The Turkish floating plants next to the Tallapiedra plant, in Havana, this Friday. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana | 9 December 2022 — Three floating plants of the Turkish company Karpowership can be seen these days in the vicinity of the Otto Parellada power plant, known as Tallapiedra, in Havana. Of them, only two, the one that arrived on November 15 and one more, seem to be working, connected to the thermoelectric plant through which the ship transports the electricity they produce (110 megawatts each).
The other, a short distance from these, and smaller (with a generation capacity of 15 MW), has stopped working this Friday.
Belonging to Karadeniz Holding, the power stations of this type, of which there are seven in Cuba, according to the official press, distributed between the port of Mariel and Havana – are, the authorities pointed out, “part of the strategy to gradually increase generation and move the country away from the effects of energy deficits.”
Once all of them are synchronized with the National Electric System (SEN), they will only contribute a little more than 400 MW, a figure that is, in principle, insufficient to alleviate the energy deficit on the Island. However, one thing is certain: since the beginning of December, and according to the daily reports of the Cuban Electric Union (UNE), the “affects” on the service have been decreasing. continue reading
From the figures of December 1, when the UNE forecast a deficit of 1,054 MW and an affectation of 1,124 MW in peak hours, it has gone on to have no deficit this Friday.
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Reinaldo Arenas was born in 1943 in Holguín, a telluric and difficult region, from which Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Fulgencio Batista and Castro himself also emerged. (Reinaldo Arenas Archive)
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 7 December 2022 — On 7 December 1990, 32 years ago, Reinaldo Arenas committed suicide “without first having to go through the insult of old age.” He himself recounts that, when they told him that he would soon die of AIDS, he went to his apartment and made a wish, half a prayer and half an insult, in front of the portrait of Virgilio Piñera.
“Listen to what I am going to tell you,” he snapped at the deceased, “I need three more years of life to finish my work, which is my revenge against almost the entire human race.” With unfortunate punctuality, three years after that sentence, and maintaining “equanimity until the last moment,” he killed himself in New York.
Of all Arenas’s texts, the most brutal and serene was his brief farewell letter, written to be published. “There is only one person responsible: Fidel Castro.” The phrase falls back on the Cuban reader, lapidary and current. “The sufferings of exile, the pains of exile, the loneliness and the illnesses that I may have contracted in exile, surely I would not have suffered if I had lived free in my country.”
Arenas was born in 1943 in Holguín, a telluric and difficult region, from which Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Fulgencio Batista and Castro himself also emerged. Of Guajira origin, he always kept the rusticity and innocence of a boy from the provinces. Ruffled with hair and imagination, with a deep and seductive speech, the young man soon made his way in Havana and maintained a long friendship with José Lezama Lima and Virgilio Piñera. continue reading
His best-known book, Antes que anochezca[Before Night Falls*], attests to the surveillance, persecution, and imprisonment to which he was subjected by Castro’s political police. The cruelty of the State against the writer, the cornering of him in the most unusual settings – from Lenin Park to a precarious boat heading to the US – could only engender in Arenas a lucid, spiteful memory that was true to itself.
His novels – which he had to secretly send abroad – had already made him famous. But when a journalist traveled to Havana to interview him, he had to solve a labyrinth of clues and tricks, audacity and passwords, to find Arenas in the end, like a happy minotaur, in some dilapidated lot.
The succession of photographs that accompany Before Night Falls allow us to see how his face, mischievous in childhood, flirtatious in youth, and sad and sentimental about to board the boat in Mariel, becomes spectral and serene in 1990.
More than three decades after his death, the work of Reinaldo Arenas continues to be terra incognita for the majority of Cuban readers and almost none of his books are published in his country, thanks to the censorship of the same government that exiled him.
Reading El Mundo Alucinante [Hallucinations*] or Celestino Antes del Alba [Celestino Before Dawn*] clandestinely, enjoying the pages of La loma del ángel [Graveyard of the Angels*] or savoring his poems by the sea, continues to be the most endearing way to remember Arenas on the anniversary of his death.
*Translator’s note: The translated titles are not necessarily direct translations but rather those used in the English editions
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Corner of 17 and K in El Vedado, Havana. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 8 DecemberThe trees felled by Hurricane Ian in Havana, more than two months ago, seem to be nobody’s problem. The roots of a formidable specimen of Indian laurel, which stand out among the rubble and garbage at the corner of 17th and F, in El Vedado, Havana, attest to this.
Due to the impact of the winds in September, the laurel tore apart the gate of a state office linked to tourism and its trunk remained there until the return of the workers, after the cyclone. Then, workers from the Electric Company cut down the fallen trunk and several branches of the neighboring laurels.
According to an office worker speaking to 14ymedio, all the trees were planted together and belong to the same variety. “A few days after the cyclone, the people from the office tried to clear the place with machetes and left the garbage on the corner,” he reported. “After many days, a truck passed and took what it could.”
The current appearance of the corner of 17 and F, however, leaves much to be desired. Separating the trunk from the roots, they threw the latter into the same flowerbed where the tree was planted. Dirt has been accumulating around the pavement, also broken by the tearing up of the laurel, and even the neighbors have already transformed the place into a small dump. continue reading
Nor has the gate been repaired, its bars having been bent by the blow from the trunk, and there do not seem to be any plans to restore the concrete column that immobilized the gate, and also destroyed by the laurel.
The neglect of Community Services and the careless passage of passers-by does not augur any change in the terrible hygiene of the street. The tree, the trash, and even a rusty aluminum tank that keeps them company have fallen into no man’s land.
For greater irony, the entrance to the building proudly displays the plaque that distinguishes its occupants as a Collective of Heroic Tradition.
