14ymedio – Page 167 – Translating Cuba

Garcia Lorca in Cuba: Diary of a Resurrection

Lorca, with swimmers from the Havana Yacht Club, 1930. (Federico García Lorca Foundation Archive / FGL Centre, Granada)

14ymedio, Manuel Llorente, Madrid, 14 October 2022 — Federico García Lorca’s first adventure in the Americas could not have been more beneficial for him. The young man who, with a broken heart, embarked for the United States in 1929, bore no resemblance to the man who returned to Cádiz on 30 June 1930 aboard the steamer Manuel Arnús. While in the United States, he wrote A Poet in New York, a book which he handed over to José Bergamín shortly before he was assassinated in 1936, and which Bergamín published in 1940. With this collection, and in this collection, Federico extended himself further than in any other of his collected works.

In New York he witnessed the stock market crash and was protected by friends, but it was in Cuba where he began to smile again. Lorca spent 98 wild and intense days on the island, a period which the writer and journalist Victor Amela unpacks in his novel If I Should Become Lost (Destino), a title which makes reference to a fragment in a letter from 1930 in which Lorca wrote: “This island is a paradise. Cuba. If I should become lost, look for me in Andalucía or in Cuba”.

Why write about these three months? “Because Federico García Lorca had confessed, upon leaving Cuba, that he had lived the best days of his life there. It had been from March to June of 1930. Lorca was dynamic, happy, in full enjoyment of his senses, and the sumptuousness of Cuba had afforded him every sensory pleasure: the negro son music, the rum, the ice cream and the Havana cocktails, the exuberance of the landscape and the beauty of the men and women of all skin colours. Behind the tragedy and sorrow of his murder, I wanted to get to know more about this tropical, party-animal Lorca. And then to tell his story”, Víctor Amela told La Lectura.

If I Should Become Lost, by Víctor Amela, is published by Destino.

To begin with, Lorca had travelled to Cuba in order to give three lectures during the course of one week, but he ended up delivering nine in those 98 days, during which he also attended cult ceremonies, enjoyed himself by day and by night, and he wrote and sketched. “He frequented the roguish Teatro Alhambra, which encouraged him to complete El Público (The Audience) there — a homosexual drama in which he makes peace with his intimate self”. And La Leyenda del Tiempo (The Legend of Time) which Camarón de la Isla later made popular. continue reading

“Lorca lost himself in Cuba and then found himself again, discarding all the old worn out prejudices. He gave tribute to the talents of the island in his musical poem Son, written during a voyage of discovery by train, crossing the island by night from Havana to Santiago (’I shall go to Santiago’)”.

One particularly important poem in the Lorca canon – Ode to Walt Whitman – was also completed in Cuba, recalls Professor and Doctor of History of Art, José Luis Plaza Chillón, author of the recent study El Apocalipsis según Federico García Lorca. Los dibujos de Nueva York (The Apocalypse according to Federico García Lorca: The New York Sketches) (Comares).

A completely different man then, from the one who had arrived in New York in 1929 — a man who’d been abandoned by his lover, the sculptor Emilio Aladrén, who had preferred a woman to him, and who’d been “snubbed by his intimate friend Salvador Dalí, for having gone to Paris with Buñuel and for having criticised his Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads). Lorca had sunk into a depression, and in order to distract him from his sorrows, and fearing he might commit suicide, his family had put him on a transatlantic voyage to New York, accompanied by Fernando de los Ríos as guardian”, claims Amela.

But what he finds there in that great American symbol of modern progress isn’t good. “New York greets the unhappy Lorca with the suicides that result from the crash of 1929 — such a terrifying sight. He is nauseated by the crudity of modern capitalism and the Anglo Saxon protestant coldness, and can only identify with the suffering he finds among the black people of Harlem, the children, and the poor”.

That journey is very important in the overall radical trajectory of his poetry. Ian Gibson, one of the greatest authorities on the poet of Granada, analyses it thus: “Before he goes to New York he’s already entering the orbit of surrealism, with pressure from Dalí and Buñuel in Paris. The screenplay he writes in New York as a response to Un Chien Andalou — titled Journey to the Moon — is clearly already surrealist. And the poems, often diatribes against the cruelty of the modern world, have an immense power. In these poems, apart from the odd exception, Spain hardly ever appears. As far as theatre is concerned, it seems that he began writing El Público — his most surrealist play — in New York, and it would be completed in Cuba”.

After 10 months in New York, on his way back to Spain he stopped off in Cuba, “where he gets back his beloved language, the sunshine and the colours, his Catholic virgins (combined with Yoruban/Nigerian saints), sensuality and beauty… In that sparkling Cuba, Federico felt more at home and back to his roots than he’d ever felt”, notes Amela.

Cuba, where he turned 32, entered into all of his pores, it saw him coming. Not only the climate and that outdoor life. With his gift for making friends he discovered well-known people like the Loynaz family who lived off the private income of their millionaire mother in the the finca ’Casa Encantada’, where they preferred to use carbide gas lamps over electric light. Enrique Loynaz used to sleep in a coffin, Dulce María (who was awarded the Cervantes Prize in 1992) besides being a lawyer collected teacups and teaspoons, Carlos Manuel would tie up one of the family dogs to the piano so that it would listen to his recital… And Flor, homosexual and poet, Federico’s favourite. He called her “my Cuban virgin”.

They both loved religious imagery, and together they would travel at high speed in an open-top Fiat 1930, driven by her, with Federico dressed in a 100% cotton drill white suit. Their relationship was so strong that the poet agreed to include various suggestions of hers in his play Yerma; he even ended up giving her the original manuscript as a present. Dulce María and Flor, with Fidel Castro in power, went on to draw a state pension. Flor ended up on her own, with a shotgun (for fear of being axed to death like her maternal grandparents) and 40 dogs.

“Lorca had many romantic flings in Cuba and he had great freedom to be who he was. There, he liberated himself from everything, it would seem. His lectures were an instant success and everyone wanted to have their photograph taken with him. There are thousands of anecdotes, many of which I heard myself sur place when I was there in 1986 preparing the second volume of my biography of the poet”, says Gibson.

Lorca with a newspaper seller in Havana. (Federico García Lorca Foundation Archive / FGL Centre, Granada)

Lorca even spent one night in a cell after a binge. He was rescued from there by Luis Cardoza y Aragón, a Guatemalan writer, who had been working for barely a few weeks at his country’s embassy in Havana, according to Víctor Amela. Lorca even had one or two moles operated on in the Fortún y Souza clinic in Havana.

In Cuba he met a young poet and student of law, José Lezama Lima, who also stretched language to its limits. Years later, that same author of the immense hieroglyphic that is Paradiso recalled of Lorca, that, after attending his last lecture in Havana: “His voice took on a deep intonation like that of a bell being struck by a finely-tuned clapper that all of a sudden stopped the excessive prolongation of the echoes”. Luis Cardoza was more direct: “His laughter was a naked girl”.

