Deported and Whereabouts Unknown–One of the Cubans who Stole a Boat in Mariel

The U.S. Coast Guard returned to the Island the Cubans who stole a boat from the port of Mariel. (Twitter/@USCGSoutheast)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, October 5, 2022–The family of Evelio Calvo Capote, who organized, with 21 family members, the theft of a boat from the port of Mariel with the intention of reaching the U.S. does not know where he is being held. “They grabbed him and loaded him onto a white van and they took him,” said Daniel Calvo, who lives in Miami, speaking to journalist Mario J. Pentón.

Evelio’s brother recounted that the stolen boat was intercepted in American waters. “They were spotted by a helicopter and six speed boats and they started to launch tear gas at them,” which created panic because of the children that were in the group, he said. The coast guard hopped on the boat, pointed a weapon at his brother and ordered him to stop.

Calvo Capote, as well as the rest of the group, requested asylum at the time they were interviewed by a consul, whom they also made aware of the danger they faced if they were returned to the Island. The hope of being accepted was buried when they saw that each day they were moved from one boat to another. “They went through six,” stated Daniel Calvo.

On one boat, the detainees joined two Cubans who were presumably “escapees from justice,” explained Daniel; however those people “were dropped off at Guantánamo,” while the rest, including Evelio, were transferred to a bay in Santiago, Cuba. The ship approached the dock, an official from the Ministry of the Interior boarded asking for Evelio Calvo and, “they arrested and took him.” continue reading

Daniel Calvo underscored that his brother let his mother know that “he had no hope,” because the regime was requesting the return of someone who for six years worked as a ship mechanic for the Cuban Coast Guard.

On Saturday, the US Coast Guard confirmed that they returned 22 Cubans to the island. That same day, Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart denounced on social media the disparities between U.S. President Joe Biden’s discourse, when he stressed that it was not “rational” to deport Cuban migrants. “Clearly that was another bald-faced lie, as his Administration returned those 22 Cubans, knowing full well the repercussions they’d suffer.”

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 55 Cubans aboard the vessel William Trump. The group was composed of rafters from four crafts intercepted along the Florida coast.

Through a statement, American maritime authorities exhorted rafters to avoid risking their lives on rustic boats. “Hurricane season has not ended and more storms are brewing,” warned Lieutenant Connor Ives. “Our air and surface crews are patroling and keep watch to save lives and prevent illegal and unsafe ventures.”

Since October 1, 2022, Coast Guard crews have intercepted 66 Cubans.

On the other hand, the bodies of three female Cuban rafters were found on Saturday near Key West, and with that the search for the missing came to an end. The women were part of the group of 27 people who attempted to reach Florida in a boat that capsized last Wednesday close to Stock Island, near Key West.

In all, the bodies of four women and one man were found, while nine people survived the wreck and are in custody of the authorities. One of the Cuban men rescued on Wednesday told television channel WPLG that they left the Island last Friday and had spent five days at sea when the ship wrecked. He stated that they remained “two days and two nights near the coast of Cuba and they did not rescue us.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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The Cuban Government Will Deliver Food Packages with the Support of the United Nations

Lines for the delivery of donated food packages during the pandemic in Cuba. (14ymedio/Archive)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, October 5, 2022 — The authorities will begin distributing food packages this Thursday in the provinces most affected by Hurricane Ian, in a attempt to calm the population. Havana, where more protests have occurred in recent days, will be the last to start receiving them, in the middle of the month, “because of the large number of people,” the Minister of Internal Trade, Betsy Díaz Velázquez, said on television on Tuesday.

The population of Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Havana, Mayabeque and Isla de la Juventud will benefit from a “food supplement” that includes three more pounds of rice for the entire population and canned meats per family nucleus. “This measure will benefit more than 3,553,000 consumers,” she said.

The initiative assumes that all inhabitants, regardless of their needs, will be treated equally, a formula criticized by the Cuban economist Elías Amor Bravo, who is stunned — although accustomed to being so — that such a strongly centralized model doesn’t know how to “discriminate aid based on the personal circumstances of the applicant.” Similarly, in construction, the regime has decided to offer a 50% subsidy on construction materials regardless of who is the beneficiary.

“The minister still has time to change the aid formula and stop distributing products as if it were an old parish charity office,” says the expert, annoyed by the public management carried out by the regime. continue reading

In detail, the additional food planned for the west of the Island also includes two pounds of potatoes for Pinar del Río and, later, for Havana; while in Artemisa, the amount will depend on the provincial authorities. Also in Batabanó, Mayabeque, potatoes will be received, without further details about the quantity or clarifications with respect to the rest of the territory. Grains are increased for these areas, as well as cleaning products, whose distribution “has been affected in recent months.”

The World Food Program, which will be responsible for delivering the packages in some municipalities, has provided some products, including tents, tarpaulins, lamps, mobile warehouses for food protection and kitchen kits, in addition to 478 hygiene kits, which were delivered in the Surgidero de Batabanó and to vulnerable people.

But the first problems with special aid after Hurricane Ian have already begun to appear. The Government promised to finance mattresses for those who requested them, and, according to the minister herself, not everyone will get one “because the effects [of the hurricane] are still being felt, but there’s a level of support for cases that need it.”

Díaz Vázquez tried to explain during her speech that another consequence of Ian is the delay in the delivery of the family basket, given that the dates have coincided. But then she began to relate the number of products that are being distributed now but with a delay of months.

“We’re concluding the distribution of coffee, except on the Isla de la Juventud and Holguín; a substitute for yogurt that couldn’t be produced is being completed and the delivery of meat products from last month in eight territories such as Havana, Mayabeque, Pinar del Río, Sancti Spíritus, Matanzas Ciego de Ávila, Holguín and Granma. In addition, she acknowledged the delays with salt and added that it hasn’t been possible to distribute the oil in Pinar del Río because the flow meter to measure it only works with electricity. “Yesterday the marketing of rice, other grains and sugar began in all the ration stores,” she added after saying that they have already finished distributing milk for the children, which had been the priority.

Díaz Velázquez assured that all the products in the basket are in the country and asked the population for calm, although the discomfort is evident and not limited to food.

One of the most disturbing reports provided by the minister was that the distribution of charcoal for cooking has begun in Pinar del Río. “That is, back to the most remote past,” says Elías Amor.

Of the 871 retail stores that were damaged with the passage of Ian, 520 were state ration stores, and within them, 429 were in Pinar del Río, a province for which everything is bad news.

It has even been necessary to set up offices to serve the population and multiply points of sale for construction materials. In addition to the blow to its main crop, tobacco, there are 63,133 damaged homes, of which 7,107 are totally collapsed. Díaz emphasized the innovation of the installment sale of construction materials and recalled that bank credit can also be accessed and evaluated for the 50% subsidy.

