14ymedio – Page 162 – Translating Cuba

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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Former Presidents Opposed to the US Embargo are Asked to Make a Statement About Freedom in Cuba

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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Without a Hotel Reservation No One Can Now Get Access to Various Cuban Cayos [Keys]

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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Cuban Experts Continue to Look for the ‘Technological Failure’ in the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant

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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In Havana’s Calixto Garcia Hospital There is Nothing, but Everything is Solved with Money

“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.”

The hospital, one of the oldest in the capital, is rather the epitome of the situation of hospitals in Cuba. While the Government promotes its powerful Medical Services Marketer as a desperate tool to attract tourism, which still is avoiding the Island, hospital centers and doctors’ offices for Cubans are sinking into squalor, corruption and unhealthiness.

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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‘Illegalities’ in Cuba: A Two-Level Issue

Starfish Cayo Largo (Source: Hotel website)

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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Confusion and Annoyance in Cuba Over the Registration of Generators to Buy Gasoline

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 8 November 2022 — Barely two or three people in line filled their generators this Tuesday at the service center on Libertadores de Holguín Avenue. A day before, there were more than thirty customers, and their photos spread like wildfire on independent networks and media.

At the back of the long line they had already heard the news about the fuel shortage that plagues the country, which requires increasingly strict rationing measures. In Holguín, in particular, the owners of generators are obliged to “register” the device in the Cupet if they want to receive 2.6 gallons of gasoline.

“First we were told that the district delegate was in charge of making the list of generators that people have, especially those who use them to maintain a cafeteria or a rental house,” says Elisa, the owner of a guest house in that city. “But on the weekend, another neighbor who also rents to foreigners told me that we had to wake up on Monday and go to the gas station to be able to register the generator.”

At the gas station, they found more people in the same situation, some with their physical power plants, others with a photo or something that showed ownership of the device.

“The employees didn’t know very well what to do, but they finally noted down the identity card and serial number of each generator,” Elisa says. continue reading

The confusion was because, in reality, the latest official provisions for the province leave nothing explicit regarding this new “census.” According to a publication by the Cimex state corporation in Holguín on November 1, from that day on, a “scheme” would be established to “organize and expedite the dispatch of fuel,” indicating the type of vehicle, device or need for each Cupet gas station.

The one on Libertadores Avenue would serve for generators, “all fuels,” private and state cars, basic services, people with disabilities and tourism (“when there is no availability or current in Transtur,” they specify). Nothing was said, however, about quantity or frequency.

This Monday, after standing between motorcyclists and cars, Elisa bought her first 2.6 gallons of gasoline and was told to stop by the service center in the next few days to see what the “final” schedule would be to buy again. They detailed: “At the moment it’s between 10 and 12 days, depending on the availability of fuel.”

The young woman took the opportunity to leave her tax number in case that can help her in the future to buy more fuel for her private business, which shows her desperation and that of so many others in the same situation. “I have to guarantee customers that they will at least have a light in the bathroom if there is a power outage.”

User comments on Cimex’s provincial publication are full of complaints and criticism. “Every time they talk about ’reordering’* they make things worse; this country needs resources, not reordering,” complains Yunier Batista González.

“What they tell me about the licensed private motorcycles is that only the Cupet 4 de Abril is assigned to them for fuel, and they have to share it with all the other motorcycles that aren’t licensed,” says Yamil Naciff, who wonders why they are assigned a certain Cupet if “we are also taxi drivers… They don’t take us into account at all or give us importance, and that’s very serious, because we support our families with that work. Fuel instability kills us.”

Ivan Alexander Chacón, who explains his situation, believes that the new measures don’t solve anything: “I’m seeing it in person. I have been in line for three days and on a list to buy [fuel] for my motorcycle in La Loma. I needed to travel to Cacocum, and I couldn’t buy because I was from Holguín. You have to make sure to go to the Cupet and not miss [your turn]; this madness is seen only in the province of Holguín.”

In the same vein, Reydel Pereira protests: “I don’t know what happens with Holguín. Everything here is a line, scarcity and high prices, because in Havana this doesn’t happen, in Santiago this doesn’t happen.”

The panorama in Holguín, however, is neither new nor unique. The first province to decree a rationing system for generators, more in demand as the blackouts increased, was Pinar del Río. There, since last August 20, only 5 gallons of gasoline are sold to generator owners “when it’s in stock in the Cupet.” To prove membership, they must present their identity card and proof “of ownership of the generator” to the Municipal Directorate of Economy and Planning.

