14ymedio – Page 131 – Translating Cuba

Mexico Has Used Less Than 3 Percent of the Nine Million Abdala Vaccines Purchased from Cuba

In the Yucatan, 3,917 Covid vaccine doses were administered between January 9 and 31. (Twitter/@desdebalcon)

14ymedio, Mexico, February 7, 2023 — Since December 21, the health authorities in Mexico have applied only 262,540 doses of the Abdala vaccine to reinforce the coronavirus schedule. This amount represents less than 3% of the nine million doses Mexico bought from Cuba, despite the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet approved the emergency use of that vaccine, and there are no studies that certify it “as a booster” against COVID-19.

According to official data, 116,186 vaccines were administered in Mexico City between December 21, 2022 and January 26. This figure generates some suspicion, since the same Ministry of Health in the capital had reported on the 24th of last month the application of the vaccine to 84,515 people. In 48 hours, 31,671 residents of the capital were vaccinated.

According to information obtained from six state health centers and Mexico City, without specifying the number of people to whom the vaccine has been provided or the progress of the scheme, some figures were obtained on the application of Abdala.

The Secretary of Health in the state of Chihuahua, Felipe Sandoval Magallanes, confirmed that of 180,000 doses of Abdala, “only 10,000 doses have been given ” and admitted that it has had little acceptance in the population, so he asked that he be “given the benefit of the doubt.” continue reading

The Cuban vaccine was a failure on immunization day in the Yucatán. There was little demand, and between January 9 and 31, only 3,917 people were interested in receiving the dose.

A similar case occurred in the state of Oaxaca. Almost a month after the start of the day of boosters against COVID-19, this newspaper confirmed that as of last February 3, only 27,811 of the 139,300 vaccines they received from the Mexican Government had been used.

In Baja California, 40,000 units of the Cuban vaccine have been supplied since its delivery in December last year, and 104,600 doses arrived in this state. In Veracruz, only 30,000 biological products from the Island have been injected.

The purchase by Mexico of nine million doses from the Government of Cuba has generated distrust among the population and has been questioned by Mexican specialists.

“Abdala contains aluminum hydroxide as an adjuvant, which is not done for other vaccines against covid-19, since it decreases their effectiveness,” said the infectologist and 2020 National Health Award winner, Francisco Moreno Sánchez.

Health consultant Xavier Tello told the Latinus portal that, given the new variants of the coronavirus, “the recommendation is to use bivalent vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna.” He questioned the use of Abdala, which was acquired by Mexico to reinforce the regimen against SARS-CoV-2: “How do you use a vaccine that no longer works as a booster?”

Meanwhile, other vaccines (based on messenger RNA) have used the complete spike protein (S), which induces defenses in areas where there are mutations. The American Chemical Society warned at the end of 2021 of the possibility that vaccines based on the S protein (Pfizer or Moderna) could fall short if the strategy was not diversified. Since then, pharmaceutical companies have been studying the situation and the possibility of improvements.

Tello told the same media that “Cofepris [Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks] made the decision that this vaccine be approved for emergency use in Mexico as a primary vaccination, which means that a person who is not vaccinated is the one who receives that dose.” He insisted that “there is still no approval” for the use of Abdala “as a booster.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Alert in Cuba to the Presence of Avian Influenza and the Risk for Breeding Birds

“The virus was detected in wild birds at the Havana Zoo,” reports Cenasa. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 February 2023 — The National Animal Health Center (Cenasa) has released a brief note in which it officially declares, before the World Organization for Animal Health (WHOA), the presence of avian influenza in Cuba.

The entity, linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, reported that “the virus was detected in wild birds of the Zoological Garden of Havana, located on Avenida 26, municipality of Plaza de la Revolución.”

Cenasa assured that “the corresponding health measures have been implemented to contain the virus, such as quarantine and the temporary closure of the Zoo,” in addition to keeping the population “informed about the evolution of this event.”

Health authorities recommend immediately informing the official veterinary service of any locality if an increase in the mortality of farmed or wild birds is perceived.

Last December, Cenasa had already warned about the possible appearance of viral infection on the Island and clarified that “since 2021 the animal health situation is quite complex due to the appearance of multiple outbreaks around the world.” Faced with this, he advised extreme surveillance mechanisms to prevent it from reaching the country, although he considered the threat as serious. continue reading

Among Cenasa’s recommendations were avoiding the contact of wild birds with poultry breeding, implementing extreme biosecurity measures in poultry facilities and prohibiting the transfer of sick birds. The institution also advised hunters not to take captured birds home and to disinfect everything used in their capture.

The World Health Organization then warned that some subtypes of the virus (H5 and H7) of type A can be highly pathogenic and cause serious disease in birds that can spread quickly, resulting in high mortality rates in different species.

Although it’s uncommon, certain strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza have the ability to infect humans, representing a threat to public health. The main risk factor is direct or indirect contact with infected animals or with environments and surfaces contaminated by feces.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Embarks on a Crusade to ‘Rectify’ its Diminished Coffee Production

The provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Granma produce 90% of national coffee, according to the official press. (Venceremos)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 February 2023 — Cuba is on a crusade to increase the productivity of its coffee with the renovation of 316,295 acres, of which 67% will be for the cultivation of Robusta, a bean that has less demand in specialized markets and that is bought at a lower price than the soft and sweet Arabica. However, even the Cuban aromatic cannot compete with its Caribbean peers with a production that has been reduced by more than half in the last 30 years.

Felipe Martínez Suárez, director of the Agroforestry Experimental Station, located in the mountainous municipality of Tercer Frente, in Santiago de Cuba, explained to the official newspaper Granma that a team of researchers is working on the recovery of 46,950 acres of Robusta and another 22,240 acres of Arabica. The official explained that it is not about new crops, but about “rectifying the coffee” with the pruning of young branches, changing the canopies and reseeding only when necessary.

The projection is optimistic, he added, and he plans to obtain 25,600 tons of coffee with these measures, two tons for each acre cultivated in the province, which has the highest production nationwide. “We have four years to do all that; otherwise we will not have the amount needed in the country by 2030,” he said.

