From the ‘Maleconazo’ of 1994 to the ’11J’ Protests of 2021, the Mutation of Cuban Civic Genes

The popular uprising known as El Maleconazo began on Avenida del Puerto and many people joined along the Havana Malecon. (Karel Poort)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 5  August 2022 — Shirtless and with protruding ribs, this is how the protesters on 5 August 1994 took the Havana coastline during the Maleconazo. The few photos that have been released of that day show faces with sharp cheekbones and a desperate look. From that uprising, continuing to July 11 of last year, Cubans learned several civic lessons and adopted new methods of protest, but the regime, also, has surpassed itself in repression.

While those who gathered 28 years ago rushed to Havana’s main avenue, desperate to board any ship that would take them off the Island, those of the summer of 2021 were looking not to escape, but to stand up to a system that has condemned them to material misery and the lack of freedoms. The scant cohesion in that earlier outburst, in the middle of the Special Period, has little in common with the compact groups, setting the pace with slogans of freedom and heading towards key points in the cities that were seen on 11 July 2021, the protests now called ’11J’.

In the earlier action, the Malecón wall functioned as a mousetrap between the protesters and the shock troops, dressed in civilian clothes, launched by Castroism against those ragged and hungry people; but a year ago the “organism” of popular protest was already sufficiently evolved to spread through central squares, in front of the institutions of power and travel through streets where new voices were added.

In the Maleconazo, the ruling party tried to avoid at all costs the images of uniformed men repressing, hence the cunning idea of ​​using construction workers and plainclothes police to arrest the protesters, crack their heads with bars, or terrify them with stones. However, the magnitude of 11J was responded to with special troops who were seen deploying countless anti-riot devices that the regime had been buying for years.

The extension of both events also differentiates them to a great degree. In the almost three decades that separate one demonstration and another, the indignation overflowed from an area in the Cuban capital to more than forty points on the island. It was no longer a local event, but a national tremor. Civic genes had mutated enough to know that massiveness and simultaneity were vital. New technologies contributed considerably to the capacity to call out protestors and to document it live and in real time. The Havana residents of the Maleconazo did not even know the depth of their action until years later, with the dissemination of images and testimonies.

But the repressive balance grew. The 11J protests have left at least one dead, more than a thousand violently arrested and hundreds sentenced to prison terms that, in some cases, reach three decades. The DNA of the dictatorship continue reading

was also transformed. During this time it was organizing in a calculated and cold way to crush its own people if they happened to take to the streets. It invested millions in the equipment of terror, perfected its political police, bought sophisticated gadgets to monitor communications, and further trained its judges and prosecutors to complete the job of muzzling the popular voice.

On 5 August 1994, when the protest had already dissolved and the Malecón was a “safe zone” for the political catwalk, only then did Fidel Castro, dressed in his olive green uniform, arrive to listen to the cheers of the counter-demonstrators who he himself had sent there.  Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel starred in an even more ridiculous scene when a bottle was thrown at him from a rooftop in San Antonio de los Baños that Sunday a year ago when he tried to mimic the previous march of Castro and his henchmen. Fearing a greater rejection, the engineer ran to hide in the Government Palace, from where he pronounced what will forever be his worst and most famous phrase: “The combat order is given.”

But beyond the differences and notable changes between some protesters and others, there are common lines that unite ’11J’ and its father, the Maleconazo. The exhaustion of the people, the inability of the political-economic model to provide a dignified life, the overcoming of personal fear for the common good, and the desire for democratic change on the Island, these are the identity chromosomes of both moments. The creature that is gestating with both experiences will be more sophisticated and powerful. Let us hope it will also be the final one.

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The Cuban Minister of Economy Declares War on the Informal Exchange Market. Who Will Win?

Today the Central Bank of Cuba began to buy foreign currency at a new exchange rate. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Valencia, 4 August 2022 — Finally, what was promised has been fulfilled. On July 21, Minister of Economy and Planning Alejandro Gil announced in the National Assembly a set of measures that, in his opinion, “within socialism will serve to strengthen the economy.” And yesterday, on State television’s Roundtable program, together with the president of the Central Bank of Cuba, he confirmed one of the measures that had aroused the most interest, the implementation of an exchange market for the purchase and sale of foreign currency to the population with an “economically grounded exchange rate and where we can work with all currencies, including dollars in cash.”

In the words of the minister, “it’s expected that one of the main benefits will be the possibility for Cubans and travelers to be able to exchange currencies at a more attractive exchange rate and not have to go to an illegal market.” The minister has declared war on the informal exchange market. Who will win?

There’s no doubt that there is interest in knowing how this new foreign exchange market is going to be launched, with what exchange rate, and what effects the measure will have on the battered Cuban economy.

After explaining the differences between the secondary currency allocation scheme (implemented last May for food and manufacturing) and the foreign exchange market that is now intended to be launched, the minister gave the scoop of the night, announcing that today, August 4, mark this date, the foreign exchange market will begin to operate, at the official exchange rate of 1:120 in the upper band of the informal market. A devaluation of the peso with the dollar of 400%.

At the moment, the state exchange market starts with the purchase of foreign currency by the State, including the cash dollar. Later, the sale of foreign currency will begin, but it won’t be immediate. The minister acknowledged that work is still being done to create the conditions to do so later at points of the Cadeca exchanges, banks and airports.

Gil believes that the purchase of foreign currency at a higher exchange rate will mean an incentive to sell foreign currency to the State, in what can be understood as the regime’s decision to liquidate the informal market that has been operating since last year. It won’t be easy, and he will soon discover that in an economy there is room for everyone, and that those who focus their activity on meeting the needs of others manage to survive, even in difficult and dark times. continue reading

So the communist regime wants to do this immediately with the exchange business of the informal market, and for this, it has decided to allow the purchase of dollars in cash, although it still doesn’t authorize the placement of those dollars on a card in MLC [freely convertible currency] due to its impact on greater purchasing power that cannot be met under the current conditions. The minister doesn’t have them all with him. And of course, as it couldn’t be otherwise, the blame is on the ’blockade’ [i.e., the embargo] imposed by the United States, which he described as “an anomaly in the financial functioning of the country that has not moved a millimeter and doesn’t allow taking that step that would be favorable for the population.”

There is so much distrust posed by these measures, that Gil warned that the entry into operation of the foreign exchange market this Thursday will not affect the business system, where the 1×24 exchange rate is maintained, so that “the imports that enter do so with that rate, as well as the exports that are generated in the country.”

Señora Wilson, president of the Central Bank of Cuba, also present at the Roundtable, reported that rules have been established that facilitate the implementation of exchange market measures through the repeal of decrees 17 and 37 of 2021, and 62 of 2022, since they established a single exchange rate to operate in the national economy, and the publication of a new one, 63, which will allow different exchange rates to be established.