“What is processed in a unique and generic way, is the same for the Cuban who earns 2,500 pesos per month as the one who receives 5,000 pesos. That is communist equality, which then ends up generating painful distortions in society,” writes Elías Amor. “But, in addition, 50% of the materials are subsidized for those who are without housing or shelter, destroyed by the hurricane, and where only a roof or a wall has collapsed that requires minor work. Has no one thought about adjusting the percentage of the subsidy?” asks the economist based in Spain, for whom the measures are “pure communist demagoguery and show little desire to work for the benefit of the community.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Agricultural Development Development Fund Has Been a Failure

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 3 October 2022 — One of the most resounding failures of the 63 measures approved by the Cuban communist regime to increase agricultural production has been the so-called Agricultural Development Fund. One year after its creation, the balance sheet cannot be more demoralizing. The official state newspaper Granma explicitly recognizes it when it points out that “in Ciego de Ávila there could be more credits approved, because it’s a purely agricultural province,” but only 22 credits have been granted in the amount of about 230 million pesos. A trifle. For it to be useful,they have to keep in mind what they intend to do in Pinar del Río, selling construction materials at half the price to fight the destruction of Hurricane Ian. This type of measure doesn’t work.

But let’s go to the case in question. The 63 measures that sought to encourage the progress of agriculture and speed up food production haven’t worked a year later. It’s logical, since they are poorly designed and try to achieve objectives without first making structural transformations.

Far from attributing responsibilities for the failure to the banks of Credit and Commerce and Popular Savings, which are only transmission belts of a program, which, I emphasize, is poorly designed, the only ones who should respond to the failure is the regime, the ministry and even Díaz-Canel himself for relying on measures that are imprecise, poorly designed and of little social utility, such as this fund.

Why do we say that the design is incorrect? continue reading

Well, basically because of those who apply for and get the credits from the fund. These are state companies that will be supported by political and partisan criteria. Since this financial modality was launched, the banks have also approved reduced loans with a small amount, destined for state companies, such as Arnaldo Ramírez and Porcina.

Very few independent farmers benefited from the loans. Those who benefited from the Agricultural Development Credit have been state companies with a weight in food production, such as Agropecuaria La Cuba, Agroindustrial Ceballos, Agropecuaria Chambas, and integral Agropecuaria, and only three entities in the cooperative sector participated, which received 108 million pesos for the cultivation of bananas, guava, potatoes and the promotion of pasture for livestock.

On the other hand, Granma’s note reported that the Agricultural Development Bank approved 2.8 billion pesos for the planting of cane, in addition to other amounts for the production of pork, protected crops, the planting of cassava, corn, soybeans, sweet potatoes, rice, fruit trees and protein plants for animal feed. And yet, the sugar campaign was the worst since colonial times. Bandec is now in charge of managing the committed debt, but, as Granma says, the greatest responsibility lies with Agriculture and Azcuba, responsible for defining the natural and legal persons who meet the requirements to receive the loan and are in a position to increase production, as intended, and be able to repay it.

This is the question. What is the requirement to be met? It seems that we are talking about irrelevant issues, but efficient banking practice is clear about it. Property rights are a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for an effective financial policy. If this relationship is not established transparently and with the utmost legal respect, things cannot go well. And so, after a year, as Granma says, the credits approved in a purely agricultural province are scarce, and it is recognized that, “even though all the scenarios have been used to divulge the advantage of the initiative, it’s never enough, because it doesn’t always go directly to the producers.” Once again, communication, and start blaming the complex situation of the economic and social environment for failure.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

The New York Times Publishes a Deceitful Ad in Favor of the Cuban Regime

A paid ad last Sunday in The New York Times in favor of the Cuban regime. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Frank Calzón, 5 October 2022 — The New York Times has published an ad asking President Joe Biden to respond affirmatively to the Cuban government’s call for the lifting of economic sanctions for six months “so that Cuba can reconstruct after the hurricane.”

The text contains a catalogue of fallacies and half-truths.

It’s not true, as it says, that the US embargo impedes the purchase of construction material. Cuba buys everything it wants from countries around the world. The problem is that the countries that previously forgave the regime’s millions of dollars of debt now refuse to extend credit to Havana, since the debt won’t be paid.

One of the consequences of the U.S. embargo is that Cuba has to pay cash for what it buys from the U.S., like the tons of frozen chicken it imports from New Orleans. Otherwise, the U.S., like the Spanish, French, Argentinian and other governments, would stop subsidizing the regime.

As for the blackouts and the disaster of the thermoelectric plants in Cuba, to pretend that it’s because of Hurricane Ian, speaking diplomatically, lacks truth. For more than thirty years, the readers of the official newspaper Granma have been informed in which neighborhoods, on which days and at what times the power would be shut off. continue reading

For Cubans familiar with the craziness of Fidel Castro, like the Ten Million Ton Harvest and the closing of most of the sugar mills, which made the spectacular development of the country possible for two centuries, the regime can’t tell them that the blackouts are the fault of the hurricane or the Yankee embargo.

Many years ago, Fidel ordered the removal of stovetop cookers that used kerosene and charcoal and obliged the population to buy electric cookers to replace them. This increased the price of electricity. Fidel gave classes on television to Cuban housewives about the advantages of electric pressure cookers.

Ignoring the analysis of the experts, they used the national oil, which unfortunately has a high sulphur content, in the thermoelectric plants. The result, as in the case of the almost-disappeared sugar industry, is the energy crisis, with or without a hurricane.

The ad alleges that President Trump put Cuba back on the list of countries that facilitate international terror because Cuba was the seat of the peace negotiations for Colombia. But it doesn’t say that the F.B.I., for years, has offered thousands of dollars for information that might lead to the capture of U.S. terrorists who have sought refuge on the Island. Among them is Joanne Chesimard (alias Assata Shakur), an African-American extremist [member of the Black Liberation Army] who received a life sentence in 1977 after killing a New Jersey state patrol officer in cold blood when she was stopped for speeding in 1973. She escaped from prison in 1979 and was granted political asylum in Cuba. Her case isn’t the only one.

And what about the suggestion that Washington should stop basing its policy towards Cuba on the paradigm of the Cold War? Suffice it to point out that, even for Havana’s friends in Washington, it’s impossible to ignore the role of the regime’s propaganda in favor of President Vladimir Putin’s criminal war in Ukraine. Havana was one of the handful of dictatorships that voted against suspending Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council and tried not to allow the recorded appearance before the General Assembly of the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who could not attend for obvious reasons.

The Biden Administration has denounced all of the above, while the Plaza de la Revolución is preparing to send “volunteers” to Ukraine under the orders of Russian officers.

There’s more, but even so, President Biden shouldn’t ignore the regime’s request, according to the The New York Times ad. If the president wants to help the Cuban people, he must offer to establish a humanitarian channel with the following conditions:

1. That the aid is clearly marked “Free gift from the people of the United States to the Cuban people. FORBIDDEN TO SELL.”

