14ymedio – Page 677 – Translating Cuba

Opposition Organization UNPACU Turns Six In Very Difficult Circumstances

José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU). (Matias J. Ocner for 14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 2 August 2017 — The Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU) is celebrating its six years in the midst of the complicated situation faced by the island’s opposition, assaulted by repression and limited by laws that penalize any form of organized dissidence.

Under the leadership of José Daniel Ferrer, UNPACU was born in 2011, after the release of the last prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003. Ferrar says that his experience within the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) proved to be momentous in shaping his political development.

Ferrer described the situation of the last year as “much more repressive” than the organization had experienced since its founding. Speaking to 14ymedio, Ferrer said that his greatest achievement in this new scenario has been “surviving” and finding “new actions and strategies to maintain a close bond with the community.” continue reading

Ferrer believes that UNPACU and its activists are the definition of “courage and service.” In the current political context, some dissident groups barely survive for a few months and others go through ups and downs. “They courageously face tyranny and serve the people, especially those most in need,” he said.

Ferrer described the situation of the last year as “much more repressive” than the organization had experienced since its founding

The leader of the organization explained that since the beginning of August they have undertaken activities to celebrate the founding of the opposition organization, “despite the increase of repression.”

“We have been moving our activists to different places in activities that have developed in a wifi zone, a river, a baseball or soccer camp.”

Ferrer denounced a police operation on Thursday that surrounded the organization’s headquarters in Santiago de Cuba.

“The operation coincided with the day UNPACU’s activist get together. Everyone who enters or leaves is searched or detained,” he said.

Carlos Amel Oliva Torres, youth leader of that organization, stressed that to its credit the organization has “not ceased activism in the streets,” but agreed with Ferrer that it has become more difficult because in the past year they have faced “more prisoners and more repression.”

Regarding the arrests, he said that they may have diminished, but that this is not due to “a better situation in the country” but to the fact that “many leaders are already in prison.”

UNPACU has spread all over the island and has more than 3,000 members, according to its leaders

UNPACU has spread all over the island and has more than 3,000 members, according to its leaders. In Havana, the provincial coordinator, Zaqueo Báez, has breathed new life into the movement, Oliva said.

Baez’s face appeared on the front pages of the media when, during the Pope’s Mass in the Plaza of the Revolution last September, he and other colleagues approached the bishop of Rome and called for the release of political prisoners.

UNPACU has a very dynamic YouTube channel where it shares material to publicize its community work and the opinions of the people of the street.

In a recent video, a resident of El Cristo neighborhood called for “greater support” for the organization because “any group that seeks freedom and the rights of any man is what represents the common good for this country.”

According to Oliva Torres, UNPACU continues “with social assistance” despite having been heavily attacked. He recalled that months ago the government “raided and closed a children’s nursery” run by the organization.

“We continue despite the fact that the regime has often predicted the end of UNPACU, today we are still here with the same willingness of the first day, assuming all the risks and consequences,” said the activist via telephone from Santiago de Cuba.

Cuban “Collaborators” on Foreign Missions Will Pay Customs Duties in Cuban Pesos

Cuban legislation stipulates that Cubans and foreigners residing on the island can pay customs duties on imports in Cuban pesos only once per year.

14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 24 August 2017 – Currently, Cubans and foreigners residing in Cuba are permitted to pay customs duty on imported products in Cuban pesos only once per year. Subsequent import duties must be paid in Cuba’s other currency, the Cuban convertible peso (CUC), which is worth 25 times the Cuban peso (CUP). New rules will allow doctors, teachers and other “Cuban collaborators abroad” – that is professionals that the state “rents out” to other nations – to pay subsequent customs duties in CUP. Tourists and Cubans residing abroad must pay all customs duties in CUC.

The new measure from the Ministry of Finance and Prices seeks to stop the hemorrhaging of professionals who are working on “missions” abroad, which bring the country great economic benefits.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, Cuba earned more than $11.8 billion from the export of services in 2016, although some analysts believe the figure is unlikely, given that medical personnel in some countries such as Brazil and Venezuela have “deserted” from their postings. continue reading

Many of the professionals that Cuba sends to third countries are contracted through Cuban government agencies, which keep the vast majority of the money paid by the other countries for their services. However, these “missions” are attractive to the workers because they offer the ability to purchase clothes and domestic appliances abroad, as well as paying a salary higher than they would receive on the island.

The new measure of the Ministry of Finance and Prices seeks to stop the hemorrhaging of professionals who are sent to work in “missions” abroad, which bring the country great economic benefits

“They [the government] know that we are tired of being exploited. This has been a demand we have made for a long time,” says a Cuban doctor living in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, who asks to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.

Those who desire to pay the customs duty in Cuban pesos on a second set of imports will have the right to do so only if “the head of the Organ or Body of the Central Administration of the State to which the collaborator belongs” sends a request to the General Customs of the Republic, and it will only apply to those who have to return to Cuba for “official business,” because of a delay in their vacations, or because their work on the mission abroad has ended prior to the planned date due to changes in the workforce.

