14ymedio – Page 193 – Translating Cuba

Pastor Alain Toledano Insists that Cuba is ‘In Collapse’

The pastor and his family arrived this week in the United States, where he is in exile. (Facebook)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 30 July 2022 — Cuban evangelical pastor Alain Toledano Valiente, leader of the Movement Paths of Justice and exiled in Miami since this week, stated in an interview published this Friday that “Cuba is a country in collapse.”

Toledano, his wife, Marilin, and their daughters Berenice, 18, and Elisama, 17, left Cuba thanks to the intervention of Outreach Aid to the Americas (OAA), an international organization that defends the rights of religious communities .

The US Ambassador for Religious Freedom, Rashad Hussein, also interceded in the case.

According to Toledano’s statement upon arrival in Miami, Cuban authorities warned him: “Leave the country within 30 days or you and your family will face the consequences.”

In the first interview from exile, Toledano, who in recent years repeatedly denounced “harassment” against his temple in Santiago de Cuba for demanding rights and freedom, told the US public radio station Radio Martí, which broadcasts from Florida to Cuba, that the rights and living conditions of Cubans are “precarious.”

“When you look at the living conditions of men (on an international level), you realize that the Cuban does not have any living conditions. Rights, none. It stopped being really a nation, it stopped really being a country where as a citizen you can live with everything you need,” he said.

The pastor called on Cubans to recover their freedom by confronting “the people who have been empowered by evil and violence” in Cuba. continue reading

“The slaver is never going to give you freedom,” said the religious leader.

In the latest report on International Religious Freedom published by the US State Department, it was included in the Cuba section that Cuban State Security agents arrested Pastor Toledano in 2021 for “spreading an epidemic.”

The arrest was due to the fact that he had reopened the doors of his temple after confinement due to covid-19, but, as he denounced, the accusation was unfounded, since since the first week of June 2021 the Government had authorized churches to restart their activities normally and moderately.

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Five Years in Prison for a Cuban Activist for Launching Leaflets ‘Proposing Elections’

Cuban opponent Yuri Valle Roca during an arrest in 2019. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 29 June 2022 — The activist and reporter Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca was sentenced to five years in prison for the crimes of “ongoing enemy propaganda and resistance.” The sentence of the Provincial Court of Havana was communicated this Thursday to his wife, Eralidis Frometa, who has spread it on social networks and has described it as “lying and manipulation.”

In the same case, Alien Tijerino Castro received four years for continued enemy propaganda, Ruslán Hernández Reyes, two years, and Yusniel Milián González, one year, both for enemy propaganda.

The sentence accuses Valle Roca and Tijerina of having an “illicit and self-styled NGO” called Delibera in which they held meetings “with the aim of planning actions contrary to the social and political system in Cuba,” in addition to filming them and broadcasting them on social networks to “disseminate to the world an image of social and political instability within the country.”

Both he and Tijerino had leaflets seized — “with José Martí phrases” — and other dangerous activities such as “proposing elections.” Also cameras, memory cards and mobile phones “with counterrevolutionary content.” continue reading

Hernández, whose cell phone was also seized, and Milián, meanwhile, did not possess material considered compromising and their connection to the events is just having responded to a summons. In the case of the latter, moreover, he expressed his “repentance,” despite which he has received a year in prison that he has served as preventive detention.

The ruling highlights that Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca “maintained a socially inappropriate behavior in his place of residence and not because his ideas were contrary to the principles of the Revolution,” the judges concede, “but because his way of showing that disagreement is not the correct way.”

Valle Roca, 60, is the nephew of opposition leader Vladimiro Roca and grandson of communist leader Blas Roca Calderío. Since June 2021 he has been in provisional prison in Villa Marista, for which he has at least four years left to serve.

During the time he has been imprisoned, the reporter has suffered the 15 types of torture described by the Madrid-based organization Prisoners Defenders (PD), which presented a document to the UN denouncing patterns of mistreatment in Cuban prisons.

The list is made up of: deprivation of medical care, forced labor outside of their criminal sentence, forced to maintain uncomfortable or harmful positions, solitary confinement punishment, use of temperature as a mechanism of torture, physical aggression, transfer to unknown locations , intentional disorientation, deprivation of water, food, sleep and communication with lawyers and relatives, threats to their integrity and that of their loved ones, deployment of weapons or elements of torture, intentional subjection to anguish and uncertainty due to the situation of a family member and humiliation, degradation and verbal abuse.

According to the organization, there are at least ten prisoners who have suffered all of this ill-treatment, including Valle Roca.

“The Cuban judicial system does not work because it does not protect, it does not legally protect citizens. I do not intend to review the case or appeal, since we do not have fair laws,” said Eraldis Frometa.

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Green Avocados, Ginger and a Portrait of Fidel Castro: All That’s Left in a Havana Market

A market stall on 17th and K in El Vedado, Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 27 July 2022 — The scene this morning in the Havana market at 17th and K, in Vedado, could be attributed to the passage of a cyclone. The empty and skeletal platforms, waiting for products that never arrived; the plastic boxes upside down on the floor; the red earth, the rubbish that nobody sweeps and the absent vendors.

