“Those Who Do Not Help the Victims of Castro-ism Are Complicit in the Oppression,” says Rocio Monasterio / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

Video not subtitled: Rocio Monasterio talks about her dreams for Cuba in Miami

14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, Miami, 11 February 2017 – Rocio Monasterio, a Cuban living in Spain who became popular after starring in a televised debate at the end of November in which she confronted Castro supporters about the legacy of former Cuban President Fidel Castro, gave a talk Friday in Miami about her ideological platform and her aspirations for Cuba’s future.

This 43-year old Cuban with parents from Cienfuegos and a member of the (conservative) Vox Party in Spain defends the family and liberty as supreme values. She is a passionate speaker who strongly criticizes the Cuban government and condemns those politicians disposed to dialogue with Havana.

“Cuba raised a big wall in 1959. Since then night fell on the country, the search for liberty was interrupted. Unfortunately, 60 years later, Cubans are still in the shadows and we don’t see a light that illuminates our homeland. All those who live in Cuba are imprisoned,” she said before emphasizing, “When we see a brother imprisoned we have to do everything possible to help him.” continue reading

An architect by profession, Monasterio decided to go into politics as a result of the loss of values that, in her judgement, Spanish society has experienced. She joined Vox as a way of giving voice to hundreds of Spaniards who do not agree with the relaxation of policies by the Popular Party, currently in power, an organization to which she delivered her vote every year but about which she is singularly critical.

“It is extraordinary that a Hispanic Cuban can speak to Cuban Americans in Miami. We are united by the Hispanic phenomenon,” she said.

About those who opt for investment in Cuba in order to foster an emerging middle class that in the future will be able to demand political changes, Monasterio asserts that those politicians and businessmen are “soothing their conscience for collaborating with the regime.”

“It is being shown that investment in Cuba is nothing more than supporting Castro-ism,” she adds.

As an alternative to totalitarianism, Monasterio proposes Hispanic values.

“We have inherited from Spain the Christian values that are society’s foundation: equality, defense of freedom, right to life, belief in the individual and in his individual responsibility, also the family as a fundamental value of society. All this is this based in freedom,” she said.

One point that she emphasized was the relationship between the European Union, above all Spain, and the Cuban Government. For the Hispanic Cuban, the credibility of the institutions and the parties that negotiate with Raul Castro are in jeopardy.

“In the collective imagination of Spain, Cuba is the most beloved. The relationship of both countries is that of brotherhood,” said Monasterio. Nevertheless, she characterized as “a great betrayal” the normalization of relations without a single word about human rights violations on the Island.

“Those today who do not help the victims of Castro-ism are accomplices in the oppression and contribute to the perpetuation of night in Cuba, a night that has already lasted too many years,” she added.

The architect conceives her battle as not only against communism but against all kinds of totalitarianism, which according to her is being exported from Cuba to Spain and Latin American countries like Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador.

“Totalitarianism is not only the lack of freedom, but also the elimination of the individual. All contrary to our values,” she says.

She also admitted that she fights hard against gender politics and is radically opposed to homosexual marriage:

“I don’t meddle in civil unions between people who have another view of sexuality, but that is not matrimony. Matrimony is between a man and a woman,” she says.

For Monasterio, gender ideology is “another big dictatorship of our time.” She condemns Spanish education in this sense.

“We are subjected, once again, to determined ideologues who come from big institutions. Gender ideology is contrary to the family and our values,” she said.

To oppose the proposed education in gender ideology values, Monasterio’s party proposed a platform for freedoms that defends the right of parents to educate their children according to their values.

About her dispute with “the defenders of the indefensible, that is, Castro-ism, Monasterio reminded that the Castro brothers came to Cuban government promising equality,” but what they have done is to equalize everyone “in misery and oppression.”

“A Castro military elite controls Cubans and makes them ignore freedom.”

According to Monasterio, the Cuban diaspora confronts three big responsibilities: the obligation to denounce what Castro-ism means before those who truly do not know what it is; to be effective in the use of a new discourse and new tools for telling and transmitting the values of our culture; and to create a new iconography. “We have to pass to the next generations the commitment to fight for the freedom of our land.”

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

Faith Arrives to the Rhythm of Reggaeton / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

Members of La Union: Left to right: Osmel (Mr Jacke), Misael (Dj Misa), Ramiro (Pucio) and Randoll (El Escogido). (14ymedio)

14ymedio biggerLuz Escobar, Havana, 11 February 2017 – Sexists, hard and streetsmart, such are the lyrics of most reggaeton songs that are heard everywhere. Topics that speak about jealousy and rivalries, but that can also convey very different messages. Under the name La Unión (the Union), a group of young artists spread the Christian faith to the rhythm of this urban genre so popular in Cuba.

The group, founded in 2013, promotes their songs and videos through the Weekly Packet in the folder titled “Christian section.” A musical work that stands out in the Cuban panorama by combining two elements that seem opposed: religion and reggaeton.

Willing to break down those prejudices, Ramiro (Pucio), Osmel (Mr. Jacke), Randoll (El Escogido), and Misael (DJ Misa), compose and sing for a new generation of listeners born with this millennium. A generation accustomed to choosing a la carte the audiovisual materials they consume and who are very familiar with flash drives, Zapya and smart phones. continue reading

In times of vertigo in the exchange of content, the members of the Union release their songs under the label Kingdom Records, a handcrafted studio installed in the house of DJ Misa, in the Alamar neighborhood. In that zone of ugly buildings and good musicians, rap and hip-hop reigned in earlier decades.

In public performances of the Union, women dancing with lewd movements, twerking style, are not seen and the group members do not wear heavy gold chains around their necks. Even so the places where they perform are packed and fans sing along to the lyrics, which praise values such as solidarity and friendship.

In public performances of La Union, women dancing with lewd movements, twerking style, are not seen and the group members do not wear heavy gold chains around their necks.

In a conversation with 14ymedio during a promotional tour around La India, in Old Havana, the director of the group, DJ Misa, said that from the beginning they wanted to “take the message of Jesus to the Island’s youngest listeners” and they thought it “perfect” to use urban music “as a strategy” because “that is what is mostly heard in the streets.”

