General Leonardo Andollo Valdés (R), in charge of the Commission for the Implementation and Development of the Improvement of the Economic and Social Model, with Raúl Castro (L). (Cubadebate)
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 3 March 2017 — The role of information technology as a “weapon for the defense of the Revolution” has grabbed the attention of the latest meeting of the Council of Ministers, held several weeks late this Tuesday in the Palace of the Revolution and headed by President Raul Castro.
During the meeting, policies were approved for the improvement of the system of standardization, measurement, quality and accreditation, as well as fishing and food safety. But the leading role was taken by Information and Communication Technologies, whose shortcomings were expressed by General Leonardo Andollo Valdés, who is in charge of the Commission for the Implementation and Development of Improvement of the Economic and Social Model. continue reading
The military man stressed that “different actions have been undertaken for the regulation of computerization in the country, however, a comprehensive policy is required.” He called for the creation of content aimed at “strengthening the identity and preserving the values of Cuban society.”
At a time when new technologies are gaining a presence among the population, the Government is still cautious about defining protocols for computerizing activities of daily life. Doing legal paperwork on the internet, or reserving a ticket, or taking money out of an ATM, are all tasks that continue to be surrounded by complexities.
Andollo said that conditions will be created to facilitate both communication between government institutions and procedures for the population
Andollo said that conditions will be created to facilitate both communication between government institutions and procedures for the population. Citizens have insisted on the need for these improvements, since it is not comprehensible that in such a centralized state, many procedures must be pursued separately with each entity.
On the other hand, while official reluctance remains, alternative distribution networks have a wide assortment of devices, content and “tricks” – such as NanoStations, Bullets, Rockets or Routers – to take advantage of global developments in technology. On the streets of Cuba, the most sophisticated smartphones coexist with the stories of those who still haven’t been able to afford their first cellphone.
The ministers met the day before the announcement of the prices of Nauta Home, a service that provides Internet browsing from homes. After a pilot test that included 2,000 homes in Havana’s historic center, the Telecommunications Company (ETECSA) announced the fees for the service, which range from 15 to 115 Convertible Cuban pesos (CUC) for 30 hours of connection. The available speeds start at 128 kilobytes and range up to 2 megabytes.
Photograph from February 13, 2017, during a wedding organized by the private company “Aires de Fiesta” in Havana. (EFE)
14ymedio, Marta Requeiro, Miami, 26 February 2017 – I don’t know how my mother managed always to know a little more about my friends and their customs, and even those of the neighbors, because her limited time did not allow her to gossip; but she continually warned me that things are not always as they appear.
That is how I ended up having a lover who was to her liking. I confess that he was attractive, but we had frequent differences when we talked about topics of daily life that ended up opening a breach in the relationship.
Contrary to what the Island’s Government always suggested, without being apparent except to the most rebellious or those with the “clinical eye,” the beginning of the abysmal separation that today exists between the two known population groups, the governing elite with all of its coterie, and the people, was immediately conceived. continue reading
I realized soon after beginning the relationship with him that there were people who projected an image of humility but, behind closed doors, had covered all the basic necessities that for common mortals – like me – were impossible. And more so, they came to be luxuries.
There was a segment of the population that accessed a life unknown to the majority of Cubans.
I later learned, thanks to that relationship, that there was a segment of the population that accessed a life unknown to the majority of Cubans. Ordinary Cubans who served once a month on the guard duty for the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), more than anything in order not to be robbed in the night by their own neighbors and despoiled of what they had achieved with their own effort. Ordinary Cubans who marched to the Plaza Jose Marti on dates commemorating some important revolutionary event in order to sing hymns and feed their faith in the process of change (a change that still has not arrived), and who subsisted on what they would acquire through the ration booklet and who always carried the empty bag that was indispensable when leaving the house so as not to be surprised and unprepared for the arrival at the warehouse of some product among those that were distributed only sporadically and that, hopefully, would be something good.
Many families had only the ration book to count on to provide them with petty rations, which, even if they were well managed and “cultivated,” did not even allow them, at least once a day, to bring to the table a serving of decent food.
Even so, the markets and warehouses of that time were not as poorly supplied as now, and that little ration booklet meant something.
I saw for the first time live – and in full color – a domestic service team. Until then I had only seen it in foreign films.
Already by the ‘80’s the economic impoverishment, forecast only to get worse, was obvious, today inhuman for the ordinary Cuban, who is always the most affected.
As young as one was, one could tell. In most cases what was missing was enough courage to publicly say it and in a form of protest, as happens today with the internal dissidence that, in spite of the vexations that those who dare to raise a voice are subjected to, there are more who join them in order to protest their discontent.
It happened one day that a friend invited my lover to a house in Vedado that belonged to one of his cousins who would turn fifteen. My mother, knowing that I would go with him – after already having investigated his background and knowing that he was from a good family – and making him promise that we would be back early – granted me permission.
I had time to prepare my best clothes to go in accord with the occasion since he advised me several days ahead that I had to go elegant.
The day and time came and we climbed into the car of his friend who, accompanied by his girlfriend, would carry us to the party that would take place in Vedado.
We went up 23rd Street and, now well into the trip, the driver took a turn I could not say where; but there was a time when I did not exactly know our location. I was not at all familiar with that place where the car travelled.
The neighborhood that emerged before my eyes was at a glance far from my neighborhood and what was familiar to me until then. It was composed of beautiful houses with immense gardens that extended from the sidewalk to the entrances, some with tall bars of black balusters. The car kept going until it came to an immense wooden gate in a fortified wall that extended for almost the whole block.
That opulence and excess were inconceivable for what was proclaimed from the other side of the wall
We got out, and the uninhibited driver went forward to press the doorbell, which turned out to be an intercom. It was strange for me to look around and see majestic houses, well-cared for, painted, to hear silence and await a response from that artifact attached to the concrete; in my neighborhood it sufficed to yell from the sidewalk the name of the person sought for him to come out, and in the air you could always hear the mixed sound of different rhythms and someone or other calling vociferously highlighted by dogs barking in the distance.