“In Venezuela, the situation is worse than in Cuba. The only reason that we come here at the risk of our lives is the chance to bring something to our families because we have to ask even to send our soap there,” an intensive care nurse in Caracas explains to 14ymedio.

This health worker, who fears for his life due to the political and economic crisis of Venezuela, does not explain how it is possible that, even with all the profits that he contributes to the Government of the Island, the authorities impose a fee on him to send cellphones to his family.

“They were stealing from us twice: first they took our salary and then, when we arrived in Cuba, they bled us dry at Customs,” says the professional.

According to the current import law, residents who import goods with a value between 50 pesos and 500 pesos have to pay 100% of the value of the product and goods valued between 501 pesos and 1,000 must pay 200%.

Soup Kitchen for Havana’s Poor Can Barely Cope

Dining room of La Milagrosa parish in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 24 August 2017 – He arrives close to noon with a tin cup and a plastic bag. Roberto is one of the many elderly who eat lunch at the Milagrosa parish hall in Havana’s Santos Suarez neighborhood. The ration he receives for breakfast, lunch and a snack is the 78-year-old retiree’s main sustenance; his pension is 220 Cuban pesos (CUP) a month, less than ten dollars.

The place, managed by the Catholic Church, is packed during meal times and the nuns who manage the kitchen say they can barely help all those in need. The humanitarian service will continue, despite the recent death of its leading light, the priest Jesus Maria Lusarreta, who was 80. continue reading

Since he settled on the island in the early 1990s, the parish priest, born in 1937 in the Navarre town of Lumbier, in Spain, promoted various programs to help the elderly and disabled, as well as providing a space for children and young people with Down’s Syndrome. However, the impoverishment of the surrounding neighborhoods has limited the temple’s capacity to help all who knock on its doors.

The place, managed by the Catholic Church, is packed during meal times and the nuns who manage the kitchen say they can barely help all those in need

Lusarreta also established a system of home help to bring food to people who could not get to the parish, and he not infrequently asked for money from his own family in Spain to defray the expenses of a support system that has not stopped growing in recent years.

According to data from the Provincial Directorate of Assistance and Social Security in Havana, 335,178 retirees live in the capital city, with a monthly average income of 272 CUP apiece. Although some have relatives abroad who send them remittances, others must sell cigarettes and newspapers to survive, or live off public charity.

La Milagrosa Parish, in Havana. (14ymedio)

The center, a two-story building attached to the Roman-style temple built in 1947, also has a hairdresser offering free personal grooming, laundry and manicure services. At first there were only a dozen elderly people but today more than 200 show up every day.

In a statement to 14ymedio, a few weeks before his death, the priest regretted that the facilities where they kept some of the resources to help the most disadvantaged frequently fell victim to “robberies and vandalism.” However, he said that, despite the damage caused, he could understand “why people did it.”

One of the retirees, Roberto, separates some of the beans and rice he just received for lunch. “Next to my house is a man who has nothing and I always take him part of what they give me,” he explains.

Roberto and the other neighbors of La Milagrosa cross their fingers so that the project does not falter now that its main inspiration has died.

Republican Era Cuba, Patrimony Of The Ruling Party

Cuba’s ruling party appropriates the cultural images of Republican era Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 24 August 2017 — The gallery near the garden displays the faces of dozens of celebrities who stayed at the Havana’s Hotel Nacional. In one corner we see mobster Meyer Lansky, in another the sensual legs of ballerina Josephine Baker and the broad torso of actor Johnny Weissmüller. All belong to that “cocktail of the past” that gives the foreigners who come to visit an ecstatic rush.

The ruling party has converted the Republican era into its exclusive patrimony. It brings economic benefits to buildings constructed under capitalism, makes the places that served the nightlife of that era profitable, and appropriates the cultural scene of “mediatized Cuba,” as the history books call it. continue reading

The first half of the twentieth century has become a commodity, a product sold in tourist packages, souvenirs and through repetitive “canned” music, which appeals to those who want a shot of nostalgia; but it can also spark disgust when the private sector takes advantage of this scenography with its odor of mothballs.

Most of the images disseminated by the Ministry of Tourism exploit the symbolism of the Island during the first half of the 20th century

Cuba’s first vice president Miguel Díaz-Canel expressed his annoyance in a video filmed last February, for what he considers the “eulogy to the Batista era” promoted by many restaurants and cafes through a décor of photos from the era of the Republic. However, in his speech the official conveniently avoided mentioning the use the state itself makes of marketing that country that no longer exists.

Most of the images disseminated by the Ministry of Tourism exploit the symbolism of the island during the first half of the twentieth century, showing the Floridita restaurant/bar, the Bodeguita del Medio or the Tropicana cabaret. The senior officials of Gaviota and other hotel groups collect dollars in exchange for visually exploiting years that they themselves contributed to destroying.