Currently, the DJ Misa is immersed in a whirlwind of preparations for a concert the group will perform on February 17 in the central venue Riviera. The launching of a new video clip also fills him with pride, although reaching the point they have now arrived at has not come easily.

The beginnings of the Union were not exempt from “some obstacles,” comments DJ Misa, because few people dared to “mix Christian music with reggaeton.” However, they found acceptance within the island’s millennials and the pastor of the Methodist Church of Alamar, Daniel Marín, who supported them unconditionally.

A recent survey of young Cubans found that their idols range from soccer players, like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, to reggaeton singers, like Yomil, El Chacal and el Príncipe, who are overwhelmingly popular among those under 30 years old.

In this context, Christian musicians count on an audience interested in rhythms representing reality. But it is also an audience accustomed to the ruggedness of many reggaeton songs, which praise sexism, promiscuity and frivolity. These are the themes heard in bars, cafeterias, and taxis and even during morning assemblies in Cuban schools.

Christian musicians count on an audience interested in rhythms representing reality. But it is also an audience accustomed to the ruggedness of many reggaeton songs, which praise sexism, promiscuity and frivolity.

DJ Misa explains the support they have also received from other pastors. He says it is because many young people “who are in church but no longer very interested and about to leave,” after listening to their music return with more joy. Although he laments that due to lack of resources they can only do two or three concerts a year.

Both performances and video clips are self produced and financed, says the artist, who complains “there are still no companies that promote Christian music.” Nevertheless, they have managed to perform various concerts and in August of last year filled the venue Avenida.

The young man’s production ability was self-taught, and he counts on spreading his music through social networks, such as Facebook and YouTube.

He does not discard that the Union will be televised and is thinking about presenting his next music video, Jesus Fanatic, at next year’s Lucas Awards. DJ Misa is convinced that his audiovisuals “have the same quality as the ones presented” and show a “very professional appearance.”

As they reach the small screen, these young musicians are achieving a special place in the national urban music, a place where the heavy terrain of reggaeton manages to gain spirituality and compromise.

Translated by Chavely Garcia

 

Measuring Hopelessness / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

Those who believe that the closing of a one door to emigration will act like the snap of the fingers to awaken a society whose civic conscience is hypnotized are mistaken (Archive photo)

14ymedio biggerEl Pais/14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez,12 February 2017 — Statistics are deceiving. They only reflect measurable values, tangible realities. International agencies cram us with numbers that measure development, life expectancy or educational attainment, but seldom succeed in grading dissatisfaction, fear, and discouragement. Frequently in their reports they describe a Latin America and its inhabitants encased in a fog of digits.

This year the region will have weak growth of 1.3%, according to forecasts by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). A data point that barely manages to transmit the scope of lives that will be ruined by the region’s sluggish progress. Unfinished projects and a long string of social dramas will be accentuated in many of these countries in the coming months. The breeding ground from which populism springs.

However, the major drama remains the lack of horizons for millions of people on this side of the planet continue reading

A Haitian who risks crossing the jungle of Panama’s Darien Gap to reach the United States is driven not only by the miserable conditions of life in her country, the destruction left by natural phenomena or the repeated epidemics that cost thousands of lives. The most powerful engine that moves her is hopelessness, the conviction that in her own country she will never have new opportunities.

Seeing no end to violence pushes other Central Americans to escape their countries. In several of these nations gangs have become an enthroned evil, corruption has corroded the internal scaffolding of institutions and politicians go from one scandal to the next. Discouragement then prompts a response quite different from that generated by indignation. While the latter may push people to rebel, the former pushes them to escape.

Meanwhile, on this Caribbean island, millions of human beings ruminate over their own disappointment. For decades Cubans fled because of political persecution, economic problems and weariness. Until 12 January 2017, that generalized choking sensation had a relief valve called the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, but President Barack Obama closed it a few days before finishing his second term.

The most staunch critics of that migratory privilege say that it encouraged desertions and illegal exits. Some people also criticized its unjust character in that it benefitted and offered entitlements to people who were not escaping war, genocide or a natural disaster. They forget, among these arguments, that discouragement also deserves to be taken into account and computed in any formula that tries to decipher the massive flight that affects a nation.

A similar error has been committed by agencies such as the FAO, UNHCR or ECLAC, all of which specialize in measuring parameters such as the number of daily calories ingested, the effect of climate change on human displacements, or the percentage decrease in a nation’s GDP. Their reports and statements never evaluate the energy that accumulates under frustration, the weight of disappointment or the impotence reflected in every migration.

When more than three generations of individuals have lived under a political and economic system that does not evolve or progress, there is a conviction among them that this situation is eternal and immutable. They no longer see any horizon and the idea that nothing can be done to change the status quo becomes rooted in their minds. By now, many of those born in Cuba after January 1959 have grown up with the conviction that everything had already been done by others who preceded them.

That explains why a young man who had recently slept under a roof in Havana, who had access to a limited but adequate amount of food through the rationed market and who spent his long free hours on a park bench, launched himself into the sea on a raft, at the mercy of the winds and sharks. The lack of prospects is also behind the large number of migrants from the island, in recent years, who have ended up in the hands of human traffickers in Colombia, Panama or Mexico.

Washington not only cut an escape path, but the White House’s decision ended up deepening the depression that comes from the chronic absence of dreams that characterizes our country. The Cuban Adjustment Act, enacted in 1966, is still in effect for those who can prove they are politically persecuted, but the most widespread feeling among potential migrants is that they have lost a last chance to reach a future.

However, this undermining of illusion has little chance of being transformed into rebellion. The theory of the social pressure cooker and the idea that Obama closed the escape valve so that the fire of internal austerity and repression will make it explode is a nice metaphor; but it misses several key ingredients, among them the resignation that overcomes individuals subjected to realities that appear unchangeable.

The belief that nothing can be done and nothing will change continues to be the principle stimulus, in these areas, to lift one’s anchor and depart for any other corner of the planet. The pot will not explode with a sea of people in the streets bringing down Raul Castro’s government while singing hymns on that dreamed of “D-Day” that so many are tired of waiting for.

