14ymedio – Page 143 – Translating Cuba

Two Cuban Opponents Meet in Havana with US Democratic Senator Ron Wyden

Democratic Senator for the state of Oregon, Ron Wyden. (@RonWyden/Twitter)

14ymedio, Havana, 31 December 2022 — Cuban opponents Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello and Julio Ferrer Tamayo met this Friday morning with US Democratic Senator Ron Wyden visiting Havana. “The topic of the conversation was the political prisoners and their relatives,” Roque wrote through her Twitter account.

Wyden, who two days before held a meeting with Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel, met with the opponents at the residence of the US Chargé d’Affaires in Cuba, Benjamin Ziff. Roque and Ferrer described to the senator the current situation of political prisoners and their families.

Roque explained to the Cuba al día program on Radio and Television Martí that Wyden “is one of the people who wants a rapprochement with the dictatorship.” The two dissidents used the time of the meeting, of more than an hour, to “talk about the political prisoners and their families, in addition to touching on some specific cases.”

“We are trying to explain to him that in this situation that the country is experiencing, not only the prisoners suffer, but the families of the prisoners also suffers,” said the president of the Cuban Center for Human Rights. “There are families whose only support was through the person who is imprisoned.” continue reading

“We have prisoners who are denied all kinds of benefits,” lamented Roque. “All these things we explain to him in detail.” The opposition member says that the senator’s father “was under the boot of the Nazis and he firmly believes that the human rights situation must be improved” in Cuba.

“He was very receptive,” explains Roque. “I think that he is not going to leave this problem like that, but rather that he is going to transfer it to the different Senate committees in which he is going to participate.” The former political prisoner warned Wyden that “in order to take any step in relations between the two countries, political prisoners must be taken into account.”

The senator for the state of Oregon is the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and in February 2021 he presented the United States-Cuba Trade Act 2021 to repeal the sanctions against the Government of the Island and try to normalize relations between both administrations.

During the month of December, three other Democratic representatives visited Havana. Congressmen James McGovern, Troy Anthony Carter and Mark Pocan met with the island’s authorities with the aim of moving towards the “normalization” of bilateral relations, according to the Cuban Parliament.

Last November, a bipartisan delegation from the United States Congress made up of three members of its agricultural committee met in Havana with Vice President Salvador Valdés, legislators and Cuban farmers.

The Prisoners Defenders organization, in its latest monthly report, exposed the “inhuman repression” that “dominates Cuba since 9/11.” The organization denounced that with the 24 new arrests in November, the Cuban government keeps a total of 1,034 political prisoners in jails.

Hoy, junto con el abogado Julio Ferrer, fuimos recibidos por el senador Ron Wyden, demócrata por Oregón q se encuentra de visita en Cuba. El tema de la conversación fueron los presos políticos y sus familiares

— Martha Beatriz Roque (@marthabroque) December 30, 2022

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Cuban Stores Sell Rationed Rum in Bottles Intended for Cooking Oil

Bottling rum in plastic containers originally intended to hold cooking oil. (Trabajadores)

14ymedio, Havana, December 27, 2022 — With supplies down due to low productivity, the plastic containers normally used to bottle domestically produced cooking oil are instead being used to bottle rum. The Cuban government plans to distribute more than 4.5 million liters of the spirit, one of the few consumer products that is meeting its production targets, to Cuban families to coincide with the winter holidays.

An article published in the state-run newspaper Trabajadores on December 25 reports that, “after a “great productive effort,” the rum industry will close out the year on Wednesday. The government plans to distribute the beverage to more that four million households to enjoy as part of their New Year celebrations.

Rum seems to be the only product that will not be in short supply on Cuban tables at year’s end. Pork and chicken output has not been enough to meet demand. Last week, more than two-thousand people waited in line outside a state-run store on Melones Street in Havana’s Luyanó neighbor to buy meat. continue reading

Though the regime is incapable of managing the economy in a way that would provide Cubans with the staple foods necessary for a healthy diet, it seems it can meet its alcoholic beverage production targets. Meanwhile, shortages of milk, bread, fruit, vegetables and other daily products are ever more keenly felt, compelling many people to move abroad.

This result will generate a “plurality of opinion,” states the newspaper, which acknowledges that there are some who will not consider this a “mission accomplished” until the product has a permanent presence on store shelves. For the “great majority,” however, it argues that they will view the this as evidence the strategy is highly effective because now “Cubans can all buy drinks we like at least once a year.”

Havana’s Provincial Beverage and Soft Drink Company began a production run of 730,000 liters of rum on December 25 and ended it on Monday as scheduled, according to the company director, Nilda Lopez. The article states that the beverage will be distributed through 1,647 retail outlets throughout the capital.

The director indicated that both production and distribution of the rum has been made possible with help from other state-run institutions, among them Havana Commerce and Confectionary, Guido Perez Brewing, and Mayabeque, Molinería and Alibec Beverages.

“The one-liter and five-liter plastic bottles were supplied by Havana’s cooking oil company as well as by Ciego de Montero soft drinks and Villa Clara Military Industrial. This fact has not gone unnoticed by the Cuban public as evidenced by social media posts which criticize it as a “disgrace” and mockingly call it an example of “Cuban bad taste.”

