350 guests, although several descendants told 14ymedio that they were not consulted about the move and several ecclesiastical sources lament that no one was allowed to offer a funeral oration during the extraction of their bodies. continue reading

A brief note appearing Saturday in the local weekly Sierra Maestra was the first public notice that the remains of Céspedes and Grajales were not in their traditional graves where they were assumed to have found “eternal rest.”

On Monday, four short paragraphs published in the newspaper Granma also referred to the upcoming interment, which many expect to be attended by Raul Castro, who participated this Sunday in the official commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Ernesto Guevara.

A neighbor of Santiago cemetery told 14ymedio that entrance to the area where the two patriots were previously buried was forbidden. “For months you haven’t been able to go there,” he said. “That entire part of the cemetery is cordoned off with a tape that forbids access.”

Both the newspaper Granma and the Sierra Maestra said that the transfer of the tombs was carried out in the interest of facilitating “in the future, that the Cuban people and foreign visitors can pay tribute to both [Grajales and Céspedes] in a more expeditious way.”

Each tourist must buy a ticket for 3 Cuban convertible pesos (CUC) to enter the graveyard. The cemetery of Santa Ifigenia has experienced an increase in visitors in the last year since the arrival of the ashes of Castro, after his death on 25 November.

The place has become an obligatory point of pilgrimage for left-wing militants from all over the world and is also included in tourist agencies tours that promise to introduce their clients to Santiago de Cuba, “the most important city in eastern Cuba.”

The remains of Grajales arrived in the cemetery of Santiago de Cuba three decades after his death in Kingston, Jamaica, on November 27, 1893. The first stone of the monument to Céspedes was placed in October 1909 and his body was placed in the tomb almost one year later.

Granma, the official organ of the Communist Party, highlighted in its note Monday that Grajales and Céspedes will also be closer to the funeral mausoleum of José Martí, the most important grave in the cemetery, and a few yards from the site of the monument that contains the ashes of Castro.

The new position, however, is surrounded by intense controversy over the lack of public information, the non-observance of Christian rituals that the exhumation of two consummate Catholics would merit, and the high cost of the move in the midst of the country’s economic crisis.

Oscar Márquez, chancellor of the archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba, said via telephone to this newspaper that the authorities had not previously informed the Church about the exhumation of the remains, nor about the weeks during which they remained unburied before being reinterred.

“Here everyone thinks their own way and those who have done this think in one way… they decided not to tell us,” explains the priest with an enigmatic touch. “No, there has been nothing, no information about the fact that the pantheons would be opened,” says the chancellor when asked if there was any official message.

Manuel Hilario de Céspedes y García-Menocal, bishop of Matanzas and a descendant of the Father of the Fatherland, says he did not know anything about the exhumation of the remains of his ancestor, who died in 1874 at the San Lorenzo de la Sierra Maestra estate, four months after having been stripped of his role as President of the Republic in Arms.

Nor did a descendant of Maceo, who lives in Havana and asked for anonymity, recall being informed of a possible change in the site of his tomb.

Yudy Garcia Delis, administrator of Santa Ifigenia, informed this newspaper that the exhumation of the remains of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and Mariana Grajales occurred four months ago. “On 27 June they took Cespedes and a few days later Mariana, although I can not specify the exact day.”

A team of the Department of Legal Medicine led by Jorge Gonzalez, current director of Medical Education at the Ministry of Public Health and the person who headed the mission to locate the body of Ernesto Guevara and bring him to Cuba for the 30th anniversary of his death, was in charge of opening the sepulchers of these heroes of independence and extracting the remains.

Gonzalez, an firm supporter of the government and deputy to the National Assembly, has been embroiled in several controversies surrounding the authenticity of his findings in Vallegrande to find Guevara. The research has been charged with being imprecise and carried out more in search of a political effect than a scientific proof.

Garcia Delis is reluctant to say where Grajales and Céspedes have been being kept until today. “They are in a place that I cannot reveal,” he says, although he minimizes the secrecy on the grounds that they are “well guarded.”

This Tuesday the mystery is revealed. Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, the man who started the war for Cuban independence, and Mariana Grajales, the matron of a family of patriots, will be resting in a new location. Until the whim of the next power determines otherwise.

The Forgotten Victims of ‘Che’ Guevara

“Executions, yes we have executed, we are executing and we will continue to execute as long as necessary.” Ernesto Guevara speaking at the United Nations in 1964. (UN.org)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Maria Werlau, Miami, 9 October 2017 — ‘Che’ Guevara’s face adorns T-shirts worn by many opponents of capital punishment, but the flesh-and-blood man displayed a deep contempt for the sanctity of human life.

Behind the carefully constructed myth of Che, there is a dark and irreconcilable truth. A cursory look at the extensive bibliography on Che, including his own writings, and a glance at the list of his known victims, makes that patently clear.

Guevara knew, through his self-study of communism, that terror would be a necessary component of revolutionary order. Besides, he had come prepared for the task of executioner; in the Sierra Maestra he had been forged as a serial killer. Of the 25 executions by the Rebel Army during the fight against Batista that Cuba Archive has documented, at least 6 were at Che’s hand or ordered by him. From the 1st of January 1959, he and the Castro brothers pushed the imperative to kill to guarantee control in Cuba. continue reading

The death penalty was practically abolished in Cuba, as article 25 of the 1940 Constitution forbade its application except in cases of military treason. But on 10 January 1959 the new Council of Revolutionary Ministers modified the constitution, ignoring the clauses about the process for its amendment, and on 10 February 1959 they promulgated a new Basic Law. Thus, the constitution was subordinated, and essentially abolished, granting the death penalty a vestige of legality and permitting its retroactive application.

From January 1 to 3, 1959, Che executed, or left orders to execute, 25 people in Santa Clara. On 3 January, Fidel Castro appointed him commander of La Cabaña prison in Havana and supreme judge of the revolutionary tribunals. In the short period in which he was in charge of La Cabaña (from January 4 to November 26, 1959), at least 73 people were executed without basic legal guarantees and the great majority without their crimes having been proven. Che not only commanded La Cabaña, but was also the judge in charge of all appeals.

Curiously, the best biographies of Che Guevara have devoted hundreds of pages to the smallest minutia of his life, but given almost zero attention to his victims. In fact, Che’s clothes, appearance, interests, sexuality, or personal correspondence receive more interest than those whose lives he stole or the tracks of pain he left in the anguished families of his victims.