Based on this legal framework, Resolutions 126, relating to the issuance of several exchange rates, and 127, which establishes the purchase of foreign currency by the banking system, which is going to be implemented first, are issued. Specifically, the latter resolution establishes that banks and non-bank financial institutions will not accept US dollars in cash from natural and legal persons for deposits in bank accounts but only for purchase, justifying this decision by maintaining the conditions of the ’blockade’ and the difficulties in operating with dollars and exporting them in foreign trade operations.

Less optimistic than the minister, she acknowledged that “this foreign exchange market will not solve the problems of the domestic economy. The foundations must exist, for which we are working on new measures to provide the country with foreign exchange and the goods and services that lead to economic stability. This will allow us to go to the final objective, which is to establish a single exchange rate that allows balance in the economy and where the national currency is the currency with which everyone wants to do business.”

As of August 4, people can make the sale through transfers they receive from abroad, through accreditation to an account in national currency. Also by means of freely convertible currency accounts, with request for transfers to CUP (Cuban peso) accounts. Likewise, it can be done in cash.

The national currency will be received through deposits in CUP accounts, so that the margins are more favorable, since that is what they are promoting. Also through the delivery of cash, which will have a less stimulating margin. She added that, due to the situation of the economy, there is a very high demand for cash, but anything that is not issuing more banknotes and favoring electronic transactions will be encouraged. Likewise, she pointed out that these operations will be, for the time being, at the counter, and ATMs will soon be included as an option.

Where will this type of exchange be implemented? It will be in all provinces, in key municipalities, and, to the extent that demand allows, new conditions will be created. The service will also be provided at airports, hotels and tourist centers. The branches where this activity will be carried out will be published on the website of the Central Bank of Cuba.

At this point, the president of the Central Bank indicated that they have “considered the exchange rate of 120 CUP to 1 dollar” and that “this exchange rate is not the equilibrium rate of the economy, it’s the one for the beginning of this market.” The fixed exchange rate system established in the ordering task has passed to a better life.

Commercial banks will be guaranteed a margin for buying and selling, in accordance with an international standard. These margins are aimed at encouraging non-cash transactions and the purchase of non-dollar currencies. Specifically, a range between 2% and 9%. These margins, in the case of the purchase of foreign currency in cash and at airports, improve compared to the previous exchange rate of 1×24. Excessive margins will offer incentives to operate in informal markets that will surely refine the costs of their operations so as not to lose competitiveness.

The trading margin conditions of the operations are harmful. “If you go to the bank tomorrow and sell a euro, the bank would be giving you 119.69 CUP. For the dollar, the margin is 8%. If you sell a dollar to the bank tomorrow, you will receive 110.40 CUP.” The competitive advantage is in transfers from abroad; here the margin for the purchase of the currency will be zero, as well as for purchases or withdrawals of international cards and transfers of foreign currency accounts to CUP at the exchange rate of 1×120. For cash withdrawal through currency accounts, there will be a trading margin of 1%. For currency cash deposits in CUP accounts, it will be 1.5%, and the dollar will have a greater impact.

The president of the Central Bank reiterated that the foreign exchange market starts with the purchase operations, but at a certain time the sale will have to be implemented, because then it wouldn’t be a market. She again pointed out that the objective of the Central Bank is to defend the country’s national currency and try to ensure that all transactions are in that currency. And she recognized that, at the time, there was no choice but to implement a trade in a currency other than the peso, but that must be corrected, because it has brought distortions in the economy.

She concluded by pointing out that, in order to achieve the equilibrium exchange rate that the economy needs, it’s necessary to “produce goods and services that encourage the population to buy in the national currency and discourage the need to acquire freely convertible currency to meet their needs.”

Minister Gil was convinced that the exchange rate chosen, 1×120, offers a “reasonable guarantee so that there’s an incentive to sell the foreign currency to the state and the state can buy it.” All people who have foreign currency “can legally exchange it at an economically based exchange rate, which guarantees a return in national currency that, today, gives it a purchasing power above what those who have a salary receive. This creates a distortion in relative prices.

He also insisted that with this measure the prices of the ’regulated family basket’ (within the rationing system) or the prices of stores in Cuban pesos are not increasing; there is no growth in the price level of the economy at the level of the new exchange rate. And he stressed that “no one can say that he had to increase prices because at the Roundtable they said that they are going to buy dollars at 120 pesos. That has no impact. We are talking about buying foreign currency and giving Cuban pesos in return.”

The minister was convinced that to the extent that foreign currency can be captured, invested in the economy and offers increased in pesos, decisions can be made in the ordering of the markets, increasing offers in national currency. Some of these decisions were cited only in passing, when he referred to the concern about the control of the public deficit and the tax evasion that injects liquid into the economy that heats inflation. The minister’s distrust led him to say that “this isn’t a magical measure. It’s an indispensable measure. It’s a step in which we have to continue moving forward and incorporate the sale,” an argument that reminds us, a lot, of the Ordering Task*.

He recognized that the exchange rate of 1×120 is not equilibrium, nor market; it’s only for buying. When buying and selling operations begin, an exchange rate will be sought that balances supply and demand, and certain limits will have to be placed on the sale. Bad business. If the minister wants to manage and put limits on market action, he will obtain the worst possible result. Achieving the equilibrium exchange rate is the result of the action of supply and demand, with the state keeping its hands off the process.

The minister said that with these measures it’s possible to achieve a society with the greatest possible equity and social justice and mentioned that people who don’t have dollars or euros to sell be given national currency in return. In his opinion, “if the socialist state captures these currencies, they are reinvested in favor of society.” An erroneous conviction of which he has long experience. Finally, he recognized that this measure is taken to “give legality to the foreign exchange market, putting its feet on the ground with an objective vision of reality and looking for ways to capture and channel those currencies according to society.” If instead, he had supported the informal market for its consolidation in the economy, the result would be much better.

He concluded by pointing out that immediate effects cannot be expected. The measures try to address the lack of foreign exchange, look for a mechanism to channel the currency according to offers in national currency and tax the objective of recovering the purchasing power of the Cuban peso. All this is to achieve an economy that operates in national currency in all its transactions and to have the ability to buy from a salary, from income. And by the way, end the informal exchange market, one of the few spaces of economic freedom and efficiency in the Cuban economy. It is another thing for him to understand this.

Editors’ note: This article is reproduced with the permission of its author and was originally published in Cubaeconomía.

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Power Cuts ‘Blackout’ the Best Supplied Markets in Havana

The offers are poor and no one wants to be inside the establishment, in the middle of the power outage scheduled for Vedado from early in the morning. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger 14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 4 August 2022 — “People here are not used to these blackouts,” a woman said aloud when leaving the market on 19th and B on Wednesday. Known in the capital as the food boutique, this store stands out for always being well stocked, especially compared to others found all over the island, but the customer left the place with only two plantains in hand.

