14ymedio – Page 234 – Translating Cuba

Anamely Ramos and the Family Code

The State should provide its citizens with access to material resources and legal protection so that this essential requirement that defines the family is fulfilled: the union. (EFE)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 18 February 2022 — Perhaps one of the most notable absences from the released versions of the new Family Code is what refers to the unity of its members. The right to live together, the right not to be arbitrarily separated. The State should provide its citizens with access to material resources and legal protection so that this essential requirement that defines the family is fulfilled: union.

It would be unreal, even demagogic, for the State to promulgate that it will guarantee the material resources so that people can live with dignity under one roof. At most it could promise to continue working in that direction. Where it does have its hands free is to legislate in favor of rights. The consequences of the “criminal blockade” [i.e. US embargo] do not intervene there, nor do the pandemic, nor natural disasters.

In the current immigration legislation there are two articles that directly affect the family: Article 24 , which regulates the right of Cuban citizens to return to their country, and Article 25, which establishes rules to be able to leave the country.

The Achilles heel of both articles (or better said, the sword of Damocles) is that in order to strip the citizen of what is a constitutional right (Article 52), it is not required that such a decision be made in a court where the person can count on the necessary procedural guarantees, that is to say: evidence of what you are accused of, a lawyer to defend you and the ability to appeal.

The recent ban on Anamely Ramos from entering the country is based (as a regime spokesman has argued) on a presumption of guilt that has not been subjected to the scrutiny of a competent court. It is the first case where this measure is applied to someone who has not exceeded the limit on stays outside the country, which is the only paragraph that allows the entry ban to be applied automatically (although unfairly). continue reading

The threat this constitutes is enormous. If this precedent is set, from now on any father of a family, a son or mother, would run the risk of seeing their family ties broken without being able to do anything other than cry or protest.

If an accusation as serious as having organized, stimulated, carried out or participated in “hostile actions against the political, economic and social foundations of the Cuban State” can have legal consequences on a citizen without the intervention of a court, it should be withdrawn from Article 1 of the Constitution, which defines the country as “a socialist State of law and social justice, democratic, independent and sovereign, organized with all and for the good of all.”

If the Family Code were to include in its articles: “Every Cuban citizen has the right not to be arbitrarily separated from their family,” the aforementioned articles of the immigration law would have to be repealed, or at least modified.

It is only sixteen words. Under its protection, doctors, athletes, civil servants and other “deserters” could return to their country without fear of being turned back at the airport. Similarly, other Cubans who bear the stigma of being ’regulated’ — prevented from leaving the Island — could reunite with their loved ones outside the Island. The right to be together must be recognized for Cuban families wherever they live.

If the arbitrariness committed against Anamely Ramos served to promote this proposal in the public debates that take place with regards to the Family Code, if the proposal were massive and taken into account, if the rectification is made, this girl would have to be received with the honors of a national heroine.

One doesn’t even have to be very brave to ask to speak at one of these assemblies and calmly say: I propose that the Code include the following: “Every Cuban citizen has the right not to be arbitrarily separated from their family.”

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Article 24 of the Cuban Migration Law Was Applied to Anamely Ramos, Suggests Humberto Lopez

The case of Anamely Ramos has generated a whole mobilization of activists in exile, international organizations and politicians from the United States. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 February 2022 — The Cuban regime has not ruled on the ban on entering Cuba issued against the activist Anamely Ramos, but Humberto López, presenter on Cuban Television and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, did. He did so by commenting on a Facebook post by Ramos herself, with a link to the Cuban migration law and the mention of its article 24.1.

Specifically, the paragraph that indicates that the Cuban State can prevent the entry of anyone who organizes, stimulates, carries out or participates in “hostile actions against the political, economic and social foundations of the Cuban State.”

The Ramos case has generated a whole mobilization of activists in exile, international organizations and politicians from the United States.