Those who believe that the closing of a one door to emigration will act like the snap of the fingers to awaken a society whose civic conscience is hypnotized are mistaken. The cancellation of this policy of benefits in the United States is not enough to create citizens here at home.

A new bureaucratic barrier is a small thing to those who believe that they have reached their own glass ceiling and that in their homeland they have nothing left to do. This quiet conviction will never appear in tables, bar charts or schemes with which specialists will explain the causes of exodus and displacement. But ignorance of it means the specialists will never understand such a prolonged escape.

Far from the reports and statistics that everyone wants to explain, hopelessness will take Cuban migrants to other places, re-orient their route to new destinations. In distant latitudes, communities will flourish that will dine on their usual dish of rice and beans and continue to say the word “chico” before many of their phrases. They will be the ones who will let drop small tear when they see on a map that long and narrow land where they had their roots, but in which they could never bear fruit.

Editorial Note: This text was published this Sunday, February 12 in the newspaper El País.

Cubans In Ecuador Ask Ecuador’s Next President To End The Medical Missions / 14ymedio, Diana Ramos and Mario Penton

Cubans working in a medical mission to Ecuador. (américatevé.com)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Diana Ramos and Mario Penton, Quito/Miami, 10 February 2017 — A group of Cubans in Ecuador united in the Movement X Cuba (MXC) requested in an open letter to the next present of Ecuador, the end of the medical missions of the Cuban government in the Andean nation.

Doctor and president of the association, Duniel Medina, signed the letter that expresses “concern” over the opinions of some of the presidential candidates that the organization considers “xenophobic and poorly focused,” especially with regards to the presence of Cuban citizens in the country. continue reading

“We believe it is important to release this communication due to the kinds of statements the candidates are making. Many of them believe that Cubans come here to take Ecuadorian jobs and they think we are all employees of the Cuban government,” says Medina in statements made to 14ymedio.

The president of the association signed the letter that expresses “concern” over the opinions of some of the presidential candidates that the organization considers “xenophobic and poorly focused”

Movement for Cuba defines itself as a peaceful organization that seeks change in Cuba. During its short months of existence has created 3 different cells inside of Cuba. It is fundamentally composed of Cubans who migrated to Ecuador but who maintain a close relationship with their country of origin.

The group of Cubans also stays updated on the situation of their undocumented colleagues in Ecuador and has assisted in several ways the hundreds of migrants who asked for an airlift that would allow them to travel safely to Mexico to continue their journey to the United States.

“We are making a call for attention so that they can differentiate between the Cuban doctors and health professionals who live in Ecuador and share the same fate as the Ecuadorian people,” the note adds.

The MXC, representing Cuban doctors and health professionals who migrated from Cuba to Ecuador, is expressing its desire to put an end to the medical agreements signed by President Correa and the Cuban Government “that undermine the employment opportunities of Ecuadorian and foreign citizens who live in Ecuador.”

Some candidates for presidency of the Republic have emphasized the need to eliminate contracts with Cuba and give priority to Ecuadorian doctors.

Cynthia Viteri, one of the candidates, has called for the “recovery” of jobs in public health by Ecuadorians, as has Guillermo Lasso, who in an interview with the newspaper El Universo indicated that the health sector’s priority is “more non-Cuban Ecuadorian doctors.”

The agreement of cooperation with Cuba stipulates that the salary of Cuban professionals is of 2,700 dollars, of which only 800 dollars ends up in the hands of the professionals themselves while the rest stays with the Cuban government.

The Movement condemns this practice: “We advocate that Cuban doctors be free and can decide their future, their country of residence and have the freedom necessary to exercise such a worthy profession.”

“We advocate that Cuban doctors be free and can decide their future, their country of residence and have the freedom necessary to exercise such a worthy profession.”

Hundreds of Cuban doctors took advantage of the free visa that Ecuador provided between 2008 and 2015 to emigrate to that country. Through a relatively easy process, health professionals achieved the accreditation of their qualifications and were integrated into the national health system.

According to official data, in 2015 almost 800 foreign doctors were in Ecuador, the great majority of Cuban nationality.

After the migratory crisis triggered by the thousands of Cubans who were stranded in Central America in 2015, Ecuador reinstated the visa requirement for citizens of the island. It is estimated that Ecuador hosts the third or fourth largest group of Cubans abroad, with a population of over 40,000 Cubans.

Ecuador is immersed in its electoral campaign. On February 19 the country will elect a new president and decide whether to continue with the program of the current president Rafael Correa or to distance itself from the left.

A Day Without Private Taxis / 14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez

Customers wait on Rancho Boyeros Avenue for a taxi to take them to Vedado or Centro Habana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 10 February 2017 — Without posters, lists of demands or protest demonstrations, Havana’s private taxi drivers are responding to the recently imposed fare caps. The authorities made a bold move, adjusting their previous fare caps – which the drivers got around by breaking their journeys into pieces and charging separately for each piece – to specifically apply the price controls to newly defined portions of a single trip. In response, the self-employed taxi drivers have offered a Friday from hell for Havanans trying to travel around the city.

At the edge of the sidewalk, desperately waving their arms, were hundreds of people this morning along the routes of the “almendrones” – as these shared taxis are called, in reference to the “almond-shape” of the old American cars called into service to run them. But the drivers rarely stopped on the grounds that they would only make “direct trips” between the first and last points of the journey. In this way they avoid fragmenting the payments and lowering the costs of the travel, in accordance with the new regulations.

Lacking a union to represent their demands, the drivers are trying to force the government to withdraw the pricing measure, by ensuring congestion in urban transportation. For its part, the government knows that a good share of the city’s residents need these shared taxis to get to their workplaces or schools. Without them, the country will be paralyzed.

As of yesterday, a silent pulse is developing in the streets, where right now the worst affected are the passengers.

Fidel Castro’s Ashes and Che’s Bones Compete to Attract Visitors / 14ymedio

Mausoleum with the ashes of Fidel Castro, in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santa Clara. (cc)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, 10 February 2017 – The fight for popularity between Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara continues even after the death of both leaders. According to an article in last Saturday’s official newspaper Granma, some 150,000 people – both Cubans and foreign tourists – have visited Fidel Castro’s tomb in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba. The mausoleum was opened to the public on 4 December 2016.