The Western Rum Factory, the largest manufacturer in the capital, also resumed production after its plant shut down because it did not have enough alcohol or plastic bottles according to Yovayne Gonzalez, the company’s director of production. She explained that, given the shortage of supplies, it was decided to produce 34-proof beverage instead and market it under the Ronda label.

“We did it without interrupting production of our Legendario line. It is our main product and is intended for export. This year we were able to fully satisfy our overseas commitments,” Gonzalez told Trabajadores.

The Metropolitana plant was not to be outdone, added Matha María Perdomo, head of production, who reported that every day some 25,000 liters of rum are bottled there. Regular employees and clerical staff, though not managers, joined production line workers to help get the rum out. This was “in addition to the sodas and syrups that we have for which we have sales contracts,” she added.

The government is concerned about the nation’s alcohol consumption and its impact on Cubans’ health. The latest National Health Survey, conducted from 2018 to 2020, revealed that 73% of those polled said they had consumed alcoholic beverages in the previous thirty days, higher than the 67% reported in the 2020 study.

“Unfortunately, the alcohol consumption is risen 68% among those ages ten to nineteen,” said Public Health Minister Jose Angel Portal Miranda during a presentation of census results last July. The official figures indicate that between 7% and 10% of the population suffers from alcoholism, a rate that is likely much higher in regions of the country where recreational opportunities are few and cases can remain undiagnosed.

The World Health Organization warns that alcohol and tobacco abuse is the cause of various public health problems. These include digestive disorders due to lack of vitamins, gastric ulcers, pancreatic lesions, cirrhosis of the liver, and other diseases that can impact a person’s quality of life.

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Apropos of ‘A Settling of Scores’

Alexis Romay, New Jersey, 30 December 2022 — Today, the Cuban independent newspaper 14ymedio published the seven décimas* of the most recent entry of my weekly column, Ideological Deviation. You can read them in one fell swoop on their website, or take them individually, in daily doses, on my Spanish blog, which is also yours, Belascoaín y Neptuno.

I don’t usually write commentary to explain what I write. What I write explains itself. Or it doesn’t, and that’s that. However, I’ve made an exception this time because, after these seventy lines, I still had more to say. I want to highlight the discomfort that confronting racism and its many forms of violence causes in our society —I’m taking about Cuba, yes, and that is also applicable in the United States. But let’s focus on Cuba.

There are people who have told me all my life, in Spanish and in English, “I don’t see race or color,” and, in saying so, have always had the best of intentions. But whoever doesn’t see race also doesn’t see racism. And those problems will not be solved if we prefer to think they don’t exist. To not have to think about race, to not see race, is an immense privilege. I see it every time I look in the mirror. And yes, it’s a social construct, and all that, but I didn’t invent it. It was already here when I got to the party, like Augusto Monterroso’s famous dinosaur.

Since we are at it: it’s also a privilege to not have to think about gender, or money, or sexual orientation, or migratory status, or physical abilities, or about other factors that I don’t mention here, because I don’t see them, because they don’t come to mind at this moment, while I write this.

I was Black in Cuba, although here I’ve been placed in the “Latine” niche, while I repeat over and over that I am and will always be Cuban, until my lights are turned off; I’m Habanero, to be more precise.

I’ve never had the option of not thinking of myself as a racialized being, including long before I acquired this vocabulary. I didn’t have that choice when authorities during my Cuban upbringing repeated that racism was a remnant of the past —that thankfully had been eradicated in Cuba— while they taught me to hate my hair. This hair, this beautiful hair. The conjunction of this feeling of racial consciousness with the fallacy that we learn —that we learned— at home, that “the family is sacred,” was the starting point for this cycle of décimas. No, folks. We have to talk about racism, and we have to talk about it in public. And this conversation will have to be uncomfortable, especially for those who have never stopped to think about this subject. Believe me: more uncomfortable —more dangerous!— is racism itself. And another thing: family is who behaves as such. Family is also chosen. (My Aunt Lucy, who is not a blood relative, is more my family than my entire paternal line. I’m making use of this opportunity to send her, publicly, my everlasting love.)

In this week’s column, I maintain my policy of not telling a lie and punching all the way up. Here, as everywhere, the personal is political. Furthermore: my childhood demonstrates the resounding failure of the Cuban regime in promoting and implementing racial justice and equity on the island that I escaped, as so many thousands of my compatriots are doing right now.

I know that the State is a system and, that in my poem, I refer to individuals. But the gears of a society function —for better or worse— because of the people who implement them. These creatures and their sickening racism passed through my life. And they all openly supported “the Revolution,” while reiterating that, in the previous dictatorship, I “wouldn’t even have been considered a person.”

Therefore, I owe it to the child that I was to settle this score in public. I dedicate these rhymes to the racists —of all genders and latitudes— who have defended —and explained to me!— the Cuban Revolution.

The love for the homeland is learned at home. So is racism. Educate yourself, and educate your offspring.

