14ymedio – Page 700 – Translating Cuba

Government Invites Doctors Who Fled To Return To Cuba / 14ymedio

A group of Cuban doctors stranded in Colombia protests about the delay in US visas. (Archive)

14ymedio, Miami, 3 February 2017 — The Ministry of Public Health released a statement Thursday in the official newspaper Granma to reiterate the willingness of Cuban authorities to take back health professionals who have “defected” from medical missions abroad.

The announcement comes three weeks after the outgoing U.S. president, Barack Obama, eliminated the Cuban Medical Professional Parole (CMPP) program. This initiative, established during the Bush administration in 2006, facilitated the arrival in the United States of more than 8,000 Cuban doctors who were in other countries. continue reading

In 2014 the Cuban government, for the first time, offered health professionals who had defected, or tried to, a chance to rejoin the national system

“This kind of offering is not new,” said Yisel, a comprehensive general practitioner who left the island in 2015 via Ecuador. “The national health system has run out of workers because of the way they exploited us.” She currently resides in Miami.

Cuban health personnel who have taken advantage of the US Cuban Medical Professional Parole program

In 2014 the Cuban government, for the first time, offered health professionals who had defected a chance to rejoin the national system. The following year, Granma published an extensive article where medical personnel were guaranteed a similar job location to what they had before leaving the country.

“Including those victims of the deceptive and vulgar practice of brain-drain,” said the Communist Party organ at that time.

“Nobody wants to return because what they offer is the same thing that we had,” explains the doctor.

Wages were raised in March 2014. Today, doctors in Cuba earn $60 a month. However, after the massive export of health services, professionals who remain on the island have to work double shifts in hospitals and working conditions have significantly worsened.

The Cuban government has been heavily criticized in international forums for the conditions under which it contracts for its medical staff

“The international medical collaboration that Cuba provides has as its principles volunteerism and the integral attention to the needs of the personnel inside and outside the country,” explains the official note. In addition, it adds that those who work abroad “are guaranteed a stipend, health care, food, accommodation and air and land transportation.”

The Cuban government has been heavily criticized in international forums for the conditions under which it signs agreements to contract for the employment of its medical staff. Most of the earnings, which the authorities acknowledged amounted to $8.2 billion in 2014, remain in the hands of the Cuban state.

According to the note published by the official press, there are three types of collaboration agreements: “one in which Cuba assumes the expenses, another where it shares them with the receiving country and the third in which they are paid.”

The note does not mention the twenty Cuban health professionals who are in immigration limbo in Colombia after escaping medical missions

The Ministry of Health explains that the resources obtained from the work of the doctors are used to support the national health system and offset the expenses of Cuban solidarity missions.

The note does not mention the twenty Cuban health professionals who are in immigration limbo in Colombia after escaping medical missions without knowing about the suspension of the CMPP.

Currently, more than 50,000 Cuban health workers are spread across 60 countries in missions mandated by the Government

Hundreds more awaited the processing of their refugee applications in other countries and await an American US visa in precarious conditions.

Currently, more than 50,000 Cuban health workers are spread across 60 countries in missions mandated by the Government.

Cuba Does Not Need US Investment To Develop Its Economy / 14ymedio, Pedro Campos

No one explains why the abundant income from tourism, among other sectors, does not allow improvement in domestic investment. (EFE)

14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Miami, 2 February 2017 – A previous article addressed the economic policy of the current Cuban government to hinder the private economy – forbidding investment from Cubans on the island and abroad – and favoring foreign investment, mainly from the United States, which could lead Cuba to a situation of virtual annexation to the United States. Meanwhile it appears that allowing free investment, and allowing employers to hire workers directly, versus requiring them to contract only through the state, is something that the state-socialist system is not willing to accept.

But, does it have to be like this to develop the country? Does Cuba have to depend on US and foreign investment in general?

My clear answer is no. Cuba does need investment and the international market for its development, but it does not have to rely on US investments or foreign capital to develop its economy. continue reading

An analysis of four basic elements suggests that Cuba could solve its investment needs without having to turn to US or foreign capital in general, as the government, official Cuban economists and others suggest, who do not imagine the island anything but subject to the US.

1. Due to the lack of transparency in the government’s economic data it is unknown what is or could be invested, how much is squandered in the bureaucratic treasury at all levels, how much is wasted in the bad paternalistic-populist democracy, or where that money goes. There is such a lack of transparency about the investments and payments of the nation, no one explains what so much money from taxes of all kinds, remittances, the sale of medical and professional services abroad, or tourism, is spent on, and the national investment is so low.

A change from the current hyper-centralization to democratic control of revenues and budgets should shed light on the existence of the enormous amount of capital currently being wasted

A change from the current hyper-centralization to democratic control of revenues and budgets should shed light on the existence of the enormous amount of capital currently wasted that could increase the amount to be invested from the nation’s own resources. We are thinking about the necessary reduction in the Armed Forces, the apparatus of State Security, the enormous services abroad, the big bureaucracy lazing around in all the ministries and their provincial and municipal branches, the outreach and propaganda apparatus, and the costs of the system of organizations of the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” How much money could be freed up for investments through these reductions?

2. There are enormous fortunes within Cuba that do not display their possibilities due to the current limitations and their fears of being audited. If the inviolability of private capital and property were guaranteed by law and clear relations of free trade were established, this internal capital could be developed, private banks could be generated to facilitate loans to private entrepreneurs and associates, to import the means and resources necessary for internal development and economic movements and associations could strengthen their opportunities. There are imprecise calculations of the thousands of millions of dollars, Cuban convertible pesos, Cuban pesos, stored in banks and mattresses awaiting changes in Cuba.

