14ymedio – Page 145 – Translating Cuba

For Cuban Newswoman Yailen Insua, Crossing the Darien Jungle was Less Dangerous than the Mexican Mafia

Yailén Insúa arrived in the United States on the day of her 43rd birthday. (Courtesy)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 December 2022 — Yailén Insúa Alarcón, former director of the Cuban Television Information System and the morning program Buenos Días, arrived in the United States on December 19 after a complicated journey through the Darién jungle, and after being scammed and detained in Mexico. “I arrived in the land of liberty on December 19 at 2:00 in the morning, on my birthday. I was blessed, as I say, it was the best gift I could have,” the journalist tells 14ymedio from Jacksonville, Florida.

Insúa arrived in Colombia accompanied by her husband, Boris Luis Llamo Salgado, on February 5, 2022. The journalist planned to stop at El Dorado airport, in Bogotá, to get to Nicaragua and continue, like so many Cubans, her trip to the United States. But the situation became more complicated when Managua refused to let her enter the country, leaving her stranded in Colombia. Insúa’s fear was being returned to Cuba where the authorities would retaliate against her. “My biggest fear was setting foot in the José Martí airport in Havana because I knew they would be waiting for me,” she told this newspaper.

In mid-February, a Colombian judge granted Insúa and her husband, a member of the Yoruba Cultural Association, a safe conduct pass for 48 hours, thanks to which they both were able to leave the airport and seek asylum in the country. But in October, after several months of waiting, the authorities rejected her request. Although the case was in the hands of the Supreme Court, the former official attributes the judicial decision to Gustavo Petro’s electoral triumph.

“Coincidentally, you know that Cuba is the guarantor of the peace talks between the National Liberation Army in Colombia and the Government. And, well, it seems that they also decided to take sides with the Cuban government and not approve my asylum application,” says the journalist, who just turned 43.

“So I told my husband: ’We have to get out of here, we are in danger, we have just been denied asylum after so long,’” she continues. At that time, both decided to follow the route they had planned from Nicaragua, only starting from much further back and going through the dangerous passage of the Darién jungle. According to data from the Ministry of Public Security of Panama, about 5,530 Cubans crossed that way between January and November. continue reading

“The journey through Central America was quite easy, despite everything, after I passed the Darien. What was the problem? Arriving in Mexico. It took us twenty-some days to get to the United States, because when we arrived in Puebla I was detained for 10 days; that is, kidnapped in a house because a coyote scammed us and they didn’t let us leave,” reveals Insúa, who is forceful about what she experienced in that country: “Mexico is a mafia,” she says.

The journalist and her husband paid again and finally crossed the Rio Grande just four days ago. “When we crossed there was no Border Patrol. We walked two kilometers to a road and there I made a call to 911, which must be registered with my name, saying that we were a group of Cuban migrants, Hondurans, two Peruvians… We ask that, please, send the Border Patrol to pick us up. At that moment the sheriff came; they sent us to the Patrol and so I got here, to this country,” she says.

Insúa Alarcón was harshly attacked, after her arrival in Colombia, by Cuban influencer Alexander Otaola. He was going to warn the media not to allow the journalist to enter and described her as an “infiltrator.”

“I called them and said: ’Don’t give them asylum, don’t give them anything, because there are people who arrive, get asylum, start work at Radio Caracolm, and from Radio Caracol they begin to undermine Colombian democracy,’” he said on his program Hola! Ota–Ola.

Insúa Alarcón, however, says she suspects that Cuban intelligence has set its sights on her. “Since the media is saying that I arrived in the United States, coincidentally, I have received 43 friend requests from people I don’t know. So State Security is starting to work,” she concludes.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Waiting in Line in Havana Behind 600 Others to Buy Pork

People in line to buy pork in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, December 21, 2022 — Yuleidi was thinking about going to a concert on Friday at Casa de la Obra Pia in Old Havana but it was cancelled for lack of an audience. When she pressed for more information, the explanation she got is one that has become common for many of the capital’s cultural events. Nobody is going to anything; everyone is waiting in line to buy pork.

This year, buying pork that the government has made available for the holiday season is harder that ever.

There are complaints that, in some cases, the pork being sold looks bad and smells worse. As though that were not bad enough, a whole cut costs thousands of pesos, the lines to buy it are slow and the holidays are only a few days away.

Silvia, Xiomara and Maria Eugenia — neighbors from the Revolution Plaza district — told 14ymedio that they had banded together to split a whole cut of pork, which is priced at 7,500 pesos. They are still waiting.

When contacted a few days ago, they thought it would soon be their turn. There were only eighty people ahead of them. The meat went on sale on Wednesday.

As of today however, there were inexplicably 600 people ahead of them. “We don’t really know if we’ll get to the sales counter before Friday,” says Maria Eugenia.

Pork lines are also becoming scenes of violence. More than a few social media posts describe physical altercations among people who have grown impatient and irritable from the long wait. continue reading

In other neighborhoods, such as Arroyo Naranjo, residents have set up makeshift camps outside butcher shops in hopes of getting a cut of meat. It is widely known that there is not enough for every household in the city to get its rationed share. Photos shared on social media show some people wrapped in blankets or drinking rum to keep warm in the cool early morning hours of December.

Silvia and her friends are seriously considering buying someone else’s place in line to speed up the wait time, which lasts a week. For 1,000 pesos they could reach the front by Thursday morning but they have to decide soon because prices for a good spot are expected to rise as Christmas Eve approaches.

Maria Eugenia has her doubts about making such an investment. Her son, who lives in Miami, has promised her a pork roast from Brazil, which can be purchased from any number of digital markets which markets to the island. “I don’t want him spending the money, which he needs for other things, but I cannot deal with this line anymore,” she says.

Meals at home are one option for those with relatives overseas. “A case of beer, a leg and sides for 250 dollars, with delivery [by December 24],” reads an advertisement published by a privately owned Havana business. When asked about the meat’s origin, the response by one employee is succinct: “Imported pork, nothing like the rationed stuff.”

