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 ElCaribe. 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 DiariodeNavarra 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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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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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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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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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 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.
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] LaChambelona, and even before that, songs have always played a decisive role in Cuban political battles. For that reason the tremendous impact of PatriayVida 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 PatriayVida was shared millions of times and was awarded two Latin Grammy prizes, including Song of the Year, its counterpart, PatriaoMuerteporlaVida, 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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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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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 Jatrophacurcas, 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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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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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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Evo Morales (Bolivia), Rafael Correa (Ecuador) and Juan Manuel Santos (Colombia). (El Universo)
14ymedio, Madrid, November 8, 2022 — The Cuban platform, D Frente [D Front], has penned a letter to former Latin American leaders who, last week, asked the U.S. to end the embargo against Cuba, inviting them now to make statements about the situation of rights and freedoms on the Island. Furthermore, they requested the leaders contribute their knowledge to a democratic transition.
D Frente, formed in September by six opposition organizations on the Island and abroad, introduces itself in the letter as a “concentration of civic and political actors, diverse Cubans, individuals and institutions, that aim for a refounding of the Republic, under Marti’s maxim of “With everyone and for the good of everyone.”
The text is a response to the letter signed by about twenty former leaders, many of them close to or belonging to the movement known as 21st century socialism, with Dilma Rousseff (Brazil), Rafael Correa (Ecuador) and Evo Morales (Bolivia) playing major roles. Also in the group are the former Colombian president and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Juan Manuel Santos and his predecessor who held that charge until 1998, Ernesto Samper.
The petition to the U.S. was also signed by Uruguayan José Mujica, Panamanian Martín Torrijos, Dominicans Vinicio Cerezo and Leonel Fernández, as well as several former presidents of anglophone countries in the Caribbean.
In the response letter, D Frente stated it shares their concerns about the grave Cuban crisis and stated that “an urgent and integrated” action is necessary to solve it. “A solution that, in a complex world such as the one you have led, depends on respect for fundamental freedoms, the rule of law and human rights,” they stressed. continue reading
The platform petitions the signatories that, “their political experience, and the defense of freedom, democracy and respect for human dignity they demonstrated in their own governments,” may help to “civically and peacefully achieve a transition to democracy” like those that have developed in their respective countries.
“Excellencies, as Cuban citizens concerned about what our country is going through in this moment, we ask that you please make a statement, in a similar fashion, in favor of observing human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba. Your positions would be of much help, not only to Cuban society, but the state as well, at a peculiar moment in our history,” they claim.
The letter ends by appreciating the leaders for their concern for Cubans and the crisis that affects them.
In the letter shared a week ago by the American news agency, the Associated Press, the leaders posited that the difficulties Cubans experience “in supplying medication, the arrival of humanitarian assistance, the restrictions imposed on financial services, the arrival of tourists and investments by third parties” warrant the lifting of the sanctions imposed by Washington.
“We solicit, Mr. President, that you take into consideration the dramatic situation that thousands of Cubans are experiencing and do whatever is necessary to lift the restrictions that affect the most vulnerable,” they pressed Joe Biden in the letter where they also called for Cuba to be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, taking into consideration its “support for the peace process in Colombia with the National Liberation Army (ELN)” and its commitment with “compliance of the protocols signed with the Colombian state.”
D Frente is represented by Luis Rodríguez Pérez, of the Association of Mothers and Relatives of Political Prisoners for Amnesty; Ileana de la Guardia, the Council for a Democratic Transition in Cuba, Enrique Guzmán Karell, the Center for the Study of Rule of Law and Public Policy Cuba Próxima; Yunior García of Archipiélago; Jorge Masetti of the French Association for Democracy in Cuba; and Yanelys Núñez of the San Isidro Movement.
Its foundational document states that they consider “democracy and the rule of law” as “the best path for achieving inclusion, political pluralism, citizen sovereignty, and civilized rules for coexistence.”
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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Cayo Coco, in Jardines del Rey, is one of the restricted areas as of today. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, 7 November 2022 — The coastal keys of north Ciego de Ávila are to become a territory reserved exclusively for tourism. A new law will prevent access, for the majority of Cubans, to one of the most privileged areas of the Island and establishes that access will be limited “only to pre-booked tourist activity or activity authorised by local government, as well as people employed in the zone and other authorised personnel”.
The ruling, published in the Gaceta Oficial on Friday 4 November, declares the area (which includes Cayo Guillermo, Cayo Coco and the keys of Antón Chico, Antón Grande, Romano y Paradón Grande and all areas of the municipality of Morón) as a zone of special regulations — of economic development in the category of Territory for Preferential Tourist Use.