Che spoke frankly to the international community about the executions in Cuba. At the United Nations in New York on 11 December 1964, he made his famous declaration: “Executions, yes we have executed, we are executing and we will continue to execute as long as necessary.”

What is less legendary, but more shocking, is that he was in favor of unleashing nuclear war to “build a better world,” supposedly from the ashes, during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. A few weeks later, he told a British journalist if the missiles had been under Cuban control, they would have been launched. If there were any doubts about his objectives, his 1967 message at the Tricontinental Conference passionately advocating the destruction of the United States.

The real number of Che’s victims may never be known. In addition to those he may have killed in Cuba and who are still unknown, many others died in the guerrilla revolts he led in the Congo and Bolivia, as well as other violent actions he led in Latin America. After his death, the totalitarian system he helped to design and impose in Cuba has cost thousands of lives and the communist model he was devoted to has left a number of victims calculated at 100 million in the world.

In this era of suicide bombers who massacred civilians for fanatic objectives, it is imperative to make clear who Che really was. We owe his victims a memory and we owe the loved ones they left behind solidarity. They were plunged into a pain underestimated by the world, made deeper by the exaltation of the executioner.

————

María Werlau heads the Cuba Archive Project. The second edition of her book, The Forgotten Victims of Che Guevara, includes the profiles of some of his victims.

Bar, Perfume Shop or Brothel?

Only those who dare to enter discover that the La Dulce Mulatta is a bar. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 9 October 2017 — She looks suggestively from the door on República Street in the city of Camaguey. “La Dulce Mulata*” says the poster that accompanies her provocative face. With that name, tourists think it’s a brothel, the clueless bet that it is a perfume shop and only those who dare to enter discover that it is a bar.

Owned by the state-owned Empresa de Comercio, with eight tables and a bar for ten customers, the place has a huge screen that plays videoclips of barely dressed models all day long. The bartender confesses that every week there is a foreigner who asks if it is a “puticlub” – a brothel. Perhaps for this reason, or to evade police controls, the locale has become – little by little – a meeting point for jineteras – hookers – and clients. continue reading

“With that name, could it be anything else?” says a customer on his third mojito, laughing. “They call it that for Mulata rum,” adds the guy, although he confesses that “it’s sweet, nobody knows where it came from.” Three other men with their elbows on the bar smirk as they make sexual allusions about the origin of the adjective.

Recently, a Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean finished in Cuba. In the main session, Congresswoman Yolanda Ferrer said that “the concept of the feminine began to change from the day the Revolution triumphed.” However, she avoided referring to the sexist use that continues to be made of the image of women, not only in popular music, but also in tourist advertising and political propaganda.

The conference, convened by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), had room only to extol the situation of women in Cuba, to recall the late Vilma Espín, president of the Federation of Cuban Women, and to slip in another line from Fidel Castro. During the days of the event, tourists continued to arrive at the La Dulce Mulata bar asking, “How much does a woman like the one in the photo cost in Cuba?”

*The Sweet Mixed-Race Woman

Darsi Ferret Dies in Miami

The Cuban dissident Darsi Ferret. (Courtesy)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 7 October 2017 — Cuban dissident Darsi Ferret, who has lived in the United States since 2012, was found dead Saturday in West Palm Beach, as confirmed to 14ymedio by his colleagues and family.

Ferret, 47, a doctor, was at a local television station planning to launch in that Florida city when he died in circumstances still unknown.

In 2006, the dissident was removed from the practice of medicine in Cuba for his political positions and he founded the Juan Bruno Zayas Center for Health and Human Rights. His work as an opponent was widely recognized, especially for leading a peaceful demonstration in front of the UNESCO headquarters in Cuba every December 10th, International Human Rights Day. These marches were severely repressed by the political police. continue reading

In 2009 he was arrested and sentenced to 11 months in prison for the alleged crime of buying building materials in the informal market to renovate his house. Half a year later Amnesty International declared him a “prisoner of conscience” and demanded that Raul Castro’s government release him.

In June 2010, Ferret was released on parole and two years later emigrated as a political refugee to the United States. His wife at that time, Yusnaimy Jorge Soca, and his son Daniel, then 10, resided in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

“I left my homeland, friends and a people that is suffering greatly,” Ferret said when arriving in the US “but I keep alive the hope that Cuba will be free because the Cuban people are ever more committed to that freedom.”

In the United States, Ferret dedicated himself to spreading the reality of the island through his work as producer, reporter and event organizer in which several Cuban dissidents participated. Until his death he maintained a very critical position towards the Palace of the Revolution. An attitude emphasized last August on his Facebook wall when he said that “during almost six decades of absolute control of power on the island, the Castros have contributed nothing good or meritorious.”

Ed note: Ferret’s name has been frequently misspelled as “Ferrer,” including on his Wikipedia entry and in articles on this site (which we will correct). His family has confirmed that his name is Ferret, which is also correct on his Facebook.

Quebecois Arrested in Cuba for Bringing Hurricane Aid Without Going Through the Government

Cloutier says that his plan now is never to return to Cuba. (La Presse)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 3 October 2017 — Carl-Michel Cloutier, a Quebecois married to a Cuban and a frequent traveler to the island, plans never to return after his last experience. The Canadian was arrested, interrogated, had his belongings confiscated and was threatened with prison and never leaving the country, after coming to the island with humanitarian aid for the victims of Hurricane Irma.

The Canadian newspaper La Presse reported Cloutier’s story Monday, after his return to Montreal. In the article he said he had experienced an “ordeal” because of the Cuban authorities. “I thought I was going to end up in prison,” he said.

To avoid any problems, Carl-Michel Cloutier had informed the Cuban embassy in Canada of his intentions to bring aid to Cuba and asked that it be exempt from customs duties when he arrived in Havana on September 21. continue reading

Without offering any guarantees, Mara Bilbao Díaz, Cuban Consul in Montreal, provided him with a document stating that he was carrying 15 bags of 25 kg each with “a load of donations of clothing, toys and canned food for the victims of Hurricane Irma in the village of Isabela de Sagua, in the province of Villa Clara.”

“Mr. Cloutier was duly informed of Cuban customs regulations regarding passenger imports. Please use this document as an informative note,” the official wrote in the letter.