In one of the sales booths hung a solitary portrait of Fidel Castro, frowning, in olive green and stained with the residue of mud. When the market is full, Castro’s profile often works as a charm to scare away inspectors, to recognize the merchants who installed him in his place.

The trick is old and perhaps Soviet: the Czech writer and politician Václav Havel talks about a Slavic greengrocer who wrote slogans in his shop so that neither his colleagues nor the “people” of the Party would look at him badly, and thus he could sell his stuff peacefully.

A Cuban farmer, who has to market his products according to the rules of the Cuban State, repeats this ritual of camouflage against power. Although Castro is insufferable to him, he has learned to use him as the patron saint of thieves and bandits.

However, today it is not much use: since it is a holiday, not even the inspectors are prowling the alleys of the market. Only the patient buyer, willing not to be defeated by the decreed shortages that the heroic date — 26 July — brings with it, manages to glimpse an avocado stand in the distance. continue reading

For 15 pesos you can buy a pound of green avocados. The same amount buys some ginger, that Asian root to which Cubans are so little accustomed, and which could serve as a sedative infusion given the prices that are yet to be discovered, if they continue in search of food.

For 15 pesos you can buy a pound of green avocados at the 17th and K market. Ginger costs the same amount. (14ymedio)

“Solavaya!”* commented a customer in a picnic area near the market. “Avocados and ginger: that’s a deadly combination.” “And bad for your pocket,” an employee replied with a joke.

The buyer at 17th and K who, defeated, decides to go to the picnic area to warm his stomach, has to pay 70 pesos for a simple pizza. If he doesn’t want to choke on the dough, he should also order an instant soda, which won’t take long to hold his overheated kidneys accountable.

Once satisfied, so to speak, the buyer rethinks his strategy to get food this July 27th.

As he ponders the causes and effects of national hunger, he sees the grimy truck passing by that distributes egg cartons from rationing in his neighborhood. As a soul that carries the devil, he runs to his cellar, only to verify that the steel mass on wheels is stopped in front of the store’s gate.

Thanks, once again, to the glorious event, the employees have the day off and the trucker, who arrives an hour late, will not be able to unload the eggs. He panics and they look for someone who has the key, while the driver threatens the crowd: “Get up, I’m leaving!

The key appears, but a voice confirms to the buyer what he already knows: “Don’t get excited,” they tell him, “that no one will sell a single egg until tomorrow.”

He has to throw two mental insults at the portrait hanging on the remote dais of 17th and K. An older lady, head down, walks past him chewing on the words, for lack of anything else to chew on.

“Look for that,” he says, “the corpse of July 26th is still hot, and today we don’t even have a pumpkin for a sad broth. What did you celebrate so much yesterday?”

*Translator’s note: Solovaya — roughly and idiomatically: “Get me outta here!”

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Three Children Arrested During 11J (July 11th) Protests, Released After a Year of Imprisonment and Indoctrination

Erick Yoangel Héctor Plaza and Maikel Michel Miranda Vega, two of the minors released this week. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 29 June 2022 — The Cuban regime released three minors who had been arrested for participating in the 11J (11 July 2021) protests, and who were being held at the Comprehensive Training School in Matanzas, under the custody of the Ministry of the Interior.

According to the organization Justicia11J , Eric Yoangel Héctor Plaza, 12, Maykel Michel Miranda Vega, 13, and Llenson Ensos Rizos Cabrera, 14, were released last Thursday, but the situation of at least five of the 59 minors detained in the context of the protests remains unknowned.

Justicia11J has identified these adolescents, of whom there are no reports, such as Alexander Morejón and Jennifer Simpson, both 17 years old, Leosvani Giménez and Rubén Alejandro Parra, both 15, and Yeniel González, 16.

The organization points out that detained minors “suffer even more indoctrinated education and their lifestyles impede their healthy physical, emotional and intellectual development.” He adds that detention at a young age can, in the future, lead them to be victims of stigmatization and humiliation. continue reading

In an April report, Justicia11J, together with Cubalex, established that the authorities had detained 54 minors for participating in the demonstrations, and of these, 14 were still deprived of liberty. As of that date, seven 16-year-olds were in the custody of the Ministry of the Interior. In Cuba, the penal age is established at 16 years.

The document also stated that 22 18-year-olds had been prosecuted, three of them through summary proceedings and the rest in ordinary trials accused of sedition, public disorder, sabotage and contempt.

Justicia11J points out that during the internment of these demonstrators, violations of the norms established in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, on the application of justice to minors, have been committed. They also denounce “the lack of evidence to prove guilt.”

In June, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the Cuban State to review the sentences imposed on minors “found guilty of exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly in the context of the July 2021 protests,” and mentioned its concern about complaints received about abuse and mistreatment during the detention of children and adolescents.

In the document, the Committee highlights that there were violent captures of 13-year-old children and considers the penalty opportune only after 16. In response, the Cuban Government affirmed that there are no children under 16 in prison. “Currently, there are 662 inmates between the ages of 16 and 18 in penitentiary centers. Of the ages of 16 and 17 there are 264, the rest are 18 years old,” it said.