It is not the first time that 14ymedio has verified the lack of cleanliness in the streets of Havana, on which Hurricane Ian has left traces that remain more than two months later. “Since the sidewalk is the responsibility of the authorities, no one, neither the company nor the neighbors, will do anything more,” says the worker.
The trees uprooted by the hurricane, the leaves and roots that no one will clean up, and the garbage that people leave are now a common sight in the capital’s neighborhoods. This newspaper denounced how the residents of Parque Trillo, in Centro Habana, must skirt the fallen branches and avoid the poorly paved walkway.
Added to the chaos in public areas is damage to monuments, broken benches and poor quality pavement. None of these realities is discussed in the official press and, of course, local leaders and the Government of the Island don’t lose any sleep over it.
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Younger organizations avoid caudillismo, they learn to work in a coordinated manner alongside others, they establish linkages with the generations with more accumulated experience. (Photograph from “Juan de los Muertos”, a movie directed by Alejandro Brugués, 2011)
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 7 December 2022 — The regime in Havana is aware that its end is near. In the last three years the system’s undeniable collapse has become evident. The “circumstancial” crisis announced by Díaz-Canel in 2019 has been growing and worsening irreversibly. Applying the ’Ordering Task’* amid the pandemic turned out to be a foolish and suicidal act, which increased inflation, stockouts, and popular discontent.
The Cuban economy is like a Carilda Oliver Labra verse: “I am getting messy, love, I am getting messy.” Not only is it more chaotic than ever, but it is underwater in a sea of debt and unproductiveness. As if that were not enough, the leadership today is experiencing its greatest leadership crisis, with cadres that lack charisma, are politically mediocre and incapable of inspiring respect or making effective decisions.
The official discourse can’t manage to generate a single new idea and is limited to recycling old babble. But now the ones who believe the story of the blockade [i.e. the American embargo] as a perennial excuse are ever fewer, very few have faith that the system will turn out to be prosperous and sustainable and no one believes the threat of a foreign invasion anymore. The reality is that Cuba is not a priority for the Government of the United States. “David” has lost his slingshot and desperately seeks to do business with “Goliath.” The ripe fruit is about to fall to the ground and no one seems interested in taking it. continue reading
To stretch out the agony, the continent’s oldest dictatorship manages to strengthen its international alliances. However, its displays of submissiveness to Putin are like a fatal boomerang. Russia is not in a position to help anyone. And any rapprochement with the Kremlin, at this time, is like marking one’s forehead with the number of the beast.
On the other hand, the citizenry has lost its fear at a rapid pace. Never before had the regime had to confront so many protests, in all corners of the country. Social media is a battlefield where the government has lost by a landslide, despite the internet cuts, the creation of an army of anonymous accounts and the millions invested to attempt to control cyberspace. Even at the polls, their false democracy show has lost its audience. If before they used to brag about a participation rate above 95% of the electorate, the latest electoral skirmishes have broken all records of abstentions and no votes.
The brutal repression against everyone who dissents has not managed to suffocate the flames of protest. State Security has fragmented potential threats into three blocks. They take some directly to jail, issuing long sentences while they try to demoralize them, accusing them of being common, violent or marginalized criminals. They force others into exile, pushing them to abandon the country permanently. And for the rest, they simply use their techniques to reduce them to “non-persons,” they fire them or expel them from the university, surround their homes, cutoff their telephones, and submit them to continuous stress with threats, surveillance, and acts of repudiation.
State Security’s greatest achievement has been, perhaps, keeping the opposition fractured. In this way, they prevent opponents from forming a solid block capable of coordinating effective actions and obtaining legitimacy and recognition by international organizations.
To divide us, they exploit distrust among one another, maximizing ego struggles and diverting discussions toward unfruitful and innocuous areas. On social media, the regime counts on hundreds of anticommunist accounts whose only objective is to attack and discredit all leadership or any attempt at unification. And these anonymous accounts, supposedly radical, manage to do more damage than the typical ciberclarias.**
However, beyond their success, it is also palpable that many opponents are reaching a level of political maturity that allows them to put differences aside and focus on common strategies. Younger organizations avoid caudillismo, learn to work in a coordinated manner alongside others, they establish linkages with the generations with more accumulated experience and they create strong connections with opponents of other dictatorships, like those of Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Cuban civil society is becoming aware of its potential. Little by little they claim spaces that the regime doesn’t know and cannot reconquer. Each chunk of power taken from them is ground gained for democracy which we must all build together.
The dictatorship knows its end is near.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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Translator’s notes:
*The ‘Ordering Task’ [tarea ordenamiento] is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso (CUP) as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.
**’Ciberclarias’ refers to internet trolls at the service of the government.
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Food prices in Cuban markets and establishments have only risen in the last two years. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Madrid, 7 December 2022 — The consumer price index (CPI) had its highest growth of the year this October in Cuba, with 4.21%, according to data published this Monday by the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei). At the end of October, Cubans paid 39.73% more than a year earlier for the goods and products they consume. Monthly inflation in October exceeded the two previous records, May (3.55%) and April (3.54%). Since January this year, prices have risen 28.76%.
If the data is broken down, it becomes clear what citizens already know: the increase in food prices is growing without measure, 62.73% in one year. The section on food and non-alcoholic beverages represents 78.88% of total year-on-year inflation. Regarding the accumulated so far this year, the data is 45.16%.
They are followed by restaurants and hotels, with 11.33%, and goods and services, with 2.93%. The rest barely contribute to raising the overall CPI. “Cuba registered in October 2022 the largest increase in food prices in the last 15 months. Food prices grew by 7% and ’explain’ almost 80% of the general increase in prices for the month, confirming that the country is mainly going through food inflation,” said Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, who regularly analyzes the data on Twitter. continue reading
The specialist said that, although the official data for inflation are not as high as the previous year, general year-over-year inflation in food alone is 62.73%. For all inflation for the year the total number of 45.16%.
