14ymedio – Page 110 – Translating Cuba

‘I Do Not Rule Out an Uprising Against the Cuban Regime, But There Are Many Factors Against It’

Reyes, just like other priests and clerics on the island, like Castor José Álvarez or Nadieska Almeida, have denounced the regime’s abuses in recent years. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Madrid, 22 April 2023 – On a visit to Madrid, a Catholic priest from Camagüey, Alberto Reyes, talks about Cuba as an island out of time. “There’s no present and no future there”, he says, “only the lethargy of continuity”. The most obvious symptom: the ‘re-election’ of Miguel Díaz-Canel, a decisive bet on continuing stalemate and antiquated discussion whilst the country’s place in its allies’ games — those of Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Mexico — becomes increasingly unclear.

Real life, however, goes on regardless: repression, fear, shortages and many reasons to emigrate, says Reyes, one of the voices inside the Catholic Church most critical of the regime, in conversation with 14ymedio. Not only have repressive actions been gaining ground but also the whole of the repressive environment itself. There are more and more people summoned by the security services and many warning notices issued. Any demonstration against the government is quickly checked. People are very afraid”, he says.

The general situation, the priest explains, is one of “learned defencelessness”, which means that since the 11 July 2021 [11J] protests, Cubans have been “inoculated” with the idea that there’s nothing further that they can do. One year after the protests, interviewed by this journal, Reyes had offered his diagnosis: “As a people we are tired and worn down, and life is ebbing away in the fight for survival; we are a people that has learnt to defend itself in any way it can, and which goes out to march and applaud with energy while at the same time planning a final exit from the country.”

The situation has only got worse, because now the predominant emotion, he says, is desperation and a longing for escape. “As there have now been so many escape routes opened – I’m thinking of Nicaragua, the financial support of the U.S., or the possibility of achieving Spanish citizenship, as well as the illegal method of escape by small boat, which still continues — the focus is firmly on abroad”. There’s an almost universal mindset: “Why would I make myself a target when I’ve got the chance to leave and get away from this nightmare?” continue reading

A general sense of fear is preventing the uprising that many hope for. Reyes says that across the island there are private protests and discussion, as well as small demonstrations against the regime but a protest like that of 11J is very difficult to bring about. “Also, there’s a lack of opposition leadership”, he notes, “Who will coordinate a demonstration? Who will channel the people’s energy? Who will speak out? I don’t rule out the possibility of an uprising, in fact I think it’s quite a strong probability but there are many factors working against it”.

Regarding those already in exile, the priest is pleased that there are many of them who are working seriously towards Cuba’s future. Nevertheless, he says, “change needs to come from within”. “An exile can support, can assist, but it’s not that easy. You do what you can, with integrity”, he adds.

The island’s Catholic Church, on the other hand, has its own limits. The recent visit by Cardinal Beniamino Stella, who asked for “an amnesty or some other form of clemency” for the island’s political prisoners doesn’t seem to have had any impact on the regime, which has continued to demand severe sentences for those who participated in 11J. The island’s Episcopal Conference continues, it would seem, with the same strategy of non-confrontation.

However, Reyes is unequivocal: despite its social impact and works of charity, “the church isn’t a philanthropic organisation nor a political party”. It’s mission is essentially religious although it has not neglected for one minute to accompany the families of political prisoners or the creation of social initiatives to alleviate the people’s misery. The other side, he laments – the prayers and the being close to the people – “isn’t often in the news”.

“Regarding the political and social arena, we try, from where we are, to accompany people in their desperate times. We also try to shine light on people’s consciences and help people to think. If a priest writes an article or an invitation to reflect, I’m happy about that and I share it”, he says. Reyes, just like other priests and clerics on the island, like Castor José Álvarez and Nadieska Almeida, have denounced the regime’s abuses in recent years.

As there’s little sign of the country opening up to a new era, the most urgent problem is the exodus of young people. “I understand that”, he says. “They want to leave, live, make the most of the only life they have. When they can, they go. What’s the result? We have the most aged population in the region”.

Meanwhile, Díaz-Canel’s government, which ratified almost all of its cabinet members’ posts, moves closer every day towards countries like Russia — whose invasion of Ukraine it has witnessed with its own eyes — and local allies like Mexico or Nicaragua. In Reyes’ view, people don’t care much about the regime’s diplomacy. “There are more important things that they have to attend to, like getting daily bread to eat”.

Nonetheless, the arrival of ambassadors and foreign politicians in Havana to greet Diaz-Canel as architect of the continuity of the Castro regimes never ceases to be disheartening: “If they keep on shoring up the system with economic assistance it will last a thousand years and this brings us to the same conclusion that everyone has: the most sensible thing is to escape”.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Rice and Sardines in the Donated Packages That Will ‘Save’ Santiago de Cuba From Hunger

Cuban Government delivers packages of food donated from “solidarity” countries in the midst of a shortage of products. (Granma)

14ymedio, Havana, 3 May 2023 — On Tuesday in Santiago de Cuba a shipment of 30,000 food packages arrived, which the authorities plan to allocate to the most vulnerable families in the province. The local press pointed out that the packages were made with “donations from solidarity countries,” but did not say which ones.

The distribution will begin in the José Martí District, a neighborhood of the provincial capital that presents one of the most serious situations in terms of food, in addition to numerous squatters. Then supplies will be sent to the main municipalities and other emergency areas, according to the merchandise director of the Internal Trade Business Group, Leonardo Lamela.

Each package consists of two kilos of rice, legumes, spaghetti and elbow pasta, as well as two cans of sardines, Lamela said in an interview with the Cuban News Agency (ACN). The social workers of each popular council will make a list of the possible beneficiaries and, through the warehouses, will deliver the packages.

The authorities will give priority, he said, to the most precarious cases they have registered: 1,938 pregnant women, 22,301 disabled or in need of some type of assistance and 1,154 children with low weight. Bárbara Rodríguez, mother of a child with a disability, celebrated the “gratification” represented by the packages, which arrived at a time of maximum crisis in which the indispensable food to support her child has reached prohibitive prices.

However, Rodríguez reminded the press that the packages “do not meet all the needs of a household,” although “they do alleviate the monetary burden in terms of family support.”

With the news that, as of May, Cubans over the age of 13 will no longer receive rationed chicken, the situation became even more precarious. Other foods, such as eggs and oil, have been on the “disappeared” list for months. continue reading

Many Cuban families have crossed the threshold of poverty and food insecurity. Last April, the World Food Program put numbers on the crisis: Cubans between the ages of 14 and 60 only cover 36% of energy intake, 24% of the daily protein ration and 18% of fats.

In an extensive report of the Global Network against Food Crises, published this Wednesday in collaboration with several United Nations agencies, a small section is dedicated to Cuba, which lists the problems faced by the Island since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In 2022, the capacity to import critical foods and basic fuel products continued to be limited by high international prices, which reduced the supply and availability of agricultural inputs,” the report says.

It also notes that the Island has not yet been able to make up for the losses caused by the passage of Hurricane Ian in September 2022, which affected the province of Pinar del Río with losses in crops and infrastructure.