In Havana, anyone who wants to buy fuel for their generator must also prove they own it, although they only need to bring the serial number to the service center, where 5 gallons will be dispatched, as reported to 14ymedio this same Tuesday by an employee of the Cupet at 25th and G, in El Vedado. Of course, he pointed out, “only when there is [fuel], because now there is nothing at all.”

*Translator’s note: The commentator is referring to the so-called “Ordering Task” [tarea ordenamiento] which is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso (CUP) as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘Inspectors Monitor the Sale of Tomatoes in Cuba as if They Were Lobster Tails’

The 19th and B market, in El Vedado, is almost entirely privately managed and is governed by the law of supply and demand. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 7 November 2022 — What is expected this season, when temperatures begin to fall in Cuba, is that tomatoes will reach the markets. However, this year, the fruit is absent from many agricultural stands in Havana. The reason is the daily police raids, launched recently, against high prices, and the decision of merchants to withdraw the product so as not to sell at a loss.

“There is no one selling tomatoes in this market,” said a young man this Sunday morning. He manages one of the stands at the Juvenile Labor Army (EJT) premises on Tulipán Street, in Nuevo Vedado. “We have been told that we can’t sell them for more than 200 pesos per pound, and that amount doesn’t give us a good profit,” he adds, speaking to 14ymedio.

This weekend, in the different kiosks located in the EJT market, you could see burro bananas, cabbages, sweet potatoes and leeks, but not the characteristic red color of the tomatoes needed to make a tasty salad. “That product is candela. You get a fine right away,” the young man warned.

“To be able to recover the investment, a tomato must be sold right now at 250 to 270 pesos a pound,” says Jorge, a 38-year-old habanero who transports goods from the area of Güira de Melena and Alquízar, in the province of Artemisa, to the 19th and B market in El Vedado. “Below that price I would now be working at a loss.” continue reading

The El Vedado market, known for its wide variety of products and high prices, is almost entirely privately managed and is governed by the law of supply and demand. An avocado at 100 pesos, a pound of small onions at 350, and cucumber at 80, turn a modest purchase in that market into a four-figure bill.

“They come here to try to pressure us to lower prices, but they are the same ones who later sell you beer in a state restaurant for more than 180 pesos,” Jorge says. “For us everything has become more expensive, too, from the fuel that we get ’on the left’ to the price that the farmer puts on his harvest.”

“What people are doing is that they prefer not to bring some products for sale here in the market,” he explains to this newspaper. “If through digital sites, where they buy from abroad for their family in Cuba, a product can be sold at a more reasonable price for us, what need is there to look for a fine by bringing the merchandise here?”

In on-line sites aimed at emigrants, a pound of tomatoes is around 4 dollars, almost 500 pesos at the official exchange rate. Deliveries are made directly to homes, and the customer pays online with their credit or debit card. “You get rid of the inspectors, the police and having to hide the product every time they warn you of a raid,” Jorge explains. “If it continues like this, the only ones who will be able to eat a tomato salad will be those who have family in Miami.”

In markets such as the EJT, administered by the military, the pressures on merchants are greater. “It’s not that we have been banned from selling tomatoes, but they might as well have done so, because they want to force us to keep the price low; but on the other hand when asked if prices are capped, they tell you that no, it’s not that, it’s part of a battle against illegalities,” explains the intermediary.

For the official press, it’s not a question of recovering investments but of speculating. “In other words: it’s about obtaining, by all those involved in the chain, logical profit margins, from fair and reasonable sales prices, contrary to those who, with legal status or not, monopolize the productions, speculate and fleece the public without a minimum of modesty,” the official State newspaper Granma pronounced this Sunday.

“It’s urgent to close all loopholes to the flight of products to illicit destinations, and call to account those who participate directly in selling, calling themselves markets, plazas, points of sale, pushcarts or street vendors,” threatened the official organ of the Communist Party.

The offensive also extends to sellers who, like Dayron, offer their goods on a tricycle in some corner of Havana. “Last week I was fined 6,000 pesos that I haven’t yet been able to pay. The inspector told me that I couldn’t sell chopped onion at 1,000 pesos or tomatoes at 220, as I was doing.”