Ramos, who was not allowed to board an American Airlines plane bound for Havana this Wednesday at the Miami airport, held a public protest at the Versailles restaurant after being forced to leave the terminal, to exert pressure on what she considers to be a violation of her right to return to his country of origin. Ramos refuses to request asylum in the United States and insisted that she will continue demanding to return to Cuba, the country where she has her residence. continue reading

The mayor of the city, Daniella Levine Cava, came to Versailles to show her support and talk with Ramos about what happened. “Cuban artist Anamely Ramos deserves the right to return home and denounce the human rights abuses that occur in Cuba. I am with her and all Cubans. The time for freedom is now,” Levine Cava wrote on her Twitter account.

US Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols called the action “another cowardly attempt” by the regime that seeks to “intimidate its own citizens and crush dissent.”

In addition, the United States Embassy in Cuba tweeted: “What kind of government does not allow its citizens to return to their homeland?” adding: “The world of the 21st century must demand that the regime put an end to this cruel policy of exile.”

Cuban-American congressman Mario Díaz-Balart also showed support for the activist and member of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), who described the regime’s action as “banishment” and recalled the meeting he held with her a few months ago with the aim of denouncing the situation of the protesting rapper and political prisoner Maykel Osorbo, as well as that of other political prisoners on the Island.

“The Castro family and their dauphin Diaz-Canel continue to administer Cuba as their private farm, choosing who has permission to enter. But this is how they show how afraid they are of the voices that denounce the lack of freedoms on the prison island. Cowards!” expressed Cuban-American congresswoman María Elvira Salazar in a tweet.

Rosa María Payá, the Cuban opposition founder of the Cuba Decide platform, directly accused American Airlines of working from Miami “for the Cuban dictatorship.”

“Outrageous that American Airlines executes the arbitrary order to prevent Cuban resident citizens with valid documentation from returning to their country, violating fundamental human rights and Cuban laws themselves,” Payá added on her social networks.

For her part, Erika Guevara-Rosas, director of Amnesty International for the Americas, pointed out that “Díaz-Canel’s fear of voices with the legitimacy to denounce human rights violations is evident” and for that reason he “imposes an illegal prohibition of entry” on Anamely Ramos, “Cuban citizen and prominent leader of the MSI.”

Juan Pappier, an investigator for the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, wrote about this case that the organization he represents “repudiates this abuse” and defends Ramos’s right to “return to her country of origin, it is a human right.”

The Center for a Free Cuba also issued a statement denouncing that “denying Anamely Ramos her right to return to her homeland is not only a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but also violates current Cuban legislation, demonstrating the tyrannical nature of the Cuban regime.”

The NGO Democratic Culture published an open letter addressed to the American Airlines company rejecting the prohibition action against the activist and describes it as a violation of article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes the right to freedom of movement.

In Mexico, Cuban activists and colleagues of Ramos called this Thursday for a protest in front of the Cuban Embassy to denounce “the Cuban regime’s policy of exile.”

For its part, the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba issued a statement this Thursday in which it denounced that the Ramos case “is a flagrant and absolute violation of the Constitution” in force on the island, and “of the principle of constitutionality that should govern any act or public conduct of the organs of the State.”

They also warned that what happened with the activist is “a matter of the greatest gravity, that all Cubans should take very seriously and that deserves a harsh condemnation on our part and on the part of the international community.”

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Descemer and Emilio Estefan: ‘Patria y Vida’ Symbolizes the Unity for Freedom in Cuba

The composers of ’Patria y Vida’ are now celebrating the first anniversary of a leading song in Cuba’s recent history. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio)– Musicians Descemer Bueno and Emilio Estefan told EFE on Tuesday that the song Patria y vida [Homeland and Life], which has become an anthem of the struggle for freedom in Cuba, represents the unity of the Cuban people in favor of a dream, that of recovering freedom on the island.