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Cuban Farmers Prefer to Pay the Fine Than to Deliver their Milk to the State

Non-payment by the state sector contributes to discouraging the producer. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 December 2022 — The Ciego de Ávila farmers stand firm and prefer to pay the State the 10-peso fine per gallon of undelivered milk before selling it to them. This is confessed by Leonardo Pérez Rodríguez, sub-delegate of Livestock in the provincial delegation of Agriculture, who recognizes serious problems in contracting with producers. A few days before the beginning of 2023, only 33% of the milk has been contracted, and “over 2 billion gallons are still missing.”

The year 2022 has not ended well in the province, according to the authorities, who put the milk deficit at 8.5 million. “We are going to deliver more than 1.5 million compared to 2021; however, this doesn’t comply with what was agreed in 2022, which was higher,” he says.

Osvaldo Morales Batista, director of the Dairy in Ciego de Ávila, explains that in the northern area, which usually delivers the greatest amount of milk, “the cars are practically empty.”

According to his calculations, the vehicles arrive with approximately 4,755 gallons – although in recent weeks they have been transporting only 2,906 — barely enough to cover medical diets, which demand 3,963. “What would be left for the delivery to children under seven years old?” rhetorically asks the text of Invasor, which discusses the situation.

The article notes that already in May one could see the situation coming, when the commercial director of the Dairy, Yulema Yero Pérez de Corcho, explained that with the only 8,982 gallons per day they obtained it was not possible to fulfill all the orders. At that time, Sancti Spíritus was sending between 2,642 and 5,283 gallons because of not being able to process the milk because of “problems in his industry.” Since then, the situation has worsened. continue reading

Morales Batista adds that Ciego de Ávila is receiving milk from other parts of the country, which he did not specify, and that he could try to cover the demand with imported powdered milk, but the situation “is not sustainable.” Between 2015 and 2019, the Island spent more than 600 million dollars on milk powder, a product that is imported mainly from New Zealand (whole milk) and Belgium (skimmed).

Although the authorities point to the drought as one of the reasons the amount of milk delivered decreased, even they do not hide that the root lies in the displeasure of farmers with the State. Misleidy Abad Modey, the first secretary of the Party in Majagua, asks for “sincere exchanges” after the Dairy let three months of debts accumulate with the farmers.

In the contracting, they point out, they have seen how there are “farmers who have gotten up and left, others who have not attended the call in their productive base, even those who have proposed in advance, with total naturalness, to pay the industry the 10 pesos for each undelivered gallon to be able to dispose of production.”

The newspaper affirms that the director of the Dairy reported these events “astounded” him, although he admits that it is a great stimulus to be able to sell each gallon on the informal market at 100 pesos, obtaining a profit ten times higher.

The worst thing, in any case, is the recognition that there is no proposal to improve the situation. Nexy Véliz Naranjo, a member of the Provincial Bureau of the Communist Party, affirms that it is mandatory to comply with the plan, since the State delivered the land in exchange for production, but at the same time assumes that, “even rescinding the possession of the land, it is not guaranteed that, wherever those cows go, each one contributes their 2.5 daily liters of milk.”

The problem that Invasor addresses today occurs at the national level, as 14ymedio noted in a report published on December 11. In the article, a producer of Camajuaní, Bruno, reported that the majority of farmers he knows deliver 80% of the production to the plan and sell the rest in the informal market to make profits and pay the fine. “That doesn’t fail,” he said, “but we’ll have to see how long it lasts.”

In the text, several farmers in the area commented on the problems they face in complying with contracts that require more than can be given with the current resources and the money that the State offers, not counting non-payments. For this reason, many are leaving the sector or investing what they have in others that are less controlled, which will reduce the supply of milk. Cutting off the nose to spite the face.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Jose Daniel Ferrer’s Son Arrives in Miami After ‘Pressures’ from Cuban State Security

José Daniel Ferrer with his son in an archival photo. (Cubanet)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 22 December 2022 — Daniel Ferrer Cantillo, son of Cuban political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer García, leader of the opposition organization Unión Patriótica de Cuba, arrived in Miami after suffering “various pressures” to try to convince his father to leave the Island, as he told América Tevé.

“They wanted me to get my father out of prison; they were going to use me to try to get him out of the country, and I did not accept any condition that they put on me,” Ferrer said on América Tevé radio.

In the interview, released exclusively on Wednesday, the young man confirmed that he “recently” visited his father and that he continues on a hunger strike after beatings suffered in prison.

“He was super weak, physically he is very thin. He told me that he had been hit countless times in the ribs and kidneys that left them destroyed (…); since that day he began a hunger strike,” he told journalist Mario J. Penton.

The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC) recently denounced that the opponent José Daniel Ferrer, in prison after trying to join the anti-government protests of July 11, 2021, was assaulted in front of his family, for which he began a hunger strike.

According to a statement from the CTDC, Ferrer “was beaten in the presence of his children and his wife during a family visit” in the Mar Verde prison, in Santiago de Cuba, on December 9. continue reading

“My father has made many advances, he is the person who has made the most progress, but he has still not been able to achieve what he wants, which is freedom,” said the son of the opponent, who added that from exile he will “try to study for a university career and continue to support the opposition in Cuba.”

“In Cuba, people have lately chosen more to leave the country than to continue fighting,” said the young man, who, according to América Tevé, by taking the path of exile is reuniting with his mother and two of his sisters.

Ferrer was arrested on October 1, 2019 and sentenced to prison in February 2020 after a closed-door trial for an alleged crime of injury to another man, a charge that his relatives and collaborators deny.

After six months in prison, and in the midst of strong international pressure, in April 2020 his sentence was commuted to a sentence of four and a half years of house arrest.

More than a year later, the dissident was imprisoned again for joining the 11 July 2021 (11J) protests.

In August last year, Cuban justice revoked the benefit of house arrest of the well-known dissident and sentenced him to remain in prison for the remaining years of his sentence for an alleged assault.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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One of Those Involved in the Murder of a Professor in Cuba has been Released on Bail

Professor Santiago Morgado, who disappeared last July. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 December 2022 — One of the five people involved in the murder of Professor Santiago Morgado, whose body was found in a well in Sancti Spíritus last July, was released on bail. The other four involved in the crime remain in pretrial detention, according to the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, as told to the official newspaper Escambray.

