Lia Villares Finally Makes it to the United States

Lia Villares is considered a “persecuted political” who is “under paramilitary harassment”. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 3 May 2017 – The independent activist Lia Villares finally traveled to the United States on Wednesday, as confirmed to 14ymedio by the dissident musician Gorki Aguila.

On Tuesday, Villares was not able to board her flight to the US, after being detained by the police on her way to the airport. The activist called the action a “kidnapping” and “forced disappearance” in a post that she published on her Facebook page hours after her arrest. continue reading

Villares explained that she took a taxi from the door of her home with the intention of traveling to the airport, in order to attend the concert of her friend David D Omni ZF at the New Orleans Jazz Festival. A few blocks from her home, a State Security agent who identified himself as “Jordan” stopped the car and forced her into a National Revolutionary Police (PNR) car, according to her note.

Villares says she was taken to the Tarara detention center (east of Havana), a very long way from her home in Vedado, and the agent insisted that she hand over her cell phone. “They left me for three hours inside the police car, waiting for the time to pass so I would miss my flight,” she denounces.

The activist said that she remained “silent” in response the questions of the agent who, before leaving her at home, pointed out that from that moment on he would become her shadow

The activist said that she remained “silent” in response the questions of the agent who, before leaving her at home, pointed out that from that moment on he would become her shadow.

According to her testimony, this is the same officer who had been monitoring her home on Saturday April 15, coinciding with the screening of the documentary Nadie, by Cuban filmmaker Miguel Coyula, which was supposed to have been screened at the El Círculo Gallery, a venue coordinated by Villares.

After being released, Villares asked about her legal situation and demanded to know why she had been prevented from taking the trip she had scheduled, but the agent only replied, “Why not.”

“This impunity enjoyed by agents and officers who lend themselves as accomplices [to the regime] can not pass unchallenged,” says Villares, who is considered a “persecuted political” and is “under paramilitary harassment.”

Cuba’s Official Press Attempts To Discredit Protester Wrapped In American Flag

In the video Llorente Miranda says, “This government has done nothing to help its people.”

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 2 May 2017 – On Tuesday, the official press railed against a citizen who raised an American flag during the May Day parade, and accused him of “building a counterrevolutionary file to emigrate to the United States” (i.e. to be qualify for asylum). The incident, starring Daniel Llorente Miranda, was widely reported by international media and social networks.

The newspapers Granma and Juventud Rebelde alluded to what happened on Monday, just a few minutes before the parade began in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution, but did not mention the protester’s name. continue reading

Both newspapers say that Llorente was sentenced in 2002 to five years of deprivation of liberty for strong arm robbery and that “with multiple antisocial antecedents is awaiting trial for an act of aggravated reception.”

Daniel Llorente Miranda, 52, is identified as a self-employed taxi driver and on several occasions has appeared in public spaces accompanied by the flag of the stars and stripes.

His first action of this type was occurred in August 2015 during the opening of the US Embassy in Havana. In March of last year he also waved the American flag near the embassy while President Barack Obama me with several activists at the diplomatic site.

Just a year ago, Llorente was arrested near the Sierra Maestra Cruise Terminal while the Adonia vessel inaugurated the arrival of American cruise ships to Havana. At that time a reporter from 14ymedio was at the scene and took a picture of the event.

A few minutes after Adonia cruise ship arrived in Havana Bay the man was surrounded by members of the State Security in plainclothes. (14ymedio)

On August 31, 2016, Llorente traveled to Santa Clara’s Abel Santamaria International Airport to greet the passengers from the JetBlue airline in the first commercial flight that united both countries in more than 50 years.

No opposition organization claimed responsibility for the action so far and Llorente has clarified on multiple occasions that he is not a member of any dissident group.

Three Cubans Accused Of Fraud In The Canary Islands For Fraudulent Repairs To Home Appliances

The prosecution has requested sentences of between two-and-a-half and three years in prison for the accused, and up to 6,500 euros fine. (Wikimedia)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2 May 2017 — Three Cubans resident in Gran Canaria (Canary Islands) have been charged by the Prosecutor’s Office of Las Palmas with an attempted felony offense, and another of falsification of a commercial document, for having passed themselves off as members of the technical service teams of the main brands of appliances and making fraudulent repairs, as reported in the local press this Tuesday.

According to the Provincial Prosecutor’s office, the three suspects worked through the web serviciotecnicosat.com (already temporarily closed by the Court), where they managed to place themselves among the first positions on search engines like Google to capture “an indeterminate plurality of potential clients.” continue reading

At first, the alleged scams carried out by Yusmil G.F., Juan D.N. and Jorge Eric P.B. went unnoticed as the complaints against them were interposed in judicial administrations of different regions which, in addition, demanded small amounts of money.

However, the fraudulent practices were uncovered in February 2014 when a woman contacted the AEG technical service office to complain about two faulty repairs by the defendants, who said they worked on behalf of the company, for which they charged 171 euros. AEG informed the woman that the alleged technicians were not part of their official service.

Many of these repairs, carried out in the name of the “most prestigious” brands, according to the Office of the Attorney General, were made with spare parts that were not originals from the manufacturers and invoices were issued in the name of non-existent companies, yielding an average of 400 euros for each repair.