For its part, the Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara Sculpture Complex in Santa Clara, dedicated to the Argentine guerrilla who died in 1967, received a total of 374,900 visits throughout 2016. Che died in Bolivia at the hands of the Army of that country and his remains were allegedly exhumed in 1997 by a forensic team designated by Fidel Castro himself, just in time to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his assassination. continue reading

After a dubious process undertaken by Cuban doctors in Bolivia, described by Havana as a “scientific feat,” the alleged remains were brought back to Cuba and buried alongside the other guerrillas who accompanied him in his unsuccessful attempt to export the Revolution to South America. For Cuba, which was in the midst of the economic trauma of the Special Period, Che’s “return” was a much-needed injection of morale.

Despite the high number of visitors to the Guevara tomb – about 1,000 visits a day in average in 2016, including Cubans and many foreigners, especially Argentines, Italians and French – the forecasts announced by the authorities suggest that the struggle for post mortem popularity will be won by Fidel Castro.

The pantheon erected to the former president, who died on 25 November 2016 at age 90, receives an average of 2,000 visits per day. At that rate, and with the increase in visits the government predicts for the summer months, the number of visitors to the remains of Fidel Castro will reach 1 million before the end of the 2017.

Everything seems to indicate that the decision is already taken in favor of the former president. It is a political issue and the numbers do not have to be true. Nor does it matter whether Che’s remains are his or whether Fidel Castro’s ashes are really deposited in the interior of that strange artificial rock erected next to José Martí’s mausoleum.

Between 2 And 100 Cubans Expelled From Panama, According To Sources / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

Cuban migrants stranded in Colombia. (Archive)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 9 February 2017 — A Cuban couple were deported Wednesday by the National Migration Service in Panama. Both were detained by the authorities in Guabalá, in Panama’s Chiriquí province.

According to immigration sources, the couple entered the country “irregularly.” Both were returned to Uruguay, where they legally reside. Their intention was to reach the US border.

The government office told 14ymedio that the deportations of migrants passing through Panama to reach the United States increased in January. continue reading

Last month 81 people were expelled, which means 20 more deportations than in January of 2016. Among the irregular migrants were 19 Colombians. Citizens of Ecuador, China and the Dominican Republic were also counted, with 9 immigrants expelled from each of these countries. According to statistics, only one Cuban was deported from Panama last month.

However, complaints from Cuban migrants who attempted to enter through the Darien jungle claim that there have been at least one hundred deportations of Cuban migrants on the border with Colombia.

Panama’s Director of Migration confirmed to this newspaper that access will not be allowed to Cubans, not even through the Darien Gap, a route where humanitarian posts were set up to help migrants after the border was closed on 9 May 2016.

Several hundred Cubans were stranded in Panama following then President Barack Obama’s elimination of the “Wet Foot/Dry Foot” policy on January 12th of this year.

About 200 migrants remain in the Caritas refuge center in Panama City, waiting to continue their journey to the United States or to regularize their situation in Panama.

According data from Panama Migration, in 2016 more than 27,000 irregular migrants crossed the territory on their way to the United States.

New Price Caps For Cuba’s Private Taxi Drivers / 14ymedio

An “almendrón” (fixed-route shared-taxi) in Fraternity Park, in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 9 February 2017 — Private taxi drivers in Havana woke up this Thursday with the news of the imposition of price caps on the six most important routes served by their vehicles. The government has taken the measure so as “not to allow an increase over the maximum set prices,” according to an official note.

In July of last year local authorities decreed maximum fares for the so-called almendrones*, but the drivers responded by shortening the sections and breaking the cost of the journey into multiple parts. This week’s announcement seeks to “protect the population” from that maneuver that makes transportation expensive.

Taxi drivers who violate the stipulated fares risk being denounced by customers or surprised during an inspection. The penalty is the cancellation of the operating license under which they work and may include “confiscation of means of transport” according to the text, that is the seizure of their cars. continue reading

The measure is taken at a time when economic difficulties in Venezuela have caused it to fail to fulfill its commitments to supply oil to the island. This situation has forced the Government to reduce the volumes of fuel allocated to state entities.

As a result of these cuts, the price of oil diverted from the state sector has increased in price on the black market. From 8 Cuban pesos (CUP) per liter it rose suddenly to 15, while in the state gas stations, it is still being sold at 24 CUP a liter.

Reference prices of routes according to origin and destination, with intermediate sections are as follows:

ROUTE 1: PARQUE EL CURITA TO LA PALMA. PRICE. 15.00 CUP

  1. Departure or return from El Curita Park, up to La Calzada Diez de Octubre and Via Blanca. PRICE. 5.00 CUP, to La Vibora, PRICE 10.00 CUP and up to La Palma, PRICE 15.00 CUP.
  2. Departure or return from La Calzada Diez de Octubre and Via Blanca to La Viñora, PRICE 5.00 CUP and to La Palma, PRICE 10.00 CUP.
  3. Departure or return from La Viñora to La Palma, PRICE 5.00 CUP

ROUTE 2: PARQUE EL CURITA TO LA VEREDA, LA LISA. PRICE. 20.00 CUP

  1. Departure or return from El Curita Park, to Calzada Cerro and Boyeros, PRICE 5.00 CUP, up to 100th and 51st, PRICE 10.00 CUP, to Plaza Marianao, PRICE 15.00 CUP and up to La Vereda, La Lisa, PRICE 20.00 CUP.
  2. Departure or return from la Calzada Cerro and Boyeros, up to 100th and 51st. PRICE 5.00 CUP, to Plaza de Marianao, PRICE 10.00 CUP and up to La Vereda. PRICE 15.00 CUP.
  3. Departure or return from 100th and 51st, up to Marianao Plaza, PRICE 5.00 CUP and up to La Vereda, PRICE 10.00 CUP.
  4. Departure or return from Plaza Marianao, to La Vereda. PRICE 5.00 CUP.

