14ymedio – Page 201 – Translating Cuba

Most of the Tickets for the Pablo Milanes Concert in Havana are Sold to ‘Organizations’

The box office had only been open for 50 minutes and many of those waiting had been in line since the night before. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 June 2022 — The sale of tickets for the Pablo Milanés concert, on June 21 at the National Theater of Cuba, in Havana, turned this Wednesday into a line with an altercation, like so many of those that occur in the capital to buy chicken or oil.

Dozens of people protested at the box office when they received the news that there were no seats left. The box office had only been open for 50 minutes and many of those waiting had been in line since the night before.

The explanation given by the director of the theater, Nereyda López Labrada, is that of the 2,056 seats on the premises, only “stalls and first balcony” seats had been sold to the public, and that the rest had been given to “organizations.”

“The theater at the moment is responsible for the programming because the others have problems,” the official explained to the angry crowd, alluding to the fact that the venue was the only one in the capital that offered shows. Others, like the Karl Marx Theater or the Martí Theater, damaged by the explosion of the nearby Saratoga Hotel on May 6, need repairs.

“We had never been given a case like this,” explained López Labrada, who had previously held the position of general secretary of the National Union of Cultural Workers. continue reading

“We knew that this Pablo concert was going to bring about this situation, because it is the only concert that Pablo is going to give, first, because he has health problems,” the woman continued to explain, who was not allowed to finish: “A set of tickets was offered for sale to the public and the other amount was given to organizations.” At that moment, the official’s voice was drowned out by the cries of the people who asked what those “organizations” were.

One man reasoned: “I think there is an entire people wanting to hear him,” and he asked the “organizations” for understanding.

Another woman was less even-tempered, and thought that it was “lack of respect” that he would give a concert mostly to official institutions: “We have grown up with him and he deserves the voice of his people, he has just lost a daughter.”

Between the protests, the director of the theater defended herself, without success: “I also want to tell you that this mass of institutional people are also workers.” The screams rose again above her words.

“I support giving tickets to institutions because we are all workers and we are all Cubans and the institutions can have their capacities reserved but they have to be sold to the public and there must be transparency in the figures,” demanded a young man who spent hours in front of the National Theater box office.

“Many of us are also workers and we leave work to come and buy a ticket. These institutions [referring to the National Theater of Cuba] are public and we all pay for them, no one else maintains them, the people pay for it because it is public money,” the young man added.

Two elderly women in their 80s, who assure that they have never missed a concert by the Cuban artist, were upset. “Pablo Milanés is going to sing. There are difficulties with the tickets that I don’t know what they are,” said one of them, who ended by saying: “I’m waiting to be able to tell Mr. Pablo Milanés: Pablo, I love you.”

Of the 2,056 seats in the enclosure, only “stalls and the first balcony” had been sold to the public. (14ymedio)

The concert is scheduled for next Tuesday at 8:30 pm and tickets cost 40 pesos

Pablo Milanés, who has lived in Spain for some time, was one of the artists who used to be a supporter of the Revolution who spoke forcefully after the repression of the demonstrations on July 11 last year. “I believe in young people, who with the help of all Cubans, must be and will be the engine of change,” said the famous singer-songwriter on his social networks, who described as “irresponsible and absurd” the Cuban government’s use of repression Cuban against the people, “who have sacrificed themselves and given everything for decades to support a regime that in the end what it does is imprison them.”

On May 29, singer-songwriter Carlos Varela offered a performance at the Havana World Music Festival, at the Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum in Havana, where, at several times, attendees chanted the word “freedom.” Specifically, when he finished singing Family Photo and when he was performing Fools’ Fair. At the end of his performance, the singer-songwriter shouted “Long live free Cuba” and thanked the organizers – with Eme Alfonso at the head – of the event, whom he praised for “having the ovaries” to invite him to sing in Cuba.

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‘A Part of Me Died in the Darien Jungle’ says Dr. Figueredo on His Crossing to the United States

Doctors Alexander Pupo (far right) and Alexander Jesús Figueredo (far left) on their passage through Colombia. (Facebook/Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 June 2022 — Dr. Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre, who lost his job due to his stance against the Cuban government and after being systematically harassed left the island, shared part of his journey to the United States on his social networks.

“A part of me died in the Darién jungle seeing lost children, drowned and dead people and unable to do anything but just look and continue,” published the Cuban health worker who along with his colleague Alexander Pupo Casas left Cuba and took the route from Guyana. “To think that the next one could be me, my physical and human strength was at the limit.”

According to official figures from the National Migration Service as of April of this year, 11,487 irregular migrants had crossed the Darién jungle, of which 15 were Venezuelans, 6,803 Haitians and 1,885 Cubans.

Figueredo says that “even my hair hurt,” and he faced temperatures below 32F and of more than 100F. He walked sections of more than 60 miles, “sleeping on the ground, in a church, crossing trails, rivers, seas and jungles.” continue reading

Cuban health workers Alexander Pupo and Alexander Jesús Figueredo in Capurganá (Colombia). (Facebook/Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre)

“The adversities I have had to overcome,” he says, have made him “stronger physically and ideologically.” In his message he points out that “God doesn’t give anyone more than they can bear. I let Him carry the weight, from the permanent harassment in Cuba to my profession and my family.”