The Onei data breaks down the section by product and pork is once again the greatest contribution to the rise in prices in its division. It rose 4.17% in the last month, but its contribution to the monthly CPI exceeds 25%. Rice rose 4.18% in October and its effect is 7%, while ham, with 5.2%, influences 2.5%. The section closes with eggs (2.4%) and garlic (3.2%), whose shares are 2% and 1.6% respectively.
The document also highlights the foods that increased the most this month — black beans, a staple in the Cuban diet, showed the greatest increase with 14%. Pork, poultry, ham and mutton are next, confirming the enormous problems Cubans have in buying protein of animal origin.
Regarding the other areas that most influence the monthly variation effect, restaurants and hotels grew above all in snacks (7% and an effect of more than 9%), lunch and dinner (6.2% and 8 .1%) or prepared food to take away (6.7%, although with an effect of only 0.7%). Soft drinks (4.6%) and breakfasts (4.3%) also rose considerably, although their influence on the increase in this group linked to food is less than 1%.
The rest is goods and services, where toilet paper stands out with a variation this November of 9.5%. The same occurs with hair dyes (4.7%), deodorant (2.26%), manicures (4.7%) and haircuts for men (4.21%). The weight of none of them, however, is substantial for the effect of the CPI variation, all remaining below 1% also although the total contribution of this section is close to 3%.
Regarding other areas, the monthly increase in Education prices is noted, 3.15%, while the number is 1.75% for alcohol and tobacco.
But the year-over-year increases from October 2021 to October 2022 are the ones that best reflect the deterioration in the life of the population in the last year. Although prices for recreation and culture have increased by more than 5% so far in 2022, and when compared to October 2021 the rise is dizzying, with 67%, the highest, even on food.
The year-over-year variation is very high in almost all the areas, so that only clothing and footwear, health and communications remain below 5% and all the rest rise by 10%, highlighting transportation, which is 17% more expensive than a year ago, an impact that hurts the family economy, although the data seems scarce when compared to that 63% of food.
In recent months, the official Cuban press has insistently and prominently published the high inflation in the Eurozone, which has been much higher than usual – especially since the start of the invasion of Ukraine and the rise in prices of energy – although it barely reached 10.6% year-on-year in October, its highest in more than two decades.
This November 30, the most recent data was released, which for the first time in a year and a half gave a breather, falling to 10% year-on-year. Energy (35% year-on-year increase) continues to determine the worst indices, which come from the Baltic countries, which are more dependent on Russia (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania exceed 21%), and the best, with France (7.1%) and Spain (6.6%) closing the table. European consumers have the perception that food has become much more expensive and this is the case despite the fact that it rose 13%, 50 points below that in Cuba. Cubadebate has not published these figures.
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A group of rafters from Matanzas recorded their journey to Florida. (Collage)
14ymedio, Havana, 6 DecemberThe Cuban Leitian Cedré shared on Facebook last Saturday two videos of the journey of at least 20 rafters who managed to disembark in the Florida Straits after 19 hours on the water. “I know that the brothers who could not come in this round will make it and they will be able to get out of suffering at any moment,” he confided.
The rafters, originally from the province of Matanzas, set sail in “one of the best rustics that has come out of Cárdenas,” Cedré proclaimed. A diesel engine from a Russian Kamaz V8 type truck was adapted to the raft. This type of vehicle is used on the island to transport sugarcane or merchandise.
Cedré recommended to those who are about to leave Cuba, to put “the spirit and fight into it a little more so that they see that everything is achieved.” No further details were provided about the rest of the group, while the rafter shared a second video in which they are fueling a boat, in which, he said, they will go fishing.
This Tuesday, the US Border Patrol took into custody 33 Cubans, seven women and 26 men, who managed to make landfall in the Florida Keys. The chief officer of the Miami sector, Walter Slosar, shared the images of two rafts in which the migrants arrived.
Slosar has documented in his networks the arrival of 88 Cubans so far in the last month of the year. Last Monday he reported two rustic boats in which 30 compatriots left the island. On Thursday, he commented on a raft with 25 people, including a child, from Matanzas who disembarked in Marathon. continue reading
As usual in these cases, the rafters have the option of requesting asylum, which implies demonstrating before an official or judge that their fear of returning to their country is justified. If the Cubans convince the relevant authorities, they are given a bond and can request asylum.
The US Coast Guard has thwarted the arrival of several groups of rafters in Florida. (@USCGSoutheast)
Several attempts to achieve the American dream have been thwarted by the United States Coast Guard. This Monday, 126 Cubans were repatriated aboard the ship Pablo Valent. Lieutenant Paul Puddington warned of the patrols being carried out in the Florida Straits, the Windward Passage and the Mona Channel “to prevent the tragic loss of life from these dangerous and illegal sea voyages.”
According to official figures, maritime surveillance has made it possible to thwart the arrival of 2,755 Cubans in Florida in the last three months. The US agency detailed that last year 6,182 rafters were detained.
The intercepted Cubans are returned to Cuba as part of a migration agreement between Washington and Havana, although on some occasions this does not happen, due to situations of credible fear of returning to the Island for repressive reasons. This is the case of 22 people, among whom is the activist Yeilis Torres Cruz, who are at the Guantanamo Base waiting for refuge in a third country.
The migratory crisis that the Island is experiencing is taking place above all by land. According to data from the US Department of Customs and Border Protection, 224,000 Cuban migrants arrived in the last year.
The crossing of the Rio Grand in the Mexican state of Coahuila, to reach the United States, continues to be a common route for island nationals. On Monday, the chief officer of the Border Patrol for the Valle sector, Texas, Gloria Chávez, reported the detention of “three groups of migrants” in the first four days of December, “a total of 420 migrants: 103 family members, 56 unaccompanied children, and 261 single adults from Cuba and several countries in Central and South America.”