ROUTE 3: PARQUE EL CURITA TO THE MILITARY HOSPITAL, PRICE 10.00 CUP

  1. Departure or return from Parque El Curita, to 21st and L (Coppelia), Vedado, PRICE 5.00 CUP, to Hospital Militar, PRICE 10.00.
  2. Departure or return from 21st and L (Coppelia) Vedado, to Hospital Militar, PRICE 5.00 CUP.
  3. Departure or return from 41st and 42nd in Playa, to Military Hospital, PRICE 5.00 CUP.

ROUTE 4: PARK THE CURITA TO SANTIAGO DE LAS VEGAS. PRICE. 20.00 CUP

  1. Departure or return from Parque El Curita, to Calzada Cerro and Boyeros or Ciudad Deportiva, PRICE 5.00 CUP, to Boyeros and Punte 100, PRICE 10.00 CUP, to Fontanar, PRICE 15.00 CUP and to Santiago de Las Vegas, PRICE 20.00 CUP.
  2. Departure or return from the Calzada Cerro and Boyeros or Ciudad Deportiva, to Boyeros and Punte 100, PRICE 5.00 CUP, to Fontanar, PRICE 10.00 CUP and to Santiago de Las Vegas, PRICE 15.00 CUP.
  3. Departure or return from Boyeros and Punte 100, until Fontanar, PRICE 5.00 CUP and to Santiago de Las Vegas, PRICE 10.00 CUP.
  4. Departure or return from Fontanar, to Santiago de Las Vegas. PRICE. 5.00 CUP.

ROUTE 5: PARQUE EL CURITA TO PARADERO PLAYA. PRICE. 20.00 CUP

  1. Departure or return from the Parque El Curita, to 21st and L (Coppelia) Vedado, PRICE 5.00 CUP, to Line Tunnel,. PRICE. 10.00 CUP, until 3rd and 70 or 31st and 60th, PRICE 15.00 CUP and to Paradero Playa, PRICE 20.00 CUP.
  2. Output or return from 21st and L (Coppelia), Vedado, to the Line Tunnel, PRICE 5.00, until 3rd and 70th or 31st and 60th, PRICE 10.00 CUP and to Paradero Playa, PRICE 15.00 CUP.
  3. Output or return from Linea Tunnel, up to 3rd and 70th or 31st and 60th, PRICE 5.00 CUP and to Paradero Playa, PRICE 10.00 CUP.
  4. Departure or return from 3 and 70 or 31 and 60 in Playa, to Paradero Playa, PRICE 5.00 CUP.

ROUTE 6: PARK THE CURITA TO GUANABACOA. PRICE. 20.00 CUP.

  1. Departure or return from El Curita Park, to Miguel Enríquez Hospital, PRICE 5.00 CUP, to the Virgen del Camino, PRICE 10.00 CUP, to Regla Cemetery, PRICE 10.00 CUP, up to Via Blanca and Corral Falso. PRICE 15.00 CUP and up to Guanabacoa, PRICE 20.00 CUP.
  2. Departure or return from the Miguel Enríquez Hospital, to the Virgen del Camino, PRICE 5.00 CUP, to Via Blanca and Corral Falso, PRICE 10.00 CUP and to Guanabacoa, PRICE 15.00 CUP.
  3. Departure or return from la Virgen del Camino, to Via Blanca and Corral Falso, PRICE 5.00 CUP and to Guanabacoa, PRICE 10.00 CUP.
  4. Departure or return from Via Blanca and Calzada Guanabacoa, to Guanabacoa, PRICE 5.00 CUP.

*Translator’s note: “Almendrón” is a term that refers to vehicles used as private fixed-route shared taxis. The word means “almond” and is a reference to the shape of the 1950s American cars that are commonly used in this service.

 

Invasive Marabou Weed, An Enemy That Became An Ally / 14ymedio, Bertha Guillen and Ricardo Fernandez

A pile of marabou branches beside the road waiting to be transported. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Bertha Guillen and Ricardo Fernandez, Artemisa/Pinar del Rio, 9 February 2017 – When he was a boy, Jorge Luis Ledesma Herrera played around the charcoal ovens his father had built. Now, approaching 50, this Pinar del Rio man dedicates his days to a shrub that is both hated and appreciated: the invasive marabou weed, raw material for the first product that Cuba has exported to the United States in more than five decades.

Ledesma lives in El Gacho, a few miles from San Juan y Martinez, where the best tobacco on the island is grown. Also growing in the area is the spiny plant that has invaded the island since its arrival 150 years ago. Now, its hard branches provide sustenance to thousands of families across the island. continue reading

Cuba annually exports between 40,000 and 80,000 tonnes of charcoal produced from marabou, which occupies roughly 2.5 million acres of land that would otherwise be suitable for agriculture, or almost 17% of the island’s arable land.

Livestock areas have also been affected by this invasive weed that has conquered 56% of the land used for animal husbandry. The plague of threatening thorns spreads, thanks to the plant’s strong nature, but also due to the neglect and poor organization that affects the Cuban countryside.

A pile of sacks filled with marabou charcoal after the dismantling of the oven (14ymedio)

The state maintains a good deal of control over land despite the fact that in recent years the cooperative sector has been expanded and land has been leased in usufruct to private farmers.

The Basic Units of Cooperative Production manage 25% of the land, the Agricultural Production Cooperatives 8% and the Credit and Services Cooperatives 38%, while state farms manage 29%, according to figures provided in 2015 during the XI Congress of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP).

Popular jokes praise the marabou as if it were the royal palm. They propose to replace that haughty national emblem on the Republic’s coat of arms and in its place enshrine the tangled anatomy of the invading species.

A decade ago Raul Castro joked about the repudiation of the bush during a speech in Camagüey, during the official commemoration of the assault on the Moncada Barracks. “What was most beautiful, what stood out in my eyes, was how beautiful the marabou was along the whole road,” he said after traveling from Havana to that central province.

After that harangue, the crusade against the marabou took on ideological status and became a symbol of Raul’s government, right alongside the promises of eradicating the dual monetary system, curbing corruption and lowering food prices. Shortly afterwards, enthusiasm for the battle was lost and it disappeared from the government’s list of critical projects.

In an irony of fate, the enemy plant has gradually become an ally. In 2007 the Spanish company Iberian and Solid Fuels (Ibecosol SL) began to commercialize charcoal made from marabou in several European countries. Its ability to burn slowly and the delicate flavor it adds to food has earned it a good reputation.