In this context, some seven convicted minors saw their sentences reduced, after a “special analysis” by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Cuba.

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A U.S. Businessman Believes that Biden Will Allow Banking Relations with Cuba

First American Bank now has the accounts of the Cuban embassy in Washington and the Cuban mission at the UN. (FAB)

14ymedio, Madrid, 28 July 2022 – John Kavulich, the first entrepreneur to obtain a US Treasury license for a private business in Cuba, believes that the Biden government will allow banking relations between the two countries, something that he considers a “logical” step, taking into account that his case wouldn’t be the only one.

“It wouldn’t make sense for the Biden Administration to continue to require funds moving from the United States to Cuba to pass through banks in third countries, where they then charge a commission for each transaction,” Kavulich, who is also president of the United States-Cuba Economic and Trade Council, told El Nuevo Herald in a report about the transactions of the island’s embassy in Washington.

Kavulich, who, pending the approval of the Cuban Government, has not given any details about the company in which he plans to invest “up to $25,000,” explained that whoever intends to put his money in Cuban private businesses needs to “have a direct, efficient and transparent means” to send the funds and receive their investment income, dividends and loan payments.

At present, this mechanism doesn’t exist, since embargo laws prevent direct transactions between the two countries. During the time of the thaw, the government headed by Barack Obama authorized U.S. entities and companies to open accounts in Cuba, but not so that the Cuban side could do the same.

Relations between Cuba and the United States are now much more tense than then, and Joe Biden is at a time in his mandate – burdened by the consequences of the pandemic, the supply crisis and the invasion of Ukraine – in which it is doubtful that he will expose himself to a confrontation with Florida, where a banking correspondent (collaboration of entities from different countries) with the island would not be welcomed. continue reading

However, the license granted to Kavulich and the announcements of new policies that will include the expansion of electronic payments and support for the private sector give hope to those who aspire to invest in the island. Added to this is the statement made by Havana last week, when it opened the door to allow foreigners to put money in private companies in Cuba, an idea rejected outright by some Florida politicians.

The information from El Nuevo Herald explains how a bank founded by a Cuban exile has ended up being the manager of the regime’s accounts in the United States, specifically that of the Cuban embassy and the Cuban mission at the New York headquarters of the United Nations.

In 1974, Carlos Dascal founded Continental Bank, the first bank created by a Cuban-American in the United States. This entity was absorbed in 2019 by First American Bank, an Illinois-based bank that acquired Cuban accounts in June after Centennial Bank “cut off all business relations” with Havana for its support for Russia in connection with the invasion of Ukraine, according to sources in El Nuevo Herald.

Centennial Bank had managed the accounts of the Cuban Government since it acquired Stonegate Bank, an entity authorized for this purpose by the Treasury in 2015. According to the same source, which asked to remain anonymous, First American Bank is currently negotiating with the state-owned International Trade Bank to open a correspondent account in Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba’s Sidewalks and Colonnades Are a Market for Old Junk

An improvised merchant alternates proclamations about his merchandise with reading of a book. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 28 July 2022 — Cuban sidewalks are the scene of a good part of daily life on the Island. Taking the stool out of the house to get around the long blackouts, waiting for hours on the curb for our turn to come in a line, or setting up in that narrow strip , between the facades and the asphalt, a point of sale for anything, are just some of the uses of a space designed for the passage of pedestrians but converted into a scene of the informal market and daily survival.

This Thursday, the high temperatures and the intense sun made it necessary to walk under the shade of the colonnades in Havana. In addition to the danger that a cornice, a roof or a balcony could come off and end up on our heads, avoiding El Indio and the harshness of his rays turns out to be the priority. But the centimeters are limited and looking for the shade also has its problems. The poorest in the city use that piece of road to try to survive.

Used books, old plumbing pieces, empty containers that once held shampoo or laundry detergent, make up part of the inventory of what is exhibited on the sidewalks of streets such as Galiano, Monte or Reina in the Cuban capital.

Under the protection of a colonnade, illegal vendors multiply, but they compete with passers-by to use a strip of territory that belongs to ordinary Cubans, never better said.

With a row of books displayed outside the “Alfredo Gómez Gendra” nursing home, in Centro Habana, a makeshift merchant alternated proclamations about his merchandise with reading of a book. A few meters away, another vendor repeated the scene, which lasted for several blocks although the merchandise on display varied. continue reading

As the sidewalk narrowed, pedestrians dodged a copper pipe as well as some shoes rescued from a dumpster. Sellers and customers thus shared the same goal: to occupy that part of any street where cars do not pass and the sun does not punish so strongly.

Without the skills of the mantas* in Madrid, or the mutual protection that the merolicos** of Havana’s La Cuevita market give each other, trading on a sidewalk is a high-risk profession in Cuba. The same person who buys a scrubbing sponge from you later denounces you for getting in the way. The sun that you avoid under a doorway you pay for in bribes to the corrupt policemen or in scares every time the patrol approaches.