María Esmeralda Pérez, head of the Department of Criminal Proceedings of the Sancti Spíritus Prosecutor’s Office, informed the newspaper that the criminal proceedings “are in progress” and that a DNA analysis is being carried out at the Central Criminalistics Laboratory, in Havana, to confirm that the body found in a Sancti Spíritus well, in a state of putrefaction, unequivocally corresponds to Morgado.

As for the former inmate, the authorities also prohibited him from leaving the national territory, while his colleagues remain under investigation. “The process is complex with the number of people involved and the large number of investigative proceedings, both in the province of Sancti Spíritus and in Camagüey,” Pérez said.

It was in this last province that the murderers of Morgado tried to sell the Suzuki motorcycle stolen from the teacher, after several desperate reductions, for 200,000 pesos. Pérez relieved the Prosecutor’s Office of responsibility for the delays, and alleged that, according to the Criminal Procedure Law, “the criminal investigator practices the investigative and other proceedings of the preparatory phase in the shortest possible period, which should not exceed 90 days, but it can justifiably be extended by the prosecutor.” continue reading

The Morgado case was initiated on July 2, so the deadline for the Prosecutor’s Office to delay the process of those involved — 180 days — is close. However, Pérez specifies that even after that time, the Attorney General of the Republic can grant a new extension.

The official press, in a previous report, had revealed that two of those involved had been the material authors of the professor’s violent death and that one of them knew him well. The first of the alleged murderers led Morgado to El Capitolio, a town in the People’s Council of Banao, where, hidden among the undergrowth, he waited for his companion.

The attackers used a stick and a stone, in addition to two pieces of agricultural machinery, to immerse the teacher’s body in a well up to nine feet deep.

As for the rest of those involved, one of them drove Morgado’s motorcycle to Camagüey, where the fourth individual tried to sell it for an initial price of 800,000 pesos, which he soon had to give up on. Finally, the fifth detainee was the intermediary of the sale. The Prosecutor’s Office did not specify which of them was released, although it’s possible to intuit that it is one of the three men.

Of the five subjects, aged between 28 and 45, three are residents of Banao, one in the same town, another in El Pinto and the third in El Capitolio. The other two lived in Vertientes, which shows that the crimes occurred in places they knew well.

Morgado’s acquaintances were the ones who put the most emphasis on the search for the body, since the police, as usual in these cases, were slow to join the investigation of the event.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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An Old Man Who Made a Living as a Coachman in Villa Clara is Murdered

Images of Osvaldo, the coachman killed in Villa Clara, shared on social networks. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 December 2022 — Osvaldo, an old man who made a living transporting people in a wagon, was allegedly killed on Sunday for his horse in the municipality of Encrucijada, Villa Clara. His death generated a wave of indignation among his relatives, who remembered the Colonel, as he was known, as a humble man willing to help the neighbors.

The crime, of which the authorities have not offered an official version, was reported on social networks. His family and friends reported his disappearance after not returning from a trip he had scheduled for Sunday morning. On the night of that same day, several Facebook users reported the discovery of his body in a cane field, beheaded and with one hand cut off, while the wagon and the horse were stolen.

“Who did this barbarity of killing a poor old man has to pay for it. I ask everyone who saw something, please let me know,” a user identified as Reinaldo Rodríguez Velásquez wrote on Facebook. Several commentators said that the Colonel’s family alerted the Police about his disappearance, but the officers did not take the case seriously because 72 hours had not yet passed.

Osvaldo, whose surnames aren’t yet known, was described as “a humble man, good neighbor and friend of all,” by the user Ana Laura Bacallo, who claimed to know the victim from a young age. “All the memories I have of him are how he helped neighbors, and he never had problems with anyone,” she added. continue reading

The violent theft of animals in Cuban fields has been increasing over the last two years. A report published in this newspaper last July set out the methods of thieves to steal livestock, small and large, on private farms.

The criminals study the place and the owners of the animals well, and make use of different pain killers to tranquilize oxen, cows and pigs, which they then transport in wagons or dismember in the same place. The situation is increasingly common in Villa Clara and other provinces of central Cuba, where, in addition to animals being used in agricultural work, they serve as a means of transport in cities.

In the absence of an efficient urban transport system, cities such as Santa Clara, Remedios and Encrucijada depend on wagons or cars towed by horses. While it is true that they alleviate the lack of buses and electric motorcycles, they engender a significant amount of dirt, accidents and animal abuse.

Often, horses used for transportation must carry several times their weight under the whip of the coachmen. The situation becomes even more regrettable during the summer months, when animals tend to faint from fatigue and dehydration. Carers usually keep their animals in improvised stables in their own homes or on the outskirts of cities. It is common that violent robberies also occur there, with the aim of taking the horse, which they transport to another municipality or province so as not to be recognized, or kill it for food.

Cuba is facing a growing wave of violence, unleashed in part by the deep economic crisis on the Island. Last July, Santiago Morgado, a professor in Sancti Spíritus, was killed with the aim of stealing a motorcycle that the murderers later tried to sell for the price of 200,000 pesos. The official newspaper Escambray revealed that five individuals had been involved in Morgado’s death. The 62-year-old man was found several days after his death in a well where his perpetrators had thrown him.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Parliament Shows Little Enthusiasm for Expropriation Law

When called upon by Esteban Lazo to cast their votes, legislators kept their hands under the table while others ignored the National Assembly’s president, focusing instead on their cell phones. (Twitter, Cuban National Assembly)

14ymedio, Havana, December 15, 2022 — The indifference of some National Assembly delegates made it impossible to know if they approved, were abstaining or simply were not interested in the proposed expropriation law. When called upon by Esteban Lazo to to cast their votes for the legislation, some members kept their hands under the table while others ignored the body’s president, focusing instead on their cell phones.