With his point of sale, Dayron travels through some parts of the Los Sitios neighborhood. “Now you have to sell a tomato as if it were a lobster tail. Carefully watching that an inspector or policeman doesn’t approach,” the man says. “I prefer that they spoil at home and my wife has to turn them into puree, but at 150 or 180 pesos a pound, I won’t be able to to sell them.”

And he concludes: “That’s what they did with pork: they began to impose fines on the sellers, and the result was that pork was lost from the markets. Now it’s the tomato’s time, and tomorrow the time will come for something else, the malanga or the cucumber; it makes no difference, because they just want to control everything.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Two Senior U.S. Officials Will Travel to Havana for a Meeting on Migration

U.S. officials Rena Bitter and Ur Mendoza Jaddou (in the center), flanked by Guyana ministers Vindhya Persaud and Hugh Todd. (Twitter/@EmbassyGuyana)

14ymedio, Madrid, 7 November 2022 – – Rena Bitter, Undersecretary of Consular Affairs of the U.S. State Department, and Ur Mendoza Jaddou, Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, will visit Havana as part of a tour that also includes Georgetown (Guyana) and Miami (Florida), until this coming Thursday.

In the Cuban capital, according to the brief statement made public this Monday by the State Department, they will meet with government officials to discuss the “total resumption” of immigrant visa services in Havana “at the beginning of 2023” and the recent resumption of Parole for Family Reunification interviews at the same diplomatic headquarters.

The official U.S. note also reports that in Guyana, Bitter would express her gratitude “for the country’s cooperation in consular services,” which includes the processing of U.S. immigrant visas for Cubans at the Georgetown Embassy since 2018, a pressing issue for hundreds of families on the Island, who want the option of migrating by family reunification. continue reading

On its social networks, this Monday, the U.S. diplomatic headquarters in Georgetown showed the officials together 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 in The Hague and “the reduced waiting times for nonimmigrant visas in Guyana.”

“The Hague Adoption Agreement provides greater security, predictability and transparency for all those involved in international adoptions,” the State Department said in a tweet. “We welcome Guyana’s commitment to protect children and parents.”

From Guyana, and before Havana, Bitter will visit Miami, where, according to the same official statement, she will review the U.S. passport facilities “and meet the staff.”

Both officials will arrive in Havana a little more than a week after the death of seven Cuban balseros [rafters] — one more remains missing — after the small boat they were in was rammed by a speedboat from the Cuban Border Guards, in Bahía Honda, Artemisa.

They also arrive at a time when the exodus has exceeded 224,000 people in just one year, a figure that far exceeds the previous major migratory waves of the Island, in 1980 and 1994, and that doesn’t stop.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Human Rights Group Registered 398 Repressive Actions in Cuba in October

The scene in Cuba continues to be unfavorable for the exercise of democracy and freedom of expression. The Island maintains 967 political prisoners and repression is growing. (Roxana García Lorenzo/Facebook/Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 4 November 2022 — Police summons, expulsions from the workplaces, fines and arbitrary arrests are some of the 398 repressive actions taken by the Cuban regime against the Island’s civilian population during the month of October. The estimate was taken from a report by the Cuban Human Rights Observatory (OCDH), published on Thursday.

The Madrid-based organization, states that 130 of the cases observed suffered arbitrary arrests, while the rest (268) were related to other types of abuse of authority. The network of OCDH observers points to an additional 116 events of harassment of activists in their homes and 61 other harassments.

Other types of repression are direct aggression, preventing people from leaving the country, severe trials, and firing. OCDH took the opportunity while commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Accord (ADPC) between the European Union (EU) and Cuba to demand a general review of the agreement, “due to the null results in terms of human rights.”

Yaxys Cires, Director of Strategies at the Observatory, stated that “the Cuban regime continues applying an iron fist not only against activists, but also against the entire population that peacefully protests the terrible situation the country is experiencing.” continue reading

He added that the EU-Cuba Joint Council, which is expected to meet soon according to an announcement made by the European diplomat, Josep Borrell, “should analyze deeply these realities and move beyond words to actions.”

On Tuesday, the European Union’s representatives in Havana announced on Twitter that they continued to be “committed” to the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Accord in place since 2017 and with the “implementation of all its pillars.”

However, OCDH points out that the scene in Cuba continues to be unfavorable for the exercise of democracy and freedom of expression. The Island maintains 967 political prisoners, repression is growing, and it has approved “a new criminal code further endangers the exercise of human rights, even increasing the number of crimes punishable by death.”