But the portals and the sidewalks are not an impregnable armor either. The policemen who patrol the city make a killing with the fines and arrests of those who do not have their own business premises or a license to offer their miserable products.

Sitting down to pass the time during a blackout or play dominoes with friends is one thing, but opening a venduta — a tiny enterprise — among the shop windows and the rattle of collective taxis is another.

The sidewalk is free territory until the uniformed men are disturbed.

Translator’s notes
*Mantas: Literally ’blankets’, a reference to the street sellers who commonly spread their wares on them.
**Merolicos: Street sellers who ’specialize’ in glib patter to promote their wares which may include “miracle cures,” “amazing bargains,” and the like.

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The Mexican Government Will Pay $2,000 a Month for Cuban Doctors

A delegation of Cuban doctors with health authorities in the Mexican state of Nayarit. (Government of Nayarit)

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Havana, 27 July 2022 — The 500 Cuban doctors who were hired by the Government of Mexico to provide services in marginal areas of the country will receive a salary similar to that of Mexican health workers. “They will receive between 41,784 ($2,042) and 35,237 pesos ($1,722) per month,” an employee of the Institute of Health for Welfare (Insabi) told 14ymedio.

The source specified that, because doctors who are in the state of Nayarit have specialties in anesthesiology, general surgery, gynecology and obstetrics, internal medicine and pediatrics, they must receive $2,042 per month. Although “it’s not established whether the money will be received by them or will go through the Government of Cuba,” the official said.

“Housing and food will be covered by the municipal authorities [of the cities] where each hospital is located,” the source added, and also explained that “every 180 days the immigration permit will be renewed.”

The call issued by the Mexican Social Security Institute and Insabi indicates that the contract for doctors is temporary and will last for four months, and that the doctors will be entitled to benefits and training. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Monday that Cuban health workers “will be protected” at work. continue reading

López Obrador said that after Nayarit, the next states will be Tlaxcala and Colima, plus the Sierra de Guerrero, a region that was initially pointed out by the president as the one with the greatest health need and to which the 500 doctors from the island would be sent.

On Wednesday, the health authorities of Nayarit confirmed to 14ymedio that 47 Cuban doctors were taken to the hospitals that are located in the rural towns of Las Varas, in the municipality of Compostela, Puente de Camotlán (La Yesca), Jesús María (Del Nayar), San Francisco and Tondoroque (Bahía de Banderas), and to the municipal capitals of Santiago Ixcuintla, Rosamorada and Ixtlán del Río. Seven doctors were incorporated into the staff of the central hospital of Tepic.

The Cuban medical missions that provided their service during the COVID-19 pandemic were criticized for the lack of preparation of their health workers and the high costs they represented for Mexico.

A report revealed that doctors from the island limited themselves to “making beds, taking vital signs, conducting surveys and passing sponges to patients to bathe,” while the Cuban authorities proclaimed that mortality rates had decreased during their stay in Mexico.

In March 2021 it was announced that the administration of Claudia Sheinbaum, head of Government of Mexico City, spent a total of 150,759,867 pesos ($6,986,091) on the hiring of 585 Cuban doctors who were working in the capital from April 24 to July 24, 2020, once 14,884,785 pesos ($689,749) were added for the accommodation and feeding of the doctors. For the other brigades that have arrived in the country, the amounts disbursed to the Cuban Government are not known.

On the same subject, the coordinator in the Mexican Senate of the opposition National Action Party, Julen Rementería, accused the Governments of Mexico and Cuba of orchestrating a fraud by paying,12,692,940 dollars for the hiring of 585 untitled health workers from the island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Dengue Fever Puts the Cuban Health System to the Test Yet Again

COVID-19 had left dengue fever in the background, but the disease is now spreading again on an island without supplies for prevention. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 July 2022 — The Mario Muñoz Monroy hospital, in Colón, Matanzas, has been forced to open two rooms of 60 and 20 beds respectively to accommodate the “significant number of admissions” that dengue fever is bringing.

On Wednesday, the official newspaper of the province, Girón, reported an increase in fever consultations that is in line with the news coming from Sancti Spíritus, where the ruling party has recognized that fifty people are cared for daily for dengue fever, and that “some people have developed serious forms of the disease.” The worst cases in this province are concentrated in Cabaiguán and Trinidad.

In the case of Matanzas, the deputy director of Public Health, Andrés Lamas Acevedo, said that cases decreased in the last week in Colón, but from neighboring Calimete the visits of patients with complications are increasing. Jagüey Grande, Cárdenas and the main municipality are other towns that are the most affected.

Last week, the authorities recognized an incidence rate of 19.7 cases per 100,000. The Minister of Health himself, José Ángel Portal Miranda, admitted at a press conference the exponential growth of the disease in recent months and said that the worst is yet to come. In April, the incidence rate was 12.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, while in June it reached 46.3.

Health workers insist that the population must do everything possible to protect themselves because there are no insecticides such as Abate or diesel available 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. continue reading

In addition, it is estimated that the under-declaration of dengue fever is elevated. On one hand, many patients refuse to go to the doctor to avoid hospitalization due to the state of many centers throughout the island. On the other, there is a visible shortage of means for a correct diagnosis, and some patients claim that the required tests are not performed because the reagents are rationed for the most severe cases.