The earth has to be scorched first to make the oven work properly. (14ymedio)

Jorge Luis Ledesma Herrera knows these qualities well, because part of the marabou he processes ends up in his own stove. Every morning he spends hours cutting the logs that he then transports in an oxcart. His life is not very different from his grandfather’s, but he boasts of being able to count on “legal electricity” in an environment where low voltage “clotheslines” – as makeshift electrical wiring is called – abound.

He describes working with marabou as a real hell. The main limitation is the tools he has to work with. The axes and machetes are of poor quality, bought on the black market, and must be repaired all the time. With ingenuity, some have recycled blades from sugar cane harvesters to aid in cutting.

About two hundred yards from the farmer’s house is the flat ground where the oven is built. The earth is burned and looks fine, like black powder. The marabou must be heated to temperatures between 750° and 1300° F, with the wood stacked in a cone, covered over with straw and earth.

“Two months ago I took out of the oven an amount I calculated as 20 sacks – about half a tonne – and it started to rain. Although the rain only lasted a few minutes the hard coals cracked like broken glass,” he said. “I could only save five sacks.

In the nearby Artemisa Joaquín Díaz, 56, has been engaged in the manufacture of charcoal since he was a child. He has been using marabou for years to cook, but now, with the news of its export, he processes it more delicately and takes greater care of the ovens. Like Ledesma, he only has access to water through a well, takes care of his personal needs in a latrine outside the house and his house has a light weight roof.

This charcoal producer in the village of Fierro, in the municipality of San Cristóbal, bears up under the sting of the rebellious shrub; like other farmers he uses gardening gloves to protect himself. Keeping his eyes away from thorns is also part of the precautions. When he prepares an oven he tries not to leave a gap between one stick and another, because “it doesn’t hold in the fire and then it goes out.” Care is essential. “As long as white smoke is coming out, the wood isn’t burned,” and it will only ready to dismantle when the smoke turns blue, which may take a week or more, Diaz explains.

In Pinar del Río, the companies that buy charcoal from the burners are the state-owned Acopio and the Integral Forest Enterprise. Payment is made through a temporary contract that allows them to be paid directly and not through the cooperatives. The charcoal-burners thus avoid the check cashing fee charged by those entities.

The house in Artemisa of the charcoal-burner Joaquín Díaz, age 56. (14ymedio)

The state pays for charcoal at 1.20 Cuban pesos (CUP – roughly 5 cents US) per kilogram (2.2 pounds) wholesale, or 30 CUP for a 25 kilogram sack. For premium charcoal they pay 0.10 CUC (roughly ten cents US) per kilogram. With luck, the producer will pocket the equivalent of 150 dollars for every tonne of best quality charcoal, which the state enterprise will sell in the United States for 420 dollars, almost three times what the charcoal-burner makes.

However, selling to the state comes with many problems of late payments. In addition, “the rigging of the process of selection and the weighing of the premium coal, makes it more reliable to sell it to private individuals,” says Ledesma. The private buyer pays 40 CUP per sack, “and many owners of pizzerias and private restaurants in Pinar del Rio” come to him to stock up.

Ledesma dreams of being able to sell his marabou charcoal directly, without going through the state as an intermediary. “If that could be done, I would buy myself a chain saw to increase production so I could change the way I live.” Of course if that were the case, he reflects, “even doctors would come here set up charcoal ovens in El Gaucho.”

Cuban-American Sues for Compensation for Property Expropriated in 1959 / EFE, 14ymedio

General view of the entrance of the port of Santiago de Cuba. (Networks)

14ymedio biggerEFE, via 14ymedio, Miami, 7 February 2017 — The Cuban-American neurosurgeon Javier García-Bengochea filed a lawsuit in US federal court against a Chinese company for building on property that he says was expropriated from his family by the Island’s government in 1959.

The civil suit, for 6.5 million euros, was filed last Friday in a local court in Jacksonville, North Florida, against the China Communications Construction Company Ltd., based in Beijing, according to court documents to which EFE had access.

The petitioner claims that he inherited the property in the port of Santiago in eastern Cuba from his cousin in 1972, although it was seized by the Cuban government in 1959. continue reading

The Government of Cuba has yet to resolve the 5,913 claims certified in the US regarding properties confiscated on the island, for a total amount of 1,780 million euros.

A first step in advancing these processes would be to activate Title III of the 1996 Freedom Act (Helms-Burton), but since its adoption Title III has been suspended, every six months, by order of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

This clause allows Americans, even if they were not there at the time of the expropriation, to file US claims in US courts and prohibits foreign companies from “trafficking” these confiscated properties.

Garcia-Bengochea’s suit demands economic compensation from the Chinese company for “trafficking” his property in Cuba.

John Kavulich, president of the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, which brings together US companies interested in increasing trade with the island, told EFE that President Obama suspended the clause again for another six months on 5 January, 15 days before the end of his term.

First Group of Cuban Doctors Arrives in Miami after the End of the ‘Parole’ / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, Miami, 6 February 2017 – Two dozen health professionals who abandoned their Cuban medical missions abroad arrived this afternoon at the Miami International Airport from Colombia. This is the first group to arrive in the United States after the end of the Cuban Medical Professional Parole (CMPP).

“This is a triumph for the whole Cuban American community, our organization and the offices of the Cuban American congressmen who have worked so that these guys can get the right deal, and their petitions were satisfactorily answered,” said Julio Cesar Alfonso, president of the organization Solidarity Without Borders (SSF) which supports Cuban doctors.

Yerenia Cedeno, a 28-year old Cuban doctor, characterized the situation they experienced in Venezuela as “horrible.” She escaped five months after arriving at the mission, pushed by insecurity and the precarious conditions where they worked. continue reading

“You would find out that they took the phone from this one or robbed that one on the minibus. It’s horrible,” explains Cedeno.

The doctor adds that she could not go back to Cuba because there she “would be marginalized and looked at badly.”

“They put you in another place, not in your job because they look down on you because you don’t agree with what you experienced and for what you were badly prepared,” she adds.