Like all totalitarianism, the Cuban system seeks to control information and silence; the press and rumors; the past and present. Now, it has ended up closing the circle around the memories of Republican Cuba. Only power has the right to evoke that moment and, of course, it does it in its own way.

The Enigmas of Successions

The First Cuban Vice-President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, shown here listening to Raul Castro, is one of the candidates to occupy the presidency. (EFE)

14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 6 August 2017 – Only half a year before the announced general-president Raúl Castro’s departure from his duties as President of Cuba, it is still not known with certainty who his successor will be. It is undeniable is that whoever the Power choses to give continuity to the failed socio-political and economic model imposed by the olive-green clan will inherit not only a country in ruins with an astronomical debt and an aging population, depleted by the emigration of a large segment of the best of its workforce, but also a very different regional panorama from that memorable summer of 2006, when Fidel Castro proclaimed himself “provisionally” retired from the Government after placing country’s direction in the hands of a clique led by the current president.

In recent times the continent’s left has been suffering its worst setbacks in decades, after losing the political power that had spread like an epidemic and even seemed fused to some of the most economically strong nations of this hemisphere, such as Brazil and Argentina. continue reading

At the same time, Venezuela, once the capital of this shady Castro experiment known as “socialism, XXI century style,” continues to sink in what many experts consider the greatest economic and political crisis in that country’s history, which has affected a significant contraction of the oil subsidies destined for Cuba, with its implications for an economy as fragile and dependent as ours.

Gone are the fleeting glories of the entelechies born in the wake of the late Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, like the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA-TCP), created in 2004 in Havana, or Petrocaribe, which was founded in Venezuela in 2005, in order to politically influence the small oil-poor Caribbean nations and buy their support in international forums, in exchange for oil quotas at extremely magnanimous prices.

Despite such an adverse scenario for his interests, it is assumed that whomever is sentenced by Raúl Castro to be his successor will be “reliable”: sufficiently pliable to lend himself to the management of those who really move the political threads – and all other threads – behind the scenes, and be reasonably cautious not to attempt the rehearsal of too abrupt a turn that would dislodge the ever-unpredictable social balance in a country saturated with shortages and frustrations. Autocrats do not like surprises.

It is necessary to consider the possibility that – similar to his elder brother when he left power in 2006 – the general-president has conceived a kind of collegial succession, leaving specific functions to several representatives of the different tendencies which, according to widely spread but never confirmed opinions, exist among the groups close to the Power. The bad guys’ great advantage is that they know how to be cohesive when they have common interests to defend.

Thus, a collegial government after the partial withdrawal of the general-president is a perfectly possible variable in a nation where there is only one political party “as the superior governing force of society and the state,” where, as a norm, the ruling caste ominously tends to ignore all the other commandments of the Cuban Constitution and what they themselves have legislated without obstacles in the last 40 years, and where all the political and economic maneuvers are hidden in the most absolute secrecy and come to light only as fait accompli, which saves the mokogos* of the Palace of Revolution the cumbersome process of requesting approval from the bland Parliament or of also submitting the most important matters of State to the consideration of the (dis)governed.

In fact, this variant of collegial succession – not necessarily explicit – headed by a visible string-puppet does not seem very remote. Especially if one takes into account the experiences of other regional successions, such as that of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, elected by the deceased Hugo Chávez at the touch of his finger, but devised to the last detail by his comrade and mentor, Fidel Castro, in order to guarantee the survival of their respective so-called “socialist” projects and their leaders.

The once rampant Chavismo, just as its maker conceived it, has ended up succumbing to the ineptitude of the “successor” and the Castro greed

Suffice it to examine the composition of the Maduro cohort to understand that the red-olive/green arrangement was not only forged in Havana, but was already a done deal long before the Chavez, the “Eternal Commander,” was planted in the Mountain Barracks to end up transmuted into a little bird**.

However, despite the careful calculations of the most experienced conspirators, the ambush that Maduro has led Venezuela into is so complicated and profound that it overwhelms any control. Sooner or later, the dictatorial power will fall, because the situation has become ungovernable and, by appealing to repression and crime to retain power, the Government has lost all traces of legitimacy. The once rampant Chavismo, as conceived by its maker, has succumbed to the ineptitude of the “successor” and to the Castro greed.

Another planned succession, but of very different character, is the one that took place in Ecuador after the triumph of the candidate of the ruling party, Alianza País, in the person of Lenín Moreno in the second round of elections last May.

Moreno, surprisingly and quickly, soon began to detach from the hard and belligerent politics of his predecessor and has developed a conciliatory, inclusive, measured and serene style, seeking dialogues and agreements with different social sectors and with the opposition, which has provoked the virulent reaction of an angry Rafael Correa, who has described Moreno as “a traitor,” among other equally strong accusations.

