14ymedio – Page 518 – Translating Cuba

“It Is Not Because You Write In ‘OnCuba’, It Is What You Write,” University Professor Told / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

Juan Antonio Fernández Estrada, a professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Havana. (Cubaposible)

14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 26 October 2016 — “It’s not because you write in OnCuba, it is what you write,” were the words used by the authorities of the Faculty of Law of the University of Havana to tell Juan Antonio Fernández Estrada that he could not continue to be a university professor. This measure “put the lid on the jar” and provoked a reaction from the teacher, who says he will not stay silent about this new outrage.

“I do not want to make a media show of this. I am submitting demands through the relevant channels and waiting for the responses to a situation that I consider unjust,” Fernandez told 14ymedio by phone, after an email he shared with friends explaining his situation went viral on the national servers. He further clarified that had never asked anyone to share or make public that communication which was meant to be private. continue reading

As of March 2012, the professor has contributed articles to the American magazine OnCuba, a publication with correspondents in Cuba that is widely disseminated through informal networks on the island.

The magazine is permitted by the Government and is a refuge for journalists and academics who see their contributions as a way to increase their meager income working in the state sector. Fernandez has published twenty columns ranging from opinions, history, politics and other topics of interest to Cubans.

“They informed me that my contract as a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Law could not be continued because I had been asked to resign from the Center for the Study of Public Administration (CEAP), and having done so, I had resigned from all of the University of Havana. I told them that other teachers had continued on as guest lecturers after having resigned as professors, but they explained to me that my resignation from CEAP had been for personal problems, the University considered it was because of my writings for OnCuba, and especially for an article about President Obama’s visit to Cuba,” reads an email that Fernandez sent to his friends.

The article referenced said, “I don’t want to know anything about the Industriales (baseball team) or Obama,” published at the beginning of April of this year, after the visit of the US president to Cuba. In this opinion column, Fernandez lambasted “the cries that warn us of Obama’s deception” and, putting his finger on the wound, wrote, “We, the people, we are not the one approaching the United States, nor like sovereigns did we talk in secret for more than a year with that government, nor did we invite President Obama to Cuba, nor did we invite him to speak live on national television.”

Given the impossibility of being hired, the professor told them that teaching was his only work, but the officials, undaunted, spit out that “you should have thought of that before writing those things.”

“I am telling you this because my silence is over this time,” said Fernandez in his email. “The University has not respected my silence all these years. I didn’t complain in 2008, I didn’t complain in 2012, but this time they can’t eliminate me without my speaking and responding.

The pressures of the Cuban authorities so that journalists and academics don’t collaborate with the private press and the emerging digital platforms has intensified over the last year. Presenters on radio and television were told in a circular transmitted verbally that they were prohibited from cooperating with these other media. According to a witness to some of the meetings, they were reminded “within the Revolution, everything, but outside of the Revolution, nothing,” which motivated everything from letters of protests to continued desertions to the independent press.

“The confusion of some has been to think that all my problems at the University of Havana have been because of errors,” concluded Fernandez, “because of naiveté, but it’s not like that, my problems have been for telling the truth, for being dignified and honest, for defending socialism and criticizing the opportunists and the shameless. These are my crimes and I will continue committing them.”

Kidnapped by Human Traffickers / 14ymedio, Georlys Olazabal Drake

Georlys at the emblematic Rooster of Morón in Ciego de Ávila. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Georlys Olazabal Drake, Florida, Camagüey Province, 19 October 2016 — At 29, like many of the young people here, Georlys Olazabal Drake fled the lack of opportunities in Cuba for undertake the risky journey to the United States. A member of the opposition movement Somos+ (We Are More), Olazabal Drake, who studied computer science, signed up for an illegal exit that would end up with his being kidnapped in Mexico by human traffickers.

Now he shares his story with the 14ymedio’s readers, with a notable number of details that reveal the framework of extortion, complicity and violence that surrounds many of these journeys to follow a dream.

This story started last July 23, when my cousin’s wife told me there was a boat leaving to take people to Mexico, some of them from Florida, the name of our town in Camaguey. She said the trip would cost between 2,000 and 3,000 dollars a person, but along the way – when I could no longer turn back – I discovered the real cost was 10,000 dollars.

The journey came like a hope, because everything was going badly for me at that time. I had had problems with the inspectors and the police had taken away my business license. I also had problems in my personal life.

Previously I wanted to leave the country and several of my family members had abandoned the island. Although I’m not in agreement with the system of government, the reasons that led me to leave had nothing to do with my political ideas, but with personal circumstances. I was a way to escape: I was presented with an opportunity and without thinking about it I undertook the journey. continue reading

I left in a rented car from Fontanar headed to the bridge of the PRIMER ANILLO of Havana, where a group of people had already gathered to be picked up. From there we were taken to the city of Pinar del Rio in a private truck being used to transport passengers.

During this leg of the journey I still felt sure about what I was doing. I believed it was the solution. On arriving in Pinar del Rio a gentleman picked us up outside the bus station and took us to his house. Then, in another truck, we took the highway to a town called Las Marinas. They collected us in these carts that they call spiders and took us to a farm.

We were 32 people, 20 from Pinar del Rio, 6 from Santiago de Cuba, and the other 6 from my town of Florida. There were no children, just 29 men and 3 women. Among them were 2 young men who had deserted from the border guards, taking their uniforms, their guns and leaving their jeep abandoned.

Once there, there was already no way to turn back. The only chance to abort the trip was if the border guard troops found out about it and interfered, or if the boat was intercepted at sea. They made it very clear that if we tried to leave or if we didn’t want to go, they would put an end to our lives.

There was no way to communicate with anyone, because we had to give up our cellphones. We could only go with a change of clothes, a package of cookies, a bottle of water and the money we had. We weren’t even allowed matches.

I wanted to call my wife but I knew they wouldn’t forgive me if I did so. However, I consoled myself thinking that I was making the journey for the two of us and if it worked out, I would find a way to get her out, to leave all the problems we were going through and to start again.

At the farm they didn’t give us any food. Many things were going through my head. I felt insecure, but the only thing left to me was to go forward and ask God for things to turn out well. The people got that far, although we didn’t know each other, were pretty communicative. We tried to help each other.

We slept one night at that farm, where there were several animals like cows and horses, but fortunately no mosquitoes, only some MORO crabs who were all around us because we were near the beach. Some farmers watched us at night with their faces covered, so they couldn’t be identified in case the border guards raided the placed.

During the night the time the boat would leave was changed several times, until some demanded to know the truth. After some pressure they told us it would leave at 7:30 in the morning. Then they gave us more warnings and brought us a jug of water

Around seven in the morning the farmers returned to tell us to get ready, the boat was about to some. When we approached the rock along the shore we could see in the distance what looked like a dove in the water. At that point I don’t know what I felt, I just remember telling myself, “Yes, this is what I should do.”

We were content. However, until that moment I also hoped that the boat wouldn’t arrive. I felt a desire not to make that journey, to put it all behind me and to return to the people I loved. At the moment you leave Cuba, that is when you value it.

Around 7:20 in the morning on July 24 the boat arrives. When we were far from shore I put my hands to my head and said, “My God, what have I done?” But I could no longer throw myself in the sea. The boatman pulled out a pistol and let off two shots in to the air to let us know we were under his control.