The Canadian arrived with a friend, Patrick Ménard, with 19 suitcases of aid to distribute, but he was only allowed to take nine of them with him, after paying 100 Cuban convertible pesos (roughly $100 USD) at customs. The other 10 suitcases stayed at the airport.

Cloutier’s wife’s family lives in the province of Villa Clara, near the village of Isabela de Sagua, where 70% of the buildings were destroyed by the hurricane on 9 September. In order to help the victims, donations were collected in Cloutier’s neighborhood, well as at the Albert Schweitzer School and Viajes LM, in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Quebec.

Carl-Michel Cloutier and his friend distributed some of the donations last week in the village. “The devastation was extreme, the houses were completely flattened or destroyed by the hurricane,” he told the Quebec daily. “The families were trying to pick up what was left, people were sleeping in a bed with their children, in the middle of their house without a roof or walls,” he said.

“We have shared the donations and they have shared their stories with us. They were very grateful, but it was very difficult for Patrick and me to witness this human tragedy.”

The problem came during a traffic control stop, when the two men and Cloutier’s parents-in-law were arrested by police and taken to the police station where they confiscated their phones and cameras.

“A man in military uniform from the Department of Immigration and another in civilian clothes from State Security interrogated me for more than four hours about our visit and the assistance we had delivered,” says Cloutier. “They told me that it is illegal to make humanitarian donations without going through the government.”

As the Quebecois explained it, the atmosphere was very tense during the interrogation, which took place in a harsh tone. “They treated me like a criminal,” he says.

Expressing himself as best he could in Spanish, he managed to make his interlocutors understand that he had a document from the Cuban consulate in Montreal explaining his intention. They accompanied him to his in-laws’ house to look for it and after six hours he was released.

Still in shock, Cloutier and Ménard went quickly to Varadero, where there is a Canadian consulate, but a day later they received a call telling them that the police required them. They had to meet with the authorities or they could not leave the country and his in-laws were threatened with arrest.

“We had a lot of stress before Canada’s consulate staff confirmed, 24 hours later, that we would have no problem with the law,” he says.

Following this experience, Cloutier advises other Quebecois against traveling to Cuba. Some of them have apparently expressed their intention to come to the aid of the victims.

La Presse tried to contact the Cuban embassy in Ottawa to gather information on the incident, but the diplomatic headquarters ended the conversation by saying that all visitors to Cuba must comply with the rules. They never offered more details despite promising the newspaper they would.

A spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada wrote: “It is not advisable to travel to Cuba with donations without first making firm arrangements through an official partner. Cuban customs may confiscate any imported object that they do not believe to be for the personal use of the tourist and can impose high tariffs on luggage weighing more than 30 kilos or for medicines that exceed 10 kilos.”

The Department emphasized that the best way to help people affected by the tragedy is to provide cash donations to humanitarian organizations already active in the field.

Crime or Combat? The Death of Che

Ernesto Guevara shortly before his death in La Higuera, Bolivia, in 1967. (DR)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 5 October 2017 — Half a century after the death of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, the official narrative of what happened on October 9, 1967 in La Higuera, Bolivia has significantly changed.

After repeating for decades that Che was murdered in a school in that South American country, the Communist Party’s propaganda media, and in particular the official Party newspaper Granma, have rebaptized the event “The fall in combat of the Heroic Guerrilla.”

The variation is no small thing if one takes into account that dying during an armed confrontation, in addition to having a more heroic character, implies that the deceased was not a victim, but an active participant in a conflict. At the stroke of a pen, government propaganda has opted to discard the version of a crime and highlight the military epic, thus withdrawing blame from those who ordered the trigger to be pulled. continue reading

Had he not died in those bellicose circumstances, Guevara might have celebrated his status as a nonagenarian on June 14, although others say that he was actually born on May 14. Like every human being turned into myth, his biography is plagued with contradictions and dark areas, controversies and half truths. Even the dates of his arrival and departure from this world are under discussion.

Perhaps if he not died in La Higuera, the Argentine would have ended his days in the boring offices of some ministry or would have been ousted from power in one of the purges that took place over the last half a century. In any case there would not be so many legends about his life today, nor would any films have been made idealizing or stigmatizing it.

Without those rifle shots fired at 1:10 pm in that small classroom, the man in that emblematic photo where he is seen with long hair and a gaze lost in the distance would not have become a twentieth century icon. He would not fill the shelves of the souvenir shops or stare out from the shirts of so many young people.

With slight variations, all accounts agree that on October 8, 1967 Guevara was captured and one day later, without having been subjected to a judicial process, he lost his life at the hands of a Bolivian soldier who carried out the orders of his Government. He was unarmed and wounded.

Other versions directly or indirectly blame the CIA, especially the Cuban Félix Rodríguez, alias El Gato.

At the Summit of the Americas held in Panama in April 2015, Cuban official media reported that Rodríguez was there to meet with some of the island’s opponents who attended the event. Among other insults from the ‘shock troops’ organized by the Plaza of the Revolution at the Summit, Cuba’s human rights activists were accused of having traveled there “to embrace Che’s murderer.” Now this individual appears to have been exonerated from homicide by the grace of the pro-government press.

Cuba continues to insist on commemorating the death of Guevara on October 8, as Fidel Castro mentioned in the first official information about his death. That is the reason why this Sunday a common program with symphonic works, poems and songs will be presented in several concert halls of the country.

In the city of Santa Clara, where the memorial is located with the remains of the other Cubans who fell in the guerrilla war in Bolivia, recalling the date will be the central act. None of those present will dare to question the significant change in the official version of events surrounding the anniversary.

Cubans Outraged to Learn they Will Not be Reimbursed for US Visa Interview Fees

Cubans who spend more than 24 months outside of the country need permission to return, even to visit. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar/Mario Penton, Havana/Miami, 5 October 2017 — A few days after the US authorities announced the suspension of the issuance of visas at its embassy in Havana, the State Department has confirmed this Thursday to the Nuevo Herald newspaper that it will not reimburse the money Cubans paid for the visa process.

The 160 dollars (about six months average wages in Cuba) paid for the interview for a tourist, business or family visit visa will not be returned. The amount paid also cannot be credited to an application for a visa in the consulate of another country, but will remain valid for one year should the current diplomatic conflict between Cuba and the United States be resolved, according to the South Florida newspaper.