On the eighth of March 1930, the day after his arrival in the port of the Caribbean capital onboard the steamer Cuba, the poet wrote to his family: “My arrival in Havana has been quite an event, because these people are extravagant like no other. Havana is a marvel, both the old and the new. It’s like a mixture of Málaga and Cádiz, but much more cheerful and relaxed for its being in the tropics.

Weeks later he gave an account of a crocodile hunt. “I saw a fantastic number of crocodiles four or six metres long”; but he didn’t comment on the fact that he’d attended a demonstration against the installation of telephones, as the Cuban Telephone Company had installed fruit machine “one-armed bandits” with their shop-based apparatus, from which the business owners earned nothing.

Lorca’s stay in New York and Cuba was in reality an escape which José Luis Plaza Chillón compared to those of other exiles: André Gide in Tunisia, Jean Genet in Morocco, Pierre Loti in Turkey, E. M Forster in India, Henry de Montherlant in Spain. “The literature of the twentieth century written by homosexuals often presents the theme of exile, most commonly one which entails a personal banishment. Lorca, like other great artists exiled in modernity (Gauguin, Rimbaud, Kafka) becomes a prototypical creator for understanding part of the quest of the twentieth century”.

‘Son’ of the Cuban Negroes

When the full moon comes

I shall go to Santiago de Cuba

I’ll go to Santiago,

In a car of black water.

I’ll go to Santiago.

The palm roofs will sing.

I’ll go to Santiago.

When the palm wishes to be a stork,

I’ll go to Santiago.

And when the banana tree wishes to be a jellyfish,

I’ll go to Santiago.

I’ll go to Santiago

With the blonde head of Fonseca.

I’ll go to Santiago.

And with the pink of Romeo and Juliet

I’ll go to Santiago.

Oh Cuba! Oh rhythm of dry seed!

I’ll go to Santiago.

Oh warm waist and a drop of Madeira!

I’ll go to Santiago.

Harp of living trunks, croc, tobacco flower!

I’ll go to Santiago.

I always said I’d go to Santiago

In a car of black water.

I’ll go to Santiago.

A breeze, and alcohol in its wheels,

I’ll go to Santiago.

My chorus in the shadows,

I’ll go to Santiago.

The sea drowned in the sand,

I’ll go to Santiago.

White heat, dead fruit,

I’ll go to Santiago.

Oh bovine coolness of the reed grass!

Oh Cuba! Oh curve of sigh and mud!

I’ll go to Santiago.
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Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on 10 October 2022 in the cultural supplement La Lectura of the Spanish national daily El Mundo. Reproduced here with permission.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Cow Theft Goes From 48 to 1,200 Heads in a year in Sancti Spiritus, Despite High Penalties

To try to avoid irregularities with livestock breeding and trade, the Cuban Government established fines of up to 20,000 pesos. (*14ymedio*)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 October 2022 — The theft of cattle in Sancti Spíritus has multiplied 25 times this year compared to last year. The figures are official, made public during a meeting of the vice president of Cuba, Salvador Valdés Mesa, with the agricultural producers of that province. According to an article published in the state newspaper Granma, in September alone 292 of these crimes occurred in that territory. So far this year, 1,249 head of cattle were affected, compared to 48 in 2021.

All this, despite the new sanctions approved by the Government last August to try to avoid irregularities with the breeding and trade of livestock, which entail fines of up to 20,000 pesos.

Valdés Mesa assured that “intensive work has begun with the organs of the Ministry of the Interior,” “a regular livestock count has been established” and “surveillance and control guards have been intensified” to avoid these criminal acts.

The vice president didn’t miss an opportunity to blame the ranchers: “There’s a lot of indiscipline; you have to control and register the country’s vaccinated cows. And if the farmer doesn’t come to register, you have to go to his land to inspect. We have to put order in the field.” continue reading

However, it wasn’t the only problem that was on the agenda. In the face of the “cold” season, Sancti Spíritus faces other obstacles. For example, a deficit in planting. Compared to the planned 5,974 hectares, 5,550 hectares were planted. The “non-compliance,” the authorities said, “is caused by fuel constraints and rain.”

In the same meeting, they emphasized “the need to use organic fertilizers such as worm humus, since there won’t be any chemical products: neither fertilizers nor pesticides.”

Although the officials assured that agricultural companies in the province “don’t report non-payments to producers,” they recognize that the Dairy Company owes 1,453 producers a total of 329,453 pesos, and the Meat Company owes 91 producers a total of 43,048 pesos.

As for tobacco, it was spoken, in the usual communist tone, of “the importance of production in the territory given the considerable loss suffered at the largest tobacco centers in the province of Pinar del Río,” as a result of the scourge of Hurricane Ian, on September 27.

There were also words at the meeting for sugar production. The representative of Azcuba in Sancti Spíritus, Aselio Sánchez Cadalso, recalled that the Uruguay sugar mill, “the colossus of Jatibonico,” will no longer grind cane, but only the Agroindustrial Azucarera Melanio Hernández Company. The harvest begins on December 10, with 21,254 tons of sugar foreseen.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Belarus Begins to Receive the Cuban Sovereign Plus Vaccines Purchased in July

Sovereign Plus is conceived as a booster vaccine. (Granma)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 October 2022 — This Wednesday, almost three months after Belarus agreed to buy the Cuban Soberana Plus vaccine, the first batches of the drug arrived in the European country. According to the Twitter account of the Finlay Institute of Vaccines in Havana, a “regulatory agency” also registered Sovereign 02 for future use.

This July, Belarus became the first country in Europe to approve the use of Cuban vaccines to achieve the immunization of its citizens against COVID-19. According to Cuba’s new ambassador to Minsk, Santiago Pérez, the news was received with enthusiasm by the press, which argued that “Cuban vaccines have proven their effectiveness.”

The authorities of both countries have not given details about the number of vaccines included in the agreement nor about the amount paid by the Belorussian Government.

In the case of Soberana Plus, it is a “booster” vaccine, and on the Island it has been applied after one of the other two national products, Soberana 02 and Abdala, or to patients recovered from the coronavirus. continue reading

Given the suspicions raised in the most critical sectors of the country by the purchase of a drug not approved by the World Health Organization, the authorities emphasized that “all vaccines used [in Belarus], regardless of the manufacturer, [have been] registered and authorized for use, and are immunobiological drugs of high efficacy and safety.”

A Cuban delegation at the Business Forum held recently in that country met with the Deputy Minister of Health, Dimitri Cherednichenko, to establish more links on issues of “drug production, professional exchanges and joint scientific research,” according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba.

In July of this year, another delegation of Cuban officials visited Dimitry Vladimírovich, director of the Expertise and Testing Centre of the Belorussian Ministry of Health. During the appointment, Vladimírovich presented Vicente Vérez Bencomo, director of the Finlay Institute, with the certificate that endorsed the use of Sovereign Plus in his country.