“We are alarmed,” an internist at a hospital in Havana told this newspaper, who said that more serious cases are occurring this year than usual. “In previous epidemics, perhaps approximately 10% of cases had warning signs (those that warn you that the patient is not progressing well), but now it is more than 30%.”

In recent weeks, networks have reported the deaths of several people due to dengue symptoms, but the authorities are reluctant to give numbers of deaths despite the demands of the population.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Exile Raises about $13,000 to Replace Etecsa’s Controversial Billboard in Miami

Proposal to replace the advertising space that advertised telephone recharges with the Etecsa logo in Miami. (Telemundo 51/Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 July 2022 — “Cuban exile is respected!” will say the Miami billboard that briefly housed an advertising message from the Cuban state telecommunications monopoly Etecsa announcing its telephone recharges. “We don’t want more communist propaganda,” concludes the new text that its promoters want to put on the edge of the Palmetto highway when they get the funds to pay for the space.

The previous advertising poster was removed on July 14, after a campaign on social networks in which the content of advertising placed on one of the busiest highways in Hialeah, where a population mostly of Cuban origin lives, was described as an “insult.”

After the rejection of the community, activist José Alberto García called for fundraising in Miami-Dade County to place the new ad for one month at a cost of more than $11,000. “The initiative is for Cuban exile to unite and in this way give an answer to the front men of the Cuban dictatorship and let them know that we are here, and we are going to put up our anti-communist billboard,” García told Telemundo 51.

On the billboard that was removed, one could see the actress Tahimí Alvariño, the advertising face of the Katapulk company, which sells food and toiletries for emigrants to buy for their relatives on the island, in addition to telephone recharges from Etecsa, the Cuban State telecommunications monopoly.

“For me it was a mockery of exile and so many people who have sacrificed themselves and fled that dictatorship. Don’t let them come and put a sign in our face and stand idly by. That’s not going to be allowed,” García said. continue reading

The billboard advertised phone recharges to Cuba, but it was removed after pressure from opponents in Miami. (Collage)

Another phrase that will be put on the new billboard, for which more than $12,000 has already been raised, will be: “Down with the dictatorship. Homeland and Freedom” along with the hashtags #CubaPaLaCalle [Cuba[ns] into the Street] and #LibertadParaLosPresosPolíticos [Freedom for the Political Prisoners].

Cuban-American businessman Hugo Cancio, owner of Katapulk and one of the island’s emigrants who maintains closer commercial ties with the Havana regime, then responded to the controversy in a written statement sent to Telemundo, in which he stressed that Etecsa is not sanctioned by the U.S. Government: “This is an activity authorized by the regulations of OFAC (the U.S. Treasury office in charge of applying the embargo).”

“Etecsa is the telecommunications company in Cuba where all Cubans inside and outside the island process their recharges and buy their data packages for the use of the Internet and other services,” he said, adding that his company did not want to “cause attention or controversy… We decided to offer this much-needed service to our customers and, being new, we wanted to give legitimacy to this management.”

Katapulk belongs to Fuego Enterprises Inc., a company founded by Cancio on December 30, 2004 in Miami. Last year it was one of the entities authorized by the Cuban Government for registration in the registry of foreign companies that do business with the island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Yaime Perez Says Goodbye to her Discus and the Cuban Delegation While in the United States

In her first Olympic Games, Yaimé Pérez threw the discus 57.87 meters. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 26 July 2022 — Cuban athletics continues to add defeats. To the sporting failure at the XVIII World Athletics Championships that was held in Eugene, Oregon in the United States, where the Cuban delegation didn’t win any medals, is added the escape of the Olympic medalist and world champion of the discus throw, Yaimé Pérez, according to Play-Off Magazine.

The Santiago woman, who won seventh place in the Eugene World Cup, made the decision recently, the same media said. With her there are three members of the Cuban team who left, including the javelinist Yiselena Ballar who left earlier, and the physiotherapist Carlos González Morales who left this Tuesday.

“She is the 19th athlete to abandon the team in international events during 2022. Pérez, 31, won two Diamond Leagues,” journalist Francys Romero said on his social networks: “The official press has blamed the cancellation of the Cuba-MLB agreement for the exodus of baseball players. But these exits in more than five sports prove that the exodus is mainly for survival rather than for a future in sports.”

Yaimé Pérez is number three in the world ranking in the event, according to the Olympics portal. Her personal best is 69.39 meters, which she got in France (2019). In Tokyo 2020, her third Olympic Games, she reached third place.

Her ability has also been demonstrated by winning the Continental Cup in Ostrava (2018) and the U20 World Cup (2010). She also won a silver medal at the Pan American Games in Toronto (2015) and, four years later, won the gold medal in Lima (2019).

Last Friday Mario Planchet, Christian Temprano and Leonardo Acevedo, members of the Futsal Sub 20 team, didn’t show up for Cuba’s semifinal match against Nicaragua in the Uncaf FIFA Forward tournament, which is held in Guatemala.