However, the maximum responsibility continues to lie with the poor economic management of the Government, which has systematically neglected its food strategy and decreased imports. Meanwhile, domestic production is still not able to alleviate the deficit that, for years, has plagued a country in which short-term solutions are no longer effective.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Authorizing the Controlled Slaughter of Livestock Was a ‘Mistake’ Cuban Officials Say

The aging Cuban farmers no longer know what to do with the thieves, who robbed 82,445 cattle and horses in 2022. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 3 May 2023 — The livestock scenario in Cuba, marked by brutal robberies and police inaction, could not be more chaotic. Resolution 88 of the Ministry of Agriculture, which approved in 2022 a “procedure for the slaughter and consumption of beef for self-consumption” for authorized entities and producers, is now seen by officials as “erroneous” and somethng they regret, because instead of alleviating the situation, the level of crime has skyrocketed, according to Cubadebate.

The aging Cuban farmers no longer know what to do to face the thieves, who in 2022 robbed the huge figure of 82,445 cows and horses throughout the country, according to the official press. Few now go to the police, whose terrible investigative mechanisms are well known by the victims of this “common” problem.

“In the end nothing happens,” is the conclusion of the second part of a report on the theft and slaughter of cattle published this Wednesday by Cubadebate, with a third installment announced. Producers, officials and agents have offered the official media their thoughts on the subject, and no one dares to foresee a less bloodthirsty panorama: thieves are increasingly effective and violent, and in the countryside the early morning is filled with tension.

“Producers are very disappointed with this whole situation. It is very painful for them that a cow they have for milk is stolen to produce meat or to work,” says the director of livestock of the Ministry of Agriculture, Adrián Gutiérrez. Many no longer even know “where to [safely] put their animals to sleep.”

“They kill the cow, take it and nothing happens. There is also a safe market, which is not only fresh meat but the production of sausages,” says Gutiérrez. The farmers, for their part, know the score: what matters to criminals is to make easy money: “Did anyone think that with livestock it was going to be any different?” continue reading

In San Cristóbal, Artemisa province, the police managed to arrest a criminal who was up at dawn with two sacks full of meat. With complete peace of mind, he told the officers where the product had come from, on which farm he had killed the animal and what he intended to do with it.

However, when he arrived at the station, the man changed his entire statement. He said that had had found the sacks and that, naturally, with the hunger on the Island he did not hesitate to pick them up to feed his family. He spent three days in detention and left after paying bail. “It didn’t take long for them to find him again one morning, killing another cow,” Cubadebate says.

Releasing known criminals is an increasingly common practice in the rural areas of the Island. The “excessive request for evidence,” criticized by the official press, goes above common sense and the fact that thieves, in general, are repeat offenders. It is enough for a person to declare that “the bag of meat was found lying around” so that, sooner or later, the crime goes unpunished.

Osbel Benítez, a farmer from Manatí (Las Tunas) interviewed by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, reported that he had also suffered the consequences of police inaction. “They slaughtered three cows on January 12. I made the accusation and they haven’t done anything. The police do whatever they want,” he lamented, despite having provided all the evidence.

“It seems that it was a matter of patronage,” Benítez explained, alluding to the fact that several criminals are under the protection of the police.

Meanwhile, local meetings with the Ministry of Agriculture are increasingly frustrating. The authorities attribute the ease of committing crimes to the lack of control of the livestock herds. “It is the absolute responsibility of the owner,” say the managers, who wash their hands of the problem when the animal is not registered, despite the fines of 10,000 pesos and the confiscation that is imposed on those who violate the accounting of their livestock.

“If the livestock is counted, the person must report to the police when an event occurs,” they point out. But if the cow or horse is not listed in the state registry, it is not even worth the complaint. According to the newspaper, the animal does not exist, and neither does the crime.

For Yudith Almeida, the head of the National Livestock Registry, if a producer doesn’t have the “marker” — with which the animal’s skin is identified — or the ear tag, he is committing a serious “indiscipline,” and this exonerates the authorities from the damage.

The official lists the sanctions that can be applied to violators: 500 pesos and confiscation if there are no documents that prove the accounting of the animal in the registry; 10,000 pesos if the declaration of birth of major livestock is violated; 10,000 if a death is not declared; 10,000 for each missing cow or horse; 5,000 for each unauthorized process of sale or transfer; and 20,000 if the update of data for each animal is not already registered.

Given the legal complexity of explaining that he was the victim of a theft, “the farmer often prefers not to testify,” Almeida acknowledges.

Not even the official numbers can hide the situation: 82,445 cases of theft and slaughter of animals in 2022 — almost 2.5 times more than in 2021, when 33,690 were registered — of which 45,315 correspond to cattle and 37,130 to horses. The most affected provinces are Villa Clara (12,243 cases), then Holguín (9,825) and finally Matanzas (2,926).

Meanwhile, the government is promoting alternatives to relieve the deficit of meat and milk in the country, such as raising water buffalo. In Las Tunas, since 2013, a herd of 765 head has been supplied, but the farmers don’t accept these animals,” according to the president of the company in charge of breeding, Leonel Ávila.

Optimistic, Ávila says that buffalo ’have more advantages than cattle,” and he gives their reproductive capacity as an example. In addition, he points out that their milk production is progressing well, and “everything they eat is quickly converted into live weight.” But he acknowledges that these animals “require greater volumes of food.” However, the breeding of large-scale buffalo on the Island is, according to the farmer himself, on the plane of mere possibility.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Tired of Cuban Inefficiency, the Vietnamese Abandon Their Successful Rice Project

Vietnamese technicians in Sancti Spíritus. (Granma/Archive)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 2 May 2023 — The residents of La Sierpe, in Sancti Spíritus, glued their eyes and ears to national television this weekend while the news of the official visit of senior Cuban officials to Vietnam was presented.

The tone disseminated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was exalted. “For Vietnam we are still willing to give even our blood,” Roberto Morales Ojeda, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party and former Minister of Public Health, said in Ho Chi Minh City.

What many residents in La Sierpe expected was a mention that would give them hope for the return of the Vietnamese technicians, who, in the middle of last year, broke their collaboration agreement with the Island to support rice production in the area and packed their bags to go home.

“With the departure of the Vietnamese we all felt a loss,” laments Diosdado, 68 years old and a resident in the vicinity of the Agroindustrial Company of Granos Sur del Jíbaro. “They arrived 20 years ago but got tired, because this was worse than plowing the sea; it was plowing in a sea of inefficiency,” says the farmer, one of the producers of the municipality who benefited from the agreement between the two countries.

The collaboration project began in 2002, and, in addition to providing equipment and machinery to Cuban producers, it kept dozens of Vietnamese specialists and technicians in Cuba. The area of La Sierpe was the main focus of this collaboration, and dikes were built, canals were cleaned and local specialists were trained.

But, over the years, the performance of the rice fields failed to meet the expectations of the Vietnamese, who also had to deal with the clumsy state bureaucracy, the lack of a stable supply of fuel and the inefficiency of the Agroindustrial Company. The final blow to the relationship occurred last year, when the hydrocarbon crisis deepened. continue reading

“The Vietnamese technicians demanded a quota of fuel to keep working, advising and connecting directly with what was happening in the fields,” Diosdado tells 14ymedio. “But the amount they needed almost never arrived, and then they were told that they had to supply it themselves, buy it abroad and bring it to the Island.”

In the end, “the Vietnamese did not renew the contract, as they had in previous years, and the technicians left,” an employee of the administrative area of the Agroindustrial Company tells this newspaper. “The Communist Party bosses gathered us at the beginning of this year to tell us that the Vietnamese were leaving, and they warned us not to say anything about it.”

