Is it the intention of the dictatorship, from now on, to severely penalize any discrepancy? (Cuba debate)
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 30 November 2022 — There are at least three ways to analyze Cuba’s new Penal Code that comes into force this first of December.
The first is paralyzing and ends in the acceptance of the idea that everything a citizen does that deviates one millimeter from what is convenient for the Government or the Communist Party represents a reason to be sentenced to prison. Here, especially inscribed, is the gaze of those who are political opponents, social activists or independent journalists.
This analysis pays attention to Article 119, which punishes with the death penalty anyone who uses force to change the system; Article 120, which penalizes anyone who demands the same but exercising “arbitrarily any right or freedom recognized in the Constitution of the Republic” with up to ten years in prison; and Article 143, which also punishes with ten years anyone who receives funds or finances for activities against the State and its constitutional order.”
The second way of reading the new Code is based on the optimistic belief that the principle of social injuriousness (Article 1.3) will be fully applied, through which, “in order to impose a sanction, it is required that the act produce an injury to legal property of entities protected by law, or endangers them or risks causing it.” If the damage caused is not demonstrated in court, there will be no crime for which to be convicted.
This point of view pays attention to Article 180, which penalizes the official who maliciously promotes the persecution of a person “whose innocence is known,” or to Article 181, which punishes the public official who “applies or orders the application of a security measure without an order from the competent court,” which is supposed to nullify the prohibitions against leaving the country or the limitations on movement to which dissatisfied people are arbitrarily subjected.
The third way of facing the Code is from the point of view that regardless of what is written in the document, “these people,” those who are in charge in Cuba, will always do whatever they want, and it makes no sense to try to determine the degree of threat or relief that the new legal body represents.
Beyond the views on the Code, the bets on what will happen with the new regulations move between two options: the dictatorship will severely penalize any discrepancy; or, simply, it calculates that the icy breath of a terrible threat will be enough to neutralize the opponents, reduce them to silence or incite them to moderation. We will know soon.
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The existing undersea cable system in the Caribbean area.
EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 1 December 2022 — On Wednesday, United States Department of Justice recommended to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that it deny a permit for the installation of the first submarine telecommunications cable that would connect the United States with Cuba.
The Cuban government represents a “counterintelligence threat” to the US and, since Cuba’s state communications company Etecsa would manage the cable landing system, Havana could “access sensitive US data traveling through the new segment,” explained the Justice Department in a statement.
“As long as the Government of Cuba continues to be a counterintelligence threat to the United States and is allied with others who are the same, the risks to our infrastructure are simply too great,” Deputy Homeland Security Attorney Matthew G. Olsen said in a statement.
According to the Department of Justice, Cuba’s relations with other “foreign adversaries” such as China or Russia represent a risk for the US Government if such a connection existed.
Olsen pointed out that the US, however, “supports the existence of a secure, reliable and open Internet network around the world, including in Cuba.”
The ARCOS-1 USA Inc. undersea cable system applied to the FCC to adapt its network to include the first and only connection of its kind between the US and the Island.
The ARCOS-1 network connects 24 landing points in 15 countries on the continent, including the US, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua and Mexico.
Havana alleges that the economic and commercial embargo of the United States “has prevented it from accessing any of the dozens of cables that pass through areas near its coasts.”
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More than a year after winning the gold medal in the World Boxing Championship, Julio César La Cruz has not received the $100,000 prize money. (Screen capture)
14ymedio, Havana, 1 December 2022 — The gold medalists at the 2021 World Boxing Championship, in Belgrade, Julio César La Cruz, Yoenlis Hernández Martínez and Andy Cruz Gómez and the bronze medalists, Osvel Caballero and Herich Ruiz Córdoba, still have not received the cash prize offered by the International Boxing Association (Aiba).
La Cruz, Hernández and Cruz, who received the medal, earned $100,000, while for Caballero and Ruiz, the prize is $25,000. The reason for the delay, according to the president of the organization, Umar Kremlev, is due to the economic embargo. “The problem is complicated. There are many banks that cannot make the transfer to Cuba,” reported Play-Off Magazine.
Visiting Havana, the manager did not specify whether the money is granted directly to the boxer or is paid, as usual, through the Cuban regime. He limited himself to saying that the monetary part serves the athletes so that they “invest in their future and families.”
“I will share this money with my family. I think I will manage to spend it wisely and find a good purpose,” Cruz said after beating Turkey’s Kerem Özmen in the 63.5kg category.
A year after that episode in Serbia, Andy Cruz’s situation changed. He was expelled from Cuban sports and from the Domadores in July after being exhibited for his escape attempt and being repudiated for undisciplined. The champion in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games is in the Dominican Republic where he is preparing for his professional debut.
The case of Herich Ruiz is similar, he escaped last March “after the weigh-in for his fight” against the American Arjan Iseni. The fight was part of the Continental Championship cartel, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The bronze medalist at the 2021 World Boxing Championships in Serbia is owed $25,000 by Aiba for the bronze achieved in Belgrade.
Umar Kremlev did not elaborate on the $125,000 of these two fighters are owed nor did he deny the possibility that they will receive the prize. He trusted that the solution will be resolved before the end of this year. “Although I know that for Cubans the payment is not the most important thing, but the fact of getting into the ring and representing the country with its flag and anthem. That is the dream of every boxer.”
The next World Boxing Championships will take place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from May 1-14, 2023. For this event, the gold medalist will be awarded $200,000, the silver medalist $100,000, and the bronze medalist $50,000.
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A store in San Nicolás street, between Zanja and Cuchillo, in Centro Habana. (14ymedio)
Havana, Juan Diego Rodríguez, 1 December 2022 — Although the Government of Havana insisted that the Lucha Contra Coleros (LCC) [Fight Against Coleros*] operations would end as of this very Thursday, a tour of the capital shows that the measures are still in force. In Plaza de Carlos III, for example, the LCCs were working normally. “But hadn’t they said that they were going to shut down the bandits?” asked a customer at the doors of one of the stores in the mall. “I wonder the same thing, when are they going to remove them,” replied another.