3. According to different sources, Cuba is receiving between three and five billion dollars a year from remittances, sent back to the island by Cubans abroad. Much of that revenue is being invested in private businesses and another part in using the services they generate. So there is a positive predisposition in the diaspora to support micro-enterprises with micro-investments. If conditions were established in Cuba for the development of free enterprise, this small capital could grow enormously, multiply and expand in a few years.

4. There is a great deal of capital in the hands of Cuban Americans in the United States, a part of which they would be willing to invest in Cuba if a new system of laws, in a State of law, guaranteed private property and free markets, independent of a future analysis of nationalization and compensation*. Because of their Cuban origin, and for some because of their historic ties with specific production sectors on the island, they would be in better conditions than any foreign capital to engage in the Cuban economy and push its development. They bring capital, techniques, knowledge, markets and transportation systems.

The interaction of these four factors would enable a self-sufficient economy, which should not be confused with the absurdity of an autarchic economy

Thus, by simply facilitating the internally accumulated Cuban capital, reorganizing that of the government, and favoring that of emigrants – large, medium and small – with full guarantees, Cuba could receive a large injection of capital of national origin, capable of changing the economic landscape in a few years.

It would not be necessary to have investment from the United States or from other foreign countries. There would be no dependence on American capital. It would not be necessary to be virtually annexed to the United States. Cuba would trade with the United States like the rest of the Caribbean, the American continent and the world.

The interaction of these four factors would enable a self-sufficient economy, capable of generating, itself, the means and resources to resolve the needs of the population with domestic products, exchanged or acquired in the international market. This should not be confused with the absurdity of an autarchic economy that tries to survive without an external market.

How to do this will be the subject of another article.

*Translator’s note: “Nationalization and compensation” refers to the nationalization of private businesses and property in the early days of the Revolution, and the demands on the part of some for compensation for what was taken from them.

Colombia Sugar Mill, A Giant That Is Slow To Wake Up / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

The sugar mill town of Colombia in Las Tunas. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 4 February 2017 — Colombia’s sugar mill whistle sounded again at the end of January, like a giant awakened from a seven-year-long lethargy. The residents in the area breathed a sign of relief: the driving force behind the local economy seems to be the sugar mill, but technical and organizational problems have delayed its start.

The directors of the colossus announced three weeks ago that everything was ready for the industry to join the current harvest. The local press announced the start for 25 January, but the lack of some parts and other setbacks have prevented meeting that target. The peasants of the surrounding area fear that their mill will be shut down again, plunging the town into somnolence.

The sugar industry defined almost three centuries in our national life, and was the island’s main economic base, determining our language, our customs and even our identity, strongly tied to the sugar plantation and the mill. But what looked like a rising sector suffered severe reversals in the last two decades.

But all that is ancient history. Sugar production began to slide down the slope of failure. (14ymedio)

In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country was faced with the reality of an inefficient agroindustry, with a great technological obsolescence and an international market where the national product was worth less and less.

The peasants in the environs are afraid that their ingenuity will remain standing again, plunging the village into drowsiness

The cuts reached as far as the Colombia sugar mill, which because of its importance in production many believed would never turn off its boilers. Rogelio, 40-years-old and a neighbor of the mill, recalls how in the past, as late afternoon fell, a parade of “ragged men with machetes in their hands, tired and covered with ashes from the cane burning, passed in front of my house.”

He states that “every day at six-thirty in the afternoon the bagasse (the cane waste) filling the air forces us to close doors and windows” and that it was always “accompanied by the mill whistle” that could be heard throughout the town.

But all that is ancient history. Sugar production began to slide down the slope failure. In June last year, Noel Casañas Lugo, vice president of the Azcuba Sugar Group, acknowledged that the production of the last harvest only reached 80% of the predicted plan and remained below the 1.6 million tonnes of sugar achieved in 2015.

Vandalism affected part of the technology and the mill also lost skilled labor. (14ymedio)

Colombia is one of the four main urban centers of the province of Las Tunas and the mill began to operate in 1916. The large wooden houses built on stilts hark back to that time, as do the memories that the families pass on by word of mouth about the power of a machinery that did not stop grinding up the cane in every harvest.

The knowledge acquired in long hours of labor was transferred between generations without the involvement of any schools and the whole town revolved around the mill. It beat to the rhythm of the chimney and seemed to languish between the harvests.

The sugar industry defined almost three centuries in the national life. (14ymedio)

The Las Tunas mill was selected for its productive results as a “pilot model” to integrate into the Business Improvement plan at the end of the last century. But even that did not save it from an abrupt closure at the beginning of this millennium. Its workers, then, were given the most difficult task, one for which they were the least prepared: to stop producing sugar.

The peasants and workers tried to mitigate the situation by sowing potatoes and tobacco where before there had been cane, but the majority were unemployed. The town paused. There were neither rows of ash-covered workers nor bagasse floating in the air … and much less economic prosperity.

In 2011, the Ministry of Sugar was weakened and the new Azcuba Sugar Group was created, subordinated to the State Council. But the new institution has not been able to revitalize the sector, which is also affected by low wages, technical difficulties and the exodus of people from the countryside to urban centers.

In the last month qualified technicians have come from other provinces to readjust the framework of the industrial complex. Every time an anxious neighbor asks about the date when work will be resumed, the response is spare and imprecise: “next week.”

Colombia is one of the four main urban centers of the province of Las Tunas and the mill began operating in 1916. (14ymedio)

To meet its production forecasts, the province of Las Tunas depends on Colombia joining in the harvest, along with the Antonio Guiteras mill, which is not experiencing its best moment, and Majibacoa, which has managed to maintain a stable crop, according to a recent report from the local press.

The 17,462 tonnes of sugar called for in the plan is a challenge for an industry that has suffered such a long-term stoppage, along with vandalism of the technology and also the loss of skilled workers. Administrators have mobilized veteran workers and ensure that “all key posts of the sugar mill are covered,” according to statements to the press by Elido Suarez Nunez, head of industrial maintenance.