Don’t forget that the dictum of “don’t air dirty laundry in public” is an effective way of protecting those who oppress you.

Tell your truth. Remember, as Audre Lorde said: “Your silence will not protect you.”

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*See ‘A Settling of Scores’ in English here.

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The 47 Victims of the Hotel Saratoga Explosion

Some of the faces of victims of the Hotel Saratoga explosion in Old Havana. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 30 December 2022 — A ferocious explosion followed by a column of black smoke (seen in great detail in 14ymedio’s coverage) shocked the residents of Old Havana on 6 May at 10:50 in the morning. People’s worst fears were confirmed a few minutes later: the luxury hotel Saratoga, whose reopening was planned for just a few days later, had partially collapsed, taking with it the lives of dozens of people.

Among the victims, the number of which would end up totalling 47, were 23 employees of the hotel who were preparing for the reopening, but also residents of the area and pedestrians who had the misfortune of walking past at that moment — including two children and a Spanish woman who had only just arrived on a visit to the Island with her partner.

The incident (which the authorities promised to investigate but so far little or nothing of that has transpired) was apparently caused by inadequate handling of the transfer of liquid gas from a truck to the hotel’s storage tank.

The government was profuse in pushing the official line in its press about the rescue work, which lasted for several days until all the bodies were recovered and the names of those not found released. However, they never published any detailed record showing pictures of those who lost their lives in the tragedy.

This newspaper undertook an exhaustive gathering of all the information put out on social media by friends and family members of the victims so that finally we were able to bring together data on the majority of them: who they were, what were they like, what they did, what were their ambitions, who grieved for them. Our intensive work was recognised by the many readers who turned to us for our reporting on this story — the most read in 14ymedio of 2022. continue reading

Damage was also caused, in the explosion, beyond the hotel itself — built in 1880 and considered one of the most luxurious in the capital until in 2016 when the military took control of it — to a Baptist church, a school, the Martí Theatre and a number of other neighbouring buildings, a number of which remain beyond repair.

To add to this tragedy, which cost the lives of so many people this year, it is awful to have to add the shameful fact that in October it was revealed that Adel de la Torre Hernández, one of the emergency responders who took part in the evacuation, was sentenced to seven years in jail for having participated in the 11 July 2021 protests.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Diaz-Canel is Committed to a Marxist, Critical and Anti-Capitalist Approach, that is, Revolutionary, to Solve Cuba’s Problems

At an earlier event, in a spacious hall full of presidents, Díaz-Canel tried to project the veneer of a democratic ruler . (Granma)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 30 December 2022 — Yes. You heard it, and it couldn’t be worse. Díaz-Canel’s last speech to the Council of Ministers has been a return to communist, Marxist and Leninist orthodoxy that has surprised everyone. Obviously, it doesn’t benefit him. A leader must be able to understand the problems of society and offer viable solutions. And Cubans are not for these ideas.

Entertaining yourself with metaphors of what could have been and was not takes it further away from the people and makes it a marketing product at the service of the state press. Only in this way is it possible to understand the phrase of the speech highlighted by the State newspaper Granma that says, verbatim, “the really important thing is to join forces in the right direction, which is none other than the one that allows us to reverse the difficult economic situation that the country is going through, even in conditions of an intensified blockade.” The return of collectivism? What does “join forces” mean, if not that?

And then he adds that all this should serve to “strengthen the certainty around the revolution, to continue consolidating the idea that the construction of socialism is the only viable alternative for the prosperity and development of our nation.” Has Díaz-Canel forgotten that we live in 2022 and not in 1961? Has he not realized that he is not Fidel Castro? What are we playing at 63 years after accumulated failures? Honestly, with this type of speech it is not surprising that international investors flee Cuba and that in 2022, more than 225,000 Cubans have left the country for the United States to achieve a better future.

The passion and desire that Díaz-Canel wants Cubans to put into work, those who have lost all hope to live in a better and prosperous country, sound false, empty and repetitive. Cuban society is bored and tired. People turn their backs on their leaders when their priorities are not considered. They distrust him and know that the chosen path will not take the Cuban economy out of the vicious circle in which it finds itself. continue reading

There is no point in incorporating into the regime’s discourse that 2022 has been a hard year, or that the situation has been complex since the second half of 2019. That complexity, which is much more serious than Díaz-Canel says, has to do with tasks of his sole responsibility: reduction of Venezuela’s oil supplies, application of the Ordering Task* and productive paralysis in the face of galloping inflation. Do you want more?

The United States Releases Cubans Who Were Going to be Deported and Whose Identities Were Leaked by Mistake

Up to 17 undocumented Cubans who remained detained at the Broward Transition Center in Pompano Beach began to be released on Thursday. (@USBPChiefEPT)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 30 December 2022 –The US immigration authorities released on Thursday a group of Cuban asylum seekers who were waiting to be deported and who were on a list with confidential data of more than 6,000 immigrants that was accidentally leaked on the Internet.

According to the Miami Herald, a group of up to 17 Cuban undocumented immigrants who remained detained at the Broward Transition Center in Pompano Beach (Florida) began to be released this Thursday and were received by their relatives.