This Thursday’s news increases the despair among Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits, who are already upset because, last Friday, the United States announced a 60% reduction of its personnel in Cuba and an indefinite cancellation of consular procedures. continue reading

“Okay, there are no visas, but they have to return the money to my family,” Cristina, a retiree waiting outside the Embassy to try to talk to an official, complained angrily.

Cuban citizens can “apply for [United States] visas at any [US] embassy or consulate in the world but must be physically present in that country,” the State Department said in a statement.

However, that option raises doubts on the island. “Who will give us a visa for another country?” asks Cristina. “In addition, that will cost me an arm and a leg between the plane ticket and the accommodation while I wait for the consulate to stamp my visa.”

In a note published on the US Embassy’s Facebook page, it is clarified that they are “delivering passports, visas and travel packages that have been previously issued,” but it does not give details on what will happen with the family reunification program and other visas to emigrate to the United States.

Moisés Salazar, a young American whose girlfriend is in Havana, is also mired in uncertainty. He cannot believe that after spending so many months in the process for his girlfriend to get a fiancé visa this misfortune has happened.

“I call the US Embassy in Cuba and I do not get information. I call the Cuban Embassy in Washington and I always get an answering machine and they never return the call. This is very ugly and very sad,” he says.

Salazar, who lives in North Carolina, has been in a two-year relationship with his Cuban partner and has visited the island many times. “I suffer from what I see happening. I love the Cuban people even if they are not my people and I know that this is going to be a very hard blow for all of them because it will take away the tourism that is an important source of income,” he laments.

The suspension of visas jeopardizes the migration agreements between the two countries that have been in force for more than 20 years, which require that at least 20,000 immigration permits be granted each year.

Miguel Ramón Salas from Las Tunas has lived in the United States for five years. From the distant state of Arizona he expresses his frustration with the political events that distance him from his wife and daughter on the island.

“From Cuba you can expect anything to happen, but not in this country. I paid for a service and if I cannot bring my family I will sue the State Department if necessary,” he says indignantly.

“In Cuba I have my wife and two children and I have invested a lot of money in bringing them to be here with me. The medical checkups alone cost $1,015, plus the formalization of documents and a lot of things that are necessary for them to leave the island,” he adds.

“My wife had an interview scheduled for the 18th and they changed it to November 27, supposedly because of the cyclone. The truth was they knew this was going to happen and they have been stringing us along,” he says.

Salas is disappointed by Florida politicians such as Senator Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban origin. “Politicians do not represent us. If Rubio had his family in Cuba he would not be so fervently supportive of the closing of the Embassy. Most of the Cubans who recently arrived have people on the other side and we want to reunite with our relatives,” he adds.

The social networks are filled with messages of anguish and the Embassy’s Facebook page is full of complaints from relatives who can’t get over their stupor at what happened. “I became a US citizen five years ago and now I want to know why they prevent my mother from coming to visit me,” commented an angry internet surfer.

Sandra Pino, who was waiting for her brother on the island to visit her soon, says it is important to remember that the US decision was made after several Embassy officials “became ill from unknown causes.”

“Some will be permanently damaged, so they will not be able to exercise their professions and will lose the ability to put food on the table,” she laments.

However, she believes that the US must reimburse the visa fees because “this is not Cuba and if you pay for something thay have to give it to you or give you the money back.”

“They Accused Me Of Being A Mercenary In Front Of My Neighbors”

Aimara Peña, a spiritual activist who will stand as a candidate for the elections. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 6 October 2017 – Last Tuesday was the day Aimara Peña had been working for more than a year, but nothing went as planned. The young activist was detained and threatened by State Security to prevent her being nominated as a delegate in Las Tozas, Sancti Spíritus. In addition, she was accused in front of the assembly of being a “mercenary,” who “does not represent the people of Cuba, but rather of the United States.”

Peña, 27, was arrested Tuesday afternoon as she walked home. “I was taken to the provincial unit of the Interior Ministry in the city of Sancti Spiritus,” she tells 14ymedio. During the arrest, three individuals – one in uniform and the other two in civilian clothes – warned her of the negative consequences if she persisted in her candidacy.

The young woman was informed by the three men that they would accuse her in front of her neighbors of “being in the service of an enemy plan,” threats that ended up being fulfilled. continue reading

In a recent interview with this newspaper, Peña spoke about her affiliation with the Network of Electoral Facilitators, formed by activists from different organizations whose main objective is to manage to get citizens with the intention of representing the interests of the population to occupy positions in the base structures of the Popular Power.

The tension around Peña grew as October 3rd approached, the date planned for the nomination assembly for candidates to be delegates to the People’s Power in district 34 of the municipality of Espirituano, scheduled for 8:00 in the evening. The presidents of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) took care of calling the voters to the meeting but never knocked on her door.

The announcement of the meeting was made only one day in advance and only verbally, hence the attendance at the Assembly ended up being poor: only 57 people out of the 150 with voting rights showed up. The meeting was attended by about twenty “guests” who interacted with the Communist Party (PCC) militants in the area and looked at Peña as if she were “a dangerous enemy,” she reports.

The young woman had dreamed for months of “helping to see the role of the constituency delegate as something truly important” because “at the present time, its functions are very limited.” In that interview, Peña had no doubt that her name would make it to the ballot. “All that I have worked for will bear fruit,” she confided.

Instead of her dreams, starting hours before the assembly met police were stationed at several points of Las Tozas and two patrol cars blocked the entrance to the community. The atmosphere was oppressive and “the comings and goings of strangers in the streets was threatening,” Peña says. However, the activist decided to go ahead, although two neighbors who supported her candidacy were visited by State Security who threatened them, telling them not to attend the meeting.

The assembly began with an audio of Fidel Castro’s voice describing his concept of Revolution, and the organizers referred to a “political scenario in which the current elections for the Popular Power should be taken as a “revolutionary commitment.”

Before the small quorum, the name of Aimara Peña was the third of the five proposed when the nomination process was opened. Immediately after being mentioned, a PCC activist argued that the young woman could not be nominated because she was a “mercenary,” who “represents not the people of Cuba, but rather of the United States.”

Several PCC militants, including an uncle of the young woman, demanded a show of hands to decide if Peña could exercise her right to be voted on by the district’s voters. This action violated the Electoral Law, which does not contemplate submitting the right to be nominated to a vote.

Eight neighbors refused to raise their hand for that aberration, but the rest seconded the proposal of the militants in complicity with the violation of the electoral rules.