The prosecution has requested three years of imprisonment for Yusmil G.F., two and a half years for Juan Antonio D.N. and two years and three months for Jorge Eric P.B. It also is asking that the accused be fined amounts up to 6,500 euros and be barred from performing repair or assistance services for a maximum of five years.

‘Good Morning, Lenin!’

Raúl Castro watches the crowd parading before the political leaders in the Plaza of the Revolution (CC)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 2 May 2017 — The loudspeakers blared in the distance. Their echo filled the neighborhood where many took advantage of the Monday holiday to sleep until mid-morning, far from the May Day parade and its slogans in the Plaza of the Revolution. The screams into the microphone sneaked into that apathy, like an alien band with its instruments out of tune. On the Day of the Workers, officialdom took its tropical chauvinism for a stroll.

I woke up, like in the German movie “Goodbye, Lenin!” and had the feeling I’d leapt through time. But my journey did not carry me into a future of imprecise contours, but rather into the past. The words spoken by the Secretary General of the Cuban Workers Center took me back to a time of ideological bravado, years in which the Kremlin bear had our backs and Cuba sent guerrillas to the jungles of South America and cosmonauts to space. continue reading

Ulises Guilarte De Nacimiento’s address smelled like mothballs, and didn’t fit the times we are living in. In his angry phrases there was a nationalism as ridiculous as it is outdated, and in any case politically incorrect almost everywhere on the planet. He spoke of exploits that most of the population had never experienced and, to top it off, ignored the demands of Cuba’s working class. He spoke in the past tense, with the rhetorical twists and turns of agitators from the last century and the overacting of every good opportunist.

I thought of all the topics he failed to address, all the proletarian demands that no one mentioned because the event had more ideology than class-consciousness. Missing were any demands from labor, requests for greater union autonomy, complaints about serious violations of occupational safety and health throughout the country, and the vital demand for wages more in line with the high cost of living.

Instead, the government preferred to use the day for political purposes, repeating the structure of the podium, up there, and the workers down below. More than a thousand foreign trade unionists and activists were present as guests, able to see with their own eyes the “proletarian enthusiasm” displayed by Cubans, but the event was nothing more than a faded repeat of those that formerly took place in the extinct socialist camp.

When the Berlin Wall fell, where were all those workers who had marched on the International Day of the Workers? When the USSR collapsed, what did they do to block those workers with medals on their chest who marched shouting slogans in those squares?

Hotel Manzana, a Luxury Theme Park in Havana

Last weekend, the gallery was officially opened with exclusive brands in the style of Versace, Armani, Montblanc and L’Occitane en Provence. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 29 April 2017 — They stare, amazed, but they don’t buy anything. Their faces press against the glass and admire that unattainable wealth that is a few inches from their hands and an abyss from their pockets. The new luxury theme park in Havana is the newly opened boutiques on the lower floor of the Manzana Kempinski Hotel, the first five-star plus on the island.

Last weekend, the gallery was officially opened with exclusive brands in the style of Versace, Armani, Montblanc and L’Occitane en Provence. Since then, the parade of onlookers has not stopped walking the aisles. They come to take photos, laugh at the prices or be upset because in the midst of the general famine is so much wealth. continue reading

Most remember the state of abandonment which the popular Manzana de Gómez fell into for decades and hardly recognize it in this gorgeous six-story building.

“I studied here,” says Roberto Carlos, a 30-year-old student who spent part of his technoly training on the second floor of the emblematic building.

“When I was studying here, there was not a blind left and the ceilings had leaks,” added the young man. As he speaks, he waits in line to enter the luxurious venue of Giorgio G. VIP with his girlfriend, his mother and a sister. They have come like a family going to a fair to feel the dizziness of climbing on the roller coaster of opulence.

Most remember the state of abandonment in which the popular Manzana of Gómez fell for decades and hardly recognize it in this neat six-story building. (14ymedio)

The boutique’s doorman warns that “you can not take photos” or have your phone’s “wifi on.” A clarification that generates a murmur among those waiting outside. Still they remain in line, to be able to carry away in their retinas part of that pomp that ends around the corner, when they enter the Havana everyday life.

Italian businessman Giorgio Gucci inaugurated this Cuban branch of his well-known brand last Saturday. “People come here looking for quality and exclusivity, right now there are very nice women’s shoes for less than 200 CUC,” says the doorman with pride. In the line, several people raise their eyebrows when they hear the prices.

“Not everyone comes to look, there are many who come and buy,” the man explains. But in the interior you do not see anyone next to the cash register nor making the gesture of putting a hand in their pockets. They only look at the clothing and shoes on display. They behave as if they were in a museum surrounded by oils worth thousands of dollars.

The boutique’s doorman warns that “you can’t take photos” or have your phone’s “wifi on.” (14ymedio)

Others, older, remember the days when the former Manzana de Gomez was a symbol of economic progress in the Cuban capital. Designed by the architect José Gómez-Mena Vila and built between 1894 and 1917, the building was the first shopping mall in the style of European galleries. “It was an incredible place and the customers who came were all Cubans,” says Roberto Carlos’ grandmother. The woman, who retired more than two decades ago, said: “It used to be a place for us, but now it’s for tourists.”

The new monument to luxury is located on the border of two districts with serious housing problems. Just a few weeks ago and a few yards away, in downtown Havana, the staircase of a building collapsed and left dozens of families trapped. The other face of a city that has a good part of its housing in poor condition.