Coffee activity is mainly carried out in nine provinces: Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Granma represent 90% of national production; in the central region. Sancti Spíritus, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara contribute 7%; and in the west, Artemisa and Pinar de Río provide the remaining 3%. continue reading

Martínez Suárez explained that the coffee development program does not seek to expand the cultivation areas, but to increase yields and improve the infrastructure that currently allows four tons per hectare of Robusta coffee and 2.79 tons of Arabica. “Innovations” such as the use of biotechnology are also required, preventing the planting of new beans and grafts in the field.

Cuba recorded its best harvest in 1961, when it reached 60,330 tons of gold coffee, but since then production has been decreasing, to the point that in the 1970s and 1980s it was reduced by almost two-thirds and placed at 21,863 tons. The decline of the sector continued in the 90s and the 21st century, and by 2021 it barely reached 8,900 tons.

With this production, the Island falls below its peers in the Caribbean. According to the International Coffee Organization (OIC), Cuba obtained 130,000 sacks of coffee (of 132 pounds) in the 2019/2020 harvest while producers in the Dominican Republic reported 402,000 sacks and Haiti, a country with great problems of food insecurity, produced 347,000 sacks.

The production of the Cuban aromatic of the 2019/20 cycle was the highest since the 2008/2009 harvest, when 133,000 sacks were produced. The result, however, is 3.1 times lower compared to the 414,000 sacks obtained in the 1990/1991 cycle, the last year available in the OIC database.

In other words, Cuban coffee production has fallen by 68.5% in the last three decades.

Martínez Suárez acknowledged that the harvest is insufficient to meet domestic demand, and a “million-dollar amount” is allocated for import, so, he promised, “significant volumes” will be allocated from the new production for social consumption and distribution in freely convertible currency stores.

According to their projections, 14,000 tons of the bean will be for the regulated (rationed) consumption of Cuban families, 5,000 for export and 2,000 tons for the cafes of the gastronomic network.

These results are conditional on the sector being able to obtain agricultural inputs to nourish plants, such as biostimulant and fertilizers, the official added. “While they do not reach all the required volume, growth will be more effective with cultural attention,” he said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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For ‘Health Reasons’ Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara Suspends His Hunger Strike

The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 February 2023 — Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who is imprisoned in the maximum security prison of Guanajay (Artemisa), informed the curator Claudia Genlui that “for health reasons” he decided to suspend the hunger strike that he had been on for nine days to demand his freedom.

The information was shared by the curator through the Facebook account with the name of the founding artist of the San Isidro Movement (MSI). In the publication, it is made known that this strike that began on February 1, is the fifth that he has taken on as an “exercise of protest and act of desperation in the face of the arbitrary acts, blackmail and limitations with which the Cuban State Security tries to torture him.”

The activist denounced that the regime’s threats against Otero Alcántara have been constant and on several occasions the Government has informed her that “he will not leave prison nor will he be treated as a common prisoner” and all for the fact of thinking and being consistent with his ideas of freedom

The MSI leader told Genlui that “his situation inside the prison is more rigorous and unfair,” and that the treatment he receives is the one that “is given to a prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment.” Although he acknowledged that he is exhausted, “his mind and body try to resist.” He knows that it is important to stay alive, “because this is not over. Cuba will be free and he will be there to see it,” adds the curator.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara “is in critical condition and has lost vision in one eye,” denounced the Cuban lawyer Faisel Iglesias, based in Puerto Rico , through a live broadcast. In Cuba “there are no procedural guarantees” and that for this reason Otero Alcántara “is in jail without the due process of law having been complied with,” said the defender, noting that the artist did nothing more than “express himself freely.” continue reading

The lawyer lamented that on the Island “no one can be guaranteed due process because for it to exist there must be a Constitution legitimately endorsed by the citizens in a free State, without pressure, without any coercion.” Iglesias commented that in Cuba “no vote is free, everyone is coerced by pressure from the party by pressure from the State.”

He asked to echo the injustice that Otero Alcántara lives through and to mobilize the Cubans who are in Miami and those who meet at the Versailles restaurant in that city. “Hold demonstrations in front of the different consulates of the countries that have diplomatic relations with Cuba, at the consulate of Spain, at the consulate of the Dominican Republic. Please, demand and advocate for the freedom and health of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.”

For her part, Genlui warned last Tuesday that the artist “could barely speak.” And she denounced State Security for “ignoring once again” the striker status of the leader of the San Isidro Movement. “It is the responsibility of the dictatorship, whatever happens to Luis Manuel.”

Last June, the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic released a statement from the Popular Municipal Court of Centro Habana in which it was reported that the sentence for Otero Alcántara was five years in prison for the crimes of outrage against the symbols of the homeland, contempt and public disorder.

The artist has been in jail since July 11, 2021, when he was arrested before being able to join the spontaneous anti-government protests that took place that day throughout the Island.

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Cuban Activists Denounce ‘Political Violence’ in a Letter to Colombian Vice President Francia Marquez

Her visit represents an “invaluable opportunity” to “strengthen the ties of friendship” in “the new era of political relations” between the two countries, Márquez said. (Cubadebate)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 9 February 2023 — The Citizens Committee for Racial Intergration (CIR) denounced the “political violence” against independent activists in a letter directed to the vice president of Colombia, Francia Márque, who began a visit to Cuba this Thursday.

“A considerable part of the activists today deprived of liberty are women and Afro-descendants, marked by political violence,” said the letter published on the committee’s social networks.

The anti-racist organization also recognized the “high commitment in the defense of human rights” of Marqué, who serves in the Government of Colombian president Gustavo Petro.

“We appeal to your social sensitivity and your high commitment to the defense of human rights, and to the eradication of structural inequalities, in order to convey our concerns to the Cuban authorities,” the CIR indicated.

“Here, like you in our sister nation (Colombia), we risk our lives every day, until dignity becomes customary, for the common good,” they added.

Márquez traveled to Cuba this Thursday to inaugurate the Havana International Book Fair, dedicated this year to Colombia.

Her visit represents an “invaluable opportunity” to “strengthen the ties of friendship” in “the new era of political relations” between the two countries, the Colombian Vice Presidency explained in a statement.