The crew was made up of two people: a boatman and his helper, both Cubans. The helper was called “El Menor” and was originally from a town in Pinar del Rio called El Cayuco, while the boatman was called “El Yuma” and was from Güines. Both of them live in Mexico and can’t enter Cuba legally, because they are wanted to drug trafficking, human trafficking and murder.

The boatman bragged about having killed his previous helper, a Honduran who was a boat mechanic.

The two men took security measures, like making us throw away our shoes so no one could escape when we landed. One of them told us that from the same place we had left from, they had made more than 30 trips last summer.

They bragged about coming and going from the island as if it was their house. According to them, in Cuba there are no teams to pursue fast boats. They leave Mexico like a fishing charter, and at night stay 60 miles out and advance slowly as if it was a fishing boat. When the sun rises, they rush in at full speed, pick up, and leave in the same way.

At around 30 miles they made a call to Mexico, to the boss of the business, and told him only: “We’re coming.” The boatman boasted that five boats belonging to the same business owner to look for people in Cuba, but only he had been able to pick up.

The trip was long because they were forced to enter Mexico at night. We arrived at Cancun, near the hotel area, after nine at night. We landed on a dock where we had to pay 100 dollars each to enter.

We were waiting for two small buses and boarded them, 16 people each. They took us to an abandoned warehouse, a sort of old rented building with all the security for this type of business. There two groups of us joined up with more than 50 people who had arrived on previous trips.

On arriving in Mexico we had to get the money to pay them. They took care of the paperwork for each migrant to fly north and present themselves at the US border. The entire trip cost 10,000 dollars, but I had no money to pay. At that point I began my odyssey.

The abandoned warehouse had two floors. Upstairs there were four bedrooms and a large living room where the TV was. One of the rooms was for the guides, who are responsible for finding people in Cuba who want to leave the country. The guides are more comfortable, with mattresses and food, and the trip is free. They are also used to control discipline. The other rooms are like cells.

The bosses were Cuban. They call the main one El Millo and he never shows his face in the business. Later it was Julian, El Negro, who is from Matanza and “attends to” the migrants and helps them do things like call their families. He functions as an intermediary. In addition, there are people everywhere who collect money.

A man named Rey, from Vertientes in Camaguey, is known as El Pinto and looks after the house. He is also responsible for the tortures.

They collected all our clothes from us, our identity cards, passports, and money to prevent any change of escape. They left us with shorts and a t-shirt, which is the “uniform” of the people help in that place.

The next day, at seven in the morning, we had a piece of bread and a glass of water for breakfast. Then they started the calls with our families, most of whom were unaware of our exit plans. They only allowed us to speak for a few seconds to they would know it was true that they had us.

If the family said they didn’t have any money, they warned them they would put their relative in a tank of acid and nothing would ever be heard of them or they would put them back in a boat and take them 30 miles out and throw them to the crocodiles.

I wasn’t tortured but others didn’t enjoy the same luck. They just punished me for not having any money and took me to a room where they only took me out for a bath once a week. We couldn’t watch TV or talk to anyone, and we had to be quiet and sleep on the floor.

I saw how they beat up several people, among them a young man that almost killed. Another who didn’t have any money, they broke two of his fingers with an ax.

If someone fell ill and they didn’t see any chance to get any money from them, they’d take them away and they never came back. We didn’t know what happened with them, if they kept them prisoner or killed them. Sometimes they would split someone’s nose and send photos to the family to scare them and threaten them.

Those who didn’t have any money didn’t receive any food. I spent 38 days with just water but no food. Sixty-nine of us lived like this, because in my group there were only 14 with money who were able to go to the United States.

It was better not to be very communicative, because they could think you were up to something, or going to flee or something else. Some, to get in good with the bosses, brought them information, so I preferred not to speak.

I stayed in a corner, quiet, sitting there, and when I was tired I slept to avoid reprisals of they became violent.

I wasn’t afraid but I worried about what my mom was able to do and thought a lot about my grandfather. On the other hand, they were convinced I was going to get out of there but couldn’t imagine how or when.

On the 35^th and 36^th day they started saying they were going to toss people 30 miles out or take us to the migrant centers of Chetunal and Tabasco. They took a photo of me and said to be ready at seven at night.

They put me in the taxi and called the federal police, with whom they do business. They sent the photo and the taxi information and later I just had to get in the police car. I was with the federal police for 48 hours, with the right to an attorney and they gave me a book that explained my rights and duties.

They gave us food and treated us well. The police were corrupt and also offered us the chance to continue the journey in exchange for money.

From there, they took us to the migrant center in Chetumal, where I was for 17 days, waiting for everyone. When I got there, there were 29 Cubans and on the day I left 17 more came. It was amazing to see how Cubans who don’t demand their rights on the island, do so there. They were protests about the cleanliness, water, food.

I knew they were going to deport me, but I still had the chance of refuge or political asylum. I thought about this last option, but gave up because I missed everything in Cuba. Despite all the problems I’d left behind, my country was better.

On 22 September they took me in a can to the Cancun airport and the next day, around seven in the morning, I left to fly to Havana.

They took all of us to the migrant center at Valle Grande prison, where they analyzed us, took statements and checked for criminal histories. The treatment was good, respectful and they didn’t ask us about anything. After a period of quarantine they sent me to the police station in my town and from there, home.

I’m happy to be in Cuba, with my family, my friends, and to have the chance to continue my political activism. Although sometimes I thought the solution was to emigrate to the United States, I don’t think I will try to leave again. I just want to establish myself here and have a family.

Although it’s hard to live with the problems we have in Cuba, the situations that face us when we try to exit illegally are harder. I urge everyone to fight for change in Cuba, since leaving the country is also leaving everything you love.

Cuba’s Pro-Government Intellectuals Denounce US “Cultural War” / EFE, 14ymedio

UNEAC says the US is trying to "undermine" unity, "cast doubt" and demobilize. (UNEAC) — UNEAC says the US is trying to “undermine” unity, “cast doubt” and demobilize. (UNEAC)

EFE/via 14ymedio, Havana, 20 October 2016 — The National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and the Hermanos Saiz Association on Thursday blamed the United States for being behind a “war of culture and symbols” against Cuba and warned that “any naiveté in this sense could be very expensive for the sovereignty and independence” of the country.

“It is obvious that the war of culture and symbols that we confront is based on an explicit laid out in the statements of the leaders of the US themselves and in documents of that country’s armed forced,” says a message from these groups collected in the official press to mark the Day of Cuban Culture. continue reading

The two associations, that include the intellectuals of the island’s officialdom, say that they are trying to “undermine” unite, and “sow doubts” and demobilize.

“Although those who attack us have failed to break the commitment of the vanguard of Cuba’s artists and intellectuals with the Revolution, they do not pause in their attempts,” affirms the letter, published by the newspaper Juventud Rebelde .

The letter stresses that “history itself has been charged with demonstrating that it is not possible to imagine the survival of a socialist revolution if it is not accompanied by a profound cultural transformation that reaches the level of common sense.”

It also quotes former President Fidel Castro, who defined culture as the “shield and sword of the nation” and the current ruler, his brother Raul Castro, who recently warned that the field of Cuban culture is “doubly” threatened by ” subversive projects” and” the global wave of colonization.”

