14ymedio – Page 156 – Translating Cuba

A Prisoner of the 11 July 2021 Protests (11J) in Cuba, Angelica Garrido Has Spent More Than 50 Days in a Punishment Cell

Angélica and Maria Cristina Garrido have been suffering a noticeable deterioration in their health for several months, as have other prisoners of conscience such as the activist Lizandra Góngora. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 November 2022 — Cuban activist Angélica Garrido has spent more than 50 days in a punishment cell at Gustavo Prison, Havana. Luis Rodríguez Pérez — her husband and brother-in law of the writer Maria Cristina Garrido, imprisoned along with her sister for taking part in the 11J (11 July 2021) protests — denounced that according to the Island’s Penal Code no woman can be locked up for more than 10 days in such a cell.

After a prison visit on Saturday, Rodríguez exposed on Facebook that Angélica is confined in conditions of absolute squalor, living with lice and scabies and with frogs inside of the cell.

“In that cell, the water she uses to clean up, to bath, and to drink, is from a small tube that protrudes from, and is just a few centimetres away from the latrine — that is, from the hole in the floor where she does her business; it’s all mixed up there”, Rodríguez complained bitterly on Radio Martí.

He added that he had taken her some medication for the lice; the lack of hygiene in the cell, the smallest and roughest of all of the cells, continues to deteriorate her health. His wife told him that her “brothers in freedom” and her religious beliefs gave her the strength to resist the prison hardship.

In his message, Rodríguez poured insults on Cuban diplomats who defend the regime at the UN, dressed up luxuriously whilst political prisoners suffer the most dreadful conditions in Cuban prisons.

In another message on Tuesday, Rodríguez also reported that his sister-in-law, María Cristina Garrido, was tortured in the San José de las Lajas prison, Mayabeque. After dropping the hunger strike that the sisters had been maintaining, María Cristina was separated from Angélica — who remained in the punishment cell of the Technical Investigation Department — and beaten. continue reading

When she arrived at the prison, he said, the officials who took her there made her fall to the ground several times by deliberately tripping her up, causing some damage to her spine. María Cristina had not reacted with any violence which only made the officers redouble their shouting and aggression towards her.

She was taken to the courtyard “where all the cells converge” and they demanded that she shout slogans, like “Viva Díaz-Canel” and “Viva Raúl”. She refused. They hit her again “very hard in her face”. They then took her to a space where she had to sleep standing up, bowed over, and the beatings resumed the next day, Rodríguez Pérez reported.

Angélica and Maria Cristina Garrido have been suffering a clear worsening of their health for months, as have other prisoners of conscience like the activist Lizandra Góngora. Rodríguez has carried messages on several occasions from his wife, his sister-in-law and Góngora to those outside who are fighting their corner.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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In ‘Power-Cut Cuba’ Electric Vehicles Are Charged Up From Balconies

Illegal cables are helping to charge up the electric vehicles that little by little are starting to appear on the streets of Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 11 November 2022 – Long extensions, or ’electrical clotheslines’, are as common for Cubans as are power cuts. With many metres of cable which run from one block to another it’s possible to get around the lack of power, or even to light up a whole quarter illegally, without being metered. And now the cables are helping to charge up the electric vehicles which are, little by little, beginning to appear on the streets of Cuba.

Motorcycles, tricycles and quad bikes form part of this fleet that needs no fossil fuels to get it moving, but it needs to be connected to the electricity supply, a service which is becoming more and more unstable because of the poor technical state of the Island’s power stations. “I payed nearly 7,000 dollars for this tricycle and though I really like it, sometimes it’s a real headache trying to get it charged”, says Liam, a young Hababero who earns a living as a food delivery driver.

“I live on a high storey, so I can’t just pick up the bike, fold it in half, put it in the lift and connect it to the electric socket in the flat. The battery itself is too heavy for carrying from one place to another”, says the delivery man. “I’ve managed to get a neighbour to pass me a cable from their [lower] balcony and I pay them a monthly amount for the service”, he says. Scenes of electric cables like this stretching from balconies down to shiny new vehicles parked on the street are becoming more and more common.

Although the authorities announced months ago that they were working on the installation of solar powered outlets in locations that would ensure the charging of these vehicles with 100% renewable energy, the process has been slow and they have hardly even been able to install a few power points, for state companies. “I’ll have to be able, one way or another, to charge up the tricycle at home, but even that is a box of surprises because you don’t know when there’s going to be a power cut”, complained Lisandra, a resident in the city of Ciego de Ávila. continue reading

“What we do is, if we don’t have electricity in our quarter we try to get it by connecting to another”, she adds. “For that, we have to go everywhere with an extra extension cable, just in case”. The old ’electric clothesline’ which has saved so many Cubans from long hours of darkness, that is, from the punishment of Unión Eléctrica, is now helping them to get around: “Pass me the cable over the balcony so I can charge up the car”, is already a not-unfamiliar thing to hear on the Island of the power cuts.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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The Tragedy of a Cuban Rafter Who Saw Her Eleven-month-old Baby Die

Yudeimi Rodríguez recounted the nightmare she lived with her family and two other Cubans in an attempt to reach the United States on a boat. (Image Captura)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 November 2022 — The younger son of Yudeimi Rodríguez died in her arms. The raft on which she traveled with her husband, Yoandri Espada, her two sons and two other Cubans, “burst” on the crossing. One passenger fell into the sea, and they couldn’t rescue him. The rest were adrift for four days. As she herself told América TeVé, broken from grief, her eleven-month-old baby “couldn’t take it and died.”