The act did not even record Peña’s proposal as a candidate. At the end someone shouted Viva Fidel! and the secretary who prepared the record refused to give her a copy.

Sale of Mattresses Begins for Hurricane Irma Victims in Havana

Distribution of mattresses and household products in Havana to the victims of Hurricane Irma. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 4 October 2017 — This week the government began the sale of mattresses and household supplies for those affected by Hurricane Irma along Havana’s coastline. At least two points in the city, one for the municipality of Centro Habana and another for Plaza de la Revolución, offer the “module for victims” for a price close to 900 Cuban pesos (CUP).

At the El Castillito recreation center, near the Malecón, a package is sold including towels, sheets, an electric coffee maker, casseroles and an induction cooker at a price of 453 CUP. A double foam rubber mattress is also distributed for a cost of 454 CUP.

Prices, although much lower than in stores that sell in convertible pesos (CUC), are still inaccessible to retirees or those living only on their official salary, which in Cuba is about 740 CUP per month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI). continue reading

The basic products that are on sale for those affected are offered at a 50% price reduction, according to recent announcement in the official press. The merchandise that is sold in the capital comes mostly from the warehouses of the national currency (CUP) stores managed by the Ministry of Internal Commerce (MINCIN).

The mattresses lack branded labels or logos, but a vendor assured this newspaper that they have been manufactured by the Dujo Copo Flex joint venture, which has operated since 2001 on the island and allocates more than 50% of its production to the tourist industry.

This Wednesday dozens of people crowded into the ground floor of El Castillito to buy some products that are only sold to those who were previously placed on the registry of victims. “This list was prepared by social workers in the affected areas,” says a worker who distributes the goods.

“The affected people come here with their identity cards and we check that they are on the list. If they are, then they can buy the modules,” the employee says. “Many have come today to say they lost their mattresses but we are prohibited from selling anything to anyone who does not appear on this list,” she added.

Given the extent of the damage to the north coast of the capital, many residents in the area lost their appliances, some of their furniture or suffered serious damage to the structure of their homes. Across the country an estimated 158,554 homes were affected.

The powerful Hurricane Irma, which struck the Cuban north coast from September 7 to 10, left a toll of ten dead along with heavy damages in infrastructure and agriculture.

Carrying a mattress off the specially scheduled bus for hurricane victims. (14ymedio)

Among those in line at El Castillito the restlessness is great. “I hope I get in because I’ve been sleeping on the floor since the hurricane ruined my mattress,” says Roxana, a mother of two children and a resident in the vicinity of the Cohíba hotel. The woman says she “collected money” from several members of the family to buy the modules.

“The price is difficult to pay for people who have been left with nothing,” complains an elderly woman who also waits in line. The retiree believes that “this should be given away or given free to families with fewer resources,” because “many of the things coming into the country are donations.”

An employee monitoring the line rushes to correct the lady. “What is being sold here has nothing to do with donations,” he says. “These products were already in Cuba before Irma happened or they are assembled here like the induction cookers.”

The manager of the Alba store on Infanta Street confirms this version by telephone. “Right now we do not have mattresses available because they have taken them all to sell to the victims,” s​​he explains via telephone to this newspaper.

The Government has scheduled buses to leave from some points in the area to take the victims to El Castillito and later bring them to their homes with the purchased modules.

However, some lament that the route is not flexible enough and in many cases leaves them far from their homes.

Cuba has received donations and humanitarian aid sent by governments, friendship associations, companies, non-governmental organizations, universities, and religious institutions, according to a statement released last Friday by the National Defense Council.

Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Spain, Suriname, China, Bolivia, Colombia and a number of United Nations agencies have sent material aid, mainly food, construction materials and hygiene, as well as cash.

Thousands of Cubans Despair Over Suspension of Visas to USA

Older people came to the embassy looking for news. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 3 October 2017 — Communicating by phone with the US embassy in Havana has become an impossible task. From all parts of the island thousands of people are trying to find out what will happen to the consular interviews they had scheduled before the indefinite suspension of the issuing of visas by the embassy in Havana.

María Encarnación, known as Caruca, sunk into hopelessness when her daughter called her to give her the news. “My blood pressure went up because I had my consular appointment scheduled for October and now no one knows how to give me an explanation,” this retired 67-year-old tells 14ymedio.

After several hours of attempts, Caruca managed to speak with an employee of the US consulate, which upset her state of mind still further. “All operations are canceled until further notice,” the voice warned on the other end of the phone line. “This could be solved in a week or it could take years, we do not know,” she was told. continue reading

The cancellation of consular activity returns the imposing building that houses the embassy to a condition similar to that before 1977, at which time an agreement between Fidel Castro and Jimmy Carter allowed it to function as a US Interests Section in Havana. Since then, tens of thousands of people have applied for visas at its windows.

During the 2016 fiscal year, the United States approved visa applications for 14,291 Cubans, who took trips related to family, business, exchange or cultural and sporting events, among other categories. A much lower figure than the 22,797 visas granted in the same period of 2015 and the 41,001 in 2014.

A spokeswoman for the State Department explains the drastic reduction as an effect of “the extension, from six months to five years of the validity of the B2 visa for Cuban nationals.” However, since last January, when Barack Obama eliminated the wet foot/dry foot policy – which allowed Cubans who arrived on US soil without or without a visa to stay – many feared visa restrictions were imminent.

“I almost fell over when I heard what they told me on the phone. So I decided to come to Havana because I’ve been thinking that something like this would happen,” explains Caruca. She borrowed money, rented a private car from Los Palacios, in Pinar del Rio, where she lives with her husband and her son who remains in Cuba, to get to the capital as soon as possible.

“I was outside the embassy at dawn to wait for someone to come out and show their face,” she said Monday, in the small park where visa applicants have congregated for years. The place, still showing the traces of the wreckage left by Hurricane Irma, is no longer an area where hope and advice are offered “to succeed in the interview.”

Now, those who wait have a distressed look, trembling voices and their mobiles ringing constantly with calls from Miami, New York or Houston. “What do you want me to do mi’ja, if it can’t be done it can’t be done,” a man who said he had traveled from Jatibonico, in Ciego de Avila, shouted into his cell phone.

“It says that we have to check the website of the embassy, ​​that all the information will be there,” he says, his voice getting even louder. The sun burns and some of those waiting take shelter under the shade of the trees, others take off their shoes while sitting on the benches. “This is going to be a while so better get comfortable,” he says.