The town seems to be living in a carnival. Like in one of those popular festivals where it is not known if at the end of the night a colorful and friendly giant will appear surrounded by lights and sounds, or instead there will be a return to darkness and boredom.

“I Did Not Enter This House Through The Window” / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

Every night when Bisaida Azahares Correa goes to bed and looks at the ceiling, she is afraid that when the sun comes up she will have leave the house where she lives with her two children. This dwelling in the Siboney neighborhood is her only chance of not ending up sleeping on the street, but its walls are also the source of her major headaches.

The phrase “forced extraction” makes this well-spoken and straight-talking woman shudder. The first time she read those two words together was six months after her husband, Dr. Nelson Cabrera Quesada, left on a medical mission to Saudi Arabia. Since then her life has been turned upside down.

Life in the converted garage revolves around the impending eviction. A situation that contrasts with the large mansions and opulent chalets – where life seems almost bucolic – that surround the modest home of the family. continue reading

Analysts estimate that the country has a deficit of 600,000 homes, but in the last decade housing construction has fallen by 20%

A few yards away, the presence of bodyguards betrays the place where Mariela Castro lives, the daughter of the Cuban president. Nearby is also the spacious home of Armando Hart, former Minister of Culture. All are Bisaida’s neighbors, but they are not aware of the drama that defines the life of this almost 50-year-old woman.

The Cuban authorities have recognized that the housing problem is the primary social need in Cuba. Analysts estimate that the country has a deficit of 600,000 homes, but in the last decade housing construction has fallen by 20%.

In the midst of this situation, the so-called “forced removals” of those who have occupied an abandoned state “shed,” a property closed for years due to the emigration of its owner, or who have erected a house on vacant land, are frequent. But Bisaida’s case is different.

An official notification recently ordered the family to leave the property because it is owned by the University of Medical Sciences. The woman vehemently questions that statement. She says that in 2005 she settled in the house with her husband and their children to care for the doctor’s grandmother.

After the death of the lady, the couple did everything possible to regularize the situation of the house that had been given to Cabrera Quesada’s grandfather in 1979 when he worked as an administrator in the department of International Relations at the university. After living there three years, the teacher won the right to have the property separated from the institution and turned over to her

Among the worst moments Bisaida remembers is the day they showed her husband a document that declares they are illegal occupants

The law recognizes that “at the end of a housing claim” after a tenant lives there for 15 years, “the municipal Housing Directorates issue a Resolution-Title of Property in favor of the persons with the right and who agree to pay the total in 180 monthly payments.” In this case, the family says they have settled the debt with the bank.

However, the twists and turns of the bureaucracy made the legal transfer into the hands of the family impossible. The grandfather ended up retiring and emigrating to the United States, although his wife remained as the principal resident of the house until her death. Since then the family has repeatedly tried to obtain the housing papers, but they have only received threats.

Among the worst moments Bisaida remembers is the day they showed her husband a document that declares they are illegal occupants. They were given fifteen days to leave the house. Although the doctor wrote letters of complaint “to all levels,” the answer to his claim can be summed up in two intimidating words: “no place.”

The woman, who is recovering from breast and uterine cancer, says her husband “has not had the support of any of the ministries involved in his case nor of the University.”

They fear that once outside the house the authorities take advantage to block the access or place an official seal on the door

“All I want is justice, my husband’s grandparents lived here for decades and we’ve been here twelve years,” complains Bisaida. She is not demanding a gift or violating the law for her own pleasure. She only wants the house to be passed on as personal property, as stipulated in Resolution No. V-002/2014 of the Minister of Construction, Regulation of Linked Homes and Basic Means.

Their situation forces them to live virtually locked up.

“We are afraid to leave,” the woman laments. They fear that once outside the house the authorities will take advantage to block access or place an official seal on the door.

“I did not enter this house through the window,” says Bisaida. She shows the address that appears on her identity card and that matches letter by letter with the location of the small garage.

When Life Is In The Hands Of Human Traffickers

Terminal 3 in Jose Marti International Airport in Havana (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 4 February 2017 – The wifi signal barely crosses the glass. The wireless network at José Martí International Airport only covers the boarding area. But a woman presses her whole body against the opaque window that separates the travelers’ area to communicate with human traffickers who are holding her daughter in Mexico.

For half any hour the lady reveals her despair. “I don’t have that much money, if I had it I would send it right now,” she prays through IMO. The videochat is cut several times by the poor quality of the connection On the other side, the voice of a man repeats, without backing off, “Three hundred dollars so she can return on Tuesday.”

The woman wipes her tears and unsuccessfully asks for a reduction. Nearby, a maid who cleans the bathroom passes by, idly dragging a cart with cleaning supplies. A customs official walks by, absorbed, and pretends he is not listening to the disturbing request projected from the screen of the phone, “Don’t kill her, don’t kill her.” continue reading

For half any hour the lady reveals her despair. “I don’t have that much money, if I had it I would send it right now,” she prays through IMO

The scene happens in a place crowded with people, most of whom are passengers about to board a transatlantic flight, or a new commercial route to the United States, and there are also the family members and friends who have come to see them off. No one shows any sign of hearing the drama developing a few feet away.

A tourist tosses back a beer just as the woman is asking the man for half an hour to “collect the money.” She starts the race against the clock. She calls several contacts from her IMO address book, but the first four, at least, don’t answer. On the fifth try, a shrill voice on the other end says, “Hello.”

“I need a huge favor, you can’t say no,” the lady stammers. But the head that can be seen on the screen shakes from side to side. “Are you crazy? And if after you pay this money they don’t let her go?” asks the voice. The tension makes the hand holding the phone start to tremble and her granddaughter, who has accompanied her, helps her hold on to it.