The Cuban doctor hopes that as a reward he will have “strength and life to fight for a free Cuba and embrace my family again.”

On his Facebook page he also shared other images together with Dr. Pupo of the route they took to reach the United States and why they had to go through Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador. And one more, Capurganá, a village in the municipality of Acandí, belonging to Chocó (Colombia), an obligatory point before going into the Darién jungle.

“We are right now at the border between Peru and Ecuador,” he narrates in another video published on the same social network by Dr. Alexander Pupo, which records part of the journey before arriving in Colombia. “We are passing through; we had to come here because we are going to get on a bus that will take us out of this area.” And Figueredo says: “Homeland and life in Peru and Ecuador.”

Last May Dr. Pupo published an image at the foot of the InterCaribbean Airways plane with the text “Goodbye, my beautiful Cuba.” The doctor pointed out in a video his pain for leaving the island, “but I hope that one day I’ll be able to return when I’m free to fight for a free Cuba.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Two Cuban Players who Escaped in Mexico are Arrested and will be Returned to the Island

The players Yosvani Ávalos and Alfredo Fadraga were arrested by the Mexican authorities. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 June 2022 — The players Alfredo Fadraga and Yosvani Ávalos, who 24 hours earlier had abandoned the Cuban team that plays in Mexico in the Pan American Under-23, were “arrested by the authorities” of the state of Aguascalientes and returned to their hotel. According to journalist Francys Romero, they have already been “transferred to an airport in Mexico to be returned” to the Island.

“They will have to face a terrible reality upon returning to Cuba,” he warned. “This is a fundamental decision that both not try to leave again until the team finishes the competition on June 19.”

Sources revealed to the journalist that Fadraga and Ávalos “did not return of their own free will.” The information, says the informant, was shared with him around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday night. A whistleblower disclosed their location, and they were arrested.

“They were in the house of a relative,” according to Romero, who has the most reliable version. “Someone called the police and they were arrested,” he said in a video uploaded to his social networks.

After the alleged return was reported, “this type of news seemed more fiction than reality,” Romero said. For José Alejandro Rodríguez Zas, a reporter for SwingCompleto, several questions arose: “They returned of their own free will? Any regret? What about the authorities?” continue reading

The Cuban Baseball Federation, which confirmed the escape of the players by “incurring reprehensible acts,” has not offered a position on the return of Fadraga and Ávalos to the Ramada hotel where the team is staying.

The abandonment of these athletes was confirmed in the early hours of Thursday. Rodríguez Zas reported that the escape occurred by taking advantage of the rest day of the national team, although he couldn’t give more details “at the express request of sources.”

This Friday, Francys Romero revealed that the athletes “jumped over the hotel fence,” unfortunately were arrested, and “it ended badly for them.” He also recalled that the members of the team don’t have access to their documents.

“If they return to Cuba,” the journalist said, “they will surely face sanctions for years or for life. There are people who believe that they could face criminal charges; I’m not really sure about this.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Modified on Appeal, Abel Lescay’s Sentence for Cuba’s July 11th Protests Reduced to Five Years ‘Limitation of Liberty’

The musician Abel González Lescay, one of those prosecuted for 11J. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 June 2022 — The artist Abel Lescay was ultimately sentenced to five years of “limitation of freedom” for his participation in the protests of July 11, 2021, as reported by the young man on his social networks after learning this Wednesday of the decision of the court of San José de Las Lajas (Mayabeque).

“My sentence is out. Five years of limited freedom. It’s at home, working or studying,” he confirmed on his Facebook profile. “I congratulate myself. Thank you all very much for his great help,” he added.

Sentenced in the first instance to six years in prison for offending a police officer during the 11J protests, Lescay has had his sentence modified after the appeal hearing was held on June 1.

The pro-government singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez had supported Lescay from his blog, where he asked for transparency in the process and for the sentence to be rectified, although he questioned the existence of such amending capacity in the government elite, which he described as a “sect.”

At the appeal hearing, Isel María Lescay Oliva, the young man’s mother, said that she was able to intervene in that last trial, something unusual in this type of process in Cuba. Lescay then acknowledged having ’exceeded himself’ and argued that his seven-day detention had been sufficient punishment. “He said that he had already suffered all the crudeness implied in that,” said the mother.

A few days later, it became known that the artist was expelled from the Higher Institute of Art (ISA), where he was studying musical composition. Lescay was in the second year and failed several subjects, according to his own words. In the expulsion act it is indicated that article 58 has been applied, which provides for those who “fail more than two subjects in the year enrolled” not to be allowed to repeat it.