The company’s national employees were faced with a problem. “They had to be sent to look for farmers in the area who wanted to request part of the rice cultivation area in usufruct, in order to save the current campaign, but they could not be told why the Vietnamese were no longer there,” explains the state worker.

“But it hasn’t stopped there. Now we are in the middle of a dispute with Vietnam because, since the agreement was not renewed, they want to take back a lot of the equipment they had brought,” he says. “Without those machines, we will have to go back in time to harvest the rice.”

In the nearby Mapos Basic Unit of Cooperative Production (UBPC), which was also part of the project, some affiliated producers feel the departure of the Vietnamese is the prelude to the collapse of the sector in the province. “What had been achieved was the result of their insistence and industriousness,” acknowledges a local farmer, who prefers anonymity. “They were very persistent people, who got up in the morning and immediately went to the fields. They followed every step of the rice crop.”

“It was possible to improve performance a lot after they arrived,” admits the farmer. “Now there are almost no more than three tons of grain per hectare, but when the project with the Vietnamese was at its best, back in 2015, up to five tons per hectare were extracted. It seemed that we were never going to lack rice in the province, and it’s hard to believe the situation we’re in now.”

In the Sancti Spíritus agricultural markets this week one pound of the grain was sold at 160 pesos [$7]. “And it’s not even good rice; it has a high percentage of broken grains, and customers buy it because there’s nothing else, but it’s a product that looks more like animal feed than something to put on a table at home,” he says.

In the port of Nuevitas, Camagüey, another employee of the commercial department confirms that “the Vietnamese took out a good part of the rice that was harvested in La Sierpe to export it. It was part of the agreement: they kept a percentage of the harvest and sold it on the international market.” According to this source, the non-payments on the Cuban side were due to tons of the product that were left for national consumption, but the expense was never repaid to Vietnam.

In December of last year, when the Vietnamese had already left, the official press alluded to the debacle that the sector was experiencing and predicted that for the cold season it was intended to plant only about 7,500 hectares of the up to 13,000 that they had reached with the Vietnamese collaboration. They added that La Sierpe had been “hit” by a “contraction of resources that endangers a scenario of optimal development in Cuba for the cultivation of rice.”

“Of the 7,500 hectares provided for in the cold-planting plan until February, around 2,600 hectares are protected, but for the rest there are no inputs. The producers are going to risk planting the area by alternative, biological means,” Edemir Hernández Meneses, technical productive director of the Agroindustrial Company, acknowledged at the time.

Reality seems to have further sunk the poor forecasts. “We didn’t get the seeds on time, and there is no fuel to irrigate or to transport the workers, not to mention the fertilizers. There were farmers who risked planting without knowing if they were going to be able to get what was necessary to achieve the harvest, but most said no, rice cannot be grown this way,” says Diosdado.

“Today’s visit to the Coop Mary market and the Smart N Green Joint Stock Company shows us how much more we can do in Cuba,” Morales Ojeda, writing from from Vietnam. posted enthusiastically on his Twitter account on Monday. Thousands of kilometers from there, in the plains of Sancti Spíritus, rice farmers also know what to do, but they don’t have the resources to achieve it.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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On May 1, A Holiday for Cubans and Red Flags for the Regime’s Foreign Guests

On Monday, foreigners were seen in the streets of Havana with red protest flags and those of the Communist Party. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 2 May 2023–It was to be expected that the streets of Havana would be empty on May 1 after the Cuban government canceled the “austere” events that had been planned. What was surprising is that the sun was shining brightly throughout almost the entire Island, when the reason given for the suspension was that Sunday’s weather would continue.

The good weather raised suspicions, such that the “challenge” to upload a photo of the “sunny morning” from “your spot” spread on social media like wildfire. With the hashtag #yonodesfiloel1demayo [I don’t march on May 1], the message was started by Amelia Calzadilla, the English linguist who gained notoriety after posting several videos in which she denounced the struggles experienced by a mother to raise her children in Cuba. Several other Cubans joined her including journalist Diasniurka Salcedo and newscaster Yunior Morales.

At the same time, the regime boasts in the official media about receiving “more than a thousands invited guests from different countries” for this International Workers’ Day. According to Prensa Latina, some of them participated on the 26th and 27th in a “scientific workshop” to discuss topics such as “histories, theory and methods for the study of work and workers” or “experiences and challenges” of social movements in America.

Furthermore, always according to officialist media, they toured different neighborhoods of the capital to see the “transformation works in communities of Havana”. continue reading

On May 2, the plan is for these delegates to participate in the closing of the International Solidarity Encounter with Cuba in the Palacio de Convenciones in Havana, with the objective of “anti-imperialism after 200 years of the Monroe Doctrine”.

While they waited for that moment to arrive, some of those foreigners were seen on Monday in the streets of Havana with red protest flags and those of the Communist Party, in addition to their national banners as was the case of some Italians in Havana Vieja. They seem to be the only ones who have something to celebrate today.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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The Cuban Government Entrusts Itself to ‘Cachita’ and the Santeros To Improve Tourism Data

Among the Island’s “potential attractions” to recover tourism, Marrero points out “the quality infrastructure,” the extensive historical and cultural legacy and “legendary heritage cities.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 2 May 2023 — The sanctuary of the Virgin of Charity of Copper [“Cachita”], in Santiago de Cuba, with the superimposed effigy of a Cuban santera, is the striking image of one of the promotional posters of the 41st edition of the International Tourism Fair of the Island (FitCuba), inaugurated on May 1st.

The event, which will take place until next Friday at the Morro-Cabaña complex, brings together “about 73 international tour operators, more than 51 hotel chains and an equal number of airlines,” according to the official press.

Cubadebate highlighted that it is the first FitCuba held in the capital since the pandemic — last year’s took place in Varadero — and that it is dedicated “to culture and heritage.”

At the same time, in Cayo Santa María (Villa Clara), almost 400 travel agents from Spain and Portugal will meet until May 7, in the so-called Annual Macro Convention DIT Management. The Cuban News Agency picked up the statements of the president of the Spanish company, Jon Arriaga, who said that the event had been planned for half a year “with the interest of promoting the sale of Cuba as a destination.”

The firm, based in the Basque Country, arrived with the professionals summoned to the Havana airport on April 30, with the intention that their agents would participate in the May Day parade, ultimately postponed until Friday, May 5. continue reading

“They come to Cuba and Havana in extraordinary circumstances, marked by the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the US blockade. Despite this, they will enjoy the customs, habits and traditions that distinguish us,” the governor of Havana, Reinaldo García Zapata, said in his welcome speech to FitCuba.

In the same vein, the Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, declared that this sector “has demonstrated great potential and has been able to maintain its competitiveness in the international market despite the challenges it faces.”

Those “challenges” were also alluded to by Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, who, attributing the situation to the Covid-19 pandemic and the US blockade, acknowledged that they have had “difficult years.”

Poster of the 41st edition of FitCuba, 2023. (Presidency)

Among the “potentialities” of the Island to recover tourism, which is the third source of income in the country behind the sale of medical services and remittances, Marrero points out “the quality infrastructure, a trained human capital, the extensive historical and cultural legacy, legendary heritage cities, 290 national monuments, a preserved nature, 600 km of beach and a town characterized by its joviality.”