At the intersection of the corridors of the gallery they removed the bust of communist leader Julio Antonio Mella, who for decades stood defiantly in the center of the building. “They took it because this place represents the opposite of what he promoted,” reflects a retired professor of Marxism who decided to have a look, this Saturday, at “the forbidden apple of abundance,” as the catalog describes it.

The bust of communist leader Julio Antonio Mella has been removed, even though for decades he stood defiantly in the center of the building. (14ymedio)

For Idalmis, a young woman who in her teenage years studied at Benito Juárez High School located on one of the upper floors, the place has changed so much that she has trouble recognizing it. “Of that apple only the skin remains,” she quips.

The Lacoste brand also has a space in the sumptuous building. An employee explains to this newspaper that since its opening the store has sales that average “between 2,000 and 3,000 CUC per day. Every day we sell about twenty articles,” says the employee who wears a shirt with the logo of the French brand.

In the surroundings, and dressed in gray suits, the guards make sure that nobody connects to the hotel wifi signal that reaches the stores. Although the service costs 1.50 CUC an hour, the Manzana is a much more comfortable than other places with wireless access to the web.

“You can’t be connected here, excuse me, but you have to go outside,” the employees repeat over and over again.

The place is still a construction site, but the coming and going of builders does not prevent three young people from taking their time to get a selfie in front of an ashtray that costs a whopping 53.90 CUC. They don’t want to miss having evidence of the day they were closer to wealth.

 

Home Delivery Services, A Business That Captivates Cubans

In Havana, of 458 food sales businesses listed in the ‘AlaMesa’ directory, at least 66 offer a delivery option. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 25 April 2017 — The colorful vehicle takes off when the traffic light turns green, leaving the smell of freshly baked pizza in its wake. It is one of the visible signs that private businesses are succeeding in a country where ordering food from home was a chimera until recently.

In the days of Uber Eats and Amazon, Cuban entrepreneurs use more traditional methods. Paper ads pasted in public areas, telephone numbers along with photos of delicious dishes, and classifieds on digital sites are part of the strategies of the home delivery business, known on the island by the English word: delivery. continue reading

“We started with two motorcycles and we already have five,” says Yosniel, an employee in a business in Havana’s Vibora neighborhood that offers Chinese food to order. “At the beginning we received few calls a day, but since more people heard about our offers, the phone does not stop ringing,” he adds.

AlaMesa, the most complete directory of food services on the island, has so far registered around 930 restaurants, bars, pizzerias and ice cream parlors throughout the country. In Havana, of 458 food retail businesses that appear, at least 66 offer the possibility of home delivery.

Paper ads pasted in public areas, telephone numbers along with photos of delicious dishes, and classifieds on digital sites are part of business strategies

Mamma Mia is one of them. In a beautiful house on 23rd street you can eat Italian-style pizzas and they also prepare the delivery orders for customers from several nearby districts. “When I don’t feel like going out, I phone and have it delivered,” says Victor Manuel Manuel, a dedicated customer of the place and resident of the area.

The diner believes that domestic consumers are becoming more and more enthusiastic about the possibility of ordering from afar. “People are wary if they can’t preview the food they are going to buy, but when the quality of a place has been proven, that distrust diminishes,” he says.

Víctor Manuel works with two friends in an interior design business on his own. “Sometimes we have to spend hours and hours doing drawings or designing on the computer, so having the option of having the food at the door makes the job much easier,” he says.

At the end of January of this year, 539,952 Cubans were self-employed, of whom 59,368 were engaged in the preparation or sale of food. Most in small cafes or very simple places, but sophistication and glamor also has a presence in the sector.

Home deliveries are a private sector fiefdom and for decades very few state-owned restaurants offered such a possibility. The dispatcher who arrived on a motorbike with the pizza in his hand was a “movie thing” for several generations of Cubans, until in 2008 when the opportunities for self-employment were expanded.

The dispatcher who arrived on a motorcycle with the pizza in his hand has been a ‘movie thing’ for several generations of Cubans.

Liset and her husband Esteban have a service delivering sushi to order. This April is two years since they began to bring their exotic dishes to the customers’ homes. “We have offers of a roll that includes eight portions accompanied by wasabi, ginger and Japanese soy sauce, and also comes with vegetables,” the owner tells 14ymedio.

After living for five years in Costa Rica, the couple has returned to live on the Island and enters a new terrain. “Foreign businessmen based in the country, diplomats and Cubans who want to try new flavors,” says Esteban, describing his growing clientele.

“The main way we distribute our menu is the digital classified sites, but we also have a small brochure with prices and a ‘call at any time and we’ll take care of you’ advertisement. The text warns that for ‘larger orders for more than 20 people, order 24 hours ahead’.”

“The worst is when we are at a client’s house and he tells us that he made a mistake and that he will not buy the whole order because he does not have enough money,” says Liset. Without a prior reservation through internet or the guarantee of a credit card number in some online service, sellers can be victims of “jokes and false orders,” says the entrepreneur.

However, he says the incidence of these events is “infrequent” and that in general his experience is that business “is positive.” An advantage is that, “you do not need a large place or even have to invest in setting up a restaurant, just a phone line and a good organization in the kitchen.”