Finally we heard a voice come from the apparatus asking “who is it” and with a simple “I,” said by the driver, the handle of the solid wooden door was magically activated so we would enter invading the immense barricade that impeded access and visibility from the streets to the dwelling.
Passing the threshold, I marveled at the beauty of the immediate area. If they spoke to me then I swear I do not remember it. I felt like and must have had the same expression as Alice in Wonderland.
Some hundred guests had already arrived, all dressed elegantly. My boyfriend, while we were there, asked me several times if I was alright. Surely my unusual quietness was making my surprise evident.
I saw for the first time live – and in full color – a domestic service team. Until then I had only seen it in foreign films. It was composed of about half a dozen women dressed in green guayabera dresses and white lace-up tennis shoes.
Golf course of one of the Melia hotels in Cuba. (EFE)
I saw there for the first time Pringles Potato Chips, and beer acquired without the well-known scavenging for the five boxes on the ration book only allocated if you were getting married or turning fifteen, and in cans. I tasted – with a grimace – the Spanish brandy Terry Malla Dorada. I felt strange before this conglomeration displaying the bourgeois behavior criticized by the Government.
The two smorgasbord tables in the middle of the immense room with a marble floor never emptied. Trays with all kinds of snacks and sandwiches were brought by the waitresses.
Outside, next to the entryway, was the bar attended by two young men with white guayaberas who asked what we wanted to drink or what we desired, including glasses for the beer.
How was there a capitalist form of existence inside Cuban territory, supposedly socialist and egalitarian?
Later the rueda de cubana dance was unleashed to the furor of the music of the Van Van hits and it reminded me how beaten up Cuba was.
I felt like leaving, I had nothing in common with the others there, nothing was familiar and known to me except my companion and the music; then I suggested that he invent an excuse and that we leave. That opulence and excess were inconceivable for what was proclaimed from the other side of the wall, although the reason was a fifteen-year-old’s party.
I asked the friend to get us out of there and take us to the nearest bus stop. He agreed after trying to persuade us, without success, and wanting to know the reason for our sudden departure.
Outside I felt relief, and I breathed comfortably. I commented on it with my fiancé, and he told me what little he knew of the mysterious family of his friend, whom he believed was from State Security or a bodyguard for someone important.
I met some people who lived in secret opulence supporting Castro-ism, which stayed in power with a public image as protector of the underdogs
How was that way of life kept in silence, how was it not criticized on television, and where did it come from and how was that luxury and excess that was not just a festive event paid for? How was there a capitalist form of existence inside Cuban territory, supposedly socialist and egalitarian?
Back then it was undercover; today we know how it is and that the behavior of the ruling leadership far from surprising us proves the existence of two social classes or poles that they themselves do not want to recognize as so disparate: The experts in training and subjugating so that the Cuban people do what they say and not what they do, and the people themselves.
We have learned about the excess expenses for recreation and tourism of one of Fidel’s sons and the carryings-on of Raul’s grandson/bodyguard.
The international press and Cuban dissidence have unveiled those two faces of those who for almost six decades have had control and power on the largest of the Antilles.
It is true, looks deceive!
I met some people who lived in secret opulence supporting Castro-ism, which stayed in power with a public image as protector of the underdogs. It’s not that I don’t like the good life but that condition is given in Cuba only to those who speak of equality without practicing it.
Opulence and abundance should belong to those who earn it, inherit it or work for it, not to those who steal it. Submission is not dignified, even less for so long a time. Let’s hope that once and for all the Cuban people open their eyes and reclaim the rights that have been denied them.
A few minutes after noon, the Lettuce Women stood at the corner of Obispo and Mercaderes streets in Old Havana. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 2 March 2017 — A few minutes after noon, the Lettuce Women stood on the corner of Obispo and Mercaderes streets in Old Havana. They came with their unique message that promotes healthy food and a love of animals. Under the March sun, their lettuce bikinis generated more curiosity than their environmentalist discourse.
From a lime-green suitcase, activists pulled out magazines and ad sheets to promote a vegan diet. A campaign that does not stop generating confusion in Cuba, a country obsessed with meat and where the dream of many people is to eat a steak every day.
At first the activists were surrounded by more press than public, but their scanty clothing soon caused an uproar. Under the eyes of some policemen the Ladies responded to questions from journalists and those who wanted to know what it’s like to be a vegan.
Under the eyes of some policemen the Ladies in Green responded to questions from journalists and those who wanted to know what it’s like to be a vegan. (14ymedio)
The women declared that, since their arrival on the island, they have viewed the situation of the animals with “a lot of sadness,” according to Yerica Sojo, a Puerto Rican who has been doing this for more than ten years, “there are many [animals] abandoned in the street who need help.” Some national groups do “a very good job of caring for them and promoting compassion,” like the Association for the Protection of Animals and Plants.
This Friday the Ladies in Green plan to go to different schools to chat with the students.
With regards to the Cuban diet they said it “contains a lot of animals” but also “there are many fruits, vegetables and grains that can be eaten” and that one can be vegan and “keep the Cuban culture of eating rice, beans, bananas.”
Among the recipes they distributed to the public, there were some to prepare potato croquettes or mango ceviche.
Near the place where the activists engaged with the public is the San Rafael street market. This week a head of lettuces cost about 10 Cuban pesos (CUP) in the market, which is equivalent to the amount of money a retiree receives on their pension for a full day.
Eating vegetables and legumes is often a luxury that many Cubans cannot afford. (14ymedio)
Eating vegetables and legumes is often a luxury that many Cubans cannot afford.
In the final minutes of the presentation the women took out some pens shaped like fruits and vegetables from the bottom of their suitcase and tried to distribute them among those present. However, a dozen people rushed over the suitcase and grabbed all that were left.