The delegation informed the Guatemalan authorities of the escape to prevent Cuban soccer players from leaving the country, Prensa Libre published.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Spite of the Disastrous Situation in the Country, President Diaz-Canel Only Sees Successes in Cuba

Raúl Castro arrives at the ceremony of July 26th, supported by Díaz-Canel and the First Secretary of the Party in Cienfuegos. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 26 July 2022 – – The day started off complicated in the editorial office of 14ymedio in Havana. Several members of the team awoke to no internet connection and started to look for alternative ways to reach their readers. They concluded, with resignation, that the reason for this was that Etecsa [the Cuban State owned telecoms company] had cut off communications from activists and independent journalists on July 26th, the day Cuban officialdom celebrates the anniversary of the assault on Moncada prison, or, the Day of National Rebellion, as they prefer to call it.

Hundreds of miles away, in Cienfuegos, Díaz-Canel gave his speech: “Democracy, popular participation, humanism, creativity, innovation, commitment, ideals and revolutionary passion are what today define the Cuban Revolution, and social justice continues to be our guide.” He didn´t say anything about freedom of the press or the selective cuts in internet service.

The Head of State appeared in the city’s Plaza Cultural, where, according to the State news and media website Cubadebate, over 10,000 people had gathered, and lent his arm to Raúl Castro, who was also supported by the First Party Secretary in the area, Marydé Fernández López, so he could walk to his place of honour. From there he enthusiastically waved the red and black flag and listened to the words of his successor, who had not even been born on the date in question, but whose speech was focussed on the preceding century.

Díaz-Canel defended Fidel Castro´s claim in La Historia me absolverá [History Will Absolve Me], as a remedy for the “amnesia” that “imperial logic” attempted to impose, and spoke of “material pressures” intended to push back the “the spirit of resistance and to make the Cuban people forget the reason for the socialist revolution of the poor, with the poor, and for the poor.”

While Cuban people cross the island seeing the empty stores closed down, or some forklift driver comes up with a black market product, Díaz-Canel went on about a period when Cubans owned no houses or land, the negroes and mestizos were marginalised, women had no rights and were hopeless and hungry. Although he could have been talking about this Tuesday July 26, 2022, he was in fact referring to the mid-twentieth century. continue reading

During the day they announced a more than 10% shortage of electricity, although early in the morning the television broadcast the official ceremony without problems. In any case, Díaz-Canel, found himself able to refer to the power cuts, and asked the Cubans, even though they thought there was nothing worse than the blackouts they had to put up with every day, “to understand that the US blockade is the root cause of our economic difficulties.”

The leader didn’t get everything correct. He mentioned the great Cuban sporting achievements, while the rate of absconding of athletes is higher than ever, then he want on to the low level of infant mortality in a year in which we have seen catastrophic statistics in the island. He mentioned citizen safety on a day when we know there are up to 10 daily cattle thefts in Ciego de Ávila, and, why not, the health situation, a few days after the lack of nearly half the basic necessity medicines was reported.

In his speech, the President also referred to the new recently-approved norms which put Cuba “in the vanguard of respect for rights and guarantees,” although he didn’t mention the Penal Code, or the Communications Law, although he did mention the Family Code, one of the few norms adopted by the government — if not the only one — which the international community can view positively and which will be subject to a referendum in September.

Díaz-Canel also thanked the Heads of State who had shown support for Cuba, among which he particularly mentioned Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican leader, who is apparently gaining in the appreciation of the Cuban regime in comparison with Nicolás Maduro, who did not get a mention in spite of the relationship of more than two decades between Caracas and Havana.

Lastly, Díaz-Canel said “delinquency weakens social work and corruption eats away at everything” and stressed the need to fight it. “If we had given in after Moncada, after Granma, if we had accepted the idea of defeat, we would have been defeated, but that never happened and that must always be our attitude”, he concluded

Translated by GH

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Coyotes Kept Five Cubans Hidden in a Feed Store in Central Mexico

Angélica María Rodríguez Varela and Ismael Meléndez Castro are held incommunicado at the Las Agujas migration center. (Collage)

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 25 July 2022 — A warehouse intended to store feed was used by coyotes as a hiding place for migrants. In the building located on an embankment far from the town of San Miguel de la Victoria, in the State of Mexico, 225 undocumented people were found last Saturday, five Cubans among them.

Angélica María Rodríguez Varela, Isael Meléndez Castro and Junier Blanco Hernández, all of Cuban nationality, were transferred to the Las Agujas migration center, in Mexico City. Migration agents told them that they would be deported.

Rodríguez and Meléndez, originally from Pinar del Río, and Blanco, from Havana, sent their testimonies to our editorial staff. The 26-year-old girl with Passport K523299 said she was afraid that she will be repatriated to the island where she has suffered threats for demonstrating against the regime.

Meléndez, who studies at the University of Computer Sciences, told us that he was forced to leave Cuba after the harassment he suffered for participating in the demonstrations of July 11, 2021. “They accused me with false testimony and wanted to put me in prison,” he told 14ymedio.