Without bothering to look up and count the votes, Lazo simply ignored the errant delegates and declared the bill to be “approved unanimously.” The chamber applauded the result with the same disinterest.

The Law on Expropriation for Reasons of Public Need or Social Benefit is part of a legislative program sponsored by the regime. The measure, a series of legal initiatives conveniently ratified by parliamentary delegates, is intended to further codify the country’s 2019 constitution.

Though the government had been unusually low-key about the proposed law, avoiding undue publicity, this has not prevented suspicions being raised or questions being asked about the future implications of the legislation given the mass exodus the country is currently experiencing.

Meisi Bolaños Weiss, the Minister of Finance and Prices, says the new law is an attempt to establish legal guarantees and forms of compensation, and to address other issues related to the process of expropriation by the state. She noted that the committee which drafted the legislation – made up of various judicial and economic bodies as well as faculty from the University of Havana School of Law – had worked hard on the text, aware of the sensitivity of the issue. continue reading

The law, she says, expands on Article 58 of the current constitution, which mentions “the right to enjoy the benefits of one’s property” but warns that it can be expropriated for “reasons of public need or social benefit, and with due compensation.” The newly approved law fills a gap in the legal system by giving courts sole jurisdiction over the expropriation process.

The minister points out that expropriation can only be authorized by a “competent court of justice” and that property owners are guaranteed “effective judicial protection.” Should a citizen want to challenge a decision, he or she may demand documentation showing that his or her property is indeed in the public interest.

Regarding compensation for the expropriated property, Bolaños noted that the amount of compensation will depend on the actual monetary value in each case. The legislation also addresses protections for foreign investment. Regardless of whether the property owner is Cuban or a foreign national, the amount of the compensation may not be affected by taxes or any other encumbrances.

As for forced expropriation, Bolaños believes the process must still be “strengthened and updated within the new constitutional framework.” There is still no law that provides guarantees of any kind if a case like this were to come up. “Such a law has yet to be enacted in Cuban legal system,” she said, describing existing regulations under the current Administrative Process Law as “partial and insufficient.”

Jose Luis Toledo Santander, the delegate who presented the Assembly’s report on the proposed law, acknowledged that the legislation had generated “many conflicting opinions.” He added that the document makes reference to the history of expropriations in Cuba, though it does not mention the procedural irregularities in the 1960s when Fidel Castro requisitioned multiple properties without providing due compensation.

“Expropriation is an instrument, not an end in itself. It always involves the transfer of property, be it physical (as when land is expropriated to build a road or a highway) or judicial (when a company is nationalized because it is deemed to be in the public interest),” Toledo theorized.

As for a property’s appraisal value — the essential element used to determine the amount of compensation — Toledo offers no details other than those provided by Bolaños: It all depends on what the court decides. He added, however, that citizens have the right to reverse the expropriation if, three years after the court’s ruling, the state has not carried out the “expressed purposes” for the action.

In their discussions, delegates pointed out the law’s most controversial points, such as those that define the start period of the expropriation. Ana Teresa Igarza brought up examples that have occurred in the Mariel Special Development Zone, in which negotiations were carried out with the owners of expropriated land. After the owners reportedly agreed to the expropriation, the state took over the land once the owners had been abandoned it. “The key is to seek agreement between the parties so that those affected have guarantees,” she said.

Homero Acosta, secretary of the Assembly, was less conciliatory, referring to the law as a “guarantee” by the government. After all, he noted, “the state can currently expropriate even without this law.” Acosta was upset by what he described as “misrepresentation” to which he felt the legislation had been subjected. “People say that the communists want to end private property but that’s not the case,” he said, adding that Cubans should feel proud to have such a benevolent law.

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Spain Refuses to Sell Riot Gear to Cuba

Cuba bought riot gear from Spain in the first half of 2021, when the massive July 11, 2021 protests were about to break out throughout the island. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, December 23, 2022 — The Government of Spain denied the Cuban Ministry of the Interior the sale of 2,500 tear gas cartridges and 40 light, sound and smoke riot control devices, for a combined value of 350,000 euros. The refusal is recorded in the Report on Exports of Defense Material, Other Material and Dual-Use Products and Technologies for the first half of 2022.

According to the document, published by the Interministerial Regulatory Board for Foreign Trade in Defense Material and Dual Use (JIMDDU) – an organization chaired by the Secretary of State for Commerce, dedicated to regulating arms export operations – the reason for the refusal is the “lack of respect for human rights” that characterizes the Havana regime.

Under the protection of criterion 2 of the Common Position of the European Union – the rule of conduct on exports – the JIMDDU argued before the Spanish Congress that it is necessary to consider the degree of “respect for human rights in the country of final destination” when weapons are sent, in addition to the little “respect for International Humanitarian Law” that is observed on the Island.

This newspaper contacted the press office of the Spanish Secretary of State for Trade, which regretted not yet being able to offer the full text of the report – to which some Spanish media have had access – and guaranteed that it would be available “in the coming days” on its web page.

The repeated violation of human rights was also the reason why the JIMDDU blocked the license to export 50,000 tear gas cartridges – for a price of 2.1 million euros – to the Central African Republic. continue reading

Pakistan is also on the list, from which a “diversion risk” is alleged in the 670 sports pistols it requested, valued at 175.1 million. Nor will 5.5 million hunting cartridges be sold to Burkina Faso, for 1.6 million, nor the 13.3 million bird shots required by Guinea Bissau, which would have cost that country 2.7 million.

On the other hand, the JIMDDU did allow the shipment of riot control material to Peru, a country whose political crisis has just taken serious turns, for a value of 6.3 million euros.

The JIMDDU is required to issue a report on the granting of this type of licenses every year and the enforcing of the European legislation, which requires that the material not be destined for internal repression in countries where human rights are not respected, among other regulations. In 2021, permission to export to Cuba was granted and there was no refusal, but on this occasion the island was demanding chemical substances for laboratory analysis or ammunition used in hunting.

Another report from the Secretary of State for Commerce dated 2021 reported that Cuba had purchased riot gear in the first half of that year, when the massive protests on July 11 were about to break out throughout the island.