The group left the Island on October 30 through the port of Mariel, the young woman said, but the precarious boat shattered. “The waves were immense, the sea turned black, there was a strong current.”

The balseros [rafters] were rescued by a fisherman. In a video disseminated on social networks you can see how her husband asks for help from the approaching boat, with her dying and the remains of the raft surrounded by sharks.

The two deaths are in addition to the eight deaths of Cuban balseros announced last Monday by the sub-commissioned officer of District Seven, Nicole Groll. Of these ten, seven lost their lives at the end of September after the boat on which they were crossing was shipwrecked near the island of Stock, neighboring Key West. continue reading

Republican congress members María Elvira Salazar and Mario Díaz-Balart, recently re-elected, now manage the release of Yoandri Espada, while the other balsero was released to a family in Florida. Meanwhile, Yudeimi and her daughter have received medical aid for their dehydration.

Yudeimi Rodríguez and her daughter Claire, 11, who have sun-induced injuries, are being helped by the religious organization Hermanos de la Calle and a Cuban, Manuel Milanés, who urged people to support this family.

Rodríguez would like to go back in time, but he accepts, in tears, that his little one is “no longer here” and “we have to move on.”

The case was made public on the day the American Coast Guard confirmed the rescue by a good Samaritan of a group of 13 balseros in front of Elbow Cay, Bahamas, in the middle of Hurricane Nicole, which degraded to a tropical storm after making landfall in Jacksonville, Florida. The migrants were transferred to the William Flores ship and were not “reported injured,” the Coast Guard posted on Twitter.

United States authorities have warned that balseros who are detained on the high seas will be returned to their country of origin. So far in November, the Coast Guard has repatriated 227 Cubans in four groups.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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State Security Arrests the Mother of the Girl Killed in the Bahia Honda Speedboat Attack

Diana Meizoso, with her daughter, Elizabeth, who was killed in the Bahía Honda (Honda Bay) massacre. (Facebook/diana.mean)

14ymedio, Madrid, 10 November 2022 — Diana Meizoso, the mother of the girl Elizabeth, one of the fatalities of the boat sunk by the Cuban authorities in Bahía Honda, Artemisa, was arrested this Thursday by State Security and taken to its headquarters in Villa Marista, in Havana, her brother Héctor confirmed to 14ymedio.

The young man explained to Radio Televisión Martí that the day before, other survivors of the tragedy were cited. On Thursday morning his sister was taken away, although, he says, “the officer in charge promised his mother that they would return her at the end of the investigation.” The agents did not allow anyone from the family to accompany her.

During the last few weeks, Meizoso, who saw her two-year-old daughter die after the raft on which they had left for the United States was attacked by the Cuban Border Guards on October 28, has had no qualms about talking to the media to tell what happened.

“They rammed the boat and broke it in the middle,” the woman said in an interview with Radio Televisión Martí, who detailed how one of the Cuban officers warned, before turning around and heading towards the boat of the balseros [rafters] and destroying it: “Now I’m going to break them in the middle.”

Meizoso’s words corroborated both the version given to this newspaper by her brother Hector — “it was not an accident, but murder” — and the version of different organizations of Miami’s exile community, which describe the events as “a crime against humanity.” continue reading

On the boat, in which at least 25 people were traveling, there were ten relatives of Meizoso, of whom three died: in addition to Elizabeth, Yerandy García Meizoso and Aimara Meizoso. Four others — Israel Gómez, Indira Serrano Cala, Nathali Acosta Lemus and Omar Reyes Valdés — lost their lives, and one more remains missing.

Considering them responsible for what it considers a “cold-blood murder,” the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba has on its list of repressors four officers of the Border Guard Troops: Raidel Rodríguez López, Leovanys Cutiño Rodríguez, Jorge Argelio Samper Muarra and Jorge Luis Navarro Nolasco.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Award for Best Film at the Havana Festival in NY Goes to a Cuban Independent Film

Pérez thanked each of the six directors of Cuentos de un día más [Tales of Another Day], who performed the work “in very, very limited conditions, but with a lot of heart.” (Lataff)

EFE (via 14ymedio), New York, 12 November 2022 — The feature film Cuentos de un día más, by a collective of Cuban independent filmmakers, won the coveted award for Best Film at the Havana Film Festival in New York this Thursday.

The film, which was made under the coordination of director Fernando Pérez, presents six stories about Cuban society during the COVID-19 pandemic and competed with 24 films for the Havana Star Award.

The jury, which evaluated the films in the fiction category, pointed out when announcing the prize that “this is a film that poetically portrays the deadliest chapter of contemporary health history.”

“The world was impacted by the pandemic, and this is a beautiful record of that collective suffering and a visual document of how humanity tried to adapt and keep going. For all that, Cuentos de un día más wins the award for Best Film,” they noted.

Pérez, director and writer, who was not present at the award ceremony, sent a video message in which he thanked each of the six directors who performed the work “in very, very limited conditions, but with a lot of heart.” continue reading

He was also pleased because, a year after the film was made, “we can now go to the cinema to see movies like this.”

The Havana Star Award for Best Director went to Diego Lerman for El suplente [The Substitute] (Argentina), for which he was also a screenwriter. The film revolves around a teacher from Buenos Aires who must abandon his duties when one of his students is threatened by a local boss.

The awards for Best Actor and Best Actress went to Roberto Quijano for Amor y Matemáticas [Love and Mathematics] (Mexico) and to Barbara Colen for Fogaréu [Flame](Brazil).