Furthermore, the collapse of the National Electric System, the shortages and lack of political freedoms provoked a new wave of protests in recent months, to which the government responded with violence and more arrests.

Faced with this panorama in Cuba, “the EU must demand real change,” stated Cires, “otherwise, immediately review the validity of the ADPC and impose individual sanctions on repressors.”

The OCDH, composed of activists, politicians, and a network of observers on the Island, has a history of denouncing systemic human rights violations by the regime against citizens in Cuba.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Victor, the Puppeteer who Raises a Smile on the Faces of Cubans in the Midst of Poverty

In Calle Obispo, Old Havana, you can find Víctor, with a puppet that moves to the rhythm of his paintbrushes. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo/Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 6 November 2022 – Street Artists, fortune tellers, beggars, Tarot readers, palm readers, wizards, promise-keepers, pickpockets. Old Havana is constantly in turmoil and those who live there have to earn a crust by any means possible. Skill, cunning and a ’creole’ type of flair are, in the midst of the general poverty of the country, the only tools available for being able to go home with a bit of money in the pocket.

On Calle Obispo, people push and shove, trying frenetically to make their way about, going in and out of shops, pharmacies, kiosks and snack bars. Then it catches the attention that there’s a group of people who are there to block the way and detain you — under an overhanging roof. And there… you find Víctor, a silent young man, hidden behind the miniature canvas curtains of his Galería Morionet.

Víctor operates the strings of his little puppet theatre — whose name combines that of the painter Claude Monet with the word ’marionette’ — and he makes his puppet, a Cuban skilled like himself, draw a portrait of a man on a piece of cardboard.

It’s a refined skill, and not the kind of skill that can be learnt in a mere couple of weeks. The puppet master pulls on his strings and the puppet shakes his paintbrush, fills it with watercolour and moves towards the easel. Sometimes a dog approaches and the puppet artist looks up at him cautiously, without stopping his work, and then he strokes its nose.

People watch the scene, fascinated. The puppet paints in a messy kind of dump that might be any habanero’s place, splattered with paint stains and continue reading

above which hang two unstable-looking balconies. Louis Armstrong’s blues plays in the little room, and, when the music stops, some coins drop into the Galería Morionet’s tray.

Unless they are tourists the passers-by aren’t able to offer much, and, after distracting themselves from their worries for a little while with the show, they have to continue walking on through a city that gets more and more inhospitable. Two police officers eye the youth with suspicion; he carries on with his work without paying them too much attention.

On the sidewalks the waiters of the paladares [private restaurants] spring on the passers-by, interrupting them and unfurling their menus without anyone being able to stop them. None of the habaneros can afford the luxury of dining out in Old Havana, but the waiters have to be seen to be active and charming, in order for the owner, who also must defend his business, to justify their salaries.

Sitting on the sidewalk, a mixed-race boy, dressed spotlessly in white, offers a card reading. Next to him, water and a cloth on which sits his deck of cards, ready for the next fortune-telling. But nobody stops, and, bored, he stands up to smooth out his clothes, and then resumes sitting.

On another corner a cartoonist draws the portraits of celebrities like Chucho Valdés and Alicia Alonso. Children beg their parents to let him draw them and the man gets to work: back bent over, he holds a board in one hand and with the other he manipulates his ballpoint pen.

Stilt-walkers have also become part of the scenery in the city, especially in groups which roam those streets with more tourists. Noisy and colourfully dressed, these urban artistes hardly manage to get, these days, more than a couple of notes stuffed into their hats — made from remnants and bells — as the fewer number of travellers arriving in the city has left them practically without customers.

Mounted on their wooden stilts they wait on some corner or other for a Transtur coach to discharge its small group of passengers around the Plaza de Armas or the Castillo de la Fuerza. Their show is brief, to avoid the tourists returning to the coach before having left a bit of money, which, amongst all the laughter and song the performers make sure to tell them that “euros or dollars” would be better received “by these particular street artistes”.

Beyond the tourist area the situation takes on sadder tones. It’s not unusual to meet an old lady in a dirty dressing gown begging for money to buy a few pounds of sweet potatoes, or a ’promise-keeper’ dragging a stone tied to his ankle with a chain. As he approaches, as if he were a soul in purgatory, he holds out a bowl for someone to throw in some ’kilos’. The people who watch him, shocked by the marks on his leg, have little to give him.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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