The entrepreneurs are planning to implement “a system of points and customer numbers to make ordering faster.”

Loyalty programs, rebates when a customer exceeds a number of orders per month and even small gifts to the most frequent customers, are some practices that are also beginning to spread. “Customers who put in more than two orders a month, we give them an extra menu item,” said Liset and Esteban.

The entrepreneurs are planning to implement “a system of points and customer numbers to make ordering faster.” They believe that in the emerging food sector, those who are “not creative will be left out in the cold.” They are betting on home delivery and “the future of the sale of food in Cuba,” says the seller.

A colorful motorcycle with the emblem of Banana City Delivery was traveling the central avenue of Rancho Boyeros in Havana this Monday. From a collective taxi, a passenger tried to write down the telephone number to place an order. An image that two decades ago was unthinkable on Cuban streets.

May Day in Havana Dedicated To Maduro, Interrupted by a US Flag

Workers of the state company Cimex in the MayDay parade in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 1 May 2017 — The mobilization for the May Day parade began in Havana before midnight the day before. With the first light of dawn, the mass rally in Plaza of the Revolution began, with allusions to the late President Fidel Castro, slogans about unity and an emphatic commitment to the Government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

Minutes before the parade began, Cuban opponent Daniel Llorente mocked the security cordon and ran waving a US flag in front of the grandstand while shouting several slogans and was quickly removed from the scene by the security forces. It is not known whether he acted on his own or did so on behalf of an opposition group. continue reading

Llorente held a similar demonstration a year ago, when the cruise ship Adonia reached the coast of Cuba. On that occasion he was repressed by the police, who removed him from the place.

The main speech was delivered by the general secretary of the Cuban Workers Center (CTC), Ulises Guilarte De Nacimiento. A political cadre aligned with the orthodoxy, he called for work to “generate greater wealth, reduce prices and gradually lead to increases in income.”

A tweet from CNN’s correspondent in Havana

The leader of the only union allowed in the country called for “mobilization of leftist forces” in Latin America and rejected “political maneuvers and diplomatic harassment” against the Venezuelan government on the part of “the discredited Organization of American States (OAS) And other reactionary sectors of the region.”

“We support the military civic union led by President Nicolás Maduro,” emphasized Guilarte De Nacimiento in the middle of a speech without news or announcements. During most of the event Raul Castro remained seated on the stage under the close watch of his grandson, bodyguard Raul Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, but did not speak publicly.

The May Day march was all over by about nine o’clock in the morning. (14ymedio)

The streets near the site were filled with buses at dawn with thousands of participants brought from the nearest provinces. Traffic was disrupted and most of the area’s private businesses closed, although some street vendors took advantage of the crowd to sell everything from sweets to popcorn.

Cuban opponent Daniel Llorente breached the security cordon and unfurled a US flag in front of the grandstand. (EFE)

An immense canvas on the National Library showed the image of Raúl Castro, in the center, watched over by Fidel Castro and Ernesto Guevara. It was a novelty in the iconography of these events, which traditionally has filled the walls of the nearest ministries with photos of deceased leaders.

The official announcers emphasized the presence of young people on the march. The first block to parade in front of the platform was formed by students and militants of the Union of Young Communists, in a context in which several government figures have denounced the effects of globalization and the “cultural war” against young people.

High schools and universities, state labor centers, cooperatives and the self-employed sector were all part of the crowd that rushed past the grandstand to avoid the inclement sun. By nine o’clock in the morning it was all over.

New Bathrooms, Old Fashioned Marches

Fancy new toilets for Havana’s May Day parade replaced the former models made with cardboard. Slogan: “Fidel will always live in…” (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, 1 May 2017 — Portable toilets are a part of all the demonstrations that have proliferated in Cuba for the last half century. Away from the lights and headlines, these essential and improvised restrooms alleviate the plight of thousands of people attending the ‘Marches of the Fighting People’, the Anti-Imperialist Tribunes, and the calls to support, protest or celebrate any government campaign and, of course, are a necessity during carnivals.

This year, on May 1, new models appeared, apparently imported and made of plastic, which replaced the rustics made with wood and cardboard. The previous facilities lacked roofs and the weakness of their construction did not allow them to be used for more than one event.

The new toilets are better made although the custom remains of placing them directly over the sewer drain to evacuate the waste. But they favor hygiene and privacy.

The ones in this the photo were installed in the afternoon of April 30 in the avenue Rancho Boyeros, an artery that converges in the Plaza of the Revolution. The neighbors received them with awe and some even took selfies standing in front of their novel appearance. The most daring tried the services before the pressures of the crowd filled them with that “aroma” that characterizes popular demonstrations.

Trump: 100 Days in the White House and Not a Single Word About Cuba

Donald J. Trump speaks to Cuban exile members of the 2506 Brigade that launched the Bay of Pigs attack. (Archive)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 30 April 2017 – After 100 days in the White House, Donald Trump has not uttered a single word about Cuba. His indifference is keeping Havana officialdom on pins and needles, worried about the opposition and disoriented by Cuban society. More than two years after the beginning of the diplomatic thaw between the two countries, the silence of the US president has created a climate of uncertainty.