Quijano, Mexican, pointed out that the festival “was a great experience,” as was receiving his first award. “So I treasure this in my heart.”

In Amor y matemáticas, directed by Claudia Sainte-Luce, Quijano gives life to a musician who had a moment of glory with a song and abandons his passion to be with his wife and baby.

The award for Best Documentary went to Clare Weiskopf and Nicolas Van Hemelrick for Alis [Alice] (Colombia), and Special Mention in that category went to Squatters/Okupas by Catalina Santamaría, a co-production of the United States and Colombia.

Dominican director Natalia Cabral and the Spaniard Oriol Estrada won the award for Best Screenplay for Una película sober parejas [A Film about Couples].

The 22nd edition of the Havana Film Festival, which presented more than 30 films from ten Latin American countries and Latinos in the United States, concluded yesterday with the award ceremony in a movie theater in Manhattan. Also presented was the world premiere of the documentary La Habana de Fito, [Fito’s Havana] by Juan Pin Vilar, a co-production of Cuba and Argentina, about the memories of the Argentine singer-songwriter in his relationship with Havana.

The director wasn’t present, but the well-known Cuban film critic Frank Padrón presented the documentary and stressed that Pin Vilar has “a special sensibility for musicians” and recalled that in addition to various works for television he made a documentary about the singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés.

“Now he has a very special approach to an Argentine singer-songwriter closely linked to my country: Fito Páez, a reference point for several generations in Cuba,” he said.

Padrón was also proud that this was Cuba’s night, winning the Best Film award and closing the festival with another Cuban film.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Hospitalized in Madrid for his Delicate State of Health, Cuban Performer Pablo Milanes Cancels his Concerts

Caption: Milanés sang for the last time in Cuba last June, in a concert not without controversy and tensions. (Archive of Pablo Milanés)

14ymedio, Madrid, 11 November 2022 — Cuban singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés, 77, is hospitalized in Madrid and has been in delicate health in recent months with various infections, due to his disease, a type of cancer, myelodysplastic syndrome, which decreases his immune response, according to family members. The artist, who suffers from inflammation of the gallbladder and a kidney infection, has had to cancel his upcoming concerts.

However, another nearby source reassures, “at this moment his health is under control, and we hope that he will be discharged soon.” It was to receive cancer treatment that Milanés moved five years ago to Spain, where he currently resides.

Milanés’ medical situation has forced him to cancel several concerts he planned to give in Spain and the Dominican Republic. “That has depressed him a lot,” says the same source, interviewed by this newspaper, “but now the important thing is that he achieves an improvement that allows him at least stability.”

The family announced that it will soon issue a press release on the musician’s official networks to “generate calm” about the artist’s hospital admission. continue reading

Milanés had to cancel a concert in Santo Domingo on December 5, initially scheduled for September, which also was delayed due to his health.

“The local production company, in full concordance with the artist’s office, decided to cancel the date,” Alfonso Quiñones reported in the Dominican newspaper El Caribe. The musician “had to be hospitalized in Spain,” added the journalist, who noted that his shows in the Spanish cities of Pamplona and Granada were also canceled.

For its part, the Diario de Navarra also reported on the cancelation of the concert in Pamplona, on November 13, and attributed it to an alleged “intestinal indisposition recently suffered which required the artist to rest due to medical indications.”

Milanés sang in Cuba for the last time in June, in a concert not without controversy and tensions. The crowded performance, with a strong police and State Security presence, finally took place in the Coliseo de la Ciudad Deportiva, in Havana, after several protests over the location initially chosen by the cultural authorities, the National Theatre of Cuba.

A large part of the 2,000-seat capacity of the National Theater has been sold to “organizations,” which caused popular discontent and the transfer of the concert to the Coliseo, which has 15,000 seats. Although the show took place normally and Milanés showed no signs of ill health, many attendees agreed that it had the tone of “a farewell.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Inspectors Fine Garage Sale Vendors in Havana

If the building’s residents complain, the chances of getting a visit from an inspector or the police increase astronomically. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 5 November 2022 — A sign that, only a few days ago, was advertising a garage sale on 26th Street in Havana had suddenly disappeared, leaving customers to wonder if the owner had either skipped town or had nothing to sell. The truth is the sale was cancelled out of caution after officials announced that they would be keeping a closer eye on this type of retail activity, making sure only “authorized items” were being sold.

“I can’t risk getting fined so I didn’t open this weekend,” says Tahimí, a 38-year-old Havana resident who got on the garage sale bandwagon as soon as it was legalized in 2021. “Some of what I sell are second-hand clothes and shoes but my biggest sellers are housewares and other imported goods,” she says.

Cuban officials have begun cracking down on illegal commercial activities. This has not only put coleros — professional line-sitters — resellers and hoarders under greater scrutiny but also threatens others involved in the retail trade. At a recent meeting of senior officials in Havana, there were calls for greater oversight of garage sales, the sites at which they take place and the types of items being sold there.

The announcement caught the attention of anyone who had ever set up shop in a stairway, at a building entrance or in a parking garage. These makeshift stores might sell anything from clothing and wallets to light bulbs, fast-acting glue and cigarettes. “I guess we’ll only be selling used goods or things we happen to have at home,” laments Tahimí.

She recalls that, in late 2013, the government banned the sale of imported goods in private stores, which were being supplied by “mules” returning from trips to countries such as Mexico, Panama and Russia. But last year’s protests forced the government to quickly adopt a set of measures intended to quell popular discontent. Legalizing garage sales was one such measure.