And this, explained a resident from Centro Habana, despite the fact that last month the new system announced, which requires each shopper to have a card or ticket that identifies them, was already im place in the municipality. The cards distributed to each person or family include the name of the purchasing establishment, the ID number of the bodega (ration store) and the details of the family nucleus and its number of consumers.
In a store on San Nicolás street, between Zanja and Cuchillo, where they announced that they would put chicken out for sale, the “cash” of the fight against coleros was also at the door. The same scenario was found in the establishments of Cayo Hueso, where the LCC conversed with a police officer in the most natural way.
In Luyanó, in the store on Melones street, at the doors of which the death of an elderly man occurred, which uncovered a network of corruption between the employees of the establishment and the controversial LCC, the new “chief” of the operation told this newspaper that she did not know when the newly announced system would launch.
“All this is going to take at least fifteen days,” assured the employees of another business in Luyanó, in Concha y Fábrica. The people of Havana were stupefied this Thursday: “But then why did they announce anything?”
Translator’s note: A line or queue in Cuba is called a ’cola’ (literally ’tail) and ’coleros’ are people who others pay to hold their place in line, lines that can be hours, or even days, long.
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Most of the passengers leaving the island do not return despite having a return ticket. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, 27 November 2022 — Safety instructions could be heard on the loudspeaker as the plane accelerated on the tarmac during takeoff. Aeroméxico flight 451 was headed for Havana on Saturday with an almost empty cabin. Only a dozen people were traveling to the Island. The rest of the passengers never boarded the plane though they had paid for return tickets to Cuba.
Since the Mexican airline resumed flights to Cuba, with a route from Havana to Managua that included a stop in Mexico City, most passengers have chosen not return to the island despite having a return ticket. As a result most of the seats on flights to Havana remain unoccupied.
“Notice how they’ve come around three times to give us drinks. That’s something I’ve never seen on an airplane before,” joked one mother who was traveling with her teenage daughter on a Boeing 737 on November 26. “We were able to choose our seats and there are people who’ve been sleeping the entire flight because no one is sitting next to them,” she explained.
Among those flying to the island were a couple who were prevented from traveling on to Managua. “When we got to Mexico, we realized our passports expire in December and Nicaragua requires that they be valid for at least three months,” said one of them. “We’re going back to get new documents as soon as possible so we can leave again.” continue reading
In November, Nicaragua dropped its visa requirements for Cuban nationals, unleashing a torrent of travelers from the island who use the Central American country as a port of entry to the United States. A wide network of accommodations, drivers and coyotes are part of a journey in which robberies, extortion and kidnappings are not uncommon.
The woman stated the journey from the Cuban capital to what is popularly known as “the three-volcano route” cost them 2,800 dollars apiece. “A contact is waiting for us in Managua. He has already helped my brother to get from there to the U.S. southern border with the United States,” a path followed by most of those onboard the Aeroméxico flight to Nicaragua.
“They told us that we have to pay again for the trip from Havana though we did manage to change the date for segment from Mexico City to Managua. The problem is that our passports expire in a month and we no longer have a place to live in Havana. We sold everything before we left,” she explains. “We’re going to stay with some relatives until we can leave again.”
Among the few passengers were a Dutchman, a Cuban man based in Chile who was going to visit relatives and a Mexican couple who wanted to spend a few days at the beaches east of Havana.
Last week 14ymedio reported that Cuban travelers with tickets on flights to Managua, with stopovers in Mexico City, were required to surrender their passports before boarding the plane to prevent them from seeking asylum or refuge in Mexico. As an additional measure they were prevented from leaving the plane during their stopover at Benito Juarez International Airport.
Back at the Havana airport, airline staff in the boarding area collect passengers’ travel documents and give them a card with a number they can use to retrieve their passports upon arrival at the final destination.
In this instance, a flight attendant confirmed the procedure. “We are forced to do this based on our experience with this type of travel,” she said. She declined, however, to clarify whether the instructions to retain passengers’ travel documents came from Mexican, Nicaraguan or Cuban authorities.
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The tribunal ratified the request of the Provincial Prosecutor in Cienfuegos, according to a Tweet by El Toque Jurídico, for “standing on a wall and protesting.” In July, authorities denied the 10,000 peso bail for the opponent, at the request of the prosecutor.
According to Manuel Gómez, a friend of Díaz González interviewed by Diario de Cuba, the tribunal systematically violated the judicial procedures to which the activist was entitled.
After enduring mistreatment, confinement in a punishment cell and several hunger strikes, Díaz González demanded that he be classified as a political prisoner, refusing to use the same uniform as common prisoners. continue reading
“The fact that Ktivo is being accused of contempt and disobedience complicates the denouncements of his case,” predicted attorney Eloy Viera Cañiva in an article published on Tuesday. This charge, he explained, doesn’t force the prosecutor to provide a “provisional conclusions” document, which provides a record of the facts of the case against the defendant and lists the evidence.
In the absence of this obligation, and as such the document, human rights organizations are denied access to the information they need to demonstrate that it is an unjust sentence.
“In the case of Ktivo (as in that of many political prisoners that have been tried via what was once called a summary procedure) secrecy has prevailed,” denounced Viera, who also bemoans that that observers and the press were not allowed at the trial.
Cubalex has also complained that while the activist faces two and a half years in prison, the officialist singer-songwriter, Fernando Becquer, accused of sexual abuse by about thirty women, received five years without internment and “is on the street running errands.”
His entry into prison finally occurred following a protest on the San Rafael boulevard in April of this year, when he yelled, “There doesn’t have to be violence, there doesn’t have to be bloodshed, but they must let us participate in the country’s political life. Whoever is communist can be so, but he who is not should be respected,” while passersby recorded on their cellphones. Finally several officials brought him down from the wall and drove him to a police station. Shortly after, he was transferred to Cienfuegos.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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Line at the post office at Carlos III and Belascoaín this Tuesday. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 29 November 2022 — A long line of people winds around the corner of Carlos III and Belascoaín and crosses the door of the imposing building located in that central point of Centro Habana. The reason for the tumult is not the purchase of frozen chicken or the much sought-after cigarettes, but to acquire stamps for processing paperwork, an increasingly non-existent product in the Cuban Post Offices.