Intellectuals also refer to the economic embargo the United Stats has maintained for five decades against the island and whose “attacks” has been “suffered directly” by Cuban culture.

On October 20 Cuba celebrates National Culture Day in commemoration of the first singing of the country’s anthem, in the city of Bayamo.

The Old Age of Elpidio Valdés / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

The image of the artist Denys Almaral gives an unexpected turn to the iconography created by Juan Padrón.

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 24 October 2016 — Several generations of Cubans have grown up watching cartoons based on the adventures of Elpidio Valdés. A Mambí – Cuban freedom fighter – friendly and popular, the character has starred in many popular sayings and some jokes repeated ad nauseam. Willing to annihilate the Spaniards with a slash of his machete, nationalist to the core and vindicator of the version of history clung to by the official discourse, this insurrectionist tried to represent Cuban identity in his picaresque rebelliousness.

The image created by the artist Denys Almaral gives an unexpected twist to the iconography created by Juan Padron. Aged, forced to sell newspapers to survive and marked by economic hardship, this Elpido Valdes of this little vignette belies the heroic tints in which he appeared in numerous shorts and feature films dedicated to the witty independence fighter. continue reading

Instead of the country for which he fought, the rogue spends his last years in a Cuba where those who live better are those who have hard currency, where the dreams of equity are a thing of the past, and where the generation that helped to build the system is a “hindrance” to the government’s desire for a monopoly.

The island is full of Elpidio Valdéses asking for alms, standing in long lines to buy the only bread they have the right to each day and dreaming of the project of this nation that led them to the countryside to shake off the yoke of a foreign power. Now, they are not subjects of the metropolis, but of the Castro regime.

Elpidio Valdes -- the Jaun Padron version "in his youth" — Elpidio Valdes — the Juan Padron version “in his youth” Source: kreweofmambi.com

Cuban Institute For Freedom Of Expression And The Press Denounces Harassment Of Its Members / 14ymedio

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14ymedio, Havana, 24 October 2016 – A Cuban State Security operation has been directed, so far in October, against different independent journalists who cooperate with the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP), according to Monday’s press release from that organization.

These operations have resulted in the arrests of nine journalists, raids of their homes, and confiscation of the tools of their trade. Victims say they have used physical violence and verbal threats. continue reading

The journalist Dianelys Rodriguez, director of the media Panorama Pinareño, denounced that last Friday, 21 October, his house was searched without a warrant. The official in charge, identified as Lt. Col. Jesús Ramón Morel, head of the Department of Confrontation of Pinar del Rio Counter-Intelligence, with the help of two other officers, forcefully dragged Rodriguez and covered her mouth so she could not protest, according to the journalist. Finally, she was taken to the police station where she was held for five hours. They prepared a warning letter and threatened her with incarceration if she continued her work.

Four other journalists’ were also victims of raids on their homes and confiscation of the tools of their trade. The preliminary balance sheet, according to the ICLEP members affected, was the confiscation of five printers, two laptops, a video-camera with a tripod, six cameras, three cellphones and other auxiliary devices.

Last Friday, Ricardo Fernandez, Panorama Pinareño’s editor, was summoned to the Pinar del Rio Technical Office, where he was threatened with going to prison and “assured that ICLEP would disappear.” Previously, the political police had raided his home, confiscating a laptop and cellphone.

Raul Velaquez, ICLEP executive director, was arrested while investigating what happened to these journalists. On this occasion, they took Raul Velaquez’s cellphone, gave him an official warning and threatened that he would be prosecuted if he returned to visit the province.

ICLEP’s legal director, Raul L. Risco Perez and journalist Claudia Cristina Ortega were summoned and threatened with jail. In the east of the country, Leovanis Correa Moroso, director of Santiaguera Voz, was “arrested, handcuffed and beaten in the face” and then remained “under arrest for three days” and also was threatened with prison if he “continued working as a citizen journalist.”

In the municipality of Jatibonico in the province of Sancti Spiritus, Osmany Borroto Rodriguez, director of the Espirituano, was accused of distributing the newsletter in the streets. Shortly before, Ada Maria Lopez had been arrested in the capital’s Fellowship Park and taken to a police station because he was distributing the Habanero Amanecer (Havana Dawn) newsletter.

Another case of arbitrary detention against ICLEP journalists occurred on 14 October against a Majadero de Artemis worker, Yosdanys Blanco Hernandez. The journalist was detained in a market by agents of the National Revolutionary Police and taken to the Artemis National Police station, where he was held under arrest for 24 hours. The agents explained to him that he was arrested because there was a complaint against him.

ICLEP’s denunciation is part of the growing wave of repression by the authorities towards independent media, which in recent months has led to the arrest of many journalists.

A Vaccine Against Populism 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

The book 'The Populist Deception' was published this spring by Ediciones Planeta Colombia — The book ‘The Populist Deception’ was published this spring by Ediciones Planeta Colombia

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 24 October 2016 — While it may be considered tacky to reveal the trick with which a circus magician entertains his audience, it is very useful to expose the tricks used by a fraudster to deceive his fellow man. This seems to be the public utility of El engaño populista (The Populist Deception), a book by Axel Kaiser and Gloria Alvarez published this year by Ariel publishers in collaboration with Planeta Colombiana Publishing.

In 15 sections grouped into three chapters, these essays present factual information and philosophical and political arguments in a balanced and convincing way.

The book exposes the populist as a political figure who promises a host of social benefits that can only be provided by an omnipotent state. This will be the paternal state that defends the helpless citizen from the shellfish appetites of capital, and from some external enemy that threatens the sovereignty of the nation. continue reading

In just two hundred pages, the authors describe the state designed from the populist perspective. Like any authoritarian father, it nullifies the individual who tries to differentiate himself. To do this it spreads the obsession for egalitarianism and the idea that all accumulated wealth is the fruit of plundering others. This phenomenon is identified with concrete and contemporary examples. Chile, Argentina, Cuba, Venezuela, and even the Spain proposed by the Podemos Party, find amazing coincidences and common points of departure.

One of the most striking aspects of this book is the definition of the role played by “organic intellectuals” in the process of building and financing populism. The project, developed by Antonio Gramsci (1891-1927), is based on the assumption that intellectuals can construct a cultural hegemony to sensitize the masses and lead them to socialism.

“Twenty-first century socialism” as an antidote to neoliberalism and the strategy developed by the Sao Paulo Forum are identified in this study as populist developments to which we must pay more attention. The roadmap of Latin America’s leftist movements was drawn in the 1990 Forum led by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his Workers’ Party of Brazil — he was then president of the Party and later president of the Brazil. Just when socialism seemed definitively buried, the Forum achieved a renewal of thought among the Latin American left.

If The Populist Deception weren’t so obviously apologetic of liberalism as a political doctrine, it could find a wider audience precisely among those deceived by populism. This, at least methodologically, seems to be its weak point. Demonstrating the dichotomy between freedom and security is, in reality, a false dilemma; the real contradiction is between the proposal of a system that promotes happiness and one that ensures the right to achieve it.