The declared objective is to “develop the tourist activities of sun-seeking, beach life, maritime sports and nature, all with a focus that is sustainable, harmonic and well-planned, oriented towards fostering productivity and development of the municipality to elevate the quality of life for its population” — although it’s obvious from this that local people will not be allowed to enter freely into the area unless they are workers authorised by the provincial governor, who is now in charge of the procedure for access applications. continue reading
In recent years the government has developed extended regulations for the protection of areas considered, in a decree of 2015, as strategic for protected tourism, through which the Institute of Physical Planning proposes to the Council of Ministers the areas to receive a differentiated treatment based on the various interests of: the environment, history, culture, the economy, defence, security and interior order.
In 2020, in fact, 14 zones of this type were declared on the Cuban coastline, but the regulations were for the most part directed at the control of fishing or the prevention of unauthorised removal of flora and fauna. A year later, in July 2021, six more were established in different municipalities of the Island. The harshest restrictions in those cases went from possible expropriations of homes — with compensation — if the land was considered optimal for tourism, to aesthetic limitations for the conservation of the area.
Also, this year 2022, restricted areas were established: in June, in Soroa and in July, in Playa Larga and in Ciénaga de Zapata — one of which already required authorisation for access to nature areas not delineated as public access. But prohibition of entry without permission has not yet been imposed in any of these zones like it has up until now in Ciego de Ávila.
The policy developed for the northern, key-scattered, area contains a long list of rules. Apart from those, what stands out is the ruling that the only things permitted in this area are: “the building of homes associated with the development of golf courses, motels for workers, and homes designed for accommodating foreign specialists in the tourist sector, starting from basic means”.
There will also be temporary camping sites for construction workers and for those working in administration or looking after protected areas, as well as for security staff.
The rest of the regulations concern energy saving, hygiene and security measures, environmental protection and conservation of native species, as well as the assigning of responsibility for the completion of each measure to suitably competent authorities or to the companies who manage each activity.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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The Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) again announced that the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, in Matanzas, stopped working due to a technological failure. (TV Yumurí/Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana, 6 November 2022 — The largest thermoelectric power plant in Cuba, Antonio Guiteras de Matanzas, was disconnected again this Saturday. The Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) reported that its departure from the National Electricity System was due to a “technological failure” that occurred 19 days after its synchronization to the network.
In an article in the official newspaper Cubadebate, the UNE pointed out that Guiteras is still out of the system for maintenance work this Sunday, as are units 4 and 5 of Nuevitas, Camagüey, and unit 3 of Renté, in Santiago de Cuba.
In addition, units 6 and 7 of the Mariel thermoelectric plant, in the province of Artemisa, and the Otto Parellada power plant in Havana are out of service due to breakdowns. Also out of service are unit 3 of Santa Cruz, Mayabeque; unit 4 of Cienfuegos and unit 2 of Felton, in Holguín.
For this Sunday, the UNE forecast is that there will be a generation capacity of 2,100 megawatts (MW) for a maximum demand of 3,100 MW in the peak hour, with which the deficit would be 1,000 MW. That is, 32.2% of the electricity demand required by Cuban households will not be covered. continue reading
The maximum impact on the service on Saturday night was 1,187 MW at 8:20 p.m., coinciding with the peak hour, when 21 MW were not generated due to damage to the plants after the passage of Hurricane Ian.
The Government warned in October that the Antonio Guiteras power plant would be out of the national electrical system for three months for the comprehensive repair of its outdated and defective technology, which makes its operation impossible. The thermoelectric plant has also been affected by the fire in the Matanzas supertanker fuel base and by the passage of Hurricane Ian.
Vicente de la O’Levy, Minister of Energy and Mines, said on October 31 that the “capital maintenance” of Cuba’s largest thermoelectric plant will take place between November 2022 and June 2023. The official assured that the work will be done “with great precision” and will include rigourous diagnoses “without false optimism.”
The exit from operation of the Guiteras plant again raises questions about the ability of the Díaz-Canel Government to fullfil its promise: that by December 2022 the blackouts, exacerbated since last May, will end. The blackouts have been the main trigger for the protests in Nuevitas and other parts of the country.
In the article published by the newspaper, negative comments abound about the plant’s exit from operation. “Didn’t this thermoelectric receive maintenance recently? How is this possible now? Who explains this? Are all failures not technological? No one believes what the electrical company says about maintenance, repairs, etc. Is it a practical joke?” questioned the commentator, identified as Jorge Milanés.
At the end of October, the authorities announced that the Lidio Ramón Pérez thermoelectric plant, also known as Felton, in Mayarí, would stop again for seven days to perform maintenance work, but its unit 2 is already out of service due to breakdowns.