The arrival of the blackouts, however, has had a full impact on the market. The offers are poor and no one wants to be inside the establishment, in the middle of the power outage scheduled for Vedado from early in the morning.

“Buy from me, even if it’s half a melon, mi vida, I already want to leave,” a saleswoman, fan in hand, implored a customer who was passing by her stand. “I’m suffering from this heat, and my bursitis makes matters worse,” she lamented.

In the busy square yesterday you could barely find half a kilo of tomatoes for 200 pesos, Chinese plums at 60 and carrots or beets for 80 pesos a pound.

At noon, many stalls were already closed. The sellers preferred not to continue enduring the heat in the midst of the lack of electricity and left, but people kept arriving trying to get something, despite the high prices. The fear that when the electricity service was restored there would be nothing left overcame their little desire to be there. continue reading

The sellers of the informal market didn’t swarm around the place yesterday either. “I have milk, hot dogs, picadillo, even lobster.” The whispers that don’t stop normally weren’t heard this Wednesday.

A merchant announced sarcastically as he picked up his cassava and malangas: “Get your solidarity here, I’m leaving.”

“But compañero, don’t you think solidarity is necessary?” another asked him ironically. “Of course, of course, solidarity. But I am like this revolution, which has said enough and needs to go,” he replied, exploding like a bomb, while behind his back there was tremendous laughter.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubans Respond to the Blackouts in Bayamo with Protests, Mockery and Posters

They have barely been able to cover the posters with slogans and messages against the Government and the president with a couple of brushstrokes, like this one on Avenida de los Mártires, in Bayamo. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Bayamo, 4 August 2022 — Things are changing in Cuba and not only in the capital. The residents of Bayamo, in modest Granma Province, no longer remain silent in the face of blackouts and openly challenge the authorities.

Last Tuesday, a group of people gathered at the Altar of the Heroes, next to the monument that marks the place of the first open-air cemetery in America, and cried out against the long power cuts.

Two people passed by on a motorcycle in front of a state company and one of them, megaphone in hand, shouted: “Díaz-Canel, singao!”* before the eyes of a group of people who burst into laughter. A colonel from the Ministry of the Interior, who was present, demanded that witnesses confront the two rebels, but this only managed to increase the laughter.

On Monday night, in the Bayamés neighborhood of Camilo Cienfuegos, a group of people, in front of the patrol cars that guarded the streets, shouted “Viva Díaz-Canel,” “Viva la Revolución,” in a way that mocked those responsible for the energy situation. A few hours earlier, another protest with people banging on pots and pans had taken place in Mabay, a rural area of Bayamo, where shouts were heard of “the people, united, will never be defeated.”** continue reading

Discomfort is growing in a population where power outages exceed 10 and 14 hours, programmed in two and three cycles of blackouts during each day this summer. Posters with slogans and messages against the Government and the president are evident even in broad daylight, and they have barely been able to cover them with a couple of brush strokes of fresh paint.

The explanations of the Electrical Union are no longer of any use to the population, who don’t understand why they must endure so many hours without electricity. “But Felton [power plant] generates for [the State newspaper] Granma?” asked a neighbor of the province when the newspaper La Demajagua announced more cuts due to the loss of the thermoelectric plant, which contributes 500 MW to the system but has two units in constant breakdown. “And don’t tell me that it’s a national system because, if so, the people of Havana will also have 14 hours of blackout per day. And my congratulations to those who have earned that respect.”

For this Thursday, the Electrical Union has announced a deficit of 618 MW. Demand will be around 2,900 MW at its maximum, and the availability is barely 2,352 MW.

The Mariel thermoelectric plant has three damaged units, which is in addition to the two of Felton, the four of Nuevitas, the six of Renté and the only one of Otto Parellada. In addition, there is another unit under maintenance in Cienfuegos, and, due to a problem in the Energas Varadero steam turbine, more MW are out of generation.

Finally, we must add the problems of distributed generation, where 1,115 MW are missing due to breakdowns and almost 500 MW due to maintenance.

“The truth is that there is tremendous disorder, every day he reads the same story, only the numbers and thermoelectric plants change,” a user responded to the Electric Union statement. Meanwhile, others continue to insist on taking the drama with humor: “Did they patch up the Felton thermoelectric plant with children’s modeling clay?”

Translator’s notes:

*Cuban slang for “motherfucker,” “asshole” or “bastard.” Part of the appeal of this particular insult is that it rhymes with Diaz-Canel.

**A slogan of the Chilean Unidad Popular party of leftist President Salvador Allende.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Situation of Dengue Fever in Cuba is ‘Complex’ and Will be More Complicated in August, Acknowledges Public Health

Corridor of the Pepe Portilla Children’s Hospital in Pinar del Río. (Archive/Juan Carlos Fernández)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 4 August 2022 — In the last week, dengue fever infections in Cuba increased by 35.5% compared to the previous week, and the prediction is for the same with the advance of August, due to “vacation, rain and intense heat, which makes the situation very complex.”

By the end of July, dengue had already spread to 11 Cuban provinces, according to the Ministry of Public Health. However, the most affected territories are Isla de la Juventud, Havana, Guantánamo, Camagüey and Holguín.

“There are serious problems with environmental management that today is also taxed with the multiplication of outbreaks throughout the territory,” said Health Minister José Ángel Portal Miranda, referring to the garbage in the streets, in a meeting with the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel. His report was transmitted on State TV Noon News, on August 3, and the minister asked for work on this matter “knowing the limitations that exist.”

At the same meeting, he asked that crowds should be avoided in hospitals and that reserve centers should receive more patients with alarming symptoms of the disease caused by the Aedes Aegyptis mosquito.

Last week alone, Cuba detected more cases of the disease than in the entire first half of the year, 4,776 cases between July 17 and 23. That week, 10,590 tests were carried out, and the positivity rate was 45.1%. continue reading

Hospitals have increased space to receive more admissions due to dengue in recent weeks, such as the Mario Muñoz Monroy hospital, in Colón, Matanzas, which went from having two beds to 80 beds.

Health workers insist that the population must do everything possible to protect themselves, because there are no insecticides such as abate or diesel to fumigate every six days, as established in the protocols. These limitations, coupled with the summer heat and the long hours of blackouts, are leading to the proliferation of a disease that had remained in the background during COVID but now has regained strength.

Recently, a doctor told 14ymedio that healthcare workers are alarmed by the increase in cases of severe dengue fever because “it’s not usual. In previous epidemics, perhaps approximately 1% of cases had warning signs (those that warn you that the patient is not evolving well), but now it’s more than 30%.”

The Ministry of Public Health warned of the symptoms of the disease: abdominal pain, vomiting, irritability, drowsiness, swelling or edema and bleeding, and said that four serotypes of dengue are circulating on the island, “which means that it’s possible to get infected four times*,” says the announcement, sent through Telegram.