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The United States has Repatriated 5,576 Cuban Rafters in More Than Three Months

The U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 16 Cubans on Tuesday. The photo shows one of the patrol boats on the high seas. (Twitter/USCGSoutheast)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 8 February 2023 — The first week of January, Landry González and 16 other Cubans landed in Florida. The American dream that he thought he had achieved still seems far away. According to Voice of America (VOA), they did not give him a chance for a credible-fear interview; they gave him a release order that establishes conditions such as attending hearings in the immigration court.

“I was unlucky to be given the I-220A,” lamented this 38-year-old Cuban. “Three friends who arrived a year ago received parole, and my brother, who arrived in 2016, received all the benefits,” he told VOA.

Since the beginning of the year, the rafters who manage to land are being given an expedited deportation order, the verdict issued by a judge for the expulsion of a person but which can be reversed with legal advice. This order has an expiration period of 60 days. Hence, many Cubans do not know if they will really be deported or if they will be able to opt for another solution, because this period of time has not yet expired for them.

On form I-220A, Immigration lawyer Rosaly Chaviano explained that people “can apply for asylum and try to prove a case of credible fear, but their asylum will be pending, and they will have to renew their work permit every two years until they eventually have an interview date, if they are approved.”

The United States has reiterated since the end of last year that any rafter who is arrested on his journey will be returned to his country of origin. In mid-January, the Secretary of National Security of the United States, Alejandro Mayorkas, insisted: “Cubans and Haitians who go to sea and disembark in the United States will not be eligible for the parole process and will be subjected to deportation procedures.” continue reading

We flew along with the Coast Guard on one of their life saving missions as they searched for migrants in distress in the Florida Straits@USCGSoutheast @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/upHKoU4lgR — Cristian Benavides (@cbenavidesTV) February 8, 2023

On Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 16 Cubans aboard the Issac Mayo ship. According to official figures, since October 1, 2022, the US authorities have thwarted the crossing of 5,576 rafters.

The agency stressed that the “ships that patrol the Florida Straits, the Windward Steps and Mona, prevented more than 100 rafters” from disembarking in the United States between January 27 and February 3. This Wednesday the Coast Guard shared a video of the overflights that are carried out to locate migrants on the high seas.

Some of these attempts by Cubans to reach the United States have ended in the Bahamas, the Royal Defense Force reported last Thursday.

We flew along with the Coast Guard on one of their life saving missions as they searched for migrants in distress in the Florida Straits@USCGSoutheast @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/upHKoU4lgR

— Cristian Benavides (@cbenavidesTV) February 8, 2023

According to official data, 59 Cubans have been detained in the Bahamas so far. On Tuesday, the Telemundo journalist, Jany Gonzalez, shared on her social networks that 31 of these people who left the Island on December 31 on a raft have already been presented to the Court and are waiting to be deported.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported on Tuesday that the number of arrests of migrants trying to cross the southern border of the United States irregularly reached its lowest point in two years in January.

The authorities attribute this decrease to the extension, at the beginning of January, of Title 42, a controversial health regulation, to allow the “hot” expulsions of Haitian, Cuban and Nicaraguan migrants.

As of January 31, the arrests of people of these three nationalities, along with Venezuelans, who have been subject to Title 42 since October, decreased to an average of 95 per day, a drop of 95% compared to the 1,231 daily arrests that were reported at the beginning of the month, a DHS official said.

“In January we saw the lowest number of arrests by the Border Patrol since February 2021,” the official said.

The use of Title 42 by Joe Biden’s government has been widely criticized by human rights organizations and even by some members of the Democratic Party.

“On the ground, at the border, it’s very clear that many people of those four nationalities wait on the Mexican side and desperately try to get an appointment for requesting asylum with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which cannot meet the demand,” Yael Schacher, director for the International Rescue Committee, told EFE.

Many people, in her opinion, are in danger or struggling and are willing to risk crossing the border instead of surrendering, as they would have done before being subject to Title 42.

At the end of January, a group of 80 Democratic congressmen, led by Senator Robert Menéndez, asked to reverse the decision to expel people from Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti who cross the border with Mexico. “Title 42 is a mockery of national and international law.”

The Biden government has defended itself from criticism, insisting that it must continue to implement that program by order of the Supreme Court, which in December accepted a request from about twenty states governed by Republicans and determined that Title 42 should remain active.

In addition to the expansion of the regulations, which restrict access to asylum at the border, the Government plans to impose a five-year ban on entry into the United States on people who cross the border irregularly.

The regulations, inherited from the mandate of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), have allowed more than 2.5 million arrests since it came into force in 2020, according to data from the International Rescue Committee.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Arrest, Condemn and Exchange, the Tactic of Authoritarianisms Against Dissidents

Nicaraguan opponent Félix Maradiaga during a meeting with the press in Washington DC (La Prensa/Facebook/Capture)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Merida (Mexico), 9 February 2023 — When I met Nicaraguan opposition member Félix Maradiaga I knew immediately that Daniel Ortega must hate him rabidly. The activist is the antithesis of the old caudillo: hyperactive, charismatic and an excellent communicator. This Thursday I learned that the former presidential candidate is among the 222 political prisoners that the Managua regime has just sent into exile in the United States. I breathed in relief.

The tactic of arresting dissidents, sentencing them to long prison terms and then using them as a bargaining chip with Washington, the Vatican or the European Union has been recurrent among the authoritarian regimes that continue to cast a shadow over Latin America. The Cuban regime has a whole bachelor’s degree and several doctorates in this strategy that has allowed it not only to put pressure on democratic governments to obtain favors, but also to loosen social pressure within the Island.

Ortega is a faithful disciple of Fidel Castro, who used the opponents prosecuted during the Black Spring of 2003 as a bargaining chip with the Catholic Church and the Spanish authorities. Dissidents who were in jail 20 years ago were barely allowed to choose between the bars or exile. Only a few rejected the pressure and remained on the Island. Two of those who stayed, Félix Navarro and José Daniel Ferrer, have been in prison again since July 2021. continue reading

Now, moreover, the list of Cuban political prisoners exceeds a thousand people, so Miguel Díaz-Canel must feel that he has enough trump cards to obtain succulent benefits with them. The signs that a trade move is being coordinated behind the scenes could not be more evident: several US officials have recently warned that prisoners of conscience are an obstacle to the normalization of relations between the two countries and Cardinal Beniamino Stella has just visited Havana, from the Vatican, and urged the Cuban President Díaz-Canel release the 9/11 protesters.