The cases of Venezuela and Ecuador confirm that changes in power are not always “more of the same”, but can lead to unpredictable turns

The confrontation has led to a deep fracture within the heart of party, according to the sympathies of its militants, between Correa and Moreno. Nevertheless, during the festival of Lenín Moreno’s electoral victory, a radiant and happy Rafael Correa could be seen celebrating the triumph at full sail, shouting slogans and thundering on the microphones with songs of the radical left (“here is the clear, the affectionate transparency”) as if instead of Lenín Moreno, he himself had won the elections.

Just as all autocrats dream of or aspire to it, Correa certainly believed that the person who was at the moment his cabinet vice-president would now, at the head of the new Government, be a docile follower of his dictates, the visible figure behind which he would somehow continue to exercise the power and iron social control. It has not been the case, and this avoids deepening the country’s internal conflicts and opens the way to a possible process of pacts that will overcome the tensions and social polarization suffered in Ecuador through all these years.

It would be premature to say how successful or not Moreno’s performance might turn out, but it is clear that this veteran does not feel indebted to the previous government, but has his own agenda. If it will benefit democracy and the citizens of Ecuador, let’s welcome it.

The cases of Venezuela and Ecuador allow us to confirm that changes in power, beyond successions or ruptures, are not always “more of the same,” but can lead to unpredictable turns. Thus, succession in Venezuela has resulted in the fraudulent attempt to legitimize a corrupt and repressive dictatorship, while succession in Ecuador seems to favor a return of the democratic spaces violated by the previous ruler. We will wait to see if the Cuban succession offers us a Maduro or a Moreno.

Translator’s notes:
*Ceremonial figure in Kundu settlements of southwestern Cameroon.
** Maduro has claimed that Chavez comes to him in the guise of a “very small bird” and speaks to him through whistles.

Translated by Norma Whiting

License to Kill

Several young people remain beside the remains of a vehicle, at the scene of the attack last Thursday on Barcelona’s La Rambla. (EFE)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 21 August 2017 — The most complex ethical dilemma facing a human being is to make the decision to die or to kill. Faced with this conflict, there are those who justify themselves by arguing that only by taking a life can they defend their family, their patrimony, the sovereignty of a nation, ideological principles or religious beliefs.

The terrorist attacks of the recent years have been committed mostly by Islamic fundamentalist groups convinced that “the infidels” should be eliminated wherever they are. The perpetrators of these acts are willing to sacrifice themselves to the cry of “Allah is great” as they leave a trail of civilian casualties.

There is no novelty in these hate crimes. In Spain itself, where last week a truck hit dozens of people, more than half a century ago Republicans shot the priests and the Falangists killed the poet Federico García Lorca, accused of being a communist and a homosexual. In 2004, in a single day, on 11 March, terrorists killed 193 passengers on four trains in Madrid. continue reading

The revulsion in the face of the attack on Barcelona’s La Rambla now becomes energetic but not unanimous, because revolutionaries find it hard to condemn such actions. The reason for this timidity is simple: Marxist ideology is based on the philosophical principle that the elimination of the opposition — by means of violent action — is the only formula for solving an antagonistic contradiction.

In his well-known Message to the Peoples of the World, published in April 1967 in the journal Tricontinental, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara defined in a radical way the sentiment that should accompany every revolutionary soldier: “Hatred as an element of the struggle; a relentless hatred of the enemy, impelling us over and beyond the natural limitations that man is heir to and transforming him into an effective, violent, selective and cold killing machine.”

As if he is advising the jihadists of today, the guerrilla concluded his recommendation warning, “We must carry the war into every corner the enemy happens to carry it: to his home, to his centers of entertainment; a total war.” A phrase that fits with the scene of the pedestrians who were walking along, last Thursday, on the Paseo Marítimo in Cambrils, unaware that the terrorists were preparing to turn their stroll into tragedy.

Revolutionary morality justifies murder and can be used by members of any political or religious sect. There is no difference between killing in the name of social justice, the supremacy of a race, or the imposition of a faith. Hate is intrinsic to the Marxist dialectic because, in the face of the “other,” the position that promotes this ideology does not come to accept it, but to annihilate it. Where the two do not fit, the solution is not to enlarge the space but to eliminate the excess.

Revolutionaries suspect that if they renounce this maxim they will lose the power they obtained by force, and that by showing themselves too tolerant they weaken their authority. A guerrilla, although disguised in the suit and tie of a statesman, knows that he cannot undermine the legitimacy of the armed struggle or violent acts, because they are part of his ideological DNA, they are in each of the chromosomes of his political actions.

These radicals, once they have society under control, undertake another form of extermination against their political opponents. They cut off their economic autonomy, prohibit their free association through laws, prevent them from expressing themselves in the media, and enact laws that penalize their disagreement. They are socially murdered.

The attempt to impose a single religion is similar to that of implementing the doctrine of a single party. In both cases, the promoters of fundamentalism are willing to denigrate, silence and kill “the infidels.”

“I’m Not Going To Erase My Graffiti,” Yulier Tells Police, Who Gave Him Seven Days To Do So

Graffiti artist Yulier Rodríguez was arrested by police last Thursday and released after 36 hours. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 August 2017 — Graffiti artist Yulier Rodríguez was arrested by police last Thursday and released after 36 hours. The arrest occurred while he was painting a collapsed wall at the corner of San Lazaro and Escobar, in the municipality of Central Havana, the artist told 14ymedio.