*Translator’s note: Infection with any serotype of dengue fever generally results in future immunity, but only to that serotype.  Severe cases of the disease are most common when a person who has been infected in the past is infected again, but with a different serotype.

Translated by Regina Anavy 

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Against the Ropes, the Cuban Government Announces the Purchase of Dollars in Cash at 120 pesos

Cadeca’s offices became essential in Cuba from the second half of the 1990s. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 3 August 2022 — In the midst of the deepest economic crisis in two decades, the Cuban government announced the purchase of dollars in cash at 120 pesos starting on Thursday. “We are going to start with the purchase of foreign currency, of all currencies including the dollar, in cash, at a higher rate than today’s exchange rate,” Economy Minister Alejandro Gil Fernández said on State television’s Roundtable program on Wednesday.

Dollars in cash can only be sold in Cadeca (exchange houses) and banks, but the deposit of dollars in freely convertible currency (MLC) accounts still continues without effect, the President of the Central Bank of Cuba, Marta Sabina Wilson González emphasized on the program, adding that the measure is aimed at natural persons and private-sector actors.

“This type of exchange isn’t the type of balanced exchange rate of the economy,” Wilson González said, insisting that the new rate “isn’t static but will move in function with the market.”

Gil clarified that for the moment, foreign currency won’t be sold to the population and that this new exchange rate “isn’t going to happen immediately.” He said the measure aims to guarantee “an incentive” for people to sell foreign currency to the State.

The Government is recognizing that a professional can barely earn a hundred dollars a month for a full day’s work

This new exchange rate for foreign currencies will be not only for cash but will also include foreign exchange transfers from abroad and deposits that are in MLC  (freely convertible currency) accounts, Wilson González said.

The sale of foreign currency, according to Gil, “is a missing piece in the gear, in the mechanism of the economy,” which “in a very slight, very gradual way begins to show signs of recovery.”

Among the justifications for starting the purchase of foreign currency, Gil referred to the informal exchange market that is capturing the currencies that enter the country because of the high price at which they are sold. continue reading

“The success is that you have a level of supply in national currency that generates an incentive for people who own foreign currency or receive it from abroad or international travelers,” said the Minister of Economy, noting that they intend, with the exchange in pesos proposed by the State, for people to “have a level of consumption in the country.”

This Wednesday in the informal market on the island, a US dollar sold at 115 pesos, the euro at 119 and the MLC, a digital currency invented by the Government for stores that that take payment for food and household appliances, at 118. For months, currencies have exceeded 100 pesos in this type of exchange.

The biggest damage from this Wednesday’s announcement is to the salaries of state workers, who don’t have access to hard currency. With this rate, the Government is recognizing that a professional can barely earn a hundred dollars a month for a full day’s work.

Without prior notice, on May 20, 2021, Cuban airports stopped selling foreign currency. The news was announced by Cadeca in a message disseminated through its social networks a few hours before the measure went into force.

The state entity maintained that the low influx of tourists with the pandemic has caused a “significant deficit” of foreign exchange, and that to date it has been able to operate within the established limits, but the lack of liquidity has reached an unsustainable extreme.

The rest of the linked establishments and the banks — both sectors of state monopolies — were not selling dollars or any other hard currency long before, due to the lack of liquidity in the country, which is going through its worst crisis in three decades.

On June 21 of last year, the Government “temporarily” suspended the acceptance of bank cash deposits in US dollars. It then specified that the measure was due to “the obstacles” imposed by “the US economic blockade” and that the domestic banking system couldn’t deposit abroad the dollars it collects on the island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) Attempt to Revitalize Themselves Amid the Crisis in Cuba

In the Havana neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado, residents reacted to the announcement with more annoyance than enthusiasm (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 3 August 2022 — The economic and social situation in Cuba serves as the pulse for a country going downhill while the regime, rather than opting for reforms and immediate solutions, bets on greater control and vigilance, as it has done historically. In several zones of the capital, they have announced an “assembly for the revitalization and strengthening of the CDR (Committees in Defense of the Revolution).”

Faced with dozens of protests arising throughout the island in the last several days due to the long-lasting blackouts, the government seeks to regain, in neighborhoods, the control it has lost. CDR officials delivered summons for the meeting which mention that the participation of CDR members “is very important,” however many residents say they will not attend to listen to the same old speeches.

In the Havana neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado, residents reacted to the announcement with more annoyance than enthusiasm. “In this building, one elevator operates between 11 am and 1 pm,” one of the residents of the 12-story building on Santa Ana street lamented on Wednesday. “The water pump can’t be used during that time and neither can electricity in the common areas,” he adds.

“That affects several self-employed people who rent space on the ground floor of these buildings. They pay their electric bill on time, but because they are in common areas, they can’t provide services during those hours,” explained the resident of that zone to 14ymedio. “That measure is causing a lot of unrest so I can’t imagine that many people will lend themselves to reactivating the CDR.”

The collapse of the National Electric System will not be resolved for the time being and the protests will continue. “People do not want justifications nor explanations, they want electricity so they can eat and escape the unbearable heat,” stated another neighbor in Nuevo Vedado.

The CDR are used constantly by the government to camouflage the Rapid Response Brigades they use to insert State Security agents to repress the people, opponents, dissidents and the independent press. Some of their most criticized activities are the acts of repudiation which started out strong in the 70s and 80s and have currently resumed as part of campaigns to discredit opponents and independent artists.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Relatives of ’11J’ (July 11th) Prisoners Detained in Havana Accused of Public Disorder

A group of relatives of the 11J prisoners was arrested this Monday for asking for their release before the Cathedral of Havana. In the photo they make the sign of “L for Libertad (Freedom).” (Marta Perdomo)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 2 August 2022 — The relatives of the 11J (11 July 2021) prisoners detained this Monday outside the Cathedral of Havana are accused of public disorder. After midnight, the niece of one of the detainees confirmed that all the women had already been released.

Liset Fonseca, mother of Roberto Pérez Fonseca; Marta Perdomo, mother of Jorge and Nadir Martín Perdomo; Ailex Marcano, mother of Ángel Jesús Véliz Marcano; Saily Nuñez, wife of Maikel Puig Bergolla; and Delanis Álvarez, wife of Duniesky Ruiz; all left the provisional detention center known as Vivac, in Calabazar, in the Havana municipality of Boyeros, after paying a fine of 7,000 pesos.

Meanwhile, Wilber Aguilar, father of Walnier Luis Aguilar, is still under arrest, although they will be released this Tuesday; along with Luis Rodríguez, husband of Angélica Garrido. The latter, who did not appear in the first report of detainees, was unaccounted for for several hours, according to the Justice 11J organization.

In addition, the activist Leonardo Romero Negrín approached the police unit to inquire about the situation and was also briefly arrested, although he was released moments later without charge.