Several more calls and the money is not forthcoming. Finally a serious voice says yes, he can lend the money if the woman will pay it back “in two installments” to his sister in Havana. The mother agrees, promises she can “repay every cent,” although it sounds like a formula to get out of a bind. The man believes her.

Now they must arrange the details. The victim doesn’t have a bank account but the mother will send information about “how to send the money.” This is how the kidnappers get paid. Only then will they allow her to fly from Cancun to Havana, or at least that is what they promise.

Several more calls and the money is not forthcoming. Finally a serious voice says yes, he can lend the money if the woman will pay in back “in two installments” to his sister in Havana

In the middle of last year the Mexican authorities shut down a network trafficking in undocumented people from Cuba that operated in this tourist area in the Mexican state of Qunitana Roo. The end of the “wet foot/dry foot” policy this January has left many migrants in the hands of the coyotes, who don’t hesitate to turn to extortion to make up for the reduction in the flow of Cubans and, as a result, their loss of earnings.

The wifi signal is lost altogether, but the mother is feeling relieved. “She was in a large group, about 20 people,” she tells her granddaughter. A simple calculation allows us to know how much the captors will earn on “freeing” all those they are holding.

Nothing ends with the delivery of the money. “She is going to want to go again,” concludes the mother, the instant she hangs up from the last videochat. “I can’t stand it here, I can’t” she repeats, while walking toward the escalator filled with smiling and tanned tourists.

Guanabo, the new ‘Costa del Sol’ / 14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez

House for sale in Guanabo, La Habana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 31 January 2017 – With an indigenous name and sands full of memories, Guanabo is the beach east of Havana that in recent months has experienced a quiet transformation. Many repatriated Cubans, foreign residents on the island, and local entrepreneurs have bought homes just a few yards from the sea to revive this Costa del Sol in decline.

José Antonio, 53, has his own real estate company, and operates under a self-employment license as a “manager of home buying and selling.” Despite the fact that the housing sector is going through complicated times due to the increase of official controls, Jose Antonio, who lived in Germany for a decade, has never known a better time.

“There is great demand in this area,” he told 14ymedio. In the 90’s he spent a vacation with his family in a wooden house very close to the sand. “I realized there was a lot of potential, because the owners did not have the money to repair their homes and create the international standards to rent them.” continue reading

Life in distant Europe helped this entrepreneur understand “what buyers are looking for”

The next thing Jose Antonio did was to begin the paperwork for repatriation, then he bought a house near the well-known Los Caballitos park and invested in it until it was “rental ready.” In those years it served as a bridge for European friends who wanted to spend long periods on the beach or buy the house of their dreams by the sea.

“When I decided to get into the real estate business, I already had a lot of contacts in the area and people trusted me.” This Monday, the real estate agent showed a couple, made up of a Havanan and a Milanese, a house overlooking the beach in the most commercial area of Guanabo.

“Entryway, living room, dining room, one bathroom, two bedrooms, patio in front and behind for 70,000 dollars,” José Antonio explains. However, his most effective argument has nothing to do with square meters or technical conditions. “This is Cuba’s Gold Coast,” he assures clients. “Now is the time to buy at auction prices, later it will cost a fortune.”

Life in distant Europe helped this entrepreneur understand “what buyers are looking for.” Most of his clients are retired with contacts in the Island who want to buy through a national intermediary, a hazardous operation that often does not end well. “Life is risk and many are willing to venture,” says the agent.

But not everything is golden in Guanabo. The town is the Cinderella of the three most important beaches that make up the east coast of Havana

José Antonio has also had several clients of Cuban origin who returned to the country after the immigration reform of 2013. Cuba’s ambassador to Washington, José Ramón Cabañas, stated last November that from the beginning of 2015 until now, some 13,000 nationals with residency in the United States returned to the country.

For about $120,000 the real estate agent has just closed the sale of a property with swimming pool. The new owners have begun to restore it to settle in the Island with their respective pensions accumulated as migrants in Austria. “Such a house would have cost them a million in Europe or the United States,” says José Antonio.

But not everything is golden in Guanabo. The town is the Cinderella of the three most important beaches that make up the east coast of Havana. While Santa María shows its white sands and Boca Ciega maintains the blue of its waters, the town where José Antonio resides has deteriorated rapidly in recent years.

“At the end of the day most of them are looking for the sun and that’s what we have here, of the best quality”

“We residents are trying to unite to repair the sidewalks,” says Pepín, born in the town and who has never wanted to move to another place. Most of the streets in the town have not been repaired for decades and the sewage situation is catastrophic. The drainage of the urban area ends in the sea and mixes with the waters where bathers swim.

In some places the air stinks with the debris running through the trenches. “A few years ago this was a beach for families, especially with children, but now they prefer to go to other more beautiful areas,” adds Pepín.

However, for José Antonio this type of problems “is transitory.” In a few years and “when this is filled with people with money, families will invest in repairs,” he says. “In the end, most of them are looking for the sun, and that’s what we have here of the best quality, with no gaps.”

An Audit Reveals Millions In Losses In Havana Businesses / 14ymedio

The island currently has a total of 397 non-agricultural cooperatives. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 1 February 2017 — The latest audit carried out by Cuba’s Office to the Comptroller revealed losses of more than 90 million Cuban and more than 51 million Cuban convertible pesos in public enterprises and non-agricultural cooperatives in Havana, a situation that contributes to the failure to meet economic plans in the state sector, according to Miriam Marbán González, the chief comptroller for the capital.

The results of the Eleventh National Assessment of internal control, which were presented Tuesday at a press conference at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, show a disturbing picture for the Cuban economy because of poor management efficiency and lack of integrity in planning. continue reading

The main objective of the analysis, carried out between 31 October and 9 December 2016, was the decentralization of administrative decision-making, the operation of non-agricultural cooperatives and the application of systems of payment for results.