Though the new rules did not require a garage sale operator to have a business license or to register as a self-employed worker, he or she still had to get a permit from the Municipal Administration Council, at a cost of 50 pesos. A few weeks later the regulation was “updated” and the permit requirement was eliminated. “No one told us what we could or couldn’t sell but recently I’ve met several neighbors who were fined for displaying food and coffee.” continue reading

Others choose not to give in to fear. “Nobody has told me that I can’t sell these things,” says a vendor who operates on Tulipán street in the Cerro neighborhood. On a small table he displays several types of sunglasses, USB sticks and a couple of universal remote controls, all new and in their original packaging.

“No one told us what we could or couldn’t sell but recently I’ve met several neighbors who were fined for displaying food and coffee.” (14ymedio)

He points out, however, that longtime street vendors on Galiano and Monte streets, people “who have been doing this their whole lives,” are receiving the same fines as those who operate garage sales. It is difficult to distinguish between them because the merchandise they are selling increasingly corresponds to items in short supply at state-owned stores, forcing consumers to turn to the informal market for all manner of everyday items.

Residents in Luyanó alert vendors when they see “a red and white minivan approaching.” It ferries inspectors to the neighborhood to conduct checks on garage sales and private vendors. Garage sales are now only allowed to operate on weekends and may only carry second-hand goods and one or two duplicates of new items vendors might have at home.

Witnesses report that infractions are subject to fines ranging from 3,000 to more than 10,000 pesos. These are particularly hefty sums considering how widely this type of activity was tolerated until very recently.

To evade oversight, some garage sales have moved online. “Selling bales of used clothing in good condition,” reads a classified ad on Facebook. “A combo of pants, shoes, blouse and feminine accessories at a very good price,” reads another, which adds “No need to leave home, the merchandise comes to you.”

There are also those who act as suppliers to the vendors. “I have clothes for garage sales, available separately or as twelve pieces packaged together” reads another classified on a page seemingly overflowing with deals on both second-hand and brand new items. Many ads are placed by families planning to leave the country, of which there are more and more every day, and who cannot fit their belongings in their suitcases.

But it is not just officials who are keeping an eye on garage sales. Residents in one twelve-story building in Nuevo Vedado complain that an operation of this type has invaded their stairway and is attracting people “who are constantly coming and going,” shopping for and trying on clothes. “It’s fine that they’re making a little money but they’re using a public space for their own personal gain,” one neighbor remarks.

If the building’s residents complain, the chances of getting a visit from an inspector or the police increase astronomically. “They can always find some reason to shut you down or to fine you because no one can get just by selling only what you’re allowed to sell,” she adds. When it comes to garage sales, the era of just looking the other way has come to an end, and only a little more than a year after they were legalized.

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The U.S. Calls on Cuba to ‘Unconditionally’ Release All Political Prisoners

Image released by the Cuban Foreign Ministry of the meeting of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, with American officials this Wednesday. (MINREX)

14ymedio, Madrid, 10 November 2022 — The two senior American officials who were in Cuba these last two days not only talked to their counterparts on the island about migration. According to a statement released on Wednesday by the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, Rena Bitter, Undersecretary of Consular Affairs of the State Department, also expressed to the Cuban officials their “concern” about the human rights situation and asked the Government to “unconditionally release” all political prisoners.

Both Bitter and Ur Mendoza Jaddou, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, visited Havana at the end of a work tour that also included Guyana and Miami.

At their meetings on the Island, the officials discussed issues such as the complete resumption of immigrant visa procedures at the Embassy in Havana, beginning on January 4, and diversity visas. In addition, they advanced the resumption of the processing of K visas for fiancés in the same diplomatic headquarters.

Both met on Wednesday with the Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, the Chancellery reported in a statement, which doesn’t allude to the issue of human rights, as the U.S. statement does.

On the contrary, the document alludes to the suspension five years ago, by the previous U.S. Administration, of the consular services “under a pretext discarded by scientists and official reports,” the so-called “Havana Syndrome,” the health incidents suffered by American and Canadian diplomats, which Cuba denies. continue reading

The Deputy Foreign Minister also reproached its northern neighbor for having granted Cubans in recent years only about 4,000 visas per year, when “in the 1984 immigration agreements the United States committed to grant at least 20,000 visas per year.”

The lament continues: “In the last five years, Cubans were forced to go to third countries for all their procedures, which increases the costs, without certainty of approval, and there are those who are committed to an irregular migration that puts lives in danger,” he said, referring to Guyana and the Cubans who leave through Nicaragua and on boats.

In Georgetown, on Monday, the U.S. diplomatic headquarters published a photo of Bitter and Mendoza Jaddou along with the Minister of Human Services and Social Security of Guyana, Vindhya Persaud, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hugh Todd, indicating in a message that they discussed the process of international adoptions of The Hague and “reduced waiting times for nonimmigrant visas in Guyana.”

The exodus from the Island has exceeded 224,000 people in just one year, a figure that is far greater than the previous major migratory waves of the Island, in 1980 and 1994, and one that grows day by day.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Informs Foreign Investors that it Will Pay Its Debts to Them ‘Gradually’

The 38th edition of the Havana International Fair (FIHAV) will be held from November 14 to 18, 2022. (FIHAV)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 November 2022 — Few revelations were made this Wednesday night on Cuban State TV’s Roundtable program dedicated to the Havana International Fair, which opens next Monday at Expocuba.

The appearance on the program of the Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, raised the expectation that some of the most interesting issues surrounding this fair would be reported, such as who the American exhibitors will be. His presence, at the end, seemed to justify itself more by taking seriously the Cuban government’s promise to pay its debts to its investors.