Despite the usual self-congratulations, official figures show that the crisis is far from over. According to the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (Onei), Cuba received 1.6 million international travelers in 2022, which was below the 1.7 million target, which in turn had been “re-adjusted” from an initial forecast of 2.5 million.

Although more foreign tourists came than in 2021 (356,470), the figure is far from the levels of 2019 (4.2 million) and 2018 (4.6 million), before Covid-19.

Several experts have already warned that the target of 3.5 million international visitors projected by the Government for 2023 will be very difficult to reach, given the current crisis, with frequent blackouts, shortages of food, medicines and fuel, and roads and other public infrastructures in poor condition.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Tourism Festival, Who Pays for it?

Women dress up in costume to earn a few convertible pesos from the foreign tourists in the historic center of the city.

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 1 May 2023 — This blog will directly monitor the regime’s tourism policy to detect its inconsistencies and errors, and before the FITCuba tourism festival begins, we already have a good example. The communist state press is flattering and describes as a success that “almost 400 Spanish tour operators are going to attend FITCuba.”

When it comes to inviting friends and paying for meals and hotels, it’s already known that the Cuban communist regime does not skimp on expenses. In the 60s, 70s and 80s of the last century, delegations of foreign communist parties came to admire the constructions of Cuban socialism. Fidel Castro hoped that they would speak well of his regime when they returned to their countries. It was the solidarity that Cuba needed to gain more followers in order to penetrate the leftist and revolutionary movements around the world. You know this already.

And now the tour operators hope for travelers and income. If almost 400 Spanish tour operators travel to the tourism fair, how many Spanish tourists arrived in Cuba in the best years of tourism before the pandemic? Sixty, 70, 80 thousand, could be more. What does it matter? The figure places the Spaniards in fourth or fifth place in the ranking of origin of tourism that reaches the Island. Ahead are Canada and the United States, even Russia in its favorable years. Since before the pandemic, Spanish tourism to Cuba had dropped many places in the ranking. The Spaniards traveled to different destinations and did not repeat the Island, unlike other destinations. The image of Cuba was perhaps blurred.

But it doesn’t matter. The state press celebrates that Barajas airport in Madrid seemed “a hotbed with the presence of 389 Spanish travel agents, who will take part in a convention and in the Cuba Tourism Fair,” many of them, tour operators, DIT Gestión de España associates, on an Iberojet flight. continue reading

What has happened to Spanish tourism to Cuba to end up being one of the least relevant? One of the Spanish representatives of a travel agency said that he has not visited the largest island in the Caribbean for 20 years, and now he hopes to see its “infrastructure, hotels and other facilities.”

Twenty years without traveling to Cuba. That is, the last time he was on the Island was at the beginning of the century when the Island began to emerge from the Special Period and Fidel Castro was sending to re-education camps the prostitutes and others who offered their services to Spanish tourists, mainly single men, according to statistics on the sociodemographic profile of those travelers. The fun was over, the commander arrived with the oil from Venezuela, Spanish tourism plummeted, and the figures were not repeated.

These Spaniards who now travel to the Island invited by the regime were practically children at the beginning of this century, and in these 20 years they have been able to travel to countless destinations of a much higher level of quality and competitiveness. Therefore, they are going to observe what is on the Island, and many of them are going to be surprised, but not for the better. The great opportunity to promote the Caribbean nation, which the communist regime expects from the expenses, will fall apart, because the leaders of Cuban tourism cannot think that in 2023 they can attract demand for tourism with a similar supply, in quantity and quality, to what there was in 2000.

And, of course, with much less “fun” despite the fact that Spanish travel agents are going to enjoy the paradisiacal environment of Cayo Santa María. I hope that the farmers with supply contracts have obtained sufficient quantities of products for them to enjoy the hotel buffet and breakfast. Sometimes there isn’t enough food.

That the authorities have planned tours of Havana for these travelers says a lot about their age and the number of times they have visited the Island: zero. We will see what they think of the streets without water or electricity, the semi-destroyed buildings, the lines of hunger or the lack of gasoline. Oh no, of course, that tour is not planned.

A recommendation: it would be good for these travel agents to take a walk by themselves to know the true reality to which they are going to send tourists. It does not seem that this idea is in the plans of the regime’s partner, the DIT Gestión group, located in Guipúzcoa, which hopes to achieve business once the action of the fair is over. The question is, why can’t that business be done by a private Cuban company, and should it be left in the hands of foreigners?

In the midst of all these trappings, the state press reported that the tourist company TUI Spain has launched a promotional campaign called “Two Weeks in Cuba,” which will be active until May 7, or that the firm TUI AG, from Germany, has more than 2,300 places with guaranteed departures from May to October to the Caribbean island. It was also said that from this coming June the connections between Spain and Cuba will increase depending on tourism, with the new air route of Enjoy Travel Group/Enjoy Barcelona-Havana.

All this is very nice and with great expectations, but the goal of the plan for 2023 of 3.5 million tourists is not going to be achieved. Tourism to Cuba comes mainly from Canada. It’s almost 65% of the total. Have you heard anything about Canada at this Havana fair? No. Why does the regime disdain and not pay attention to tourism from the main market? Are they that confident about it? The regime’s tourism policy is an absolute failure, and in addition, these glories end up being paid for by Cubans. The same ones that tourists are going to see, if they manage to escape from their controllers, standing in the lines of hunger.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘In Cuba, There Is No Good or Bad Opponent: The Opponent Is Whoever Confronts the Regime’

14ymedio, Havana, 29 April 2023 — According to French reporter Francis Matéo, the key to understanding Cuba’s political convulsions is to track the regime’s money: its phantom accounts abroad, the debts it cannot pay, what it charges for sending medical brigades and the budget it allocates to propaganda. The wear and tear of its methods after six decades of abuse, coupled with repression and shortages, put the order established by power in crisis during the protests of July 11, 2021 [11J].

Matéo, who could not enter the country until the travel restrictions were lifted due to the coronavirus pandemic, collected dozens of testimonies from the protesters and published them this year in Cuba… la patrie et la vie! [Cuba… Homeland and Life], VA Éditions), a detailed report that will soon come to light in Spanish by Ediciones Ecúmene. From Barcelona, the city where he lives, the author talks to 14ymedio about the present and future of the Island.

Question. How was the process of writing Cuba… Homeland and Life? Did you know all the interviewees in person or was it essentially an online work?

Answer. I didn’t know them all personally, but I talked to them directly, on WhatsApp. For this book, a Cuban friend named María del Carmen, a resident of Barcelona, who knows many of the protesters in the La Güinera neighborhood, was very important. It was she who helped me make contact by various means.

For the journalist Iliana Hernández, one of the interviewees, I did go to see her directly when she was still in Havana. I met her at her house, where she was guarded by the police with a camera that pointed at her door day and night. I have been to Cuba almost 30 times in the last two decades, and the two most recent trips were in November 2021 — when the country was opened to tourism after the pandemic — and in May 2022.

When I arrived on November 16, a day after the so-called Civic March for Change scheduled for the 15th, there was no one on the streets. Everyone was still confined. There was talk of Yunior García and his flight to Madrid with a lot of disappointment. continue reading

I have been reproached for interviewing certain opponents who now live outside Cuba and whom other exiled Cubans do not recognize as such. But I think there is no good or bad opponent: the opponent is whoever confronts the regime. The same thing happens with the media. A good media outlet about Cuba is the one that tells the truth. In that we must congratulate this newspaper, which, of course, is one of my sources of information.