“In recent days there has been a deficit of stamps for processing paperwork in the Cuban Post Offices, due to the increase in the realization of procedures by the citizens and state entities of the country,” begins a note released by the Tax Administration Office (Onat) and the Correos de Cuba Business Group (Gecc).
Both entities classify the situation as “unforeseen” and blame “increased demand” for the impact on the service. Although the text doesn’t mention the reasons for the increased interest in these stamps, everything points to the mass exodus that the Island is experiencing and the need for migrants to have documents such as birth certificates or criminal records for their departure, among other things.
“My son arrived at the United States border a few months ago. He has already managed to enter, and now he needs to prepare everything for when he has to appear before a judge for his asylum request. They asked him for several documents, including a birth certificate,” said Juan Carlos, a Havanan who this Tuesday passed through the Post Office on Infanta and San Lázaro Street in search of official stamps.
“They didn’t have any kind of stamp. The employees stood with their arms crossed but unlike other times, they didn’t put a sign on the door clarifying that there were no stamps of 5 or 10 pesos, which are the most sought after,” he explains. “In the few minutes that I was there, other people came in asking for the same thing, but we all left empty-handed.” continue reading
In its official note, Correos de Cuba has called for calm, assuring that this week “the existing reserves in the different territories have been circulated, in order to ensure a balance between them,” and that “a new stamp is being printed.”
To avoid hoarding and reselling the stamps, they have established strict rationing. “The limit of sale allowed per person will be up to three units of stamps of the denominations of 10, 20, 40, 50, 125, 500 and 1,000 pesos. For the stamps of 5 pesos the limit allowed per person will be 5 units,” they clarify.
But the measure has not managed to alleviate the despair of those who are against the clock in some paperwork that needs to be processed. “I have to present an exchange at a notary and I don’t have the stamps,” said one of the clients on Tuesday, who was waiting outside the Correos de Carlos III and Belascoaín, where the 20, 40 and 1,000 peso stamps were for sale.
“They are going to close at 11 and don’t open until 1:00 pm because they have to do the mandatory blackout to save electricity at that time,” a woman complained. “People are protesting because they say that, even without electricity, stamps can still be dispatched, but employees refuse, so I will have to stay until the afternoon, because from here I have to leave, no matter what, with the stamps.”
Correos de Cuba assures that in the month of December “the printing of another seven million stamps will begin, in order to stabilize the sale in all units,” and will have “the main post offices of each municipality” as the priority. But distrust in state institutions is deeply rooted.
Together with the General Customs of the Republic and the telecommunications company Etecsa, the Cuban Post Office is one of the entities least valued by citizens. The frequent loss of letters, the violation of the privacy of parcels, the delay in attention to the public in their offices and other ills have made their official announcements unbelievable.
“The one of 500 comes out in 1,000 and the one of 5 I have in 80,” explains briefly and quietly a young man with a folder, who hangs out a few feet from the post office in Centro Habana. “I’m already out of 50, but tomorrow I’ll bring it again,” he added to the interest of several customers who weighed whether to stay in the line or opt for the informal market to get that tiny piece of paper with its holographic band and its watermark in the light, indispensable for fulfilling their dreams.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Some Cubans survive by selling rum and beer bottles to individuals. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 29 November 2022 — There is just over a month left until the end of this fateful year 2022, and in all countries, the time comes when economists begin to make the first estimates of what happened during the year.
In the case of Cuba, this task is conditioned by the overwhelming scarcity of data for the analysis of the situation, which, exposed in concrete terms, means that only tourism information by month is available from the CPI.
For the rest, it is necessary to accept longer time periods, the quarter or the semester, and even in most indicators the statistical production is addressed annually. This makes the task of carrying out the analysis of the economy complicated and forces us to formulate proposals that, in many cases fall short, lacking the support of the objective data of reality.
In any case, and based on information already known and contrasted, what seems evident and recognized is that economic growth in Cuba has been declining significantly during the year.
The initial forecasts of the economy plan had established for this year a GDP growth of 4%, which remained until a few weeks ago, when the authorities (in this case, a director of the chamber of commerce) recognized at the inauguration of Fihav that the growth of the economy plan was not achievable, revising the figure by half, 2%. continue reading
It should be remembered that this data had been included months earlier in a ECLAC forecast report, where the Cuban economy had one of the lowest growths in Latin America during 2022, and was headed for a scenario even more negative in 2023, with a lower increase of 1.8%. The regime, given the evidence of its data that it rarely discloses to the state media, was forced to recognize that the growth of the economy was reduced by half, with the impact that this has on most activities and productive sectors.
What indicators does the communist regime use to accept its defeat in terms of economic growth planning? A few days ago, ONEI published the statistic, “Sale of goods and services at retail January to September 2022” that includes information regarding the preliminary behavior of some of the indicators associated with sales of goods and services to the population, in addition to total sales and domestic production to the domestic market in CUP. It could be interpreted as an indicator of spending, of the behavior of consumer demand, which in most economies, is a powerful indicator of their behavior.
The information is included in the following Table:
The data reveal that in the first nine months of 2022, compared to the same period of the previous year, total sales of goods and services reached a nominal or current growth of 125% to 163 billion pesos. Other spending concepts increased even more. Gastronomy 47.2% and services 37.5%. If we look at the breakdown between the state and non-state sectors, significant differences are observed. The highest growth took place in the gastronomy of the non-state sector, 307.8%.
These data could be indicating the behavior of a buoyant, powerful economy, with a sharp increase in family consumption spending, which is obviously not the case, if the reports and day-to-day news of Cubans are taken into account. Is it that statistics do not adequately reflect reality? What is the problem that causes economic data to indicate one thing and real experience another?