“I am going to celebrate my freedom, something that we have, for a long time, been hoping for,” said the young Andy García, 26, one of those who were released this Thursday and who, like his compatriots, surrendered to the US immigration authorities in October after crossing the border with Mexico.

The Cubans had not been able to prove before an immigration judge that they were politically persecuted and that they feared for their lives if they were returned to the Island, a statement that in the immigration courts is known as “credible fear,” so they were waiting to be deported.

However, on November 28, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) mistakenly disseminated on the Internet a document with the identities, ages and nationality, among other data, of 6,252 immigrants in their custody, who claimed to be victims of torture and persecution in their countries of origin. continue reading

At the beginning of December, government officials from the Department of National Security (DHS) told the Cuban government in a phone call that it would delay deportations to the Island due to the leak, indirectly confirming to Havana that potential Cuban deportees were fleeing persecution or torture.

The relatives of the Cubans, who in recent days had gathered outside the immigration detention center with posters calling for the release of their loved ones, received the first report about the release on Tuesday night, according to the Miami Herald.

In recent days, and after the leak, Florida Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar urged the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, to stop the deportation of 46 Cubans who were asylum seekers.

“The safety and well-being of refugees fleeing the (Cuban) regime must be the guiding principle of our immigration policy on Cuba,” Salazar said in her letter.

Salazar described the leak as “dangerous for life, and unacceptable,” and urged Mayorkas to take “the necessary measures to protect these people and reconsider their asylum applications,” since the United States had no way to guarantee their safety if they were deported to the Island.

The serious situation in Cuba was addressed on Thursday by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in an assessment that the Island, Venezuela and Nicaragua close 2022 with almost 1,500 people imprisoned for political reasons.

The IACHR described the governments of these three countries as “authoritarian” in a statement and accused them of manipulating the judiciary to prosecute and imprison people for political reasons.

“The independence and autonomy of the judiciary is an essential element for the existence of the rule of law,” claimed the commission, an autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), based in Washington.

In total in all three countries, the commission reported 1,467 arrests for political reasons, including civilians and military. Cuba is the country with the most prisoners of this type, with 1,034 people detained as of November 2022.

This is followed by Venezuela, with 247 political prisoners in October of this year and Nicaragua, with a total of 195 detainees.

Persons deprived of liberty under these governments, in addition, are treated differently from the rest of the prison population, the IACHR stressed, “which has caused a serious deterioration in health” in several of them.

There is little official information about the situation of the detainees, since they are isolated and find it difficult to maintain regular contact with their families. In some cases they are subjected to torture and cruel treatment, the IACHR denounced.

The women arrested also face gender-based violence, as well as “bad treatment as a method of punishment, repression and humiliation,” the commission stressed.

At the beginning of December, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, reiterated his request to the Cuban government to release the “political prisoners” arrested after the July 2021 protests on the Island, who have received sentences of up to 30 years in prison.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Diaz-Canel and Putin Talk About Energy and Industrial Collaboration

Miguel Díaz-Canel and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in front of the statue of Fidel Castro inaugurated in Moscow. (EFE/EPA/Sergei Savostyanov)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana/Moscow, 29 December 2022 –The presidents of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and Russia, Vladimir Putin, spoke on Wednesday about bilateral collaboration in the areas of energy and industry, Cuban official media reported.

During the dialogue — by telephone — Putin and Díaz-Canel expressed the intention to continue strengthening “in an integral way the Russian-Cuban strategic partnership,” said a statement from the Russian Government in Moscow, quoted by the state agency of the Isla Prensa Latina.

As a result of the conversation, the two presidents “agreed to intensify contacts at various levels,” the Kremlin added. “Special attention was paid to mutually beneficial projects in energy, industry and other sectors,” the official note states.

In addition to expressing his willingness to continue strengthening bilateral strategic cooperation, Putin congratulated Díaz-Canel in advance on the “Day of Liberation in Cuba,” on January 1.

The Cuban president also reported the exchange with the Russian ruler on his Twitter profile. continue reading

“I had a fraternal telephone exchange with President Vladimir Putin. We reviewed the excellent results of our recent visit to Russia and ratified the common will to deepen political dialogue and economic, commercial, financial and cooperation ties,” Díaz-Canel said.

Both statesmen confirmed their willingness to implement the agreements reached during Díaz-Canel’s visit to the Russian capital in November.

During his trip to Moscow, seeking help to overcome the energy crisis in which the Island is submerged due to the continuous blackouts, the Cuban president stressed that political relations “are excellent.”

“Cuba is willing to respect and comply with its financial obligations to Russia as soon as the economic situation is somewhat alleviated and that is possible,” he promised, referring to the 2.3 billion dollars in credits that the Island received between 2006 and 2019.

He also said that there are “wide agreements” on the main issues of the international agenda and that the “full development” of economic-commercial ties between the two countries remains pending.