The most valuable thesis of this book may be that populists governments concentrate power in the hands of the state, supposedly so it will have the resources to allow it to deliver happiness to its people; meanwhile “the others” create a state of law in which it is assumed that each person may have at therr disposal the resources to build their own personal happiness.

History has shown that populism does not achieve its goals and ultimately poverty and corruption prevail. But contemporary liberalism also has unfinished tasks. The book that would explain this in detail, free of ideological propaganda, remains to be written.

Panama’s Darien Gap, a Mediterranean Without Boats or Headlines / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

Cubans crossing the Darien jungle to get to Panama. (Courtesy to '14ymedio') — Cubans crossing the Darien jungle to get to Panama. (Courtesy to ’14ymedio’)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Panama, 23 October 2016 — If anything deserves to be called “tropical” it is the Darien jungle in the south of Panama. Humidity, mosquitoes and heat makes moving within the dense vegetation of the area a superhuman task. Through the dense jungle extends one of the most dangerous migratory routes of the world. A Mediterranean without boats or headlines, but one where opportunity and death also converge.

Where Central America joins in a narrow embrace with South America, is is the deadliest and most feared stretch along the route to the United States. Crossing from Colombia to this area in Panama are migrants arriving from nearby or distant countries, such as Cuba, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Somalia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

This piece of land has lodged in many migrants’ memories as the most difficult in the long march toward a dream. However, for migrants from other continents, coming from Asia and Africa, overcoming it is a major effort. There are those who cross the Atlantic at the mercy of the human traffickers, hidden in the cargo holds of ships that often depart a Europe incapable of confronting its own immigration crisis. continue reading

Without speaking a word of Spanish, nor knowing the least cultural details of this area of the world, the recently arrived collide with a region where reality oscillates between the marvelous and the sinister. In most cases, they carry no identity documents and only a few know words such as “water” and “food.”

Those who manage to cross the thicket of vegetation and danger, celebrate on the other side, now in Panamanian territory, with the joy of reaching a final destination, but with the crossing of the rest of Central America and Mexico still ahead of them, some of it semi-desert. But conquering the Darien comes to be seen as winning a medal in the most difficult Olympic disciplines… one in which the athletes play at life.

There are no half measures in this strip of rough terrain. A coyote might be an experienced guide who leads a group of travelers toward the next frontier, or a criminal who delivers the group into the hands of extortionists, rapists and thieves.

Through the jungle, the migrants appear in groups, some with children riding on their shoulders, stumbling through the mud and branches along makeshift routes. Their stories are barely told in the foreign media, and international organizations have been parsimonious in highlighting the humanitarian crisis that is taking place in this narrow waist of land that enhances the curves of America.

It is also a path marked by simulation. Many Haitians cross the jungle passing themselves off as Africans. The citizens of the country in this part of the world hardest hit by natural disasters and poverty are considered as pariahs, with little appeal even to the human traffickers.

In no other place on the continent, as in the Darien, are the deficiencies of Latin American diplomacy in coordinating common policy more apparent. Meanwhile, Nicaragua continues to keep its borders closed to migrants, Costa Rica seeks to stem the flow of foreigners flooding it, and the president of Panama warns that those who enter the jungle area separating his country from Colombia “are going to be given humanitarian assistance to continue their journey.”

The Darian Gap incarnates the fiasco of regional integration, delayed by the short-sightedness of the politicians and the successive attempts to create select clubs of countries, united more by ideological conveniences than by the urgent needs of their citizens. The greatest failure is the fault of the Central American Social Integration Secretariat (SISCA), incompetent to implement an effective contingency plan for the situation.

It has been of little use that James Cavallaro, President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), made a call to the United States of America to act “immediately to open channels that allows these people to migrate legally and safely.” In the government palaces, everyone seems more focused on lighting their own fires than in supporting joint efforts.

This diplomatic selfishness didn’t escape Cavallaro, who also said that “the fact that the migrants resort to irregular channels and human traffickers is explained by the lack of legal and safe channels to migrate,” a situation that increases their vulnerabilities to the abuses and extortion of criminal organizations, human traffickers and corrupt police.

The landscape worsens every day with a Europe overwhelmed by the massive arrival of migrants and a “destination America” appearing as an option for those fleeing armed conflicts: the poor and the desperate. Like a river that starts with a thin trickle of water, the flow of those crossing the Central American isthmus grew and grew, swelled by thousands of Cubans who fear the repeal of the Cuban Adjustment Act and the benefits it offers them in the United States.

The drama takes place beyond the photographers’ lenses. The images of the boats filled with refugees coming from Myanmar and Bangladesh trying to get to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand filled the newspaper headlines in the middle of last year, while the Darien hid its most terrible scenes. It barely appeared in the international press.

To those who boast of living in a hyper-connected world, with every inch already explored and with the eyes of satellites crossing it foot-by-foot, they would do well to visit this jungle. One of the last natural redoubts that terrorizes men, stops the most daring expeditions and seems to laugh at adventurers in the style of Indiana Jones.

A descent into the abyss of humidity and insect bites could shade the reading of news about space probes that reach distant planets and collect images of other galaxies. The region remains as stark as in the days of the Spanish Conquest.

The Pan American Highway, which runs from Alaska to Argentina, is interrupted here. A situation that has helped to preserve the natural diversity of the area but that certainly increases the deadliness of this stretch for migrants.

In September of this year, a family of three drowned in the Turquesa River. Fishermen in the area reported the body of a child not yet four years old floating in the water. Then they also found his parents. All had “foreign-features,” according to the Panamanian border service.

They are just a few of the many victims claimed by the Darien Gap. This jungle is so thick that not even screams escape it.

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Editor’s note: This text was published on Sunday 23 October in the newspaper El País.

“It’s Hard for the Government to Tolerate the Professionalism of Independent Journalists”

Ignacio Gonzalez, journalist and editor of Free Hot Press agency (screenshot)

14ymedio, Joanna Columbie, Havana, 21 October 2016 – Ignacio Gonzalez is frequently seen in the streets of Havana with microphone in hand recording citizens’ reactions to a flood, a historic baseball game or the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the governments of Cuba and the United States. Independent journalist and editor of the Hot Free Press (ECPL) agency, the young man aspires to continue excelling professionally and thinks that non-government media are experiencing a time of growth.

Recently Gonzalez spent 48 hours under arrest at a police station as a consequence of his work as a reporter, an arrest that is among the repressive acts carried out against independent journalism in recent months.

Columbie: How was Hot Free Press born?

Gonzalez: It comes from the idea that people are again gaining confidence in the independent press, which had lost a little due to government propaganda that says that it involves unqualified and mercenary journalists. We interview not only the regime’s opponents but also doctors, engineers, can collectors, mechanics, carpenters… people like that. continue reading

Columbie: You suffered an arrest recently. What happened?

Gonzalez: I was doing a report together with another colleague on a study of central Havana, and an operation began with a patrol car, five police officers and two agents from State Security. They took us to the fourth police unit and interrogated me in one of the offices. They made me undress and squat forwards and backwards in order to see if I had hidden any USB drives. I felt denigrated.

Then I was transferred to a police station on Zanja Street and later to the 10th of October, located on Acosta Avenue. I was detained for 48 hours, which had never happened to me, because they had always detained me between three and four hours.