On that occasion, the Island officials took the opportunity to negotiate subsequent contracts with the Belorussian Minister of Health, Dmitry Pinevichs, who considered “issues related to cooperation in the field of the circulation of medicines and medical products, in particular the location of Cuban medicines and vaccines in the territory of Belarus, as well as the possibility of exporting Belorussian pharmaceutical products to Cuba.”

On July 26, the day the agreement for the purchase of Sovereign Plus was signed, the president of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, referred to the date in congratulations to Miguel Díaz-Canel, assuring him that the “economic and commercial cooperation” of his Government with the Island was guaranteed.

Like Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Mexico, Belarus is part of the list of Cuban allies who opt for the purchase of the drug against COVID-19. With vaccines, the Island also sends the promise of political and even military support.

Not in vain has the sale of vaccines worldwide been preceded by a propaganda campaign that has included concerts, academic events and diplomatic delegations at medical symposia.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘We Were Not Aware of All the Terrible Crimes Attributed to Castro’

The photograph of the Cuban dictator, smiling while smoking and revealing a Rolex under his sleeve, was denounced by singer Aymée Nuviola. (Capture/Instagram)

14ymedio, Havana, 14 October 2022 — The Lepple jewelry store, located in the German city of Esslingen am Neckar, in the region of Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg state, apologized Thursday for having used an image of Fidel Castro to promote the luxury watch brand Rolex.

“The portrait of Fidel Castro has been removed and discarded this Thursday morning,” Lepple’s owner assured 14ymedio. “We were not aware of all the terrible crimes attributed to Castro and we have made sure that this image will never again be used in any promotion or activity of the store,” he explained.

He clarified that the Rolex brand had nothing to do with the use of the image, nor had he recommended its use in Leppel’s showcase. Neither the photograph nor Fidel Castro “are involved in any way with Rolex”.

“We send our deepest apologies to those who may have been offended by our use of this image,” he concluded.

The photograph of the Cuban dictator, smiling while smoking and revealing a Rolex under his sleeve, was denounced on her social networks by singer Aymée Nuviola, who discovered it while strolling through Esslingen. continue reading

It is no surprise that Castro is associated with all kinds of products, including luxury ones, which some brands and establishments, both on the island and worldwide, take advantage of for advertising. The most emblematic product is undoubtedly the Cohiba cigar and its various products, which Castro had manufactured in 1967 to entertain leaders and diplomats allied with the regime, and which has just generated almost three million euros in revenues for Habanos, S.A.

Revolution watch magazine published an article in 2018 that explored Castro’s relationships with “the Crown,” the symbol of Rolex. Several photographs show him wearing the celebrated Rolex Submariner 5513, which he used for scuba diving, one of his favorite pastimes.

Also, like the Cohiba cigar, Castro used to give watches of this brand to prominent officials and loyal agents. This is attested to by the testimony of Norberto Fuentes in his book Dulces guerreros cubanos [Sweet Cuban Warriors] (1999), which refers to the “disgraceful Cuban wearers of Rolexes,” himself among them.

“The Rolexes displayed from the windows of the Ladas fulfilled an important assignment,” Fuentes said of the “top brass” of the regime. “They were the attributes, the insignia. They fulfilled the important task of enhancing our dignity, which — like all legitimate dignity — is physical. The crème de la crème of the fraternity of the revolutionary combatants.”

The attachment of the leaders of the revolution to their Rolexes was such that when Ernesto Guevara was captured in Bolivia in 1967, the Argentinean was wearing two of these watches on his wrist. One belonged to a dead commander, the other was his own. One of Guevara’s last requests to Captain Gary Prado, the Bolivian military officer who captured him, was to guard his watches for when he was released.

Some time later, in 1983, Prado sent the Argentinean’s watch to his family in Havana. In exchange for the souvenir, the Castro government gave him a new Rolex.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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Dozens of Cuban Medical Students Leave Their Careers to Emigrate

The pandemic has taken away the desire of many students for a medical degree, poorly paid and with poor working conditions. (Granma)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 14 October 2022 — A few weeks ago she got married, in a white, short suit, with flowers and many photos. But the celebration for Kirenia, 22 years old, was in the simple formal procedure for her to reside in Madrid with her husband, a young Cuban who is also a nationalized-Spaniard. Behind her will be her medical career, almost about to conclude, which she abandons for fear that Cuba’s social services will hinder her exit.

“It’s been the most difficult decision of my life because I love my career,” says Kirenia, an outstanding student not only in her course but also throughout the University of Medical Sciences of Ciego de Ávila. Her parents supported her from the first moment and encouraged her to leave before obtaining her degree. “I have several classmates who are doing the same thing.”

Kirenia doesn’t know if she will one day be able to graduate as a doctor in Spain, but she will not do so in Cuba. “My grandfather and grandmother are retired doctors and have to work, because their pensions are not enough,” she tells 14ymedio. “Washing dishes in a café in Madrid I can probably live better than them.” continue reading

The winner of many school contests in her teenage days, Kirenia now no longer has a “head for books and studies” because she only thinks about the moment when the plane takes off and she can look from the window at how the lights of the Island move away.

“Since I made the decision, I can’t even sleep. I have the feeling that something is going to happen that is going to stop me from leaving, but my family tells me that I have to calm down and that everything is going to be fine.” Kirenia already announced at the Faculty her decision to leave her career but attributed her departure to a pregnancy and the need to spend more time with her husband and future baby.

However, the truth is that she can’t imagine “working more than twelve hours a day in a hospital where there are no medicines, the toilets are so dirty that many doctors spend their entire day without even urinating, and they earn a little more than 4,000 pesos that don’t serve for much.”

Together with other colleagues they have created a WhatsApp group where they exchange any scholarship opportunity to leave Cuba. “There are more than twenty, most of them are third, fourth and fifth year medical students. If they are given a scholarship, they are willing to leave medical school” and join the almost 200,000 Cubans who have arrived in the United States since last October, or, unspecified, those who have left for other countries.

The Faculty of Medicine has been one of the jewels in the educational crown in Cuba for the last 60 years. The mass graduation of health workers is part of the official policy and is displayed as one of the great achievements of the revolutionary process, in addition to providing doctors to medical missions abroad, one of the main sources for hard currency on the Island.

In six decades, between 1959 and 2019, Cuba graduated 376,608 people in different branches of the Medical Sciences, of which 171,362 were doctors. The number of those who have left their profession to exercise other economically more rewarding professions and those who have emigrated is handled with secrecy, but in hospitals there is often a shortage of qualified staff and specialists.

Artemisa province is a dramatic case: more than 20 medical students from the same year abandoned their studies, all together. “It’s not just to take advantage of Nicaragua’s no-visa policy,” Inés, the friend of one of these deserters, explains to this newspaper. “It’s also because the rumor that they will be ’regulated’ [that is denied permission to leave the country] once they earn the degree is getting stronger, and they are afraid,” she adds in reference to the ban on leaving the country that the Government applies to students who finish strategic careers, such as Medicine.