Trump has held contradictory positions toward Cuba as he does on many other issues. In the past, he showed warm support for the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. He criticized the United State trade embargo on Cuba, and during the election campaign it became known that years earlier the tycoon had tried to get around the prohibitions on doing business on the island. continue reading

Shortly before the election, Trump promised to reverse the thaw and strongly criticized the “concessions” offered by Barack Obama to Raúl Castro’s government. At a campaign event in Miami he threatened to reverse the process of rapprochement unless Havana “meets our demands.”

“Our administration will do all it can to ensure that the Cuban people can finally begin their journey toward prosperity and liberty,” Trump wrote after the death of former President Fidel Castro on November 25. But as the weeks passed, the new administration has made clear that the Island is not among the priorities on its agenda.

Shortly before the election Trump promised to reverse the thaw and strongly criticized the “concessions” offered by Barack Obama to Raúl Castro’s government

Those who expected the tycoon to harden his tone against Raúl Castro’s government have not yet heard a single word of condemnation. Cubans are also impatiently awaiting the reinstatement of the wet foot/dry foot policy that Obama repealed in the last days of his term.

On the street, the economic situation is strained by cuts in fuel sales, shortages of food and the lack of a timetable to end the dual currency system. Entrepreneurs also have mixed feelings about the new tenant in the White House.

Miguel Arencibia is self-employed in a business dedicated to the sale of CDs and DVDs with music and films that he operates in Tulipán Street in Havana. He does not believe that “someone who has more than four billion dollars is crazy,” referring to Trump, although he is surprised that he has not made any references to the Island. “Sometimes we believe, or someone made us believe, that we are the navel of the world,” he acknowledges.

In these hundred days, the Plaza of the Revolution has opted for caution. The official press maintains a mostly muted criticism of Trump and during the Fifth Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Raúl Castro assured that “the United States and Cuba can live in harmony and respect, but Cuba will not make concessions inherent to its sovereignty and independence.”

Over the opening weeks of the Trump administration, the national media’s cartoonists have barely drawn the features of the American president, a practice widely used to make fun of previous administrations, especially Republican ones, such as those of George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

In these hundred days, the Plaza of the Revolution has opted for caution. The official press maintains a mostly muted criticism of Trump

The relaxation of trade and travel regulations, led by Barack Obama, remains in force. This week, the inauguration of the Google Global Caché service was announced, which will allow certain Google content, such as YouTube and Gmail, to be hosted on local servers on the Island.

Companies like Airbnb have increased their presence among home-based entrepreneurs, while US airlines such as Delta, American Airlines and Southwest have asked the US State Department for approval to increase the frequency of their flights to Cuba.

However, the widespread opinion is that the thaw has come to a standstill and Trump’s silence increases doubts about the future of diplomatic rapprochement. Not even the boldest analysts dare to predict the future of relations between the two nations, given the unpredictability that has characterized the tycoon in other areas.

Sebastián Arcos, of Florida International University, sees “nothing new” in policies toward Cuba but says that “barely 100 days have passed and we must remember that Obama got involved in Cuba in the last two years of his presidency.”

Not even the boldest analysts dare to predict the future of relations between the two nations, given the unpredictability that has characterized the tycoon in other areas

According to Arcos, it is “clear that Senator Marco Rubio carries a lot of weight in relation to Cuba and Venezuela” when it comes to advising Trump. “We do not know what the senator is recommending, although we do know that Rubio has a tougher stance because he was a critic of Obama’s policy.”

Another scholar who asked for anonymity explains to 14ymedio that the new government is only beginning to identify its interlocutors in the Cuban community. “Now is when this administration is beginning to establish the first contacts on the Cuban issue. There is still a lot to be clarified about the policy towards the island.”

The waiting periods is holding hostage hundreds of Cubans who have been stranded on their journey through Central America to the United States. “I thought that by now they would have made some decision to let us in,” reflects Hiram, 23, who waits near the border between the US and Mexico for the restoration of immigration privileges for Cubans.

Inside the Island, others also ruminate on their disappointment. “I’ve been renting for three months after I sold my house to pay for the trip to the United States,” says Roxana, an unemployed engineer who calls herself a “trumpista on the point of changing my mind” because the new president “has ignored us.”

For the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, “so far no change has been seen” in Trump’s Cuba policy. The opponent recommends “giving it time” and explains to 14ymedio that “at the moment the United States has more urgent concerns such as Syria and North Korea.”

“Now is when this administration is beginning to establish the first contacts on the Cuban issue. There is still a lot to be clarified about the policy towards the island“

Nor has repression seemed to diminish in the Trump era. At the end of March the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) recorded “at least 432 arbitrary detentions of peaceful dissidents in Cuba,” a “similar figure” to the monthly average of the last quarter.

In Santiago de Cuba, opponent Carlos Amel Oliva believes that Trump “has failed expectations” and considers that the policy towards the Island is now marked by “stagnation.” A member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, he affirms that his organization values “solidarity greatly but we are not going to stop regardless of the kinds of policies established by one administration or another.”

Since January, there have been numerous cases of the confiscation of the equipment that allows independent journalists to do their work, in addition to arbitrary arrests and accusations of alleged economic crimes against dissidents. A student of journalism was expelled from the Central University of Las Villas for her links with activists and digital sites critical of the Government.

During this time, the Republican president bared his teeth at Kim Jong-un, launched a missile attack against Syria, and repealed many of the regulations announced by Obama, primarily in environmental issues.