“Peaceful public protest is a human right contemplated in the Cuban Constitution,” claimed Justice 11J, which attended the families this Monday and has called for the attention of the international community and the press to firmly oppose the punishment of peaceful demonstrations of discontent.

The arrests took place at 2 in the afternoon on Monday when the group of relatives of prisoners met at the door of the Cathedral – although they were scheduled to do so before the Capitol and changed their minds due to the strong police presence – carrying a sign and demanding the release of their children and husbands, all of them sentenced to prison terms ranging between eight and 23 years for demonstrating on July 11, 2021. continue reading

The small group shouted “freedom” and “patria y vida” (homeland and life) when they were summoned by several agents who approached those present to ask for their documentation and, finally, took them into custody.

The protest coincided with those that have been sweeping the island in recent weeks due to blackouts and power outages, which are wearing out the patience of Cubans in a malaise that seems to increase every day.

At least a hundred people took to the streets in the Altamira Popular Council, in Santiago de Cuba, after about 10 hours without electricity. It was the most resounding of the protests on Monday, but the the sounds of the people banging on pots and pans broke out different parts of the island and videos of Consolación del Sur, in Pinar del Río, circulated; Antilla , in Holguin; Mabay, in Bayamo (Granma province) – where the cry “the people united will never be defeated” was heard; and in Trinidad, in Sancti Spíritus.

Over the weekend there was another protest in Nuevitas, Camagüey, coinciding with the failure of a block of the municipal thermoelectric plant, which had just been synchronized with the national energy system. Similar protests occurred in Bauta, Artemisa; the Central Australia community, in Jagüey Grande, Matanzas; and the Covadonga neighborhood in the municipality of Aguada de Pasajeros in Cienfuegos.

In the midst of this situation, at 1 in the afternoon there was a breakdown in Havana that “provoked a strong oscillation in the National Electric System” and the loss of three mobile generation units, those of Mariel, Tallapiedra and Regla. In addition, the Energas Jaruco units were also disconnected, causing an unforeseen deficit of 312 MW in addition to the announced deficit of more than 400 MW.

July has been marked, ultimately, by a multitude of protests: 263 of them according to the Cuban Observatory of Conflicts, which highlights from these cacerolazos [banging of pots and pans] in the darkness in which they occur due to blackouts, a scenario that also gives some protection to Cubans, fearful of the kind of repression that followed the demonstrations of 11 July 2021 (11J).

According to the NGO, 71.4% of these protests are caused by economic and social problems, while 28.6% are politically motivated. “The imbalance between the two reflects the general crisis that in Cuba has turned so-called daily life into daily death,” the report states.

The observatory considers that the national crisis is marked by the collapse of the energy system, the health and sanitation problems caused by dengue fever and the lack of medicines, and the rampant inflation suffered by the Island.

“The government’s inability to justify the national disaster continues to cause fissures in the state apparatus itself,” warns the Observatory, which considers the provincial press reports pointing to poor health or economic indicators to be a sign of this weakness. In addition, at the international level, the regime’s support for Russia, the text maintains, worsens the external perception of it.

“The rulers continue to avoid the transformation of the system that blocks the solution [to the problems]. In July it was shown that terror no longer paralyzes Cubans,” the report concludes.

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Entertaining People with Popular Control: The Castro Regime Has No Remedy

State agricultural markets in Sancti Spíritus look almost empty. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 2 August 2022 — With all that is going wrong in Cuba, the state press doesn’t miss an opportunity to transmit a false sense of normality that, far from being confirmed, leads to thinking just the opposite.

Constantly in the Castro regime, there is talk of “people’s power” everywhere, without anyone knowing very well what it means. It’s not just any realization. There’s enough for a doctoral thesis, like that of Cuban President Díaz-Canel’s on science and innovation. For this reason, someone at the State newspaper Granma has wondered if popular control, that is, the power of the people, works as a direct expression of socialist democracy in Cuba. But what power of the people are they talking about?

They allude to the old constitutional pipe dream, which even has a law, Law No. 132/2019, on the organization and operation of the municipal assemblies of People’s Power and the people’s councils that establish how “the people can exercise control and build the country’s model.” Let’s see if we understand anything.

In the State newspaper Granma they want to answer a disturbing question: how can Cubans who don’t hold a political or governmental position, from the base, in the community, access and use their power to contribute to transforming reality? It’s difficult. See if you haven’t  the video that runs through social networks in which an angry [Prime Minister Manuel] Marrero* is observed before a violent outburst from a revolutionary grandfather, who could well be taking a nap, and who nevertheless lashes out at another communist militant who complains that in 35 years no one has done anything to solve a problem. continue reading

And, of course, like everything in Cuba, if you want to understand something, you have to go to the Law, which with its 210 articles and eight chapters establishes the structure, functions and prerogatives of each of the components of the so-called “people’s power,” which, as Granma points out, “is manifested daily in the actions of the delegates and voters as the foundation of the Cuban political system.”

Precisely, one of the most important changes to Law No. 132 was the right of members of the people’s councils to carry out controls on local production and service entities, as a “potential regulatory mechanism against illegalities and violations that usually occur in state and non-state institutions,” involving the citizen himself as an engine of the changes he needs around him.

Granma reviews the experiences on this topic: Are the controls effective? What results have they had? How can they improve?

Popular controls are welcomed by the communist organization as a tool to respond to the demands of the people, an idea that is here to stay. Delegates ensure the proper functioning of the entities that operate in their constituencies, but what Chapter VII of Law 132 proposes is to involve people more in transforming their environment.

So, although previously only delegates participated in the so-called control and audit, anyone who can contribute “to evaluate, show, suggest and thoroughly review the administrative work of public and private entities, even more so if they have been pointed out by the vox populi, are now invited.

Every month, three popular control exercises are carried out, which are approved at the end of the year so as not to leave any area or sector without going through the filter of citizens and analyzing topics such as water supply, the situation of schools, grocery stores and medical offices, the sale of liquefied gas, the production of bread, the marketing of agricultural products and the so-called coleros. Hey, did anyone hear blackouts? It’s incredible.

The communists are exultant. Every time a control is announced, service specialists, retirees, community leaders and anyone who wishes are incorporated into the group, forming a conga line with a complicated rhythm, which ends up being deadly for some state and non-state entities, when the report is prepared with positive and negative signs and a plan of measures is required in response. Those responsible, as one can imagine, have little desire to continue.

Therefore, when agencies fall behind with the requested response, and others don’t immediately adopt the suggested decisions, some other, tougher measures are taken. In some cases, the focus is on the workers of the institutions under control, in a clear exercise of bridging those responsible for them, which leads to a further deterioration of the situation. Popular controls add fire to conflicts where the problem could be fixed with a little good will. You can see the Castro inspiration behind all this.