The culprit of these differences is the year-on-year inflation rate until September, 37.24%, and that gastronomy (hotels and restaurants) reached 44.3%. Inflation, as if it were a tax on the poorest, erodes the nominal incomes of workers and pensioners who are paid in Cuban pesos and reduces the growth of the nominal magnitudes of column 3 of the Table, once they deflate.
This correction of the current data by the evolution of prices, to obtain the real or constant data, is made because they more adequately reflect the behavior of the spending and demand indicators. When this task is performed, the data in column 4 of the Table arise and present notable differences with respect to the nominal values.
To begin with, total sales are in the red, -8.9%, indicating a notable contraction in spending demand that explains the remarkable weakness of the Cuban economy throughout the year, which breaks with any possible consumerist vision, forcing the regime to forget about the planned figure of 4% of GDP.
Sales in gastronomy must be deflated by their corresponding year-on-year inflation rate, and with it, the real variable grows by a modest 2%, which is explained by a stagnation in state gastronomy, 0%, while the non-state one increases by 182.6%. But its volume, 846 million pesos, is insignificant and barely represents 3% of the state one, 27,197.2 million pesos, Once again, economic totalitarianism pays a high price. If the regime allowed all gastronomy to be non-state, other data could have been obtained.
Finally, sales of services, corrected by average inflation, increased by only 0.2%, which in the case of non-states registered a decrease of -20.9% in the period under analysis.
These data, in particular real sales of goods and services, set off alarms and have to be incorporated into the forecast models of the economy in 2022. If they don’t improve in the last quarter of the year, which seems unlikely since inflation tends to increase, everything points to an intense reduction in the growth of the economy from real spending and demand, which is expected to be less than the current 2% and could even point to a certain recessive or stagnation period. The most intense real drop in spending occurred in retail trade in Cuban pesos, -18.6% for the economy as a whole, -18.4% in the state and up to -28.7% in the non-state.
Throughout 2022, Cubans have lost almost 20% of purchasing power in their retail stores when they pay in Cuban pesos. Poverty is a real fact.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Activist Yeilis Torres Cruz has been at the Migrant Operations Center (MOC) in Guantánamo since last May. (Collage)
14ymedio, Havana, 28 November 2022 — The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that 22 Cubans are waiting for “resettlement in a third country” at the Migrant Operations Center of the Guantánamo Naval Base (MOC). Among them is activist Yeilis Torres Cruz, who spent ten months in prison under investigation for the crime of attack after she was assaulted by the official announcer Humberto López.
The former prosecutor, who was ’regulated’ [the term for being formally forbidden to leave the country], found a way out and escaped on a raft with seven other people, but on their journey to Florida they were intercepted, and only she was given to opportunity to stay at Guantánamo because of “a credible fear.”
With a six-month stay in Guantánamo, Torres “remains in migratory limbo,” her husband, Pavel Pérez, explained to Radio y Televisión Martí. “Basically, the disciplinary regulations are rigorous. They have restrictions on free mobility, lack internet access and must be escorted when going to the nearest beach.”
On November 18, the day she turned 35, Torres received a video call from her husband, who showed her a stuffed animal and chocolate candy as a gift. As he revealed, among the rules to follow in Guantánamo is the possibility of making three five-minute calls, “always under the presence of a custodian” and having a bicycle to take tours. It’s forbidden to talk to the media and receive money.
Those detained in Guantánamo were rescued by the Coast Guard between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022, according to RadioMartí.
According to an official from the same publication, the balseros [rafters] were interviewed by staff of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). “They demonstrated a credible fear of persecution and torture,” noting the risks they ran in case of being returned to the Island. continue reading
The State Department provides for the custody and care of migrants in the MOC until the time of their resettlement in a third country.
A spokesperson for the US Department of State assured the BBC that 445 people had been relocated to third countries through the Migration Operations Center based in Guantánamo since 1996. The vast majority were Cubans.
In addition to the 22 Cubans, there are three Haitians and three Dominicans in the Migrant Operations Center who, according to USCIS, “are not detained and can request return to their respective countries whenever they wish.”
This Monday, the Border Patrol rescued two migrants who were about to drown in the Florida Keys. The chief officer of the Miami sector, Walter Slosar, specified on his social networks that 18 people were rescued, without publicizing their nationality.
On Saturday, Slosar reported the landing of eight rafts in the Florida Keys of 180 Cubans in the last 48 hours. All were placed in the custody of the Border Patrol to continue being processed.
That same Saturday, 53 people were repatriated to the Island aboard the WilliamFlores ship. “The Coast Guard and partner agencies are patrolling the Straits of Florida, the Windward and Mona Passages to stop illegal migration,” reiterated non-commissioned officer of District Seven, Nicole Groll.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Only about 40 hectares of potato cultivation managed to escape excess moisture. (The Artemisian)
Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana | 28 November 2022 — Earlier this month, the Cuba-Mexico Friendship Agricultural Production Cooperative began planting potatoes in the municipality of Alquízar, Artemisa. However, the cold season got off to a bad start, and the power cuts forced changes in the irrigation cycles that have ended up damaging most of the crop.
“This crop occupies 12 caballerías* [161 hectares/398 acres] of land divided into four quadrants. Three of these quadrants were damaged, only one survived,” Mauricio Díaz, a resident near the planted fields, explained to 14ymedio. “It was because of the blackouts,” he added.
“For everything to have gone well, it would have been necessary to maintain irrigation for several hours and with a certain intensity,” Díaz details. “But since they are cutting off power almost every day, it was decided to reduce the time to avoid the blackouts and add more water in fewer hours. The result was that the land was flooded and the potatoes rotted.”
Only about 40 hectares of the crop managed to be saved from the excess humidity. “We have had to start dismantling the rest and the townspeople are coming to try to get the rotten potatoes, even if it is to feed them to the pigs,” says the farmer. continue reading
“There are some people who have gotten lucky and have managed to find a few potatoes in good condition among the others that were spoiled, but that is hard work because the stench around here doesn’t even let you breathe”
There are some people who have gotten lucky and have managed to find a few potatoes in good condition among the others that were spoiled, but that is hard work because the stench around here doesn’t even let you breathe and there are flies everywhere,” he remarks. “The worst thing is that this planting was already small compared to other years and now with this situation, Alquízar will hardly be able to harvest the product.”