The majority of the promises the United States president made during his election campaign have not passed the test of reality

Attorney René Gómez Manzano recalls that, in his early days as president Trump “made significant gestures such as meeting with Cuban-American members of congress.” As president of the independent lawyers’ group Corriente Agramontista, Gomez believes that Cubans “should not rely on decisions made by foreign leaders,” and says that on the island “repression and lack of respect for human rights continues.”

The majority of the promises the United States president made during his election campaign have not passed the test of reality. Trump has failed to advance the construction of the border wall with Mexico, the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, controls on visitors from predominantly Muslim countries, or reforms of health care services.

The policy towards Cuba is also counted among those issues that have not been dealt with. Although for some, the White House’s indifference may be the best possible scenario for the island.

Activist Eliécer Ávila, leader of the Somos+ (We Are More) Movement, reads in the silence of the US administration “a call to the Cubans’ own responsibility.” In his opinion, it is “an absolutely clear message that the United States is not going to wage this battle for us,” he argues.

Reporters Without Borders Rates Press Freedom In Cuba Very Low

The island is two places below its position in last year’s Press Freedom Index. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 27 April 2017 — Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has placed Cuba in position 173 on its 2017 World Press Freedom Index published on Wednesday, two places lower than last year, and in the lowest category (shown in black), along with “the worst dictatorships and totalitarian regimes in Asia and the Middle East,” according to the NGO.

Cuba is the only country on the American continent and the Caribbean that is in this section of the index and is almost at the end of the list.

According to a note published by the NGO, the Cuban government “is the most hostile on the American continent to the freedom of the press,” emphasizing that the state maintains a monopoly on the press and that the situation “has not changed after the death of Fidel Castro.” continue reading

In addition, RSF has described the former Cuban leader, who died in November 2016, “as one of the greatest offenders again press freedom on the planet.”

This classification contrasts with the report of attacks on the press published Tuesday by the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), according to which “Cuba’s media landscape has begun opening up in recent years,” thanks to a timid increase in Internet connectivity and a generation of journalists who are “who are critical of, yet still support, socialist ideas.”

The RSF publication shows how the Caribbean country shares positions at the bottom of ​​the list with Egypt, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Syria, China and North Korea, countries in which, according to the note, the deterioration of press freedom is “very serious.”

In Latin American countries such as Venezuela, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia, the organization believes that the press is in “a difficult situation.”

North Korea ranks lowest on the list in terms of freedom of the press, according to the NGO, a country “which continues to be a Cold War dictatorship,” in which “listening to a radio station from outside the country may lead to a concentration camp.”

However, RSF notes that the quality of press freedom has declined globally, where the western democracies are no exception even though they occupy the top of the list

Since 2002 an international group of journalists has produced this list, where 180 countries have been listed, following a series of criteria such as the independence of the media in each nation, the legislation under which journalists work, and the pluralism and security of journalists in the performance of their profession.

Two Cuban Activists From #Otro18 Arrested

Lawyers Amado Calixto, Wilfredo Vallín and Rolando Ferrer during the press conference of the # Otro18 campaign. (14ymediate)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 26 April 2017 — Activists Arturo Rojas Rodríguez and Aida Valdés Santana were arrested at noon on Tuesday as they tried to reach the Justice Ministry in Havana. The dissidents planned to enter into the associations register the Citizen Observers of Electoral Processes (Cope) initiative, one of the branches of the #Otro18 (Another 2018) platform, which pushes for multi-party and democratic elections in Cuba in 2018.

Rojas, 51, was taken to the Santiago de las Vegas police station and Valdés, 78, was taken to the Zapata and C Station and then to Aguilera, where police threatened to prosecute her legally.

The woman was released on Tuesday at about 10 at night, but there is still no information on the whereabouts of Rojas Rodriguez whose telephone continues to be out of service. continue reading

Manuel Cuesta Morúa, speaking on behalf of #Otro 18, told 14ymedio that “actions of this nature make clear the government’s intention to prevent the free participation of citizens in the next electoral process, thus opening the way to delegitimizing it.”

“The narrative of the government consists in classifying what we do as counterrevolutionary activities, but we have to assume that the law is not only for revolutionaries, but for all citizens and precisely because of this we are within the law,” he added.

The #Other18 initiative collects citizen proposals for new electoral laws, associations and political parties. In addition, at the moment it is focused on obtaining the nomination of independent candidates for the next elections for the People’s Power.

Police Raid Rafters’ Homes Looking for a Boat Stolen From the Army

Solainy Salazar with her husband José Yans Pérez Jomarrón and their two children. (Courtesy)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 26 April 2017 — Cuban police are searching for a boat stolen from the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) and to find it they are raiding houses of former rafters, according to Solainy Salazar, whose husband tried to leave the island several times. That was the justification given by the authorities, including several State Security agents, who searched her home on Monday.

“I was resting next to my four-year-old boy when the neighbors called me and I discovered the officers who were searching my yard,” says Salazar by phone from San Miguel del Padrón in Havana.