It must be said that none of the characters in this book or the situations described are fictitious. The sufferings expressed are also real. In addition, most of the people cited have agreed to testify “openly.” The only concession to this reality refers to the (scarce) names modified for obvious security reasons. As I point out at the end of the book, some fictitious details also give coherence to the narrative to facilitate reading, without compromising witnesses. These small elements of fiction are actually necessary artifices in the story, to prevent the book from being a succession of facts that could be incomprehensible, especially for readers who do not know Cuba well or who have never been there.

Q. You talk about the difficulties of speaking to Europeans about the true Cuban reality. Is there an interest in the European media to know that true Cuba you describe or do they want to maintain the myth of “paradise” defended by the publisher who rejected your report, as you recount in your book?

A. In France there is still a kind of romanticism about the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro and Che. I wanted to tell the anecdote of that rejection because it was what drove me to write the book. To tell the reality of the Island you need a means of communication that allows you to do so, and I realized that in France it is very difficult to write about Cuba, in some cases because of that stale romanticism and in others because a caricature of the country is expected.

If you want to write about the Cuban political and social situation, you have to clarify. We must avoid falling into the trap of pointing out “the good and the bad,” with which we journalists struggle so much. Now Europeans are beginning to see things differently, because the tourism relationship with Cuba has also changed. You are seeing what never happened before: violence towards the tourists themselves, such as the famous “punctured tire scam” in the parking lot of the Che mausoleum in Santa Clara, where a French couple had to pay 400 euros to the criminals who damaged the tire themselves to have it repaired. That has changed the fantasy for tourists, but they are far from understanding what is really going on.

Q. Tell us more details about the perception of Cuba in the French media, the public and universities.

A. Before writing the book, I thought there wasn’t much interest in the Island. Now I realize that this disinterest was the result of misinformation. In the university system of France there is a left influenced by a certain philosophical tradition that starts from Sartre and, even in these years, the myth of Cuba is still alive. Many students are still seen with Che’s image on their clothes.

I have also realized that Castro propaganda is very effective. In addition, there is a very strong cultural relationship between the two countries, with music and cinema. The only major foreign film festival on the Island is French. And in Havana there are two very important cultural centers sponsored by France: the Alliance Française and the French Lyceum Alejo Carpentier, in addition to the Napoleonic Museum, which are still open and operating despite the situation.

On the other hand, the influence of Cuban diplomacy is such that it has managed to get the Paris Club to forgive a multimillion-dollar debt to the Island without knowing very well why.

Q. You comment on the complicity of French companies such as Pernod-Ricard and Bouygues with the regime. What is the position and interests of French businessmen on the Island? What about the Government?

A. The US pressure on the European banking system is so strong that French companies have decided to withdraw from the Cuban market, except for some historical ones, such as Pernod-Ricard and Bouygues. Accor sold its last hotel in Havana — the Royalton — and others have followed its example. There was a lot of interest in the 1990s, after a visit by Fidel Castro to Paris in 1994, and several cooperation agreements were signed with Cuban joint ventures. It was the moment when Pernod-Ricard bought Havana Club. Everything was ended due to corruption and the country’s own difficulties, in addition to US measures to prevent business from being done with Cuba.

Q. The US embargo, according to your book, remains one of the reasons for poverty in the country. Don’t you think that it’s a government alibi that has been working for six decades?

A. The embargo, as everyone knows, is one of the Cuban regime’s ways to stay where it is. But, in the end, those who suffers the most are the people. They have always known how to play with this very skillfully. For the United States it is a good operation; for the regime it is not bad business either, because that way they remain in power. I think that if the Americans had lifted the embargo from one day to the next, the regime would have fallen like a ripe fruit. Fidel learned from the Soviets about the effectiveness of suffering an external blockade. In the long run, the student surpassed his teachers.

Recently, the Cuban government called for the exiles to return as tourists. I find it incredible that citizens were forced to leave and now they are asked to return to consume and to send remittances. Who is left there? Those who have not been able to leave because they don’t have money or the opportunity to do so.

Q. Why do you consider that the medical brigades are the most effective tool of the “soft power” of the Cuban regime?

A. For me they are also a mafia. Now the management is in the hands of the Medical Services Marketer. When they arrived in France and Italy, everyone was happy and said: “The Cubans are coming to help us.” Some went so far as to say that we had to resort to the doctors of the Island because in France we do not have an adequate system. They spoke with ignorance, because they thought they were coming with humanitarian intentions, as they did in Andorra. But it is a system of slavery, without a doubt.

Q. Do you think that the conditions exist for a new series of protests such as those of 11J, despite the immigration stampede and the increase in repression?

A.. Things have only changed for the worse. The cry of the Cubans has not ceased either. But the most relevant phenomenon, since 11J, has been the flight of thousands of Cubans, and this is a new weapon for the regime. I’m not very optimistic. The last time I went, the state of discouragement was much greater than during the year of the protests. The conditions do exist: they are the same or harder than when 11J occurred. If something breaks out, it will be so violent that I don’t think it can be hoped for with joy.

There is a fundamental element in the exile, which is getting bigger and bigger. There are many activists and intellectuals who have left, and that is a disaster for the country. There are only the old people and those who are so discouraged that they can’t do anything. The country will have to be rebuilt one day from the ruins, but who will be left to do it? There is also a danger that the Cuban exile will become the active hand of the United States to take over the country. Everything could end up happening in a very chaotic way.

Q. You affirm that in 1959 “one dictatorship replaced the other.” Now there are changes that seem timid and uninteresting in the regime’s hierarchy, but that could be the prelude to a new era. What do you foresee for Cuba in the coming years, now that Raúl Castro has little time to live and his “strong man,” Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, has died?

A. The closest thing to what could be expected for Cuba is perhaps the transition after the fall of the Berlin Wall in countries such as Poland, Russia or Ukraine, where many people took advantage of the situation to earn money. The Castros have already done everything possible to preserve their memory. A clear example is the museum that the family opened in Láncara, Galicia. It is a symbol: with the museum they launder their memory as much as their money, and Spain helped them. Without the commitment of democratic governments such as that of France or that of Spain itself, the transition will be a disaster for the Cuban people.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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House Arrest for Cuban Writer Fernendez Era and ‘CDR Guard Duty’ for His Wife

Jorge Fernández Era along with his wife Laideliz Herrera Laza. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, April 29, 2023–A few days after writer and journalist Jorge Fernández Era denounced reprisals against his incarcerated son, the Cuban regime imposed 39 days of house arrest on Friday. In a Facebook post on his profile, the intellectual confirmed the measures for him and his wife, which were communicated at the police station in Aguilera, Havana.

Fernández Era explained that his “detention” lasted three hours and that security agents informed him of the charges for the crimes of disobedience, a case which will be filed in the Municipal Tribunal of Arroyo Naranjo. The writer stated that an order prohibiting him from leaving the country remains in effect, to which now they have added house arrest which he is “forced to serve beginning this minute through June 6th.”

He joked about the supposed precautionary measure imposed on his wife, who must go “on CDR guard duty by herself; find chicken, hot dogs, ground beef, detergent, oil and cigarettes at Coco and General Lee; take out the trash and support the work of the delegates in our district.”