In Havana, 67 inspections were carried out in which 301 auditors had to confront “the lack of reliability of the primary documentation or the lack thereof.”

The inspection detected “ineffectiveness in information mechanisms, the existence of some individualistic behaviors, lack of foresight and vigilance and little cooperative culture”

Non-agricultural cooperatives also revealed worrying results for this form of business management that has been expanding since its adoption in 2012. The inspection detected “ineffectiveness in information mechanisms, the existence of some individualistic behaviors, lack of foresight and surveillance and little cooperative culture.” The island currently has a total of 397 of these companies, mainly linked to food, personal and technical services.

In total, the Comptroller’s Office has examined 346 economic entities throughout the country, with the exception of Guantánamo Province, which was excluded because of economic damages caused by Hurricane Matthew.

The results of the assessments in the provinces of Cienfuegos, Matanzas, Pinar del Río, Villa Clara and Holguín have also been alarming. In this last province, the Comptroller General of the Republic, Gladys María Bejerano, was blunt: “If there is no organization, discipline and control, it is impossible to achieve the prosperous and sustainable development that we have set ourselves.”

The state, which seeks to stop, with these controls, the administrative disorder that prevails in the business sector of the island, has been attacked especially against idle inventories, criminal acts and corruption.

The national report could be presented mid-year at the next session of the National Assembly.

The José Martí Memorial Viewpoint Reopens To The Public With A New Elevator / 14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta Labrada

The view from the Jose Marti Memorial tower in Havana

14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta Labradea, Havana, 2 February 2017 — After three years of being closed to the public, the viewpoint of the José Martí Memorial in the Plaza of the Revolution reopened its doors on Wednesday. The highest point in Havana has been out or service for domestic and foreign visitors since the elevator broke after more than five decades of use.

Only a small group of invited guests and press were allowed access to the reopening, despite the fact that from the early hours more than a dozen people waited to ascend to the top of the tower, which occasioned annoyance and complaints. continue reading

People who waited to enter at the reopening were not able to. (14ymedio)

The access to the viewpoint, some 460 feet above sea level and with a 30-mile view, was finally restored asof 1 February, after several days of testing of the new elevator.

The pilot test was not announced in the national press, which only released the date on Wednesday, to “not detract significance to the symbolic reopening”

Ana María Troya Ávila, in charge of the public relations for the monument, told 14ymedio that the service is in “high demand.” She added, “In just seven days this place welcomed around 3,000 visitors, both Cubans and foreigners.”

The pilot test was not announced in the national press, which only released Wednesday date, so as “not to detract from the significance of the symbolic reopening,” she said. One element that contributed to the annoyance of those waiting outside who were not allowed to enter.

One Spanish tourist said she was outraged by the constant bureaucracy of the island. “They keep us waiting for hours and in the end don’t open it,” she protested. Cubans just shake their heads. “We are used to this, the foreigners just have to adapt,” says an old man to calm tempers.

The incident, however, did not diminish the enthusiasm of the employees who made the inaugural tour with an unusual joy. “From this high site you can see points of extreme importance of our capital that distinguishes us in any part of the world”, detailed Troya Ávila.

According to Jorge Estany Ramírez, administrator of the memorial and the person in charge of the process of buying and assembling the elevator, the supplier of the equipment has been the Spanish company Electra Vitoria. “Its speed is six feet per second and is among the fastest in the city right now.” He also highlighted the hard work in the installation and adjustment process that began in early 2016 and has lasted until this January.

“The repair was complicated, because a major change was made, the entire elevator system was replaced from the machinery to the counterweight, so it was a year of hard work that involved not only the change of the old structure, but the need for other repairs that came up during the assembly and in the years that no service was provided,” said Estany Ramírez.

“For us this reopening represents a profit from the economic point of view , because it is a benefit that raises a lot of money and the income is soaring”

One important fact that Troya Ávila wanted to emphasize is the compass of the winds that is inlaid in the floor of the viewpoint, showing the distances between the Memorial and the six provinces at the moment of the construction of the monument and some capitals of the world, and also the significant places related to the life of José Martí.

“For us this reopening represents a benefit from the economic point of view, because it is a that raises a lot of money and the income when we provide these services are soaring and favors us,” said the official.

The Venetian ceramic murals, which are the work of the Cuban Enrique Caravia, in addition to all the images of the floor will be restored in cooperation with the Office of the Historian of the City. The managers of the place plan for the work to be carried out without affecting the access of the visitors.

The José Martí Memorial is open to the public from Monday to Saturday from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm and offers a full tour for 8 Cuban pesos (CUP -roughly $0.32 US) for residents on the Island or 6 CUP if they only want to access the lookout point. Foreigners must pay 5 Cuban convertible pesos (CUC – roughly $5.00 US) and 3 CUC for the same services.

Dozens Of Cuban Doctors Stranded In Colombia Will Travel To The United States / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 2 February 2017 — Dozens of Cuban doctors stranded in Colombia are preparing to travel to the United States on Monday after receiving a visa as part of the recently repealed Cuban Medical Professional Parole (CMPP) program.

The doctors will be the first to reach North American soil after the end of the program that, every year, sheltered every year hundreds of health professionals who escaped from Cuban medical missions abroad.

“There will be more than 20 of us who will fly on Monday, because another flight planned for Friday was suspended,” explains Maikel Palacios by telephone from Bogota. continue reading

The health worker, who spent six months in Colombia after escaping from the Cuban medical mission in Venezuela, says he lives in “an atmosphere of hope among the hundreds of physicians stranded in that country.”

“The news that comes to us from Miami is encouraging. Solidarity Without Borders has been interested in our case,” he explains.