Beginning November 1, the cooperative began the operation with the planting of 68 hectares of potatoes and the initial proposal was to plant 170 using national seed on 83 of the hectares, and to obtain the rest of the seeds from overseas, according to what the director of the agricultural entity, Pedro Miguel García Velíz, told the local press.
“Currently, we are working on preparing the land for the sowing of the imported seed, which should end in the first days of December,” clarified García Velíz, who acknowledged that the province of Artemisa had only planned to plant 450 hectares in this cold season operation, 150 less than in the previous year.
The main territories for potato cultivation in the province are Alquízar, Güira de Melena, Artemisa and San Antonio de los Baños. Harvesting is scheduled for the first days of February, but the chances of recovering the damaged hectares are remote. “This is going to be the worst year for potatoes that I can remember in a long time,” warns a worker at the Cuba-Mexico Friendship Cooperative.
“We had to choose between two evils: either add more water in less time or have our crops dry up due to lack of water”
“We are going to have big losses because most of the seeds we are using are imported and paid for in foreign currency,” he told this newspaper. “But what could be done if the blackouts did not allow for things to be done as they should be. We had to choose between two evils: either add more water in less time or have our crops dry up due to lack of water.”
The bad news seems to haunt a production that has fallen to historic lows. The 2021-2022 operation barely achieved a harvest of 93,650 tons, the worst in the last 30 years, with the exception of 2014, according to a report released by the Ministry of Agriculture. The negative numbers have forced the sale of the potatoes in a rationed way in recent years.
Last February, the retail price of the product almost doubled when it went from 3 pesos a pound to 5 pesos, and a new price for refrigerated potatoes was created, which is now 6 pesos. The official argument for this increase was the rise in the cost of agricultural raw materials and the increase in the labor cost per employee.
In the black market, a three-pound bag of potatoes currently costs 250 pesos, but even at that price, the product often disappears from informal trade networks. With the catastrophe that occurred in Alquízar, it is very likely that its price will continue to rise and its presence will become more and more sporadic in the coming months.
*Translator’s note: The caballería is a unit of land measurement in the Spanish viceroyalties in the Americas during the times of the Spanish Empire in the 16th through 19th centuries in the Spanish West Indies. One caballería = 111.19742 acres.
On 23 August 2021 Mario Josué Prieto was arrested again and sentenced to 12 years in prison for sedition. (Cortesía)
EUROPA PRESS/14ymedio, Madrid, 28 November 2022 — The Spanish government has clarified that it is not able to help Mario Josué Prieto — the young Spaniard imprisoned in Cuba for taking part in the 2021 demonstrations on the Island and condemned to 12 years for sedition — because he is still a Cuban national.
This was communicated in a parliamentary reply to which Europa Press has had access, after Spain’s Popular Party took an interest in the case and because of the support that the government has been providing him since his parents asked for help via a letter sent in September to José Manuel Albares, Minister for Foreign Affairs.
The Ministry explained that both the Embassy and the Consulate General in Havana “have been following the case” and have approached the Cuban authorities “to try and ease his prison situation”.
Nevertheless, they clarified that as Prieto also holds Cuban citizenship “it isn’t possible to give the usual assistance to the prisoner”, which normally they can give in cases of Spaniards imprisoned abroad.
In his case, the Ministry explained, the reason is none other than Article 36 of the Cuban constitution, which states: “While Cuban citizens are on Cuban territory (…) they may not make use of a foreign [dual] nationality”.
Even so, they affirmed that the Embassy in Havana “is in contact with Prieto’s family”. The young man, resident in the U.S, was trapped on the Island in March 2020 by the pandemic outbreak, while visiting his family.
There is an ongoing arrest warrant in force for Prieto in Suffolk County Virginia, U.S.A, dating from 2019, and confirmed with 14ymedio by local police, which remains in force for crimes of: robbery, inappropriate conduct, avoiding arrest, aggression towards a family member and littering a public space.
During his stay in Cuba he took part in an anti-government demonstration in Holguín on 11 July 2021 and was arrested though released two days later, only to be arrested again on 23 July. Later, he was condemned to 12 years jail for sedition. continue reading
In September, Cuban Human Rights Observervatory sent the government a judicial report on Prieto’s situation, whom they define as a “political prisoner”.
According to this organisation, which has analized the case against him, at no time was the alleged crime of sedition tested in court nor was there any respect for the principles or guarantees that a defendant should be tried by a local judge and not by an emergency tribunal or courtroom; similarly, they did not take into consideration the personal circumstances or state of health of the defendant.
In their opinion, “the fact that the Cuban authorities are applying the effective principle of citizenship doesn’t stop the Spanish authorities from intervening” in this case, given that “they have committed obvious judicial errors and the situation is a grave and humanitarian one, with danger to the life of the Spanish citizen”. In this way, they maintain that “pressure from Spain could be decisive in obtaining his freedom”.
The observatory also pointed out that Prieto is a psychiatric patient and had already twice attempted suicide. Allegedly, according to his mother, speaking to Spanish outlet LibertadDigital, he had made a further attempt last week, at the hospital in Holguín where he is being held for the health problems that he has been showing since his first arrival in prison.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, November 28, 2022 — Not even in Cuba, immersed in a deep economic crisis, do children cease to be excited about the first day of school. Thus, this Monday, when the 2022-2023 cycle begins, enthusiasm and shouts were evident at the school doors, not only in Havana but in other provincial cities.
Parents, of course, know full well that the course not only begins off balance, once again, due to the various interruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, but with worrying shortages. Hence their long faces, distant from the enthusiasm of the children.
We walk around like crazy people looking for polyester for linings and fasteners,” a Havana mother complained this Monday. “Not to mention the price of backpacks or shoes, or all the notebooks that will have to be bought, because they have already said that they’re not going to distribute what they did in other years.”