The maneuver that Ortega carried out this Thursday may only be a preview of what his Cuban comrades are planning. A consensual action so that both regimes get rid of their critics, deactivate any civic movement born from the demands of an amnesty and, incidentally, receive in exchange some perks that can include economic benefits and diplomatic silences. In the case of Havana, these terms could have the added demands that the island be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, and that the arrival of remittances and tourists from the United States be made more flexible.

So far, it seems that the old tactic of “capture, convict and trade” results in a total win for authoritarianisms, which always end up getting away with it because on the other side of the table democratic governments are willing to give in so that a group of people can embrace their family again and not wither away in a punishment cell. Dictatorships play on all those diplomatic and emotional springs. They feel superior in this field because their “chips” are human lives, an element that has little value for totalitarianism. But they are wrong.

The time that they manage to buy with these maneuvers are increasingly shorter and nor is exile the political death of their adversaries. The Castro regime itself has verified that the repressive blow against 75 opponents, of that two decades ago Black Spring, did not appease the popular discontent that ended up pouring out into the Cuban streets in numbers and with never-before-seen libertarian demands. The leaders expelled from the country were succeeded by others and exile itself gained prominence in the formation of political opinions within the Island.

Daniel Ortega, although it seems that he has Nicaragua in his grasp, has just carried out a maneuver born of desperation. Díaz-Canel may be preparing another similar one, which will also be the result of the urgency felt by a regime with a growing – and increasingly public – popular rejection. Neither of them can expel the millions of citizens who oppose them, nor silence international criticism with these crude stratagems. They know that their dictatorships will fall, and instead of paving the way and opening the door for new players, they continue to play the old cards of yesteryear. The only ones they know, and ones which will lead them, sooner or later, to defeat.

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A Review of Books by Cuban Authors Published this January

After consulting with a number of publishers and reviewers, 14ymedio offers here a selection of the new editions of 2023. (Collage)

14ymedio, Madrid, 1 February 2023 — Spanish and Latin American bookshops have already taken delivery of the latest titles by Cuban authors — writers such as Armando Lucas Correa, Abraham Jiménez Enoa and Joel Franz Rosell. Reissues of earlier editions and books by new young writers have also appeared this January. After consulting with a number of publishers and reviewers, 14ymedio offers here a selection of the new editions of 2023.

The Morro lighthouse that overlooks Havana’s port features on the cover of La viajera nocturna (The Night Traveller) (Ediciones B), Armando Lucas Correa’s most recent novel. The book is an emotive exploration of the connections between the individual and history, through the eyes of four women in constant displacement during the twentieth century.

From 1930s Nazi Germany to Batista’s Havana, Correa tells of human beings’ will to survive, and how family memories play a part in the decisions of his protagonists.

The journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa, who has just won the Michael Jacobs Scholarship for Travel Writing with a project about his first year in exile, publishes La isla oculta (The Hidden Island) (Libros del K.O) – a collection of articles with the subtitle Historias de Cuba (Cuban Stories). Jiménez Enoa follows the trail of some of the characters who remain part of Havana life, like the gigolo who’s main aspiration is to leave both his country and his profession, or the suicide who tries to recover a sense of meaning in a harsh city.

Speaking about The Hidden Island, in an interview with Jorge Ramos the author said “What I’m trying to show is the subterranean Cuba, that everyday Cuba which everyone knows, where scarcity happens for a reason, shortages, lack of medicine and lack of human rights — all happen for a reason. After having put together this ’compendium’, it’s obvious to me why people are leaving Cuba”.

Joel Franz Rosell, already known as an author of classic children’s literature in Cuba, won the French Ville de Cherbourg prize in 2000 with his novel Mi tesoro te espera en Cuba (My Treasure Awaits You in Cuba), re-published this month by Verbum. A little girl’s trip to Cuba has the secret motive of searching for a supposed treasure which her great grand uncle hid on the island before escaping from Castro in 1959. The publisher presents it as a story of “adventure, mystery, complicated romance and a variety of challenges to the bonds of friendship”.

This month the same publisher revived the historical and perceptive Memoria sobre la vagancia en la Isla de Cuba (A Report on Vagrancy on the Island of Cuba), by José Antonio Saco. This book, one of the most brutal nineteenth century analyses of Cuban society, discussed the vices, customs and interests of the Creole people, and proposed a way of better organising the country.

With the collection of poetry Los dias (The Days) (Homagno), the Camagüeyan writer Mario Ramírez continues the work he began in 2019 with his book Corolarios (Corollaries). “Romantic experience, all of the plans made over time that go on to trip us up, our resources of faith or of intelligence, this or that truth or doubt — all these, according to Rafael Almanza, are Ramírez’s themes, whose conclusions are that, in the middle of a dismal-seeming reality, there will still be, nevertheless, “a lyre” (musical instrument).

The novel Náufrago del tiempo (Time’s Castaway) (Verbum), by the writer and 14ymedio columnist Xavier Carbonell, is a meditation on the Island’s destiny, a “fable” — according to literary critic Roberto González Echevarría — whose protagonist encounters “a labyrinth of symbols, lost paradises, monasteries, pirate ships and ruined cities”.

Since the pandemic the Island has suffered a publishing crisis, and, although a recovery might be signalled by the 31st Havana International Book Fair (the Cuban Book Institute promised to market 4,000 titles), it’s unlikely that the work of Cuban publishers will be in the forefront of the event.

Dedicated to Colombia this year, as an invitee country, and to the theme of “inclusive reading”, the fair will be held during the period 9-19 February in its regular settings: in San Carlos de la Cabaña castle and its surroundings, and in Havana’s Historic Centre.