In a new post, the writer bemoaned that he could not keep his promise to sit at the monument to José Martí in Havana’s Central Park at noon this Saturday, in peaceful protest against the harassment his son is suffering. House arrest “prevents me from doing so in person, but not in spirit and in thought,” he maintained. continue reading

Furthermore, he denounced that the smear campaign has involved his son’s mother and grandmother, and he called upon Miguel Díaz-Canel’s “common sense, intelligence, and dignity” to cease the pressure against his family and he recriminated against organizations which “are supposed to represent the people,” but are “complicit in infamy through their silence.”

This week, the writer denounced on social media reprisals against his son 22-year-old Eduardo Luis Fernández who is serving a sentence for robbery with violence. According to him, the young Cuban was transferred from Toledo 2 prison to El Chico, without the penitentiary privileges he had earned for good behavior, as a way to pressure him, although authorities told him it was to “protect him from his father’s influence.”

Recently, the writer broke ties with the digital magazine La Joven Cuba, after its director, Harold Cárdenas Lema, rejected his Sunday column in which he satirized the American pro-Castroist organization Puentes de Amor and State Security. Leaders of the media outlet, with which he collaborated since February 2021, believed the article was “discrediting the projects and institutions which we prefer to analyze politically, rather than approach them as satire.”

On several occasions, Fernández Era has had problems with State Security, including arrests, interrogations and harassment. The journalists holds State authorities responsible for anything that may happen to his son and believes the government’s behavior is “characteristic of a fascism entrenched in the soul of a nation.”

Furthermore, he requested support from the Government of Spain and its Embassy in Cuba to intercede on his behalf and provide him a visa that would allow him to reach Madrid to present one of the books he edited and a trip which, according to him, he began making arrangements for before the police harassment against him began.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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A Strong Storm Gives the Finishing Touch to May Day Events in Cuba, Which Are Postponed to May 5

Havana was hit with an intense storm, strong winds and electric shocks that left flooded streets and other consequences. (EFE/ Ernesto Mastrascusa)

EFE/ 14ymedio, Havana, 1 May 2023 — A storm of heavy rains, strong winds and electric shocks affected Havana and other areas of western Cuba this Sunday, causing material damage in the capital and power outages. The forecast that the storm will be prolonged has led the authorities to postpone the events for International Workers’ Day to May 5.

The downpours mainly hit the Cuban capital, where they left flooded streets and a partial building collapse in Old Havana without personal injury.

In a residential building in the historic center — located on the streets of Empedrado between Aguacate and Compostela — there was a partial collapse of several balconies, and the rubble blocked access to the exit staircase to the street.

The storm is associated with the arrival of a cold front in the western region of the island, as previously warned by a report from the Institute of Meteorology (Insmet).

Some of the main streets of the capital were flooded for an hour, and the electricity supply was unstable throughout the day.

On social networks, neighbors of provinces such as Artemisa and Cienfuegos also reported heavy rains that tore off roofs and downed poles, leaving a multitude of people without electricity. continue reading

“The events for International Workers’ Day in Cuba have been postponed to May 5 due to “the climatic instability that has caused heavy rains in several territories and the forecast for the next few hours,” announced the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC) [The Workers Central Union of Cuba], organizer of the event.

“In the territories where weather conditions allow it, the planned cultural and recreational activities will be held. According to the provisions of our legislation, the work recess is maintained this Monday,” the CTC said in a statement.

Cuba had suspended the traditional May Day parade in the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana, due to the fuel crisis that has been affecting the country for several weeks.

Instead, a central event in the Malecón area of Havana was planned for this Monday, and commemorative activities in “communities, labor and student centers for several days and parades in the municipalities of the country had been programmed in parallel.”

The divide among the population to this postponement has been visible. In social media posts or comments on the articles in the official press, many Cubans have accepted the government decision, calling it prudent.

However, many users have recalled that a May Day had never been suspended due to rain and remembered getting wet listening to Fidel Castro’s speeches. “With Fidel it was with rain, with him as the Sun warming up the crowd. What happened to continuity?” asked one commentator.

According to a report published on the Insmet website, the weather conditions in the provinces of Mayabeque and Matanzas have deteriorated in the early hours of this Monday.

The forecast indicates that the activity of showers and rains will begin to decrease from the early hours of the afternoon gradually in Pinar del Río, while the rest of the archipelago will be partially cloudy, with rain expected in the central region.

Winds from the south and southeast are also expected, with speeds between 12 and 22 miles per hour, and waves on western coasts could cause water accumulations in low areas, including the Havana Malecón, an area prone to flooding when these weather conditions occur.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: A Return to the Special Period

A “makeshift” bus in Cuba; here a cart pulled by a tractor earlier in the century. (MJ Porter)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 27 April 2023 — When the Soviet empire fell, after the toppling of the Berlin Wall by Germans who wanted to live in freedom, the regime in Havana was left a political and ideological orphan. Fidel Castro did not allow his arm to be twisted. Applying measures during the “Special Period in Times of Peace” he aimed to avoid the bitter pill and forced Cubans to go through all kinds of hardships. At the time, transportation was one of the sectors which fared the worst, when the Russian petroleum “supplies” failed to arrive. Like now, more or less. Already at that time, Cuba didn’t have access to global petroleum markets due to its accumulated debt. History repeats itself.

The regime blames the situation on technical problems of one of the suppliers, ships that do not arrive, or the embargo, but all that makes little sense when the main reason is its failure to pay debts that prevents it from accessing global petroleum markets, just as any other country. In fact, there is not currently a fuel shortage in any country in the world, and that is because the price of petroleum is falling. Only in Cuba is there a shortage of fuel (and food, electricity, everything.) Force them to see it.

Some things become daily realities for Cubans. During the Special Period, they ordered a series of measures to be applied to transport passengers when faced with fuel shortages; private trucks, animal-drawn carts or any kind of state vehicle were once again forced to transport people along the main routes, no matter the conditions. The movie, “Guantanamera” offered images of that time, which seemingly will become the reality once again.

The regime, faced with the lack of fuel which prevents the May 1st celebration in Havana, has approved Resolution 435 which forces drivers to pick up passengers, regardless of whether or not there are inspectors at the stop. As of now, passengers will be picked up by any mode of transport, along the busiest routes, with a priority at peak times, determined by the accumulation of people at the stops and the level of mobility. An alarming situation for difficult times. And the people, just like during the Special Period, pay the worst of it all with major sacrifices.

The state press has announced that the measures are being urgently applied in the capital and in Las Tunas, very densely populated areas, and that, little by little, they will be expanded throughout the rest of the country.

It’s easy to remember how the communists interfered in their transportation demands during the “Special Period”. Stationed in certain areas of the country, especially the busiest ones, agents of the party and state security who participated in the operation would detain any mode of transport of the few that passed on the roads and would begin an exhaustive check to know from where they came, what they were transporting, where they were going, etc. The point was to investigate and control. continue reading

Well, the communists have already provided a similar system in 2023 and according to the state press, in the early morning, the checks began, and anything could come of them. There is much talk about the need for solidarity, and the participation of all those who can, in one way or another, contribute to alleviate the situation.

But in reality, according to the media, the act of inspection and control of Resolution 435 emerged with extraordinary speed. They insist it is based on “objective planning, with the resources we have in hand, so that no destination is vulnerable and we will meet every afternoon, once again, to assess the implementation of each entity at this crucial moment of fuel scarcity.”