Euclides Rodríguez Mejías, general director of the plant, explained that improving the efficiency of the boiler is the essential objective, specifically high-pressure heaters and recirculating gas fans. After the work, the official added, the block is expected to produce between 250 and 260 MW.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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“Everyone was waiting in the hospital corridor without any separation, even a lady full of blisters, as if she had monkeypox.” (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 7 November 2022 — Today the General Calixto García University Hospital in Havana is far from being the center of prestige that it once was. Even less does it honor the propaganda that, on official pages, sells its services as “high quality.”
Sandra remembers the week she spent at the Calixto García with her mother, Luisa, as a nightmare. Both resisted going to the doctor, like so many other Cubans, until the woman, about seventy years old, began to run out of breath, and the chest pain she suffered became unbearable.
They took it for granted that they would have to travel by taxi and not by ambulance, given the fuel shortage. What outraged both, as soon as they entered, was that there were not even stretchers. “I had to look for a stretcher and move it throughout the hospital,” Sandra tells 14ymedio. The shortage of personnel, precisely, is something widespread in health services due, above all, to the unstoppable migration.
The wait to go to the consultation was not in a room, but in the middle of the corridor, where the smell of disinfectant was overshadowed by the bad smells and urine coming from the bathrooms. “My nose is very sensitive,” says Sandra, “and that was unbearable.” continue reading
Right there, they observed a whole parade of patients, many of them with severe dengue fever, which this season has ravaged the Island. “Everyone was waiting there, without any separation, even a lady full of blisters, as if she had monkeypox,” the young woman continues. “Without any privacy or anything like it, on a stretcher in the middle of the hallway, they pumped the stomach of a woman who had overdosed with Diazepam. The woman said she wanted to leave all this shit. What can I say, not everyone is strong.”
The worst, however, was yet to come. Luisa, diagnosed with pneumonia, spent the night alone in the hospital. Her daughter, when she went to visit her the next day, observed that her arm was swollen. “It’s very common, they told me, that the needle comes out of the vein and the serum accumulates under the skin,” she says. “The problem is that the nurse told me there were no more needles anywhere and they couldn’t change it.”
Sandra soon knew that “no side” was defeated with a little will… and money under the table. The young woman first approached the supervisor and the deputy director of the hospital. “They swore that they couldn’t change it, that I had to put up with it.” When she turned around, already resigned, an employee of the center, who witnessed the scene, approached her and said: “I can solve that for you, tell me what bed she’s in, wait for me there, I’m going to bring it to you.” Sandra gave her 200 pesos, and another 200 to the nurse who, in collusion with the assistant, gave Luisa the new needle for the drip line.
“They also offered me Rocephin [the antibiotic specifically prescribed for her mother] at 250 pesos per vial, and if I needed a person to stay with my relative, they would also solve it for me,” Sandra explains.
And she adds: “With all that, they tell you any amount, they lie constantly. One day they didn’t give my mother the antibiotic and told her some story. In the morning, in another shift of nurses, I complained, and one said: ’Yes, they gave her the Rocephin, because here in the book it’s recorded’.”
Sandra can’t explain “how a simple hospital employee has the needles, medicines, everything, and yet, the bosses assured me that there was nothing in the hospital. Everything is pure corruption; Cuban hospitals have become a horror.”
As if that were not enough, one morning, several patients’ mobile phones were stolen. “In the same room, in 24 hours, there were three similar robberies,” says Sandra. “If it wasn’t an employee, it was someone disguised as an employee.”
In the midst of the sufferings of their relatives, people were forced to go to an Etecsa (State telecommunications company) office, with the identity card of the patients and a medical certificate stating that they were hospitalized, so that the state-owned company could cancel the phone number and allow them to take out a new line.
Sandra is telling all this, she says, “so that people have an idea of what someone who has a sick relative in this country has to go through. Going to a hospital has become a disaster.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 5 November 2022 — In a previous post we highlighted the actions of confrontation with illegalities that have been launched by the communist regime in Havana. The state press reported actions of control and monitoring in establishments and points of sale in the capital in the local development project of Recreatur Paseo Marítimo 1ra and 70, in the municipality of Playa, where, among other “illegalities,” workers were detected illicitly selling 39.47 pounds of lobster and nine pounds of shrimp. The official note said that equally abusive and speculative prices were found with excessive profits in products such as soft drinks and canned beers, mineral water and cans of Redbull. We have to see what illegalities are so serious.
As a result, the so-called municipal confrontation groups concerned with the illicit sale of food, hoarding, diversion of resources and abusive prices carried out four confiscations and imposed 41 fines, of which 37 were by the Directorate of Inspection, two by the Provincial Directorate of Finance and Prices and two by the National Directorate of State Inspection of the Food Industry (ONIE).
Another official report said that an operation in the Melones store, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, found as “illegalities” that workers retained goods, and that 6,129 pesos were missing, corresponding to the sales of the day. In this case, the communist authorities seized 11 packages of chicken, six of minced meat, three cartons of H. Upman cigarettes, 14 Sedal shampoo bottles and three bottles of conditioner, which were later sold to the population.