The Lettuce Women promised to “warm up Havana” with “advice on how to save animals, be healthy and protect the environment while being vegans.” But there were more lewd looks at their bodies than interest in their message.
Video: Lajas Blancas Camp Where Almost 100 Cubans Are Living
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 2 March 2017 – In the next few weeks Panama will deport almost 500 Cubans who remain undocumented in the country, after being stranded by the end of the United States’ wet foot/dry foot policy in January, which had previously allowed Cubans who stepped foot on American soil to remain in the country.
According to reports to 14ymedio by sources from Panama’s National Immigration Service, the deportations could begin when the Service’s director, Javier Carrillo returns; currently he is in Havana in the fourth round of migration talks between the two countries.
“The deportations depend on the agreement between the two nations, but we can confirm that all undocumented migrants who are currently in the country will be returned to Cuba,” said the official source.
“The Memorandum of Understanding for the deportations has been signed but the details have not yet been made known,” he said.
In Panama, 383 Cubans remain in the care of Caritas Panama, 92 in Lajas Blancas and another 24 in the shelter of the National Migration Service. For the migrants who are in the shelter set up by Caritas the news was disconcerting.
“They are very worried they did not expect something like this,” says Victor Luis Berrio, permanent deacon in charge of the Catholic institution.
Last week two Cubans attempted suicide by taking sleeping pills due to the uncertainty of their fate, they said
“At the moment we are making every possible effort to avoid the massive deportation of these Cubans,” he adds.
According to Berrío, his organization has sent a letter to the president of the nation explaining that all the humanitarian work of the Government could be jeopardized if they proceed with the deportation.
Hundreds of Cubans stranded by the end of the United States’ wet foot/dry foot policy in January. (Courtesy image)
According to Deacon Barrios, who follows the message of Pope Francis to shelter refugees, “the authorities’ intention has always been deportation.” He thinks, however, that it will not come to pass, “without a fight.”
“We are going to open our doors so that Cubans in Lajas Blancas can come to Caritas and we will continue to protect these defenseless people,” says the deacon.
“The decision of Caritas is to defend all the migrants that are in its care,” he says.
Last week two Cubans attempted suicide by taking sleeping pills due to the uncertainty of their fate, they said. They were in a Cuban migrant camp in the village of Lajas Blanca, near the western Panama border. Many crossed the Darien Gap jungle to get there.
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 2 March 2017 — Otto Rivero directed the most powerful entity in Cuba at the beginning of this century, the Battle of Ideas, but was ousted by Raúl Castro a few months after the latter assumed the presidency. Now, the former youth leader has emerged from his “pajama plan” – as such forced retirements are referred to in Cuba – to be a producer for the Covarrubias National Theater, a few yards from the Plaza of the Revolution.
Reserved and with psychological scars from his purging, Rivero navigates behind the scenes of the well-known theater. Those who do not remember his glory days cannot even imagine that the silent employee who coordinates the events was once one of the most powerful men on the island. continue reading
Behind his discreet appearance hides the man who controlled the immense resources of a “supra-ministry” with omnipotent powers, arising from the campaign for the return of the child rafter Elian Gonzalez to Cuba. A supra-ministry with the capacity to oversee gas stations, distribute air conditioners or call forth the shock troops in repudiation rallies against dissidents.
On March 2nd, but eight years ago, a brief note published in the official press gave accounts of its end
On the second day of March, but eight years ago, a brief note published in the official press gave notice of his end. The Council of State had decided to “free compañero Otto Rivero Torres of his responsibilities as vice president of the Council of Ministers.” A phrase which, for connoisseurs of the official grammar, confirmed his fall into disgrace.
Rivero’s exclusion from the “family photo” had been foreshadowed since Fidel Castro was sidelined by health problems in mid-2006. The former secretary general of the Young Communists Union (UJC) had been part of the entourage of the “Comandante’s men” and his dismissal was only a matter of time.
In the purges carried out by Raul Castro against the team loyal to his brother, others who fell included vice president Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. But unlike in their cases, Rivero’s ousting was not the subject of an acidic public diatribe; no column by the former president in the Party newspaper accusing him of addiction to “the honey of power.”
Close witnesses report that after his dismissal, Rivero went through a real ordeal. He was detained in the cells of the dreaded Villa Marista, State Security’s headquarters in Havana. He was accused of having allowed and participated in an enormous embezzlement that sucked funds out of the Battle of Ideas. The losses totaled millions in an era when Venezuelan oil allowed every kind of excess.
Police investigators blamed his lack of control over the entity and his having allowed its resources to be squandered on luxuries, foreign travel and gifts. Embezzled products circulated in the informal market: white, red and blue shirts; refrigerators made in China; and air conditioners.
“He was interrogated endlessly and his head could not resist,” a close family source says. “When he returned home he was a zombie, he could not even speak”
“He was interrogated endlessly and his head couldn’t resist,” a close family source told 14ymedio. “When he returned home he was a zombie, he couldn’t even speak.” His mental state deteriorated to the point that he attempted suicide, but “that didn’t go well,” the relative commented.
The former vice president’s family fell into a precarious economic state. The car and chauffeur were taken away as was the supply of luxury foods. As a punishment, the authorities sent Rivero to work at the Frederick Engels printers among the ink and printing presses. But he spent weeks before showing up for work the first time, where he became a mute automaton keeping his head down.
Rivero does not give statements or respond to questions about his past. All attempts to make him talk about the subject crash into the wall of his silence. But a nervous tic in his hands appears in response to the sound of certain names. His co-workers describe him as someone “affected” who has been “under psychiatric treatment.”
Of the confidence with which he wove slogans from the dais, nothing remains. “He is very careful and avoids being seen,” a singer-songwriter who has organized several events at Covarrubias Theater tells this newspaper. “He has changed a lot physically and most of the people who pass by him do not recognize him,” says the artist, who prefers anonymity.