Among the hundred-year-old writers who will be celebrated at the event are Fina García Marruz – who died in 2022 aged 99 — and the geographer and explorer Antonio Núñez Jiménez. Homage will also be paid to Julio Travieso Serrano, recipient of the 2021 National Literature Prize, and the librarian Araceli García Carranza.

During the fair, the winners of the 2023 Alejo Carpentier Prize and the 2023 Nicolás Guillen Prize will be presented. The 2022 storytelling winners were Rogelio Riverón, for Cuarenta vasos de vodka (Forty Glasses of Vodka); Francisco López Sácha, for the novel Voy a escribir la eternidad (I’m Going to Write Eternity); and Joaquín Borges Triana, author of the essay Socorro, no soy subversivo (Help! I’m Not a Subversive). The winner of the Nicolás Guillén Prize was Carlos Esquivel, author of the poetry collection La guagua de Babel (The Babel Bus).

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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In Cuba Cardinal Stella Asks for ‘Freedom’ for the July 11th (11J) Prisoners

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, February 8, 2023 — On Wednesday in Havana, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, Pope Francis’s envoy, requested the release of Cubans who participated in the antigovernment protests on July 11, 2021.

Stella made these statements toward the end of his visit to Cuba, where he recalled the trip Pope John Paul II made to the country 25 years ago, at the time considered an historic gesture.

“The pope very much desires for there to be a positive response” from the Cuban government to the Church’s requests for the release of the convicted protesters, stated the cardinal in statements to the credentialed media on the Island.

In this regard, he believes that whether it is legally defined as amnesty or clemency is secondary because “words can also be secondary.”

“But it is important that young people who at one time expressed their thoughts in the manner we know can return to their homes,” he highlighted.

The cardinal assured that during his visit to Cuba he was able to express to Cuban authorities this “desire” of the Church and he expressed a wish that from this “useful and positive moment” that is his trip “new things will emerge for the Cuban people.”

Shortly before this, during a speech at the University of Havana in front of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Pope Francis’s envoy underscored that “freedom cannot be subordinated to any calculation of interests, circumstances, waiting for better times.” continue reading

He added that Cuba “should be free of all interference,” but he also encourages “its children to be free men and women.” Freedom, he added, must allow for material and spiritual growth.

Stella called for “promoting reconciliation and brotherhood” from “diversity” and not “a similarity of ideas”, and called for a “culture of encounter” that encourages the creation of “bridges” over which “to travel in common.”

In his declarations to the media, the cardinal called on the role of dialogue, from “kindness and respect,” is his conversations with high ranking Cuban officials as well as in relations between Havana and the United States. “Solutions can be found by speaking,” he stated.

The Vatican wishes that “those who have power could talk, and could mutually listen,” stated Stella, because “from there could emerge things that benefit the Cuban people.”

“Hopefully it will happen and happen soon (this dialogue) and it can become an important step for many advances which the Cuban people really need. There are things that should be done and done soon,” he added.

He also referenced the strong migration currently occurring in Cuba, which has lost about 3% of its population in 2022 alone, mainly due to the severe economic crisis, but also due to political repression.

The pontife’s envoy asked for Cubans to be able to make “their hopes and desires” a reality in their country and for young people to achieve their “dreams.”

Pope Francis was one of the international architects of the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba between 2014 and 2017, with former Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro, a phase known as the thaw.

However, the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House ended that process and, in fact, reversed it with the application of new sanctions — added to those already in place — and the inclusion of Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

In the last few months there has been a discrete and pragmatic rapprochement between the two countries in different areas of common interest, such as migration and national security and some of the latest sanctions have been lifted by Washington.

Stella arrived in Cuba on January 23rd on a trip framed by the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s pastoral trip to Cuba, the first pope to visit the Island. Later two of his successors, Benedict XVI and Francis, visited Cuba.

After the first few days in Havana, during which he had the opportunity to meet some high ranking Cuban government officials, Stella began a trip to visit every Catholic diocese in the country and interview those in charge.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Despite the Triumphalist Discourse of the Government, Women Have a Minor Role in the Cuban Economy

Women have been employed more in the state sector, which, according to Cubadebate, decreases their chances of starting their own business. (EFE)

14ymedio, Madrid, 30 January 2023 — Just 23.3% of the members of the 4,096 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) approved by the Cuban Government at the end of June 2022 were women. The data, offered this Sunday by Cubadebate, dedicated to analyzing the gender gap, joins other data that show that women are far from occupying the role that the official press attributes to them every March 8, when it boasts of the predominant place they have reached “thanks to the Revolution.”

A report by the consulting firm Auge has analyzed 100 MSMEs they advised and of the 178 partners of those businesses, 66% are men and 34% are women. The study warns of another inequality, the predominant profile is that of men aged 30 to 55 years old and they are also the ones who have the most stakes in companies with more than one partner.

Other official data, although in this case from five years ago, are those released by the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (Onei), which placed the gender gap at 27%. The rate of male economic activity in 2018 was 76.9%, while the female rate barely reached 49.5%, with less employment in rural areas.

The official newspaper also notes in this article the miserable monthly salary of the state sector in that year, which was 777 pesos (32 dollars with the exchange rate current for that date).

Ileana Díaz, a professor at the University of Havana and coordinator of her Entrepreneurship Network, tells Cubadebate that the situation with regard to companies only conveys to the sector what was already happening in self-employment, a precursor of private business on the Island. Some 30% of those who worked on their own were women and most — she indicates without specifying the figure — did so as employees of the business owner and not as owners. continue reading

“They have less accumulated capital than men; not only financial, but also social, relational, which prevents them from moving more easily in the business and business world,” emphasizes the economist.

Few women have the 100,000 pesos on average that new businesses declare according to Auge data, says the article, attributing that lack to the fact that it is more common for men to own properties, such as cars or houses, whose sale can provide them with that initial capital.

The note shows the recognition that the public sector has been a factor of increase in the gender gap in Cuba, since it considers that women have less “relational capital” because they have worked more for the state “and almost always as officials or specialists and not in a management or decision-making position.”

They also attribute it to the widespread assumption of household chores and family care, something that the Revolution allegedly also aspired to leave behind. “Cuban society is better prepared than others to implement affirmative actions that favor access to economic spaces without discrimination, since the equality of people is a generalized value and verified in the laws,” says the Cubadebate article, which also starts by resorting to the embargo as an excuse.