On the other hand, in the provincial hospital, “several health workers have requested exit permits and, once granted, have emigrated permanently,” says the same source. “Some ask to be discharged; others leave without doing so because they [the authorities] can delay it, and others have taken advantage of gaps in the system; for example, that they’re in their last year of specialty and have not been ’regulated’.”

In the case of Yander, age 24, the reasons for requesting dismissal from the Victoria de Girón Faculty of Medical Sciences, in Havana, were different. He entered the first year of the program a few months before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. All students were, in one way or another, sent to support hospitals in the face of the large avalanche of people infected with the virus.

“I had hardly any experience and I had to face situations that I don’t want to live through again,” he tells 14ymedio. “The main problem for me was not the fear of getting sick; I got infected twice. I also didn’t make this decision from seeing so many people die without being able to do much to help them, because even oxygen was scarce.”

Yander got tired of the health authorities using students and recent graduates “as if they were furniture… Nobody was asking us anything. They moved us back and forth to support here and there, but the conditions in which we worked were terrible. There was a week that I could only eat bread with something and a juice that I don’t even know what it was because it only tasted like water with sugar.”

“The situation of doctors is something that you have to experience to see.” The young man decided to end his career as a doctor on the day that “a companion was upset because his mother with cancer was dying, and we didn’t even have a painkiller to give her. The man assaulted me and a nurse with a chair.” That night, when he returned home, Yander hung up his white coat for good.

He now has a business selling birds in Cerro. “What I learned at the Faculty I use a lot in the care of these animals, and I also sell hamsters, turtles and rabbits, in addition to the food they need.” The days when business goes badly, Yander still earns what a doctor achieves in a week. “I don’t miss it at all; rather I feel that I was saved from disaster.”

Economic problems also tipped the balance for Nelson Sánchez Ramos’ daughter. “We decided that the best thing for our daughter is to abandon her studies,” this man wrote on his Facebook account. “The disparity between what a professional earns who must study six years to save lives and what the frontmen of the regime receive, makes you reflect on your future and the future of this country.”

Sánchez’s wife, a graduate of Medicine, ” was forced to stop practicing the profession because it’s very difficult for her to get used to living on a salary” that doesn’t even guarantee a regular breakfast. “My girl lost motivation for her studies and now she has to make a huge effort as many university students in this country do, to graduate from a profession that they may abandon in the future to be able to fulfill their dreams, or for something as basic as guaranteeing an adequate diet for her and her children.”

Wage contrasts are obvious between what a doctor earns and what the members of the Ministry of the Interior earn. “Cubans interested in training as prison officials will receive 6,690 pesos of monthly salary, after a course of five and a half months, while a newly graduated doctor earns 4,610 pesos; a resident studying his specialty receives 5,060; and in the case of doctors with finished specialties, the salary ranges between 5,560 and 5,810,” concludes Sánchez.

Others abandon their studies to use all their energies to leave the country. “My son left Medicine in his fifth year and sold everything he had to pay for the ticket to Nicaragua. He has already been in the United States for three months and works in a brigade of builders. His friends at the Faculty see him as a hero,” says Frank Vilaú, father of a 26-year-old boy. “Now he is earning enough to help his girlfriend, who also left medical school, to get out of Cuba.”

But the exodus is not only happening in university education and, specifically, in the faculties of Medicine but also at all educational levels. René, a 45-year-old father from Havana and about to leave for the United States with his children through the family reunification program, visited the youngest’s high school to communicate to the teacher that the child would no longer continue attending classes because of the imminent departure.

“The teacher almost burst into tears and told me: ’No one is going to be left here. I have several students who are in the same situation, and other teachers have also told me that the same thing is happening in their classrooms.’”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Stones, Doorknobs and Excrement Thrown at Police in Guines

In Güines, on Monday, locals set fire to three rubbish skips

14ymedio, Havana, 11 October 2022 – One of the most talked-about protests of Monday night took place in Güines, Mayabeque, where locals from the areas of El Reparto and Leguina came out onto the street to demand the restoring of electricity — accompanied by the banging of pans and insults shouted towards the Cuban government.

At one particular point the demonstrators closed-off one street and set fire to three rubbish skips.

“It all grew quite ugly”, said one witness to 14ymedio, withholding his identity because “you already know how they’re going after everyone at the moment”. He even deleted a WhatsApp video of the protests that he’d been sent, for fear of being detained.

“You couldn’t hardly see anything, but you could hear the shouting: ’put the power back on, you prick!’ ’Diaz-Canal asshole!’ and stuff like that”, said the man, who added that the police arrived with “a truckload of special troops, but they couldn’t get out of the vehicle”. What awaited them, according to his account, was a mob with machetes in hand, who threw rocks, glass doorknobs and excrement at them.

After the retreat of these troops, he continues, another vehicle arrived, with “kids from the Servicio Militar, dressed in civilian clothing and with big sticks in their hands”, to whom the people shouted: “Come on then with your sticks! We’re going to kill you right here, just like they did in the time of the mambise guerillas! Shoot, assholes, shoot, ’cos no one here is scared anymore!” This contingent also “had to retreat”. continue reading

Another neighbour tells of how they pushed him into one of the trucks on one side and he escaped out the other side, but that the forces “took away a lot of people”.

This neighbour says that there hadn’t been any power for the whole day, and he warned that: “If they cut it off as night falls you know what’s gonna happen here. Because things are already overheated.” And he showed his outrage with the authorities: “There has to be nothing left for them now, something’s got to give, the moment has to finally arrive for them now.”

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Violent Incidents with Cuban Migrants Increase in Mexico

This Wednesday 145 Cubans traveling in two buses were arrested by Migration. (INM)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 October 2022 — The Cuban Marylín Almaguer Hidalgo was injured by the police in Córdoba, Veracruz, this Wednesday, when the coyote who was transporting her along with 25 other Cuban nationals tried to flee from the agents.

They arrested the migrants after the driver lost control of the van in which they were travelling and hit four parked vehicles.

According to local media, the driver was pursued by National Guard soldiers after he passed through a toll booth located in the Cuitláhuac area. The PMC-12 patrol joined the soldiers for support, and a policeman shot several times at the van.

A bullet hit Almaguer Hidalgo, 37, in the left buttocks, and she was hospitalized at the General Hospital of Córdoba, where she was reported out of danger.

The rest of the Cubans were handed over to Migration, which transferred them to the Acayucan migration station, where 50 Cubans refused to be taken this Wednesday for fear of being deported. continue reading

Also on Wednesday, 14 other Cubans were arrested in the common land of Tampaya (San Luis Potosí). There, while the agents of the State Civil Guard were on a routine tour, they detected several vans with polarized glass and armed civilians. They shot at the officers, who repelled the aggression.

One of the vans served as a shield so that the rest of the convoy could escape. From the van metal spikes were thrown to stop the police vehicles. A little later, the coyotes abandoned 14 Cubans, two women and 12 men, who tried unsuccessfully to evade the military by hiding in the undergrowth.