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Privately owned cafes are forced to import products the state will not sell them. (Leandro Perez Perez/Adelante)
14ymedio, Havana, 2 December 2022 — The report on small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) that the Camagüey newspaper Adelante published on Friday lays bare all the regulatory hurdles facing anyone trying to set up a business in Cuba. The situation is so bad that Miguel Hernandez Fernandez, a member of a local group trying to promote entrepreneurship in the province, warns, “The [business] failure rate in Latin America is around 80%. If conditions do not change, it will exceed 90% in Cuba.”
The article, entitled “One Year, Many Problems, Meager Production,” begins by warning of the difficulties faced by small and medium-sized businesses throughout the world in setting up shop. Little by little, however, the focus shifts to the root causes of the island’s particular issues.
One year after MSMEs became legal in Cuba, 181 companies — all of them private except one — had been given the green light. Of those, 68% are currently inactive. The article cites the high cost of obtaining and outfitting commercial real estate as well as the shortage of raw materials as the prime causes. But later in the article it becomes clear that some of these problems could be solved if there were the political will.
“Among the main obstacles are the drawn-out approval process and the legal limitations placed on business professionals. They come here with very good ideas but either Decree 49 prohibits their specific kinds of economic activity or they cannot engage directly in foreign trade,” says Ernesto Figueredo Castellanos, a provincial economic official. Both issues could be resolved by changing the law but the state’s efforts to retain control remains one of the big obstacles.
The shortage of hard currency is no small problem either. New businesses need it in order to buy raw materials but getting it is impossible because the banks simply do not have it. Figueredo Castellanos goes so far as to admit that, under these conditions, merchants can only replenish supplies by accepting donations or turning to the black market. Even then, buying things under the table is not really an option. “Their activities as a company are traceable, which does not allow them, for example, to shop for flour on the street, so many have had to import it.”
As a result, it is nearly impossible to get necessary supplies. One example described in the article is a cafe whose owners explain how they have to bring in everything from outside, including water, because the state will not sell them anything. “We have to get everything from the wholesale market or import it. That’s money that leaves the country and there is no way for me to claim it as a business expense. It also also increases costs, to say nothing of the rent,” notes Pedro Cespedes Aguilar, a partner at Alegre SRL. continue reading
Another complaint that businesspeople have is that they may enter into only one kind of business arrangement. “You can no longer invest in a limited liability corporation (sociedad de representación limitada or SRL) and be an administrator in another. It is illegal for Cuban citizens living abroad to be partners, which means finding anonymous partners outside the country because, under current conditions, Cuba needs liquidity to do business and acquire imports,” explains Figueredo Castellanos, who is very critical of the current regulations.
Those interviewed describe excessively high rents. Landlords are state-owned companies which charge 80,000 to 120,000 pesos, creating a financial burden for private businesses. “It would seem that companies would want to solve the rent problem,” says Hernandez Fernandez. He also notes that the level of computer skills remains very low. Registering an MSME is done through a digital platform without any support staff, and most of those filing applications do not have the required knowledge to do it.
“Communication with the Economics Ministry is something else that needs improving,” the article states. “During this investigation, it so happened that interested individuals wrote in but often received no response.”
“In Camagüey, there is an urgent need for the government to help private businesspeople connect with the rest of the local economy and develop a real relationship that enhances the regional development strategy. There are very good examples in Villa Clara and Havana that could well be implemented here,” says Hernandez Fernandez.
That is how Chefmigue has managed to survive. The company began production a year and a day after its business application was approved. The original intention was to produce fresh pastas but the price of wheat forced it to change course and it began processing fish for a state-owned company.
However, this is not without its own set of problems. The company is asking that it be allowed to import fishing gear, or hire fishermen, so it can obtain the best raw material. “The difference between the black market price and the one Fisheries wants to charge us is abysmal. And we don’t get access to the best fish. Lowering my costs would lower the price for consumers,” the owner claims.
“We cannot afford to get a divorce when what we urgently need is to join forces to increase the supply of goods and services for the people of Camagüey. We have to make sure that the sixty-four new food production MSMEs do not end up becoming part of the informal distribution network or leaving the province. To achieve this, they must be given the same attention as a state company,” said Yoseily Gongora Lopez, governor of Camagüey, in a meeting with businesspeople.”
Having the flexibility to import is a common theme among the businesspeople cited in the article. “If I could import flour directly, it would lower the cost of production along with the price consumers pay, which is our cost plus a 15% profit margin,” says Dayron, one of the founders of Marfoxi, a company which produces cookies, breads and other flour-based products. The owner reports that electrical blackouts have slowed production, which has motivated him to set up his own mill.
Madiu Quiroga Gomez, head of the Provincial Territorial Development Group believes several changes must be made next year if there is to be progress. “The new players need the option of managing collections and payments in hard currencies themselves and thus having cash flow out of the country. [It is important to] to support transparency in bidding procedures and the awarding of contracts, to promote national investment by Cubans in the economy and, above all, to develop training courses and opportunities for people not covered by current legislation,” she suggests.
The article ends by urging the state to get involved in finding solutions. The interested parties do not want it to completely let go of the reins, however. “You have to build it on the basis of state control,” it reads, “with the government playing a coordinating role, and with collaboration between the state and private companies steadily ’rowing’ towards a sound and sustainable economy.”