The doctor felt exploited in Venezuela, where she shared her work with her husband, also a doctor, who accompanied her on her trip to the United States but did not want to make a statement to the press.

Their plan is to take their little three-year old daughter who lives in Guantanamo out of Cuba and resume their studies in the United States.

“I want to work as a doctor or something similar. This is the start of a new life,” she says.

This past January 12, the then-president of the United States, Barack Obama, eliminated the CMPP, a program established under the administration of Republican George Bush that in a decade allowed the flight of more than 8,000 Cuban health professionals.

Cuban Health Personnel Received through Cuban Medical Professionals Parole

 

According to the non-profit organization Solidarity Without Borders, which helps integrate these doctors into the US health system, it helps those fleeing from the biggest human trafficking system in the modern history of the western hemisphere.

Arisdelqui Mora, a young Cuban who escaped the Island four years ago on a raft, waited for her half-sister Arianna Reyes, a Cuban doctor who escaped from the mission in Venezuela. The happiness of the reunion, which included the grandmother of both, received wide media coverage.

“We have been separated but during the whole time we remained in communication through the networks,” explains Mora to 14ymedio.

“They have worked a lot,” she adds.

Celia Santana, a dentist, only spent five months in Venezuela.

“Venezuela is much worse than my country. I never imagined that it would be like that. That country is a disaster, and of course the Venezuelan people are not to blame,” explains the doctor.

She spent five months awaiting the parole in order to travel to the United States.

“It’s absurd to end the program. They should have taken other measures,” she says.

“Cubans escape because of the economic situation and also because of the politics because they want freedom of expression.”

Mildre Ester Martinez, recently arrived in Miami, appreciates the help received through the media and the service of Solidarity Without Borders.

“I did not feel right. I was disgusted, disappointed by all the work we did there. I thank God to be here,” she added.

Maikel Palacios, health professional and spokesman for the group of Cubans, reminded that although Cuba has said publicly that they can rejoin the public health system, “they don’t let defectors enter the country for eight years.”

Health worker Veidy Diaz, from Cuba, is received by her family and friends on arriving at MIA from Colombia (NH).

Palacios also questioned the supposed good will of the Island’s government when the official communication from the Minister of Public Health did not mention the frozen bank accounts that the aid workers lose once they abandon the mission.

“They don’t talk about the money. There are people who have up to 7,000 dollars, and they lose it all the day they decide to escape,” he said.

The Cuban government appropriates two-thirds of the salary earned by the Cubans abroad. They are generally sent to the most remote places in deplorable working conditions. In countries like Brazil they do not have the right to receive their family while the aid program lasts, even though the laws of that country permit it.

Solidarity Without Borders is in the middle of a campaign to re-establish the Parole program for Cuban doctors. Currently they are working with the offices of Cuban American congressmen in order to present a proposal to President Donald Trump to reinstate the CMPP.

“We will keep working so that our colleagues may reach the land of freedom and in the near future the Parole program will be re-established for professionals who are in third countries,” explained the president of SSF, Julio Cesar Alfonso.

According to statistics from SSF more than 69 Cuban doctors have been killed in Venezuela in the last 10 years. The Cuban government has divulged that currently more than 50,000 professionals from the Island are dispersed throughout more than 60 countries worldwide.

Working conditions and political pressure push thousands of professionals to accept the missions proposed by the Cuban government. Even though the salary was increased in 2014, the average salary of a doctor in Cuba is about 60 dollars a month.

The massive exportation of health services has generated income for the government on the order of 8.2 billion dollars a year in 2014 according to official sources.

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

Police Search Home of Cuban ‘YouTuber’ / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio Havana, 8 February 2017 – Officers from Cuba’s National Revolutionary Police searched the home of ‘YouTuber’ and activist Alexei Gamez, in Jagüey Grande in the province of Matanzas. According to Eliecer Avila, leader of the Somos+ (We Are More) Movement, the agents entered the house in the morning and have not allowed access to family or friends.

“During the search they seized numerous appliances and the phones of all the family members,” explained Avila. Another source close to Gámez detailed that the young man was taken from his home “in police custody” and taken away in a patrol car. His mother tried to take a photo of the moment, but as a result was also arrested. continue reading

Alexei Gámez is a member of Somos+ and a self-employed worker. “He has a license that allows him to work as a motorcycle mechanic,” Avila explained. The activist is part of the Methodist community and in recent days has created a channel on YouTube to teach Cubans how to “make better use of the internet” on the island.

Under the name “Calle Mora,” the channel broadcasts advice on wireless networks and content sharing. To date it has published two videos with “alternative solutions to connect and better understand technology,” explains its creator.

Last November, Gámez was detained for seven days along with other members of the movement, after being arrested when he tried to participate in Academy 1010, a civic development initiative promoted by Somos+.

The latest video could be the cause of the police response as it details how to configure a NanoStation , a device for wireless communication widely used in alternative networks and to connect to the  Telecommunications Company of Cuba’s (ETECSA) wifi service, which is now available in more than one hundred plazas and parks in the country.

NanoStations have never been marketed in state stores, but are offered in the informal market at prices ranging from 180 to 250 Cuban convertible pesos (roughly the same in dollars). Bringing them into the country is regulated by the General Customs of the Republic, which requires the traveler to show authorization for the device from the Ministry of Communications.

Last November, Gámez was detained for seven days along with other members of the movement, after being arrested when he tried to participate in Academy 1010, a civic development initiative promoted by Somos+.

According to a report released Monday by the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, there have been 478 arbitrary arrests against dissidents. The independent entity also denounces the “seizures of their means of labor (laptops, cameras, mobile phones, etc.).”

Roof Collapse Injures Tourists at Their Cuban Wedding / 14ymedio

The Sol Río De Luna y Mares hotel, of the Meliá chain. (Tripadvisor)

14ymedio, Miami, 8 February 2017 — John and Sarah Wenham had planned the wedding of their dreams in Cuba, a country that in recent years has become a magnet for tourists from all latitudes. However, this young British couple did not suspect that their wedding would turn into a nightmare.

The Wenham saved a total of $30,000 over a period of years to get married in Cuba. They never imagined that the lobby ceiling of the Sol Rio De Luna y Mares hotel would be weaker than their love and completely collapse on them, wounding several guests, including the bride and groom.