“A year ago a song was born through unity, a unity that captivated people with a message, a slogan, a vision of the future, all in one song. Through the very inspiration of the verse that each one contributed and seduced all those whose hearts pound to see a different Cuba,” said Descemer Bueno, one of the six performers and composers of the song.

The famous musician and producer who has lived in Miami for decades agreed with him, indicating that in the “heart” of the exile and dissidents “there is only one country” and they all want freedom in Cuba, as demanded by the authors of the song.

On February 16, 2021 the video with the song was posted on YouTube as just one more music release of the day, but it ended up becoming the anthem of the historic protests that broke out in Cuba on July 11, 2021.

Descemer said that this song, winner of two Latin Grammys, including Song of the Year, “was born to remain in history as the tattoo on the body of freedom.” continue reading

But not without risk, because, as Estefan himself pointed out, the “courage” shown by the singers of the song (Yotuel Romero, the duo Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno, El Funky and Maykel Osorbo) was great, because, he said, it is one thing to protest from exile and quite another to do it from the island itself.

A good example of this is that the rapper Osorbo is still imprisoned in Pinar del Río for “attempting public disorder and eluding.”

But even so, Estefan stressed, they broke the “chain” and sent a message of “hope” that the young people of the island embraced and encouraged them to take to the streets in protest.

He celebrated the fact that in this case the authors realized that “it is not about oneself, but about leaving a legacy of freedom to the country,” and said he was “very proud” of what they did.

“This is a historic moment, a rebellion of people who were born on the island and who have reached a point where they cannot resist what is happening,” said Gloria Estefan’s husband, singer of songs about Cuba such as Mi Tierra, Oye mi Canto and Cuba Libre.

Estefan said that in the future there will be other examples like those experienced on the island in the past year, but not only with music, but also with displays of “rebellion” in the streets: “You will see that the music will continue, that people will have more courage.”

Because the music producer believes that on the least expected day the protests of last summer will be repeated on the island “but in a more massive way,” and on that day the Cuban people will give a “great example to the world of how a country recovers.”

Meanwhile, Descemer believes that Patria y vida represents their struggle for freedom throughout the world and allows them to “have expectations and hopes”.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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Caribbean Mexican Authorities Are Alerted About More Cubans Arriving by Boat

Photo of the boat abandoned on the beach known as The Secret, on the Mayan Riviera. (Facebook/Quintana Roo Panorama)

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 16 February 2022 — Authorities from the states of Yucatán and Quintana Roo were advised by the National Migration Institute (NMI) of the arrival of Cuban balseros [rafters] to the Mexican Caribbean. Last Wednesday, a boat was abandoned on the beach known as “The Secret” on the Mayan Riviera.

The Secret beach is 30 miles south of Cancún, so the “crew had to have help leaving the place in vehicles,” Raúl Tassinari, the police chief, told 14ymedio. “They had adapted a car engine, and we even found containers of gasoline and clothing.”

The discovery of the arrival took place the same day that representatives of the National Migration Institute (NMI) had a meeting with personnel from the Cuban Consulate in Cancún, in which they talked about cooperation and coordination in respect to migratory matters. Tassarini reported that in February alone they had reports of three events related to Cuban rafters.

“The Navy was informed of the vessel so that it could be secured, and the port captain and Immigration were also notified,” emphasizes the officer, who doesn’t rule out the deployment in the coming days of elements of the National Guard and the Army to stop the entry of migrants through Quintana Roo.

According to figures from the NMI, the state of Quintana Roo has become a route for the illegal entry of Cubans in recent years. Between October and December 2021, 29 rafters who arrived at Isla Mujeres were detained. Of 60 Cubans detained in that same year, 45 were deported and 15 received legal advice to obtain refuge. continue reading

The boat used by Cuban rafters is found abandoned on the eastern coast of the island area of Isla Mujeres and serves as a tourist attraction.

On February 12, another boat was abandoned on the eastern coast of the island area of Isla Mujeres, at the height of the Colegio de Bachilleres. The state police confirmed to this newspaper that the migrants “got into a truck, so the surveillance cameras are already being checked.” The island’s natives left medicines, 200-liter drums, canned food in bags, as well as men’s and women’s clothing on the raft.