Criminal groups linked to the Gulf Cartel transport Cubans in vans with polarized glass. (State Civil Guard)

The military seized, in addition to the truck, two firearms, three magazines, 19 cartridges, 39 bags of drugs and 24 explosives. The Cubans were handed over to Migration to determine their situation.

Similarly, on the same day, Migration reported the detention of 165 migrants, including 145 Cubans, in the town of San Francisco Kobén Campeche, who were traveling on board two buses.

Asked about all these arrests, a ministerial agent who identifies himself as Guillermo told 14ymedio that, in their attempt to reach the United States, Cubans are increasingly turning to coyotes and groups linked to organized crime to transit through Mexico.

“These criminals are taking the central and Gulf routes for transfers in vans,” says the agent, who adds: “What happened in Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosí is linked to criminal cells that work for the Gulf Cartel; they are in charge of transporting the illegals and bringing them closer to Matamoros, Reynosa or Nuevo Laredo to cross the Río Bravo.

Each Cuban is charged between 4,000 and 6,800 dollars for the transfer, “depending on the passage through the river and the means of transport, which goes from one van to several vehicles,” says Guillermo. “We have found that they are charged for alleged temporary permits, protections and even legal advice, but everything is false.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Protests Extend to the Zapata Swamp, Showcase of the Cuban Revolution

On Wednesday night there were demonstrations in Matanzas, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba, among other places. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 October 2022 — La Ciénaga de Zapata [the Zapata Swamp] in Matanzas, considered one of the showcases of the Cuban regime, which considers the place an example of its achievements, starred in one of the noisiest protests on Wednesday night.

“Put on the light, dickhead, put on the light, fuckers!” they shouted in Playa Larga to the rhythm of banging on pots and pans in the middle of the streets, illuminated only by the flashlights of the phones.

In the videos shared on social networks, women and children are seen participating in the demonstration, in which the most projected cry was “freedom.” In several places they chanted “the people united will never be defeated,” while banging on pots and pans with sticks and spoons.

Residents in the Altamira neighborhood, in Santiago de Cuba, also went out to protest. There, people “are throwing themselves into the street, making noise and shouting at the Government to turn on the current,” a resident of the place told this newspaper. The man explained that the caceralozo [banging on pots and pans] began minutes after the electricity service was cut off, and that State Security agents and special troops arrived at the scene. continue reading

User Echezabal JD shared on Facebook several videos of protesters in the neighborhood, one of the poorest areas of Santiago de Cuba and the most besieged by the police. The headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) is located there, whose leader, José Daniel Ferrer, in prison without trial since July 11, 2021, announced on Tuesday a new hunger strike “until the final consequences.”

Also, the inhabitants of Velasco, in the province of Holguín, went out to demonstrate “strongly against the regime,” Eduardo Cardet, a resident of that town and coordinator of the opposition Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) reported to Radio Martí. “The protest grew by travelling along the main avenue, congregating in the park, and then continued advancing along the avenue to the Casa de la Cultura [House of Culture]. Then the reverse route was taken,” he said.

For Cardet, the demonstration in Velasco was “to demand the changes we need” because, he continued, “it’s time for this totalitarian regime to end.”

Users on social networks said that they also took to the streets in Colón (Matanzas).

Project Inventory reported that in San Andrés, Holguín, the inhabitants took to the streets and shouted “yes we can” and “freedom.”

The organization, which is compiling the places where there have been protests in response to the long power outages, registered, on Wednesday alone, seven of them.

Up to 153 demonstrations have been registered by Project Inventory throughout the Island since last July 14. However, they have become more numerous, and almost daily, since Hurricane Ian hit western Cuba and, for reasons not yet fully clarified, the National Electricity System collapsed.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba is Trying to Capture More Resources by Relaunching Medical Tourism

The CSM intends to launch an offensive to the international market by grouping the two most lucrative economic sectors of the Island: tourism and medical services. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 October 2022 — “A well-oiled infrastructure,” is how Prensa Latina describes the work of the Marketing of Cuban Medical Services (CSM), protagonist of the First Medical Tourism and Welfare Fair that will be held at the Pabexpo venue, from October 17 to 21, in Havana.

The company is a health conglomerate that offers all kinds of services: assistance to foreigners (operations, treatments, therapies), training of students from other countries, and export of medical contingents.

In a post-pandemic global scenario, the CSM intends to launch an offensive to the international market by grouping the two most lucrative economic sectors of the Island: tourism and medical services. The goal is to offer an attractive “product portfolio” for tourists.

The First Medical Tourism and Welfare Fair will be part of the IV International Cuba-Health Convention 2022, which the Government will take advantage of to seduce the 1,500 foreign delegates with the CSM proposals. continue reading

Dr. Armando Garrido, director of Medicuba, explained that it was an expected moment “in which a group of actions will be realized: signing a significant number of contracts with international suppliers and letters of intent for new businesses.”

Since the last International Tourism Fair in May of this year, the CSM has achieved several contracts with the hotel companies that operate on the Island, so that vacationers could access dialysis services in Havana and Varadero and have “long-stay” plans in the Ciénaga de Zapata.

In this plan, the “immunization strategy” against COVID-19 through Cuban vaccines plays a fundamental role, “among many other benefits of this type,” says Prensa Latina. The official agency doesn’t clarify, however, that most countries have already vaccinated the population free of charge, so traveling to Cuba to immunize is, at the very least, unnecessary.

The official agency interviewed economist Miguel Alejandro Figueras, who stated that “many tourists in the world wonder where they should go for a future vacation. Where will I find personal safety, health and humane treatment?” The answer, he said, “is Cuba.”

To support his opinion, Figueras added that health tourism is “a fast road to growth,” which contributed $2 billion to several countries. It’s the only way to achieve “the economic recovery of the nation.”

The tourist who intends to access Cuban medical services must fill out a form and present it upon entry into the country, along with his medical visa. One can also purchase a Tourist Card if the treatment will be carried out in less than thirty days.

The agency doesn’t accept payments in cash or dollars, but online or by bank transfer. The company itself processes the admission to hospitals and clinics, and if the treatment allows it, in the “hotel of your choice.”

If the patient wants a surgical intervention, he must remain for an indeterminate period of time in the country even if he is discharged. Also in that case, the CSM will be able to go to the hotel and care for the patient there, who will have options for the accommodation of relatives thanks to the company’s alliances with the hotel chains.

Those who wish to opt for a “comprehensive cancer treatment” can do so at the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology, which will include the use of the Cuban drug Heberferon, indicated for those who suffer from “basocellular carcinomas, in lesions of any size and location, including areas of high risk, the H area of the face, or in locally advanced areas that are difficult to treat due to proximity to the eyes or the brain.”

The CSM reminds its potential customers that the country is “a very safe destination” and recommends being treated in Havana, where “most of the medical tourism offer is located,” but customers can go to its premises in any province.