“They [the investors] have been informed that late payments or other problems in fulfilling the commitments made will be resolved gradually,” Malmierca seriously assured after saying that 60 countries and entrepreneurs from different countries will be present, which, in his opinion, is a guarantee of the confidence “that the international community has in doing business in the Cuban market despite the blockade.”

Among the most impressive novelties was the announcement of the presentation, next Wednesday, of a new national beer with a joint venture (no details were given), and the expansion of the Mexican meat producer, Richmeat, already present in the Special Development Zone of Mariel, where, in addition, a new joint venture with the British multinational Unilever will be inaugurated, although little about the joint venture was revealed. continue reading

Malmierca gave some figures, including that there are about 400 Cuban companies that will be present at the fair, which will occupy 53,820 square feet. The director didn’t say that the price ranged from 335 to 1,345 pesos per square foot, depending on the location and the benefits, moderate prices compared to other fairs of its kind.

Antonio Carricarte Corona, president of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce, delved into the national data and explained that the companies of the Island participate in two modalities, that of “presence on the stand,” with 227 companies of which five are SMEs [small and medium-size businesses] and three are non-agricultural cooperatives; and that of “professional visitor,” with 177 companies, including 46 SMEs.

“In the case of micro and small companies, they are the ones with the greatest potential for export within their economic activity,” the minister said, while Carricarte said that “for Cuban companies it’s an excellent opportunity, because the fair gives them visibility and the possibility of establishing links with other entities.”

The foreign countries most represented in the commercial exchange are China, Russia, Spain, France, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela, but there are also two new ones, the United Arab Emirates and Laos. “There are more than 25 official delegations chaired by ministers, deputy ministers and even a vice president and secretaries of state,” Malmierca boasted.

He was more restrained in the case that attracts the most interest, that of U.S. companies, announced weeks earlier. “Not a large number, but yes, there are already nine confirmed that will participate as exhibitors, and some others that will participate in the fair through different delegations,” he said.

In parallel, as in every year, the fifth investment forum will be held, where the new portfolio of business opportunities with foreign capital will be presented.

The president of the Chamber of Commerce advanced some more projects, including a renewable energy project “which is based on the circular economy with the use of biomethane gas for transport exploitation,” and a platform to export organic coffee using blockchain technology.

Eduardo Correa González, president of the Palco group, was also on the Roundtable program to give some data on the logistics of the fair, in which they have “relied on the support of both the state and the SMEs, which also helped to make the facilities operational.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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An Official Commission Prepares a Law to Expand the Right to Property in Cuba

Not only to be able to afford a plane ticket, but also to avoid the loss of property, Cubans who emigrate sell their houses at a very low price. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 November 10, 2022 — “My sister left, closed her house, and I am taking care of it, but if she doesn’t return in 24 months she will lose it,” says María Clara, a 65-year-old woman from Havana who also has a nephew’s apartment under her care. The mass exodus has spread this phenomenon and also low-priced sales to be able to pay for travel expenses, a trend that could change with the new housing legislation studied by the Cuban Government.

“A commission of lawyers, experts on the subject of housing, has been formed to suggest changes that fit the current scenario of large numbers of emigrants,” says a law graduate linked to the Land Registry, who prefers to remain anonymous.

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

Among the proposals made by some of the lawyers involved in the commission is to allow the same person to own more than one home, something that is only allowed now if it’s a house in the city and another in a rural or beach area. “In that way, the family member who remains in Cuba could assume the ownership of the house and be able, in addition to taking care of it, to carry out all kinds of legal arrangements on it.”

With an unprecedented exodus — about 200,000 Cubans have reached the southern border of the United States since January — the Cuban real estate landscape highlights the challenges posed to the country by the massive departure of so many residents. “The number of powers over homes, vehicles and other properties has multiplied significantly,” recognizes an employee of the notary on 10th Street, between 15 and 17, in El Vedado. continue reading

“They arrive early in the morning and mark their spot in line, especially to leave a power of attorney to a family member so he can sell the house, rent it or donate it, as the case may be,” the same source adds. “They are people who haven’t decided to dispose of their property because they don’t know how migration will go, or people who, although they have tried to sell their house, haven’t been able to, because the real estate market is saturated with offers.”

“Normally they leave the power to a family member or a friend, but the case is already happening of a person who has several powers for several relatives and, on top of that, must physically take care of the homes that are in his care, which makes everything more complicated,” explains the notary worker. “We have to look for a solution to all this, and relaxing the time of 24 months that the person can stay outside the country without losing his property is a first step.”

The perception that the two-year barrier has become narrower is widespread, especially on an island where the numbers of migrants can continue to grow as many commercial flights stopped or cut by the pandemic are restored.

“The market is notable by the rush, the rush of the one who wants to leave and must sell before getting on the plane,” says Liuba, 35, who acts as an intermediary between sellers and home buyers. “But we also have to do business not just with the owner but also with the person to whom he left the power to decide on the house. It’s an increasingly common phenomenon.”

Authorizing Cubans to stay abroad longer without losing their residence on the Island and allowing them to have more than one property would be a way to “relieve this problem a bit and, above all, encourage people who are leaving not to feel that it’s forever, that they have a place here to return to,” Liuba considers.

Recently, Ernesto Soberón, general director of Consular Affairs and Attention to Cubans Living Abroad of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced, during a meeting with emigrants from the Island in Uruguay, that Cuba was working on a citizenship law. The official assured that in the next Legislature of the National Assembly, which begins in 2023, a passport and immigration law will be approved.