“They came into the house and told me they were going to search everything because they were looking for an inflatable boat and that I and my husband were accomplices to the theft,” she adds. continue reading

José Yans Pérez Jomarrón, Salazar’s husband, has tried unsuccessfully to escape from Cuba six times, but has been intercepted by the Cuban Coast Guard or returned to the authorities of the island by its American counterparts. On his last voyage he took refuge, with some twenty Cubans, in a lighthouse 30 kilometers northeast of Key West.

José Yans Pérez Jomarrón, Salazar’s husband, has tried unsuccessfully to escape from Cuba six times, but has been intercepted by the Cuban or American Coast Guard and returned to the island

Although most of the rafters managed to be admitted a special program that gives them the opportunity to be relocated in a third country, because they were able to demonstrate “credible fear” of being persecuted in Cuba, for Pérez Jomarrón the outcome was different.

“When I finished my military service they offered me a job with the Ministry of the Interior (MININT). As an inexperienced boy I agreed and when the immigration agents in the United States learned that I had once belonged to that repressive organ, they returned me to Cuba,” explains the rafter-turned-entrepreneur who at the moment is in Guyana looking at the possibility of some business linked to his commercial activity.

Police and State Security agents accused Solayni Salazar of being an accomplice in the theft of the boat and described all the members of her family as antisocial and counterrevolutionary. “They offended me with their words as much as they wanted and when I threatened them with filing a complaint they were indifferent, because they know nothing is going to happen to them,” says the wife, age 31.

“They threatened to arrest me. But they never brought the witnesses (required by law) when they did the search and they never showed me a court order to enter my home. And they did all this in front of my little boy,” she says.

In addition, she says, she was told that her husband was in Guyana escaping from the law, an argument that Salazar considers “completely false.”

Salazar believes that the authorities are persecuting her family due to her husband’s multiple attempts to illegally exit the country and because of his opposition to the government

“I fear for what will happen to my husband when he returns from the trip. Surely they will try to arrest him or persecute him for a crime he has not committed,” she says.

Salazar believes that the authorities are persecuting her family due to her husband’s multiple attempts to illegally exit the country and because of his opposition to the government.

“They do not want to give me jobs in state institutions. It’s a way to persecute those who disagree with official politics,” says José Yans from Georgetown via telephone.

The situation is increasingly complex for the Cuban authorities. “Now not only do we have to pay for a ‘crime’ we didn’t commit but we are suspected of everything else that happens in the country.”

Alfredo Mena, a rafter who tried four times to leave the island, was also searched last Wednesday.

Alfredo Mena, a rafter who tried four times to leave the island, was also searched last Wednesday

“They came to my house and broke down the door without a search warrant. They took me to the police unit and accused me of having stolen a boat belonging to the FAR (National Revolutionary Police),” says Mena, nicknamed El Pelú, by the locals.

“The officers who were dealing with me asked me why we wanted to go to the United States, because there they killed people like us and another series of lies,” he adds.

Mena, 50, a native of Granma province, says he was threatened with being “deported” to the East, because he resides in Havana without having an address officially registered in the capital.

Mena was fined 2,000 pesos for the crime of “receiving” for buying supplies for his work as a welder. Although he swears he is innocent, those metal parts are an indispensable component in the manufacture of the makeshift boats used to emigrate.

“Nothing they took had anything to do with the supposed theft of the boat. The only thing they do with these things is to reaffirm one’s desire to escape from such garbage,” he adds.

3G Has Arrived In Havana

The arrival of 3G in Cuba fuels hopes for internet service on mobile phones. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 26 April 2017 — The third generation (3G) of voice and data transmission via mobile phones reached all municipalities in Havana on Monday after it was launched earlier this month in several areas of Matanzas, Villa Clara, Ciego de Avila, Pinar del Río, Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey, according to the Telecommunications Company of Cuba (ETECSA).

Prepaid users in the capital are now experiencing a substantial improvement in Nauta’s e-mail service on their mobile phone, a relief after three years since the creation of this product, which has been a frequent target of criticism and complaints about its instability and slowness.

“I opened my mailbox and: abracadabra! I got all the messages at once,” a young high school student tells 14ymedio in amazement while standing in line on Tuesday to buy recharge cards at the ETECSA office on the lower level of the Focsa building. continue reading

The days are long gone when only resident foreigners and tourists could contract for mobile phone service in Cuba. One of the first measures implemented by Raul Castro when he assumed the presidency in 2008 was to allow nationals to contract for prepaid cellphone service.

“Having the internet on your cellphone is normal for most people in the world, but here it seems like a dream“

Since then, more than four million customers of the state monopoly have been looking forward to connecting to the internet through their mobiles. Enabling 3G coverage has set off speculation about the imminent arrival of that service to cellphones.

“They can’t wait any longer, because having the internet on your cellphone is normal for most people in the world, but here it seems like a dream,” complains Rodobaldo, an industrial engineer, 42, who travels frequently to Panama. “As soon as I get there and install my Panamanian SIM card I can surf and receive emails, but when I return to Cuba my phone doesn’t have that capability.”

In Latin America, 3G has given way to 4G, which has been available for years. Uruguay has this network in 84% of its territory, Bolivia in 67%, Peru in 61% and Mexico in 60%, according to data from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). However, in Cuba having this functionality on the mobile network still seems like a science fiction movie.