Ten days earlier, personnel assigned to the Fifth Naval Region rescued seven Cuban rafters, who were shipwrecked 43 nautical miles northeast of Isla Contoy. The migrants were transferred to the Puerto Juárez naval station. A Migration source indicates that this group would be deported.

Last January, members of the Navy in the city of Cancún detained seven Cubans on the boulevard near the Plaza Kukulcán shopping center, after the undocumented immigrants were captured by the video surveillance cameras of the C5 Security Complex. The alert of the arrival of rafters was also extended to the state of Yucatan, confirmed the Mayan Riviera official.

Collaborate with our work: The 14ymedio team is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the profound reality of Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Diaz-Canel, a Continuity without Charisma, Historical Weight, or ‘Ashe’

Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro and Miguel Díaz-Canel at the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. (Cubandebate)

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 16 February 2022 — The Cuban dictatorship laid its foundations on the charisma of Fidel Castro. Beyond what fans or detractors may argue, it is undeniable that the bearded man had qualities for oratory, knew how to channel the frustrations of an era in his favor, and was an unparalleled demagogue.

It is difficult to understand how a people quite alien to the ideology of the hammer and sickle embraced Marxism without much resistance. But it could be explained with that guaracha that sounded in the Cuban streets of the 1960s: “If Fidel is a communist, put me on the list.”

Fidelismo became a kind of religion, whose cornerstone would be the cult of the commander in chief, maximum leader, caballo, caguairán, etc. The white dove on his shoulder, his face on the cover of Bohemia magazine as if he were a Christ, his stature and his olive green uniform reinforced the magical halo. And the legend of him spread beyond the borders. He was, for many in the world, a kind of revolutionary messiah.

Despite the ferocious proselytism committed to consolidating his myth, for a good part of Cubans it was quite obvious that the country was headed for disaster. Already at the beginning of the nineties the song that marked the popular vision towards the figure of him was another. And this time it was not a guaracha, but a criollo rock: “That man is crazy.”

Raúl Castro had the good sense to understand that he did not possess a drop of his brother’s charisma. He focused his efforts on being discreet, pragmatic and open. He based his power on the so-called “historical weight.” For some, the administration of the Army general has been the least bad moment that the country has experienced since the Special Period. However, his motto, Without haste, but without pause found so many potholes along the way that the dream of copying the Chinese and Vietnamese ended up getting bogged down. continue reading

The dictatorship urgently needed to find a successor. Raúl had swept away the team that had been near his brother. Those guys from the Battle of Ideas committed the deadly sin of seeing themselves as heirs to the throne. Raul, el chino de La Rinconada had his own list, unrelated to that of Punto Cero [Fidel’s estate]. Raúl personally acknowledged having experimented with a dozen candidate dauphins. Until, finally, one of those test-tubes met his expectations: Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.

The blond from Las Villas had been holding his breath since he learned he was on the way to the crown. It was obvious that he had microphones and cameras even in the toilet. And that prolonged apnea not only turned his hair gray before its time, but also removed all human expression from his face. Díaz-Canel is incapable of delivering a fluid speech without looking at the notecards that accompany him in all of his interventions. When he has gone a millimeter from the script, he has made mistakes like the one where he stated that “lemonade is the basis of everything.”

Without charisma, or historical weight, Canel had no other option but to choose the least revolutionary motto imaginable: We are Continuity. For a people that cried out for the word “change,” continuity was a bucket of cold water. Nor has ashé (that Santeria concept associated with luck) accompanied it. The sad crash of a plane, the Havana tornado, the collapse of a bridge over the Zaza River and the covid-19 pandemic do not point to the blessing of the orishas.