Putin, for his part, attacked the sanctions and embargoes imposed on his country and the Island by the “Yankee empire,” and paid tribute to the late Fidel Castro with a statue in the heart of Moscow.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Settling of Scores

Alexis Romay, New Jersey, 4 November 2022

All those racists I remember
were good revolutionaries.
I would write their obituaries,
from January till December.
One was a high-ranking member
—and a puppet— of the State.
Will my anger dissipate?
He was Brown, but passed as white.
He was my father. That’s right.
He’s still a coward. Checkmate.

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Author’s note: This is my recreation and condensation, in English, of my seven décimas published today in the Spanish edition of 14ymedio.

Please, keep in mind that this post —as well as the entirety of Ideological Deviation, my weekly column— is considered a crime by the Cuban government. Ok, bye.

Alexis Romay
https://linktr.ee/aromay
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The Cuban Government Extends the Measures to Import Electric Generators for Three Months

Electric generators need fuel, which is also currently scarce on the Island. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Madrid, 28 December 2022 — The Cuban authorities extended the importation of electric generators of more than 900 watts for three months, a measure approved in August to try to alleviate the energy crisis, which was at its worst in the summer. The measure expires on December 31.

The new resolution of the Ministry of Finance and Prices extends the measure until March 31, “to provide that some of the electric generators purchased by the population will be dispatched abroad before or during this deadline, will be in transit and will arrive later in the country.”

The rule states that this grants “special treatment” to this high-production equipment.

In July, a series of measures were approved to make the import of some items to Cuba more flexible as long as they were not for commercial purposes. These include products from cell phones and computers to dozens of appliances, car parts, furniture, toys and sports items, among others.

The list also included electric generators of up to 900 watts for 200 dollars, from 900 to 1,500 watts for 500 dollars, and greater than 1,500 watts for 950. The General Customs of the Republic then established the limits in quantity and fees, including 30% of the value for items of more than 200 dollars. continue reading

The resolution entered into force on August 15, but before that the Cuban authorities had already realized the error made with the electric generators, undervalued in the document. That is why they rectified the values in another rule dated August 11 that, although it was not reported until it was published in the Official Gazette of September 5, should have been applied from the beginning of operations.

“When assessing the effects that still persist in the residential sector, as a result of the energy deficit caused by breakdowns in the national electro-energy system, it is necessary to authorize, on a temporary basis, the import of electric generators with a power greater than 900 watts, whose reference value in Customs exceeds the maximum value of two hundred (200) US dollars allowed to import through air, maritime, postal and courier without a commercial nature,” said the new text, now extended.

At that time, the price of most 900-watt electric generators that could be found online in both the United States and Panama, Cubans’ favorite markets, exceeded not just $200, but even $500. Although the winter season has reduced prices, it is not currently possible to adjust to the prices forecast by the July resolution.

The extension will allow the current imports to continue to arrive and the new ones to be arranged now, but it will be difficult to continue acquiring the equipment if the July rule is not further modified after March, unless the generators become cheaper.

The reactions to the extension in the official press faithfully reflect the concerns that this newspaper expressed in the summer regarding noise pollution: “The family of the lucky man sleeps, and the rest of the neighborhood is awake all night”; “I have not seen any document that expresses the damage that these plants are causing. If the noise is within the permissible limits, if it affects the health of the neighbors…”; and, above all, the shortage of gasoline.

As this newspaper pointed out, although many workers skip the formal limits in exchange for some financial consideration, it is common for gas stations to limit the sale of gasoline in containers due to shortages.

“What’s the point, if later they put a thousand obstacles in the way of getting fuel? It’s typical in our country; they make things difficult for the citizen,” laments one reader. Several call for the elimination of Customs limits and an end to the “internal blockade,” and although others note that all countries have regulations of this type, a commentator points out the Cuban exceptionalism. “Compadre, the Cuban situation is unique. They [referring to the government] don’t have the money to buy anything, they have an unpayable internal debt and they live on donations. Yes, it should be tax-free to make life a little more tolerable for Cubans,” he says.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Reinforces Health Measures in the Face of the Increase in Positive Cases of Coronavirus

The highest levels of transmission during December occurred in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Guantánamo and Holguín. (Cubadebate)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 28 December 2022 — The increase in positive cases of COVID-19 in Cuba, with 138 patients reported last week — a figure that represents 43.8% more than the previous week — has led to a strengthening of prevention and surveillance measures, the Ministry of Public Health of the Island reported on Tuesday.

In the week of December 18 to 24, the average number of daily cases of COVID-19 increased from 3.7 to 19.1 compared to the month of November, according to data presented by the head of Public Health, José Ángel Portal, at a government meeting, reported by the Presidency’s online site.

The highest levels of transmission, during December, occurred in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Guantánamo and Holguín, territories where 62.4 percent of the cases diagnosed on the Island are concentrated, and the recorded infections were both local and imported.

Regarding the health measures that should be reinforced, the minister said that it is recommended to wear a mask on public transport and when visiting shopping centers, fairs, cinemas, theaters and attending activities in enclosed spaces.