“We are worried about more than 20 professionals who escaped the mission before the program was eliminated and now they have no way to reach the United States and cannot return to Cuba”

Solidarity Without Borders is a non-governmental organization created by Cuban doctors who fled the countries to which the Cuban Government had sent them. Its purpose is to help colleagues, once they arrive in the United States to revalidate their titles and integrate into that country’s medical system.

According to Palacios, dozens of visas have been issued since last January when former President Barack Obama, in a surprise move, gave in to the old request of the government of Raul Castro and repealed the program created by George Bush in 2006.

The export of health personnel generated income for Cuba ion the order of US $8.2 billion in 2014.

In the ten years of existence of the CMPP more than 8,000 doctors and health personnel escaped to the United States.

“We are worried about more than 20 professionals who escaped the mission before the program was eliminated and now they have no way to reach the United States and cannot return to Cuba,” Palacios explains.

Personnel who leave medical missions are prohibited from returning to Cuba for eight years and are considered “deserters” by the Cuban authorities.

Rural Women: Between Furrow And Domestic Labors / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata

Idalmis is one of many Cuban women who dedicate 71% of their working hours to unpaid domestic work. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Alquizar (Artemisa), 30 January 2017 –In Alquízar the red earth covers everything with a reddish layer. To Gladys Montero that crimson powder gets into the wrinkles of the face. “I come from the deep field,” she warns. In Cuba, 21% of women live in rural areas, wake up when the rooster crows and make their lives at the rhythm marked by the crops.

Formerly praised as a “loving guajira,” drawn in a bucolic environment or photographed with her starving children, the peasant woman no longer resembles any of these stereotypes. However, her peculiarities are scarcely heard today amidst the bustle of urban centers and macho prejudices. continue reading

Gladys is close to turning 70 and carries the memories of her childhood as “fresh as a lettuce.” As a child, she helped her parents to plant “corn, beans and squash.” She only finished the eighth grade, although she detects with a glance whether a furrow was planted with dedication or sloppily.

The female workforce in the agricultural sector represents 19.2% of the total of its workers and only 17.3% of the management positions in these areas are occupied by them

Although in 2013 more than 142,300 women worked in the fields of the island, in the popular imagination these tasks remain “a thing of men.” The female workforce in the agricultural sector represents 19.2% of the total workers and only 17.3% of the management positions in this area are occupied by them.

Inside the houses the picture is totally different. 56% of rural women are engaged in household chores. Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture indicate that for every 100 men with stable employment in the countryside, there are scarcely 30 women.

As a young woman, Gladys also cut cane, hard work that is scary even for many men. “I gave birth to my first child very young and shortly after the second one came,” she recalls. When the children grew up, her mother became ill and she took care of her until the end of her days.

The majority of her neighbors and relatives have gone through a similar situation. Hundreds of miles from the village of Artemisa, where Gladys lives, Rosa María also lives a life in front of the fire in Florida, Camagüey. “There are nights when I go to bed, everything hurts and my feet are very swollen.”

The main problems that both must overcome each day are linked to the energy source with which they process food, the water supply, domestic violence and economic difficulties. None have a hobby, they hardly participate in social activities nor have they gone to the movies in the last ten years.

The qualitative study, Fifty Voices And Faces Of Cuban Peasant Leaders, sponsored by OXFAM-Canada and the Government of Andalusia, revealed that the empowerment of rural women is failing on the overload of domestic responsibilities and childcare, along with insufficient technical preparation and sexist stereotypes, among other factors.

For every 100 hours of men’s work, women perform 120, most of them simultaneous activities

Across the country, females devote 71% of their working hours to unpaid domestic work, according to a 2002 Time Use Survey. For every 100 hours of men’s work, women perform 120, most of them simultaneous activities. A situation that is aggravated in the towns and villages.

Specialist Mavis Álvarez Licea believes that “a still significant majority of rural men behave with a strong hegemonic masculinity.” While women “are still subjected to male power, perhaps not in the same degree and condition as their predecessors but, overtly or openly, they are repressed and discriminated against.”

Gladys Montero only finished eighth grade, although she detects with a glance when a furrow was planted with dedication. (14ymediate)

The case of Teresa González is different. From the age of 17 she began to keep the accounts at the José Antonio Echevarría credit and service cooperative at Artemisa. Today she holds the presidency. “I spent the day doing the accounts and at first the men who were in the field thought that this was not work,” she recalls. Over time she has made everyone respect her work.

In 2008, the government of Raúl Castro implemented a series of measures to revive agricultural production. Among them was the delivery of idle land in a form of leasing known as usufruct, under Decrees-Laws 259 and 300, but according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, four years after the start of the process, of the 171,237 beneficiaries, only 9.5% were women.

Men continue to have property control over agricultural resources such as land, water, inputs and credits, and make most of the decisions. Of women, only 12,102 are landowners, for 11% of all landowners.

Men continue to have property control over agricultural resources such as land, water, inputs and credits, and make most of the decisions. Women represent only 11% of landowners

The Cuban authorities favor the figures comparing the situation between men and women in terms of access to health, education, employment and administrative positions. But little is published about the gender wage differences and the contrasts of opportunities, especially those linked to regional location.

In the middle of a furrow where she picks tomatoes, Marisol says she always has something to do. “After this comes the harvesting of garlic that pays better,” she tells 14ymedio. Her husband prefers to have her “in the house all day polishing on the floor,” but economic constraints have forced him to accept that she works in agriculture.

At her side, under the inclement sun, is Mirta, who, every day after completing the tasks of reaping and arriving at her modest house, carries the water from a nearby irrigation channel to bathe, wash clothes and cook. “We do not have a television because the current comes to us from a ‘clothesline’ (an informal wire run off someone else’s line) and the voltage is very low.”