Columbie. Were you accused of some crime or are you now subject to some investigative process?

Gonzalez. They told me that they had a file on me and that I am a counter-revolutionary. Although they assured me that my detention was not because of political problems, but because I was committing an illicit economic activity, since I had an agency where it was known that I paid workers and that I had no license to practice this activity nor was I accredited in the country. They also threatened me that my equipment could be seized. I did not sign nor will I sign any paper. There is no accusation as such, what I have is threats.

Columbie: Do you feel you are a “counter-revolutionary?”

Gonzalez: I told them that they were the counter-revolutionaries because they refuse progress and all kinds of democracy to our country. If they are going to put me in prison, they are going to have to do so also with thousands of Cubans who bravely and spontaneously make statements for our reports. Nor am I a mercenary. I work and get a salary for my work with my press outlet.

What they want with their threats is that I stop being an independent journalist and dedicate myself to taking photos for birthdays and quinceañeras [girls’ 15th birthday celebrations – a major coming-of-age milestone].

Columbie: How do you define yourself?

Gonzalez: I am neither an opponent nor a dissident; I am a person who practices journalism in favor of the truth. If the government does something positive, I do an interview or a report about that topic, but if it does something negative, I also bring it to light. If an opponent commits an act of corruption, I bring it to light, and if he is making a move in favor of the people, I do as well. That’s how journalism should be: impartial.

Columbie: Why do you believe that the repression against you has become more intense now?

Gonzalez: The increasing growth of independent journalism is upsetting them. We unofficial reporters have had the opportunity to attend courses, improve ourselves, and the government doesn’t tolerate it. This improvement, this professionalism that journalists are acquiring, even the audio-visual media which shows the whole world the news as it is, it is hard for them to tolerate. They are trying to accuse us of illegalities. It is a zero-tolerance policy towards the independent press.

In the case of Hot Free Press we are making reports almost of the same quality as Cuban television, but with the difference that we are not censored. We are reaching people; we have managed to make people feel a little more confident with the independent press, to give their statements. We have even found among members of the public that they say that if it’s not for national television, they say whatever they want. They are more disposed to make statements to independent outlets because they know that the national press belongs to the government and simply does not work.

Columbie: Are other non-governmental press agencies going through the same situation?

Gonzalez: I have not seen the same attitude with the rest of the new supposedly independent programs, like Bola 8 or Mi Havana TV. These just have a lot of nonsense. Supposedly they are being financed by the self-employed, but I work in this industry, and I know that the self-employed cannot pay for a production like these programs are showing. There are diverse locations and entry to places to which the independent press does not have access.

Columbie: How would you define the practice of the press in Cuba outside of the official sphere?

Gonzalez: Being an independent journalist here is like being a war correspondent.

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

Cuba’s Private Restaurant Owners are Worried / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

The Esteban Kitchen paladar (private restaurant) in Havana’s in Vedado district. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana 20 October 2016 — Chinese, Italian or international food fill the menus of Cuban paladares, but lately fear has starred as the main dish on the menu of these private restaurants. The jewel in the crown of entrepreneurship on the island is experiencing moments of uncertainty after the government froze the issuing of licenses for these businesses run by the self-employed.

In recent months food and beverage outlets have watched a parade of pop stars, Hollywood actors, emblematic rock-and-rollers and even US President Barack Obama through their establishments, but it is a complicated time.

Even Camaguey province has been shocked, after the closure, at the beginning of this month, of three of the most important paladares operating in the city. Restaurant 1800 was searched by the police, who confiscated some of the furniture and arrested the owner, Edel Izquierdo. Two other paladares, Mi Hacienda and Papito Rizo’s Horseshoee, were also forced to close. continue reading

The suspension in the granting of new licenses for these premises has stoked fears about a possible backward step in the reforms undertaken by Raul Castro starting in 2008. Although officialdom has rushed to clarify that this is a temporary measure, a sense of a country going backwards to times of greater controls is felt on all sides.

The Acting Vice-President of the Provincial Administation in the capital, Isabel Hamze, declared on national television this Wednesday that “of the 135 license holders [of private restaurants] we met with 129 to alert them to a group of problems that cloud the services that they offer and we explained them that, with these exchanges ended, it was time to undertake an inspection.”

The official noted that during several meetings with owners of the private locales they discussed among other issues the consumption and sale of drugs inside restaurants, along with evidence of prostitution and pimping.

Hamze emphasized that those who acquired “money in Cuba or abroad illegally” in order to “bring it to the island and launder it,” need to be on guard. “Nowhere in the world is it legal to launder money and it is not permitted. We are not accusing anyone of doing it, we talked about where their capital comes from,” she said.

“The state can not compete with the privates, which in a short time have managed to run more efficient and attractive places for foreign and domestic customers,” a waiter of the centrally located Doña Eutimia Restaurant, nestled against the Havana Cathedral. The man believes that the current “storm will pass, because otherwise it would go against the times.”

Most owners of these private premises prefer to keep silent. “He who moved doesn’t end up in the photo,” joked a private restaurant owner on 23^rd Street. “Everything is on hold, because no one dares to stand out now,” he added. “The repression of the paladares has come because some have become nightclubs with musical programs that attract a lot of people.”

According to updated data, more than 150,000 self-employed work in 201 occupations in Havana. There are more than 500 private restaurants throughout the capital.

In some locations it has become common to alternate good food with shows ranging from comedy, to magic, to fashion. Lately, the celebrated King Bar has sent out invitations to spend October 30, Halloween night, with costumes and frights.

The government undertakes inspections to guarantee strict compliance with the rules that govern the operations of these establishments: no more than 50 seats, limited hours, and the purchase of supplies exclusively in state stores with receipts to prove it.

However, several entrepreneurs consulted by this newspaper agree that it is difficult to manage a private restaurant following the letter of the law. The shortages often experienced in the markets that sell in Cuban convertible pesos, the lack of a wholesale market, and the prohibition against commercial imports, hobble the sector and push owners to the informal market.

In the Labor and Social Security Office on B Street between 21^st and 23^rd in Havana, this Tuesday, it was not possible to get a license to open a paladar. “The licenses of those who already have them are not suspended,” but “the issuing of new licenses has been halted,” declared an official to the nervous entrepreneurs who came to the site for more information.

The measure was preceded by meetings with the owners of paladares where they were warned to comply with the law; officials from the National Tax Administration Office (ONAT) and the police were at the meetings. The answer has been felt immediately on the menus of the most emblematic places, which have reduced their offerings to what can be purchased in the state retail network.

The Don Quijote paladar (private restaurant) on 23rd Street in Havana’s Vedado district. (14ymedio)

Lobster and beef have been among the first items to disappear from the menus, as most of these products are purchased on the black market from suppliers who circumvent police roadblocks to bring them to the city.

The law criminalizes very severely the theft and illegal slaughter of cattle – which is nearly all slaughter of cattle outside the state system – in addition to the “illegal abetting” of such goods. Due to the decrease in the number of cattle, to a little more than 4 million today, the Government considers any irregularities in the slaughter and marketing of these animals to be a serious violation of Penal Code.

However, of the 1,700 private restaurants that offer the country has many typical dishes known as ropa vieja and vaca frita, among other dishes made from beef. Given the current onslaught of the authorities, a stealthy slogan is in play: survive and wait out the storm.