After eleven o’clock in the morning, a Cuban official leaves the US consulate and is surrounded by people anxious for news. “All the interviews are canceled,” she repeated emphatically. A man wants to explain that his case is urgent because his brother has been admitted to a Texas hospital and this is perhaps his last chance to say goodbye.

The cancellation of the interviews puts at risk the number of visas that the consular section is supposed deliver each year in the Island. According to the migratory agreements signed between both countries in 1994 and 1995, the US must stamp 20,000 annual immigrant visas for Cuban applicants.

“Don’t you guys listen?” the employee repeats. The phrase makes Caruca’s blood pressure shoot up, while the most equanimous of the group start to sweat and the voice of a woman breaks as she just tries to say, “No, it can’t be like this, there has to be a mistake.”

One woman, who has arrived from Havana’s Marianao municipality and had an interview scheduled for Monday afternoon, complains, “I want to know if they are going to give me back the money,” demanding repayment for the appointment fee paid by her family in the United States, but the official has no answers and again recommends to consult the web.

A small business that will fill out the visa application forms. (14ymedio)

For the surrounding businesses the news has been a blow. “We have gone out of business overnight,” says Diosdado, who helps his wife and daughter fill out the complex visa application forms. “Normally it was non-stop here, one customer after another and now nobody is coming,” he protests as he gestures to his empty room.

Some families in the area also subsisted on renting rooms to visa applicants. Some of their customers continue to arrive as they come to find out the status of their visa applications, explains the owner of a house with two rooms for rent, but “soon no one will come.”

Others have taken advantage of the stampede of Americans leaving to upgrade their furniture, appliances and food supplies. US officials returning home have held ‘yard sales’ in their homes offering all kinds of goods, with news of the events spread by email between Cuban employees of the US embassy and their friends and acquaintances.

“I bought a drill and a refrigerator,” says an embassy maintenance worker who learned of one of the sales in a mansion of Miramar. “I also managed to buy some chairs for the dining room and a battery lamp for when I don’t have electricity.” Although everything was acquired at a good price, the man regrets that now he will be out of work.

“Working with the yumas was good because they are very respectful, they give away many things and also the conditions of work were excellent,” says the employee who preferred anonymity and who says that his work helped him to get a visa when he wanted to and spend some vacation time in Orlando, Florida.

Now, the building where he worked for more than a decade has slowly been vacated. “Before the announcement on Friday many officials had already gone and this week the stampede will be great,” he says. “The consulate is one of the areas with the greatest reduction in staff and very few want to stay until everything is clear.”

The Cuban government says it has nothing to do with the acoustic attacks suffered by 21 US diplomats. In the official media the issue has been handled as something of minor importance, although on the street people aren’t talking about anything else.

A coffee vendor approaches the park a few yards from the Embassy and offers his merchandise in small plastic cups. “For the moment I keep selling because a lot of people are coming to find out about their interviews, but I do not know how long this will last.” A few yards away, the Cuban policemen who guard the diplomatic headquarters seem more tense than normal.

“They are afraid that this area will fill up with people complaining and protesting,” says the coffee vendor. “There is nothing that annoys a Cuban more than a cancelled trip,” he says. “Cubans can pass on quiet needs, lose their home in a hurricane and remain silent, but when it comes to a visa, they shout,” he reflects.

A woman of 60 asks for two coffees. She grabs them and relates that she has travelled 14 hours from Manzanillo, in Granma province. She had an interview scheduled on Monday for a residence visa for reunification with her son. Her plans have been ruined and her son insists to her, on the phone, that she approach the Embassy. “They don’t let you, I can’t,” she answers in a sob.

Afternoon falls and some are ready to stay until they receive a response. The people in the park, once envied for being close to a trip abroad, are now a bundle of frustrations and fears.

Havana’s Malecon Returns to Life

People and cars return to the Malecon. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 2 October 2017 — After 23 days of closure, Havana’s Malecón has reopened to the passage of pedestrians and vehicles. The “longest bench in the world” was filled this Sunday with hundreds of people eager to recover a routine interrupted by Hurricane Irma. The coastal stretch has seen some private restaurants reopen and informal businesses return.

Richard Consuegra, a traveling musician, has returned “the soul to the body.” He approaches the wall with his guitar and improvises all kinds of songs, from the classic Dos Gardenias by Isolina Carrillo, to some lighter ballads by Roberto Carlos. But tonight the musical theme that everyone wants to hear goes through other channels. continue reading

“Ah ah ah ah until the Malecón dries up,” chant a group of young people near the corner where the oceanfront promenade meets 23rd street. The chorus is somewhat sarcastic, because instead of the ocean retiring, what happened in early September was the sea’s invasion of the city, but that does not stop the young people from repeating the refrain from Jacob Forever.

The vast majority of those arriving after sunset see the reopening of the area as a reunion with an old friend and celebrate being able to relieve the heat with a fresh breeze coming off the sea. Abundant drinks, fans, complete families and vendors of goodies abound.

“Peanuts and popcorn,” a lady proclaims with a grocery cart crammed with groceries and bags. The wheels of the improvised commercial vehicle are getting stuck in some cracks still evident on the sidewalk. “I hope the cement has not been stolen,” the woman points out, referring to the diversion (i.e. theft) of resources that affects many state construction projects.

Fortunately, sitting on the wall is still free in a city where everyday prices for entertainment diverge more and more from wages. “People said that now that it was repaired they would not allow anyone to sit there, but I see that is a lie,” shouts a young man with a glass of rum in his hand, fully determined to stay facing the waves until dawn.

Tourists have also returned and behind them a whole network of businesses. “Do you want to eat in a good restaurant ?” a man asks a European couple in English as he offers business cards from a nearby site, one of the few private coastal restaurants that has managed to rebuild after the devastation of the hurricane.

The insistent promoter shows them some pages with images of the dishes, announces enticing prices and accompanies the couple across the avenue to the restaurant. The traffic has returned in full force, as if every vehicle in Havana had been waiting for this day to drive along the Malecón, forcing the group to wait several minutes to reach the other side.

San Lazaro Street, which until Sunday afternoon was a continuous traffic jam, looks more relaxed. “We couldn’t deal with it here even in the middle of the night,” says a neighbor who lives in the block between Belascoaín and Gervasio. “No one could cross this street because all the Malecon traffic came here.”