2. That the aid be distributed in Cuba by staff of the American Red Cross and the Agency for International Development, and that both be allowed to monitor the impact of the aid on the population on the ground.

If not, it’s possible that the same thing would happen as years ago, when a shipment of medicines and food that the Catholic Church wanted to distribute on the Island was sent to Haiti, because some Cuban mothers in Florida had written on the boxes “With the love of your brothers exiled in Miami.” Something similar to the Cuba Decide shipment of humanitarian aid, confiscated in the Port of Mariel in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic.

It’s not true that the sanctions hinder the reconstruction of Cuba after Hurricane Ian, because the blackouts and lack of electricity across the Island precede Hurricane Ian by years. Homelessness, although it has been worsened by the hurricane, is basically the result of more than 60 years of lack of maintenance of the buildings where Cubans live. According to the regime’s priorities, millions of dollars are spent on the construction of luxury hotels for foreigners, while the country’s homes, aqueducts, sewage systems and infrastructure in general have deteriorated disastrously.

The ad regrets the destruction of the tobacco production, pointing out that 5,000 farms have been destroyed. But it doesn’t say that these farmers, if they dare to sell their tobacco to Cubans and not to the state monopoly, are sentenced to prison, like others who dare to sell their chickens, rice or the milk of their cows.

President Biden should order the Administration to implement its promises to provide free Internet service for the Cuban people. And if Havana rejects Biden’s offer, Washington should lead an international United Nations coalition to suspend Cuba from the Human Rights Council, as was done with Vladimir Putin’s regime.

The true friends of the Cuban people in the United States Congress, who are a majority, should immediately address Biden to make sure that the president doesn’t turn a deaf ear to the claim of thousands of protesters throughout Cuba, who don’t shout against the U.S. embargo, but in favor of their own freedom. For doing so, peacefully, there are a thousand young people in prison after the social explosion of Sunday, July 11, 2021.

The sponsors of the ad, as well as the editors of The New York Times, are complicit in omitting these details. Once again, they make the victims of repression on the Island invisible, while they whitewash the face of the human rights violator.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Neighborhood with Proven Revolutionary Credentials Turns to Protest

After more than 100 hours without electricity in the wake of Hurricane Ian, only few lights could be seen in our community.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 2 October 2022 – The night of Saturday, October 1, 2022 will be remembered in our Havana neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado as the moment we came to think of ourselves as protestors. After more than 100 hours without electricity in the wake of Hurricane Ian, only few lights could be seen in our community. In addition to numerous individual private homes, the blackout impacted multi-family buildings of twelve, fourteen and twenty-four floors, the equivalent of 5,000 people by conservative estimates.

At 9:00 PM, the exact same time that a few months ago people went out onto the balconies of these buildings to applaud the health care workers who were battling the Covid-19 pandemic, one could hear the first recognizable shot being fired: the shy, almost casual sound of someone banging a metal pot. It was like the fuse that sets off an explosion of long-repressed desire. For an hour and a half the sounds continued. Government skeptics confirmed there were many who participated; officials feared there were too many.

Most of those who obtained homes in these buildings, products of the micro-brigade system,* had to go through a rigorous screening process to determine if they had a distinguished revolutionary background. Housing distribution regulations called for applicants to be judged on how many “labor and social merits” they had earned. Inspectors also secretly noted if these applicants kept religious images in their homes or maintained relations with relatives overseas.

This meant that being a member of the Communist Party or the Young Communist League, having spent time in an overseas mission or holding an official leadership position was considerably more advantageous than having three, seven or even ten years of hands-on construction experience. continue reading

More than forty years have passed since residents of some of these buildings went through the process of acquiring their homes. In one 144-unit structure, 52 of the original owners have died, 47 have moved elsewhere and 15 have emigrated (not counting their children). Among those still living in the building who acquired their units on the basis of “labor and social” merit, the average age is 73 years.

It is true that residents were only calling for the power be turned back on. No one was heard shouting “Freedom!” or demanding those in power step down, as occurred in other neighborhoods in the capital. Still, the protest was massive and effective. Six hours later, electrical service was restored. And by dawn we were no longer the same.

If what happened in our neighborhood is an indication of what has happened in the country, if this small area is like a biopsy that indicates a broader malaise in other areas, it should be taken as a sign of the need to adjust the countdown, the one that will end the anomaly in which we live.

*Translator’s note: a form of collective, self-help construction. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43932851

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Officials are Losing the Public Relations Battle in Cuba

Díaz-Canel on Sunday in La Coloma, Pinar del Río. (Office of the President)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, October 3, 2022–Amid the restlessness and hardship which has settled in the streets of the Island, the Cuban government has put in motion the communications machinery to regain political and social ground, not just within Cuba, but also abroad. It took the most ideologically forward step on Sunday publishing a declaration by Casa de las Américas in which it accuses the “media” and “voices” on social media of taking advantage of the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian “to shape the opinion that our ills and the difficulties facing them are the result of the Government of Cuba’s ineptitude.

The ones Miguel Díaz-Canel calls “haters,” those who “take advantage of these circumstances to make other types of statements, that are counterrevolutionary; they try to commit vandalism, such as closing off streets, throwing stones against economic or social sites; that is outside of the law,” reports the official press. And these situations, threatened the leader, will be met with the rigor of the law.

The article, titled Ante la Cuba virtual, la Cuba real [Before the Virtual Cuba, the Real Cuba], leads with questions that attempt to respond to rhetorical ones. “Are ‘the people’ really confronting ‘the government’? Is Cuba a ‘failed state’ incapable of solving a crisis?” asked the declaration. The conclusion is “that the overwhelming majority of people identify with their leaders, participate in the country’s recovery, and defend the threshold principle in the new constitution approved in April 2019, “Cuba is a socialist state of laws and social justice, democratic, independent, and sovereign,” stated Casa de las Américas. continue reading

The article offers, as evidence of popular support for the regime, the yes votes in the referendum on the Family Code last Sunday the 25th, despite the fact that the abstentions were over 26%, the highest since 1959. Immediately after, it continues, a category three hurricane arrived. “It is painful and difficult, for any country suffering such a contingency, to rise up again, attenuate suffering of those affected, attempt to recover from the damages, and move forward,” it adds, and continued by saying the U.S. embargo — which it insists on calling a ‘blockade’ — makes the difficulties worse for Cuba.

The declaration maintains that to report, be it in the press or on social media, on the protests of thousands of citizens who for the past week have been requesting electricity is politicizing their suffering and inciting street violence while insisting that there not be a loosening of the embargo.