When it comes to nicknames, he hasn’t been lucky either. In Holguín, when he was first secretary of the Party and insisted on preventing the farmers from bringing milk into the city, he was baptized Miguel “Díaz-Condón [condom].” Later, influencer Alex Otaola would rename it “El Puesto a Dedo [hand-picked].” And finally, from the rapper Maykel Osorbo, the former porn actress Mía Kalifa, to a choir shouted in the streets and labeled on the walls, they have given it the not very friendly name: “El Singao* [motherfucker].”

There is no need to recount in detail the disaster of the Ordering Task*. And to make matters worse, the “combat order” after the social outbreak of July 11 already places him as an irredeemable tyrant. Raúl Castro is probably banging his head against the walls wondering how the hell he came up with such a designation. It is useless that Díaz-Canel’s new slogan is To Cuba, put some heart on it. With such symptoms, the myth of the Cuban Revolution, in his hands, goes in free fall towards cardiac arrest.

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

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Cuban Regime Prohibits the Return of Activist Anamely Ramos

Anamely Ramos in New York last winter during a protest for democracy in Cuba. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 February 2022 — Art curator Anamely Ramos was unable to return to the Island as planned after spending more than a year away from the Island studying for a doctorate in Mexico. The activist and member of the San Isidro Movement was unable to board her American Airlines flight because Cuba refused her entry.

Hours before boarding her flight from Miami, Ramos recorded a video in which she said that she fears what might happen to her upon her arrival in the country and asked international organizations and the press “to cover the event.”

“I left Cuba in January 2021, I went to study for a doctorate in anthropology at the Ibero-American University of Mexico (Ibero), I left of my own free will,” she says in a video to which this newspaper had access.

Ramos believes that the Cuban authorities are carrying out a strategy that consists of arresting those they consider a threat, violating all their rights, or forcing them into exile; in addition to preventing those who are already outside from returning. Because of this, she always thought that it would be very difficult for her to return to the Island.

However, the activist had warned the Cuban government that there was currently no place to which they could expel her since her Mexican study visa has expired and her tourist visa for the US is temporary and for a single entry. “I mean, they can’t legally take me anywhere, I want to make that clear for whatever happens in the future.” The activist has stated that she plans to stay at the airport until a solution is reached. continue reading

Ramos had asked the international human rights organizations not to believe the narrative that the Cuban Government could unfold against her and argues that she has not only worked for many years in the country, been a university professor and belonged to the academy, but also plans to contribute to the Cuban society of the future.

Anamely Ramos reflected before the sea before returning to Cuba. (Facebook)

The curator hoped, once she arrived in Cuba, to be able to renew her passport, request the documentation she needed and leave the island whenever she wanted, for example, to see her son who lives abroad.

“I hope to be able to lead a normal life, with mobility within my country, I hope not to be imprisoned in my house, I hope not to have constant surveillance and I also hope to accompany the people who are in a situation of vulnerability today, many of whom are my friends, they are my family like Maykel Castillo and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who are sick, who are in prison,” she had explained. “I know who I am and that I am also going to Cuba to accompany those people. Power knows it and that is why I am afraid,” she said.

Ramos advanced that she does not plan to abandon any of her activities to be safe and claimed her right to return for a “strictly citizen” issue.

“I also ask for accompaniment so that any violation of any of these rights is condemned by the international organizations that must ensure the defense of human rights, by the press and by the democratic governments of the world,” the activist concluded.

Ramos had communicated her decision to return through social networks, in which she claimed to feel happy. “I know the country I’m going back to but still I know I’m going to freedom,” she wrote.

Ramos explained that one of her last glances before leaving for the Island had been to the sea. “What the sea unites, man should not separate. There are too many sad stories associated with that sea, it must be filled with happy things.”

The curator, who had a few words for her son, said that it was above all for him that she must return and that despite the fact that the regime has power, it should feel daily shame for how it has it. “They feel safe, but that security is made of cardboard. They have generated horror and that horror will reach them. Our power brings together and theirs expels. Let’s concentrate on bringing together,” she added shortly before learning that she could not return to Cuba.