He also mentioned the importance of immediately going to health services in the presence of respiratory symptoms, avoiding appearing in social spaces if contagion is suspected, and adopting distancing and personal protection measures at home. continue reading

The measures include perpetual hand washing and extreme vigilance in nursing homes, schools and other institutions that have a high concentration of people.

In addition, new booster doses of the anti-covid vaccines manufactured on the Island will be given to pregnant and lactating women, health and tourism workers, and to people over 70 years of age, as Portal explained during the government meeting. The minister pointed out that during this year, 207 deaths have been reported due to COVID-19, for a lethality rate of 0.14%, and he specified that in the last 18 consecutive weeks there have been no deaths due to COVID.

He also reported that although there is an increase in positive cases in the last two months, control of the disease is maintained in the country.

The daily report of the Ministry of Public Health confirmed on Tuesday 11 new cases of COVID-19 for a cumulative number of 1,111,898 positives since the first diagnoses were recorded in March 2020 in the country, and 8,530 deaths.

Cuba has developed its own anti-Covid immunogens — Abadala, Sovereign 02 and Sovereign Plus — with which it has vaccinated 10,003,526 of its 11.1 million inhabitants with the complete three-dose scheme. Also, more than 7 million Cubans have had booster doses, according to Health data. The coronavirus vaccination campaign also includes the pediatric population (from 2 to 18 years old). However, although the vaccines have been widely marketed in Europe, Africa and Latin America, none of the Cuban vaccines have been recognized by the World Health Organization.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Authorization for Cuban Residents to Stay Abroad for More Than 24 months is Still in Force

Cubans line up outside a Directorate of Identification, Immigration and Aliens office to get their passports. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 29 December 2022 — The director of Consular Affairs and Cubans Living Abroad, Ernesto Soberón, reminded Cubans who have been abroad for more than 24 months that the measure adopted in October 2020 by which they do not lose their status as residents of the Island is still in force.

The exception to the current 2013 Immigration Law began in October 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, so that Cubans who had not been able to return to the Island due to border closures and the cancellation of flights did not see their status modified.

“On New Year’s Eve, it is reiterated to our nationals that the automatic and free extension of uninterrupted stay abroad remains in force beyond 24 months, without implying the loss of resident status in the national territory,” Soberón wrote on his Twitter account.

The extension of the measure, which has always been “until further notice,” has been maintained over time despite the fact that the international and Island landscape has changed as far as the pandemic is concerned. In September 2021, in his reminder of the validity of the exception, Soberón indicated:

“Given the persistence of the complex international epidemiological situation, the extension remains in force until further notice, automatic and at no cost, of uninterrupted stay abroad beyond 24 months, maintaining status as residents in the national territory.”

On this occasion, when the borders of most countries have already opened without many restrictions, there is apparently no reason to maintain the situation. The paralysis could be attributed to the possible change in the Cuban Immigration Law, which according to 14ymedio sources is being prepared for next year. continue reading

At the beginning of November, this newspaper published information from an anonymous source linked to the Land Registry which said that a commission is preparing changes to the rule to adapt to the scenario of massive departures that affects the Island and which has pushed notaries and property registrars to the limit.

“We are now in the proposal phase, but the guidance we have received is that it is about adjusting the current legislation so that it contemplates the possibility of making the issue of property and its conservation more flexible in the hands of those who spend some time abroad. We are still in the preliminary phase, although we have been told that everything could be approved very quickly,” he said.

Among the proposals is to allow the same person to own more than one home, but also to relax the status of citizen. “We have to find a solution to all this, and making the 24-month time that the person can stay out of the country without losing their property more flexible is a first step.”

Soberón himself stated on a trip to Uruguay this October that the Government is working on a “Citizenship Law and working on promoting relations with emigrants.”

Meanwhile, this Wednesday, the official added in a second tweet that “the possibility of returning to Cuba is also maintained, exceptionally and for one time, with their passport expired and without being extended, to residents in the national territory who were abroad on March 19, 2020, and have not yet returned to Cuba.”

On the other hand, Soberón still does not explain the reasons that justify the prohibition of at least three young Cuban activists — Anamely Ramos, Omara Ruiz Urquiola and Carlos Manuel Álvarez — from returning to their country. The spokesman for the regime stated that article 24 of the Migration Law* was being “applied.”

On the same day, the Ministry of the Interior wanted to stop the rumors circulating about a rise in passport prices. In a note published in the official press, the immigration authorities ask Cubans “to dismiss any ’unfounded rumor’ that is not published through official means and by the relevant authority.”

The Directorate of Identification, Immigration and Aliens (DIIE) of the Ministry of the Interior reiterates that the channels and formalities established by the Law in this regard are maintained, and no change in cost is expected immediately,” the text adds.

The Cuban passport is one of the most expensive in the world, especially if one takes into account the low mobility it provides, since fewer than 40 countries provide free visas for the citizens of the Island. With a duration of 6 years, the current price of the document for residents of the Island is 2,500 pesos, and two extensions are 500 each, while for emigrants the cost ranges from 200 to more than 400 dollars depending on the country of residence.