Indeed, the Minister of Education herself, Ena Elsa Velázquez, explained the situation last week in State Television’s Roundtable program.
On the one hand, students would receive half of the notebooks that are usually given to them, Velázquez said, an “adjusted standard” that will also be applied to pencils: one per month, unlike the two that used to be offered.
Students will continue to use the dilapidated textbooks that have already passed through hundreds of hands. “We have indicated the need to recover the existing ones for redistribution,” the minister said, alluding to the custom of many students to “stay” with their books, often “solved” by paying the teachers for the privilege of a copy in good condition.
However, Velázquez assured that the books are also available in digital format for “students who have conditions for it,” a measure that, in her opinion, will be beneficial for “those who don’t have the necessary resources.” Although the school year is about to begin, the workbooks are barely “in production,” and the minister warns that there is little paper available in the print shop. continue reading
As for school uniforms, to the lack of which the population is already accustomed, there is a demand for 2,153,310 garments, according to Mirla Díaz Fonseca, President of the Light Industry business group. According to the official, the blackouts have prevented achieving the “work rhythm” necessary for the uniforms to be ready for the beginning of the school year.
Students in Sancti Spirits. (14ymedio)
Thus, only 1,274,000 garments can be delivered. The rest, if the materials are obtained, will have to wait until February. Díaz Fonseca explained that not even that amount would have been possible without “a donation from China” and the “new method” of re-dyeing the old mustard-colored uniforms blue. The old uniforms were worn in basic secondary schools before the change of design, which was carried out in the midst of a serious commodity crisis, and the dying process is now carried out by the textile manufacturer of Villa Clara.
The deficit of uniforms will be felt in the establishments provided by the Ministry of Internal Trade to sell them. Although it is customary to bribe the salespeople of these shops or to resell garments, the fact that the uniforms will be available for sale in only 1,900 stores will make the purchase even more difficult.
Those who don’t manage to get the uniforms or don’t reuse the ones they already have will still have to “attend school with the appropriate clothes,” said the Minister of Education. Without explaining where and how parents will be able to buy those clothes for their children, or defining what she considers “appropriate,” Velázquez apologized by stating that the school year was “a challenge for everyone,” and that things would be different if not for the US blockade, which is “hardening.”
Food is another issue that will not improve, and Velázquez avoided talking about it, although it mainly affects boarding schools, semi-boarding schools, households without subsidiary protection and basic secondary schools that follow the school snack regimen.
What she did say was that “the confrontation with cultural colonization” is, now more than ever, a priority of the educational system and its “political-ideological work system.” Invoking as “paradigms” Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, Velázquez said that the Ministry of Education is targeting those “young people who do not study or work” and teachers and managers who support “unacceptable” behavior, because “from indiscipline come crime and corruption.”
This newspaper has collected numerous testimonies of students in primary, secondary* and pre-university* schools who have been prohibited from entering classrooms with T-shirts that include the name of brands, signs or eye-catching figures. In some schools, the wearing of black T-shirts is not allowed, because black is considered “an opposition color.”
Another problem that the official media don’t talk about is the gap between those who have hard currency to buy what is necessary and those who don’t. “And now the cellphone is a problem,” adds a father of Sancti Spíritus. “Imagine that since everyone has a cellphone, my daughter also wants one, and I don’t know if we’re going to be able to afford it.”
As for the foreseeable lack of teaching staff, caused by last year’s unstoppable migratory exodus, the authorities did not give figures, but in schools in Havana they found many “new faces” among teachers. “And not all the positions are covered,” says a teacher from the capital who prefers to remain anonymous.
*Translator’s note: In the United States these designations would be “junior high school” and “high school.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Image from Cuban television of a trial related to July 11 protests. (Archivo)
EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 25 November 2022 — At least two lawyers for fifteen anti-government demonstrators criticized legal proceedings against their clients in open court on Thursday. The fifteen are being tried for participating in public protests on July 11 of last year, the largest such demonstrations in Cuba in decades.
A source who was in the Havana courtroom on the second day of the trial said the fifteen defendants were charged with assault, public disorder, contempt and incitement to commit a crime. The defense attorneys discounted the witnesses and evidence presented by the prosecutor.
The source told the Spanish news agency EFE that she was surprised to see that all the lawyers were state attorneys. “None of them are independent,” she said, adding, “I have to say that I fear for their safety.”
The source quoted one attorney as saying, “It is time for the country to start healing its wounds. It is time for the country to sit down and talk. It is time for the country to create public spaces so that all those who think differently can demonstrate safely and legally without being charged with a crime.”
Similarly, another attorney quoted a line by Cuban poet and national hero Jose Martí: “With all and for the good of all.”
The source reported that the prosecutor had dropped all charges of assault, public disorder, contempt and incitement to commit a crime but was still charging the individuals with sedition. continue reading
The attorneys took issue with the charge, noting that the crime of sedition is defined in the Cuban penal code as “an attempt to destabilize state order.”
They argued that this does not apply to the fifteen defendants, who participated in a demonstration that occurred in the Havana neighborhood known as Diez de Octubre [Tenth of October], far from the seats of power, unlike other protests which took place outside the Capitol.
One of the recognizable faces at the trial was Jonathan Torres, who was 17-years-old at the time of the protests. Initially facing an eight-year sentence, it now appears he could instead be sentenced to correctional labor without internment. “They are asking that Jonathan get five years of ’subsidized sanction,’ meaning [he would be allowed to go] from home to work, from home to school,” said Orlando Ramirez, his stepfather.
Ramirez previously told Miami-based Martí News that the prosecutor had argued that officials had not used firearms in confrontations with the July 11 demonstrators. However, a witness presented by the Public Ministry said that some of his colleagues were in fact carrying firearms and that he had heard gunshots.
According to Torres’ stepfather, the sentence threatens to be stiffer in at least one case, that of Dayana Camejo Ramos, the only woman to be charged in this case. “They were asking for seven years. Now they’re asking for ten,” he said.