The musician is now focused on his new album, which he intends to finance through crowdfunding. “Now it’s my turn to play. I’m going to have a great album. Throw me the rope there, please,” he asked a week ago. continue reading

After hearing his first sentence, Abel Lescay said he had received the support of his colleagues at ISA at all times and that when he joined this course he went to talk to the rector, who referred to him as “a talented student” and gave him help with counseling to recover from the impact of the days he spent in jail.

However, he did reply to the officials of the institution who attacked a collective letter from artists who defended their freedom and described it as a “campaign that seeks to discredit the Revolution.”

A few days before the first trial was held last January, Lescay spoke with 14ymedio and recalled everything he suffered when they arrested him, one day after the protests, taking him out of his house naked, and remaining for six days under torture and threats of death.

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A Fire After a Blackout Destroys Six Homes in Cuba

The fire affected 16 people, according to local authorities. (David Blanchette)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 June 2022 — Six houses were damaged and some 16 people were affected as the result of a fire early this Wednesday in Banes, Holguín. According to local authorities, the incident was of “medium proportions,” as it did not claim any lives and the Fire Department managed to put it out.

In addition to the houses, located on General Marrero street – five destroyed and one more with partial damage – a cafe and a barbershop were also affected, according to the deputy delegate in the provincial delegation of hydraulic resources of Holguín, Juan Mario Hechavarría Hernández, in a Facebook post. Other users of social networks pointed out that the fire started in the Baní Indo-Cuban museum.

The fire started around midnight and was put out two hours later, but its cause is unknown at this time. The @TwitterHolguin account posted a video of the fire and noted that the fire started after the power returned after a blackout.

Hechevarría Hernández advanced that it was “presumably” a short circuit. The authorities plan to carry out an inspection this Wednesday to determine the origin of the incident. continue reading

On May 22 there was also a fire in a warehouse of the Tobacco Collection and Processing Company of Pinar del Río, a western province of Cuba, where some 30 tons of tobacco leaves were burned. In that same province, in February of this same year, the structure where the dry leaves of the crop are stored for processing burned down.

In April, a large forest fire also occurred in the municipality of Minas de Matahambre, in the province of Pinar del Río, which burned more than 200 hectares of pine. In March, another incident caused damage to three of the four apartments in the building located at 308 L Street, between 23rd and 25th, in front of the Habana Libre hotel, in El Vedado, Havana.

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Fifteen Years of a ‘Little Grey War’

Desiderio Navarro left a solid and useful work, but he died alone, embittered. (Granma)

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 19 June 2022 — When I met Desiderio Navarro he was already an old man worn out by cancer. He used crutches and had little muscle left, little desire to speak. I did not know—he did—that the entire “universe” of Criterios*, the magazines, books, and translations, was about to disappear, to the relief of bureaucrats, private enemies, and public antagonists.

Desiderio withered quickly. He left a solid and useful work, but he died alone, bitter, like the proverbial dog. Now he exists as a signature at the end of a prologue or in the credit of a translation, and we will gradually push him into oblivion, because the memory of the Cuban works at irregular intervals and does not distinguish between learning and trauma.

We also forget the hornet’s nest that, fifteen years ago, caused the television appearance of three former cultural commissioners in a context that could not have been more slippery: Fidel Castro’s illness after his collapse in Santa Clara, like a broken statue, and country’s the turn of the gears.

Demanding favors that reward some old loyalty is a characteristic of mafias. It was natural, therefore, to establish a link between the butchers of the Five-Year Grey Period, exhumed on television, and the rise to power of their longtime comrade, the man who put them on the board: Raúl Castro. continue reading

The appearance of those decorated mummies in 2007 could not be a good sign, and this was understood by the legion of intellectuals and artists who, precariously connected to their computers, began to send messages into cyberspace, asking for explanations and reading events between the lines.

That was called the “little email war,” although there was no such struggle — the “opponents” never responded — but rather a slow appeasement campaign. “It started in surprise and ended in a hangover,” Norge Espinosa said accurately. Desiderio Navarro, then a vigorous and stylish guy, officiated as marshal in what seemed to be the decisive moment for the Cuban intellectual so far this century. Time for criticism and frankness, defying in some cases the borders of the dying caudillo: the inside and the outside of the revolution.

There was no writer, musician, journalist or painter who remained silent. The debate, held for months in cyberspace, then took the form of “protected” meetings with culture officials, ministers and such. Bad thing. The first survival lesson for the intellectual is not to be locked in the same room with an official. It does not matter if it is a room or a theater, it will always lead to a torture chamber, a court or a cell.

Desiderio himself played a central role in the castration of that debate. He contributed to giving it a more peaceful, academic, politically correct character, when reality boiled beyond the lectures and halls. They were, if not the first, the already irreversible symptoms of national malaise and the state’s impatience to cut the matter short. The “little war” turned into an ambush; the ambush, into a firing squad; and then came silence.

A few weeks ago, on the primetime news broadcast, a mournful group of writers and artists placed flowers before the Great Stone, the Stone of Stones, the Stone-in-Chief. They made a profession of faith before the journalist who interrogated them, some cried, another remembered the el comandante and hugged the grave. I recognized several of the “pilgrims” and I confess that I never would have expected such a tearful display of affection. I wondered if they had always been so faithful, so unconditional, and then I remembered the old literary joke: no one seemed, but everyone was.