*Translator’s note: Article 24.1 says that Cuba “can prevent the entry of anyone who organizes, stimulates, carries out or participates in hostile actions against the political, economic and social foundations of the Cuban State.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Another Year, Another Shortage of Ration Books in Cuba

Sign in a Cuban store saying that they won’t be issuing new ration books. (Facebook/Jonatan López)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya and Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 29 December 2022 — “Customers please be aware that in January we will be using the same ration book as 2022. So please look after it!” Messages like this one, written hurriedly on a scrap of cardboard and stuck carelessly onto the shop door, have been appearing in numerous stores in Cuba over the past week.

These are the only sign of something that’s about to happen yet again: that they haven’t printed the new ration books that normally would get issued in December, for use from January onwards.

The ministry of Interior Commerce confirmed this on Thursday on its Facebook page. In the announcement, in which it also assures that “the distribution of already established family hampers for January is guaranteed”, they inform that “there are some changes to the usual timely distribution of ration books for 2023, because in six provinces, and, partially in another three, their production has not yet been completed”.

Because of this, the text continues, “food products corresponding to the January quota will temporarily be recorded in the 2022 book, for which a procedure has been sent out”.

This newspaper has established, by telephoning a number of grocery stores, that this is happening in Havana — in the Central, Cerro and Revolution Square districts. “There are problems in getting hold of next year’s books and people are going to have to continue to use this year’s”, they explain over the phone, “most likely beyond January or February – there’s no date yet”. continue reading

The only district that appears to be free of the problem is Luyanó, where, despite the scarcity, and all the general problems associated with buying from state shops, they have actually received the ration books.

Beyond the capital, there is a shortage reported in Sancti Spiritus. There, the stores are recording January orders in the old books.

The fact that there’s a lack of these things — things which have been a daily norm ever since rationing started in 1962 — isn’t new. It was exactly the same last year.

A statement from the Ministry of Internal Commerce later clarified that there were “delays in the importation of basic printing materials”, which delayed the “production and distribution” of the document, which is essential for obtaining basic subsidised foodstuffs. In other words: they’d run out of paper.

One would read from this announcement that until they re-establish the distribution of these documents in the western and central districts, that they’ll have to keep using the 2022 ones. And to avoid confusion, it would be appropriate to “cross out things that have already been bought” before adding to the new ones in the space available “on the January and February pages” of 2022. This December, Cubans are feeling a bit… deja vu.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Cuba Attends to 250 Haitian Migrants Detained in Ciego de Avila

The Red Cross attended to Haitian migrants who arrived in Ciego de Ávila because of bad weather. (Invasor)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 27 December 2022 — A total of 253 migrants from Haiti are being cared for by local authorities and the Red Cross after their boat — which was headed to the United States — landed in the province of Ciego de Ávila due to “bad weather,” official media reported on Tuesday.

The Haitians are in good health and are temporarily staying in a school where provincial government officials once took classes. Of the total number of people treated, 61 are women and 31 are minors, according to the newspaper Invasor.

The Cuban Red Cross also attended to the balseros.

The Island’s official media assured that “contact with the highest Cuban authorities has already been established to ensure the organized, safe and voluntary return to the country of origin” of the migrants.

This is the second time this year that a group of Haitians landed in Ciego de Ávila after their boat went off-route on its way to the United States.

Last February, 292 migrants from that country, including 56 minors, who were on a “precarious boat,” landed at the Cayo Paredón.

On that occasion, Cubadebate reported that the boat had been in the water five days and that “they must have gone about 400 miles before they ended up landing on the Ciego de Ávila coast.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Could 2023 Be a Better Year for Cuba?

The lines, although nothing new, have been a focus of attention this year, including those formed to buy dollars in a Cadeca (currency exchange) in Centro Habana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 29 December 2022 — To end this year, and together with several journalist colleagues, we prepared a list of the people and projects that had set the tone in Cuba during 2022 . The list of names was also a journey through the most important moments of these twelve months and a painful review of the crisis and tragedies that have hit the Island. Curiously, among the faces and events chosen there were more deceased than living people; more catastrophes than achievements.

Why is the balance of this year so gloomy in a country that is not at war nor has suffered a cataclysm of great proportions? The answer to that question lies in the persistence of the error, in the stubborn continuity of maintaining a model that has had six decades to prove its inability to deal with reality. This has been the year in which the long lines to buy food multiplied everywhere, in which families had to say goodbye to almost a quarter of a million migrants, and in which the hopes of that spark that caused the protests of 11 July 2021 vanished.

In 2022, we Cubans saw the Saratoga Hotel in Havana explode, taking 47 lives with it; the Supertankers base in the city of Matanzas burned for days, which also claimed another 17 souls, and we also attended the silent funeral of tens or hundreds of rafters who shipwrecked in the Florida Straits or Cuban migrants who died in the Darien jungle. A deadly year that, about to end, has not even brought the publication of the results of the expert and official investigation of its greatest misfortunes. continue reading

From that impulse to change things, which unleashed the largest popular demonstrations in Cuban history, there has been a time of fear and silence. It is a rare week that we do not have to say goodbye to some independent journalist colleague, surrounded by threats and the dangers of practicing the profession outside the narrow official limits. It has also been months of seeing the inflexibility of a power that has sentenced several of the July 11th [11J] participants to sentences of more than 20 years in prison.