Before the crash, his trajectory had been meteoric. At the age of 38, he was appointed Vice-President of the Council of Ministers after leading the UJC for seven years. With a degree in Economics and a seat in the National Assembly of People’s Power, the young man ascended the power structure at full speed to stand at the right hand of the Commander-in-Chief.
At the 7th UJC Congress of the, Fidel Castro defined Rivero and his team as “an avant-garde army, an elite troop of the Revolution.” Four years later, he had become a pariah
At the 7th UJC Congress, Fidel Castro defined Rivero and his team as “an avant-garde army, an elite troop of the Revolution” for being at the forefront of the Battle of Ideas. Four years after those words, the brand-new official had become a pariah.
To accommodate the Battle of Ideas, he began to refurbish a luxurious mansion on the central corner of 23 and B in Havana’s Vedado district. Here the promising leader would spend his glory days. The arrival of Raúl Castro stopped that dream and now the property hosts the Comptroller General of the Republic. A cruel irony.
Otto Rivero’s biography has also been removed from EcuRed, a Wikipedia substitute made to measure by the ruling party. For many Cubans, that youth leader no longer exists or has been forgotten. But very close to the Council of State he was once a part of, a gray employee ruminates his fate of banishment in the dim light of a theatrical hall.
La Herradura Paladar (private restaurant). (Ignacio de la Paz / 14ymedio)
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 1 March 2017 — The corner of Galiano and Zanja is a hive of people at noon. The area’s private cafes sell everything from bread with croquettes to a complex meat lasagna, but the nearest state places only sell cigarettes. A third of the food services in Cuba are managed privately or by cooperatives, a sector that is attracting a larger and larger clientele.
According to public statements in Monday’s official press from Interior Minister Mari Blanca Ortega, 32% of food, personal and technical services operating on the island “have moved to non-state forms of management.” This formula now seeks to “achieve more quality and efficiency,” says the official. continue reading
In the last two decades, the scene in the nation’s streets has been transformed with the appearance of timbiriches – tiny private businesses – sales counters in the doorways of houses, all the way to restaurant complexes serving Creole and international food. But the sector is still burdened by the absence of a wholesale market and a strong tax policy.
32% of the food, personal and technical services operating on the Island “have moved to forms of non-state management”
“The taxes are very high,” says Dario, who manages a small fruit and snack store near the Military Hospital in Havana. “The account doesn’t balance because the products have gone up a lot of price and I have to pay the Office of the Tax Administration (ONAT) almost half of what I earn in a year,” he complains.
Right now, more than 200,000 workers, of whom at least 170,000 are self-employed, must submit their formal declarations of accounts. Those who have annual incomes in excess of 50,000 Cuban pesos (about US $2,000) must pay the Treasury up to 50% of the total earned.
Darío says that in the area where he works “many small businesses have closed because they have not been able to maintain a stable supply.” However, at the national level the numbers have grown, albeit slowly in recent years. By the end of 2016, the country had 535,000 self-employed workers, according to data from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
The most common activities are the preparation and sale of food, the transport of cargo and passengers, the rental of dwellings, rooms or spaces and telecommunications agents.
Cases of tax evasion are common. Recently ONAT indicted 223 of these entrepreneurs in court. If found guilty they could face sentences of up to eight years in prison, ONAT’s legal director, Sonia Fernández, told the official media.
Outside a bakery on Carlos III Avenue, several of the self-employed were waiting Monday to supply their businesses. “I come every day and buy about 30 flautas, but sometimes I have to wait up to two hours to get goods,” says Migdalia, a cafeteria employee at nearby Calle Reina.
The bakery belongs to the retail network and the line alternates entrepreneurs and customers who only want to buy for home consumption. “If behind me someone buys wholesale, I’m left with nothing,” protests a retiree who considers that “the normal consumer is affected” when he must stand in line with small businesspeople.
Due to shortages affecting domestic markets, other products must be imported directly from abroad. “All the olive oil and Parmesan cheese we use we have to bring in from the outside,” said the administrator of a busy Italian restaurant in Havana’s Chinatown, insisting on anonymity.
In September 2014, new resolutions of the General Customs of the Republic attempted to restrict shipments of goods for commercial purposes by air, sea or postal. But the flow of products to the private sector has not stopped.
“I can not tell a customer that we are not making a dish because there is no nutmeg in the country or because I ran out of sesame”
“I cannot tell a customer that we are not making a dish because there is no nutmeg in the country or because I ran out of sesame,” complains the manager of the Italian restaurant. “When people come here they want to see that everything on the menu is being served; to guarantee that, you have to import many ingredients,” he says.
A report published a few days ago from the Economic and Trade Office of Spain in Havana says “the lack of stable access to raw materials and supplies necessary for their activity” as one of the greatest difficulties that the self-employed and cooperatives must face.
The lack of legal status is also at the root of most of the problems in this sector.
In spite of the rapid growth in numbers, and the contribution to the gross domestic product made by entrepreneurs and cooperatives, these forms of management have not been able “to squeeze into the productive fabric with sufficient force, due to the strong regulation and legal obstacles they encounter.”
”Telepunto” office of the Telecommunications Company in Obispo Street, where an Wednesday rates for home internet were announced (14ymedio)
Luz Escobar, Havana, 1 March 2017 — After a two month free trial, the fees for government-run home internet service, known as “Nauta Hogar,” were announced on Wednesday. The Telecommunications Company of Cuba (ETECSA) will charge between 15 and 115 Cuban convertible pesos (CUC) for packages of 30 hours, depending on the connection speed, which varies 128 kilobytes and 2 megabytes. Thus, Cubans will pay, depending on the speed, the equivalent of roughly three weeks to five months wages in a state enterprise for one hour of internet a day.