Although the announcement has provoked a lot of speculation, it shouldn’t be surprising, as the adjustments to this legislation were already expected since the adoption of a new Constitution in 2019. However, the current migration context seems to be rushing the pace and forcing deeper flexibilizations.

“We are working intensively and sending broad proposals that connect not only the issue of home ownership with migration, but also facilitate many procedures related to property to be carried out from abroad,” explains the lawyer linked to the commission that prepares the new road map.

“But what is proposed, what is finally legislated no longer corresponds to us. That is decided “up there,” he recognizes. “I have several colleagues, excellent lawyers, who were proposed to be part of the commission and declined, because on other occasions they have sunk up to their knees in countless documents, and laws have been studied, but in the end their proposals have not been accepted.”

For this expert on property issues, “there is a pressing need to relax the right to several properties and the time frame abroad, but I don’t know if the Government is aware of the urgency.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Culture Crisis of the Cuban Revolution

The pandemic has finished off what was already the poor state of Cuban cinemas.

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 9 November 2022 — To the grave situation in the sectors of economy, food, finance, energy, politics, social justice, migration and health — all from which Cuba is suffering — we may add a new crisis that could deliver the final death blow to a fading, crumbling model. Because if culture is the “sword and shield of the nation”, then culture’s current scenario would seem to point to the inevitable total breakdown of the system.

From the first minutes in which Díaz-Canel took power he was already stamping his signature on Decree 349 — which is aimed at increasing institutional control over artistic endeavour — and the passing of the decree would only prove to be the beginning of this unfortunate, hopeless and charisma-free little man’s headaches.

The newer generations of creatives championed an independent art scene, one that could make the most of the tiny opening seen in other sectors during the “Obama era”. But the party idealogues preferred a perestroika without glasnost. They were indeed forced to instigate a timid restructuring of the economy, but in no way were they disposed to giving up their iron control of the narrative.

At the Youth Show of the Cuban Institute of Art and Cinematographic Industries, ’El Cardumen’ (The School/Shoal) was established, which defended words such as inclusion, question, risk, equality. They declared on their manifesto: “Our films will continue to speak (…), even though they will try to gag us”. Elsewhere, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Yanelys Núñez organised the ’#00biennial’, on the fringes of officialdom and managed to bring together around a hundred artistes. The creation of their San Isidro Movement would mark a decisive chapter in events that were starting to unchain themselves.

In 2019, in great haste, the ninth congress of the UNEAC (The National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba) was convened. Its architects conceived the meeting as a dam which could hold back the turbulent cultural waters. But the epic songs of praise to the congress did not take into account an unforeseen event worthy of the Theban Cycle – the arrival of the pandemic.

On 27 November 2020 the abyss that has always existed between Cuban artists and the institutions that regulate cultural policy became unbridgeable again. [Ed. note: See also articles here.] Two months later, the pseudo-poet who served as minister was becoming a vulgar telephone snatcher, and a mob of fat old men would go out to beat up another group of young people in front of the sumptuous mansion (or barracks) in Vedado, where they attempt to direct culture. continue reading

Ever since [the popular song of 1916] La Chambelona, and even before that, songs have always played a decisive role in Cuban political battles. For that reason the tremendous impact of Patria y Vida has not been a surprise, chanted, as it was, in the streets during the biggest social unrest ever seen in the country. It was of no use that the regime charged their hard hitter, Raúl Torres, with the task of getting the government out of a difficult spot. While Patria y Vida was shared millions of times and was awarded two Latin Grammy prizes, including Song of the Year, its counterpart, Patria o Muerte por la Vida, got tens of thousands of “dislikes” in just 72 hours.

With the slogan “Give Your Heart to Cuba“, official journalism took it that it ought to become more “cool” — in reality, the worst “cool press” possible. So national television would be filled with gossip programmes, such as “With Edge”, where bitching about people becomes the norm.

After 11J [the 11 July 2021 protests], a handful of artists with deserved recognition for their work, decided to face their fears and break their silence. Many of them publically renounced their membership of UNEAC or AHS because both organisations decided to turn their backs on their own members in order to yield to the despots who gave the orders.

Today, Cuban culture is suffering the greatest exodus of talent that has been seen to date. State budgets for the arts have been reduced more than ever before, and the paintings that they hang in front of the institutions possess neither workmanship nor artistic merit, nor leadership.

And to make matters worse, the numbers provided by the Annual Directory of Statistics are overwhelming. A quick comparison of the years 2018 and 2021 would be enough to show the magnitude of the disaster. From 1,765 titles published earlier, the figure goes down to just 527. In only three years 5 ’Casas de la Trova’ (music venues), 6 bookshops, 14 theatres, 19 cinemas, 26 arts centres and 27 art galleries have been lost. During that same period, more than 20 theatre companies and almost two thousand professional music groups have disappeared.

This carnival of mediocrity has laid bare another myth of the Revolution: In “The time of the mameys” [ed. note: “The moment of truth’] the first thing they’re ready to sacrifice is precisely: culture.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Barefoot and Dirty, Cuba’s Beggar Children of Central Havana Do Not Officially Exist

At the corner where the child beggars operate, an infirm lady arrives and scolds them for begging. (*14ymedio*)

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo/Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 9 November 9, 2022 –Ragged, with hollow eyes and a slightly hoarse voice, two children ask for money in Central Havana. The older may be fourteen or fifteen years old, the younger not more than eight. One is barefoot, with curly hair and a face stained by dirt. The other wears a pair of tattered flip-flops.