“They want to capitalize on the logical suffering of citizens deprived of basic services with the hope that nature will provide, at last, what the many desperate attempts at destroying the Revolution have not,” stated the text, which also mentions the missile crisis, Che Guevara, and Fidel Castro, who they say ‘shined like few statesmen in history’.”

The article reviewed some of the themes which in the last few days the government sought to defended ideologically. One of them is the “expressions of solidarity” from the world, especially from the U.S. to Cuba. On Sunday, The New York Times published a declaration in the form of an advertisement paid for by The People’s Forum, a pro-castroite group, which urges the government of Joe Biden to ease the embargo so the island can “rebuild.”

The ad highlighted that the damages following Ian are many and asked Washington to allow, even for just six months, the Island to access its markets to purchase construction materials.

“It is unconscionable . . . to engage in collective punishment against an entire people. . .Don’t let outdated Cold War politics prevent. . .people from helping the Cubans,” insisted the text.

The declaration by Casa de las Américas states that Hurricane Ian also affected the U.S., a theme which links to an article in Granma dedicated to hurricane damages in Florida titled Los tiempos relativos de la recuperación [Relative recovery times]. The article emphasized the magnitude of the destruction in the neighboring country as evidence that the Island is not the only one harmed and suggests, in a false tone of solidarity, that mutual support should flourish on these occasions.

“The fact that in the state of Florida there were more than 70 fatalities as a result of the strong pounding by Hurricane Ian, in addition to consternation and regrets, warned of how necessary it was to replace that country’s climate of hate and hostility with respect to Cuba, and to allow the contribution and collaboration in mitigating risks, and solidarity assistance after the disaster,” states the article, which reminds readers of the U.S. government’s rejection of assistance offered by Cuba during Hurricane Katrina which ravaged New Orleans in 2005.

While Cuba continues waiting, as if for a godsend, for a gesture of detente–which the Miami exile community watches carefully — authorities announced what its allies can send. One of them is Venezuela, which has sent 40,000 food packages, 50 transformers, power lines, and more than 22,000 square meters of zinc sheets to repair rooftops on two ships en route to Cuba, Carmita and Karola Sky.

“These will launch a maritime bridge extended by the ‘bolivarian‘ government over the waters of the Caribbean Sea, for the solidarity operation. . . but the operation will not end there. This is just the beginning,” stated the article.

Furthermore, on Monday, 19 cases of water purification tablets left Argentina, enough to treat 950,000 liters of water. According to calculations from the chancellery, this can serve 2,000 people for 90 days. “This input is fundamental to collaborate with the Cuban government’s response to the needs of the population of Pinar del Río, the city most damaged by the climate phenomenon,” stated the Argentinian chancellery.

Assistance is also expected from Mexico, announced by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, according to Miguel Díaz-Canel’s own account on Twitter.

The president has not stopped traveling to Pinar del Río, where he traveled for the third time on Sunday, with his military uniform. Though, his contacts in the streets are ever more complicated and the military must control the area for Díaz-Canel to approach the uneasy population without videos appearing, like those from last week in Mayabeque, where he was booed by residents of the area and was rebuked by a woman who ended up yelling, “They mock the people.”

In the last few days, the government announced different measures that, he maintains, will contribute to alleviate the situation of the people following this disaster. Among them are the approval of state funding to cover 50% of the price of construction materials, water tanks, and mattresses sold to the affected population. Furthermore, those who do not have enough income can access bank credits and request subsidies for the purchase of construction materials.

Specific provisions have also been approved by the Ministry of Labor so anyone who cannot work during the recovery may continue to receive 60% of their salary, among other measures related to Social Security.

It is to be seen whether they will comply with these announcements in time and in form, something which rarely happens, but seeing the unending protests, whether large or small, the government is losing the battle which matters most: public relations.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Silvio Rodriguez is Saddened that ‘The Humble’ for Whom the Cuban Revolution Was Made are Protesting

Demonstration in Havana, guarded by uniformed and civilian agents, on Saturday night. (EFE/ Yander Zamora)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 4 October 2022 — Singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez sees “something positive” in last Friday’s mass demonstration on 31st Avenue in the Havana municipality of Playa: it “was guarded by law enforcement but not repressed.”

In a post published on Saturday on his blog Segunda Cita (Second Date) the troubadour confesses that the protest, which took place after almost 100 hours without electricity due to a widespread blackout on the Island after Hurricane Ian, made him “sad.” The reason, he says,  is that “they didn’t seem to be of the  privileged classes who rebuke a inheritor government of a Revolution that was made in blood and fire for the humble.”

“How is it possible that such a distortion has been reached? Is it a mirage for the intensification of a six-decade blockade, or because of how difficult it has become to get food after the pandemic, or because of the havoc that the hurricane caused us?” Rodríguez asks, suggesting again and in his own way a slight criticism of the system that he doesn’t reject.

Taking, as on other occasions, both a hard and soft line, the musician concedes on one hand that “it’s worth asking how much responsibility belongs to those of us who have bet, more than our lives, our history, on an emancipatory project,” but, on the other, affirms that “essentially, I’m sure we weren’t wrong — and I’m not enumerating the virtues, the resounding benefits for the Cuban people that the revolutionary process meant.” continue reading

Rodríguez’s text was published on precisely the same day that, for the first time since the demonstrations began after the hurricane, the regime unleashed the usual repression.

Police officers, but above all State Security agents and military service recruits dressed in civilian clothes and armed with sticks responded on Saturday night to a spontaneous protest that took place in the middle of Vedado in Havana, on Línea and F. There, the neighbors had blocked the street with barricades made from overturned garbage containers, branches of fallen trees and other objects.

In addition, as shown in videos released by the Spanish agency EFE, the demonstrators faced the authorities and the official civilian brigade — which shouted revolutionary slogans such as “Fidel, Fidel” or “Viva Díaz-Canel” — demanding not only “light” but “freedom” and chanting “down with the dictatorship” and “Díaz-Canel motherfucker.”

Although the regime has wanted to sell the idea that in no case was there repression and that the agents responded to “provocations” of violent demonstrators, images disseminated by international media, such as Reuters and The Associated Press, show that those who were armed were the government agents.

On Tuesday, the Justice 11J platform updated the number of detainees since September 30, which has now reached 26. The last arrests registered by the organization are Rafael Zamora Mederos, José Adalberto Fernández Cañizares ( both 38 years old), Alejandro Guilleuma Ibáñez (29), Hillary Gutiérrez (26 ) and Frank Artola (18).

According to Justice 11J, Zamora Mederos,  a member of the Movement of Opponents for a New Republic, was arrested on Saturday and is in the Vivac prison of Havana accused of public disorder “just for walking through the streets on a day of protest.” The platform reports that his relatives have tried to raise 16,000 pesos for his bail, but it’s been impossible, and Mederos  is “on a hunger and thirst strike.”