Last January, the state monopoly chose 2,000 users in the Catedral and Plaza Vieja popular council areas for a pilot test of home web connectivity. Today, March 1, users have been informed of the ongoing costs for the service, but are not able to set up contracts because the computer system “is not working yet,” according to an employee of the Obispo Street Telepoint office who spoke to 14ymedio. continue reading
The worker explained that the new rates must be paid “within a period of seven days and if they are not the service will be cut.” Once interrupted, “the user has 30 days to pay and restore it.” Otherwise it will be disconnected.
After consuming the 30 hours of the initial package, customers can recharge their Nauta accounts under the same bonus terms used for wifi connections; users will be able to purchase more than one 30-hour package per month.
Until now, surfing the internet from home was a privilege reserved for senior officials, the most trustworthy professionals, and foreigners living in Cuba
Until now, surfing the internet from home was a privilege reserved for senior officials, the most trustworthy professionals, and foreigners living in Cuba. Most connections were made through the antiquated dial-up method, but the new connections will be served by faster ADSL lines.
Cuba is among the countries in the world with the lowest rate of internet access. Since July 2015, the state telecommunications monopoly has enabled public wifi hotspots, which now number more than 200 throughout the country. According to official figures, around 250,000 daily users are connected in these zones.
In recent weeks antennas for wireless connection have also been installed in several places along Havana’s Malecon, and the company is planning to extend the service to the entire perimeter of the coastal strip. For now, wifi is active along the Malecon at Hola Ola, La Piragua, 12 and Malecón, 3rd and B and Fuente de la Juventud.
Campaign image for the liberation of Ana Belén Montes. “Everyone is one country. In that ‘global country’ the principle of loving thy neighbor as much as thyself turns out to be an essential guide.”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana 27 February 2017 – This Tuesday, a campaign launches in Cuba for the liberation of Ana Belén Montes, a former intelligence analyst for the United States Defense Intelligence Agency, condemned for espionage and considered a “prisoner of conscience” by the government of Havana. The initiative includes concerts, conversations, and publications on social networks with the hashtag #FreeAnaBelenMontes.
The governing party seeks to revitalize the case of the spy, who was not included on the list of prisoners pardoned by Barack Obama at the end of his term. Now, efforts are focused on “getting her released through diplomatic negotiations,” according to official sources consulted by this newspaper. continue reading
Montes was arrested in September 2001 in Washington and sentenced to 25 years in prison for espionage assisting the Havana government. Currently, after her cancer diagnosis and mastectomy, she remains imprisoned in the Federal Medical Center (FMC) in Carswell, located on a U.S. Navy Air Station in Fort Worth, Texas.
For many years, the analyst provided substantial information to the Cuban Intelligence Agency, including military data following a visit to El Salvador, which Havana passed on to the FMLN guerillas (Marabundo Martî Front for National Liberation). That information served to inform an attack on a barracks in 1987 in which 65 soldiers perished, including an American.
The analyst provided substantial information to the Cuban Intelligence Agency, including military data following a visit to El Salvador, which Havana passed on to the FMLN guerillas.
The cause for the liberation of the ex-official maintains a low profile in comparison to the media coverage that surrounded the campaign for the five Cuban spies belonging to the Red Avispa (Wasp Network). In recent months, however, a photograph of Montes has appeared in various events organized by the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the People (ICAP) and other official entities.
Last year, the life of the Pentagon spy came to the screens through an episode of ‘Declassified,’ a documentary series released on CNN. The presenter of the program, Mike Rogers, former chair of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, guided spectators through the evidence that led to Montes’ arrest.
Like a fast-paced thriller, the documentary included the clue of a purchased Toshiba laptop, which led the FBI right to the spy, found in her apartment with information revealing her connection with the Island’s intelligence services; a code table found in her bag completed part of the investigative jigsaw puzzle.
The promoters of her release rely on International Amnesty’s definition of “prisoner of conscience,” considered as an “individual that has been imprisoned for their race, religion, skin color, language, sexual orientation or beliefs, as long as they have not propagated or practiced violence.” Her Cuban defenders argue that Montes did not receive payments from the Cuban government for her services nor was she recruited through “sordid blackmail.” They define her as someone that faced risks “for love of justice and honorary solidarity for the cause of the Cuban revolution.”
In October 2015 the Cuban Committee for the Liberation of Ana Belén Montes was created in Havana. The organization relies on various global affiliates and for months its objective was to demand a “presidential pardon” for the ex-official. The members systematically sent letters to the American government seeking her liberation.
A rumor about the possible exchange of Montes for Joanne Chesimard, alias Assata Shakur, who is a refugee in Cuba and wanted for the murder of a police officer in New Jersey, faded away without it being confirmed. The fugitive, who is on the Ten Most Wanted List in the United States and for whose capture there is a posted reward of 2 million dollars, continues to live out her days in Havana.
In October 2015 the Cuban Committee for the Liberation of Ana Belén Montes was created, which relies on various global affiliates.
In the weeks leading up to Obama’s White House departure, demands for the liberation of Montes rose to new heights. “She deserves now, more than ever, a presidential pardon, now that the U.S. speaks of normalizing relations with Cuba,” declared organizers of the committee.
This Tuesday Belén Montes turns 60 years old. Her release date is anticipated to be in 2023 and nothing points to her being released before that time.
Two women board a shared taxi (almendrón) in Havana. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 28 February 2018 — The distance between the Havana Capitol and the Ciudad Deportiva (Sport City) remains the same and yet it seems to have changed. With the capped prices imposed by local government on the private taxi routes, this journey has become immense and difficult to complete. Where before a person needed to wait between 5 and 15 minutes, now they have to wait up to an hour to climb into an almendrón*.
At this point, those who were rubbing their hands at the reduced prices for private transport, must have realized that the hand of the state has broken a fragile network ruled by supply and demand. The taxi drivers cut their trips in a sign of protest, and many are staying home weighing whether it is worth spending so many hours behind the steering wheel for ever smaller profits. continue reading
The victims of these reductions are all of us. One of the new rich who manages a restaurant, the doctor who needs to get to the hospital, the old man who has a medical appointment, or the student who is counting his centavos to make it to the end of the month. It has not been a blow to the social class that can pay between 10 and 20 Cuban pesos for a trip, but a blow to all those who on some occasion, even if only sporadically, use this type of transportation.