Tom Malinowski Speaks with the Independent Cuban Press / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya

Tom Malinowski, Deputy Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, held a meeting with independent journalists in Havana this Saturday

14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 15 October 2016 — The second round of talks on Human Rights took place this past Friday between the governments of Cuba and the United States, as part of the ongoing dialogue initiated when relations were restored.

In line with the importance of the issue and in relation with the relevance that the US government has granted him, this Saturday, Thomas Malinowski — Deputy Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor- who co-chaired the US delegation, together with Mrs. Mari Carmen Aponte, Acting Assistant Secretary for Affairs of the Western Hemisphere — met with independent journalists Ignacio González and Miriam Celaya, to discuss topics that were debated on that occasion.

Unlike the previous meeting held in Washington on March 31, 2015, this time both sides delved deeply into human rights issues, on which they hold opposing positions. continue reading

Malinowski: “I don’t expect to be able to persuade the Cuban government about how we consider human rights should be applied in Cuba”

“I don’t expect to be able to persuade the Cuban government about how we consider human rights should be applied in Cuba, but we consider human rights as an important and permanent item on our agenda,” said Malinowski. While acknowledging the opposing stances of the two governments, he considers that these meetings are of great value because, on the one hand, they reflect the common agreement of both governments on addressing that the issue of human rights in the rapprochement process is legitimate; and on the other hand, it has been established that the basis for these freedoms is upheld in international standards that establish the universal character of human rights, recognized and signed by our two countries.

“The result is positive. At least the Cuban government is not refusing to discuss human rights, and does not deny that they are also applicable to Cuba, though the legal interpretation of the principles is defined differently in our countries”.

Both sides discussed related laws and international treaties that confirm the universality and protection of fundamental rights, such as freedom of association, freedom to join unions, and electoral systems, among others. About the last item, the US side fully explained the characteristics of its electoral system and inquired about the Cuban system, particularly the obstacles faced by opponents and critics of the Cuban government to aspire to political office.

“For our part, we recognize that our system is not perfect. But in the US human rights violations are made public, and there are ways and mechanisms to force politicians to fulfill their commitments and obligations”.

Cuban laws, however, are designed so that the Power can manipulate them according to its interests, with no civic or legal mechanisms to force the government to observe the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed in 1948.

Malinowski asserted that the US government is committed to the debate on human rights at every meeting with the Cuban authorities, but he insists that it is not their place to interfere in Cuban politics, which is a matter for the government and the people of Cuba. He believes that dialogue is proceeding on the basis of mutual respect, despite differences in respective viewpoints on the subject. However, he believes that frank conversations about the realities of our nations create a more positive and beneficial climate for all than does the policy of confrontation that maintained a breach between the two countries.

There are pockets of the dissidence that remain critical or skeptical of the White House’s new policy of a thaw towards the Palace of the Revolution

There are pockets of the dissidence that remain critical or skeptical of the White House’s new policy of a thaw towards the Palace of the Revolution. Some people assume that it only favors the Castro regime, and complain that the demands of opponents are not represented on the agenda.

In that vein, Malinowski said: “We have maintained contact with all of Cuban civil society. Not only with opponents, independent journalists and other sectors of civil society, but also with representatives of the emerging private sector and even the sectors that are in tune with the Cuban government. We want to hear all opinions, aspirations and proposals to form a more complete picture of the aspirations of the Cuban people. We share and defend the defense of human rights and our government will continue with this policy”.

According to Malinowski, a climate of detente favors the desires to strengthen the ties between our peoples, and to promote a mutual approach after half a century of estrangement and hostility. In fact, in the last two years, exchanges between the US and Cuba have increased and diversified, as evidenced –for example — by the participation of young Cubans in scholarship programs in US universities

When asked how the US government viewed Cuban authorities’ insistence on spreading through its media monopoly a distorted interpretation of the topics discussed at the bilateral meetings, Malinowski stated that this encounter with the independent press was exactly a way to get a more complete view to Cubans about information on the issues discussed between the two delegations.

At the end of the meeting, the Deputy Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor recognized the importance of the views and suggestions received by the US delegation from many sectors of Cuban society. “Without their remarks and views, without their participation, our agenda for these meetings on human rights with the Cuban government would not be possible. We appreciate the contributions of all Cubans. We are open to continuing to listen to all proposals, whether they come from those who support the dialogue process or from its detractors”.

Translated by Norma Whiting

“God bless you!”: The Unusual ‘Goodbye’ from a Cuban Official to Dagoberto Valdes

14ymedio, Havana, 19 October 2016 – The director of the Center for Coexistence Studies (CEC), Dagoberto Valdes, presented himself at ten o’clock on Wednesday morning at the headquarters of the State Security at Kilometer 4.5 of the highway to San Juan in Pinar del Rio, after receiving a summons to “address legal issues.” The interview, however, only “lasted half a minute,” the intellectual told 14ymedio.

“We presented ourselves at Kilometer 4.5, which is like the Villa Marista [a harsh State Security prison in Hvana] of here, the whole Coexistence team and myself. I gave the receptionist the summons, and she asked me to wait a moment,” he explained. continue reading

According to the director of Coexistence, three minutes later an official who presented himself as the duty officer in charge of the unit came out and invited him to enter an office and, without even offering him a seat, told him that Lieutenant Colonel Osvaldo, with whom the interview had originally been scheduled, had to leave the province unexpectedly and so he was free to leave.

On leaving, Valdes explained, the captain in charge of the unit said, “God bless you!” to which he replied with a similar greeting.

“I take this opportunity to thank wholeheartedly the immense solidarity received from friends and brothers from many countries and institutions, as well as the prayers of pastors and brothers of different faiths,” Valdes said after the meeting.

“This summons to appear is a part of the measures for all kinds of people who have been called to speak to the police. Independent journalists, artists and bloggers, the self-employed, have experienced this new wave of repression,” he told14ymedio by phone.

This September, members of the Coexistence team reported that at least nine of them had been subjected to police interrogations. The activists were forced to suspend the program My Neighborhood A Community, due to pressure from State Security, which included operations stationing people around several homes, arrests and cutting cell phone service for event organizers.

Valdes said he did not fear the encounter with the authorities, because everything they do in the CEC “is transparent and for the good of Cuba.”

Valdes acknowledged that members of his team had been summoned to appear in recent weeks by police stations, “one to one”, so the only one missing was him.

“This is a step in the middle of the escalation we are experiencing. It is the first time they have cited me since the resumption of relations between the US and Cuba,” he added.

The Coexistence Studies Center focuses on training for citizenship and civil society in Cuba. Among its activities is the publication of the magazine Convivencia (Coexistence), the discussion of proposals for the future of the island, and the exchange ideas of about Cuba’s current situation.

Based in the province of Pinar del Rio, the independent entity is conceived as a think tank to “think about the national home that we desire, to contribute to the reconstruction of the human person and the fabric of civil society.”

Cuba’s Private Restaurants, Struggling Not to Die of Success / EFE-14ymedio, Lorena Canto

The famous and government higher ups choose private restaurants for their meals in Cuba. Rihanna at the La Fontana paladar. (Twitter)

EFE/via 14ymedio, Lorena Canto, Havana – Private restaurants, popularly known as paladares (palates), are under the scrutiny of the Cuban government, which has temporarily suspended the granting of licenses in the sector due to alleged breaches of rules in a booming industry that perfectly illustrates the new economy of the island.