Where are the others? Those who have not been pacified by official anesthesia, those who did not sign the armistice after the “little war” and its aftermath. Most in exile; the others, crushed, imprisoned or jaded, battling the blackout to send the last email.

In his book on the events that concern us, Villa Marista en Plata, Antonio José Ponte made it clear that if the timorous and complicit intelligentsia that rules in Cuba is fighting for something, it is not because of privileges, trips and publications. They fight, even if it seems unreal, to gain time. “A time unconcerned with all accountability, free from checks… The borderless time within which the work is done. The time they will never find in capitalism.”

But doing business with Cuban power is always volatile and double-edged. There is no longer room for the innocence or passivity of Desiderio, to whom the government showed that it would not forgive even “soft” and organized dissent. Those to whom he offers a space are the usual mediocre, lame in talent, hallucinated, fanatical and snitches with guitar or microphone. Of course, they must be loyal like a Doberman.

Just take a look at the Higher Institute of Art or the Ministry of Culture, the University of Havana or Las Villas; to glorified puppets like Michel Torres, Israel Rojas or Humberto López, to gauge the agony of the new commissioners. They have air conditioning, they recite poems, they line up for gas at the Geely, they enjoy the Armed Forces’ beggar’s hotel, but they are hollow and would give their kingdom for a little trip where they can finally disappear into the crowd.

That is why, as long as they can live, they go to the Santa Ifigenia cemetery to pray so that that unnecessary “little war” will never be repeated, not even in fifteen years. They put flowers, they kneel and tremble, because that Gray Boulder will become – sooner rather than later – their wailing wall.

Translator’s note: *Navarro founded the journal Criterios in 1972.

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Very Cruel and Painful Days are Coming in Cuba

Amelia Calzadilla*, in her second video, also denounced the shortages experienced by the Cuban people. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 19 June 2022 – “I don’t care about your fear”: I heard this phrase in a film from Cuba. A woman’s voice that synthesized the feelings of many others, all fed up with a cocktail that has lasted 63 years, in which only repression and misery are mixed. An expression that reflects, in my modest opinion, the probability of very cruel and painful days that should lead to a new homeland where there are no executioners or perpetrators.

That was one of the voices I heard on social media this week. A comment that only occurs in a frightened society like the Cuban one. Where terror prevails, people censor themselves and ensure that their loved ones don’t break the circle of fear because of the harm that could happen to them.

Another heartbreaking testimony I had the opportunity to see was that of a mother of three who denounces the precarious situation she faces with her family. A forceful and irrefutable evidence of the failure of Castro totalitarianism, in addition, to show the useless sacrifice of large segments of several generations of Cubans to work in favor of a project that has devastated the island and many of the values of its citizens.

Castroism in any of its derivatives, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, Bolivian and an eventual Colombian if Gustavo Petro comes to power, only leads to failure and frustration. It is an inefficient proposal in all its expressions, except for its undeniable ability to impose strict social control based on repression and disinformation. continue reading

Young people should consider miraculous political proposals with great deliberation. It’s true that in politics there are very bad things that must be eradicated, but they shouldn’t be a reason to blindly believe in an enlightened person who only assures that he will change everything to build a bright future. You have to educate yourself, know the past and learn that “my rights end where those of others begin.”

The example of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua should serve as a model for new generations who hope to “conquer heaven” without understanding that a comfortable life within justice is only achieved with work. The rest remains to be seen.

Cubans overwhelmingly embraced their Messiah and repudiated those who denied him. In that commotion of unbridled hysteria, as the historian and journalist Enrique Encinosa described it, representatives of all generations closed their eyes and lent themselves to hunt down those who disagreed. They were the ones who helped destroy the country, leading the emerging generations to the degree of despair that this mother shows when, aware of the reprisals she may suffer, she accuses the Government of being inept, corrupt and complacent, with everything badly done.

It’s true that it has been the Castro leadership and all its officials, including police and military, who have supported the disgraced regime for more than six decades, but they have also contributed to the support and formation of the colonies of Venezuela and Nicaragua, who have lent their skills and talents to disseminate and convince the so-called silent majority of the justice and profitability of the totalitarian project.

A totalitarian regime doesn’t allow fiefdoms; only those who oppose it are relatively free of its mandates. However, the rest of the citizenry must behave as ordered by the authorities, which motivates a very high level of complicity and an understanding of the fear that transcends the individuality of the person, a syndrome of defenselessness that transforms citizens into a herd without will, but that reaches a moment of rupture as happened with this mother, who asks to be arrested and urges the rest of the mothers of the island to unite, to demand once and for all respect for their rights and a dignified life.