Official propaganda is now unleashed against the workers of the private sector, but it is silent before the exploitive state that pays for such misery
Like many restrictive measures of this “Revolutionary” process, it has also surrounded itself with a whiff of false justice, with an aura of supposed egalitarianism. Official propaganda is now unleashed against private sector workers who charge half a day’s wages for a trip, but it is silent before the exploitive state that pays for such misery.
The television reports approach the passengers to capture the moment when they say, “that was an abuse that could not continue,” or, “now prices are more in line with our pockets.” But they are silent about those shelves in the state stores where a liter of oil cost two days’ pay and two pounds of chicken can mean a week’s hard work.
Will prices also rise in those markets? Will the Havana Administrative Council unleash itself against the retail network where a father has to pay two week’s wages for a pair of shoes for his son? The Revolutionary “justice” is one-eyed in these cases, only looking in the direction that suits it.
*Translator’s note: “Almendrón” means “almond” and refers to the shape of the classic American cars often used in shared, fixed-route taxi service.
”Departure” is a performance by the company The Enchanted Deer that tackles the drama of those who left Cuba. (The Enchanted Deer)
14ymedio, Regina Coyula, Havana, 27 February 2017 — From the beginning you feel that something is missing, you shift awkwardly in the seat in the small room at The Enchanted Deer, although you want to seem calm. After a long version of Amazing Grace, you will be detached enough to take in what follows. The stage is lit, before us, almost like a mirror, and other rows of seats appear, occupied by photographs and a woman. The actress Mariela Brito leads us through a national memory that is not spoken of but that is among us, we Cubans, with an almost physical presence.
Mariela, in a colloquial tone, tells us why many of those who left went away, stories very similar to those we tell of our own families, between friends and acquaintances. But beyond the stories told, float others like empty rafts, those who didn’t live to tell and who are, somehow, the protagonists. This is the absence that the audience can fill with its own memories.
The staging, deliberately slow, allows us to digest, metabolize facts, moments that mark one of the great dramas of our country: the family and social fracture. As if that were not enough, a screen runs through the successive departures of the last 58 years. Scars that we carry and that – the performance is here to remind us – do not end.
The audience interacts with the performance ‘Departure’. (The Enchanted Deer)
At the end of the performance, the audience is invited to approach the proscenium and interact with the photos, read the texts in the form of short letters that accompany many of the images, confirm, now closer, that they are indeed Celia Cruz, Jorge Valls, Cabrera Infante or Ana Mendieta, along with Maria, Juan or Manuel. The empty seats seem to tell us: Do not forget. Do not forget, with that dangerous selective oblivion that does so much damage to society and that history needs to reconstruct.
Inevitably, the site acts as an emetic. The accounting of this period, begun in 1959, raises the question of whether a project built at the cost of such sacrifice, the exile and death of those who are beyond the performance on the stage of The Enchanted Deer, of those who are absent, was worth it. But this is a brief chronicle. That would be a very long reflection.
Police officer engaged in the deployment started Monday in reaction to the taxi drivers’ strike. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, 27 February 2017 — Residents of Havana woke up on Monday morning to a strong police deployment, motivated by the announcement of a strike by private taxi drivers. In response to a question from 14ymedio, a uniformed officer said that it was “an operation due to the overcharging by the taxi drivers.”
“As of Monday, 27 February, we drivers all over Cuba are going to strike. We will simply stay home and not wok on those days,” said a text that circulated several days earlier on the alternative media. However, many drivers were unaware of the initiative or declined to participate,” according to what 14ymedio was able to confirm.
The drivers’ discontent has been growing since the beginning of this month when the authorities of the capital set fixed rates for the portions of the routes of private taxi drivers. This decision has put an end to the law of supply and demand that regulated the private transportation of passengers for more than two decades. continue reading
“They are afraid that we will go to the Plaza of the Revolution like the pedicab drivers did last year,” a driver who preferred anonymity and decided not to work on Monday told 14ymedio. “I’m going to stay home all week, even if I lose money, it’s my right,” he said.
Faced with the pressures of the authorities many drivers have reacted by no longer serving the intermediate stops or selecting only those customers who make the complete route
Others have gone out to drive like any other day. “This ‘ship’ is the food for my family, I can’t give myself the luxury of not working,” explains Reinier, a young driver who works in a car he rents from its owner. For those who work in this way it is more difficult to join in any initiative to stop work or protest.
The passengers are complaining abut the delays. “I spent an hour and couldn’t move from this corner,” said a customer who was at the intersection of Infanta and Neptune waiting for a taxi to go to to Playa. “The transport situation was much worse today,” he added.
Faced with the pressures of the authorities many drivers have reacted by no longer serving the intermediate stops or selecting only those customers who make the complete route. The response of the carriers has been fewer taxis on the streets, a way to pressure the authorities to take a step back.
The call for a strike this Monday circulated anonymously and several drivers expressed to 14ymedio their doubts about the authenticity of the call. Nevertheless, all those consulted were aware of the proposal that was made known in blogs, news sites and television programs that are seen through the illegal antennas.
“We are victims of a daily siege by police agents, state inspectors and other entities,” the text warned. Those calling for a strike are demanding access to a wholesale market (for fuel and other needs), the reduction of taxes, and the right to create an independent trade union.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, more than 535,000 people are self-employed, of whom 54,350 are engaged in freight and passenger transport.