The worsening of the island’s economic situation, which they attribute to the increase in US sanctions and the pandemic – which in turn have caused tourism to plunge “and put various stumbling blocks into the process of economic order” — worsens even more an already worse situation for women in employment, says the article.

“The tense economic situations of recent decades have made family daily life very challenging and overloaded, above all, for women,” says the article, which calls for thinking with a gender perspective when addressing “economic transformations.”

Although the gender gap is a feature common to all countries, with greater or lesser intensity, the recognition clashes with the traditional discourse of the regime, which it affirmed last March 8th in an article for Women’s Day. “It would be enough to look around us today to see in important political and state positions, of the economy, health, science and technology, education, diplomacy, parliament, sport, mass organizations, defense and security bodies, in everything, the special and often majority presence of women.”

The text also recalled the words of Fidel Castro, who had already stated in 1959. “When our Revolution is judged in future years, one of the issues for which we will be judged will be the way in which we have solved, in our society and in our homeland, the problems of women, even if it is one of the problems of the Revolution that require more tenacity, more firmness, more perseverance and effort.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The 111 Million Dollar Russian Loan to Cuba Revives Antillana de Acero, a Huge Energy Consumer

The roof of the steel mill, with a maximum height of 148 feet and a total extension of 88,583 feet, could only be 40% repaired. (Granma)

14ymedio, Havana, 4 February 2023 — With the credit of 111 million dollars, offered by Russia to Cuba in 2017, the integral repair of Antillana de Acero has been achieved. Now, the experts say that it remains to be seen how, in a country that lives to the rhythm of blackouts, the enormous amount of electrical energy necessary to run the ovens, cranes and other equipment will be obtained.

Interviewed by the official State newspaper Granma, the CEO of Antillana, Reinier Guillén Otero, confirmed that the situation of his company was “critical.” They had been negotiating with Russia for years over the financing of the repair, which was approved five years ago. The result, rather than restoring, was to replace, in practice, the entire structure of the factory.

The Russian credit was distributed to 54 projects, calculated Guillén, including steelmaking, which needed the “most expensive and dangerous” process. The roof of the steel mill, with a maximum height of 148 feet and a total extension of 88,583 feet, could be only 40% repaired.

The renovation of the streets, the foundations of the plant and other common spaces needed 1,099,868 gallons of “high-strength” concrete. The cranes of the installation, essential for the transfer of the scrap, and the oven to melt the steel were also repaired. continue reading

The work should be completed by August of this year, although managers admit that important steps are still missing in the assembly of new cranes, the installation of some equipment and the general works of the factory. However, Granma’s report avoids calculating how Antillana de Acero will deal with the instability of the National Electricity System.

Aristides, an electrical engineer, worked for 22 years in the factory and received with concern the news that the colossus is producing again. “It is a huge consumer of electricity because it has electric arc furnaces that consume a lot of energy. In addition, the traveling cranes necessary to move the loads are 100% electric. In other words, it is to be expected that this entry into operation will strain the energy situation,” he tells 14ymedio.

The retired engineer recalls the structure of the plant, which he considers “a small town within the city,” with its large rolling workshop and another of machining, a continuous emptying installation, which converts the liquid metal into the so-called billets that once achieved are passed through giant rollers that compress them until they are converted into steel bars.”

Arístides, who knows the energy cost involved in the start-up of Antillana de Acero, believes that “if they are going to reactivate production it is because they already have a safe foreign contract with a country or company that is going to buy the steel.” From the million-dollar investment made by Russia, it could be speculated that part of the product will end up in the Eurasian country.

Inquiring about the military use of Cuban steel, Aristides believes that “it does not have the quality to be used in armaments because it is a carbon steel” although he recalls that at “at one time grenades were made for the training of the MTT (Militia of Territorial Troops), but it was very brief. There was tremendous paranoia at first but in the end — like everything in this country — the workers ended up even using the grenades as paperweights in the offices.”

“There has never been enough production to cover national demand, and part of those steel bars is exported. They have always prioritized export, which is what brings in hard currency. Some of the auxiliary workshops have the capacity to provide services to Cubans but they have never been given authorization for that,” says Aristides. “It could solve many problems and also pay someone money for that work, but it has never interested them.”

The engineer refers to the fact that the neighbors of the factory could be paid for blacksmithing, turning and parts assembly. “Like all Cuban industry, even though they say it’s efficient, it is actually insufficient, because it has focused only on steel sections that are rolled or pressed into shapes, and although in the past the steel mill made other products, such as balls designed to break concrete, that line has been closed for a long time.”

Steel sections and bars and rods are the skeleton of any construction and elements that are currently scarce on the Island, where housing deterioration and housing deficits have been growing significantly in recent years. The official sale of these construction elements has been reduced to those affected by the most recent hurricanes, and on the informal market, prices are skyrocketing.

“You find steel that you can see has already been used in formwork or taken from abandoned buildings, and that’s what you have to work with,” Samuel, a young man of 31, who together with his family is “pulling the new plate” for the roof on his home, in the Havana municipality of Cerro, explains to this newspaper. “Now we are stopped by lack of steel bars and rods, and we have been doing this for two years because what you find is very expensive.”

When Samuel has tried to haggle over the price of steel with informal merchants, the invariable response is that “it’s because Antillea is still disrupted.” Now that the colossus of El Cotorro will produce again, the young man has some hopes that “the rods and bars will start to be seen” and his home will have the roof he lost again due to leaks and deterioration.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘The Cuban Dictatorship will be Responsible for Whatever Happens to Luis Manuel’

The artist has been in jail since July 11, 2021. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 February 2023 — Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, prisoner at the maximum-security prison in Guanajay (Artemisa), has been on a hunger strike for seven days to demand his freedom, according to what curator Claudia Genlui published on Tuesday on her Facebook wall.

“I just spoke with Luis Manuel Otero. With a broken voice, he could barely speak. Luis has been on a hunger strike for seven days and a few days ago, he added a thirst strike,” explained Genlui, who currently resides in the United States.