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The exhibition ’Martín Domínguez El exilio otro’ was inaugurated at the Taller Gorría Gallery, in Old Havana on December 5. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 6 December 2022 — An exhibition entitled Martín Domínguez El exilio otro [the Other Exile], inaugurated at the Taller Gorría Gallery in Old Havana on December 5 (coincidentally, the Day of the Builder in Cuba), did justice to the Spanish architect Martín Domínguez Esteban (1897-1970) who was behind works as important as the Focsa building, Radiocentro (today the Yara cinema and headquarters of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television), the current Ministry of Communications, the Marianao City Hall and numerous homes.
We say that he “was behind” because his name did not appear as a signing architect but as “treasurer” or “decorator” and this was because Domínguez never managed to have his professional title revalidated in Cuba.
He escaped from Francoist Spain where he had been “purged for life” for his role in building the military defenses of the Republican side of Madrid in 1936. He arrived in Havana, by the way, in January 1937 and stayed in this city for more than a quarter of a century.
Despite the burden of not being able to show a recognized title, many used his services, including former president Ramón Grau San Martín, who entrusted him with his summer residence in Varadero. continue reading
His son relates that Domínguez replied that he felt conservative in regards to the private family and liberal in politics. (14ymedio)
At the beginning of the Revolution, he participated in the construction of popular houses promoted by the National Institute of Savings and Housing. His reputation led him to the office of Commander Ernesto Guevara, who openly asked him for his political position. His son relates that Domínguez replied that he felt conservative in regards to the private family and liberal in politics. “We’re doing badly, Galician,” said the Argentine, and that same day he decided to leave Cuba.
He collected what he could carry in his car and put it on the ferry that still offered trips between Havana and Miami. He was in that city for a very short time because he decided to settle in New York.
Still in Miami, his son, a clever boy with the same name and who has also followed a career as an architect, was probing him to find out how that adventure would end. And this was the unforgettable response he received: “We are never going to return to Cuba. We are not going to have the exiles’ crick in the neck, like the Spaniards who said ’in two months we will be back in Madrid’. We are not going back to Cuba, we must look ahead and rebuild.”
And he didn’t come back. He died in New York in September 1970 at the age of 72 knowing that wherever he went he left a lasting and useful mark. His work is studied today on the subject of Modern Cuban Architecture. This exhibition, which will be open to the public until December 12, pays tribute to him and fills an unacceptable gap in the memory of Cubans.
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Prelates reflect on the current Cuban reality, but avoid explicit mention of the Government’s responsibility in the situation. (COCC)
14ymedio, Havana, 1 December 2022 — On Wednesday, the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba published a message in which it signaled “the hunger, loneliness and lack of freedom” experienced by the citizens of the Island and once again called for freedom for the political prisoners. The statement, whose theme is the preparation for Christmas, also recalls that 25 years ago the Government agreed to declare the day as a holiday.
The bishops announced the visit, this coming January, of Cardinal Beniamino Stella, who served as apostolic nuncio — ambassador of the Vatican on the Island — during the Special Period. Stella, a top diplomat and critic of Castroism, was the one who organized the trip of Pope John Paul II in 1998, the first made by a pontiff to Cuba.
The commemoration of the half-century of that visit, which “marked the history” of relations between the Catholic Church and the Cuban Government, was proposed by the bishops to Pope Francis at a recent meeting in Vatican City. Beginning January 24, Stella will tour all Cuban dioceses, the statement says.
The rest of the message is dedicated by the prelates to reflecting on the current Cuban reality, avoiding the explicit mention of the responsibility of the Government in the different crises that the country is experiencing. They suggest that an atmosphere of “fear, distrust, daily routine, lies and hatred” prevails in Cuba.
They alluded to “the families who suffer emigration” and called, cryptically, to recognize the “signs,” that are “guiding, encouraging and warning us of the dangers” in the country in which our history is being “woven.” They also regretted the “pain and loneliness of so many elderly people, sick or suffering from serious difficulties and deficiencies.” continue reading
At the most critical moment of the statement, the bishops mentioned “those who suffer hunger, loneliness, lack of freedom and who expect from us a gesture of clemency or mercy. How much joy it would bring for their families and people in general to know that, this Christmas, a good number of those who are imprisoned would be granted freedom and returned to their homes to re-insert themselves into their usual lives and begin the new year!” they declared.
The requests of amnesty for the prisoners have been frequent on the part of the Catholic Church, which in 2015 took advantage of the visit of Pope Francis and managed to get the Government to release more than 3,500 inmates. However, it has had little success in its demands for release of Cubans detained after the protests of July 11, 2021.
They called for the hope of the Cuban people “in the midst of so much darkness and discouragement,” and to commit to the transformation of history “from within.” “No one can fight in life in isolation,” they said, while pointing out the need for a “community, a homeland of brothers where everyone can live with dignity, where we listen to each other and engage in dialogue to discern the future, where we fight for the good of all, especially those who have been marginalized for different reasons.”
The text concludes by sending the blessing of the prelates to the Cubans of the Island and to those who are “dispersed around the world.”
For Jorge, a Catholic layman from the diocese of Santa Clara consulted by 14ymedio, the message of the bishops “has to do more with forgiveness,” although “the situation in Cuba stands out: hopelessness, sadness, divisions.”
“Some of us believe that the messages could be more out front against the Government,” he says, “but the bishops didn’t forget the families who suffer from the emigration of their members, the condition of the prisoners, the pain and loneliness of the elderly, those who suffer great shortages and lack of liberty. It’s a very simple message that is more about hope,” he says.
Jorge points out that the most interesting thing in the statement is the announcement of Cardinal Stella’s visit, “a nuncio who knows our reality perfectly.” The Vatican envoy will find, he thinks, “a Government that is on the defensive,” which will not welcome this visit or will interpret it as “supervision.” In addition, “they won’t have much time to prepare.”