A woman sells clothes at the profitable business ‘Paris Viena’ on Monte Street. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, Havana, 27 February 2017 – Regla has spent years working in a prohibited business. She used to do it in doorways on Monte Street in Old Havana, but when the government changed the law to block the trade in clothes and shoes, in December 2013, she had to find an even more discrete method. Now she maintains a point of sale in a state-owned place that rents spaces to private workers, but her little countertop that displays manufactured parts, only serves as a cover to attract customers who then trade in the merchandise that comes from countries Cubans can visit without a visa.
In the past, Regla made the clothes with raw materials “subtracted” from the state Wajay towel factory in Boyeros, and sold them through her self-employment license as a dressmaker. continue reading
“With that trick Regla also avoids paying a good part of the payment of taxes on her personal income. Of the 535,000 self-employed in the county, right now 170,000 of them must present their their affidavit, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
Among her ample catalog, Lycra pants printed with an American flag are a stand out.
“Everything I have is better quality than in the store,” the saleswoman explains with pride. This week she has again whispered to customers to look at her merchandise in the doorways, because the building where she has her stand is closed for repairs.
Among her ample catalog, Lycra pants printed with an American flag are a stand out. The official media have railed against this garment on repeated occasions, but its presence in the streets continues to grow.
The police control the areas where these sellers frequently offer their merchandise. The penalty for illegal sales includes the confiscation of all the products and a fine of 1,500 pesos. However, the informal sellers continue to dominate a good part of the market for clothing and shoes to the detriment of state owned “Hard Currency Collection” stores, as the state stores are formally named.
Yulia offers her products on Infanta Street. Mot of them come from Russia, Guyana and Haiti. “I started traveling to countries that did not require a visa, but for months I also bought in Haiti.” She thinks that the Caribbean country is a good destination to be supplied from because of the low prices of plane tickets.
This illegal market has also found its own ways of protecting itself
“I go to the home of relatives in Santiago de Cuba and I fly from there,” she explains. “I take clothes twice as big.” This is because the investment is lower than in the case of more distant trips, such as the distant Moscow.
Obtaining a visa for Haiti is relatively easy for Cubans, and Yulia recently also got the Haitian residency. Her new legal status will allow her to expand her business. “Everyone wants pretty clothes from outside the country,” says the saleswoman who has been in the trade for seven years.
This illegal market has also found its own ways of protecting itself. To the cry of “water!” the informal sellers of Monte Street hide their goods or vanish on some stairs. It’s the code to warn that the police are coming. When the authorities withdraw, they all return to their places. Until the next warning.
Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador (Archive image / EFE)
14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, 25 February 2017 — On May 24, Rafael Correa will leave the presidency of Ecuador. Not long now. Don’t despair. I understand; the wait has been long and painful. He has spent a decade in power. On that day, whoever wins the April 2 runoff will take over the government. If the opposition democrats remain united, Guillermo Lasso should succeed him in the post.
Who is Rafael Correa, this contradictory personage who calls himself a neo-developer, a 21st-Century socialist, a Catholic supporter of Liberation Theology, a left-wing nationalist and who, on top of all that, sings and plays the guitar? continue reading
Are we in the presence of a communist disguised, as Fidel Castro was until he confessed his true militancy in 1961 after denying it half a dozen times?
I don’t think that Correa was a communist. It’s something else. Although he is a mediocre economist without original thinking, he knows enough to realize that Marx’s ideas are harebrained.
Despite his speech before the Comandante’s ashes in November 2016, filled with admiration and radicalism, Correa is the quintessential Latin American populist. How do we know this? We know it by a study of his symptoms. Populism is a syndrome.
There’s not the slightest contradiction here. The Castros and Rafael Correa are brothers in populist devotion, authoritarianism and histrionics. Correa is a Fidelista by reason of being a populist. Perón also sympathized with Fidel and vice versa, as did Mussolini and Lenin. They loved each other in secret, like bolero lyrics used to say.
Naturally, you can be a populist and a communist or fascist. Makes no difference. There are populists to the right and left of the political spectrum. Populism consists of government measures to seize power and hold on to it. It’s related to the deep psychology of the man in charge. In addition, there’s no dearth of democratic leaders and parties that, lamentably, exhibit some populist elements.
It’s a question of parallel forms of governance that include several defining features:
Strongman-ism with all its defects, such as narcissism.
Exclusivism (the others are always a bunch of scoundrels.)
Patronage, through the abundant use of subsidies.
An exacerbated nationalism that is mistaken for chauvinism.
“Adamism” (they believe that the nation’s real history began with them.)
Statism, given that they mistrust private enterprise.
Excessive public spending to hold on to their political clients, which usually results in kickbacks and other forms of corruption in addition to total ruination.
A rejection of the market and international commerce (Correa — like Trump, although on the opposite end — was an enemy of the North American Free Trade Agreement).
Caustic language and a total absence of any vestige of civic cordiality.
No question about it. Rafael Correa is more akin to the fascists than to the Marxist-Leninists. He shares much with Perón and Velasco Alvarado, that ignorant Peruvian general who destroyed his country’s economy with populist measures.
Correa is a strongman convinced that he holds all the truths and that his adversaries are despicable people. Whosoever holds or expresses a different idea is a rascal who must be insulted and — if he doesn’t escape, like journalists Emilio Palacio and Fernando Villavicencio did — locked away.
A populist has not the slightest respect for institutions, the law or the adversary, but demands to be treated with reverence. When a ragamuffin once “gave the finger” to Correa from a sidewalk, the president stopped his motorcade and had him arrested.
The opposition has tallied several dozen insults and slanders spouted in Correa’s “Saturday chats,” radio programs that someday will be used as study readings in courses on the psychopathology of power.
Correa does not believe in tolerance or freedom of speech or in those who posit, as did Thomas Jefferson, that a society without an independent government but with a free press is preferable to the alternative.
He mocks or pursues those who criticize him and tries to ruin them, as he did with the owners of El Universo, a major newspaper in Guayaquil, because the rich — unless they’re on his side — are his natural enemies.