She has not been able to convince her children to stay in that house surrounded by fields and pigsties. Her son decided to remain in the military when he finished his military service and her daughter married a man who “took her to Havana.”

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Editorial Note: This report was made with the support of Howard G Buffet Fund for Women Journalists of the International Women’s Media Foundation.

Amnesty International Calls For Release Of Cuban Opponent Eduardo Cardet / EFE, 14ymedio

Eduardo Cardet Concepción (far right) (oswaldopaya.org)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 1 Februday 2017 — The global organization Amnesty International on Tuesday called for the “immediate and unconditional” release of Cuban dissident Eduardo Cardet, who has been detained for two months accused of the crime of assault.

Amnesty International believes that Cardet, the national coordinator of the illegal Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), is a prisoner of conscience who is imprisoned “solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression,” according to a statement EFE had access to.

He also says that Cardet was violently arrested when he returned from visiting his mother on November 30, five days after Fidel Castro’s death, and since then has been held in a prison in the eastern province of Holguin. continue reading

Cardet, according to his wife, Yaimaris Vecino, cited by Amnesty International, is accused of attacking an agent of the authority, so that the prosecution could seek a three-year prison sentence.

In the middle of this month, Amnesty International also called for the release of Cuban dissident graffiti artist Danilo Maldonado, known as El Sexto (The Sixth), also considered a prisoner of conscience who was imprisoned without trial in the high security Combinado del Este in Havana.

El Sexto was released without charge on January 21 after spending nearly two months in prison for having written the phrase “He’s gone” on a wall of the Habana Libre hotel in the capital on November 26, 2016, after the death of Fidel Castro.

Statistics Reflect The Serious Crisis Of The Cuban Education System / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

To ensure the presence of a teacher in front of the classroom, the government has had to move teachers from one region to another from the country to another. (Telesur)

14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 1 February 2017 – The rapid aging of the population, joined with the reduction in available resources and the decline in the quality of teaching, are three of the features with which the economist Carmelo Mesa-Lago has characterized the situation of Cuba’s educational system.

“In 2007, the government of Raul Castro declared that he could not sustain the expenses of the educational system inherited from the previous administration, since then the investment in education and social spending in general have been reduced,” Mesa Lago explained on Saturday at a conference sponsored by the Center for Coexistence Studies.

“It was supposed that Cuba was going to have the same indicators as Uruguay by 2025, but today not only has it reached the level of that country, it has surpassed it,” said the researcher referring to the aging of the population. continue reading

Cuba is now the oldest country on the continent and this has a direct impact on the education system. The students enrolled in primary school have been fewer year after year. As has the numbers in their productive years, which in the opinion of the economist poses a serious danger, because that segment of the population is responsible for financing society’s old and young.

General indicators of education in Cuba. Blue: Teaching positions. Black: Enrollment

Specifically, the education system has seen its budget shrink by 4 percentage points between 2008 and 2015.

Some of the measures that Raul Castro took when taking power were the closure of “schools in the countryside,” (boarding schools), as well as the gradual elimination of more than 3,000 university seats opened by his brother Fidel in the years of the Battle of Ideas. There has also been a progressive readjustment in schools, closing those with less enrollment, and moving the remaining students to other educational centers.

Castro also eliminated costly programs like social worker programs, which graduated thousands of young people who ended up controlling fuel consumption at gas stations or handing out refrigerators and light bulbs in massive exchange programs. Programs for emerging teachers and art instructors were also dismantled, while universities for older adults and the use of technological devices in classrooms were reduced.

Between 1989 and 2007 there was an increase of the offerings of careers in the area of humanities and social sciences were greatly increased, while university-related careers in the natural sciences were greatly reduced.

With Raul Castro in command, the panorama changed radically with a decrease of 83% in humanistic careers and a 13% increase in those related to the natural sciences.

However, university enrollment declined by 30% in 2014, a trend shared by other sectors, such as secondary education, where enrollment dropped by 11%.

Mesa Lago recognizes that universal and free access to education is a very important achievement that has had positive effects “in the lower income sectors such as Afro-Cubans, women and peasants.” However, the researcher emphasized that the ideologization of education and absolute control of the State on educational projects are its most important shortcomings.

Another criticism, in the opinion of Mesa Lago, is teachers’ salaries, which are among the lowest in the continent. The average salary of the educational sector is 537 Cuban pesos, which is equivalent to 21.40 dollars a month.

“Cuba has extraordinary human capital, but it is lost because it emigrates to other economic endeavors that have higher remuneration,” he explained.

According to a study carried out by the academic, in 2015 real wages adjusted for inflation only covered 28% of the purchasing power of incomes in 1989.

In order to guarantee the presence of a teacher in front of the classroom, the Government has had to transfer teachers from one region to another, as has been the case in Matanzas and Havana, where there is a significant presence of teachers from the eastern region of Cuba.

Although Cuba does not participate in the international examinations that measure the quality of educational programs, the government itself has offered a mea culpa for the deterioration of the system.

Comparisons of educational spending at a percent of GDP

Mesa Lago proposes eleven points to take into account in the future of the management of the educational system. According to the economist, resources must focus on the population most in need in the poorest provinces. The demand for work for training programs should also be taken into account.

To achieve the sustainability of the system, the economist proposes to collect tuition in higher education from those with a high income. The education system must be open and oriented to the world market.

Another important aspect is to offer more university careers in those specialties of greater demand. The fair payment to teachers and the opening to private education, through the de-ideologization of the educational system, would be indispensable for the future of the Island.

Finally, the academic proposes to restore the financial autonomy of the research centers so that they can attract international investments and allow self-employment in the educational area.