Although the authorization from the Spanish government took effect before July 11, it was not explained in the report if the shipment arrived in Havana in time to suppress the protest or if Spain blocked the shipment so that the regime would not attack peaceful protesters.

Also in 2014, a report from the former Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness reported the export of 3,170,228 million euros in gas masks and anti-riot suits.

Translated by Wilfredo Diaz Echevarria

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Days Before Christmas, 175 Cubans Who Landed in Florida Are Taken Into Custody

Since October 1, 2022, the Coast Guard has intercepted 3,724 Cuban rafters. (Twitter/@USCGSoutheast)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, December 23, 2022 — The Border Patrol took into custody this Thursday 175 Cubans who disembarked in the last 24 hours in the Florida Keys and Hollywood Beach. The chief officer of the Miami sector, Walter Slosar, affirmed that all the rafters were fine and will continue to be processed while under investigation.

Island nationals who manage to disembark in Florida are detained and taken to immigration stations where they are given the opportunity to demonstrate “credible fear.” If they convince the judge, they can post a bond and apply for asylum. In the best of cases, they are released and given a document that legalizes their entry into the country.

Last Monday, Mr. Slosar shared on his social networks images of four rafts in which 98 Cubans disembarked in the Florida Keys and Key Biscayne, who were helped by the Coast Guard and then placed under investigation.

The exodus of rafters is alarming, this Friday the interception of an “overloaded” rustic raft with 20 Cubans south of Key Largo was divulged. The authorities reiterated that they “continue to advise against these unsafe” and dangerous trips. These individuals will be repatriated in the coming days.

A day earlier, the US Coast Guard repatriated 67 people to Cuba on the ship Charles David Jr. The captain insisted on the uncertainty of the sea, and that this month, in addition, “the winter weather is unpredictable in the Florida Straits.”

Since October 1, 2022, Coast Guard crews have prevented 3,724 individuals from reaching for the American dream. continue reading

The Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) also alerted on its social networks about “extremely cold temperatures, below the freezing point” along the border of Mexico and the United States during the next week. It advised migrants not to try to cross the Rio Grande to avoid tragedies.

The warning comes as much of the United States prepares for a major “freak” winter storm, “once in a generation,” as the National Weather Service (NWS) has described it.

ALERTA: Se esperan temperaturas extremadamente frías, bajo cero, a lo largo de la frontera de México y EU durante la próxima semana. No arriesgue su vida ni la de su familia cruzando el Río Bravo o el desierto. Quédese en casa o en un refugio seguro y evite una tragedia. pic.twitter.com/IkJudqQacO

— CBP (@CBP) December 23, 2022

ALERT: Extremely cold temperatures, below freezing, are expected along the US-Mexico border during the next week. Do not risk your life or that of your family crossing the Rio Grande or the desert. Stay home or in a safe shelter and avoid a tragedy. pic.twitter.com/IkJudqQacO

— CBP (@CBP) December 23, 2022

The weather phenomenon will range from the northern Great Basin – a hydrographic area that includes Nevada, part of Utah and California, Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming – to the northern Midwest, the Great Lakes and the central and northern Appalachians.

President Joe Biden warned Americans on Thursday to take the storm “extremely seriously” and to follow the recommendations of the authorities.

“This is really a very severe weather alert. And it goes from Oklahoma to Wyoming, and from Wyoming to Maine. And there are real consequences, so I encourage everyone to please follow local advisories,” he told reporters at the Oval Office of the White House.

Translated by Wilfredo Diaz Echevarria

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Cuban Authorities Get Fruit for Tourism and Export, But it is Not Available for Island Residents

The Government allocates a good part of fruit production for the consumption of tourists and export. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 December 2022 — The Cuban Government allocates fruits considered “select” for export and for tourists who arrive on the Island, while in the markets where Cuban families buy, it is increasingly difficult and expensive to get the products grown in the fields of the Island.

The official press has dedicated extensive articles this week to explain how Cuba is preparing to deal with the high season of tourism, which this year has left results below the projections, and it also discusses the authorization of production lines for export, mainly to Europe.

In total, the authorities recognize that Cienfuegos province has 74 local development projects, but only 14 (19%) have potential for exports and tourism. Thus, María del Carmen Serra Lliraldi, director of the Chamber of Commerce in the region, explained that the main limitation is compliance with the production plan for sugar, chewing tobacco, charcoal, hot pepper, shrimp, catfish and aluminum scrap.

The company Frutas Selectas is, in any case, in charge of “balancing” the assortments for “all tourist markets” on the Island, Clemente Hernández Rojas, director of the state-owned company, told the newspaper Escambray, adding that the company meets 70% of the demand. “We are the most specialized, with refrigerator infrastructure and a mini-industry with better technologies that currently produces seven lines, while we have a connection for specific assortments such as lemons with a producer of Meneses,” he said. continue reading

Hernández Rojas said that the company, whose inventories depend on local production, has met the demands for tourism corresponding to three months, with agreements between producers to provide 320 tons of onion bulbs, of which 220 are provided by Frutas Selectas. The rest, he added without specifying a figure, will be marketed by the Empresa Agropecuaria Banao.

The official pointed out that, to respond to the “state order,” Frutas Selectas has expanded its freezing capacity by up to 40 tons in the Yayabo factory, and has also installed a room to store agricultural products.

This same company announced a year ago with great fanfare the export of lemons to Spain by a farmer, after the Government endorsed the trade of the private sector. On that occasion, this newspaper verified that the product did not, in fact, appear in the Spanish markets.

This Monday it was reported that the Empresa de Acopio in Cienfuegos dispatched 62 containers in 2022 to Spain and Turkey, valued at 9 million pesos, as highlighted at a meeting of the provincial Chamber of Commerce.

Cítricos Arimao has also exported more than 1,000 tons of aseptic mango pulp to European markets, said Isec Tellería Abreu, deputy director of the company, who announced that they are preparing new production lines for exports. One corresponds to dehydrated pineapple leaves to be marketed to Russia for the rest of this month.