Rodobaldo is hopeful that ETECSA will soon offer packages to connect to the web from cell phones. Recently there was the first pilot project to bring internet to some 700 families (of the 2,000 initially planned) through in-home ADSL in Old Havana, but the users complain about the high prices: according to the bandwidth chosen it cost between 30 and 70 pesos for 30 hours.

“Every day there are more foreign companies offering packages so that tourists who come to the island can surf the internet from their own cellphone accounts,” an official of the state company, who preferred to remain anonymous,told this newspaper. “We have roaming agreements in more than 150 countries,” he says.

Following the beginning of the diplomatic thaw between Washington and Havana, announced on 17 December 2014, Barack Obama’s administration authorized US telecommunications companies to operate in Cuba.

Verizon took the first step and offered services to its users visiting the Island, and was later joined by Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T. However, the prices of browsing from one of these phones during a stay in Cuba are still very high, averaging about $2.05 per megabyte.

Surfing the web from a US cellphone is possible in Cuba, but it runs about $2.05 per Megabyte

Until the implementation of 3G, roaming services sent and received emails via Nauta and text messages using the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) connection, an enriched Global System for Mobile (GMS) communications.

Now, to be able to take advantage of 3G in Cuba, “the customer must have 3G coverage on their cellphone with the WCDMA standard on the 900 MHz frequency, which is the international standard in several European and Latin American countries,” Luis Manuel Díaz, ETECSA’s Director of Institutional Communications told the official press.

Phones that technically do not have the ability to access the new network will continue to use the 2G that “coexists without difficulty,” the company’s representative told the official newspaper Granma.

A marketing specialist for the state monopoly, Óscar López Díaz, goes further and in addition to highlighting the improvement in the connection speed for the use of the Nauta mail brought by 3G service, he believes that its arrival will enable ” future access to other services such as the Internet on phones.”

El Templete Has A New Ceiba, The Second In A Year

Havana’s El Templete has a new ceiba tree that replaces another that was planted a little over a year ago but did not thrive. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 24 April 2017 — The place where the town of San Cristóbal was founded in Havana has a new ceiba tree, the second planted there in a little more than a year. The specimen comes from the road between Managua and Boyeros, south of the Cuban capital, and comes to fill the void left at El Templete by its predecessor, planted a few days before President Barack Obama’s arrival in Cuba.

On this occasion, the arrival of the ceiba was not surrounded by the excitement that marked the planting of the previous specimen. The 8-year-old, twenty-foot tree reached its final site at midnight last Friday, an hour that specialists recommended because it is cooler, and therefore less damaging to the newly transplanted tree. It rained while the neighbors watched a crane lift the imposing tree and plant it in the historical site of the city.

Now, the waiting period for this Havana symbol begins. Will this tree be able to adapt to its new habitat? Will it survive the salt air, the compaction of the soils of the area and the rigors of urban life? No one wants to risk predicting its future, but next November, which will mark 498 years after the founding of the Villa, Havanans will need a tree to perform the ritual of walking around its trunk and making a wish.

Independent Journalist Arrested For Investigating The Case Of Karla Pérez González

Maykel González Vivero was also arrested while working to cover the damages caused by Hurricane Matthew in Baracoa. (El Estornudo)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 25 Havana, 25 April 2017 — The independent magazine El Estornudo (The Sneeze) has denounced Monday’s detention of its collaborator Maykel González Vivero. The young journalist was detained at Marta Abreu de las Villas Central University, while reporting on the expulsion of journalism student Karla Pérez González.

The digital site asserts that the reporter “did not at any time hide” that he was investigating on the case. “He managed to interview Karla’s classmates who voted in favor of her definitive exclusion from Higher Education, including as Miguel Ángel Castiñeira and Ney Cruz,” the article said.

However, in the course of the investigation “a number of teachers tried to confiscate Maykel’s belongings and his tools of the trade.” He was subsequently “held in a university department until police took him to the State Security Santa Clara Operations Unit.” continue reading

At the Unit, the reporter was subjected to five hours of interrogation and his equipment was confiscated: a laptop, tape recorder and cell phone. El Estornudo clarified that the reporter “is not facing any legal charges, but his devices will be returned to have after the police penetrate (sic) them and check their contents.”

In October of last year, González Vivero was jailed for three days in Baracoa, Guantánamo, “for covering as an independent journalist the passage of Hurricane Matthew through the East of the country,” the article notes.

The reporter “is not facing any legal charges, but his devices will be returned to have after the police penetrate (sic) them and check their contents.”

El Estornudo said that the expulsion of the journalism student was arbitrary, as was the arrest of Maykel Gonzalez Vivero: “two unjustifiable abuses that the Cuban government commits, in a manner as shameful as it is ironic, through one of its centers of higher education.”

On Monday, Karla María Pérez González received the official ratification of her expulsion from the University and has ten working days to appeal the decision. The young woman was accused of belonging to the Somos+ (We Are More) Movement and “having a strategy from the beginning of the course to subvert the young.”

The case has aroused a wave of outrage and in her favor official voices have weighed in, such as the singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, who wrote in his blog, “What brutes we are, for fuck’s sake, it’s been decades and we don’t learn.

“It is so clumsy and obtuse what has been done to this girl that inevitably this will draw attention to the group to which she belongs and the ideas it defends. I know that they will come out with lists of links of some of these groups calling them terrorists, etc. But the damage is already done, because such injustice can only arouse solidarity,” he said.