She complains not only about the days of traffic jams. She fears that the speed in repairing the coastal avenue and its wall will not be echoed in the reconstruction of the private homes affected by the floods. “In the news, they said the initial schedule was two months but they reduced it to 23 days,” she says.

“Now we have to see if those of us who have lost even the floor under our feet are going to see such efficiency,” she says, as she walks inside a house where water traces on the walls still recall the drama experienced and where the floor tiles are missing in several places.

In the block of Primera Street between C and D in the Vedado district, the panorama is not very different from the one left by Irma in Centro Habana. In recent years several restaurants and private clubs flourished there, enjoying the privilege of being located in front of the famous waterfront wall: El Tablazo, El 3D de Robertico and Las Baucherías.

Now, with their awnings missing, their windows broken and suffering the aftermath of the invasion of the sea, they are trying to recover in the midst of this “dead time” without customers. “The most difficult thing is to get the materials,” laments one of the employees who has gone from being a waiter to being a carpenter and mason.

Around the corner, the restaurant Mar Adentro is one of the few that was able open after 19 days of being closed for repairs. “We lost some pictures that were on the wall when the water rose to five feet,” says the employee who welcomes customers at the door. “We have not yet taken account of the losetbusiness, but here we are, fighting.”

A few blocks from that area, the state has improvised kiosks with light foods at low prices. Bread with ham and cheese or with roasted pork, little boxes with chicken, as well as soup and rice with sausage. The lines move quickly.

Candido, 78, waits to buy some food. “I’m throwing the last few pesitos that I have left on this,” he tells 14ymedio. “In my house we still can’t cook because the whole kitchen was damaged and we have spent all this time buying prepared food,” he says.

The retiree feels like a light has opened at the end of the tunnel of his anguish. “The Malecon is already open and that is my main source of sustenance,” he says. “Tomorrow, as soon as the sun comes up, I’ll go with my fishing rod and catch something, for sure.” The wall that provides some with customers and others with entertainment, gives Candido food.

Waiting For Answers

Given the seriousness of these incidents and their repercussions, a detailed public statement from the Cuban authorities is urgent.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio Havana, 2 October 2017 — In recent days Cubans have struggled to take in the news of the reduction of US embassy staff in Havana and the indefinite suspension the processing of visas for Cubans desiring to travel to that country. The diplomatic thaw announced in December 2014 by both governments is currently experiencing a glaciation that could worsen in the coming days with new measures from Washington.

The decisions taken by the administration of President Donald Trump respond to the acoustic attacks that severely affected 21 American diplomats, incidents that Cubans are aware of only through scattered phrases spoken by some officials and speculation generated by information filtered through the press. Cubans are waiting for the Plaza of the Revolution to provide clear answers regarding the responsibility for what took place. continue reading

So far, Raúl Castro has not addressed the Cuban people directly to explain what occurred on the island targeting those Americans. In a country where excessive surveillance violates citizens’ freedom and large resources are allocated from the national budget to State Security, it is difficult to believe that something like these acoustic attacks took place without official knowledge.

Washington has reminded Havana that, under the Vienna Convention, Cuba is responsible for the security of diplomatic and consular personnel deployed in its territory.

Given the seriousness of these incidents and their repercussions, stranding thousands of families on both sides of the Florida Straits pending the resumption of the issuing of visas, the Cuban authorities are urged to provide a detailed and public statement.

In a democratic country the media would have turned all their efforts to the search of those responsible for these acts of extreme gravity. Here, in the face of the silence of the Government, it is unlikely that the official press will provide truthful and realistic answers about what happened and put an end to the mystery about the origin of these attacks.

It is striking that, so far, official newspapers have merely repeated the official statements of Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez while ridiculing the articles appearing in the foreign press about the saga of acoustic attacks. Despite the high number of engineers who have graduated on the island in the last half century, none has given an expert opinion on these sonic aggressions.

This time, the Cuban government will not be able to make the news go away in time as it did with the ship Chong Chon Gan, which was intercepted in Panama in 2013 while transporting a hidden arsenal from Cuba to North Korea, violating the restrictions imposed by United Nations.

Times are different now and Cubans expect answers.

State Security Threatens To Prosecute Instigators Of A Protest

Members of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy. (@felixncuba)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 29 September 2017 — State Security cited and threatened three opponents they the would be charged with the crimes of instigation to commit crimes and public disorder after participating two weeks ago in a protest in Carlos Rojas, a town of about 6,000 inhabitants located in the municipality of Jovellanos, in Matanzas province.

Armando Abascal Serrano, Dianelis Moreno Soto and Aloy Betancourt Méndez, belonging to the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy, were cited on Thursday to appear at the police station.

The activists were questioned by several officers, including captain Miladys Sotolongo Martínez, and State Security officers, Dario Torres Barrios and Dayron Rivera. continue reading

According to what Lady in White Dianelis Moreno Soto told 14ymedio, at the Jovellanos station the officials told the opponents that they were “opening an investigative process” and they would be prosecuted for “being repeat offenders.”

The protest occurred on Friday, September 15, when about 500 people demonstrated in the park of the town of Carlos Rojas to protest because they had no water or electricity in the days following Hurricane Irma.

Dianelis Moreno explained that the spontaneous demonstration “lasted just under an hour and there were no arrests or police presence.” She says that her name reached State Security through the denunciations of other neighbors, although the presence of the opposition members was also widely reported in independent media.

The demonstrators say that after the protests that night, the electricity service was restored in the community.

Aloy Betancourt Méndez, Dianelis’s husband, told this newspaper that the police summons was received one hour in advance of the time she was ordered to appear, and that other protest participants will be summoned “soon.”

Betancourt said that in the interview the officials insisted that the three summoned sign a statement and said they would be prosecuted. “However, they did not give us any official paper so it is a threat, but we will have to wait and see what happens,” he says.

“The Man With the Flag” Marks Five Months Detention

Daniel Llorente has been detained for five months since being arrested during the May 1 parade in Havana. (Courtesy)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 1 October 2017 — To avoid losing his sanity, Daniel Llorente sweeps the floor of the psychiatric hospital in Havana with a broom. Llorente trained in automotive mechanics in East Germany, and five months ago the activist was arrested while waving the American flag in the May Day parade in the Plaza of the Revolution. Even today, neither the court nor the doctors dare to confirm the date on which he will be released.