The so-called Wellness and Health Centers — for which the agency intends to attract foreign investment during the Fair — are located throughout the national territory. The San Vicente Thermal Centre, Pinar del Río, for example, is part of an old therapeutic bath inaugurated in 1901, with medicinal mineral waters that the CMS presents as “chosen by celebrities such as the novelist Ernest Hemingway” for relaxation.

Another thermal bath, located in Corralillo, Villa Clara, provides the same service of medicinal mud and “hyperthermal waters between 36 and 48 degrees Celsius.” It also mentions that the centre “has gained fame for achieving the healing of multiple circulatory, rheumatic, somatic, neurological and respiratory conditions, which don’t find a solution with other conventional treatments.”

In addition, in the hotel facilities that have signed contracts with the company, “bioenergetic, naturist, therapeutic-rehabilitating and aesthetic medicine will also be available.”

The countries that frequent Cuba as a tourist destination, such as Canada, have been the most enthusiastic investors in medical projects. The Canadian embassy in Havana notified on its Twitter account that $1.12 million in medical supplies would be delivered “to support the people of Cuba.” Other nations, such as Mexico, Japan and several members of the European Union have sent similar donations to the Island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘The Best Thing is For the Russians to Come’ to Save the Colossus of Jatibonico

The Uruguay sugar mill, in Jatibonico, Sancti Spíritus, was built in 1905. (Escambray)

14ymedio, Madrid, 10 October 2022 — Four months after 14ymedio reported the closure of the ’Uruguay’ sugar mill, located in Jatibonico (Sancti Spíritus), the news was confirmed by the provincial newspaper Escambray on Monday. According to the note published today, “technological obsolescence and lack of investment have become, together with the shortage of cane, dangerous threats to the continuity of the industry.”

The hope, for hundreds of workers who right now see their jobs in danger of the plant cannot be restarted, is in Moscow. According to the newspaper, a Russian delegation visited Jatibonico during the last harvest and intends to create a joint venture that would save the dying plant and other plants whose names are not known.

“We are among the nine mills in the country chosen for these businesses,” reveals Eddy Gil Pérez, director of the Uruguayan Agroindustrial Sugar Company.

“The best medicine for the ’Uruguay’ plant is for the Russians to come, because it would be new technology, costs would be cheaper. But if the Joint Venture does not come to pass, we have to continue with the current equipment; I trust that the mill will whistle again because we have human capital, which is what sustains us, knowledge, good practices and desire”, adds Vladimir Gómez Morales, director of the industry. continue reading

The last sugar harvest, which left disastrous global figures in Cuba (barely 473,720 tons of the 911,000 expected were produced, insufficient even for domestic demand), Uruguay, formerly known as Coloso de Jatibonico, milled at 32% of its capacity, although this was not the only drama. The note details that, in addition, it delivered part of its cane to the Melanio Hernández sugar mill (former Tuinucú), production decreased, “the crude oil separated from the parameters of exportable quality” and therefore the harvest was inefficient and left great losses. Despite this, it manufactured more sugar than four provinces.

The directors explain that the decision to stop this year is fundamentally due to the bad data from the last harvest, but that the lack of cane has also contributed. “Someone forgot to put money into the plant, many good harvests have been made and a lot of money that Uruguay plant has given, but no financing was put in, I’m not talking about paying for repairs, but about technology; they left us because it produced sugar, but there comes a time when the factory does not give more. That it not do the harvest, it seems to me a well-made decision, because if there is no cane, why start, be inefficient and incur in a waste of resources for pleasure; it is up to us learn the lesson and move on”, says Pedro Pérez García, head of the boiler area.

Of the 424 workers at the plant, attempts have been made to relocate as many as possible, with relative success. 192 of them undertake repair work to improve the industry in this year of paralysis, and 102 joined other “eight labor groups with payment systems adjusted to activities that generate income for them and the company.” These areas range from the carpentry to the paint, sheet metal or ice factory, all of them dependent on the central.

In addition, there are 124 who requested leave without pay and others were placed in food production farms, sugar cane production units and workshops. Four found different jobs through the Municipal Labor Directorate. Managers speak of a painful process, particularly since many of the workers have been grinding sugar all their lives. “We cannot pay a salary without productive support, but there is no unemployment in the Uruguay plant,” he says, despite the fact that there are dozens of people looking for a life in the private sector.

The text addresses the possibility that the investment in repairing the plant is unproductive and the lock must be permanently locked, but the management initially denies it. The business plan foresees grinding in December 2023, even producing 3,000 tons of sugar that same month, since the projection is to have 400,000 tons of cane. In that harvest they have projected to cut only 49%, leaving some 5,000 hectares of saplings. “Although the availability of fuel for planting does not improve, we are going to have more cane than this year because there will be a better composition of strains,” the director believes.

In addition, they have another factor that the authorities consider infallible: the heart. “We are making the repairs with quality and with love, as if the plant were going to grind now,” says Adalberto Rodríguez García, shift manager at the mill during the harvest and a mechanic now during the repairs, who has 47 years of work at the mill.

That labor force and the cane will be capital, along with the Russians, according to the directors. “When we have that amount of raw material, the whole world is going to turn to Jatibonico because it will already have cane to grind. If we gather that level of raw material that can give us a not inconsiderable sugar production, we take care of the industrial strength and repair the factory , we can guarantee the future and Uruguay is not leaving the map,” they affirm.

The article reviews part of the history of the plant and quotes Fidel Castro on several occasions, in addition to insisting on the pain of the closure.

On June 23, 14ymedio brought forward the end of operations at the Uruguay mill due to constant mechanical failures. The mill, which began grinding in 1905, has been transformed and repaired many times, but in recent years the stoppages due to failures and maintenance have multiplied. After a shutdown in 2021, the plant started up again in December of that year, leaving behind the dire harvest already known.

In a meeting with representatives of AzCuba, when those responsible for the mill were informed of the closure, they were notified of the capital repair that would come. “Faults are constantly occurring. I assume they are going to get their hands on everything, but without resources we will see how they botche it up,” a specialized source told this newspaper.

According to his testimony, the constant shutdowns are carried out because the maintenance cannot be carried out properly without the tools and conditions. Sometimes, simply because a cable is not sealed well, it will leak and that can end up causing a general shutdown,” he said.

The financing could come from Russia if the plan announced this Monday by Escambray materializes, although in 2020 the Russians suspended a multitude of projects reached with the Island Government due to lack of financing, defaults and lack of interest on the Cuban side. The war in Ukraine, which has left Moscow isolated, can change things and Russia is encouraged to engage in diplomacy in the Caribbean through these investments. Time will tell.

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The Cuban Economy is Not Growing… and is Getting Worse and Worse

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 13 October 2022 — Along with the inflation of the CPI in Cuba last August, the other data that have come to cast dark shadows on the nation’s economic landscape is the growth in GDP recorded in the second quarter of the year.

Economists must be attentive to these intense changes that occur in the Island’s economy, and in particular, the GDP deserves special attention.