The regime’s behavior aims, just as during the Special Period, for private trucks to travel on the routes of highest demand and that drivers of motorbike-taxis to collaborate on the urban circuit. There are doubts about whether tourists will need to take any citizen in their cars.

These control actions are accompanied by measures to make oil more available to those who contribute to the travel network. There are doubts about whether a truck that arrives in Havana with an empty tank at a time the gas stations are not in service will need to interrupt its activity, for all its collaborating.

Currently, business units served by the Ómnibus Nacionales de Last Tunas continue their planned trips to Havana, Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, Matanzas and Holguín and on the evening of Wednesday, April 19, there was an extra route toward the country’s capital, but the lack of fuel will imminently affect these services.

To the lack of gasoline and fuel, which is what affects the transportation sector, one must add the lack of spare parts, tires, and batteries, supplies that are in short supply and necessary for the rehabilitation of the vehicle fleet and its updating. The transport crisis, due to its cross-cutting nature, will affect to a greater extent all sectors of the economy and, above all, the living conditions of the population. None of this is good for the GDP of 2023, it will have to be taken into account for the calculation.

Under the exceptional circumstances, many Cubans ask if the official vehicles in which Díaz-Canel, Marrero, or Gil travel will be detained and inspected for them to transport other people to their destinations. I doubt it will be that way. In the film “Guantanamera” they managed to transport a dead man in different vehicles through provinces of the country. The communists have ideas of a similar nature.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuba Says It Cooperates With the US Against Terrorism and Supports Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Cuba’s refusal to hand over the ELN negotiators is among the reasons given by Washington to accuse Cuba of being a sponsor of terrorism. (EFE)

14ymedio, Madrid, 1 May 2023 — Nothing new happened in the meeting held by Cuba and the United States in Havana on April 27 and 28 to evaluate the cooperation of both countries in the fight against terrorism. The official media Cubadebate published on Monday a brief “exclusive” interview with Inés Fors Fernández, Foreign Ministry Director of Bilateral Issues with the United States.

In the conversation, the official insists that the Island must be removed from the US list of sponsors of terrorism while accusing Washington of having committed most of the “more than 700 acts of international terrorism” perpetrated against Cuba.

Fors Fernández, who begins the interview by normalizing the meeting with Washington — the fourth since the agreements were signed in 2015 — claims Cuba’s “unquestionable” commitment to the fight against terrorism, which she attributes, precisely, to being a victim of attacks “organized, financed and executed by the US Government or by individuals and organizations that receive refuge or act with impunity on its territory.”

The official gives the figure of 3,478 fatalities and 2,099 wounded, although she does not explain the origin of the data and mentions “some examples,” including alleged projects “to shoot down Cuban civilian planes between 1974 and 1979,” “more than 600 plans for an attack against Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, bomb attacks on hotels, shopping and recreational centers in Havana between 1997 and 1998” and “the hijackings of boats and aircraft that occurred between 1959 and 2001”. continue reading

She also includes the attack suffered by the Cuban Embassy in Washington in 2020, for which a man with mental health problems was arrested in the US, and another attack in Paris, in July 2021.

She does not stop there and, as usual, adds to those facts the economic impact generated by the embargo. “The figures of economic damage derived from the acts of sabotage to our sugar mills, pig production, tobacco and various facilities are in the millions,” adds Fors Fernández, and these facts are enough for Cuba to be, as a victim, a country committed to the fight against terrorism.

Despite the abundance of contrasting data on the role of Havana in the reception and military preparation of thousands of guerrillas and terrorists from dozens of countries, the official assures that “the territory of Cuba has never been used, nor will it ever be used, to organize, finance or execute terrorist acts against any country.”

In 2021, just before leaving the White House, Donald Trump’s government included the Island on the list of sponsors of terrorism and highlighted Cuba’s refusal to hand over to Colombia the representatives of the National Liberation Army (ELN) who were in Havana for the peace negotiations. Bogotá demanded they be returned because of an attack, claimed by the ELN, against a military school in 2019 in the capital, which cost the lives of 23 cadets. The regime rejected the extradition claiming that the immunity of the negotiators was part of the agreement for the talks.

To this are added the refuge given to several criminals claimed by the United States, from Joanne Chesimard, known as Assata Shakur, who murdered a state police officer, to two plane hijackers, who stole more than 7 million dollars from a US bank.

However, for Fors Fernández, “Cuba’s presence on that list is an action of political and economic coercion, which does not acknowledge the genuine and honest willingness to face the danger posed by terrorism. American experts on national security have confirmed that there is no evidence that Cuba supports terrorism, and that it can be an important partner in the region in confronting this phenomenon.”

The Cuban government tries to show itself as a reliable partner of the United States — which, for the moment, does not consider taking the Island off the blacklist — but did not stop reproaching, as it had already announced, “the hijacking of aircraft and boats,” in reference to the recent cases of people who fled Cuba using state means of transport and have received immigration protection in the US.

The interview is one more example of the Island’s shifts with the United States, which it tries to approach on the one hand, specifically because of the economic consequences of being included on the aforementioned list of sponsors of terrorism, but without ceasing to make all kinds of accusations on the other. The most recent accusation this Saturday — although for the umpteenth time — is being guilty of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Meeting with the president of the Duma, Viacheslav Volodin, who visited the Island to participate in the cooperation commission between the parliaments of both countries, Miguel Díaz-Canel referred to Russia’s “unconditional support” and “firm and systematic denunciation, in every international event, in relation to the conflict orchestrated by the Government of the United States, with the aim of moving closer to unacceptable lines of NATO’s borders with Russia.”

The Russian politician joins the list of compatriots who have traveled to Cuba in recent months, from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, to the spy Nikolai Patrushev and, with greater intensity, the economic adviser Boris Titov, who already acts as a de facto consultant to the regime. “This visit is an expression of the excellent state of relations between the Russian Federation and Cuba,” said the president of Cuba, confirming the fears of civil society, which already speaks of “loss of sovereignty in favor of Moscow.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: An Open Letter to President Miguel Diaz-Canel

The writer and journalist Carlos Alberto Montaner at a conference in 2018. (Sergio Santillán Díaz/YouTube/Capture)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Madrid, 29 April 2023 — I’ve aged in opposition to your regime. Before you were born, I was a premature anti-communist, totally intuitive, at 16 years of age. I was 15 years old when the revolution triumphed. Today, I am 80. You have no right to this continuity. And I was anti-Batista, also, naturally. The “anti-Batista” was as a result of my parents. Manola and Ernesto were also. Arriving in exile on the afternoon of 9 September 1961, the change I observed in my father surprised me: it was a pro-Batista shift I attributed, without any basis, to his new wife: Lourdes Anaya-Murillo, the daughter of prominent Batista supporters.

Manola, continued to be anti-Batista. I was happy my mother continued feeling democracy in the same way I had learned: absolute tolerance to alien thought. I tell you this story so that you won’t believe the disinformation the regime disseminates in its publications about its adversaries. I have nothing to do with the CIA, nor terrorism, nor Batista, and there is not a shred of truth to the buzz “that Montaner helped train Yoani Sánchez on matters related to the internet” during one of her visits to Europe. Unlike Yoani, director of the magnificent and much-needed digital outlet 14ymedio, I have no interest in understanding how the internet functions. My knowledge of these matters is very limited. Those are excuses State Security makes to discredit those who propose initiatives on the margins of communism, such as the one in this letter.