“State Security once again ignores” the strike status of the leader of the San Isidro Movement, adds the activist. “Aware of the delicate state of Luis’s health, who has led several strikes in prison, they do not listen to his main demand: his freedom.”

In her text, Genlui also issued a warning: “Anything that happens to Luis Manuel is the responsibility of the dictatorship,” and questions “until when will they continue to destroy the lives of so many Cubans? until when will they continue to destroy a country that does not belong to them?” continue reading

“Aware of the delicate state of Luis’s health, who has starred in several strikes in prison, they do not listen to his main demand: his freedom”

The curator expresses her concern for the health of the artist, declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. “I fear that his body will not withstand another strike, and the consequences will be worse than the paralysis he contracted from the previous strike.”

Last June, the Attorney General of the Republic released a statement from the Popular Municipal Court of Central Havana which indicated that the sentence for Otero Alcántara was five years in prison for the crimes of insulting the symbols of the country, contempt, and public disorder.

The artist has been in jail since July 11, 2021, when he was arrested before being able to join the spontaneous anti-government protests that took place that day throughout the country.

During his time in prison, the artist has staged at least four hunger strikes. The previous one took place in March of last year. After calling off the strike, Genlui reported that Otero Alcántara was going to change his “strategy” and accept prison visits, phone calls, and supplies from abroad, something he had renounced in protest of his unjust imprisonment.

This change, the curator stated, with the artist’s lawyer as a source, “does not mean that he is changing his position regarding other things: he will not leave the country because any agent of the Cuban State wants him to, but rather when he decides.”

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‘Bolos’ [Russians] and Yankees in Havana

Miguel Díaz-Canel receives a group of Russian businessmen on January 18, 2023 at the Palace of the Revolution, in Havana, Cuba. (Cuba Presidency/YouTube/Captura)

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, February 4, 2023 — It’s evident that the Castro leadership, those whom they call moncadistas [the ones who took part in the attack on the Moncada barracks, celebrated every July 26], by their stubbornness in maintaining privileges and fortunes at all costs, don’t cease to reinvent themselves by resorting to any maneuver in order to preserve power, the only guarantee of their survival. Miguel Díaz-Canel has shown great talent in managing to genuflect before the Castros.

There is no denying that the Castros, the First Family on the Island, knew how to make their transition from power. They found the ideal person to run their errands, while they continue doing as they wish with the rights of Cubans, so much so that I dare to parody a song by Panchito Riset: “Fidel, the little room is the same as you left it, as you arranged it.”

Nothing has changed in Cuba, although there is no shortage of those who despair about finding developments that would indicate a new direction, or of those who continue demonizing the opponents of totalitarianism. The new governance acts under the instructions of the Castros. The nature of the regime is the same as 64 years ago. Those who sponsor a policy of coexistence are wrong, as are those who defend giving carrots to the dictatorship, which only strangles the people.

Also, those who assumed the Spanish transition as a model for the change in the Castro regime were wrong, just like those who said that when Fidel is gone, [the Revolution] “will crumble like a merengue [cake] at the door of a school” (a very Cuban expression). We have been mistaken in the predictions of how Cuban totalitarianism would end. However, I have no doubt that it will end as long as there are Cubans in prison demanding their rights, such as the young Angélica and María Cristina Garrido, Lizandra Góngora Espinosa, Félix Navarro, José Daniel Ferrer and a thousand other people, after 64 years of a doctrinal dictatorship. continue reading

A few weeks ago my friend and prison mate, Juan José Estrada, warned that the Russians, whom Cubans called bolos [from ’Bolsheviks’] in the sixties because they were crude, poorly dressed and smelled bad, would return to Cuba to the rhythm of capitalism and not in representation of a failed regime that victimized both Russians and Cubans. He suspects that this became a reality in past days.

The presence of Russian businessmen on the Island — most likely some were KGB leaders along with Vladimir Putin — should be an indication for the hitmen of Castroism, those who beat, imprisoned and condemned the young protestors of July 11, 2021, that the regime they defend is doomed to failure and that their crimes have a punishment, as Fyodor Dostoyevsky would write.

Estrada stated in his comment that the Russians would visit Cuba as predators more voracious than the mafia that they had displaced halfway around the world, not as officials ready to squander their goods, as Moscow did in the past for ideological reasons. These realities don’t worry the Island’s totalitarian leaders as long as they hold onto power.

The interesting thing was that the visit of Russian businessmen coincided with the trip of President Joe Biden’s government officials to Havana. A paradoxical truth: the Russians came to do business, while the Americans visited Cuba to “establish and increase channels for law enforcement cooperation to better address transnational threats, not at the expense of human rights.”

It’s difficult understand the stubborn desire of some politicians, businessmen and social leaders of different nationalities to negotiate with Castro totalitarianism, arguing that the precarious situation of Cubans has a solution with the supply of goods and migratory placebos. The violation of the rights of Cubans and the opportunities that are denied to them are decisions of their own Government, not of foreign powers.

The problem lies in the prevailing system and not in its environment. Cuba was not a failed state or sponsor of terrorism before the arrival of the Castros. It was far from being a paradise, but it was a viable country, just as Venezuela and Nicaragua were before the arrival of Chávez, Maduro and Ortega-Murillo.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The ‘Grocery’ Arrives in Cuba, with French Milk at 500 Pesos and Dog Food at 20,000

The answer of “500 pesos each” was enough for a murmur of indignation to run through the line. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 6 February 2023 — On the facade the English word “Grocery” is printed, and the line extends to the area outside the small private market recently opened on the ground floor of the Miramar Trade Center in Havana. Among airline offices, foreign companies and bank branches, the Pelegrin store, managed by a small business, had more curious than potential customers this Monday.

“And that milk? How much is it?” a woman asked a young man who left the premises with two packages of the product that carried a seal with the colors of the French flag and the clarification “Whole.” The answer of “500 pesos each” was enough for a murmur of indignation to run through the crowd. Despite the high price, no one moved from the line until they were able to access the market.