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Cuban Journalist Held at the Bogota Airport is Given a Safe Conduct

Yailén Insúa Alarcón and her partner, Boris Luis Ramos Salgado, at the El Dorado airport in Bogotá (Colombia). (Courtesy)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 16 February 2022 — The same day that the activist Anamely Ramos was prevented from boarding a plane to Cuba, the journalist Yailén Insúa Alarcón celebrated that a judge ruled in her favor not to be returned from Bogotá to Havana. Both women are part of a migratory drama, the arbitrariness of a power that, as punishment, both confines within the national borders and expels from the Island.

“A judge has ruled in our favor, so that we can leave El Dorado airport in the next 48 hours,” Insúa tells 14ymedio from the Colombian capital. “A few minutes ago our lawyer notified us that the judge had issued a ruling for us to wait for our request for asylum in Colombian territory.”

The former director of Cuban Television’s Information System, who has lived 11 days of ordeal in the airport facilities, with the fear of being deported to the Island at any moment, only has words of gratitude: “Colombia has already begun to welcome us like we are its children, although the process can take up to two years.

The couple is still at the airport, but not for long. “Our lawyer is fighting to see if they can get us out today, but if it can’t be now, tomorrow I’ll be able to sleep in a bed,” she details. “Bogotá is unknown, I have great expectations, I still don’t know what I am going to do, but I have had the support of many colleagues and I am sure that everything will turn out well.”

“We are going to make our lives here, in this city that is going to take us in,” she stresses. “All my colleagues know what has happened and they have given me incredible support and solidarity, this guild is very large and has reached out to me.” continue reading

Her family in Havana still doesn’t know. A couple of calls to her mother, a teacher and school principal, and the father of her 13-year-old son, only yielded the sound of unanswered rings. “I think they will find out through the press,” she points out, aware of the telecommunications problems that hamper contact with Cuba.

In the similarities and differences with the case of Anamely Ramos, Insúa is conclusive: “There is a common axis, which is the Cuban regime and its long tentacles, which either expel you from the country or deny you entry, because we citizens who express opinions are like a thorn to them.”

“They are looking for a way to put together that immense repressive domino game they have and to move the tiles as they please,” Insúa points out. “Anamely Ramos is an example of a woman, one of the most courageous that Cuba has given us in a long time, and I know that this will not discourage her. As soon as I saw what happened to her, I sent the news to our lawyer so he knew what the Cuban regime is capable of.”

To fight against it, she believes, journalism is urgent. “I have seen many stories of Cubans stranded in this airport looking to leave for Nicaragua and other places and I think these stories have to be told, they are very necessary.”

When she leaves the airport, today or tomorrow, Insúa has one goal: “enjoy the sun… In this time I have only seen it through the windows and I want to feel it on my face and on my skin. At last I am going to breathe the air of freedom.”

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Stores Trading in Dollars are ‘A Measure of Social Justice,’ According to the Cuba’s Minister of the Economy

Since 2020, stores in Cuba that only accept hard foreign currency (MLC) have expanded their sales to food, clothing, shoes, and other items. (14ymedio)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 8 February 2022 — This Tuesday, Alejandro Gil, Cuba’s Minister of Economy and Planning, defended the opening of stores that operate exclusively in hard foreign currency, arguing that, without them “the country’s economic situation would be even more complex”.

Gil told the Cuban News Agency (ACN) that “although many do not see it that way, it is a measure of social justice, because it allows us to redistribute currency based on the supply of the commercial peso-based networks,” although he recognized that “these are adjustment measures that carry a cost,” since they know “that the population cannot fully meet their needs in these establishments in MLC*.”

The stores in MLC began to operate in Cuba at the end of 2019, first with offers of electrical appliances, hardware or furniture to capture the “dollars that were escaping the country,” in the words of the Minister, from people who traveled to nearby countries to buy merchandise and then resell it in the informal market.