About Fernández Cañizares, nicknamed Pepitín, acquaintances of his family confirmed to this newspaper that he was hit in the head and was transferred to the Calixto García hospital to be given 37 stitches, according to the doctor who attended him, his own mother. In addition, they fractured his nasal septum. The young man is accused of public disorder and resistance.

Alejandro Guilleuma Ibáñez, Hillary Gutiérrez and Frank Artola are locked up in the DTI 100 detention center and Aldabó, also in the capital, for the same crimes.

Witnesses also claim that this last group was mistreated. Frank “is an exemplary teenager who attends the parish church on Línea in El Vedado. He suffered a fracture of the septum; his lips were split and one of his eyes was swollen because of the blows he received,” wrote Adrián Martínez Cádiz, who added: “His sister, Hillary Gutiérrez, is a good girl. She has a little girl who cries because of her mother’s absence.”

Justice 11J emphasized that “the reports of people injured, brutally beaten and currently in detention for protesting are alarming.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Miami, they Support the Protests in Cuba and Ask the US Not to Give Aid to the Regime

A group of people demonstrated in support of Cubans on the island this Sunday in Miami. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana/Miami, 3 October 2022 – – A group of Cubans living in Miami gathered this Sunday in front of the Versailles Restaurant to support the protests that have been taking place on the island since the electrical system collapsed after the passage of Hurricane Ian, leaving millions of citizens without service. The Internet cuts began in order to prevent communication and dissemination of the demonstrations and their repression.

Among those gathered in front of the legendary Florida restaurant were historical opponents such as former political prisoner Jorge Luis García Pérez, Antúnez, and Cuba Decide leader Rosa María Payá; along with other recently arrived opponents such as rapper Eliecer Márquez Duany, El Funky, graffiti artist Danilo Maldonado, El Sexto, independent journalist Esteban Rodríguez, and boxer Yordenis Ugás. In addition, actor Roberto San Martín and influencer Alexander Otaola were also present.

Together with them, more than 200 Cuban exiles called on the international community not to abandon Cuba in the face of repression and called on Joe Biden’s Administration to take a strong stand against the Cuban regime and refuse to send aid.

In a brief speech, Rosa María Payá, daughter of the late leader of the Christian Liberation Movement and the promoter of the Varela Project, Oswaldo Paya, insisted that the aid that Castroism is asking the U.S. government for should not be provided, since the people have taken to the streets to demand freedom and not business or aid. “Business will come when Cuba is free,” cried the activist, who added that the opposition will help at that time. continue reading

Payá insisted that it is necessary to send a message to the Biden Administration that there should be no rapprochement that would legitimize the dictatorship and would not change anything for the population.

Among the demonstrators, some called for military intervention in Cuba, although most showed their solidarity with the protests and support for those who are in the streets of the island standing up to the authorities. “If Cuba is in the streets, so is Miami,” they chanted.

Many of those who gathered this Sunday in front of the Versailles were recent arrivals to the U.S. who were telling each other about their journey through Nicaragua. There were also some who were still fearful of the presence of several police units guarding the peaceful development of the rally, although the more experienced ones asked for calm. “The police are here to take care of us,” they said to each other.

Meanwhile, this Sunday night Cubans went out again in several cities, according to videos that circulated on social networks. From Punta Brava and Santiago de las Vegas, in the Havana municipalities of La Lisa and Boyeros or Capellanía, in Artemisa, came testimonies of different pots and pans in which people shouted “We want the lights”.

According to the organization Justicia 11J, since September 30 there have been 20 arrests of participants in these protests, 14 of whom are still in detention.

“About 15 people [were] detained over last night’s protests in Linea Street, Vedado and Arroyo Arenas,” in Havana, as well as in Baracoa, the collective said on Twitter. They are in addition to five arrests in previous days.

Although the relatives “have been told that the demonstrators will soon be released”, some of those who were detained in Vedado have been transferred to the Technical Department of Investigations (DTI), where suspects are usually taken for prosecution.

Justice 11J also reports that five protesters from Havana, Villa Clara and Guantanamo have already been released.

In addition, the organization Amnesty International (AI) charged on Sunday that “protests are intensifying in Cuba” and that they are receiving “reports of repression, possible detentions and Internet cuts”.

“We demand that the government of President Miguel Diaz-Canel put an end to the repression, and listen to the demands of those who protest peacefully,” AI stressed on Twitter.

Hurricane Ian crossed the western tip of Cuba from south to north on Tuesday, with heavy rains and winds of up to 200 kilometers per hour, causing heavy material damage and five deaths, according to the latest official balance published on Sunday.

The Cuban Electric Union (UNE) multiplied this weekend its announcements of new electric circuits reestablished, but outages and blackouts continue without it being possible to distinguish whether they are a consequence of the major breakdown last Tuesday or of the months of generation deficit accumulated by the system due to the continuous breakdowns of thermoelectric plants and distributed generating plants.

In Havana, UNE has reported that 95.3% of customers now have electricity, but there is still no service in some parts of the city. Regarding water supply, at a meeting of the Government of Havana it was said that 92% of the population is receiving service, with 170,000 customers pending.

On the other hand, the restoration of services is extremely slow in the province of Pinar del Río, the most affected by the hurricane, where only 7% of the 235,311 customers have electricity service and, according to the authorities, the situation will be normalized within 15 to 20 days.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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A Senior Migration Official in Mexico Demands $70,000 from 14 Cubans to Avoid Deportation

In recent months, several Cubans have been arrested during their journey through Campeche. (Captura)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico,30  September 2022 — “You have 72 hours or you’ll be deported.” In this way, an agent of the National Migration Institute threatened a group of 14 Cubans in Mexico City. The alternative is blackmail: “They’re asking for $5,000 for each, $70,000 for the group,” a close friend of the detainees who wants to remain anonymous tells 14ymedio.

The group formed part the 103 Cubans detained in the Mexican state of Campeche, who were forced to remain on a bus without food for 24 hours. A Migration officer recommended to the source interviewed by this newspaper to “get moving” with the money.

In an audio to which this newspaper had access, the telephone warning of the agent, identified as the deputy director of the Las Agujas migration station in the Mexican capital, is heard. “I want to know if they’re going to get their hands on it,” asks the official, who warns that “the amount will be considerable” if the group wants to be freed.

The voice also proposes the alternative of allowing their deportation and then negotiating a new entry. Although, it clarifies, now this was going to “stain their passports.” “It’s going to be a little more complicated, I think,” says the man, who recommends that the Cubans act quickly.

“The group had been divided,” explains the same source. “Some of them were taken to the Escárcega migration station, in Campeche, but others were transported to the prosecutor’s office, after spending more than a day without eating, until they were moved to Cancun, then to Chetumal and now they are in Las Agujas,” he says. continue reading

Those who moved to Cancun offered money to the agents and achieved their release in Chetumal. A minor, Jimmy Jorge Céspedes Sánchez, who presented health problems derived from the asthma he suffered during the retention, and also Yaimet Sánchez Selles, Yaimet Selles Velázquez and Jorge Luis Sánchez Proenza, are part of this group.