What is the communist regime looking for with these controls? Perhaps that the grocery stores are painted, renovated; that the culture of commerce wins, as Granma says. Let’s see: if there is nothing to sell and the grocery stores are empty, all the rest remains. That’s where popular control should begin if it wants to be of any use. There is the impression that the regime wants to fuss over popular controls to keep people entertained, away from the main concerns about blackouts, inflation or lack of food. If this is the case, it’s not strange that they talk about achieving even greater systems of controls, because according to them, credibility can be lost, and in this case, there is even the authority to request support from the president of the Municipal Assembly.

One can now imagine that all this is another waste of time within the day-to-day life of Cubans. Granma recognizes the problems that these controllers of people’s power have when certain entities located in the municipal council cannot be controlled because the scope of their work is provincial, and, in these cases, alleged negligence cannot be punished. Or the need they say to review the communication mechanisms, because, although the opinion of the delegates is that most people know when, how and where the controls are carried out, practice shows that this is not the case.

That is why, to finish filling the agenda, the leaders say that it’s necessary to take more advantage of traditional socialization methods (meetings, offices with voters), or to create new ones (social media channels or groups, informal opinion leaders) so that more people know and participate in these demonstrations of popular power. They have no remedy.

*Translator’s note: Marrero blamed doctors and other healthcare workers in Cienfuegos for the handling of the pandemic (in 2021)

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Havana’s Fears and Unrealistic Expectations

One of the protests over energy shortages occurred in the town of Los Palacios. (Collage)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Frank Calzón, Miami, 29 June 2022 — Press reports indicate that the Cuban government is encouraging foreigners to invest in what it calls “private companies” as a means of dealing with the country’s food shortages, blackouts, dengue outbreaks and ongoing protests. It is not yet known when these measures will take effect or if the Biden Administration will agree to them.

If by “investing” the government means foreign companies sending dollars to Cuba, that’s not going to happen. Hotel chains, for example, do sign management and cooperation agreements but the resources for hotel construction are provided by the Cuban government, which it might acquire from money laundering or narco-trafficking.

Some attribute the current crisis in Cuba to the drop in tourism, the decrease in remittances from the exile community, and fewer Cuban-Americans traveling to the island. The decline in tourists has led Havana to sell raffle tickets in Miami.

U.S. airlines that fly to Cuba are being required to act as accomplices in the regime’s discriminatory actions. Cuban citizens and their family members who are not residents of another country, who have their documents in order and their tickets in hand, are not allowed to board return flights to Cuba by order of the regime. Is it the responsibility of U.S. airlines to comply with such abuses against Cuban citizens in violation of Cuban and international law? Are airlines now supposed to treat other people – say gay, black or Jewish people – in the same way to accommodate the demands of foreign governments? Have U.S. senators and representatives raised this issue with Raul Castro? continue reading

The Cuban government might find it in its interests to cease this practice before the U.S. decides to stop airlines involved in this practice from flying to Cuba. If Cuban citizens have violated Cuban laws, the matter should not be dealt with in Florida’s airports but in Cuban courts.

The real causes go much deeper, beginning with more than sixty years of communist dogma, including an internal embargo and the imprisonment of peasant farmers for bypassing the state food production monopoly by selling produce, chicken and milk directly to other Cubans.

If Joe Biden had be able to fulfill his desire that remittances go to their beneficiaries and not to those he calls “the oppressors,” the situation would be different. But the president’s good intentions, along with Obama’s reforms, have not succeeded.

Blackouts have nothing to do with remittances or tourism. On the contrary, they are the result of power plants not being properly maintained for more than fifty years; reductions in petroleum shipments, first from the Soviet Union, then from Venezuela; and the use of Cuban petroleum, with its high level of impurities. This is reminiscent of the destruction of the sugar industry, which used to be the nation’s economic engine.

The regime has reasons to be frightened. Cubans are taking to the streets, screaming “We are not afraid” at the police. A few weeks ago a group of priests shared a video in which they urged Cubans “not to a raise a hand against another Cuban.” Recently, Dionisio Garcia, archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, the country’s second largest city, publicly called for the lengthy prison sentences handed down to participants in last summer’s peaceful protests to be “rectified.”

Amidst all this, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the European Union, the United States and other nations continue to call for the release of political prisoners and an end to repression.

The country’s officials fear another eruption of mass protests. Recently, crowds took to darkened streets during power blackouts to shout anti-government slogans and bang metal pots. Though it has acknowledged there is a dengue fever epidemic, the government announced it would only fumigate homes where cases of the disease had been confirmed. Last summer’s protests were not directed at shortages or the U.S. embargo. Instead, demonstrators chanted, “Down with communism. Freedom, Freedom.” Fidel is dead. Raul promised every Cuban a glass of milk, a promise that, so far, remains unfulfilled.

The month of August, with its oppressive heat, is just around the corner.

Frank Calzón is a political scientist and human rights activist. His articles have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post and others.

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Prisoners Defenders Report Finds that the Cuban Government Limits Religious Freedom and Creates ‘Imposter’ Associations

Members of the Council of Churches and the Islamic League of Cuba, two government-affiliated institutions, according to Prisoners Defenders. (Islamic League of Cuba)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 2 August 2022 — On Thursday, Prisoners Defenders shared their report, Constitutional Reform and Religious Freedom in Cuba, a companion document to accompany the evaluation conducted by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

In this new document, Prisoners Defenders, which contributed to the U.S. report, analyzed the testimonies of 56 religious leaders and lay Cubans from the four major religions in the country: Catholics, Protestants, Yorubas and Muslims.

The document highlights the complete or partial violations of rights associated with the optimal exercise of religious freedom, by government authorities, police and the Office of Religious and Communist Party Affairs, in particular. These include the right to freedom of expression, assembly, association, privacy/intimacy, non-discrimination and movement.

Some “considerations on the Constitution” detail legal issues related to religious freedom in the Cuban Constitution of 2019. To this end, Prisoners Defenders conducted an analysis this year, which concluded that “compared to the Constitution of 1976, the current Constitution represents a slight backsliding related to normalization of the legal framework on religious matters.”

Publishing of the new Constitution eliminated the possibility of drafting a Religions Law, a “pending task” since 1976. Furthermore, in proclaiming that “the Communist Party” is the superior political force leading society and the State,” the constitutional text limits its own field of action and confers upon the Party a “supra-constitutional” status.

According to the report, the Party as well as its Office of Religious Affairs are “dark organizations and work in the absence of legislation.”

One extensive section on repression provides specific data on the frequency with which religious leaders receive police summons, prohibitions of any kind, arbitrary detentions, acts of repudiation, surveillance, and expressions of hate. Several cases also refer to the inability to conduct processions, public rituals, burials and visits as well as obstructing travel, donations and constructive works. continue reading

Prisoners Defenders describes the process through which the Cuban government has historically attempted to create “false institutions” which supplant the international representativeness of religious associations.