They ring a bell and extend a wicker basket, taking advantage of the activity at Belascoaín and Carlos III. At the corner where the child beggars operate, an infirm lady, not very presentable, arrives, and she scolds them for begging. “Where’s your family?” she asks them, without the children being able to respond.

The rate of begging on the Island has skyrocketed tragically, and if before you saw only older men begging in the streets, usually alcoholics, now women, the disabled, psychiatric patients, adolescents and children also do so.

The “homeless’ euphemism which the Government has applied to beggars has proven to be a crude simplification. Although many of them, in fact, live on the streets and sleep in the doorways or corners of a dilapidated building, others beg “as a job.” They are located on central avenues and question not only tourists, but also Cubans.

In many cases they are “stationary” beggars; they choose a neighborhood or a specific corner, and learn to take the pulse of their space: the best hours, the faces of passers-by, the precise words to earn a coin or a loaf of bread. continue reading

“Most of the adults are very deteriorated from alcohol and age,” Julia, a neighbor of Central Havana, tells 14ymedio. They are the typical drunks, who always carry their plastic bottle to store the chispa, the alcohol of any category they consume. Most are adult men.”

In many cases they are “stationary” beggars: they choose a neighborhood or a specific corner, and learn to take the pulse of their space. (14ymedio)

The reason that begging has proliferated so much, says Julia, is due both to the resounding crisis that is going through the Island and the closure of several old-age homes in Havana. “These are things that have a lot to do with it: the collapse of the economy, the emergence of poverty and the forced parental responsibility in the new Family Code. Everything is designed so that the State can wash their hands,” she says.

“On the ground floor of my building,” the woman says, “several beggars ’alternate’. There was an old and very sick one, with a tube from his urine collector, always stained with a bloody liquid. He slept between cartons and right there he urinated and defecated, right in front of the front door.”

Like other neighbors, Julia avoids leaving the building when the beggars are “on guard.” A recent episode of violence confirms this forecast. “Recently, a neighbor came down at ten at night to throw out the garbage and one of them took advantage, pushed the door and tried to enter the building. I don’t know what he intended, whether to lie inside, urinate or settle on the roof.”

“The neighbor tried to bar the way and the man became aggressive. Since then, we never take out the garbage at night,” explains Julia.

One of the variants of poverty in Havana is the “beggar sellers.” (14ymedio)

Faced with government rhetoric, which closes its eyes to extreme poverty on the Island, the woman insists that there have always been beggars, but now they are increasingly aggressive, and it’s common for them to become “fixed tenants” of doorways and buildings. Even so, they still frequent the “boulevards for beggars” of Havana: Infanta, Carlos III, Belascoaín streets and other central avenues.

“Cubans don’t have a culture of giving money to beggars,” Julia adds. Children are always warned that beggars want someone else to “pay for their vices,” and they use that capital to buy rum or cigars. That’s why it’s uncommon for passers-by who walk through Havana’s long covered sidewalks to place a banknote in the baskets that the homeless extend.

One of the variants that poverty adopts in Havana is that of the “beggar-sellers,” sitting on the ground outside the buildings. “The most notorious thing about their ’goods’,” says Julia, “is that they’re things that are old, used, sometimes dirty, in a variety that goes from pots, casseroles and other kitchen utensils, to equipment, plugs and, of course, broken shoes and old books.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In the Absence of Imported Fat, Soap Production in Cuba Collapses

The shortage of the product is mainly due to the Government’s deficient management of production. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 9 November 2022 — Soap is another of the basic products that are disappearing from Cuban stores. The few bars available are sold on the black market at prices that are unaffordable for most people: more than 90 pesos for laundry soap and 80 pesos for personal-use soap.

Luis’s neighbor spent two weeks asking him for help to get a bar. “She practically begged me to find one for her, because she hasn’t bathed in 15 days,” says this Centro Habana resident.

Luis usually buys a large number of bars, because when he gets to stores that only take payment in freely convertible money (MLC) “there’s a long line. At home we don’t use the rationed soap, which itches tremendously, but there are people who have to bathe with it,” Luis says.

The shortage of the product is mainly due to the poor production managed by the Government. The Basic Business Unit (UEB) Suchel Cetro, in Habana del Este, had plans to develop 13,383 tons of washing soap for this year, but in October it had only achieved 44.6% of the quota, with a little more than 5,978 tons. continue reading

The same difficulties are present in the production of toilet soap: the company had a plan of 10,200 tons this year, and it has only produced 4,970, tons, 47% of the goal. “The main cause is the increase in the price of the raw materials necessary for this product,” apologized Alexander Puig Varona, director of the UEB, in a post in Cubadebate where, according to the media, he sought to clarify the doubts of readers about the shortage of the product.

Cuba imports most of the raw materials it needs, mainly base soap chips, which, due to the pandemic, it has not been able to acquire in the amount required to boost manufacturing. Nor does it keep the Cuban chip plant operational, Puig Varona explained, because it’s “impossible” to bring in the tankers with the fat.

Given the shortage of antiseptic, in Guantánamo, the Labiofam company has resorted to substitute materials to make soap for humans and pets. An example of this is the Jatropha curcas, a plant imported from the Mexican state of Morelos, acquired with funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (COSUDE).

With four cups of its oil, 418 units were made, of 1 ounce each, in the minimum format of “hotel soap.” This production, which took 30 minutes, was allocated to health and veterinary services, the company reported on Facebook on September 19.