The bridegroom has two fractured ribs and severe bruising as a result of the failed ceremony. The bride ended up with head and eye injuries. A wound on her face required 10 stitches and will probably leave a scar. continue reading

“We were just about to meet with the hotel staff to go over our wedding plans in the lobby, when John pointed to the ceiling as it started to move,” the 35-year-old bride told this newspaper.

“The was a loud bang and suddenly the roof collapsed right over us, leaving us trapped. The debris pinned us to the floor,” added the bride.

The couple’s lawyers will take legal action against the tour operator who arranged such a bitter experience for them.

The weight of the false ceiling prevented the couple from moving, amid the shouts from the crowd and the screams of Sarah’s daughters.

Other guests suffered serious injuries, including blows and wounds to their heads and spines, and broken bones. One of the guests had to have 19 stitches in his scalp.

The experience in the Holguin hotel was bad even before the falso ceiling collapsed. According to the English couple, from the second day of their vacation their room was flooded with sewage. There were unprotected electrical wires and several of the wedding guests got diarrhea, which was later confirmed to be caused by salmonella.

The couple’s lawyers will take legal action against the tour operator who arranged such a bitter experience for them.

“In a fraction of a second everything we had planned and saved for for so long disappeared,” said the bride and groom.

“We felt really bad because all these people spent so much money and they had traveled to be with us on our special day and then this happened.”

Young Cuban Journalists Look at Their Profession / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

The official press knows that it can criticize an official, but not a government policy. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 8 February 2017 – Now underway is the second meeting of young journalists at the Jose Marti International Journalism Institute in Havana. The main objective of the event, organized by the Cuban Journalists Union (UPEC), is to discuss “journalism and citizen participation, and communication in the context of updating Cuba’s social-economic model.”

The news reports published in the official press, in addition to reviewing the 24 proposals from the previous meeting, held in December 2015, reiterate “the urgency of a change in the routines of production and a transformation of the management model.”

It is likely that the young participants of this experience will leave with the belief that national journalism is on the verge of change, and that they will have a role in its transformation. This would be the healthiest mistake of their professional career. continue reading

The vast majority of those in charge of deciding what can be published and what must be silenced know perfectly well how diffuse are the limits of their responsibility

Imbued with this useful error, they will return to their newsrooms convinced that the sacred verse of “changing everything that should be changed” will be applied to the mass media so that the press will finally fulfill its social role of keeping the population informed about what is really happening in the country.

The vast majority of those in charge of deciding what can be published and what must be silenced know perfectly well how diffuse are the limits of their responsibility. They know, for example, that they can berate the negligence of an administrator at a collection point where the bananas are rotting on a truck, but they can never criticize the evil effects of the excessive centralization of public administration.

When it comes time to choose, these leading cadres prefer to censor rather than declassify, because, as they know, no director of a newspaper or radio station ever been dismissed for silencing a criticism or hiding complaints in a drawer.

When these impetuous kids return to their media with a new shot of adrenaline, their more experienced colleagues will take the time to explain to them that since the 3rd UPEC Congress, held more than 40 years ago, it seemed that everything would change if they fulfilled the theme of that event: “For a critical, militant and creative journalism.”

Since then, there as been a lot of talk from the podiums about the culture of secrecy and the essential need to undertake rigorous analysis of the problems that afflict the population.

A brief inventory of recent information lacunae could justify a certain pessimism about the future of Cuba’s official journalism. The most notorious example is that no one has reported on the cause of death of ex-president Fidel, despite the fact that his passing is the news that has occupied the most space in the media since the end of last year.

No journalist has tried to explain in the official media why Marino Murilla, in the last session of parliament, did not not offer his traditional progress report with regards to the implementation of the Party guidelines, nor what has been the fate of the new electoral law that Raul Castro announced in February 2015 would be forthcoming, but about which nothing more has been heard.

Silence reigns over such important topics as the date when the country’s dual currency system will end, or when the United Nation’s human rights covenants will be ratified, or the depth of the dredging in Mariel Bay

Silence reigns over such important topics as the date when the country’s dual currency system will end, or when the United Nations human rights covenants will be ratified, or the depth of the dredging in Mariel Bay, just to mention a few topical issues.

If we go back a decade, it comes to mind that there have been no explanations about how the super-entity called the Battle of Ideas ended, which was led by Mr. Otto Rivero, of whom nothing more has ever been said. Nor is there any official report on the ouster of Carlos Venciaga, a member of the Council of State, nor about that of the army of social workers who had become omnipresent, but which are now nowhere to be seen.

Vice President Miguel Díaz-Canel spoke with reporters Monday afternoon and emphasized “the need to perfect” the work of the media. In passing, he called attention to ways to confront “the platforms of ideological political subversion,” which target young people. Curiously, among these platforms appear all of Cuba’s independent journalism, which finds among its principal niches all the information that is never talked about in the official press.

Dangerous Current / 14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez

This mess of bad connections is likely to have been conceived as an interim solution that has become permanent. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 8 February 2017 – In Central Havana where people live in very close quarters, popular speech develops at a dizzying speed and the illegal sellers have their kingdom among the corridors and passageways. But this part of the city is also among the few areas with an underground electrical system, an installation that has the great advantage of not suffering damages due to the collapse of polls or the effects of strong winds.

In the emerging Cuban real estate market, being located in an area where the wires run under the street adds a lot of value. The sellers boast of this detail, pointing to it with the same pride that others declare the high quality of their house because it was “constructed under capitalism,” or – and it’s the same thing – before 1959.

At the central corner of Galiano and Dragones there was once a discreet rewiring, barely perceptible, that has now become a public threat. This mess of connections was probably conceived as a temporary solution that has now become permanent. Passersby avoid it, the neighbors up above avoid throwing water from their balconies and parents make haste to warn their children, “don’t touch it.”

Maybe someone should hang a sign that says, “Dangerous Current.” Not only to warn of the risk of accidental contact, but also to point out how usual and common these kinds of scenes have become in the capital. A detail that no owner will reveal in the sugar-coated descriptions they publish to sell their house.