Cuba’s Young Communist Union Comes Late To The National Blogosphere / 14ymedio

The blog of Cuba’s Young Communist Union already has more than 28,000 “likes” on Facebook. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 1 February 2017 — The Union of Young Communists (UJC) has joined the national blogosphere, the newspaper Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth) reported on Wednesday. The Young Cuban arrives ten years behind the world of blogs, that the opposition, independent journalism and civic activism have successfully developed over the last decade.

The managers of the new digital site seek to turn it into “another alternative” so that young Cuban internauts can participate in a “scenario of debates and displays of opinions,” according to the official media. It is hosted on the free WordPress platform and is defined as “a blog of the vanguard Cuban youth.” continue reading

Asael Alonso Tirado, an official of the UJC National Committee, clarified that the space is committed to “a fresh language that is consistent with the codes of youth,” and “stipped of all formalism.” However, he said that in the debates there should be first “respect for and defense of the best values of the Revolution.”

The official is optimistic and says that the space has 31,500 followers and in “less than five days has achieved almost 1,000 visit, mainly from Cuba, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Namibia and Angola.”

Nevertheless, the UJC’s blog lands in a tangled jungle of digital spaces that gain presence on the Island in spite of the low rate of connectivity to the internet. Most young people consume content that they acquire through informal distribution networks.

The Cuban Youth blog joins the most important official services and social networks. Prominent among them is Ecured, which attempts to rival the volunteer led Wikipedia; Reflections, similar to blog hosting services like Blogger; The Washing Line, which tries to compete with Facebook; and Backpack, a substitute for the informal but ubiquitous weekly packet.

None of these copies has achieved the popularity of the originals, so we will have to wait to see if the new UJC blog is able to overcome the indifference of users to official initiatives and mass organizations.

Coexistence Profiles Future Proposals For Cuban Education And Culture / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

Carmelo Mesa-Lago during his presentation at the Coexistence Study Center meeting. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 30 January 2017 — A pluralistic education, deeply democratic, with a privileged use of technology and communications together with a vision of culture open to universality: these were some of the proposals of the third meeting of the Center for Coexistence Studies (CEC) for the future of Cuba held this weekend in Miami.

The Cuban think tank, based in Pinar del Rio, held its meeting at Florida International University (FIU) within the framework of an journey of thought for Cuba. A similar process is taking place in parallel on the island, although that meeting had to be suspended in the face of the repression of the political police. Paradoxically, the prohibition decreed by the authorities facilitated greater interaction through alternative means such as email. continue reading

Dagoberto Valdés, director of the CEC, offered an overview of the national reality that, in his opinion, is marked by several elements, including the country’s economic crisis “in free fall,” the death of Fidel Castro and the end of the wet foot/dry foot policy that allowed Cubans who touched American soil to remain in the country, regardless of whether they had a visa.

The analysis of Cuban culture involved preparing a list of paradigmatic personalities, institutions and referential processes that make up the nucleus of the nation’s identity. It also addressed “weaknesses” and “negative features” in the country’s cultural processes.

With regards to education, there was a discussion of pedagogical models that tend to strengthen ethical values and individual autonomy.

“The projects presented seek to clarify the roots of identity that should be rescued and maintained, as well as detail models, content and methodologies. Also, the types of institutions and educational spaces that should predominate in the future, and what the profile of an educator should be,” said the press release issued by the institution.

Four sessions enriched the meeting, including one led by the economist Carmelo Mesa Lago, another by anthropologist and journalist Miriam Celaya, as well as two led by members of the editorial team of Coexistence magazine, Dagoberto Valdes and Yoandy Izquierda.

The meeting at the FIU, together with the work being done in Cuba, has enabled the drafting of 45 legislative proposals for a new Cuban legal framework.

The results of the workshops will be compiled by the Center’s Academic Council and the Board of Directors and published on its website.

Fire Destroys Cultural Assets Warehouse in Central Havana /

The fire reduced to ashes the warehouse and the offices of the Cultural Assets Fund. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta, Havana, 31 January 2017 — A fire reduced to ashes, on Monday, a warehouse and the offices of the Cultural Assets Fund, which managed raw materials for artistic productions on Subirana Street, between Benjumeda and Santo Tomás, in Central Havana. The fire spread quickly and it required several fire brigades to put itout, due to its intensity and the flammable materials stored there.

Beatriz Noa, a resident of No. 301 Subirana, told 14ymedio that “the flames went out the front windows and the black smoke covered all these streets.” When she peeked out of the door of her home “the area was filled with police and firefighters, but they had to ask for reinforcements from nearby stations.” continue reading

According to the neighbors, the incident began when some welding sparks fell on the rolls of fabric stored in the warehouse. The flames quickly reached the offices, the workshops and the furniture housed in the premises.

The Ministry of the Interior has begun an investigation to determine the causes of the fire.

The Ministry of the Interior has begun an investigation to determine the causes of the fire

The images of the flames spread quickly through the application Zapya, widely used to share content on mobile phones. Onlookers filmed from the surrounding rooftops, but as the fire spread, police officers evacuated the area.

“There were many firefighters who came to support the first responders, because the flames went everywhere and the trucks arrived almost without water, but it was more than an hour before it was completely extinguished,” said Carlos, a young man who recorded everything with his cell phone from the top of a nearby building where “everything could be seen clearly.”

Noelia Fuentes, a resident of Subirana Street, between Santo Tomas and Clavel, explained that the smell of burning spread quickly throughout the neighborhood and the neighbors went out to see what was happening. “But when we saw that there were a lot of flames, we had to get away. The fire almost reached the electrical wires and was a danger,” she reported.

Some speculated that a fire in a place “with many valuable products, like fabrics, wood and lacquers,” would result in thousands of pesos worth of loses.

Minutes after arriving, the first fire trucks shut off the electricity because the flames were reaching the wires. After seven hours, at about five o’clock in the afternoon, electricity was restored.

In the evening hours, local workers and company managers began cleaning up and the street was once again passable for vehicles.