EFE has learned that, in its first filing from from December 30 of last year, the public prosecutor’s office accused the defendants of perpetrating acts “of unlimited violence.”
The written indictment describes them as throwing “stones, bottles, wood and other objects” at police and shouting slogans against the Cuban government and President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
The defendants range in age from 51 to 17. Trials for the July 11 demonstrators have been going on since late 2021.
Families of those found guilty and NGOs have criticized the trials, citing a lack of due process, fabricated evidence and overly harsh sentences. Neither foreign media nor independent journalists have been granted access to the proceedings.
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14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 25 November 2022 — The chronicles of the time say that when he had already replaced his brother at the head of power, Raúl Castro received a delegation of Chinese in Havana and surprised everyone by speaking Chinese and singing songs from that country. Will Díaz-Canel do the same? Anything can be expected.
Well, after 15 and a half hours of flight from Ankara, Díaz-Canel’s pan-handling delegation arrived in Beijing, with the aim of raising money, this time from the supposed Chinese friends. And here the term “supposed” can be taken any way you want. Unlike the Russians, with whom there was an ideological connection from the early days of the so-called cold-war revolution, Chinese and Cuban friendship went through different stages, some of them complicated, especially when Fidel Castro publicly condemned Mao Tse Tung’s repressive action in the 1960s during the cultural revolution, standing alongside the Soviets.
Who would have thought? Almost half a century later, Castro’s heir arrives in the capital of the forbidden city precisely on the same day that the death of the maximum leader is commemorated. The Cuban communist state press has made it very clear to him: the front pages are for the immortal. The trip to China has been relegated to second or third place.
Someone might believe that this is due to the preeminence in Cuba of Fidel Castro, who is treated on the sixth anniversary of his death as if he were still alive. But no, it seems that the maneuver of ’disappearing’ the trip of Díaz-Canel’s entourage obeys more obvious reasons, such as, for example, that it is still a failure in terms of the collection of money and in the identification of a “milk cow” that provides the Díaz-Canel regime with financing in exchange for nothing, as the USSR and Venezuela did. Times have changed, and no one is ready for that game. And we shall see what happens with the Chinese. continue reading
Díaz-Canel said that he has presented himself in China with an invitation from the only party, the Chinese communist, whose leader, Xi Jinping, the same character who publicly purged his predecessor during the 20th congress and who questioned the Prime Minister of Canada for disclosing content to the press in the G-20. President Xi is someone who doesn’t mess around. Again, the Cuban communist delegation arrived at the Beijing airport at an untimely hour and was received by a very low-level government official, Xie Feng, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Facing the caravan’s media, and for domestic consumption, Díaz Canel said that “it is a pleasure to be in the People’s Republic of China. For us it is an honor that we have been invited, as the first country in Latin America, to visit China, after the successful celebration of the 20th Congress,” insisting once again on the invitation, because the cost of the trip, for a budget like the Cuban one, begins to be scandalous. An independent audit of expenses would show that, apart from the invitation, there is a lot of expenditure in this entourage that is little or not at all justified for the Cuban people, whom they claim to serve, and who are hungry.
It was announced that during the visit there will be official talks with Xi Jinping, Li Zhanshu, President of the National People’s Assembly and Prime Minister Li Keqiang, as well as the signing of more than ten agreements between the parties.
The good relations between China and Cuba are part of the global strategy of the Asian giant to occupy positions of economic control in Latin America. China, in its objective of becoming the world’s leading power, has developed a global extractive model of income and resources in the countries where it is established, and through this mechanism it increases its economic power, grants aid for cooperation, permeates financial systems and occupies commercial positions in sectors of interest.
Its interest in politics is relative. Countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have witnessed that extractive invasion of China that has benefitted significantly from globalization. The strategy has worked well for the Asian giant. Producing low-cost goods worldwide by international companies installed in its territory, China has obtained substantial trade benefits that have increased its economic power. The rest is known.
And meanwhile, Díaz-Canel is talking about China as if it were an “ancient civilisation whose cultural and historical values have endured over time and constitute a heritage not only of China, but of all humanity”; or he’s recalling Che Gievara’s visit in 1960 to establish relations. And from all this he concludes that “this profile is the one that has captivated the Island despite the geographic distance.” This argument that can look pretty good in a second-class brochure, but it has very little to do with global geopolitics. Getting off the plane in Beijing, and wearing a black beret, Díaz-Canel, according to Granma, sent “the warmest congratulations to my counterpart Xi Jinping,” who at that time was sleeping soundly.
Another mistake by Díaz-Canel is to think that Cuba and China are today references for the construction of socialism. All you have to do is to take a walk around Beijing, or any of the great capitals that are filling up with skyscrapers, to verify the enormous distance between Chinese socialism and the communist destruction that exists in Cuba. Wanting to compare the two countries is an insult to intelligence, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Xi, with the character he has, commented on it.
Díaz-Canel has placed cooperation in the biotechnology sector as the main objective of the visit, but there must be more. In fact, China ranks second in the world as a commercial partner of the Island, a short distance from Venezuela, which is receding. Cuba’s exports to China reached 417 million dollars in 2021 (ONEI yearbook), 21% of the total, just behind Canada, which reached 613 million dollars. On the other hand, Cuba’s imports from China reached 972 million dollars, 11.5% of the total. In this case, China was behind Venezuela, with 1.245 billion dollars. This position of second trading partner of the Island is accompanied by a very unbalanced trade deficit of minus 555 million dollars that requires financing. On the other hand, in 2021 only 799 tourists from China came to Cuba, after reaching 49,000 in 2018.
The Cuban communist regime’s commitment to China carries risks. Basically, because the Chinese don’t give anything for free. They always demand something in return, such as the part of the sugar harvest that corresponds to them and which Cuba cannot manage to deliver, due to the low levels of harvests in recent years. Or in the case of minerals, or tobacco, the Chinese have travelled to Cuba to look for resources to extract, but the landscape they find is well known: devastation and widespread poverty. In addition, the Chinese are not interested in tourism or services, which is what Díaz-Canel offers. The Chinese don’t give a fig about coincidences on the political level with the Cuban regime; they want something else.