Cardinal Beniamino Stella’s last visit to the Island took place in 2015, in the midst of the “thaw” between Cuba and the United States. His return occurs in a similar context, when new attempts at dialogue are being developed between the two Governments, which, unlike the last time, have dispensed with the mediation of the Catholic Church.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Bananas in La Cuba, located in Ciego de Ávila. (Invasor)
14ymedio, Havana, 6 December 2022 — To the multiple obstacles that complicate the work of banana producers in Ciego de Ávila – debts, bureaucracy, lack of agricultural inputs and a lousy distribution system – another one has been added: the violent theft of bunches of the fruit.
The list does not even include sales to the tourism sector. After several years of sale, the farmers realized that the Ministry of Tourism itself was cheating them. Victor Limia, official of the provincial direction of Finances and Prices, did not dare to admit it to the newspaper lnvasor.
“Either there are costs that have not been contemplated and they have to adjust the sale price, or Tourism imposed a purchase price ignoring the real value of what happens in the field,” he limited himself to saying. “We have to check the files,” he conceded.
With 70 million pesos in losses at the end of November, the case of the Ciego de Ávila agricultural company La Cuba – famous for the “exuberant productions” of yesteryear, affirms the province’s Communist Party newspaper – is a notable example of the gap between investment and gain.
The additional cost of La Cuba is 20 million pesos above the annual plan. The dilemma could be resolved if the administrators dispense with the purchase of fertilizers. But, without them, the company’s production would be mediocre, calculates Invasor. It is a vicious circle that affects, first of all, the pocket of the producer, who must forget about the advances and juggle to repay the credits on time.
Local officials, led by Liván Izquierdo Alonso, first secretary of the Communist Party in Ciego de Ávila, visited the company and concluded the obvious: the farmers “are earning very little.” continue reading
Izquierdo Alonso walked through the furrows and talked with the producers. Faced with the complaints of Armelio Díaz, a farmer of almost 60 years, the Party cadre said: “No, you have to earn more, because it is very hard work to hoe the fields starting from dawn.” Díaz replied that he usually couldn’t have breakfast, and that he had to make lunch at his house “because there isn’t any at the company.”
But even if the working conditions were given, the other great impediment to normal production is robbery in the banana plantations and banditry, which is increasingly violent. “Last night they almost killed me,” said Jorge Virella, another farmer. “The bananas are stunted and the theft of the bunches makes things worse. The bandits come in carts and they completely clean you out.”
Although the thieves were captured, there are hundreds of young people in the Avilanian countryside dedicated to robbing farms. The situation has worsened for exactly one year. In 2021, 38 of these criminal acts were registered in La Cuba, and the numbers, according to its directive at the time, “are not enough to describe the magnitude of the problem.”
Of those cases, the Police could only solve 20, which involved thieves from the three municipalities that surround the lands of La Cuba: Primero de Enero, Ciro Redondo and Baraguá. Half remained unclear, despite the fact that the company’s workers provided “lists of names of people who do not work and have been seen loaded with bananas or have engaged in pre-criminal behavior.”
“Everyone here knows who they are and they don’t even have a warning letter,” they denounce. With the shortages and the food crisis, criminals have redoubled their robbery attempts and have become even more aggressive against the farmers. Since then, the official newspaper affirms, they have used clandestine warehouses to store the hundreds of pounds of stolen bananas, which they transport in private trucks.
The bandits that the producers of La Cuba continue to complain about “go out at night in eight wagons and attack in groups throwing stones, shooting arrows with pieces of iron… In the face of this organized band, many, unprotected, fear for their safety; above all because blows and wounds are already experienced,” affirms Invasor.
At the end of 2021, the official newspaper reported a series of “energetic” measures taken by the provincial prosecutor’s office to intimidate thieves. A few days before the close of the year 2022, the situation remains the same.
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Amnesty International and some friends of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara brought a cake to the Cuban Consulate in Madrid. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Madrid, 2 December 2022 — About twenty activists from Amnesty International (AI) and friends of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara gathered this Friday in front of the Cuban Embassy in Madrid to remember the birthday of the artist, who has been in prison since July 11, 2021, and to demand his release .
Olatz Cacho, spokesperson for the NGO in Spain, knocked on the door of the diplomatic headquarters with the intention of leaving a cake and a letter addressed to Otero Alcántara, but was ignored. “A fire alarm started to sound,” he told 14ymedio. “They have not opened the door for us or told us anything. We have been there for a while but then we have had to return, with a rather uncomfortable noise in our ears.”
The objective, according to Cacho, was to celebrate the anniversary of Luis Manuel, who turns 35 this December 2. “We want him to be released immediately and unconditionally. He has already been in jail for two years and he is a prisoner of conscience who should never have spent a single day there,” the activist asserted. continue reading
Along with AI were several friends of Alcántara, including Luz Escobar, Julio Llópiz-Casal, Carolina Barrero, Solveig Font, Nonardo Perea and Yanelys Núñez. Those gathered remembered some of the artist’s performances, such as ¿Dónde está Mella? [Where is Mella?], with which in 2016 he became a living statue of the student leader Julio Antonio Mella to ask where his statue, which was located in the Manzana de Gómez, had ended up after his conversion into a luxury hotel.
Núñez spoke with Alcántara yesterday and told this newspaper that the artist was “fine, there, surviving.” The activist said that, at least, the leader of the San Isidro Movement had not had problems with other common prisoners, as has happened on other occasions, and that he had no health problems. “Today he had a visit from the family, luckily, that’s a good thing, so he doesn’t spend his birthday too far from the people he loves.”
Alcántara is serving a five-year sentence in the maximum security prison of Guanajay, Artemisa, for the crimes of insulting the symbols of the country, contempt and public disorder.