This anguished mother* calls the regime a liar when she exposes one of its fundamental falsehoods that says the “goods belong to the people.” We all listened and read, repeated ad nauseam, “this belongs to the people,” and we must have the courage to deny it as this lady, who is suffering numerous reprisals and abuse from the authorities, has done. All that remains is to trust that more mothers, citizens, will join her call to achieve a country “with all and for the good of all.”

*Amelia Calzadilla

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Two Players Leave the Cuban Team that Plays the Pan American Under-23 in Mexico

Alfredo Fadraga, one of the escaped players, was considered one of the most talented of his generation. (Play Off Magazine)

14ymedio, Madrid, June 16, 2022 — Ávila players Alfredo Fadraga and Yosvany Ávalos abandoned the Cuban team that is competing in the Pan American U-23 Championship held in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

The news was confirmed in the early hours of Thursday on social networks by the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB), which explained that the flight took place on Wednesday night. “In leaving like that, they have reneged on the commitment made to the delegation and the homeland,” says the FCB on its Twitter account.

José Alejandro Rodríguez Zas, reporter for Swing Completo, was the first to publish the information, confirmed by his sources in the competition. The journalist explained that the escape occurred by taking advantage of the national team’s rest day, although he wouldn’t give more details “at the express request of the sources.”

The Cuban team had a placid tournament until it qualified to play this Thursday with the host, Mexico, on the last day of the qualifying phase, and with a view to obtaining first place ahead of the semifinals. continue reading

Last Monday, outfielder Roidel Martínez requested his dismissal from the headquarters of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER) after being excluded, specifically, from this Under-23 team, which competes in Aguascalientes.

It’s been less than a year since the Cuban U-23 team selected for the World Championship, which was held in the Mexican state of Sonora, returned with half of the players who left, 12 out of 24.

Despite the fact that the massive escape captured international attention, to the point that official sports journalists drew attention to a problem that demanded political changes in the sports field, nothing has changed since then, and at each exit from the island the challenge of not losing members is now greater than that of winning the tournament.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Electrical Capacity Will Stabilize within Months, Predicts Cuban President

Miguel Diaz-Canel during a television address on Thursday. (Captura)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 June 2022 — Cuba’s National Energy System remains in critical condition after protests erupted across the country in recent days, rattling the nerves of Cuban government officials. Radio and television programming was interrupted on Thursday for an address by President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who emphasized that the country’s electricity generation would stabilize in the coming months. This did little, however, to relieve the frustration Cubans are feeling over the nation’s constant blackouts.

The president claimed that planned investments in repairs and maintenance, to be financed with income recently generated from tourism and sales at the nation’s hard currency stores, would stabilize electrical energy supplies within a few months.

Diaz-Canel admitted once again that the government did not have the generating capacity to meet the daily needs of the Cuban people, though his speech did offer a ray of hope: “Our country has signed an agreement with a friendly country, a negotiation by which three new generation ’blocks’ will be established, which will also have an eye towards the country’s future growth.”

The president explained that blackouts are the result of attempts to switch consumers from using electricity during peak hours to times when there is less demand and generating capacity is greater. He admitted, however, that this effort has not been successful due to current “conditions” at the nation’s power plants. continue reading

“Balancing this consumption load has been done society-wide, especially by limiting certain economic activities, but it is not possible to mitigate these peaks any further,” he said.

He also reported that recent repairs made to power plants have had little effect, citing one at the Lidio Ramon plant in Felton as an example. “These repairs are extremely costly for the country,” he added.

He described the construction of new facilities as “an investment that will take years,” adding that “you cannot create a new power plant overnight.” Without identifying the country or the exact date, he mentioned the establishment of new generation ’blocks’ to generate energy: “Our country, along with a friendly country, has signed an agreement, a negotiation by which three new ’blocks’ will be established, which will also have an eye towards the country’s future growth.”

In a television appearance late last month, Diaz Canel acknowledged the gravity of the situation and warned, “The coming days will be difficult.” He added, however, that things should improve by late May though he did not provide the audience with specific dates.

In a later appearance on the television interview “Roundtable” program, he acknowledged that the island’s power plants are operating at 40% capacity, with zero reserves. Since then, planned outages have been testing the well-worn patience of Cuban consumers, who have had to put up with outages lasting twelve to fourteen hours or more.

The blackouts have been met with protests at several locations throughout the island, as happened Monday night, when residents at the main campus of Ignacio Agramonte University in Camaguey lashed out after more than ten hours without power.

The protestors took to the streets, heading towards the city center to demand, and even prompt, the restoration of service. The power cuts have also been affecting the water supply, preventing residents from bathing.

A street protest erupted on Wednesday night on the streets of Manzanillo, a town in Granma province, prompting the power to be turned back on. In others cities, walls have been painted with slogans such as “Diaz-Canel Is an Asshole” and “Down with the Castros.” Others include “They’re Killing People” and “Homeland and Life.”