The initial objective of the MLC was to use foreign currency “according to the development of the national industry, and to maintain a stable level of offers in pesos”

In July 2020, the sale of food and toiletries was allowed in them, a very controversial measure, because they are the best-stocked stores, but most Cubans deal in pesos and do not have access to dollars. With the implementation of the economic reform package in 2021, known as the Tarea Ordenamiento [Ordering Task]**, they expanded their sales to clothing, shoes and other items, including strollers and cribs. continue reading

Added to this is the growing gap between the official exchange rate, at 24 pesos per dollar, and the informal market exchange rate, which stands at almost 100 pesos.

The initial objective of the MLC’s was to use foreign currency “according to the development of the national industry, and to maintain a stable level of offers in pesos,” said Gil, who argued that “nobody calculated that an epidemic would make the situation even more complex.”

For the average Cuban, the beginning of these measures taking effect coincided with the shortage of food and medicine, and the results meant standing in long lines for hours to acquire basic products, almost always concentrated in the stores in MLC.

In this regard, the head of the Ministry of Economy explained that “there is a group of products that we have to offer in this currency, but if tomorrow we switch them to be traded in the national currency, they will last 15 days and then there won’t be any, neither in hard currency nor in pesos.”

He also pointed out that from the sales in MLC “more than 300 million dollars were used to supply merchandise to the trade network in national currency,” but the truth is that these remain unsupplied.

Regarding the growing inflation in Cuba, the Minister insisted that the way to deal with it “is associated precisely with the increase in offers by the State in national currency, which is not achieved overnight.”

Despite everything, Gil insisted on the “temporary nature” of the decision “whose objective is being fulfilled,” and reiterated that the MLC stores will continue to operate depending “on the recovery of the economy and when we can bestow real buying power onto the Cuban peso.”

Regarding the growing inflation in Cuba, the Minister assured that the way to deal with it “is associated precisely with the increase in offers by the State in national currency, which is not achieved overnight”

The 2021 financial year closed with inflation above 70% in retail markets, according to the government, although some experts estimate real inflation (including the informal market) at around 500%.

As is usual with the Cuban authorities, Gil mentioned, among the reasons for the supply shortages, the US economic sanctions and the impact of Covid-19, and in no case, “a problem by design, as many consider.”

Months ago, the Government itself acknowledged before the National Assembly that the “design problems” of the Code and the “difficulties” of its implementation, partly due to the national and global economic situation, generated “deviations,, “errors” and “unwanted results,” in addition to “multiple dissatisfactions among the population”.

Gil himself announced last December that a “survey of all entities that sell in unauthorized MLC” would be carried out, but this Tuesday he did not provide information on how that process is going, a process the Minister considered fundamental to aid in fighting the rise in prices.

Translator’s notes:

*MLC = Moneda Libremente Convertible / literally: Money Freely Convertible

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

Translated by Norma Whiting

Related article: ‘Dollar Stores are a Lifeline’

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For the Fourth Consecutive Sunday, Berta Soler and Angel Moya are Arrested in Cuba

Hours earlier, Moya had warned about the presence of state security agents near the organization’s headquarters. (Ángel Moya/Facebook)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 14 February 2022 — Ladies in White leader, Berta Soler, and her husband, Ángel Moya, were arrested yesterday for the fourth consecutive Sunday, as confirmed on the social media accounts of other members of the women’s group.

Since the Ladies in White announced that they would protest every Sunday like they did before the pandemic, demanding the release of those arrested for the anti-government protests on July 11th, they have been arrested every week.

“The representative and leader of Cuba’s women’s group, Ladies in White, Berta Soler Fernández and Ángel Juan Moya Acosta, a former political prisoner and human rights activist, have been arrested,” wrote María Cristina Labrada Varona, a member of the Ladies in White leadership council on Facebook.