One of the farms in the area assured Perlavisión this September that it had a demand of 200 kilos for this product for the Russian market. “They make shoes (vegan leather), car seat linings, belts … Damn, everything is made with the pineapple leaf and the banana,” said the producer.

In addition, turmeric, avocado, mango, red mamey and frozen cassava will be incorporated for export by 2023.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Needs More Than 300,000 Tourists in December to Achieve its Annual Goal

Cuba has barely recovered 42% of the tourism lost in the pandemic, compared to 88% in Western Europe and 63% in the world as a whole. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 December 2022 — The worst omens of Cuba’s tourism sector are being fulfilled. With the November data, published this Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI), 1,377,253 international visitors have been received so far this year, which means that Cuba needs to receive 332,747 foreign tourists to meet its forecast for this year.

The projected number for 2022 was initially 2.5 million travelers, but the authorities admitted the huge gap between desire and reality and warned that, ultimately, the year would close with 1,710,000. The possibility of reaching that number is minimal despite the fact that these last two months are high season on the Island. Despite this, November, which was the best month of 2022, attracted 178,851 foreign tourists, and it is unlikely that the amount will double this December.

This month’s figures show another almost unprecedented factor, as pointed out by Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, who periodically analyzes the numbers. “The Cuban community abroad provides one of the most interesting data from tourism statistics in Cuba for the January-November 2022 stage, by representing just over a fifth of the total number of visitors (21.5%), surpassing the record of 16% in 2019.”

The number of Cubans residing abroad who traveled to the Island was 296,533, a number that even exceeds the total of the five main European travelers: Spain (75,116), Germany (52,496), England (42,583), France (39,597) and Italy (36,617). In addition, together with Canada, they add up to more than 52% of the tourism that the Island receives, a trend that gives strength to the opinion that the Cuban exile tends to gradually become more of an economic than a political migrant. continue reading

Canadians continue to lead the list of nationalities with the highest presence in tourism statistics, although the decline continues. Between January and November 2019 travelers from Canada numbered 1,120,077, but the number now remains at only 428,146. The Russian numbers are also still in free fall and, with just 47,760 visitors this November, confirm that what was beginning to be an upward trend is retreating by leaps and bounds. Even in the disastrous year of 2021, 131,821 Russians arrived on the Island.

The Government highlights in its press release that the number reached in November represents 539.8% more than in 2021, the worst year of the pandemic in Cuba. However, in the same time period in 2019, the last year without restrictions due to COVID-19, Cuba had received almost 4 million tourists, 190% more. The data show the Island’s inability to recover, an anomaly on the international scene.

At the end of November, the World Tourism Organization was hopeful for the recovery data of the sector at the international level, which is at 63% of the 2019 levels as a whole. Europe clearly leads the improvement, with 81% already in September. Cuba, which in the pre-pandemic closed with 4.2 million tourists, will have barely recovered 42% if it achieves the feat of reaching the goal predicted by Alejandro Gil, Minister of Economy.

In addition, the constant decline of the sector for the Island, which registered 4.7 million tourists in 2018, is confirmed.

Despite the nefarious data, the Government continues to bet on tourism as a life-saving sector. The largest amounts of money, such as the 1.5 billion dollars dedicated to the construction of hotels, has been invested since 2020. In the 2023 portfolio of opportunities, there are at least three projects for luxury tourism worth more than $3 billion.

In addition, the Cuban food sector almost daily announces new products for commercialization in hotels while the population fights for a little pork for this Christmas.

Last November, the Cuban Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, projected 3 million visitors for 2023 at an industry event held in London. There he argued that the collection of foreign currency is essential to improve the lives of Cubans. “Tourism serves to reactivate thermoelectric plants, to buy more food, to give raw materials to producers, to give more well-being and quality of life to the people in general,” he said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Teacher’s Day in Cuba: Between Exodus and Crisis

The “emerging teachers” who began to train at the beginning of this century have been followed by all kinds of pedagogical projects to shorten teaching times. (EFE)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 22 December 2022 — He is 15 years old and in a few days he will begin a seven-month course to train as a chemistry teacher, a job that will take him back to junior high school, from where he has just graduated. This time he will be in front of a classroom. Gabriel is one of the many teachers trained at full speed to try to stop the exodus of professionals from Cuban schools, but his vocation is minimal and his knowledge is scarce.

On December 22, when Teacher’s Day is celebrated on the Island, the tradition is to treat those who teach from the simplest letters of the alphabet to the most complicated mathematical formulas with gifts. However, the economic crisis and shortages have cut back those presents this year. “My children are going to take a packet of detergent and that’s it,” a mother of two primary school children told me this Wednesday.

Where before flowers, glass vases, perfumes or liquors abounded, now more urgent products appear: laundry soaps, tubes of toothpaste, chicken-flavored bouillon cubes and, from the hands of the families with the greatest purchasing power, a teacher might get a package of sausages or turkey mincemeat. “There are people whose relatives in Miami have sent their gifts ahead of time, but I don’t have anyone abroad,” says another neighbor with twins in high school.

Where before flowers, glass vases, perfumes or liquors abounded, now more urgent products appear

Other students have the problem of not knowing who to give their present to. “My son barely had classes last year and this one is going the same way,” says Yantiel, a 38-year-old from Havana who has seen at least three young teachers pass through her little boy’s classroom without any of them lasting more than a few weeks. “The first one got sick with dengue fever and did not return to work after that. The other was a very young woman who left Cuba via Nicaragua and the last one was sanctioned for so many absences.” continue reading

Although the global figure for the teacher deficit rarely appears in the official media. In the province of Ciego de Ávila alone, 575 teachers were missing last September, according to the local press. These absences are not only due to teachers’ low salaries but also to the immense job responsibilities causing them to drop out en masse and pursue more economically advantageous occupations. The lack of a vocation also hits a sector where too many experiments have been carried out.

The “emerging teachers” that began to be trained at the beginning of this century have been followed by all kinds of pedagogical projects to shorten the training and graduation times for teachers. The urgency to have a full teaching staff has been accompanied by more and more promotions of pedagogues with serious gaps in knowledge and a weak capacity to transmit ethical or moral values.