It’s not the first time that Cubans have reported abuses by Las Agujas Migration agents.

In the last week of July, Angélica María Rodríguez Varela, Isael Meléndez Castro, Junier Blanco Hernández and two other Cubans were arrested despite having legal protection to pass, during their transfer to the border with the United States.

Rodríguez, Meléndez, Blanco and other nationals of the Island were robbed of the little cash they had. Their passports were taken away, the chips from their mobile phones removed and they were kept incommunicado for several days. The agents demanded the payment of $2,000 from each one to be released and have their documents returned. Thanks to the intervention of an activist, they were allowed to leave and are currently in El Paso, Texas.

The journey of Cubans through Mexico has increased significantly in recent months. In the last 45 days, immigration authorities reported the arrest of 220 people who entered the country illegally.

What they don’t say is that there are hundreds of prisoners in Migration prisons. “That’s a crime,” says the 14ymedio source, who warns Cubans not to rely on money to avoid deportation. “It’s crazy, they want $70,000.”

More than 177,000 Cubans have arrived by land in the United States and more than 5,000 by sea since October 2021.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Angel Pena and Yadier Batista Join the Long List of Escaped Cuban Baseball Players

The prominent former baseball player Ángel Peña left the Island to embark on the crossing like thousands of Cubans through Central America in order to reach the United States. (Cubadebate)wewew

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 3 October 2022 — The list of expatriate Cuban baseball players already forms a sports catastrophe. So far in October, the abandonments of retired pitcher Ángel Peña and left-handed pitcher Yadier Batista have been confirmed. These athletes join David Mena, Jefferson Delgado, Ciro Silvino Licea, Adriel Labrada, Juan Carlos Hernández, Sergio Pérez, Dismany Ortiz and Yunior Charadan, who left the Island in September.

Peña, according to journalist Francys Romero, left Cuba “in the late hours” for the United States going through “the Central American route,” the same one taken by Mena, Delgado, Licea and Labrada a few days ago.

People remember that the “Falcon of March 13,” as they call Peña, earned more than 1,027 strikeouts in the National Series. In 2013 this baseball player became the fourth pitcher in Sancti Spíritus to reach that mark in the category, beneath only Yovani Aragón (1,926), Roberto Ramos (1,151) and Maels Rodríguez (1,148), as published in Escambray.

In his career he won 132 games. In the beginning, he stood out as a U-15 and U-18 World Cup player in the 1990s, but little was known about this athlete until he decided to emigrate with his family, according to a comment on Facebook. continue reading

“Cuban society continues to emigrate massively, including active players, retirees, coaches and athletes from other disciplines,” Romero said on his social networks. He anticipated that given the possibility of flights to Nicaragua, there would be several departures before the First Elite League, which will begin on October 8.

El pelotero Yadier Batista puede lanzar entre 88-91 millas. (Collage)

Meanwhile, he has left for the Dominican Republic. This 18-year-old hopes to continue his career with a U.S. Major League team. “In the recently finished National U-23 Championship he made news by pitching a game without a hit or any runs,” posted Baseball FR!

“Now he’ll go through new processes. In the first he will seek to perfect his tools and polish his entire command,” Francys Romero said. “The second part is to apply for free agency and receive permission from the MLB to be able to sign with a professional team.” This athlete, originally from Ciego de Ávila, 6’3 tall and 180 pounds in weight, can throw between 88-91 miles per hour.

Batista can pitch at a speed between 94-95 miles per hour, and according to the specialized journalist, “he has a profile of opener, command and sufficient repertoire. His body still has much more space for the development of those tools.”

Batista is preceded by his performance in 2019, when he left a statistic of 5-0 in 46 innings, and 52 strikeouts in the Nacional 2015-16. At that time he was one of the 13 pitchers who averaged fewer than three clean runs per game.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Tobacco ‘Has Suffered the Largest Blow in its History’

A tobacco curing house completely collapsed in San Juan y Martínez. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 4 October 2022 — Hurricane Ian has been a “demolishing blow” for Cuba’s most select tobacco cultivation, the official press reported, with major material damage and the loss of thousands of tons of raw material.

Hurricane Ian — a category three storm with heavy rains and winds of up to 125 miles per hour — caused massive damage, “both in tons and in the quality of a crop that contributes hundreds of millions of dollars for export every year,” according to the official newspaper Granma.

The digital media Cubadebate also reported on the destruction of much of the infrastructure of the tobacco sector in Pinar del Río, the province where a large part of Cuban tobacco is grown and where the raw material of the most sought-after cigars comes from.

The Pinar del Río Agriculture delegate, Víctor Fidel Hernández, told Granma that “it’s the biggest blow that the tobacco infrastructure has suffered in its history.” continue reading

In the country’s main tobacco-producing region, 90% of the approximately 12,000 natural curing houses, where tobacco leaves are stored for drying, have been damaged.

The storm also dampened “around 11,000 tons of tobacco” that was in the process of drying, and much of it will have to be discarded.

The curing sheds and other facilities should be repaired for the next harvest, which was scheduled to begin on October 20. For that they estimate that about 6,003493 cubic feet of wood and 600 tons of nails will be needed.

This blow to the sector comes at an already delicate time for the Cuban tobacco sector. The Cuban state tobacco company produced less than half of what was planned from January to June, due to lack of basic inputs, logistical problems and breakdowns, among other problems.

The situation, a continuation of the one experienced in 2021, has caused “instability” in the “distribution in the retail sales network” of tobacco within Cuba, Granma acknowledged this August.

Tobacco, which employs about 200,000 workers — 250,000 at the peak of the harvest — is one of the largest sources of income for Cuba.

Production decreased from 32,000 tons in 2017 to 25,800 in 2020, according to official data; 2021 was one of the worst years for the Cuban countryside in the last decade, as the Minister of Agriculture, Ydael Pérez Brito, recently said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Basque Businessman Has a Terrorist Support Network in Cuba

The offices of the Ugao Group are in Havana, where Josu Abrisketa was established in mid-1984. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 4 October 2022 — Josu Abrisketa has been in Havana for 28 years, where in addition to being a husband, father and grandfather, he is president of the Ugao Group, a conglomerate of companies that provides varied services that include rum, boilers, footwear and rail services. In Spain he is best known for his membership in the terrorist organization ETA, and these days his name has returned to the fore for his friendship with the ETA leader Mikel Albisu, alias Mikel Antza, who on Monday was called to testify in Madrid in relation to an accusation of an attack in 2002.

Antza was accused in July, along with five other former ETA leaders, of the attack on a Civil Guard barracks — which left two dead, including a six-year-old girl — in order to prevent the expiration of the time allowed for prosecution (20 years).