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Saily Gonzalez Arrives in the US in the Face of Growing Threats from the Cuban Police

The activist Saily González confirmed this Sunday on her social networks her departure from the Island. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 June 2022 — Due to the “episode of repression” that activist Saily González Velázquez suffered last Thursday, she decided to leave Cuba and this Sunday she arrived in Miami in the United States. According to what she made known through her social networks, her decision was made “very hastily and I have told very few people.”

Before leaving the island, González told people close to her about the harassment she suffered from State Security, which threatened to imprison her for “instigation to commit a crime.” The new Penal Code, which will go into force in a few months, will further toughen the penalties for any type of demonstration against the “irrevocability of the socialist system.”

The new Code will punish with sentences of up to ten years the citizen “who arbitrarily exercises any right or freedom recognized in the Constitution of the Republic” if that exercise has as its purpose “to change, totally or partially, the Constitution of the Republic or the form of Government established by it.”

On her Facebook wall, Gonzalez explained that she understands it “as just one more trip” and will continue “fighting to achieve a country where we can all participate, a country without repression or political prisoners.” continue reading

She made it known in that same post that her “heart goes out to every political prisoner whose rights are violated and to their families, to every activist who, like me, puts their body, their peace and that of their family at risk, because we all have rights in this Cuba that belongs to everyone.”

She advanced that her “speech and activism will also continue to go in that direction” that in a few days she will give more details. “For now I need to rest.”

There were immediate reactions. From Madrid, the Hispano-Cuban art curator and activist Carolina Barrero expressed her “respect and solidarity.” In the same comment she expressed: “Exile has a determining role to play in the end of the dictatorship and in the democratic transition that we all have the responsibility to precipitate.” Leaving open the possibility of an upcoming meeting.

“It squeezed my soul but it made my heart happy, one of my friends has just left the country,” wrote Orlando Ramírez Cutiño, stepfather of Jonathan Torres Farrat, imprisoned for protesting 11J (July 11^th). “Saily Gonzalez Velazquez, the one in yellow as she is affectionately known, left for lands of freedom, I know that from there she will continue fighting for a free Cuba.”

Blogger Boris Sancho posted: “With a mixture of joy and sadness I say welcome to the land of freedom.”

On May 31, Saily Gonzalez was released after spending several hours detained by State Security, who violently intercepted her when she was marching on a street in Santa Clara for the freedom of artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo ‘Osorbo’.

To release her, the political police demanded that she be given another T-shirt, since the one she was wearing had the slogans “free Maykel” and “free Luisma” written by hand. Several activists confirmed that the activist’s mother had also been questioned. This harassment has been denounced by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights before the UN.

González, a businesswoman from Villa Clara, was prevented from attending the Ninth Summit of the Americas to which she was invited as a representative of Cuban civil society. State Security summoned her to remind her, moreover, that they had an open criminal investigation against her. González explained that “they arbitrarily opened a case for calling the Civic March for Change on November 15, and insisted they could use it against me at their convenience.”

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The Cuban Ambassador to the US Met Secretly in Miami with Friends of the Regime

Lianys Torres Rivera, Cuban ambassador to the United States. (Twitter/@lianystr)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 June 2022 — The Cuban ambassador to the United States, Lianys Torres Rivera, paid a visit to Miami at the end of May to meet with businessmen related to travel and remittances to the Island.

According to a report by América TeVé, the Cuban diplomat traveled “in secret” to avoid protests against her, in a city that is home to many opponents of the Cuban regime. It was the first time that Torres Rivera, who was appointed the island’s highest representative in Washington, visited this enclave of the Cuban exile.

“The ambassador assured the compañías, with whom she met in Miami, that the regime is interested in speeding up the procedures for obtaining Cuban passports,” the media reported, based on three sources who requested anonymity.

The ambassador, who traveled with her husband and the Cuban consul in Washington, Nora Albertis Monterrey, also had another objective, suggests América TeVé: to support the movement founded by professor Carlos Lazo, Puentes de Amor, an initiative that advocates for the elimination of the United States embargo on the Island. continue reading

“It is important to make it clear that Havana supports Lazo and not Edmundo García, who has fallen into disgrace against the Cuban dictatorship,” added the América TeVé report. García is a journalist who, like Lazo, defends the regime from his residence in the United States.

Torres Rivera’s visit coincided precisely with the announcement to eliminate various measures against Cuba.

On May 16, the United States announced the reestablishment of flights to Cuban provinces, which until June of this year served only Havana. The same date, the Biden Administration also reported that they would resume the family reunification program and suspend the $1,000 per quarter limit on remittances, measures that had been imposed by his predecessor, Donald Trump.

These measures were criticized by some and applauded by others. The relief went down well in Miami among those who believe that it will help improve the situation of Cubans, but very badly among those who think these changes “are not going to contribute to political change” on the island.

A month before the visit, the United States and Cuba resumed the bilateral dialogue on migration issues, the first since Biden’s arrival at the White House, through the Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, and the Assistant Undersecretary of State of the US Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Emily Mendrala.

These meetings had been suspended in 2018 during the presidency of Donald Trump (2017-2021), who reversed the historic rapprochement process with the Island launched by his predecessor Barack Obama (2009-2017).