But the regime has also suffered a significant deterioration in its international image, its ability to intimidate and its power to silence the citizenry. Criticism grows on all sides, discontent springs up and the diatribe – which no longer stops at rebuking the bureaucrats or local administrators – is directed like a precise arrow towards the highest levels of the Government. The year 2022 has also been the one of citizen awakening and the galloping loss of credibility of the Cuban Communist Party.

But a democratic change needs much more than accumulated disappointments and repeated failures. Rebellious and young people are needed to promote an opening. In the coming months, the migration will take a part of those much-needed citizens through Central America, in a social escape valve that will postpone the necessary transition on this Island. As hope we have the political attrition and the disputes “up there,” the possible death of some powerful nonagenarians and the regeneration capacity that every society has. For the coming year we have hope, can we count on something else?

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Editor’s Note: This text was originally published by Deutsche Welle‘s Latin America page .

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Lopez Obrador and Cuba, a Honeymoon that Doesn’t End

The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and his Cuban counterpart, Miguel Díaz-Canel. (Presidency of Mexico)

14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, 28 December 2022 — Miguel Díaz-Canel’s first public statement on Wednesday was a message to his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “It was very pleasant to talk on the phone with Brother President López Obrador,” the Cuban president wrote on Twitter, reiterating “the deep gratitude to the people and Government of Mexico for the generous and supportive help provided to Cuba.” Both expressed, he said, “satisfaction with the excellent state of bilateral relations.”

Díaz-Canel did not specify what “generous and supportive help” he was referring to, but he did note one fact: despite the historic cordiality between the two countries, bilateral relations have never been so “excellent.”

The latest milestone is the hiring of 119 more Cuban doctors, as announced on Tuesday by the director of the National Social Security Institute of Mexico, Zoé Robledo, at López Obrador’s usual “morning” press conference.

These health workers will arrive in January “to provide their specialized services,” said Robledo, who recalled the 491 additional doctors who are “in 11 states, in very difficult and marginal places, helping to provide coverage every day and at all times in the hospitals where they are prominent.”

At the beginning of December, this newspaper found that one of those areas for which these doctors were promised, the inaccessible and violent Montaña de Guerrero, still does not receive Cubans. continue reading

Beyond that, neither of the two countries has made public how much money Mexico has spent on Cuba since López Obrador took office, on December 1, 2018. The Mexican president’s affinity for the Cuban Revolution is evident, in speech and in action.

The honeymoon began on another honeymoon: the one that López Obrador took with his first wife, the late Rocío Beltrán, in Cuba, in 1979, and continued with the import of the Sandino housing construction system — extended on the Island after the triumph of the Revolution — when the current president was a member of the official PRI party and director of the National Indigenous Institute of the state of Tabasco, at the beginning of the 80s.

After his election as president, the man from Tabasco gave free rein to that old love, which, in the midst of the deep crisis in Venezuela, supplier to the Island for the last two decades, was immediately reciprocated.

For example, the first official visit of Miguel Díaz-Canel after being appointed president was to Mexico, in October 2019.

Since then, the closeness has been characterized by controversy and opacity. In April 2020, medical brigades began to be sent in support, according to the Mexican authorities, of the fight against the COVID pandemic. Schools and public opinion questioned them for not being prepared to face the health emergency and for doing little work. It would then become known, thanks to the investigations of the press and the opposition, that their presence in Mexico cost almost eight million dollars. The official Cuban press itself has given the exact number of health-workers sent to Mexico for that contingency between 2020 and 2021: 1,479.

Despite the controversy over these health workers, the Mexican government won further criticism for the lack of transparency about the scholarships for medical residencies abroad, which began in 2020. The final destination would end up being only Cuba, for which Mexico paid the regime one million dollars, as revealed at the time by the Latinus portal.

Another milestone was the presence of Miguel Díaz-Canel on the presidential stand during the celebrations for the independence of Mexico, in September 2021, where he was even allowed to give a speech, something that had never happened in the country’s history with any foreign head of state.

Last May, López Obrador was reciprocated with the José Martí Order, on his official visit to the Island – one of the very few countries to which he has traveled as president. For those days, and during the Havana Book Fair, in which Mexico was the guest of honor, the opening of a branch of the legendary Mexican state publishing house, the Economic Culture Fund, had been announced,. It would end up happening in August, precariously, and again without information about the amount invested.

The list of solidarity of the current Mexican Administration with Cuba includes the sending of staff from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and the Ministry of National Defense to help put out the gigantic fire, in August, of the Matanzas Supertanker Base, and members of the Federal Electricity Commission after the passage of Hurricane Ian, in September, as well as the purchase of anti-covid vaccines — not yet approved by the World Health Organization — and the import of Cuban gravel for the construction of one of López Obrador’s emblematic projects, the so-called Mayan Train, on the Yucatan peninsula.

The romance, of which neither Mexicans nor Cubans know the total cost, is far from over.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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