The police warned Rodríguez that he had committed the crime of “mistreatment of social property” and took him to the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) Unit in Zanja Street, where he spent most of his time locked in a well-known dungeon known as the deposit.

“It is a horrible place, with nothing, dirty and immensely hot,” the street artist to told this newspaper. “There is no room to sit down given the number of people they put in there.” continue reading

In these conditions Rodriguez remained for about twelve hours until an investigator called him to take a statement about the State’s charge against him for “mistreatment of property.”

The graffiti artist, better known as Yulier P, defended himself by insisting that his work “does not mistreat property” because it is done on walls and buildings “that are in ruins.” He added that his interest is “to redecorate these spaces through culture,” with the aim of “creating a more tolerant, more honest, more humane and sensitive society.”

After the interrogation, the investigator informed him that he was being processed and that he was “under Investigation by Counterintelligence (CI).” On Friday night a police officer told him he could pick up his belongings to be released.

“I left half tormented by that situation, and they told me to sign a warning letter where I pledge to erase my work in seven days,” says the artist.

Rodríguez denounced that he was pressured to initial the document, but on the back of the statement he wrote that he did not agree with the measure that directly affected his career, his work and his person.

He explains that after he signed the letter they released him and warned him that “if I didn’t erase all the graffiti I would go back to jail.”

Regarding his plans in the face of this new situation, he said the he wants to “seek international support for people to be aware of this injustice,” and hire a lawyer who can defend him.

“I doubt very much that I will find one because most people flee when they are involved in cases with Counterintelligence, but I’m going to look for one.” The urban artist calls the police decision arbitrary and unjust. “I am not going to erase my graffiti,” he insists.

Yulier Rodríguez Pérez (b. 1989) was born in Florida, Camagüey, but from a very young age settled in Havana with the obsession of being a painter. Although he was never accepted in the academy of San Alejandro, he has turned the walls of the city into his own gallery.

Three #Otro18 Activists Detained On Their Way To The Electoral Commission

Juan Antonio Madrazo was on his way to the National Electoral Commission when he was arrested. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 August 2017 — Three activists from the citizen platform #Otro18 (Another 2018*) were arrested Wednesday when they were on their way to deliver “some suggestions” to the National Electoral Commission in Havana, according the opponent Manuel Cuesta Morúa speaking to 14ymedio.

Those detained are Lisbetty Darias González, Marthadela Tamayo and Juan Antonio Madrazo. “I have been trying to locate them since yesterday but I have not been able to find them, I have gone to all the police stations in the city, there are only four places left to visit,” Cuesta Morúa said.

The three detainees are involved in the Citizens Observer of Electoral Processes initiative, which works together with #Otro18 to promote new laws governing elections, the freedom of association, and political parties. continue reading

Gonzalez was cited Wednesday to appear at the Zapata and C police station, in Vedado, where according to Cuesta Morúa, he is detained. In the case of Tamayo and Madrazo, they went to the National Electoral Commission, located at 82nd Street between 9th and 11th, to deliver “a text with some suggestions from #Otro18.”

The recommendations were intended to “better regulate the voting process and have more citizen control, more transparency from the study of the law,” but so far it has not been possible to confirm “if they delivered the document,” Cuesta Morúa said.

The arrests have prompted a postponement of a press conference scheduled for Thursday, moving it to next week “depending on how things play out.”

For Cuesta Morúa, this week’s arrests are part of an offensive against independent initiatives that promote changes in the laws through the electoral system.

“#Otro18 candidates are the voice of citizens, not the voice of the state, they are fighting for transparency and propose electoral reforms that are supported by citizens,” the opponent clarifies.

Born in August 2015 from a project of the Progressive Arch and the Democratic Action and Unity Roundtable, the #Otro18 initiative has in recent weeks been the target of a repressive escalation aimed at activists seeking to run for positions as delegates in Popular Power districts, this coming October.

*Translator’s note: Raul Castro has said he will step down as president in February 2018. The election process in Cuba has a local component, but it is tightly controlled by the Communist Party. It is illegal to campaign and there is no popular vote of any kind for the position of president.

“We Will Defend Our Cooperative Through Administrative and Political Channels,” Says Cuban Firm, Scenius

The non-agricultural cooperative Scenius is still promoting its accounting services through its website. (Screen capture Scenius.coop)

14ymedio, Havana, 5 August 2017 — Alarms have soared in the non-state sector after the independent magazine El Toque announced, on Friday, the authorities’ decision to close the Scenius cooperative, which specializes in economic, accounting and tax advice

“We allegedly incurred a violation of our ‘Corporate Purpose’, but we disagree and we will appeal,” Alfonso Larrea Barroso, a lawyer and the commercial director of the cooperative, told 14ymedio. From the official notification of closure, the executives have 30 days to liquidate operations with their fifty clients.