“There has been very strong growth in a short time and it has gotten out of hand,” the self-employed owner of a very famous private restaurant in Havana told EFE, as she prepared for inspections by the authorities in the coming weeks.

In Cuba where, with the lack of official confirmations, the rumor mill runs riot, a few days ago alarm spread among paladares on hearing that the owners of the most prominent had been called to meetings – by neighborhood – with government officials. continue reading

There they were told that there would be no new licenses for private restaurants in the capital, and that there would be a round of strict inspections to ensure that those now in operation were complying with the law: no more than 50 seats, respect for the established hours, and provisioning only with products purchased in state stores for which they can show the receipts.

“The atmosphere is now very unclear,” another owner of a pioneering paladar, who also asked not to be named, told EFE.

So, the dining industry’s private proprietors, awaiting the dreaded inspections, fell into a paranoid spiral, which included hiding any merchandise not obtained through official means and redoing the menus to include only dishes and drinks made with ingredients for which they can show the receipts.

Bottles of premium liquor that came to Cuba in a suitcase, exotic ingredients or the celebrated lobsters, almost impossible to acquire by legal means and bought directly from fishermen, remain under lock and key these days, waiting for the dust to settle.

The problem is that the regulations governing self-employment, which are part of the economic reforms introduced by Raul Castro in the last decade, still have large gaps, like the lack of rules governing private workers on the communist island, or a wholesale supply market.

“It’s about sorting out a sector that started out as a part of the family economy and has become an important part of the country’s economy,” explained the same owner.

For some time now, the paladares have no longer been in the living rooms of a private house where the lady of the house cooked for four tourists, who in this way were given a peek into the daily life of a Cuban family.

There are 1,700 licensed paladares in Cuba, hundreds of them in Havana, restaurants that rival international standards in quality, in original décor and in service, and that from the beginning of the thaw with the United States two years ago have received visitors such as Barack Obama, Madonna and The Rolling Stones.

But in addition to competing with each other, they also compete with ordinary Cubans at the supermarkets, because one of the great problems of the industry is that it must be supplied at the same outlets as the rest of the population, given the lack of any wholesale market, the opening of which would be in the state’s hands alone.

“The competition for products creates unrest among the population, although it is not the direct fault of the self-employed,” says the same source.

In the state supermarkets – the only kind that exist in Cuba – EFE was able to observe how national brands of beer barely last an hour on the shelves, as the restaurants carry them out by the box full. The same thing happens with soft drinks and products like chicken breasts and milk.

Hence, she adds, the private restaurants have long demanded a wholesale market, which would also benefit the authorities “because it would allow better fiscal control over the purchase invoices.”

Another nuance of the situation, says one source, is the “special sensitivity” of the government to issues such as prostitution and drug trafficking, banned and severely punished on the Island, or access for minors to places where alcohol is served.

The current legislation provides licenses only for restaurants and cafes, so under these categories night bars have begun to proliferate, some of which have been closed down in recent weeks, although this has not been confirmed by any official source.

Escape Or Get Married: The Dilemma Of Cuban Doctors In Brazil / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

The Cuban doctor Yohan Batista Martí when he resided as a volunteer in Brazil. (Courtesy)

14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 16 October 2016 — Yohan Batista Martí spent nearly four months hiding to avoid persecution by the authorities of the Cuban Medical Mission in Brazil. Like him, thousands of Cuban doctors have fled to the United States before the date of their return to the island. Escaping or marrying a local resident are the best options for these health professionals.

“I had to hide. I commented to the Brazilian in charge of the mission that I was going to Cuba on vacation and that was how I escaped from the region of Piaui in the north, but when they realized I had defected they began to look for me,” Batista told this newspaper. continue reading

The cooperation program with Brazil was announced three years ago as a “stimulus mission” for the best Cuban professionals. The initiative was officially launched to support Brazil’s Workers Party (PT) and then-President Dilma Rousseff, considered a “friend of Cuba.”

During their work in the program each doctor receives a salary equivalent to 1,000 dollars US, 600 paid in Brazil and the other 400 deposited in a bank on the island and payable on their return. This represents less than one-third of the $3,300 that the Brazilian government pays the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to be paid to the state Cuban Medical Services.

Many doctors, however, pass up the money accumulated in Cuba and choose to flee. Throughout the country, this year alone, 1,439 health professionals have escaped Brazil to the United States, taking advantage of the US Professional Parole program, a visa program started under President George W. Bush which over the last decade has brought more than 8,000 of these workers to the US.

Other doctors have resorted to the option of marrying Brazilian citizens to avoid forced return.

“The Cuban government benefited from the money due us and now they want others to come so they can do the same,” a doctor working in the region of Minas Gerais and who requested anonymity told this newspaper. The health professional says they are “alarmed” by the increase in marriages between Cubans and Brazilians for the former to obtain residency.

Marriages with foreigners and loving relationships are a taboo subject on the missions. The disciplinary regulations of civil workers abroad regulates that “if any loving relationship develops with natives it must be reported immediately and be consistent with the revolutionary thought of our stay and in no measure be excessive” (sic).

In June 2015, a case came into the public spotlight and exposed the limitations under which Cuban doctors live. After nine months of a legal battle the Cuban doctor Adrian Estrada Barber managed to marry the Brazilian pharmacist Letícia Santos Pedroso. “I met the woman of my life,” said the proud husband on hearing the court ruling.

Estrada Barber is just one case among hundreds. During the first ten months of this year more than 1,600 Cuban doctors took the exam to revalidate their titles in Brazil and win contracts on their own. They make up the largest group of foreigners who have applied for recognition of their university degree in the South American giant.

After the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the Cuban government pressured the Brazilian authorities to renegotiate the medical contract and obtained a 9% increase in payment. The Plaza of the Revolution also achieved an increase of 10% for food for doctors in indigenous areas, which will be effective in January 2017.

The government of Raul Castro has demanded the doctors return to the island when their “lease” expires. After much prodding, Brazilian authorities managed to get Cuba to reluctantly reauthorize the married doctors to be contracted for another three years.

Brazilian Minister of Health Ricardo Barros declared that in the middle of this year he had asked the Cuban Government and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to relax the conditions that force the doctors to return to the island, because,”More than 1,000 have married Brazilians and some have children,” the official said.

After hiding as a fugitive, Batista currently lives in Miami. From that city he related how he first tried to flee to Argentina but then traveled to Brasilia to seek refuge in the US embassy. “Everything has to be done in secret. A colleague in Venezuela who said she wanted to leave the mission was accused of a robbery that never happened and returned to Cuba,” he recalls.

Although he is a general practitioner and also has a specialty in physical rehabilitation medicine he has had to start from scratch in Miami. “I deliver results of laboratory tests and study to revalidate my title,” he says proudly, while helping others through social networks to “restore the dignity of Cuban medicine.”

Indian Workers Earn “Three Or Four Times More” Than Cubans, According To The Official Press / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

"Indian workers are three to four times more productive than Cuban workers." — “Indian workers are three to four times more productive than Cuban workers.”