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The polling stations reopened this Sunday in Cuba for the second round of the municipal elections. (Wilfredo Yera/Invader)
EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 5 December 2022 — On Sunday, Cuba celebrated the second round of the elections of the delegates to the municipal assemblies of People’s Power in 925 constituencies, with a call to the polls of almost one million voters.
The National Electoral Commission (CEN) reported that on this day 2,748 polling stations were enabled for voting in constituencies where none of the candidates proposed by residents reached more than half of the valid votes in the elections held on November 27.
The president of the CEN, Alina Balseiro, told state television that the elections have taken place “with discipline and organization” and that their final results will be announced next Wednesday, December 7. The official also added that there was “a high rate of participation,” although no data has been released so far to support it.
Participation in the first round of these elections was 68.58% (31.42% abstention), the lowest since 1976, when this type of voting began on the Island.
That figure represented 5.7 million Cubans out of a total of just over 8.3 million called to the polls and 11,502 delegates were then elected, according to preliminary data on the results released by the CEN authorities. In addition, more than 10% of people voted blank or null. continue reading
Balseiro indicated this Sunday that nine constituencies from seven provinces are expected to hold a third round next Thursday. In those cases there are those where there are ties between two candidates or none of the proposed obtain more than half of the valid votes.
According to CEN authorities, in the 15 provinces there was at least one municipality in the second round and Havana and the eastern Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Granma were the regions with the largest number of polling places on this occasion, due to the high numbers of registered voters. on your electoral roll.
The function of the municipal delegates consists of “exercising government, to intervene in state decisions that affect the entire community” and they will represent the problems, complaints and opinions of their constituency, according to the website of the National Assembly.
The candidacies of the delegates are proposed directly by the residents of the electoral constituencies – although independent candidacies are hindered to prevent them from prospering – while those of the deputies to Parliament are entrusted to candidacy commissions.
Based on the results of the process, on December 17 the municipal assemblies will be constituted, in addition to the election of their presidents and vice presidents and the appointment of secretaries.
The election of delegates to the municipal assemblies of Popular Power is held every five years and is the first step in the electoral process that will close in 2023 with the gradual renewal of the country’s main political positions, including the President of the Republic, a position to which the current head of state, Miguel Díaz-Canel, can run for a second term.
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Rice cultivation in Los Palacios, Pinar del Río. (Cubadebate)
14ymedio, Havana, 30 November 2022 — Ten days have been enough for the pinareños [people of Pinar del Río] who requested idle land to grow rice, encouraged by the visit of Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca, to be disappointed. “If I knew it was going to be like that, I wouldn’t have requested land. They gave me two caballerías* and I’m grateful because before it was difficult to get any area. But with these prices I can’t do anything,” Yoserky López Llobera tells the provincial newspaper Guerrillero.
The young man worked at the Jorge González Ulloa cooperative, one of the largest grain producers in the country, until a few years ago, with about 100,000 quintales** according to the newspaper, but its harvest has plummeted. Coming from the outskirts of Sierra Maestra, where 800 of the more than 1,000 hectares ceded in usufruct by the Agroindustrial Grain Company of Los Palacios are located, the boy was one of the 200 employees who were left without work due to the decrease in production.
Ariel García Pérez, director of the company, said that the delivery of land that was no longer used due to lack of resources would be beneficial, although the transfer was barely 10% of the total available. “They provided me with two caballerías of land, which were broken up according to the old cost sheet,” says Loivan Hano Abrahantes, who already had land and requested more. “The rice needs no less than four cultivations, which amounts to about 5,000 pesos. It costs 10,800 just for preparation, not counting the rest of what needs to be invested.”
Hano, who belonged to the cooperative, had his land broken up as of November 22, like Yoserky López, but they still haven’t signed the invoice for the change in the cost sheet. continue reading
“What the deputy prime minister explained during his visit was that the minimum per hectare*** was about 13,000 pesos of profit, but now they changed the price of everything: water, seed, transport, and if there is no technological package (kit of fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals that has been distributed for years), we practically sow at our own risk. That was not what they said at the beginning,” protests Hano Abrahantes, who adds other problems.
To the expenses are added obstacles from the municipality, which requires him to harvest rice in a month but still won’t give him credit. In addition, he claims that there is a five-month delay in payment.
“This is new. No one ever thought that agriculture could be done without a technological package. Today the technology package is the land, man, water, and fuel that can be acquired,” says Yoannis Campos Segura, president of the cooperative.
Another of the producers consulted, Agustín Echeverría, has found replacements for the technological package, and his rice is doing better, but he doesn’t stop complaining either. “Here they haven’t come to explain anything, neither from the Bank, nor from the CAI (Agroindustrial Azucarero Complex, which delivers fertilizers), nor from transport. Meanwhile the rice continues without sowing, and the farmer without work.”
According to him, since Tapia Fonseca passed through the area, about 50 producers have joined, but he wonders how they will be able to sow, if they can’t make a profit with the increase in prices.
The price of the quintal of wet rice husk, when sold to the company, rises between 1,000 and 1,300 pesos depending on the cost sheet. “There are many producers who have to apply for a credit, and 53 of them are cut off. First they must become customers of the Bank, and according to their policy, they must present a co-debtor with no less than 35,000 pesos,” adds Campos Segura.
In his opinion, along with the technical and chemical limitations, there is the money: “The most effective way for there to be production is through approving credit for the certain, effective producer so that, even if the Company can’t provide help, the farmer can can hire individuals, either through SMEs**** or through a contract in the cooperative, with the prices set by mutual agreement.”
The official points out an additional problem: there are those who have applied for a loan from the bank and, once granted, leave the country. Agustín Echeverría, along that line, accuses young people of a lack of commitment to the land. “What the young people do is come for a year, harvest a small amount, collect the money and leave. That way we can’t raise production either.”