Specifically, the GDP of the second quarter of 2022 has grown by only 1.7%, a rate that reflects two things: the economy remains weak this year, and it’s struggling to overcome the shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, without growth, underlying problems such as inflation, lack of control of public accounts, and peso exchange rates tend to worsen, so that once again, the authorities show their inability to lead the economy to a more balanced scenario, which introduces numerous questions for the coming months.

Of the 19 branches of activity that the ONEI breaks down for the GDP component, it should be noted that in the second quarter, a total of 13 have registered negative signs in their evolution compared to the same period of the previous year, while 6 have registered positive signs. continue reading

Among the first, the intense decreases in the sugar Industry stand out, -43.8% (a real national disaster, after the very intense decreases in previous years), Fisheries -33.2% (which means less export income), and a decrease of -15% in the Manufacturing Industry or the Electricity Sector (there is the origin of the blackouts). The GDP of agricultural production fell by -7.4%, and, more seriously, every quarter since 2021 it has been decreasing. This means that since the beginning of 2021, food production in Cuba has decreased by -67%, pointing to the failure of the 63 agricultural measures decreed by the regime.

Among the activities that grew their GDP, Hotels and Restaurants stand out, at 42.1%, which still doesn’t reach the GDP levels prior to the crisis. It is followed by Education, a social expenditure encouraged by the return to normality in schools. However, in Public Health, GDP has decreased by -13.9%, possibly to adjust the accounts of the state budget and avoid their lack of control.

The data cited for the second quarter of GDP, 1.7%, should be seen in relation to that for the same period of the previous year, when there was an increase of 8.9%, but it’s more significant to do so with the GDP of the first quarter of 2021, which grew by 10.9%. The contrast between the two indicates a real slowdown in the growth of the economy reflected by the accounts, in which the components linked to public spending, except for Education, have entered into negative territory. For example, Public Administration, falls by -0.3%; Science and Innovation, -1.4%; Health, the -13.8% cited above, and Other Social and Communal Services, -2.9%.

The behavior of the Cuban economy indicates that the regime hasn’t been able, perhaps because it has no plans, to modify the “engines” of the economy by making them pass from the state to the non-state, productive sector (in a way, an extension of the state). Hence, the economy slows its growth when these state activities do and increases otherwise. It’s more of the same, in a failed economic and political model that ranks the Cuban economy as one of the most backward in overcoming the COVID-19 crisis.

The intense change of situation in the second quarter of 2022 is not good news for the coming months. If the patterns of previous years are maintained, the third quarter, which has now ended, will not mean an improvement compared to the second, which will contribute to lower economic growth.

Only the last quarter of the year remains, which entails doubts about an eventual recovery of tourism in the high season. The evolution in the form of the cachumbambé [see-saw] of the Cuban economy since the first quarter of 2021 is a good example of the regime’s failure to achieve more stability and ensure a certain credibility of national accounts. The poor relationship between the productive, state, and non-state sectors, the reduced flexibility of economic activity and the obstacles of the communist model take care of the rest. Cubans will not experience an improvement in the economic situation in 2022.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Havana’s Fanciest Dessert Shop Charges 200 Pesos to the Dollar

Located at 24 Infanta Street, between San Lazaro and Concordia, El Biky is part of a larger dining operation in the building.

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, 12 October 2022 — Exclusive, expensive and accessible only to those with the patience to wait in line, El Biky is immune to crisis.

Located at 24 Infanta Street, between San Lazaro and Concordia, the Havana bakery El Biky is part of a larger dining operation that includes a cafe, bar and restaurant. Its large display cases, filled with cakes and pastries, attract those who can afford its high prices. It is simply the most chic dessert shop in Central Havana.

“It’s always been a place for the well-to-do,” says Pablo, a customer who attributes the establishment’s constant supply of products to its relationship with the politically powerful.

It opened in 2014 under the inelegant moniker “non-agricultural cooperative.” Its four partners — none of whom share the establishment’s name — began remodeling an old Havana office building that takes up a large chunk of its Infanta Street block. The “comprehensive renovation” took a year and is documented with photographs which the investors proudly use to illustrate the change from dilapidated building to pastry shop.

“Everything about El Biky is high-end,” says Pablo. “All the equipment is new, brand-name and industrial-scale. No one knows how they managed to import it.” continue reading

But even more shocking, he says, are the prices and method of payment. “Pastries were always expensive but, since currency unification, the change has been brutal.” In spite of being a state-approved cooperative, El Biky sets its prices based on the unofficial exchange rate of “freely convertible currency” (MLC). Currently, that rate is 200 pesos to 1 MLC. This inconsistency further raises suspicions that there are, among its backers, private interests linked to the regime.

That means a lemon pie for 10 MLC costs a customer 2,000 pesos. A coconut tart at 5.75 MLC costs 1,150 pesos. A chocolate peanut tart costs 1,800. The same rate applies to smaller sweets, such a 0.95 MLC chocolate éclair, 0.35 centavo marquesitas, and the 1 MLC coconut cake and cupcake slices.

In spite of being a state-approved cooperative, El Biky sets its prices based on the unofficial exchange rate of “freely convertible currency” (MLC).

“They have the nerve to put the two prices in the same display case,” complains Pablo. A telling detail regarding how El Biky manipulates currency value is that purchases are processed through a mobile money transfer app.

“If they used a POS,” he says, referring to an electronic credit card payment terminal, “they would have to charge the [lower] MLC exchange rate set by the state. But that doesn’t suit them.”

El Biky also supplies smaller businesses that sell pastries. “A little while ago one man walked out with six cakes that he’ll sell at his restaurant,” Pablo observes. The bakery is also the dessert supplier to Havana’s elites.

“People come here in cars and motorcycles with private plates, the latest models. You can tell they’re rich by the way they’re dressed. Foreigners and high-ranking military officials also come here,” he explains. “It’s not the lowlife crowd waiting in line, like the one for chicken. It’s the Cuban bourgeoisie. They sometimes buy in large quantities.”

Such opulence contrasts with the food insecurity of most Cubans, who are subject to unending shortages and do not have access to sugar, flour, cooking oil or many the other products necessary for making high-quality desserts.

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Cuba: The ‘Stockholm Letter’

Photo of the protest in Caibarién, Villa Clara on Monday. (Capture)

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 12 October 2022 — On August 23, 1973, in the Swedish city of Stockholm, Jan-Erik Olsson attempted to rob a bank. His four hostages, despite the violence and threats to their lives, ended up protecting their captor and demonstrating vehement empathy toward him. Upon seeing this strange reaction of the victims, psychiatrist Nils Bejerot coined the term “Stockholm syndrome.”

The letter signed by a group of artists and intellectuals, denying the repression and praising the administration of the worst government Cuba has experienced in all its history, seems written by the hostages of that bank. The signatories not only displayed a cynical attitude, but rather, a sick one.