This Monday he went to a hearing at the National Court (AN), (empowered in cases of terrorism) to decide on his imprisonment, as demanded by the accusation; the measure was denied, although it was subject to precautionary measures, one of them being the prohibition to leave Spain.

One of the associations that have taken part in the case, Dignity and Justice, provided an expert report to the AN in which it warned of the possible risk of Antza’s escape by taking advantage of his friendship with Abrisketa. The report, to which the Spanish digital news source The Objective has had access, maintains that the former ETA member living in Havana could “be giving him financial support” through his companies. The expert considers that Ugao is part of the financial and business structures created by the terrorist organization in Latin America to facilitate “the social and economic integration of those terrorists fleeing from Spanish Justice.” continue reading

“Mikel Albisu Iriarte maintains a strong existing relationship with the Basque businessman D. Josu Abrisketa Korta, owner of the Ugao S.A. Group. This group has its base of operations on the Island of Cuba and remains very active in the promotion of the independence and culture of the Basque Country,” says the author of the document.

To substantiate his opinion, the expert relies on a final ruling in 2007 in which several people who were part of the business network that supported the military were convicted, including the fugitives and refugees in Latin America. Ugao was among the companies indirectly controlled by ETA through an intermediary (the Socialist Abertzale Coordinator, KAS).

In Cuba, according to the report, “monthly salaries of $1,000 were paid to those responsible for the terrorist organization at the head of the companies, and business infrastructure expenses were financed from the KAS common fund.” Although the author of the document admits that the ETA now lacks a military structure, he believes that the support network continues to work perfectly to accommodate one of its former leaders.

The judge of the AN handling the case rejected Dignity and Justice’s petition and determined that there is no real risk of escape, but he did agree to the Prosecutor’s request to impose precautionary measures on Antza, including the obligation to appear every month in court and the prohibition on leaving Spain, in addition to the designation of a domicile for notifications.

Ugao’s offices are in Havana, where Abrisketa was established in mid-1984. The former member of ETA was one of the 16 convicted in 1970 in the so-called Burgos Trial, a case that transcended borders in which 16 ETA members accused of killing three people were sentenced to death during a very close trial by the Francoist courts. The sentences were commuted to long prison sentences (62 years in the case of Abrisketa) after an intense campaign inside and outside Spain, and the defendants benefited from the 1977 Amnesty Law during the transition to democracy.

Most of the defendants became involved in politics or trade union movements after their release, but some remained close to the ETA. In the specific case of the businessman living in Cuba, the return was total, and he entered the military apparatus of the terrorist organization again, this time from the French territory that the Basque independence movement considers its own. There he was arrested in 1983 by the French police, who deported him to Panama months later.

As he himself said in several interviews, Havana welcomed him four months later on the condition that it was voluntarily. “The experience in Cuba has been very good; they treated us and continue treating us like revolutionaries” he says. Now, he warns: “When conditions are right, I’m going to return.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cacerolazos, Barricades and Marches Characterized the Month of September in Cuba

The Observatory of Cuban Conflicts documented 364 protests during the month of September. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 3 October 2022 — Governance on the Island continues to deteriorate. In September, the more than 4 million Cubans who abstained and those who voted “No” despite pressure was a clear rejection during the referendum on the new Family Code, which was finally approved. This setback coincided with the most widespread popular protests since July 11, 2021, according to the Cuban Observatory of Conflicts (OCC).

The organization, which prepares monthly reports on conflicts on the island, refuted  with data the statement proclaimed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel that the affirmative vote on the Family Code favored “Unity, the Revolution and Socialism.”

The 3,936,790 votes obtained under pressure were less than the 4,145,771 combined total of voters who refused to vote — despite reprisals for those who refused — (2,195,771) and those who voted no (1,959,097). In addition, this “sum does not include those 360,042 whose ballots were annulled.

The month coincided with the total collapse of the National Electric System, a worsening of the dengue epidemic, and the passage of Hurricane Ian, which left five dead and 30,000 homes damaged, some completely destroyed. “These are just catalysts for the protests, since the main conflict is between the current dictatorial regime and the aspirations and basic needs of the population,” says the US-based OCC. continue reading

The protests escalated in tone and “not only included cacerolazos [banging on pots and pans] and marches, but also barricades in the streets.” The social demands ranged from the restoration of the electrical service to cries of “freedom” and “expressions of rejection of the repressive forces and the rulers.”

This was evident during a tour of areas affected by Hurricane Ian, when Díaz-Canel visited Batabanó, in Mayabeque. “He is surrounded,” a woman shouted from the crowd that surrounded the vehicles in which the ruler and his entourage were traveling. “They don’t let the people talk” and “walk so you can see”, claimed the neighbors, who also called the security agents “brazen” and “snitches”.

Of the 364 protests mentioned above, 43 were massive street demonstrations, especially on September 29 and 30, which “included cacerolazos, roadblocks and marches.” In Havana, 33 were documented, Artemisa, the province which was second in terms of the number of protests, Las Tunas (3), Villa Clara (3), Holguín (1), Santiago de Cuba (1), Mayabeque (1) and Matanzas (1). The document reiterates that the reports of “repressions” and “new protests” were ongoing at the time the report was completed.

Another 227 demonstrations were for political and civil rights (62%) and 137 for economic and social claims (38%), which followed the same trend as the previous month, indicative that more than half of the demonstrations were for political and  social issues.

These protests, the OCC points out, respond to the “deliberate neglect for years of the needs of the population: food, energy, housing, health, sanitation, education and transportation,” which aggravated the crisis.

The OCC warned the United States that in unilateral concessions are made to the Government of Cuba, these would “strengthen its capacity to use them in a strategy of social appeasement and an increase in repressive brutality in the short term.”

The organization specified that the core of this conflict is not between Havana and Washington, but between the failed system that governs Cuba and the needs and aspirations of the population.

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Cuba Confirms Contact with the U.S. for Help with the Damage of Hurricane Ian

Aircraft landed in Havana from Mexico this Monday. (Granma)

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Havana,3  October 2022 — The Cuban Government confirmed on Monday that it has maintained contacts with the United States regarding the material damage suffered by Hurricane Ian last week.

Havana thus confirms a report recently released by The Wall Street Journal in which it was claimed that the Island had contacted the United States Government.

“Governments of Cuba and the United States have exchanged information about the substantial damage and unfortunate losses caused by Hurricane Ian in both countries,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry said on the social network Twitter.

The brief message added that the Government of Cuba also maintains communication “with other governments interested in the devastation and requirements for the recovery in Cuba.” continue reading

The Wall Street Journal published this Friday an exclusive entitled “Cuba makes an unusual request for American help after the devastation by Hurricane Ian,” in which it explained that the Cuban government had requested “emergency assistance” from Washington, and the Biden Administration was in contact with the authorities on the Island to understand how much help was needed.