A night inspection was also carried out in the Cuba-Italia, Ciro Redondo and Gran Esfuerzo bakeries and detected that the standardized bread was low in weight and didn’t meet the quality parameters established in the technical standards charts. For these “illegalities,” master bakers and administrators were fined 8,000 pesos for violating the provisions regarding rules and prices.
There were also sanctions in the area of El Lido, in Havana, where the inspection bodies imposed fines of 8,000 pesos on a group of self-employed, for the fixing of abusive prices. On the other hand, in the municipality of Playa, the owner of a private cafeteria was fined 1,500 pesos for not being able to justify his possession of soft drinks, rums, sweets and cookies with the corresponding invoices. Two forklift operators were also fined 8,000 for establishing abusive prices on the sale of onions (600 pesos per pound), tomatoes (300 pesos per pound), lemons (250-300 pesos per pound) and peppers (350-400 pesos per pound). continue reading
The official note reports that in the Cojímar People’s Council two citizens were detected and arrested for the illegal sale of medicines; and in Guanabo the Police were led to an individual for illegal sale of shrimp. Finally, in an operation carried out at the Víbora Park People’s Council, in the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, 116 cartons of eggs, 43 packs of detergent, 34 bath soaps, 29 packs of wet wipes and 23 packs of sanitary napkins were dealt with in a home-warehouse.
The official press wants to draw attention to all these “illegalities” without granting to those sanctioned the right to a defense. They are simply fined, which in many cases, amounts to a month’s income.
The logical thing is that many of these producers stop providing their services and, as a result, consumers will find stalls closed and less merchandise to buy. It’s the same story of the last 63 years, and in addition, the communist regime warns of it even in the constitution: in Cuba private enrichment is not allowed.
The informal market can arise to satisfy the social needs not met by the state, but at any time, the authorities can persecute, harass and eliminate it with a stroke of a pen and that’s it. There is no country in the world where it’s so risky to engage in a private economic activity. Yes, the communist regime says it is fighting against “illegalities” that harm the national economy. But this is not entirely true.
For example, add up the amount of those “illegalities” that appear in this article, and you will see that it doesn’t exceed 200,000 pesos [ed note: $8,000 US as of today’s exchange rate]. That may not even be the total figure. We are talking about a ridiculous amount by Western standards, which may not even cover the salaries of police, inspectors and snitches, but in Cuba, the sanctioned will have a very bad time. There is no doubt about it. And this is what is intended with this type of repressive action.
In addition, everything happens because, according to the communist economic model imposed on the country, certain activities are qualified as “illegal” by the government. Of course, these activities aren’t illegal elsewhere, but in Cuba the parameters are different, and it depends on how it looks.
A good example of the parameter of “illegalities” in this case, committed by the regime that punishes Havana sellers, is how, for example, the hotel exploitation system of Cuba works.
It turns out that the state press these days has reported that Blue Diamond Resorts, exclusively, will begin operations in Cayo Largo del Sur. The Canadian hotel company Blue Diamond Resorts together with its Cuban counterpart in the business, the Gran Caribe Group, whose shareholding is known for its links with the regime, announce that four of 11 renovated properties in Cayo Largo del Sur will open their doors on November 4. The hotels that welcome the renovated destination are Memories Cayo Largo, Starfish Cayo Largo, The Villas Linda Mar and Marina.
When was the bidding and awarding of this business carried out? Was there any kind of oversight or was it awarded by decree. We find ourselves suddenly tongue-tied at witnessing a first “illegality”: in recent months the regime had been planning to transfer the hotels, which supposedly belong to the people, as productive assets to this Canadian hotel group.
In addition, the award has been made according to the global interests of citizens around the world, since Cubans will find the prices beyond their reach when these resorts open. Second “illegality.” Cubans cannot enjoy tourism in their own country.
So with these two sonorous “illegalities,” easy to appeal in independent courts, the first doesn’t invite other international companies to participate; and the second, the objective difficulty that those who are paid their salaries and pensions in Cuban pesos would have to be able to stay in these resorts. However the communist regime pursues the illegalities of poverty, of the eternal “resolving a problem,” of unmet needs, specifically for the Havana merchants, accusing them of illegalities and destroying their small businesses.
On the other hand, the same communist regime, with high-caliber “illegalities,” has made Blue Diamond Resorts Cuba the fastest growing hotel management company in the country, leaving behind other companies that already operated with the favor of the regime.
In reality, when we talk about illegalities in Cuba, we access a whole universe of injustices that have their most evident example in the crony capitalism and illicit pacts that exist in the tourism system. There is no need to think too hard. Someone will have taken a cut from the Blue Diamond deal. From time to time. So yes, there are illegalities… and multimillionaires.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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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.