Since the lands in Pinar del Río were ceded in usufruct, a process that was — they explain — fast, because the land will also be used for livestock, 70 people, most of them unemployed, are in the process of joining the cooperative, and there are 27 farmers who have expanded their area.
The Jorge González Ulloa groups together 320 associates, of which 290 are rice farmers and, according to Campos Segura, “a wooden housing module will be assigned, with a solar panel, so that the farmer can remain on his lot and give it the attention that cultivation requires. This would also help the family’s connection to the field.”
Translator’s notes: *Caballeríasare an ancient Spanish land measure of varying size, about 33 acres in Cuba. ** Quintales are a unit of mass, typically 100 pounds. *** One hectare equals 2.5 acres. **** SMEs are small and medium-size enterprises.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Journalism cannot be nourished only by anonymous sources, it needs people to show their faces. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Mexico City, 5 December 2022 — He has been in Miami for half a year, has two jobs and a suitcase full of fears. “Don’t quote me or publish any photo where you can see my face,” he says emphatically when an independent Cuban media outlet approaches him to take his testimony. He had the courage to cross the Darien jungle, to deal with coyotes and cross the Rio Grande, but when it comes to the Cuban political police, fear does not diminish despite the distance.
It is more and more frequent that a migrant from the Island refuses to appear with their name and surnames in a press report, for fear of being denied entry to their own country, when they decide to travel to visit their family and take the necessary products that will alleviate their critical economic situation. They live in a society where they can express themselves freely, choose what they eat and the newspapers they read, but when it comes to Cuba they continue to be locked behind the bars of totalitarianism.
Recently, an article we prepared for this newspaper came across the harsh reality that people who demonstrated in Florida, in the United States, against Castroism, with T-shirts that carried slogans in favor of the freedom of political prisoners and a democratic change on the Island, refused to have their testimonies appear with their names attached. The reason for that refusal is summed up in one sentence: “I am going to return to visit my family and I do not want to have problems.”
Is it their fault that they keep the mask on despite being far from those who pushed them to wear it? No. The fear that spreads among so many Cuban émigrés is nothing more than another example of the long tentacles of totalitarianism and the psychological damage that it causes. They are not cowards, but victims. But understanding them does not fix the problem. How can the vicissitudes of an exiled community be recunted if some of its members prefer to hide their faces and hide their names from a reporter? Journalism cannot be nourished only by anonymous sources, it needs people to show their faces.
The networks are full of anonymous profiles and false photos, but a country cannot be democratically transformed from behind the mask. Dispensing with the mask and vindicating an opinion with an uncovered face seems to be another of the conquests yet to be achieved. The sad thing is that we will not only have to achieve this for those who live on the Island, but also for those who reside in other countries where they should be able to behave as freer beings.
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Yeni Meizoso insists that the Cuban government maintains the version against her son because he is dead, otherwise he could refute it. (Collage)
14ymedio, Havana, 4 December 2022 — Yeni Meizoso Fabelo, the mother of one of those who died in the sinking of a boat in Bahía Honda, on October 27, has come out to deny the official version, despite the pressure received by the Government. “Do you know why they say it? Because that son of mine is now dead,” were her harsh words in a message posted on networks in which she demanded “that they no longer tell lies.”
Meizoso Fabelo begins her moving story by referring to her son, Yerandy García, as “the one killed by the Border Guard Troops,” about whom “they told a string of lies.” The mother’s position contrasts with the official who blames the migrants for the incident. The woman explained that the agents first broke the motors of the boat and then hit them on the side.
Since the first testimonies came to light, State Security has harassed and pressured survivors to change the initial version of the ramming of the boat in which seven migrants died, including a two-year-old girl, while trying to leave the Island. “They don’t want to see the truth or they don’t want you to tell the truth,” added Garcia’s mother, whom the regime accuses of having organized the group that was on board the boat.
“I need them to continue investigating so that they see that this is a lie and that Yerandy never in his life looked for people for the group, to leave, because he happened to be at my house that morning,” she continued recounting in a video shared by journalist Mario Pentón. The woman insisted that the Government maintains the version against her son because he is dead, otherwise he could refute it. continue reading
“I ask that they analyze that and go there to see how deep it is. At no time did that boat leave the place, that boat, when its engines broke, it could not move from there and they pushed it aside,” she insisted, accusing the Border Guard ship of ramming the migrants.
The Government attributes the responsibility to Héctor Meizoso, who lost three relatives, for organizing the group. In addition, the authorities insist that García was a coast guide for the illegal boats, like Michel Arronte Sánchez, who is in custody. But the border guards do not appear on the list of culprits.
The Home Office investigation concluded that the collision was “virtually unavoidable” because “the boat had already gotten into [the path of the Border Guard patrol] from a sharp turn.” Víctor Álvarez Valle, an agency specialist, described the event as “a human trafficking operation organized from the United States by sanctioned persons” in Cuba.
The official reconstruction of the events indicates that the boat had 26 people on board and 13 15-gallon fuel tanks, although it was initially designed for six passengers. 150 meters from the coast of Bahía Honda, with a swell of 0.5 to 1.5 meters in height, the border guards collided with the boat.
The authorities affirm that the boat was illuminated as on all occasions, but its driver, shouting “the Griffin is coming!”, turned sharply to avoid the encounter, hitting the seabed. The Government assures that “there were no invasive or aggressive actions” and that it was, instead, the weight of the boat and the movement that caused it to collapse.
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14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana | 9 December 2022 — Three floating plants of the Turkish company Karpowership can be seen these days in the vicinity of the Otto Parellada power plant, known as Tallapiedra, in Havana. Of them, only two, the one that arrived on November 15 and one more, seem to be working, connected to the thermoelectric plant through which the ship transports the electricity they produce (110 megawatts each).