“In the case of Christian Churches it created the Council of Churches; in the Yoruba religion, the Yoruba Cultural Association; and in the Islamic religion, it created the Islamic League of Cuba. All three organizations are controlled by State Security,” the document states.

It also states that, although the “techniques” vary from one statement to the other, they share the same pattern of repression. However, the government “protects itself” against frontal attacks, especially toward the Catholic Church, due to the “organization and international protection said church has.”

With regard to Protestant churches, the repression “takes a more obvious form” in two phases. The objective of the first is to de-link a pastor’s activism from his superior leader, often at the international level, by means of blackmail. The second phase includes social isolation of the pastor, which typically ends in jail or exile.

With regard to the Yoruba religion, the report states that it is “pampered” by the government, however it is “illegal and has never been allowed or officially legitimized.” This drives the priest or babalawo to practice his religion “behind the law’s back, under unlawful conditions, perfect for blackmail at any moment.”

Repression of Islam is “a special case” according to Prisoners Defenders, as the government “created a registered institution with fake Muslims — State Security agents loyal to government officials,” as a maneuver to overshadow the work and prestige of Imam Hassan Abdul Gafur (Ernesto Silveira Cabrera), a driving force of the Muslim religion on the Island. Authorities systematically and internationally announced that Silveira was the creator of the official Islamic League, which contributed to the organization’s prestige.

The League provides added value, as it allows the Cuban government to claim, at an international level, that it is a “country that respects Islam”, which bought it favor in dealings with Muslim nations. All of the Islamic leaders interviewed were in agreement that the League has “an official political agenda” and that it is one of the religious arms of State Security.

In its report, Prisoners Defenders includes USCIRF’s conclusions regarding the limitations of religious organizations to perform charity, relying on communications media spaces and carrying out constructive reforms.

Furthermore, the report reiterates the considerations of the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief on religious freedom on the Island. “The evaluation team determined that Cuba does not comply with 33 [indicators] and partially complied with three indicators,” indispensable for the free exercise of this right.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Miguel Mouse, ‘Che’ Guevara and Marianao’s Jokers

For Caignet, writing ’Miguel Mouse” during the time of Gerardo Machado resulted in a brief but notorious stay in prison.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 29 June 2022 — Félix B. Caignet, considered the founder of radio soap operas, also wrote children’s songs and was an opponent of the first dictatorship suffered by Cubans. Among his contributions is the musical theme known as El ratoncito Miguel [Miguel Mouse], which, in the time of Gerardo Machado, resulted in a brief but notorious stay in prison.

Even at the end of the 1950s, when we endured the second dictatorship in our history, those of us who were then children raised our voices on the occasion that was propitious to emphasize the verse that said:

The thing is

that it horrifies and really scares

And you’ll see

how a mouse will die of hunger

There’s no cheese anymore

much less a slice of ham

Let’s see

who is going to tear out Misifú’s heart.

Mistifú wasn’t a cat, but the repressor on duty. Tearing out his heart meant overthrowing him from power, and the “let’s see” was related to the one who bells the cat. Cross-references that are the essence of every culture.

Years later, an Argentine who believed he knew the essence of the Cuban pontificated that the original sin of our intellectuals was summarized in the fact that they were not revolutionaries. Ernesto Guevara said it in an article entitled “Man and Socialism in Cuba,” where he labeled the entire intelligentsia of a country through his tunnel vision of a classist, Marxist revolutionary.

Today there is no shortage of those who evaluate with Guevarist criteria the behavior of those who appeal to irony and sarcasm to criticize the dictatorship. They are the same ones who don’t forgive anyone who writes the word “government” where it should say “dictatorship.”

They are the ones who don’t stop understanding that, if they’re not a government, they’re not a dictatorship.

The best joke of the year, if that contest existed, would have as winners those young people who identified Marianao* as the territory where all the promises of the dictatorship were fulfilled.

Félix B. Caignet would feel a healthy envy if he found out that his little mouse has found another way to make fun of the cat.

*Translator’s note: In the linked video two young people on a motorcycle, responding to a question from Cuban State media, say everything is fine in the Marianao neighborhood in Havana — there are no shortages, no blackouts, ‘there is everything.’

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Belarus Agrees with Cuba to Distribute the Soberana Plus Vaccine

With the approval of Soberana Plus, Belarus joins the axis of countries that, like Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Mexico, have agreed with Cuba to distribute or produce its vaccines. (Finlay Institute)

14ymedio bigger

14ymedio, Havana, 27 July 2022 — Belarus became the first country in Europe on Wednesday to approve the use of the Cuban-made Soberana Plus COVID-19 vaccine. Dmitry Vladimírovich, director of the Expertise and Testing Center of the Ministry of Health of Belarus, met in Minsk with a delegation of officials and scientific staff from the island, present in the Slavic country until July 28.

During the meeting, Vladimírovich delivered the certificate, which supports the use of the drug in Belarusian territory, to Vicente Vérez Bencomo, director of the Finlay Institute of Vaccines, and to Olga Lidia Jacobo, who chairs the Center for the State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices of Cuba.

The island’s ambassador to Minsk, Santiago Pérez Benítez, also received the endorsement of Soberana Plus. For his part, the rector of the State University of Medicine of Gomel, Ígor Stoma, talked about the experience of the use of vaccines in Belarus so far.

The Cuban delegation also held a discussion with the Belarusian Minister of Health, Dmitry Pinevichs, to evaluate subsequent contracts in the field of medicines and pharmaceutical cooperation from Havana. continue reading

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Pinevichs referred to the “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 Belarusian pharmaceutical products to Cuba.”

The delegation also visited a pediatric hospital in Minsk, where a lecture was given on the application of the Soberana vaccine to children.

Neither Vladimírovich nor the Minister of Health of Belarus resisted the temptation to politically qualify the medical agreements with Cuba. The director of the professional training center said that he had been chosen on July 26 to sign the registration of the vaccine as a tribute to the “Day of National Rebellion.”

The president of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, also referred to the date in a message addressed to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, in which, handling the usual topics about the 1953 assault on the Moncada barracks, he also stated that his Government’s “economic and commercial cooperation” with the island was assured.

With the approval of Soberana Plus, Belarus joins the axis of countries that, such as Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Mexico, have agreed with Cuba to distribute or produce its vaccines against COVID-19.

The signing of these commitments is not only restricted to the medical aspect, but also bring with them other requirements of a political, economic, military and commercial nature, deeper and longer-term, among the countries involved.

The Cuban Government itself has placed the vaccines produced at the Finlay Institute at the forefront of its international propaganda. Campaigns, concerts, conferences, academic events and exchanges with delegations similar to the one that came to Minsk this month are an effective point of diplomatic contact with the countries that agree to distribute pharmaceuticals from the island.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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The 54 Cuban Doctors in Nayarit, Mexico, Still Can’t See Patients

The delegation of Cuban doctors is housed in a hotel in downtown Tepic, in the Mexican state of Nayarit. (Twitter/@MarcosRguezC)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 29 June 2022 — Almost a week after the arrival of 54 Cuban doctors in the state of Nayarit, they are not yet allowed to see patients in the territory. A source from the local health sector confirmed to 14ymedio that they must undergo “study evaluations” before providing services in the hospitals in the seven marginal areas and the Tepic clinic to which they were assigned in Mexico.