Blanco asks to be allowed to continue on their way to the United States, where “we can ask for asylum.” The habanero stressed that they have not committed any crime and that their only fault was not to wait any longer in southern Mexico to complete the application process for a free transit laissez-passer.

Minutes after they were arrested by members of the National Guard and Migration, the Cubans had their cell phones confiscated and are now being held incommunicado at the Las Agujas station. continue reading

The case reached the ears of migrant defense attorney José Luis Pérez, who processed an amparo* so that they can be released and avoid any attempt at extortion by Migration agents, which happens often with undocumented migrants, mainly Cubans.

The detention of Cubans in the Migration Center “has become a means of raising money for the coffers of officials,” stressed the lawyer, who is based in the border state of Chiapas.

A statement from the National Migration Institute indicated that the 225 undocumented migrants were overcrowded and waiting to be transferred by the coyotes to the U.S. border. “People were rescued from a place where there was no light, and several children were found among blankets and backpacks without any hygiene measures,” an agent told 14ymedio.

Among the migrants detained are 194 from Guatemala, 14 from Honduras, nine from Nicaragua and three from El Salvador. The Guatemalans and Salvadorans will be returned to the south of the country.

Since October 2018, and despite the tightening of surveillance on the southern border of Mexico, thousands of migrants from Central and South America, but also from Cuba, Haiti and various African and Asian countries have entered Mexican territory with the aim of reaching the United States.

Coyotes look for routes for foreigners and sometimes park them in the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Puebla and the State of Mexico as an intermediate stop on their journey to the United States.

The region is experiencing a record migratory flow to the United States, whose Customs and Border Protection Office has intercepted more than 1.6 million people so far in fiscal year 2022, which began last October.

In addition, Mexico received a record of more than 58,000 applications for asylum in the first half of 2022, an annual increase of almost 15%, according to the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance.

*Translator’s note: An ’amparo’ is a request for protection

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Large Deployment of Security Forces on the Eve of July 26 in Cuba

The people of the capital have noticed an unusual operation of the ‘black berets’ mainly in highly populated municipalities such as Central Havana and Old Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 25 July 2022 — On the eve of July 26, the date of the celebration of the Cuba regime, and with an atmosphere full of protests over the long blackouts in the country, the streets of Havana woke up this Monday guarded by the Special National Brigade of the Ministry of the Interior known as the black berets.

The people of the capital have noticed an unusual operation of this repressive force mainly in highly populated municipalities such as Central Havana and Old Havana, while the country experiences three holidays from today until the 27th for the celebrations of the Day of National Rebellion (July 26), on the 69th anniversary of the assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba.

Among the most guarded areas are the vicinity of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, on Carlos III, between Oquendo and Soledad. It’s a strategic installation in these times of blackouts throughout the country, scheduled by the Electrical Union, which depends on this ministry. One of the offices of this state company in the province of Mayabeque was partially set on fire by protesters, who filmed the event late at night.

Two ’black berets’ in Fraternity Park in Havana on July 25, 2022. (14ymedio)

On another corner of Carlos III, between Soledad and Castillejo, very close to the ministry itself, a truck of the Special Brigade was guarded by several agents. The vehicle, with the number 1532, serves to transport the military, as was recorded during the days after the protests of July 2021, when the regime deployed its repressive arsenal and mobilized caravans in several cities. continue reading

In this area there is also Plaza Carlos III, one of the largest shopping centers in Havana, popularly known as “the palace of consumption.” For several years it has been the commercial lung of Central Havana, especially in the neighborhoods of Pueblo Nuevo, Cayo Hueso and Los Sitios. Both in this establishment and in other state centers you can also see the operational guards of police, other special forces and State Security officers dressed in civilian clothes.

But the ones who have attracted the most attention in the last few hours are the black berets, with their black uniforms and their inquisitive looks, as they observe the atmosphere in central areas of the capital and even walk with dogs guarding streets and busy squares such as Fraternity Park. Some residents report to this newspaper that when they approach this brigade, they prefer not to be using their cell phone because even that action provokes suspicion among the military.

One of the trucks in which the ’black berets’ move is located on Carlos III, between Soledad and Castillejo, in Central Havana. (14ymedio)

Because of the violence unleashed by the regime during the arrest and imprisonment of the demonstrators on July 11, 2021, the black berets together with the minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, Álvaro López-Miera, are considered responsible for “serious human rights abuses.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: Father of Young Man Arrested in the Caibarien Protests Calls for His Release

Dayron Garcia’s arrest was violent and his father believes he will have to stand trial. (Cortesía)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 July 2022 — Dayron Yarisbel Garcia Bolaños was arrested Friday morning after participating in protests over extended power outages in Caibarién, a town in Santa Clara province.

“They went looking for him. When the police approached him, they handcuffed him, threw him on the floor and put him in the car,” says Mario Luis Garcia Marrero, Dayron Yarisbel’s father. “There were more than 1,500 people marching but he and another girl were the only ones arrested.” He insists his son’s arrest was very violent and happened in front of the young man’s mother, who recounted what happened.