Mr. Díaz-Canel, Marxism, as the substance of the communist system, has always failed, just as any leader who attempted it

Mr. Díaz-Canel, Marxism, as the substance of the communist system, has always failed, just as any leader who attempted it. Why? It has been implemented among the Germans and you’ve seen the results. It was tried among the Koreans and you’ve seen the consequences: on the same peninsula there is one portion, the north, which doesn’t even have electricity at night. And in the south, in turn, is the developed Korea which exports vehicles, televisions, and computers, and the population enjoys a standard of living similar to that of the first world.

What has not been achieved is equal results. Not everyone is powerful and rich in the most prosperous countries on the planet. There are, of course, many poor people in the world’s richest societies. But, what type of poor people find themselves immersed in those pockets of wealth? In the U.S. the poverty level for a family of four is an income less than $27,750, in addition to access to schools, hospitals, food stamps and justice. The welfare state is even more impressive in Nordic countries of Europe. Denmark will pay my granddaughter, Claudia, for her second Master’s degree. When she finishes she will begin life debt free. continue reading

This is all paid for by income generated from the salaries of workers and employer benefits. Confiscating large and medium enterprises was a grave error committed between June and December 1960 in Cuba. Charging taxes would have been sufficient. And confiscating small enterprises was a stupidity that occurred in 1968, when tens of thousands of businesses were taken by the State, during the “Revolutionary offensive,” some of them comprising only one person, such as taxis and certain barber shops and hair salons; much to its chagrin, Cuban society became the most communist on the planet.

Confiscating large and medium enterprises was a grave error committed between June and December 1960 in Cuba

I haven’t come this far to tell you what you already know. It is evident Marx was mistaken. That communism was based on the appropriation of the productive apparatus was a disaster. That our island is a tremendous catastrophe, with its cities and roads destroyed, as if it had suffered a bombardment from an unforgiving power. What you deserve to hear is “how to transform setbacks into gains” as I believe you like to say.

Recently, Rosa María Payá came to visit me in Madrid. She came to bring me a book. She is the daughter of Oswaldo Payá, who State Security murdered in 2012, along with Harold Cepero. This is what David E. Hoffman, who won the Pulitzer prize for historical research, has exposed through his research (Give Me Liberty, Simon & Schuster).

Today, Rosa María leads Cuba Decide and doesn’t flinch in her resolve to continue her father’s mission, when he headed the Movimiento Cristiano de Liberación [Christian Liberation Movement] and launched the Varela Project on the island. His objective was to hold a plebiscite through which Cubans could freely decide their destiny at the polls. An objective his daughter continues to pursue to end, once and for all, the curse that is the continuity you sadly preside over.

My time has already passed. The time for Castroism has been exhausted. In reality, it was born to fail from the beginning. This moment is for youth like Rosa María Payá, within and outside the island, who desperately search for what she summarizes as “defense of liberty, democracy and human rights.” Learn from them. You still can.

Translated by Silvia Suárez

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Rats and Sewer Water in the Heart of the Cuban Capital

The sewage slides through Jovellar along several blocks, to Soledad, where it bends to the right and almost reaches San Lázaro. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 28 April 2023 — A pestilent river runs this Friday along Jovellar Street, in Central Havana. If we continue upstream, the origin is seen in number 62, where it spurts forcefully from the door, as if a pipe had burst.

The sewage slides along several blocks, to Soledad, where it bends to the right and almost reaches San Lázaro, widening on its way. The foul-smelling stream passes in front of the Joaquín Albarrán polyclinic.

Asked about the reason for this disaster, the neighbors point out: “Look at the drains, they’re all clogged.”

On the edge of the waves of filth, full of human feces, other objects, such as paper and plastic water bottles, are dragged. In a bend between the street and the sidewalk, a rat splashes in the puddle that has formed.

Residents of the area have reported to the authorities of their municipality that they frequently suffer from intestinal problems resulting from water contamination and lack of cleanliness. At the beginning of this month, the inhabitants of an entire building in the vicinity fell ill for several days.

“I went to the office and they told me that the Government, that Hygiene and Epidemiology are aware of the situation, and that they don’t recommend using tap or boiled water,” a neighbor tells this newspaper. “We spend our lives carrying bottled water now. And all because of the contamination of the cistern, because that sewage is blocked, and no matter how much we ask for it, they don’t fix the drainage pipes.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Activist Yasmany Gonzalez Has Been Detained for Eight Days by the Cuban Political Police

Yasmany González Valdés was arrested at his home in Central Havana on April 20. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 April 2023 — A week after his arrest, activist Yasmany González Valdés is still under interrogation at the State Security headquarters in Havana, Villa Marista. His wife, Ilsa Ramos, told 14ymedio that the Cuban regime is investigating him for the crime of “propaganda against the organs of the Government.”

Ramos was able to see her husband this Thursday when she brought some personal hygiene products to the prison. The woman says that the activist already has a lawyer who will represent him, but the police have not yet given details about the accusation.

The young man, also known as Libre Libre, was arrested on April 20 after a “violent search” at his home in Central Havana. About 15 political police officers participated in the search, and they confiscated overalls, a large paintbrush and his mobile phone, in what appears to be an investigation into the graffiti against the Cuban regime that has appeared at several iconic points of the capital.

The Observatory of Cultural Rights (ODC), which initially announced the news about his arrest, said that the activist was summoned by the police at the beginning of April at the Zanja station, in the Cuban capital, where he was linked to the group called El Nuevo Directorio (END). According to Yasmany González’s testimony, on that occasion they did handwriting tests and also tried to arrest him for non-payment of fines that had already been paid. continue reading

The first poster signed by END appeared on March 20 on the facade of the Faculty of Physics of the University of Havana. The second, always with the same text – “No to the PCC*” – was on a wall in Aguirre Park, on March 23. The third, painted on April 17, was placed at the entrance of the university stadium, on Ronda Street. And the fourth and most recent appeared on the morning of April 20 at number 7 Humboldt Street, in Central Havana. In a matter of hours it generated a strong police operation to cover the letters with paint in an “act of relief.”

In addition, END remains active on social networks. It posted again on Instagram on April 22 after the account had been blocked since March 2, when, the clandestine movement said in a tweet, the “first action” was carried out. On Twitter, its last interaction is from April 27, with a reflection on Fidel Castro’s first visit to Russia, in 1963.

Yasmany González has been the subject of investigation and harassment by the political police on several occasions. In 2022, after being detained for four days in Villa Marista, the activist, who works as a self-employed bricklayer, said he would stop posting on social networks. Shortly before, he had been fined for denouncing human rights violations and demanding the release of those arrested in the protests of July 11, 2021 [11J].

The Observatory says that González has been summoned, arrested, fined and threatened with prison for his publications on social networks. The police accuse him of violating Decree Law 370, which prohibits dissemination of information “contrary to the social interest, morals, good manners and integrity of the people.”

The latest Prisoners Defenders count indicates that in March there were eight new prisoners of conscience on the Island, and the total number is 1,066 Cubans in prisons for political reasons. Among them are 120 women and 22 minors (29 boys and 4 girls). “All of them are tortured,” the organization states in its monthly report.

*PCC = Cuban Communist Party

Translated by Regina Anavy

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