Two years ago Larrea offered statements to the official Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth) newspaper in which he said Scenius is “the infantry of the cooperativism,” being the first cooperative to provide economic, accounting and financial services. continue reading

At that time, Larrea was optimistic and estimated that by 2016 the country would have some 12,000 non-agricultural cooperatives (CNA), a form of management authorized since 2012. “With an average of ten members in each, there would be almost 120,000 members. And thinking about the traditional family, there would be 480,000 people directly affected by this form of management,” he predicted.

However, that projected figure was never achieved and only 431 CNAs were constituted as of the end of the first half of this year.

Now, Larrea and his colleagues have hired a lawyer, who will appeal the decision of the Ministry of Finance and Prices. The entrepreneur regrets not only the end of his project, but also the more than 320 people who will be without work after the closure.

The commercial director also told this newspaper that at present “one hundred percent” of his clients “are state-owned enterprises, for example the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Communications and the Center for Neuroscience.”

After they were informed of the decision, Scenius managers held a meeting with the partners and the employees. “The decision was taken to defend the cooperative in every possible way, first by administrative means and second on the political side, that is, to demand that there be a discussion,” says Larrea.

Scenius has been dedicated, since its creation, to verifying the quality of accounting records and working with bookkeepers, and was also involved in the development and execution of economic plans, the preparation of investment budgets and the management of collections or payments. Their motto speaks of this approach: “Every champion has a coach.”

In the most recent session of the National Assembly, the CNA form of management was the target of Raul Castro’s criticism during his closing speech. “We decided to allow the cooperatives, we tried with some and immediately we launched ourselves to create dozens,” said the leader.

Castro said that many of the decisions in this sector have been made with “a good dose of superficialities and an excess of enthusiasm… We have not renounced the deployment and development of self-employment, nor the continuance of the experiment of non-agricultural cooperatives.”

This week the government also announced the temporary and final suspension in the delivery of licenses for several forms of self-employment, a decision that has caused great nervousness in the private sector.

Real Men Don’t Use Umbrellas

A woman walks along the Havana Rampa with an umbrella from the Artex chain of shops. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 August 2016 — “A man who is a man does not eat soup or sleep on his stomach,” says the popular quip, to which should be added that nor he does not use an umbrella. Despite the overwhelming heat that characterizes the Cuban summers, protecting oneself from the sun is still “a women’s thing,” a “female affectation,” think the macho.

On the streets of the island, there are hardly any men sheltering under an umbrella, wearing wide-brimmed hats – unless they have just left work in the fields – let alone using sunscreen. Taking shelter from El Indio (the burning sun) is somehow “weak” and masculinity is seldom associated with caution in the face of weather scourges.

However, the most common cancer on the island is skin cancer. In 2013, there were 10,432 cases of people affected by this disease and three years later 461 patients died as a result of this disease, of which 281 were men and 180 women.

Three Activists Arrested At Santiago Cathedral Receive Their First Prison Visit

14ymedio, Havana, 15 August 2017 — The Aguadores prison authorities authorized on Monday the first family visit to the three activists arrested during the protest at the cathedral of Santiago de Cuba on July 26, 14ymedio was told by Reina Silvia González, wife of Alberto Antonio Ramírez Odio, one of the detainees.

During the meeting, which lasted half an hour, Gonzalez was also able to see her brother-in-law Leonardo Ramirez Odio, and the father of both young people, Alberto de la Caridad Ramírez Baró. The three men were transferred to the prison last week on a provisional basis while the investigation process is underway, in advance of filing charges against them. continue reading

Gonzalez, who went to the prison along with the brothers’ grandmother, told this newspaper that “they are in good health.” Since they arrived at the prison “everyone is eating” and “they are all together,” although the authorities “have threatened to separate them” and send each to a different prison.

“They did not tell me the date of the trial yet, but I was able to learn that, from now on, the visits will be every two weeks,” Gonzalez said. She also reported that the prison guards spoke to her in “very bad form.”

The woman said that the prison is far from the city of Santiago de Cuba, in a location that complicates the travel of relatives to the visits.

The activists belong to the Committee of Citizen Defenders of Human Rights (CCDH) and had demonstrated along with the opponent José Carlos Girón Reyes. They held up posters that read “58 years of deceit, hunger and misery,” and “The people demand freedom, Justice, democracy” and “Viva the right of expression, opinion and of the press.”

The protest occurred a few yards from the headquarters of the People’s Power of Santiago and was recorded in a video produced by the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU). Opponents also shouted “Down with the dictatorship, Down with Fidel, Down with Raul, Down with Congress.”

The action was a challenge precisely on the day that commemorated the 64th anniversary of the assault on the Moncada barracks. A few minutes after the protest began, the National Police and State Security intervened and detained the activists.