“I found out because I read on the internet that this store had opened,” a woman who bought some sweet vanilla cookies explained to 14ymedio. “They told me that it was only an assortment but it’s not that bad. There is more than in state stores in Cuban pesos, but it’s not a wonder either. I think they’ve made a mistake with the zeros on the right,” she said about the prices. continue reading

Small private companies engaged in the sale of imported food have been noticed in recent months in Cuba. (14ymedio)

Small private companies engaged in the sale of imported food have been noticed in recent months in Cuba with goods that they bring from countries in the region, such as Panama, Colombia, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Given the low productivity of the national industry, beer, malt, soft drinks and sweets with foreign brands cross the path of private trade.

The phenomenon has not escaped the popular humor that has already reinterpreted the acronyms that make up micro, small and medium-sized enterprises [mipyme (or SMEs)] with the acronym of import markets at high prices manicheados [managed] by the State. So far, the new form of management, which is presented in the official discourse as the key to getting out of the crisis, seems to be more for resale than for production of goods.

Hence, no one seemed surprised this Monday in Pelegrin that the 10-ounce packages of soda cookies cost 335 pesos. The price did not cause a great fuss because “the self-employed businesses are more expensive,” said a man who calculated that each one contains 15 sachets with three cookies inside, at “22 pesos per package and 7 per cookie.”

The store has a small area to serve customers, but behind the windows you can see a large warehouse where they accumulate the merchandise. (14ymedio)

The store has a small area to serve customers, but behind the windows you can see a large warehouse where they accumulate the merchandise they sell. “The cafeteria on the ground floor of my house in Centro Habana is better stocked but it’s true that it is a little cheaper here, but getting to this place costs the difference,” stressed a man who was “by chance” at the Miramar Trade Center looking for a plane ticket to Panama.

Among Pelegrin’s most expensive products, a 35-pound bag of dry dog food stands out, a mixture of salmon and potato, for a whopping 20,600 pesos. The product, of the Kirkland brand marketed by the international chain of Costco supermarkets, has the “Made in USA” letterhead. It has been imported to a country where official stores, specialized in the sector, have not sold pet food for more than a year.

This morning, the Siberian husky printed on the package seemed to look with some arrogance at the customers who let their jaws drop in front of the market counter when they heard the price, more than three times what it costs in the stores of the American chain, if calculated at the official rate of the dollar exchange in Cuba. “This is animalistic, for sure,” concluded an old woman.

“My dog doesn’t look like that, and I’m not going to spend half a year’s salary buying that food for him. Mine will keep eating leftovers and whatever else appears,” said another customer who, in the end, only bought a can of imported Coca Cola for 155 pesos. “I think they put ’Grocery’ outside so that people won’t confuse it with a state store,” he added before leaving the premises.

Among Pelegrin’s most expensive products, a 35-pound sack of dry dog food stands out, a mixture of salmon and potato, for a whopping 20,600 pesos. (14ymedio)The use of the word in English, instead of its Hispanic variants of “food store” or “ration store” is not accidental. Both Spanish terms are marked on the Island by the negative shadow that more than 60 years of rationed markets and centralism have projected on trade. The foreign term could seek to move away from the known and evoke another type of more assorted and efficient bazaar.

But whatever it is called and in whatever language, Pelegrin has prices that are triple that of a box of milk in Madrid or of pet food in Miami. Like other stores managed by SMEs, it seems to be oriented to a social class with enough money to spend 180 pesos on a tiny glass container of yogurt, the daily salary of an engineer.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Leonardo Padura Wins the Pepe Carvalho Prize for Crime Novels

Leonardo Padura expressed his joy at having received live news from his Argentine colleague and friend Claudia Piñeiro. (EFE)

EUROPA PRESS (via 14ymedio), Barcelona, 6 February 2023 — Cuban crime novel writer Leonardo Padura, creator of the policeman Mario Conde series, has won the Pepe Carvalho 2023 Prize in recognition of his career. The prize is awarded within the framework of the BCNegra festival.

It was announced by the writer and winner of the award in 2019, Claudia Piñeiro, at the opening ceremony at El Molino of the BCNegra festival, which will last until February 12.

The jury, composed of Carlos Zanón, Anna Abella, Lilian Neuman, Esteve Riambau, Rosa Ribas and Daniel Vázquez Sallés, awarded the prize to Padura for being “one of the most prominent voices in current Latin American literature” and for being committed to literature and to Cuba, the great protagonist of his works.

The jury considered that the protagonist of up to nine Padura novels, the charismatic Mario Conde, is “heir, or even the Caribbean brother” of the character of Carvalho, created by Vázquez Montalbán.

Padura (b. Havana, 1955) was happy to receive the award and highlighted the “close and friendly” relationship he had with the writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. He pointed out that three years ago he received the Barcino Prize for a historical novel, where his literature was then compared to that of Montalbán. continue reading

The Cuban writer, who recalled a photograph that was taken with Vázquez Montalbán and his Cuban friends when the Barcelona writer was documented for the book y Dios entró en La Habana [And God Entered Havana], regretted his “irreplaceable absence in the culture of this country.”

Padura said in his thank-you speech for the award, which will be presented on Thursday, that he is grateful for the memory of “two very significant people for BCNegra and police literature”: Vázquez Montalbán and bookseller Paco Camarasa, the promoter of the festival.

The director of the festival, Carlos Zanón, stressed that the BCNegra wanted to begin with this edition, and the deputy mayor of Culture of the Barcelona City Council, Jordi Martí, said that Padura joins a “spectacular” list of Pepe Carvalho winners.

Leonardo Padura has a long career, recognized with numerous awards for his work, including the 2015 Princess of Asturias Award for Letters, the Café Gijón and the Dashiell Hammet awards, among others.

Among his works are those starring Mario Conde, including: Pasado perfecto, Vientos de cuaresma, Paisaje de otoño, La niebla de ayer and Personas docentes [Past Perfect, Winds of Lent, Autumn Landscape, Yesterday’s Mist and Teachers]; but also others such as El hombre que amaba los perros, Herejes, Como polvo en el viento and Agua por todas partes. [The Man Who Loved Dogs, Heretics, Like Dust in the Wind and Water Everywhere].

Translated by Regina Anavy

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