On Thursday, the Secretary of Health of Nayarit, José Francisco Munguía, agreed to have the island’s doctors evaluated. “The [test] they do today defines if they are already ready,” he said, because, although “they are already demanding them from me” in the units, Cuban health workers must have a “leverage in the Directorate of Professionals,” a document that is also required of national doctors.

Article 5 of the Mexican Constitution establishes that, for the “exercise of one or more specialties, authorization from the General Directorate of Professions is required.” The retired minister of the nation’s Supreme Court of Justice, José Ramón Cossío, explained that to qualify for this permit, Cuban health workers “have to obtain the corresponding certificate.”

Sofía, a Mexican specialist who has had contact with the Cuban brigade, questioned the validity of the evaluation: “What they have received are lectures by some colleagues on specific topics and administrative training.”

One of these lectures was given by cardiologist Alejandra González, from the High Specialty Cardiological Unit. This specialist said that during the exchange of views on the treatment to be followed in patients with acute infarction, she was able to calibrate the level of the Cuban health workers. continue reading

“There I knew that there was nothing to discuss, that we are in two parallel worlds, different worlds in which the Mexican Government romantically wants to see the doctors of a third world country as a salvation,” Gónzalez said on her social networks.

The Mexican cardiologist specified: “Medical specialists asked me for the PowerPoint [slides] file to read again from there! I am perhaps more disappointed than annoyed, and maybe I am judging and generalizing, but if we examine them, I don’t think they’re ready.”

The lack of preparation of the doctors was also questioned by Gabriel Quadri, a deputy opposed to the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who also filed a complaint in March with the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic “for human trafficking, labor exploitation and forced labor,” when the hiring of 500 Cuban doctors by the Government of Mexico was confirmed.

A report revealed that the doctors on the island who arrived last year to support Mexico during the pandemic limited themselves to “making beds, taking vital signs, conducting surveys and passing sponges to patients to bathe.”

14ymedio verified that the 54 Cuban doctors who are currently in the country remain at the La Palomas hotel. “We have a crowd due to a doctors’ convention, but as of August 1, there is availability in the 75 rooms we have,” the receptionist said, by phone.

The hotel, which costs from $52 to $83 per night, has 67 standard rooms, six junior suites and two suites, all with cable TV, telephone, air conditioning and wireless network. Guests have free access to the pool and a jacuzzi.

The deputy of the opposition National Action Party, Mariana Gómez del Campo, expressed her disagreement with the hiring of 500 Cuban health workers by the Government of Mexico, “since the purpose of these missions is to enslave and exploit people.” According to her, in order for them to practice “they need a Mexican professional card” that they “don’t yet have.”

In Ixtlán del Río, one of the municipal capitals of Nayarit where health workers are expected to arrive, a residence has already been set up for two internists and two Cuban pediatricians. In the municipal presidency they are aware that the delay is due to an administrative obstacle.

In the hospital of the municipality of Rosamorada, however, they claim to be unaware of the causes for the delay. In this health center, which will be attended by eight Cuban doctors, 30 to 34 specialized consultations are offered, and up to three surgeries and three deliveries have been performed per day.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Several Relatives of July 11th (11J) Detainees are Arrested at the Cathedral in Havana, Cuba

Several police officers approach the group and demand to see their IDs. (Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 1 August 2022–Several relatives of 11J (11 July 2021) detainees were arrested on Monday after conducting a peaceful protest at the steps of Havana’s Cathedral. The protesters have been identified as: Liset Fonseca Rosales, Marta Perdomo Benítez, Ailex Marcano Fabelo, Delanis Álvarez Matos, Saily Núñez y Wilber Aguilar, who were taken to the police station at Cuba and Chacón in Cuba’s capital.

Fonseca is the mother of Roberto Pérez, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison while Marta Perdomo is mother to Nadir and Jorge Martín Perdomo, brothers who are serving 6- and 8-year prison sentences, respectively.  Aguilar is the father of Walnier Aguilar (a 23 year sentence), and Núñez is the wife of Maikel Puig (a 14 year sentence).

A video posted on Twitter by Albert Fonseca, a Cuban activist based in Canada, who is Roberto Pérez Fonseca’s brother and Liset’s son, shows the group yelling slogans such as “Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life]” and “Libertad [Freedom]” while someone dressed in civilian clothing, whose identity is unknown, attempts to silence them.

Later, several police officers approached the group and demanded to see their IDs. After the protesters had apparently dispersed, Fonseca himself denounced his mother’s arrest, along with that of the other  protest participants, stating that he held “the Cuban dictatorship” responsible.

Moments before the arrest, I’m asking for freedom they are just parents and spouses asking for the release of their political prisoner relatives.

During a livestream, Fonseca explains that, “it was all planned to be a protest at the Capitol building.” “We don’t know if they were infiltrated,” the activist suspects because “it was teeming with police.”

The family members then decided to look for an alternative, and, taking into consideration the public visibility factor, they marched to the Cathedral plaza in Havana.

“The protest did not last any longer than that,” added Fonseca, who believes that the progressive opening to tourism and recurrent protests have spurred, “a lot of police movement.” Although the camera could not record the moment of the arrest, as soon they demanded their IDs, the police officers arrested the family members. continue reading

According to Fonseca’s sources, officer Yoel Argüelles will be in charge of investigating the the family members’ case. “He is one of the oppressors in charge of activists and their family members.”

Before concluding the livestream, the activist added that this is the moment to pressure the regime through peaceful protests, since the economic crisis and the presence of international tourism on the Island increase the visibility of the situation.

Today, at the Cathedral of Havana, I demand freedom for all those brave family members of  political prisoners.

Fonseca promises to share more images but stated that he needs to edit them, so as to not jeopardize his sources.

Since the 11J protests, several people have been detained for protesting in favor of freedom for their family members. Some family members of political prisoner, Andy García, who is being held in Villa Clara, have been harassed and interrogated by State Security on several occasions over the last year.

In February, Yudinela Castro Pérez, mother of 18-year-old Rowland Castro, was arrested for demanding her son’s release. This also happened to Migdalia Gutiérrez Padrón, mother of one of the protesters at La Güinera, arrested by police on the anniversary of 11J for dressing in white.

Bárbara Farrat, mother of Jonathan Torres Farrat, who is only 17 years old, was jailed for several hours on December 24, 2021 for demanding that Cuban families be together during Christmas and the end of the year. Several times State Security has threatened Farrat with the possibility of charging her with sedition.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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