Trade Between Cuba And Venezuela Falls 70% In The Last Two Years

The deceased Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez signed a Cooperation Agreement between Cuba and Venezuela in 2000, but the economy of the latter has lost its strength since then. (Embassy of Cuba in Venezuela)

14ymedio (With agency information), Havana, 16 August 2017 – The effect of the Venezuelan crisis on the Cuban economy is greater than expected, judging by the latest data from the National Statistics Office (ONE) that reveals a 70% fall in trade between the two countries in only two years.

The trade in merchandise was $2.2 billion in 2016, compared to $4.2 billion a year earlier and $7.3 billion in 2014. Cuba has had to reduce imports from Venezuela and there has also been a cut in fuel shipments which has affected Cuba’s domestic economy, which fell into recession for the first time last year with 0.9% fall in the Gross Domestic Product.

Venezuela’s exports fell to $ 1.6 billion in 2016 from $ 2.8 billion in 2015 and $ 5.1 billion a year earlier. On the other hand, Cuba exported to Venezuela 642 million dollars in goods in 2016 compared to 1.4 billion dollars in 2015 and 2.0 billion in 2014. continue reading

Cuba’s trade in goods totaled $12.6 billion in 2016, down from $15 billion in 2015. The economy has grown by 1.1% in the first half of the year, according to official figures, but the tightening will continue and could be extended, according to the government.

Cuba’s dependence on Venezuela continues to be very strong and Cuban has no solid alternative plan, the prospects in this regard are not good. In 2017 so far, the Venezuelan government has sent Cuba 13% less crude oil and other fuels, compared to the same period last year.

The governments of Cuba and Venezuela maintain an alliance forged by the late Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. As a part of this alliance the island exports professional services to Caracas, particularly in the health sector, in exchange for oil and fuel. At the high point of the accords, in 2008, Havana received some 115,000 barrels of crude oil a day at subsidized prices, but due to the economic crisis in Venezuela, that amount has been reduced to 72,350 barrels a day.

Cuba intends to supply these energy deficiencies through Russia after more than a decade without having to resort to that country.

Solomon Islands Suspends Sending Medical Students To Cuba

In 2007 the Cuban Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Health and Medical Services of the Solomon Islands signed a cooperation agreement. (The Island Sun)

14ymedio, Havana, 14 August 2017 — The government of the Solomon Islands, an archipelago located in Oceania and part of the British Commonwealth of Nations, has suspended the sending of medical students to Cuba, according to comments from the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Tenneth Dalipandam speaking to the local newspaper, the Solomon Star.

The official said Friday that authorities are considering “training the Cuban graduates to a certain level” before they reconsider “sending students” to the island in the future.

The President of the Education Committee of Parliament and Human Resources of the Archipelago, Nestor Ghiro, also previously stated that graduates in Cuba “are not doctors until they complete certain stages of training in [their home] country to qualify as doctors.” continue reading

Ghiro pointed out that they cannot even be called “doctors” until their training is completed in the Solomon Islands.

In 2007 the Cuban Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Health and Medical Services of Solomon Islands signed a cooperation agreement. The legal instrument opened the way for fifty young people to study medicine in Cuba, a figure that reached 150 students seven years later.

Cuba covers the costs of the schooling and the Government of Solomon Islands is responsible for paying for air tickets and other student expenses. Most of these young people study at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), which since 2005 has graduated more than 28,000 doctors from 103 countries.

The two nations established diplomatic ties in December 2003 and a decade later the first Solomon Islands embassy in all of Latin America was opened in Havana.

The Solomon Island’s cancellation of sending students to Cuba is not an isolated event. The professional quality of Cuban graduates has been questioned in countries such as Uruguay, Brazil, Costa Rica and Pakistan, among other nations.

Chilean doctors graduated from ELAM have also faced serious difficulties in passing the theoretical-practical exams required to practice their profession in Chile.

In 2012, of the 477 students graduating from foreign universities who presented themselves in Chile to take the National Examination of Medical Knowledge, only 20% passed. The majority of those who did not pass the exam had obtained their degrees in Cuba.

The Spurious Goals of Cuba’s ‘Free’ Health And Education

In Cuba, “the material situation of the schools is deplorable,” says the author. (I. Zahorsky / Flickr)

14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Miami, 12 August 2017 — The Government of the Castro brothers has always maintained that their fundamental social achievements have been “free” health and education, available to all people, which became an international calling card, to try to counter criticism of their massive, flagrant and systematic violations of the political, civil and economic rights of the Cuban people and, in passing, to seek outside influence and obtain economic benefits.

That these achievements have not been “free” is more than proven by the fact that the regime has never been able to hide that it appropriates the results of the production of all the state enterprises, the majority of the country, and it deprives employees of most of their salaries. Everyone knows that Cuba, along with Venezuela, has the lowest minimum ($10) and average ($23) monthly salaries in Latin America. continue reading

Today, although Cuba has more doctors per inhabitant than any other country in the region, the truth is that more than 50,000 of them, particularly the specialists, are carrying out “missions” abroad. In addition, the conditions and technical resources of neighborhoods clinics, polyclinics and hospitals, which serve the population, do not support stable and quality services, while appointments for exams, admittance to a hospital or surgery can come when the patient is already beyond hope.