In recent days, assistance of various types has arrived in Cuba from Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina, as well as from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its regional subsidiary in the Americas.

From Mexico, a plane with more than 10 tons of electrical insulation landed in Havana on Monday, according to the official press, as part of the “more than 100 tons of solidarity aid” transported in “four planes of the Mexican Air Force, which made 16 flights, working uninterruptedly for 96 hours,” after the hurricane.

U.S. civil society collectives close to Cuba asked this Saturday, in an announcement in The New York Times, for the U.S. Government to temporarily lift sanctions on the Island to facilitate reconstruction after Ian’s passage.

Hurricane Ian crossed the western tip of Cuba from south to north on Tuesday, with heavy rains and winds of up to 125 miles per hour, leaving five deaths and heavy material damage.

For reasons not fully clarified, the passage of the hurricane generated a complete blackout on the Island, damage to about 200,000 homes and serious effects on crops and infrastructure.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Repression Breaks Out in Cuba in the Face of the Increasing Protests on the Fifth Day of the Post-Hurricane Blackout

Neighbors of Línea Street, in Havana’s El Vedado district, closed the central avenue on Saturday night to demand the restoration of electricity. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 2 October 2022 — With the mobilization of police officers, State Security agents dressed in civilian clothes and military service recruits armed with sticks, the authorities responded on Saturday night to the popular protests on the fifth day without electricity in several municipalities of Havana. The cacerolazos [banging on pots and pans to demonstrate] and the barricades closing the streets and avenues marked the day.

On Línea Street, in El Vedado, the neighbors closed the central avenue at the intersection with F Street where vehicles pass to join the Malecón. Traffic was blocked by turned-over garbage cans and tree branches that fell in the winds of Hurricane Ian, which hit the Island last Tuesday.

A human cordon also stood blocking the road, which was illuminated with public lighting although the surrounding houses were still without electrical service. They chanted slogans such as “Put on the current!” And “Put on the light!”, a demand that was answered a while later with the arrival of buses and trucks full of shock troops dressed in civilian clothes to counter the demonstrators, as confirmed by a reporter from 14ymedio at the scene.

“They arrived in microbuses, trucks and buses, and you could tell they were security forces because of their tough talk,” a resident from the area told this newspaper. The people who were blocking the passage of the vehicles withdrew to their homes with the arrival of the official troops, who began to deploy throughout the street and the surrounding roads with a threatening attitude. continue reading

“It seems that they’re waiting for Forensics to find the fingerprints that people might have left in the garbage cans they put on the street, but that’s just to intimidate us,” another neighbor said. “But now people here have lost their fear; they’ve learned that if they don’t protest they won’t get respect.”

The place was completely taken over by State Security, and the operation was even larger than that deployed in the same area after the popular protests of July 11, 2021. “The most interesting thing is that the only ones who are in uniform are the bosses; there are even some with three stars on their uniforms, sitting in their typical locked cars, all parked at the corners,” said the woman.

Two blocks away there were also two buses full of repressors dressed in civilian clothes. “When the people who were on the street saw them arrive, they went running away in the middle of the darkness, and they couldn’t catch them. State security arrived with two “cage” trucks. What the repressors brought was disproportionate, because among those who protested were many old people and minors.”

This newspaper found that several of the bosses dressed in uniform were looking at the videos of the protest on Línea Street on their mobile phones to locate the places where it had been strongest and try to identify the participants. Several of them were reviewing on Facebook the transmissions of the demonstration and the closure of the avenue, and guiding themselves by those images to deploy the operation of agents dressed in civilian clothes.

Protests also took place on 31st Avenue, in the municipality of Plaza, for the second consecutive night. In a video posted on social networks, you can see dozens of people advancing along the road and pushing back the vehicles that are trying to cross through the crowd. From the neighboring houses, entire families are heard banging on pots and pans and shouting their support of the demonstrators.

41st Avenue, also in the municipality of Playa — one of the most affected in Havana by power outages — was the scene this Saturday of another popular protest very similar to the one led by its residents last Friday. The protesters made a chorus shouting “Freedom!” and filled the avenue between the corners of 42nd and 44th streets.

Several of the neighbors confirmed to this newspaper that they again saw young military-service recruits deployed, dressed in civilian clothes and holding sticks, as a group for confronting the protests. The same thing was also reported the night before and confirmed by the family and friends of these soldiers, who were taken in trucks and buses from their military units.

In Nuevo Vedado, a cacerolazo echoed in the vicinity of the Ministries of Agriculture and Transport, where several tall buildings remained without electricity on Saturday night, five days after the passage of the hurricane. Just after the night’s nine o’clock cannon shot* sounded, the cacerolazos began to be heard and lasted for more than two hours.

The residents of the area, which is made up mostly of buildings with more than ten floors, suffered not only from the lack of power but also from the difficulties in carrying water up the stairs to the upper floors. During the cacerolazo, there were also shouts demanding the return of power and addressing the dismal economic situation.

“I don’t have money to buy food!” a woman of a twelve-floor building on Santa Ana Street, between Estancia and Factor, shouted at full volume. “I have just had surgery; my daughter has dengue fever, and we have nothing to eat!” she added. The woman complained that no state entity had helped her in that situation and concluded her speech by emphasizing: “I’m through with the Revolution!”

“The child who doesn’t cry doesn’t get the breast,” another neighbor of the building known by its acronym ICRT (a building built in the 1980s by a microbrigade of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television) told 14ymedio. “We’ve been without power for five days because in this neighborhood people haven’t gone out to protest like in others. It’s about time for us to wake up because all of Havana is going to have light except us.”

“This is a neighborhood where there are many government supporters, many officials and many opportunists,” the same man explained to this newspaper. “People are afraid to point it out but the cacerolazo has the advantage that it can be done from inside the house and stay more anonymous. That’s something to start with.”

The cacerolazo in Nuevo Vedado extended to other nearby areas that also remained in the dark, as part of the municipality of Cerro and the vicinity of Puentes Grandes. Around four in the morning this Sunday, electricity service was restored in the area around the Ministries of Agriculture and Transport.

The reporters of this newspaper have also received reports of protests in Bauta, a municipality in the province of Artemisa, in Santiago de Las Vegas and in Guanabacoa, both in the province of Havana. In the latter, the popular demonstrations included the burning of garbage and other objects in the middle of the public road, scenes very similar to those with hundreds of residents in the area, also last Saturday.

Some Twitter users report the arrest of at least four young protesters on Línea, when it seemed that the protest had ended.

*The tradition of shooting off a cannon at 9:00 p.m. every night at the El Morro fortress in Havana goes back to colonial times, when it signaled the closing of the gates in the wall to protect the city from pirates.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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