“I had to fill out a lot of paperwork and between meetings, reports on the situation of my students’ families, and all the political activities, I was spending a lot of the time I should have used to prepare my classes”

“The only thing one of my son’s teachers knew how to do well was use the remote control of the classroom television,” Yantiel commented ironically. But even that clumsy teacher is now remembered with nostalgia by more than twenty students who spend their days “drawing, sitting around in the area where the morning assemblies are held, or playing with mobile phones because they don’t have anyone to teach them the subjects,” he stresses.

Among those who have left the classroom, the reasons are not only low wages and the high cost of living. “I had to fill out a lot of paperwork and between meetings, reports on the situation of my students’ families, and all the political activities, I was losing a lot of the time I should have used to prepare my classes,” says Indira, a Cienfuegos graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Literature who, after three years as a primary school teacher, crossed the Darien jungle and now lives in Miami.

“I really liked teaching but I was losing the desire along the way,” she admits. “When I had everything ready to leave the country, I went to see the school principal and told her that I was leaving. She told me that in less than a month three teachers had told her the same thing.” Indira dreams of one day going back to being in front of a classroom, but she sees it as unlikely. “I stay in a WhatsApp group with the colleagues I left behind in Cuba.”

This Thursday, in the classroom where Indira taught her Spanish classes at a school in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality, some parents organized a small party to entertain the teaching assistant who has tried to replace the work of the teacher who emigrated. “They called me by videoconference and I greeted my students,” said Indira. At the teacher’s table, Indira saw some of the gifts they brought: “Floor rags and soap.”

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Some 35,000 Families in Cuba’s Granma Province Live in Homes with Dirt Floors

The problems to produce the materials — always attributed to the American ‘blockade’ — are also among the reasons it is impossible to have positive data about the eradication of dirt floors. (Granma)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 December 2022 — Cuba’s Granma province, the one with the most dirt floors on the island, has not been able to escape the problem, one of those that the Cuban government proposed to eradicate two years ago and in which it has hardly made any progress. According to the official press, at the beginning of this year there were still 35,834 homes of this type. It was planned to eliminate 4,439 of them this year, but as of December only 1,462 had been modified, the majority (1,110) by the residents’ own efforts and only 352 through the State.

“We are facing a very tense year in the production of floors,” Yesser Izaguirre Ojeda, provincial director of Housing, told the State newspaper Granma. The shortage of cement, a material for which only 20% of what was forecast was obtained, and financing, which did not exceed 50% of what was projected, are the main causes. The municipalities in which the plan is progressing best are Bayamo, Guisa and Niquero, which fixed more than a hundred floors each, while in Media Luna and Manzanillo the fixes did not exceed 40.

The official explains that fixing a dirt floor costs an unaffordable amount today for Cuban families, with prices around 25,000 pesos for homes of just 50 square meters. The situation would be alleviated if the banks made the loans more flexible, extending the term, so they are trying to negotiate that possibility.

“It is not the same that you have to pay 15,000 or 20,000 pesos immediately after the construction related to the eradication of a dirt floor is carried out, than that you can do it, according to your income, over a certain period of time with multiple payments,” explained Izaguirre.

The problems in producing the materials – always attributed to the US ’blockade’ [i.e. the embargo] – are also among the reasons why it is impossible to have positive data on the eradication of these houses, which, moreover, the authorities consider a personal matter. This is reflected in the declarations of the official, who affirms as a “humanist principle of the Revolution (…) the purpose of eradicating all dirt floors,” including those of those who have illegal housing – the majority of cases – and are not recognized in the housing fund, which suggests a large hidden pocket of this type of residences. continue reading

The prices of construction materials, led by cement, have risen by almost 50% in Cuba in the last year. “Of an initial plan of 5,880 tons of P350 resistance cement, we have only received, to date, some 2,849 tons, which represents 48%,” says Sulaida Ferrales Cover, director of the producing company in the province.

This situation has meant the use of extender (an additive to increase the performance of a cement grout), with which 268 dirt floors were eradicated, as well as the manufacture of floors with brick, wood and marble trim (of the 20,931 square meters of mosaics and tiles planned, only 8,235 were manufactured, 39%), but even with that, the figures have not improved.

In this context, the authorities urge more and more alternatives to be produced locally, such as blocks or Roman cement, made with lime. “These variants are still not sufficiently exploited, neither by state entities, which can produce them, nor by the clients themselves, who often show reluctance to opt for them,” adds the manager.

In 2020, the Cuban Minister of Construction, René Mesa Villafaña, numbered homes with dirt floors on the island at 122,072 and described solving this problem as a “high priority.” For that year, he directed, 59,931 cement floors had to be laid, but the arrival of the pandemic and the worsening of the eternal Cuban crisis ruined all the plans.

In the last housing commission of the National Assembly, on December 11, the authorities recognized that the construction plan was once again breached, with only 76% completed. Throughout the year, 21,229 homes have been completed, only 2,000 more than last year, and around 7,000 dirt floors have been replaced throughout the Island.

The housing deficit in Cuba exceeded 800,000 the last time official figures were released, but the state of most housing is also very precarious. This situation coexists with the increase in premises or residences for sale and rent, caused by the massive departure of hundreds of thousands of Cubans in the last year.

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The Cheapest ‘Street Drink’ in Cuba Now Costs More than the Daily Minimum Wage

Though the price marked on the metal trolley was 25 pesos per freshly poured glass, a paper sign above it now announced that the product had gone up by five pesos. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 20 December 2022 – At first it quenches the thirst but later you’re left wanting another, and then another. Granizado [English: ’slush’] is the cheapest drink you can get whilst out and about on the streets in Cuba, but in times of inflation even this glass of ice, water and syrup has seen its price arrive at a level beyond the pockets of anyone who only earns the monthly minimum wage.