After the relief measures came another friction between the two nations: the Summit of the Americas, to which the Cuban government was not invited. Days before, the regime had insisted that the Summit should be an inclusive event for all American states.

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Spanish Consulate in Havana Will Charge for its Services in Euros and Cash

Several people carry out procedures at the Consulate of Spain, in Havana (Cuba), in a file photograph. (EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa)

EFE (14ymedio), Havana, 17 June 2022 — The Spanish Consulate in Havana reported this Friday that as of July 1 it will begin charging its consular services in euros, only in cash and with the exact amount.

The legation detailed in its Twitter account the price of services such as the preparation of passports (30 euros), visas (80) or legalizations (10), among others.

The Spanish diplomatic representation did not explain the reason for the decision, which happened a week after several Latin American embassies in Cuba announced the suspension of their consular services following a directive from the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC).

Instruction 1/2022 of the BCC establishes that countries can charge for their consular services “in foreign currency or in Cuban pesos,” according to what they themselves establish.

But this measure does not allow them to exchange the income from consular procedures invoiced in Cuban pesos, which cannot be converted in other countries, into international currencies. continue reading

The embassies and consulates that determine to charge consular services in pesos will only be able to “deposit the funds in an account in that currency,” the instruction warned, putting an end to a practice common until now.

The BCC also indicated that “from the accounts in Cuban pesos of the embassies and consulates” it will not be possible to make “transfers to accounts in freely convertible currency, nor payments abroad.”

The freely convertible currency (MLC) is a virtual currency valid only in Cuba and referenced to currencies. It has been used in the country since the end of 2019 and is valid in a network of food and appliance stores.

The BCC’s decision was received critically by some embassies because it prevents them from transferring to their countries, in foreign currency, the money they received in Cuban pesos in paymen for the consular services they provide.

The measure is related, according to various sources, to the difference between the official rate – from one dollar to 24 pesos – and the exchange rate in the informal market, where the US bill currently costs around 100 pesos. Meanwhile, the euro is officially exchanged at 27 pesos and in the informal market it fetches 115 pesos.

The exchange of national to foreign currency at the official rate and the exporting of these currencies from the country was disadvantageous for Cuba, these sources added.

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A Japanese Bus Crashes and Partially Demolishes a Building in Central Havana

The bus crashed into the column of one of the buildings in the Havana neighborhood. (Yayi Ruiz)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 June 2022 — A public transport bus collided with a column of a building between Monte and the corner of San Nicolás, in Centro Habana, this Thursday afternoon. According to witnesses to the event, to whom journalist Mario J. Pentón had access, the accident left no injuries. The cause of the collision, the same sources reported, was that the driver lost control of the vehicle while trying to avoid a motorcycle.

In videos shared by Pentón, who is based in Miami, it was observed that, after the crash, the passengers got off the bus among the large rocks of debris from the Havana building, which fell on the road. Another part of the building’s remains fell on the roof of the bus.

“It’s one of the new buses,” one of the women who watched the accident of bus 8414 in astonishment the is heard saying. It is one of the 84 that Japan donated to Cuba in January of this year, which were added to the impoverished fleet of Havana buses. continue reading

The donation was worth about 9 million dollars, according to official documents, and belongs to the economic and social development program of “non-reimbursable financial aid,” one of the sections of the agreements that Tokyo has with Havana since 1961.

Although the vehicles, of the Isuzu brand, arrived from Colombia, where they were assembled, on January 9, they did not start operating through the Cuban capital until three weeks later.

“They are good but I don’t know how long they are going to last here,” explained the driver of one of these buses to a passenger who inquired about the novelty in early February. Before six months, several have already crashed, according to Havanans who reacted to the accident this Thursday.

Bus accidents have added to the public transportation problem that was aggravated by the fuel shortage. In April, the general director of transport, Leandro Méndez Peña, admitted that only 45.7% of the buses were available, which means that there are more out of service than circulating on the streets.

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The De-balconization of Havana

Unlike the German city of Berlin, the de-balconization that Havana has been suffering has not been due to the projectiles of war. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 18 June 2022 — A German academic was especially happy when his friends came to visit and he was able to give them an insightful tour of Berlin. The history of the gradual loss of the balconies suffered by the area of the city that had come under communist control after the Second World War was never missing in those journeys. The impact of the bombs during the conflict, the tendency to wall up those parts of the building instead of rebuilding them when peace came, and a socialist architecture more oriented towards the practical than the beautiful, led to the “de-balconization” of the GDR capital.

After recounting everything that happened in great detail, the German professor pronounced that peculiar concept in his own language. After a breath, he began to detail how after the fall of the Berlin Wall the reverse process began, the “re-balconization” of the city. At that moment, he made a stop and confirmed that it was only when he explained that architectural detail of his country’s history that he could use that word. On no other occasion did that term pass his hips, hence he was doubly grateful to his patient listeners for the opportunity to shake up his vocabulary.