How can they deny the repression in a country where the little dictator gave the combat order on national television? How can they close their eyes to what occurred on our streets, to the hordes armed with clubs exiting the trucks to beat protesters? How can they pretend that in Cuba there aren’t more than a thousand young people in jail for yelling that they have had enough of the darkness and misery? Don’t those who subscribed to that letter realize that their signature is as culpable as the blow of a henchman, or the bullet that entered Diubis Laurencio’s back?

It is not the first time something like this happens. In 2003, a group of well-recognized Cuban intellectuals signed a the Mensaje para los amigos que están lejos [A message to our friends who are far away], supporting the imprisonment of 75 dissidents and the execution of three young men. If that was called the Black Spring, this has been the Black Autumn, as somber as the blackouts, as dark as the present and future of an entire country. Some of those who placed their signature there have, with time, regretted it and have refused to make the same mistake. But others repeat it. And new names are added to the infamy. continue reading

I saw the signatures of certain people who I considered “my friends”. But in signing that letter they are backing all the terror my family suffered. It is as if they themselves were the ones who threw me onto the garbage truck on July 11th, the same ones who decapitated doves at my door, and threatened to put me in jail for 27 years, and surrounded my house on November 14th, the same ones who launched me into exile. They are not my friends. They are the courtiers of a despotic regime, the accomplices of those who hold on to power by force and have Cuba buried in disgrace.

I don’t know what they gain by “acting like Swedes.” I don’t know if, for them, it is worth smearing their names with mud forever to keep their positions, publish a little book, come out with an album or gain some sad privilege. By signing “the Stockholm Letter” they’ve reached the limit of subservience.

There were always people like this in Cuba, willing to applaud the horror. Today, almost no one dares to admit they supported the parameterization or that they were the architects of the Five Grey Years. But none of those horrible chapters would have happened without counting on the acolytes, slime balls, and applauders. Each sinister phase of history has its side kicks, fixers, co-authors. And the signers of that letter have made a pact with the mafia that gets fat at our expense.

Returning to Stockholm syndrome, there is an important detail that deserves attention. One year after the bank robbery which gave rise to that psychological reaction, another important event occurred. Patricia Hearst, the granddaughter of a magnate, was kidnapped in California by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Shortly thereafter, the victim herself joined the kidnappers and helped them rob a bank. Patricia, who had been sexually abused by her captors, changed her name to Tania, just like the guerrilla fighter who accompanied Che Guevara. The cameras at the bank recorded her holding a rifle and actively participating in the robbery. Although her lawyers tried to defend her, alleging she suffered from the syndrome, the jury convicted her anyway.

Don’t believe, signers of the infamous letter, that history will absolve you. Lately, you have experienced a massive rejection by most Cubans. And abroad, those hypocritical letters no longer have much of an effect. The world has already seen the repression in Cuba. And the world has seen you buckle, as shameless opportunists, under a perishing dictatorship.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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A Former Cuban Deputy and LGBTI Activist Arrives in the United States

In his message he thanked several people, including his mother, his boyfriend “and everyone who somehow helped me, encouraged and gave me his blessing in such an important decision.” (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 October 2022 — The former Cuban deputy to the National Assembly of People’s Power, Luis Ángel Adán Roble, emigrated to the United States, as confirmed by the young man himself on his social networks. “Meta completed in 72 hours,” he wrote on Facebook on Wednesday along with several symbols that suggest he flew from Cuba to Mexico and crossed the US border

In his message he thanked several people, including his mother, his boyfriend “and everyone who somehow helped me, encouraged me and gave me their blessing in such an important decision.” He also said he was “happy not only to have arrived, but to so many displays of affection. Now, let’s go forward.”

Roble, who was the first openly gay Cuban deputy and LGBTI+ rights activist, left his profession as a doctor at the beginning of 2022, after claiming that his job didn’t provide him with “a decent salary.”

A year earlier he revealed that State Security tried to recruit him and that he had also “been regulated*” by the Ministry of the Interior because they considered him a “person of public interest,” which is why he couldn’t travel outside the country. continue reading

In November 2019, Roble posted on his Facebook profile: “At the Extraordinary Meeting of the Municipal Assembly of Centro Habana, Havana, I was granted the release from the position of Municipal Delegate and in turn of Deputy of the National Assembly.”

The text was published a few weeks after the deputy denounced that he couldn’t travel to an international conference in Colombia because the National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX), led by Raul Castro’s daughter Mariela Castro Espín, denied him its support.

“It’s a little more of the same thing, delayed procedures, playing around or ’I just don’t have the go-ahead’,” he wrote then in a post in which he included several photos with Mariela.

The International Association of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Trans and Intersex for Latin America and the Caribbean (ILGALAC) was then holding its eighth conference in Colombia, and Roble waited for the authorization of the dean of his faculty but also needed a letter issued by CENESEX, a member of ILGALAC.

“When talking to the Deputy Director of this Institution [CENESEX] I received the answer that they cannot accredit me as an activist to any community social network (although on my previous trip to Colombia in May, they did issue a letter),” Roble said.

The friction with CENESEX began when Roble said that the LGBTI march of May 2019 had not been organized from outside the Island, as Mariela Castro claimed. “It’s a mistake to politicize it and say that it was orchestrated from abroad, nothing farther from the truth, because they are young workers, students, revolutionaries, many of them acquaintances and friends, who made the call,” he stressed.

Shortly after, he amended his statement and ventured that some activists participating in the march received “payments to hold this type of event.”

*Translator’s note: ’Regulated’ is the term applied to individuals by the Cuban government meaning that they are not allowed to leave the country.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The UN Presents a 42 Million Dollar Plan to Help Thousands of Cubans After Hurricane Ian

A house in Pinar del Río affected by the passage of Hurricane Ian. (Tele Pinar)

EFE/14ymedio, United Nations, Havana, 12 October 2022 — On Tuesday, the United Nations presented an action plan of 42 million dollars with which it hopes to support almost 800,000 people in Cuba affected by Hurricane Ian, both in the short term with emergency aid, and in the medium term to repair damage.

According to spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, with this initiative the United Nations seeks to support the work of the Cuban authorities to respond to the needs of citizens after the passage of Ian, which devastated the western end of the Island at the end of September.

The UN explained that the plan will support the response in areas such as housing, health, education, food security and access to drinking water and electricity.

In total, the UN expects about 798,000 people to benefit, mainly in the provinces of Pinar del Río and Artemisa, the areas most affected by the hurricane.

To finance the plan, the United Nations has already allocated $7.8 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund and $3.7 million from the budget allocated to its team in Cuba. continue reading

Last week it was known that the European Union will contribute 1 million euros to help those affected by Hurricane Ian on the Island, according to the diplomatic representation of Brussels in Havana.

“Hurricane Ian has had a devastating impact on Cuba, and it’s estimated that 100,000 households have been affected,” the community bloc delegation on the Island added on Twitter.

#Ian, the first hurricane that has reached Cuba in the current hurricane season in the Atlantic, left five dead and much material damage; for example, damaging almost half of the homes in the province of Pinar del Río and forcing thousands of people to evacuate.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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