The production also includes a batch of soap made from neem, a plant native to India with medicinal properties. A production of 5,000 bags of 8 ounces of soap was planned for September.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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More than 100 migrants, Mostly Cuban, Were Abandoned in Two Hotels in Mexico

The migrants will be taken on Tuesday night to the U.S. border. (GCE)

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 9 November 2022 — On Tuesday, the State Civil Guard of Mexico arrested more than 100 migrants, mostly Cubans, who were abandoned by coyotes in two hotels in the municipality of Soledad, in the state of San Luis Potosí.

“The group waited for the evening to continue on its way to the United States,” said one of the guides, speaking to the clerk of a store where they bought water, ham and bread. The business is located a few feet from one of the hotels.

Contacted by 14ymedio, the clerk, who identified himself as Josué, pointed out that, between Saturday night and early Monday morning, several vans “of Cubans” entered the California Hotel. The establishment is located four minutes from federal highway 57, one of the routes used by coyote networks for the smuggling of migrants, according to what Miguel Gallegos, a spokesperson for State Security, said in May.

Josué specified that on Monday, several Central Americans, mostly men who stayed at the España Hotel, descended from a truck normally used for the transport of cattle. “I know because one entered the store and asked me if I accepted quetzales. That’s when I found out that he was from Guatemala and the others came from Honduras and Ecuador,” he clarified.

“I can’t give you exact numbers, but several groups of between 40 to 60 people per day pass through the municipality. Some stay, others are escorted, like the Cubans,” Josué explained. continue reading

The authorities of San Luis Potosí reported to Migration the detention of Cubans and other migrants. (GCE)

Gallegos pointed out that, because of the increase in roadblocks, the polleros (coyotes) began to use alternate roads, and the state administration is trying to cover the “gaps” used by human traffickers for the transfer to the U.S. border.

On Tuesday, the governor of San Luis Potosí, Ricardo Gallardo Carmona, addressed the immigration issue and reported that the authorities “rescued” more than 100 undocumented people, almost all of Cuban origin, but wondered how they managed to get almost half-way on their journey without having been intercepted by any authority.

From San Luis Potosí, migrants can take the route that brings them to the state of Coahuila and try to cross the Rio Grande through Ciudad Acuña or Piedras Negras. The crossings through Matamoros, Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo are another alternative, but they are controlled by the drug cartels. Several Cubans have told 14ymedio that the Gulf Cartel uses keys and colored bracelets for the passage of migrants, depending on the payment they make for the transfer.

According to the authorities of San Luis Potosí, the National Migration Institute will take care of the corresponding procedures for the repatriation of irregular migrants.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Journalist from ‘Diario de Cuba’ Denounces Police Aggression in His Own Home

The reporter demanded that any summons presented to him must be through an official order. (Facebook/Jorge Enrique Rodríguez)

14ymedio, Havana, 8 November 2022 — Cuban journalist Jorge Enrique Rodríguez was arrested on Monday and taken to the police station in Marianao, Havana. After being held in incommunicado for more than four hours, he denounced to Diario de Cuba, the media outlet for which he works as a reporter, that they forcefully transported him after an incident of harassment by police in his own home.

In a livestream, after he was released, Rodríguez recounted his argument with a uniformed officer who tried to hit him. As he exited his house, he was intercepted by a State Security agent who asked that he “accompany” him. The reporter demanded that any summons presented to him must be through an official order.

He recalled that, in the past whenever he had been called by police, he went willingly. “I can’t talk,” said Rodríguez, to which the official responded that the patrol car was waiting for him. “I could have chosen to stay home,” said the reporter, but he decided to go out. “I am a street person, I won’t allow myself to remain shut in.”

In plain language, Rodríguez stated that his behavior has been that of an exemplary citizen, but he cannot “turn his back on problems… I live in a hallway where there are two families,” he observed, and in that corridor which the journalist considers “private property” two officials tried to detain him.

“I shoved him,” said Rodríguez, referring to how he defended himself against the uniformed officer who assaulted him, a young man not older than 30 in his opinion. “Let them accuse me of resisting arrest, as they will accuse me. That is their problem.”

The journalist described his fight with the officials. “He lifted one” of them, grabbing him by his shirt while he tried assault him from behind. Rodríguez described himself as “very uncomfortable when it comes time to throw blows,” and admits he would not tolerate that type of violence in his own home. continue reading

He stated that one of the officials planned to “ambush him” as soon as he went out into the street because he blurted that “his face was etched in his memory.” He warned that Tuesday he would go out and that he “would like to see” how the police would behave. Irritated, he added that his response to the agents that assaulted him would be the same in the future.

No one intervened in the confrontation, said Rodríguez, only women and older people were in the residences in his corridor. “For the first time in my life I am boasting about winning a fight with a man,” he concluded, “no one’s presence intimidates me.”

“I’m tired of crying from helplessness every day,” he commented, referring to the thirty or so femicides committed in Cuba this year and the trial of troubadour Fernando Bécquer, who continually mocks his house arrest, a sentence he must serve for sexual harassment, while they try to keep him in his home.

He also stated that, as of now, State Security will have to formalize its summons and that the content of the interrogations will be denounced publicly. He added that he does not intend for his words to be interpreted as violent, but that he must confront the difficulties of his work on social media and in daily life.

“My way of being led me to publish my poetry books and to become an art professional,” he said. “It led me to be a successful functionary when I worked for the government. And now I am a successful journalist.” The intellectual and artistic trajectory of those opponents that the government discredits are never recognized publicly, bemoaned Rodríguez, and they are always presented as “delinquents”.

Rodríguez, who has been repressed on several occasions by State Security, stated that exile is not an option for him and that he will continue his work on the Island for Diario de Cuba.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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