A very different situation is presented by the clinics and special hospitals for the top leaders and for the rest of the high military and political bureaucracy that is attended in exclusive facilities, such as the clinic for Security Personnel, the CIMEQ Hospital and some floors of the Hermanos Ameijeiras National Hospital. Another privileged segment is foreigners who pay with foreign currency and who are seen at the Cira Garcia Clinic, all in Havana.

With regard to education, the material situation of primary and secondary schools and higher education institutions is deplorable; they do not have the necessary materials for an average international quality education. Due to the low salaries in the teaching profession, many educational institutions at all levels never have a complete team of teachers. Worst of all, since there is no internet access, modern education, which in most Latin American countries is based on this medium, is practically absent, with only limited availability in universities.

But most importantly, the fundamental, undeclared goals of the “free” health and education services are not to maintain a healthy and educated population capable of meeting life needs. Rather, the first goal is to try to guarantee a working population with a high technical and professional level and in good health that can be exploited in state-owned enterprises and international services, particularly medical services, which bring in foreign currency for the Cuban government. Secondly, the goal is to guarantee, through this patronage blackmail, a people who are committed to continuing to thank the “revolutionary government” for those benefits.

State-ownership, which is now predominant, until recently controlled all sources of labor and income, except for the exploitation of the approximately 20% of land in private hands. That situation has changed, but still today most of the workforce is engaged in state, military and para-state enterprises.

Nevertheless, the systematic deterioration of the health and educations services, as a result of the system’s inability to produce and manage resources, worsened since the fall of the USSR and the “socialist camp,” which aid from Venezuela is not making up for, has generated corruption and widespread discontent in the population.

Another important result of this deterioration is that the most vulnerable sectors such as the elderly, single mothers and the disabled have faced large cuts in the social assistance system, precisely because they contribute the least to the state coffers.

Such that, today, it is no longer even possible for the system to guarantee the control of a prepared and healthy labor force, to hyper-exploit in the generalized slavery frameworks of state-socialism, nor to guarantee the support of the majority of the population for the “free” services. And the state’s international goals are also affected since the countries receiving Cuban doctors are diminishing with the fall of the populist-state wave in Latin America and because, as the Cuban reality becomes better known abroad, there is more rejection.

If this is how “fundamental achievements” perform, we can imagine how the remainder do.

Prosecutor Dismisses The Case Against Eliecer Avila But Seizes His Belongings

Eliecer Ávila, leader of the Somos+ (We Are More) dissident group. (Héctor Estepa / El Confidencial)

14ymedio, Havana, 14 August 2017 – The Office of the Attorney General of Cuba declared the “final dismissal” of the case against the activist Eliécer Ávila, accused of the crimes of receiving and illegal economic activities. The court also ordered the seizure “in favor of the Cuban State” of most of the property seized during a police search in April.

On 5 August, the leader of the Somos+ (We Are More) Movement received on a document signed by the prosecutor Bileardo Amaro Guerra dated July, to which he gave 14ymedio access. In it he is informed that the accusations have been “filed.” “We have considered the lack of criminal record of the accused and the attitude maintained during the process,” explains the text. continue reading

The measure adopted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office corresponds to what was stated in the Law of Criminal Procedure, whereby the prosecutor has the power to dismiss a case “if he considers that the act is not a crime or is manifestly false, or the accused as authors or accomplices are exempt from criminal responsibility.”

Avila has decided to appeal the seizure of his belongings, of which only three personal organizers, an almanac and an old travel insurance policy were returned to him. The remaining belongings, whose list in the judicial document covers ten pages of objects seized during search, will pass into the hands of the State, including a personal computer and mobile phone.

Avila’s defense lawyer, Osvaldo Rodríguez Díaz, has appealed the prosecutor’s order because the document is full of “gibberish.” “In its content it refers to activities of a non-governmental organization,” in reference to Somos+, but the accusation against the activist is based on an alleged economic crime.

Rodríguez also questions that, given the economic nature of the allegations, the case has been taken to Villa Marista, the headquarters of State Security in Havana.

The prosecutor’s document says Avila “sells clothing at home, when what was actually seized is something else,” says the defense lawyer, for whom the arguments are “far from being considered serious by that instance, of legality and truth.”

Wilfredo Vallín, President of the Law Association of Cuba, confirmed to 14ymedio that “the final destination of the items that are seized in a search should be decided by the court” and that “what is seized in a house is to be presented in court as evidence to indict the person.” He describes the prosecutor’s order as “a totally illegal procedure” in this case because “it is a group of objects of high value.”

The search in Avila’s house happened after several members of his movement held a protest at the International Airport Jose Martí of Havana to demonstrate against Customs, which confiscated the belongings of several activists who returned from a seminar organized in Colombia by the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America.

Police records and searches of dissidents have become a growing practice in the past year, and the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation has denounced this in its reports.