“Cleaning allows me to occupy my mind with something,” comments the “man with the flag” about the work routine that he performs in the Commander Eduardo Bernabé Ordaz Hospital, known as Mazorra. “They do not let me leave this small area or throw out the garbage,” he laments. The spontaneous activist fears for his safety in the Giralt room, intended for the convicted, and where he says he has seen “everything.” continue reading

After an onerous arrest in front of the platform where Raul Castro was waiting for the workers’ parade, Llorente spent a month in the detention center known as 100 and Aldabó. On May 30 of this year he was transferred to the psychiatric hospital under an alleged “post-criminal measure” issued by a court and is awaiting trial.

His only way to communicate with the press has been by phone. His son, Eliezer Llorente, visits the hospital twice a week and has become his only contact with the world.

“They tell me here that my situation is in on ‘stand by’ because my case is being reviewed,” he tells 14ymedio. So far Llorente has not been accused of any crime and claims to have signed a document where he was exonerated of charges of “public disorder and resistance” for the May 1 incident.

The “independent opponent” promotes the diplomatic rapprochement between Cuba and the United States, but in recent weeks relations between Washington and Havana have gone downhill. This Friday the administration of Donald Trump announced the indefinite suspension of visas from the US embassy in Havana and the exit of 60% of the personnel.

It is bad news for Llorente, who asked last June to “be immediately expatriated” to the US, a demand driven by his desire to live in the country he considers “the greatest defender of human rights, hope, freedom, justice, brotherhood and the pursuit of happiness.”

He had already shown his sympathy for the nation of the north in May of 2016 when he made a similar protest to celebrate the arrival of the Adonia Cruise Line to Havana. At that time he was also arrested and detained for 24 hours.

On his hands, Daniel Llorente has tattooed the flags of Cuba and the United States. (Courtesy)

Although the US government denounced his latest detention, the case has been losing its prominence in the media as other priorities have displaced it, such as the acoustic attack on dozens of US diplomats.

More than two months ago, the doctor who attends Llorente announced that he could leave the psychiatric center on weekends. The news filled this man who worked as a private taxi driver before his arrest with enthusiasm. Shortly afterward, the psychiatrist told him that “these people” warned her not to give him a pass, a reference to State Security.

The specialist has assured Llorente that he does not suffer a mental illness and there is no reason to keep him hospitalized. Neither has he received any therapy or drugs for his alleged psychiatric disorder.

In an attempt to assert his rights Llorente has held several hunger strikes in the hospital and has written letters to political and religious leaders to denounce a situation that he calls “unjust.”

For the moment and until the hospital and the court agree, Llorente seems trapped in the script of a horror film. “All it takes is a hospital paper that says I’m fine to be able to dictate the end of this [detention] measure,” he says. While anxiously awaiting this document, he dedicates himself to sweeping the floor of the psychiatric hospital in Havana.

US Suspends Issuing Of Visas In Havana And Withdraws 60% Of Its Embassy Staff

Note: Our apologies for not having a subtitled version of this video

EFE / 14ymedio, Havana, 29 September 2017 — On Friday, the United States suspended indefinitely the issuance of visas to Cubans from its embassy in Havana and asked Americans not to travel to Cuba, insisting that it can not guarantee their security after the “attacks” suffered by at least 21 Americans stationed in the Island.

“Routine visa operations are suspended indefinitely,” at the US embassy in Havana, a senior State Department official, who asked to remain anonymous, told reporters.

Another spokeswoman for the State Department said that the family reunification program will also be affected, as the issuance of immigrant and nonimmigrant visas will be suspended.

The announcement by the US government has caught both Cubans living on the island and those living abroad by surprise. “No one understands what is happening,” says Adrián Núñez, a Cuban who arrived in Miami only two years ago and was engaged in the process to apply for a visa for his mother who lives in Cuba. continue reading

“We are looking at the possibility that people will be able to apply for visas at the embassy or consulates outside Cuba in other countries, but we have not made the final preparations yet,” said the State Department official.

The measure is a consequence of the State Department’s decision to withdraw all of its non-essential personnel from its embassy in Cuba, which accounts for “more than half” of its officials there, in response to alleged “acoustic” attacks on some of its diplomats on the island, for which the responsible party or parties are still unknown.

“Given that the safety of our personnel is at risk and that we can not identify the cause of the attacks, we believe that US citizens could also be at risk and warn them not to travel to Cuba,” said the official, who said some the attacks have occurred in hotels.

Despite this measure, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday that the United States will continue to work with the Cuban government in the investigation into the “attacks of unknown nature” suffered by its diplomats in Havana after announcing the withdrawal of more than half of its personnel in Cuba.

“Cuba has told us that it will continue to investigate these attacks, and we will continue to cooperate with them in this effort,” Tillerson said in a statement.

However, on Friday the Cuban government called the decision of the US administration “precipitous” and Josefina Vidal, Director General of the Department of the United States at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the official media that the decision will affect the bilateral relationship, but said at the same time the Cuban Government will continue to engage in “active cooperation between the authorities of both countries.”

“For full clarification of the facts, it will be essential to have and to be able to count on the participation and effective involvement of the US authorities,” said Vidal, who broke the silence that the Cuban authorities maintained throughout the day in response to the decision announced by the US Department of State.

According to Tillerson, the decision to reduce the presence of officials in Havana has been taken to ensure the safety of the personnel, while maintaining that diplomatic relations with Cuba and the work done by the United States on the island will continue to be guided by the national security interests and foreign policy of the United States.

“Until the Cuban government can guarantee the safety of our diplomats in Cuba, our embassy will be reduced to emergency personnel, to minimize the number of diplomats who risk being exposed” to possible attacks, said the diplomatic chief.

Due to the reduction of personnel, the services provided by the US embassy in Havana will be limited to those that are “urgent,” according to the US administration.

The State Department has also decided to limit the travel of its officials to Cuba to “those involved in the investigation” of “attacks” on diplomatic personnel.

“The United States will not send official delegations to Cuba or schedule bilateral meetings in Cuba at the moment,” said the official, who added that meetings with the Cuban government could be scheduled in the United States.

Those measures will remain “until Cuba can guarantee the safety of US personnel” on the island, he added.

The United States does not directly blame the events on the Cuban government, at least for the moment, but it does believe that it is the responsibility of the executive, Raúl Castro, “to take all appropriate steps to prevent attacks” on US diplomats on the island.