Known as raspado in other Latin American countries, Cuban granizado has been there for the common people through thick and thin. Consumed with peanuts, this sugared drink was a lifesaver during long hours of waiting for the bus at dawn before any breakfast, and even in the improvised social gatherings on the Malecón in Havana when you didn’t even have the price of a shot of rum.

But even this modest sip has become unrecognisable. In only a decade granizado has become more than ten times more expensive. If a glass of it cost 2 pesos in 2012 now it’s 30 — a price that’s alienated even its most loyal customers: pensioners, those with few resources and adolescents who can’t afford a can of fizzy drink. continue reading

On Tuesday morning, a cart selling granizado appeared opposite the steps of the entrance to Havana University. With its range of flavours including strawberry, cola and ice-cream, it was noticeable that no one approached it to cool themselves down in the December heat with a cold sugary drink. Though the price marked on the metal trolley was 25 pesos per freshly poured glass, a paper sign above it now announced that the product had gone up by five pesos.

On the benches nearby dozens of people formed a long queue (line) for the buses, which, increasingly spread out now, line up from Calle San Lázaro. In earlier times they would have hung around and had a granizado first, but most of them are elderly and their pension doesn’t provide them more than 2,000 pesos a month. It’s just too much to spend more than a day’s pension on a coloured squash drink that disappears in three mouthfuls.

The sellers, however, justify the price increase. “No one sells me anything cheaply. I have to get up really early every morning and pay for the the ice at the price that it’s at on the day”. A bag of ice of between 6 and 7 pounds never goes below 80 pesos and “you have to add to that the cost of the syrup and the paper cups”. In order to get hold of the supply of most of these materials one needs to get onto the black market.

The granizado man continues with his list of complaints: “It’s increasingly more expensive for me to keep the cart in a secure place, and then there’s the fines that sometimes I get for selling on some corner where I shouldn’t be, or then some spiteful inspector wants to get money out of me… All this just adds up and adds up”. His story might sound logical enough and try to minimise the rise in prices but it doesn’t manage to change many of his customers’ decisions.

What was a drink to be grabbed in ordinary life for everyday need, to give you a swig and move you on for another half hour, has now been added to the list of things that can no longer be afforded, a bit like it all ended up with a beer, a soft drink or even a bottled water.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Cuban Government Prepares the Approval of Euthanasia in its New Health Law

Cuban residents who live abroad should pay their medical bills punctually. (Calixto García General Hospital/Facebook)

14medio, Madrid, Spain, December 12, 2022 — On Sunday, Cuba’s Public Health Minister Jose Angel Portal Miranda presented a draft of a Law of Public Health in which, along with other big news, the right to euthanasia is authorized.

The text still is not known, but according to the official press, it proposes recognition of euthanasia as a “right of a person to a death with dignity and with attention to safe medical care by a health provider or a physician who will carry out the euthanasia.” “This is very revolutionary, and we should not deprive our people of this right,” said Portal Miranda.

According to the announcement, the Island will unite with seven other individual countries that have legalized active euthanasia around the world: Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Canada, Columbia and New Zealand. Nevertheless, Cuba could opt to follow other models after discussing the definitive text. There are countries that have approved assisted suicide, such as Germany and Switzerland, and others in which passive euthanasia is practiced (a method much employed and present in Nordic countries, the UK and France, and in Argentina, Chile, Mexico and India).

The draft law of public health also introduces other practices, such as limits on free services. Thus, Cuban residents who live abroad should pay for their medical expenses on time. The law guarantees the right to public health, but is limited to Cubans, foreigners with permanent residency in the country and humanitarian alien residents, as opposed to countries like Spain that maintain a public and universal system for nationals and foreigners.

Other novelties of the law would require the informed consent, to be signed by the patient or his/her legal representative in the event that he/she is not able to approve the medical proceeding to which he/she will submit. Progress was also made for separate attention to social, sexual and reproductive health and for assisted reproductive health.

The content of the law will be disclosed in the first quarter of 2023 and will be discussed to evaluate it with the workers of the sector and the population to subsequently present it to the National Assembly. But the controversy that approval of euthanasia will cause is already foreseeable. In the debate of this Sunday’s committee first concerns were already raised, including that of a deputy who asked if it would apply to children. continue reading

José Luis Toledo Santander, chairman of the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, replied that many aspects have to be analyzed and the law is still in a preliminary phase. Other deputies agreed that they expected the establishment of a very specific framework of rights and guarantees for health workers.

In addition, other related issues were addressed in the committee, such as the shortage of medicines. The minister noted that there are 252 basic medicines (composed of 627) that are imported, which is 40%, while the remaining 60% is produced by the Cuban industry. He also specified that 347 are for institutional use and 280 for sale in pharmacies, of which 84 are included in the control card.

As of December 5, the lack of medicines affected 219 products (of which 28 belong to the card) and another 197 had a supply expected to last less than 30 days.

“It is very hard, and we are convinced that nothing relieves when some medicine is missing, but we have not stopped the health system from implementing actions to alleviate the situation as much as possible,” Portal Miranda said after talking about the large amount of funding that has been dedicated to the pandemic, 53% of the resources, which has decreased spending on other items.

The problems are not limited to drugs. The minister spoke of resources such as catheters, transfusion equipment, prostheses, collectors and, of course, parts of diagnostic technological machinery that reduce capacity by 9%.

After reciting all the operations and services that have been carried out on the island, the minister announced, without details, that a new model for the network of pharmacies and opticians will begin “experimentally in Havana, in search of greater control and transparency in the area of medicines and the protection of vulnerable groups.”

The commission also addressed the situation of the collection of waste, as well as the necrological services, both in frank decline. However, the most worrying data were those offered in funeral transportation.

Mildrey Granadillo de la Torre, Deputy Minister of Economy and Planning, said that 615 hearses are needed to guarantee service and 377 are currently operating. Of these, only 233 are working.

“It’s a very complex scenario, because it’s not just about parts and pieces, but that they are aging car brands. Those operating are mainly over 15 years old, with a significant degree of deterioration,” he said. At the moment, 35 new imported vehicles are expected to arrive this December, although it was not said from where.

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