As his son was being detained, Garcia Marrero was careful to remain inside his home, which was very close to the demonstrations. Both he and Dayron Yarisbel, a brother and some close friends had received warning letters from the police for having participated in the July 11 protests.

Dayron Yarisbel’s arrest took place after 1:00 AM, after which he was transferred to the Caibarién police station. Garcia Marrero reports a young woman was also arrested that night but was later released after paying a fine. His son, however, is still in prison and may face prosecution.

After learning of his son’s arrest, Garcia Marrero went to the police station and was told the case was being turned over to the public prosecutor’s office, which will be in charge of filing a formal complaint. Depending on the charges against him, such as “public disorder,” his son could be fined or spend up to three years in jail. continue reading

With regard to Friday’s protests, Garcia Marrero says, “Things are tense in Cuba because of all the blackouts. Here in Caibarién everything had been quiet but that night, when they turned off the power at midnight, the town started gathering at Güira Park.”

Protestors began banging pots. “It was like a carnival,” he says. They later joined another group who were doing the same thing at the town’s seawall.

No sooner had Dayron Yarisbel heard the sound of clanging pots than he left for the demonstrations. Garcia Marrero later followed and was told that his son had been taken into custody. “They didn’t arrest him at the seawall. They arrested him at his mother’s house,” some distance from the site of the protests. Power was restored in the town shortly the start of the demonstration.

“I didn’t think the protest was going to take place but it began in different areas and everyone came together and ended up at the seawall,” he says. In addition to banging pots and pans, they could also be heard shouting, “Turn on the power. . . Díaz-Canel is an asshole. . . Freedom!” and “Homeland and Life!” as can be heard on videos posted on social media

Though many people took part in the widespread July 11 protests last year, it was women who particularly stood out during Friday’s demonstration, calling on others to join them in defending their children against the country’s precarious economic situation. According to some residents, a teacher at a local school received a police summons for participating in the protest.

Garcia Marrero fears his son will be imprisoned though he insists, “He didn’t do anything.” He believes there will be further reprisals if the young man ends up in prison because, he says, “I myself am not going to stay here.”

Garcia Marrero describes Caibarién, a fishing port, as a town in bankrupcy — like the rest of the country — that has been hit with both covid and dengue fever.

On several occasions Dayron Yarisbel has tried to leave the country illegally. His father says that, on one of those occasions, he was detained for five months in the Bahamas after being intercepted on a raft.

He is currently working in construction with his uncle but believes, according to his father, that he has no future in Cuba. “He’s always hoping for a chance to leave. In one attempt the boat hit a reef and they all almost drowned. There were six of them,” says Garcia Marrero.

Dayron Yarisbel’s hope is shared by many young people in Caibarién. “Two or three days ago, one of his friends, who was always here at my house, arrived in the United States. Him and four others. They set off on a boat they made themselves out of sheet metal. They were met by Cuban border guards but fortunately they were allowed to continue and arrived safely,” he says. “A lot of young people are leaving or are thinking of leaving.”

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Four Cuban Paralympic Athletes Escape in the Mexican city of Monterrey

Paralympic sprinter Christian Guillen, one of the four escapees in Monterrey. (Granma)

14ymedio, Mexico, 20 July 2022 — Paralympic athletes Christian Guillén, Elvis Nules, Lázaro Yarlo Rodríguez and one more who was not identified left the entourage that had travelled to the Mexican city of Monterrey to participate in the Mexican Paratletism Open. According to Play-Off Magazine journalist Leonardo Ruiz, the escape occurred on Monday night, the same day that the entourage arrived.

Of the escaped group, sprinter Christian Guillén stands out. At the beginning of July, he shone at the Grand Prix held in Tunisia, after winning in the one hundred meters with a time of 11.23 seconds, and in the 400 meters with a time of 51.15 seconds.

The team traveled to Monterrey to participate in the Mexican Paratletism Open, which will take place between this Thursday and Saturday, an event that provides points for the Paralympic ranking.

“The objective is to carry out the medical-functional classification, a study where the degree of disability is determined for the location in the categories,” Jorge Reynaldo Palma, a methodologist from the Inder Department of Sport for People with Disabilities, told the official media Jit before the trip.

Among the figures of the team are the gold medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, Robiel Yankiel Sol, and the double Paralympic champion in 100 and 200 meters in Rio de Janeiro 2016, Lenier Savon.

The escape of these athletes is announced just on the day the regime said that it suspended for life baseball players Alfredo Fadraga and Yosvani Ávalos, who saw their escape attempt frustrated in Mexico and who, after being arrested by the Mexican authorities, were returned to the island. In addition to punishing Javier Carabeo and Yulián Quintana with two years without being able to play, they are accused of an attempt at abandonment in 2021.

While the Paralympic athletes were planning to escape in Mexico, the National Boxing Commission in Cuba announced the expulsion of Olympic boxing champion Andy Cruz, on the grounds of his “repeated indiscipline.”

Escapes continue to bleed Cuban sport. One of the most recent abandonments was that of Yiselena Ballar. The Cuban javelinist took advantage of her arrival in Miami and left the team that would participate in the 2022 Eugene Athletics World Cup.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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