Unlike the German city, the de-balconization that Havana has been suffering has not been due to the projectiles of war. Laziness, lack of maintenance and the material indigence of the owners of many buildings have caused this architectural element to be lost between collapses, cracks and shoring. It is becoming more and more common to see facades with exposed pieces of steel that once supported a beautiful terrace projecting outwards.

The Cuban capital has lost its balconies, but it has also been losing its cornices and the flowery capitals of many columns. (14ymedio)

But missing are not only the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of balconies that have fallen onto the streets, and onto the heads of passers-by or the lower floor apartments, but many others are closed or never used due to the inhabitants’ fear that they will collapse if someone peeks out through them. What was once an element of entertainment and pleasure for the dwellers of the home and a treat for the eyes of pedestrians, is now a cause for widespread panic. People fear these vantage points pierced by cracks, moisture and mold.

The Cuban capital has lost its balconies, but it has also been losing its cornices and the flowery capitals of many columns. In streets where before you could walk without leaving the covered portals, now the route is interrupted by the collapse of the roofs that force you to get off the sidewalk and continue on a zigzagging route. To this we must add that most of the buildings that were built during the Soviet subsidy period dispensed with that detail so important in a tropical country, a balcony. Gray walls, small windows and not even an area to hang clothes is the harsh reality experienced in most of these post-Revolution concrete blocks.

I dream of the day when my academic friend visits Havana again and this whole nightmare of deterioration is just a bad memory from the past. I will surely explain to him how democracy not only meant being able to say what you think without being punished, but also promoted the construction of houses, attracting back to the country so many talented émigré architects who designed cooler houses that take better advantage of the maritime breeze, and at the same time do not make their inhabitants feel as if they were locked in a matchbox. At that moment, I am going to enjoy telling him that the re-balconization of the city where I was born has already begun. It will possibly be one of the few times that I will be able to pronounce that word.

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Cuban Authorities Prevent the Mothers of Two July 11th (11J) Prisoners from Boarding a Flight to Madrid

Marta Perdomo, mother of Jorge and Nadir Martín, at her home in 2020. (Facebook)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 17 June 2022 — This Thursday, Cuban authorities prevented the mothers of three men imprisoned for the July 11 (11J) protests from boarding a flight on the Spanish airline Iberia in Havana bound for Madrid, according to the NGO Cuban Observatory of Human Rights.

Liset Fonseca and Marta Perdomo, mothers of Roberto Pérez Fonseca , and of Jorge and Nadir Martín Perdomo, were scheduled to meet with representatives of the European Parliament, the European Union External Action Service (EEAS), and UN Human Rights organizations, in Madrid, Brussels and Geneva.

“As part of the abuse, they allowed them to obtain their boarding pass, in order to eliminate the possibility of a flight change or a refund of the Iberia ticket,” the organization said in a statement.

It also condemned this action as a “clear violation of human rights” by the Government of Cuba.

Fonseca told the Cubanet newspaper that an Immigration official took the documentation from both of them when they had already dispatched their bags and made them wait about 30 minutes before informing them that they could not travel.

“She only told us that we were regulated* and that she didn’t know why,” said the mother, whose youngest son, Alberto Ortega Fonseca, was traveling from Canada – where he lives – and was hoping to meet her in Madrid for the first time in eight years. continue reading

“We are exhausted and enduring one more blow. Add to that that the luggage does not appear and they beat us up,” added Fonseca. According to Cubanet, late at night, the two women were still waiting for their bags to be returned.

Roberto Pérez Fonseca, 38 years old, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, for the crimes of contempt, attack, incitement to commit a crime and public disorder, which were charged to him for his participation in the protest in San Jose de Las Lajas.

In the cases of Jorge and Nadir Martín Perdomo, 28 and 37 years old, also imprisoned for the 11J demonstrations in San José de las Lajas, they were sentenced to eight and six years in prison, respectively, both accused of the crimes of “instigation to commit crimes, public disorder, contempt and spread of epidemics.”

“The human rights situation in Cuba is becoming more serious every day. Society is suffocated by so much injustice and lack of future,” added the NGO, based in Spain, posting on its Twitter account.

The Attorney General of the Republic of Cuba (FGR) reported on Monday that so far the courts have issued 76 final sentences against 381 people “who attacked the constitutional order and stability” of the socialist state. The FGR statement indicated that 78% of those sanctioned (297) received sentences of up to 25 years in prison.

Most of the crimes for which they were accused are sedition, sabotage, robbery with force and violence, attack, contempt and public disorder. A total of 36 protesters were convicted of the most serious and sentenced to terms ranging from 5 to 25 years in prison.

Relatives of those convicted and non-governmental organizations have criticized the processes, to which the international press has not had access, alleging lack of guarantees, fabrication of evidence and long sentences.

The NGO Prisoners Defenders points out that at least 842 people were in prison on the island at the end of 2021 for political reasons, mostly for the events of July 11.

*Translator’s note: “Regulated” is the euphemism used by the Cuban government to refer to those who have been forbidden to leave the country.

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