14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 17 October 2016 — Three months after the revelation of the presence of workers from India in the construction of a luxury hotel in Havana, on Saturday the Cuban press mentioned, and tried to explain, the fact that domestic workers have been replaced by foreign workers with the argument that the Asians perform “three or four times” better.

“The result of their work is very high quality. Their presence results in taking great advantage of the workday, resulting in greater productivity,” said a report by the journalist Marianela Martin, published in Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth) and reproduced on the website Cubadebate. continue reading

What the Cuban newspaper does not mention is that, according to Reuters, the wages paid by the French company Bouygues to the Indian builders is some 1,600 dollars a month, 53 times more than Cubans doing the same work are paid (some 30 dollars). In the best of cases, with a bonus included, Cubans can earn a maximum of 100 dollars a month, with the Asians still earning 16 times more.

As the main reason for the hiring of foreigners, the directors of the Almest Real Estate Company argue the mobility of people trained in Cuban schools, who seek better paid work.

The publication notes, however, that “there is a permanent improvement” in the living conditions of the Cuban workers, among which it cites the constant assurance of work. Another “privilege” mentioned is “transportation from the shelters where they live to the worksite” and “the food offered is good, and so are the conditions where they spend the night.”

It also mentions “a study for the application of a new payment system,” but clarifies that it will not be “wage reform.”

Experts consulted by this newspaper corroborated that contracting for foreign personnel for tourist projects in Cuba is a common practice, but the case of the Indian workers is notable for the numbers involved. They are not only working in Havana, but also in the construction of several hotels in Varadero and other areas of the country.

The civil engineer Bladimir Ayra Estrada, vice president of the Arcos BBI International Economic Partnership, involved in construction in Cuba, explains that “with the presence of workers from India in the projects, jobs that have been lost are being recovered.”

The Manzana Gomez hotel is being rebuilt in Havana. — The Manzana hotel is being rebuilt in Havana.

According to Ayra Estrada, along with the Indian workers, Cubans are being put to work to learn the trades. The manager recognized that his business is taking fundamental advantage of recent graduates in technical courses related to construction, because they leave after finishing their social service (a three year period in which graduated students must work in the specialty in which they graduated).

Electricians, carpenters, plumbers and masons working on Cuban hotels being built in tourist areas are usually hired through the 13 employment agencies in the country. These are state enterprises created to recruit the best of the skilled workers on the island. They hire workers for wages in Cuban pesos (CUP) and in some cases with bonuses in Cuban Convertible pesos (CUC: 1 CUC = 25 CUP) while offering their services to foreign companies, adjusting their prices in dollars. It is a business that allows the state to realize significant gains, as it gets most of the benefits*.

text text tet — Indian workers in Cuba / Monthly salaries in dollars

The Cuban government is committed to promoting tourism as a way to boost its stagnant economy. Last year Cuba hosted more than three and a half million tourists, so it has had to make major adjustments and investments to balance the demand for rooms with supply.

The Manzana hotel, where the largest contingent of Indians is working, is located in Manzana de Gómez, which was the first major commercial center of the Cuban capital. Completion is scheduled for early 2017 and the project will be operated by the Kempinski International Hotel Chain and the Business Administration Group (GAESA), which belongs to the Cuban Armed Forces.

*Translator’s note: The State agencies collect the wages paid for the Cuban workers and pass on to the workers only a small share, retaining the rest in the government coffers.

‘Periodismo De Barrio’ Discovers The Harsh Reality Of Repression Against The Press / 14ymedio

The team of Periodismo de Barrio before departing for Baracoa. Elaine Diaz is front right. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 October 2016 — In an editorial published Monday, the independent medium Periodosmo de Barrio (Neighborhood Journalism) distances itself from the ruling party to explain the circumstances of the arrest of its director, Elaine Diaz, and several members of her team while covering, last week, the damage left by the hurricane Matthew in Baracoa in Guantánamo province.

Entitled “Who Has The Right to Tell a Country’s Stories? All Its Citizens,” the article states that the arrests were illegal given that the team from “Periodismo de Barrio didn’t violate any law.” The editorial explains that the authorities referred to a supposed state of emergency in force in the east of the island because of the hurricane, but, “This last statement does not have the legal status required to declare a state of emergency under the Constitution.” continue reading

After noting that Cuban legislation does not limit the exercise of journalism in areas affected by natural disasters, the text highlights that, during the two days the reporters remained under arrest, “No charges were filed against us nor were any members of the Periodismo de Barrio team accused of crimes,” which apparently confirmed the lack of motives to detain them.

Despite this, the members of the team were searched and their belongings confiscated. In addition, the three women “were physically searched by an official to seek other technological means they could have hidden in their bodies, treatment given to pre-criminal cases.”

The Periodismo de Barrio team sees in these events an opportunity to reflect on the role of the press in Cuba and the denounce the “monopolization of information” by the state.

“It is not possible to tell the truth about Cuba from a single version, or from unanimous versions, which amount to one.” It blames monopolies for the lack of the pluralism society needs, saying, “TV channels, radio stations, print publications, publishers, changed ownership but were not socialized. Socializing is not nationalizing. There are not good and bad monopolies. All monopolization, realized by the State, by a person or a corporation, ends up curtailing freedoms.”

The editorial denounces that, “The State, for more than 50 years has avoided requiring reporters to think about the economic dimension of the activity they carry out thanks to financing their means of production,” and explains that Periodismo de Barrio faces economic problems, lacking support from the authorities.

The media, the editorial reveals, uses the online PayPal service, despite its inaccessibility in Cuba due to the US embargo on the island. “The strategy is simple: use the account of a collaborator and friend resident in another country and then send money to Cuba using remittances through a legal agency,” it says. And adds, “Those who today question the funding mechanisms of Periodismo de Barrio are forgetting that journalism costs money.”

For the team of journalists, the organs of state security not only limit the right of speech and press guaranteed by the Constitution, ” but also the freedom of speech of each individual who chooses to speak to the media.”

“On October 11, the Cuban authorities tried to define who is entitled to tell the stories of our country. Because we believe that right belongs to the entire Cuban citizenship, because these stories need to be told, we will return to Baracoa, Imías and Maisí once the emergency is over,” adds the editorial.

Without over-elaborating, the editorial condemns the “arbitrary detention of journalists anywhere in the world [and] in Cuba.” It was not always so. Elaine Diaz came to be known through her blog La Polémica Digital (Digital Controversy), which was presented in another era by officialdom as a “revolutionary” alternative to the critical blogosphere that broke onto the Cuban scene in 2007.

In a chapter of the government’s TV series “Cuba’s Reasons,” Elaine Diaz was interviewed in her role as a professor at the School of Communication at the University of Havana a counterpart to bloggers critical of the Government that were defined in the program as “cyber-terrorists.” In her blog, Diaz avoided for years any statement of solidarity on the arrests of independent journalists who have characterized the Cuba of the past two decades.

Today, after the humiliations suffered at the hands of State Security, the Director Periodismo de Barrio has become aware of the enormous obstacles put in place by the authorities to the exercise a free press in Cuba. However, the editorial says nothing of other independent journalists arrested in Baracoa in the same circumstances.

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