Anyway, in the first round of voting on February 19 the Ecuadoreans earned the right to be free. Bravo. They earned it in the days after the election, through their determination not to be cheated out of a victory. Now they’ll have to win in the April 2 runoff to finish the task. If they don’t, Correa will be back. He’s already threatening it.
The empty chair with the Oswaldo Payá prize “Freedom and Life” that the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro could not come to Cuba to receive. (Networks)
14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Miami, 23 February 2017 — The recent “diplomatic” action by the Cuban Government to try to prevent the presence of foreign personalities in a private event in Havana to receive a symbolic prize bearing the name of the late regime opponent Oswaldo Payá, denotes the weakness, fear and incapacity that characterize its actions since the visit of Barack Obama to Cuba and the subsequent death of Fidel Castro.
According to the declaration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) in the newspaper Granma, the plan was to mount an open and serious provocation against the Cuban government in Havana, generate internal instability, damage the international image of the country and, at the same time, affect the good progress of Cuba’s diplomatic relations with other states. continue reading
According to MINREX, Almagro himself and some other right-wing individuals had the connivance and support of other organizations with thick anti-Cuban credentials, such as the Democracy and Community Center, the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL), the Inter-American Institute for Democracy, and a person they call a CIA terrorist and agent, Carlos Alberto Montaner.
In addition, says MINREX, since 2015 there has been a link between these groups and the National Foundation for Democracy in the United States (NED), which receives funding from the US government to implement its subversive programs against Cuba.
The dictatorship of the proletariat, which prevailed in Cuba 57 years ago, has thus invented an “anti-Cuban” (against Cuba or against themselves?), “imperialist”, “counterrevolutionary” and “CIA” hoax behind what could have been a small and simple limited ceremony; in short, if they had been allowed to hold it without the presence of foreign guests it would have served the Government to improve its image with respect to the rights of Cubans as citizens and shown some tolerance.
If they were a little bit capable they could have “stolen the show,” but we already know that in Cuba ‘counterintelligence’ dominates in its broadest sense.
Their response to this assessment is given by the MINREX note: “Perhaps some misjudged and thought that Cuba would sacrifice its essence to appearances,” as if appearances are not an example of essence. It is the ignorance of the dialectic relationship between form and content.
But in short, not one step back. According to MINREX the military state is in danger from this provocation, without arms, without masses, without leaders who enjoy wide support among Cubans on the island. We cannot give ground to the “counterrevolution,” — they say — as if it were not precisely the defenders of the indefensible regime themselves who prevented the revolutionary changes that would lead us to prosperous, democratic Cuba, free of authoritarian hegemonies, with all and for the good of all.
It is weakness, fear and incapacity that led the government to put its repressive character on full display and to miss the opportunity to have been hospitable to the Secretary General of the Organization of American States and to have discussed with him the conditions for possible ties to that Inter-American body.
If they were a little bit capable they could have “stolen the show,” but we already know that in Cuba ‘counterintelligence’ dominates in its broadest sense.
The organizations and individuals who prepared the event have a vision different from the government’s on the ways in which politics and the economy should be conducted in Cuba and, of course, it was an opportune moment to promote the positions of change previously promoted by the Leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Payá, who died in circumstances demanding further explanation.
The actions of the Cuban government favored what the organizers of the event ultimately wanted to demonstrate: the absence of space in Cuba for different thinking
But if something like this can destabilize the regime, it should do the same!
The government’s actions provoked exactly what it was trying to avoid, creating more interest among Cubans and international opinion in the Varela Project and in how Oswaldo Paya died, a man who might not have been to the liking of the government and other cities, but who lived on the island, worked there and from from within promoted a peaceful and democratic change of the system, with all his rights as a Cuban citizen. Something to respect.
The Cuban government’s action, vitiated by extremism, Manichaeism, intolerance and repression, favored what the organizers of the event ultimately wanted to demonstrate: the absence of space in Cuba for different thinking, the existence of a tyrannical regime that impedes freedom of expression and association, and that it intends to continue to govern based on jails, police and repressive security agents.
The repression of the opposition, socialist dissent and different thinking, pressures against the self-employed, the stagnation of the reforms proposed by the Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba itself, the voluntary efforts to try to control the widespread corruption generated by statist wage system, in short, everything that is being done by the senior bureaucratic hierarchy is generating chaos that undermines and will burst the system from within from ignorance of the laws of economic-social development.
They don’t know where they stand! Don’t try to put the blame on others later.
This service against a “socialism” that has never existed will perhaps be the best historical legacy left to us by these 60 years of voluntarism, populism and authoritarianism of Fidel Castro communism, such that the most retrograde forces of international reaction will eternally thank the “Cuban leadership.”
14ymedio, Havana, 25 February 2017 — Human rights activist Juan Goberna Hernández was arrested around 9 am this Saturday when he left home to attend a meeting of the Inclusive Culture Network, a project to defend the rights of people with disabilities.
On Friday night Goberna, who is blind, was visited by two State Security agents to warn him that they would not allow him to attend the meeting. Two other agents named Brayan and Nacho were posted in a car from early Saturday to stop him if he persisted in his decision to go to the meeting. continue reading
In Aguada de Pasajeros, Goberna was taken from a bus on which he panned to travel to Havana to attend the meeting.
Minutes before his arrest Goberna told 14ymedio by phone that it was his “duty” and his “right” to participate in the activity.
So far it has not been possible to determine where he was taken.
The Network of Inclusive Culture tries to promote a greater sensitivity towards the treatment of people with disabilities, working to make visible the difficulties that such individuals face on a daily basis.
In addition to conducting workshops and seminars, members of the Network provide support and advice in cases of violations of rights to anyone in situations of vulnerability.
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 3 March 2017 — The role of information technology as a “weapon for the defense of the Revolution” has grabbed the attention of the latest meeting of the Council of Ministers, held several weeks late this Tuesday in the Palace of the Revolution and headed by President Raul Castro.