The visit to the Asian giant has just begun. The entourage is already tired of so many thousands of miles. The bet is high, but the results are uncertain. It doesn’t seem that China will become the substitute for Venezuela. It will ask for something in return.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The family of political prisoner Andy García Lorenzo manages the funds and ensures that they are distributed fairly. (Facebook/Roxana García Lorenzo)
14ymedio, Yankiel Gutiérrez Faife, Camajuaní, 26 November 2022 — Without the help of charitable organizations and private donors, prisoners would be on the verge of starvation in Cuban prisons, where they receive from the State the bare minimum to survive. “Lately the contributions have been greatly reduced,” laments Jonatan López, brother-in-law of political prisoner Andy García Lorenzo, who inspired the Funds for the Victims of Communism initiative. “We have up to 110 beneficiaries, but now we have resources for only about 44 detainees.”
“We’re a bridge for delivering food to prisoners in Cuba. We receive small donations from people who are sympathetic to the cause and help low-income families,” explains Jonatan López in conversation with 14ymedio.
“Andy knew what it was to go to bed hungry, without being able to satisfy himself with the small portion of food they get in jail,” López says. On each visit, they assure, they tried to bring the young man everything he needed. “But he always asked for more, because he wanted to share his food with the others.”
Funds for the Victims of Communism — promoted on social networks under the name of Help the Brave of 11J [11 July 2021 protests] — is responsible for raising money so that families can provide prisoners with food, toiletries, cigarettes and everything they need during their imprisonment. continue reading
The organization takes care of raising money so that families can provide prisoners with food, toiletries, cigarettes and everything they need during their imprisonment. (14ymedio)
The economic crisis on the Island and the increase in the price of food and basic necessities have had a negative impact on the situation of prisoners, and it’s difficult to provide them with the bag of supplies during family visits.
The visibility of the García Lorenzo family, following the multiple complaints made by its members, contributed to the project gaining notoriety and interest from donors. After initially refusing to send money, they decided — in December 2021 — to create a structure to collect funds.
The initial recipients were 15 families of political prisoners in Villa Clara, but the direct transmissions of Roxana García Lorenzo — Andy’s sister — and the complaints of other activists allowed increasing the number of donations and expanding the scope of the organization.
At the moment, the funds are destined for the families of 44 inmates in the western and central regions of the Island, for whom 3,000 pesos per month are deposited on their cards to buy products intended to cover their basic needs. The same amount has been given, at least once, to 110 prisoners.
Jonatan López, recently exiled in Germany, explained to 14ymedio that “to assist 110 prisoners, 4,500 to 5,000 dollars must be paid monthly, in order to distribute 6,000 pesos to each prisoner. And even so, their needs are not fully met, but it would be a huge relief for those families who, in many cases, have run out of their main economic livelihood,” he said, alluding to the fact that the work of many of the young people arrested was what supported their families.
The García Lorenzos manage the funds and ensure that they are distributed fairly. Activist Samuel Rodríguez Ferrer, a resident of the United States, is responsible for managing the PayPal and Zelle accounts opened for donations, which are then sent in their entirety to Cuba, without subtracting administrative or promotion expenses from the initiative. Ways have been found, says the activist, so that “the dictatorship does not access this currency” at the time of the transfers.
In addition, as they clarify on their website, the organization “is not political, nor is it affiliated with any party, organization or government. We do not receive a federal grant from the United States, or from any other country. Donations come from individuals and independent companies.”
Jonatan López records the donations in a public Excel document, to ensure transparency, while Pedro López, his father — also in the situation of asylum seeker in Germany — and his wife, Roxana García, from Santa Clara, are responsible for managing the organization. Through different channels, with the help of people traveling to the Island, the money reaches the families of the inmates.
“This project is so that they don’t feel alone, and they know that there are people outside and inside helping them,” Pedro López explains to 14ymedio. “You go against the dictatorship, they try to isolate everyone who dissents, and one of the ways is to tell them that they are alone. They try to demoralize them,” he says.
Despite their exile, Pedro and Jonatan López took measures so that the project didn’t stop. So far, they say, State Security has not confiscated their supplies, which in some cases are transported on national buses.
“It’s not difficult to work from the outside. We created an infrastructure made up of the same relatives, so that it wouldn’t stop when we left,” Pedro López says.
The work of the organization has not been without controversy. Several opponents have opined that the project “accommodates the relatives of prisoners,” which prevents them from “protesting” for the freedom of their relatives. These criticisms “do not make sense,” says Jonatan López. “The funds barely alleviate the situation of the families, and, in addition, the prisoners are not to blame for not assuming a ’frontal position’ against the regime in their homes.”
“We believe that it’s unfair to deprive them of this help, which is only the most basic, food, because their families don’t want to protest,” added the young man who, exiled in Germany due to pressure from State Security, confirmed to this newspaper his willingness to continue working on the project, combined with other initiatives such as I lend you my voice, Justice 11J, Where you fall, I’ll pick you up and the Accompaniment Groups of the Cuban Conference of Clergy (Concur).
For her part, Roxana García — known for her strong denunciations of the Government for the harassment of her brother — remains in Cuba, along with her parents, to continue demanding his freedom and that of the almost 1,000 political prisoners of the Island.
Several relatives of the prisoners have expressed their gratitude to the Funds for the Victims of Communism. Yanet Rodríguez from Holguin pointed out that the project has provided “help to the east of the country,” since most of the initiatives of this type are concentrated in the western region or the main cities of the Island.
Saily Núñez, wife of protester Maykel Puig, described the work of the organization as “extremely transparent,” while Niurka Ricardo, mother of prisoner Mario Josué Prieto, described the project as “something extraordinary and very human,” since it guarantees the food and medicines that are sent in the jabito (“little bag) to the inmates.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 30 November 2022 — There are at least three ways to analyze Cuba’s new Penal Code that comes into force this first of December.