Hours earlier, Moya had warned about the presence of state security agents near the organization’s headquarters in Havana and uploaded photos of a small bus and several people, among them women dressed in military garb.

On January 23rd, Berta Soler and Bárbara Farrat were arrested and held for several hours as they exited the organization’s national headquarters in the Lawton area of Havana where they had met to peacefully protest for the release of political prisoners. continue reading

Farrat spent ten hours in the police station in Cotorro, where she was denied food and water; she was released after being fined 30 pesos. Berta Soler, Lourdes Esquivel, Gladys Capote, and Yolanda Santana were held in jail cells in the police stations in Cotorro and Guanabacoa and were each fined 2,000 pesos, in addition to being warned by authorities.

“We will continue repeating our presence and it is of utmost importance that others join us, so that the oppressors understand that families are actively seeking the release of their loved ones,” she said. The situation was repeated the two previous weeks though the events were not mentioned by official state media nor Cuban authorities, as is customary.

The Ladies in White movement emerged in 2003 following the Black Spring. Two years later, they won the European Union’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

The EU and NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International criticized that wave of arrests, classifying them as political. Cuban authorities, for their part, allege that it was an assault on national sovereignty ordered by the United States.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuban Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara is in a ‘Delicate State of Health’ Warns the San Isidro Movement

Otero Alcántara in front of the Havana Capitol during a day of protests. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 February 2022 — Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, in jail since the protests on July 11, is in a “delicate state of health” after spending almost a month on hunger strike, art curator Claudia Genlui told 14ymedio.

“We had information from a person inside the prison that Luis Manuel is currently very weak and that he barely has the strength to speak,” said the member of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), which is led by Alcántara. “They have him in a cell with the rest of the detainees, he is very weak, we are all desperate. Let’s do something for him, let’s demand that the Cuban government release him,” warned Genlui.

An MSI statement published this Tuesday says that the strike began on January 18 and that it is the second he has carried out since he was imprisoned in the maximum security prison in Guanajay. The Movement explains that “they do not know how serious he is because the family has not been informed of anything” and that he does not know if a doctor “is watching him,” if he is in a punishment cell or if his body “is suffering irreversible damage.”

“What they do tell us is that he is very thin and that he can no longer speak. Luis needs us today more than ever,” adds the note, which also recalls that at the beginning of the month Alcántara managed to call a member from his family to tell them that he was alive but that he maintained the position of refusing food, visits or phone calls. “His demand is his immediate release.” continue reading

The MSI declares: “Luis does not want to die, nor does he want to be a martyr, he wants to live but in conditions of freedom, and for this reason he submits his body to this new strike. Prison is not an option for him. Nor is it for the dozens of strikers, who at this minute are plantados* against the regime.”

At the end of the statement, they called on civil society, the press and accredited diplomats on the island, the international community and the Cuban exile community to “show solidarity and concern” about the situation of Otero Alcántara. “We want and need living people to build the nation.”

For its part, the Government of the United States requested this Tuesday on its Twitter account the immediate release of Otero Alcántara and warned that he is being held in a maximum security prison “without formal charges or a trial date seven months after his arrest on July 11th (11J).”

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has become one of the most powerful voices of Cuban activism, art and opposition, Time magazine included him in its list of most influential people of 2021.

A victim of harassment and persecution by the political police since 2018, he has suffered dozens of arbitrary arrests without bowing down in his fight for freedom of expression in Cuba.

The repression against the artist intensified in November 2020, when several activists began a hunger strike to demand the release of rapper Denis Solís, until the police stormed the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement in Havana on the night of November 26 in Old Havana and arrested the 14 activists who were inside the building.

*Translator’s note: ‘Plantado’ — literally ’planted’ — is a term with a long history in Cuba which is used to describe a political prisoner who refuses to cooperate in any way with their incarceration.
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Cuba’s State Companies of Villa Clara Have Many Idle Lands and Don’t Declare Them

Yhosvany Martín Peña, delegate of the Ministry of Agriculture in the province, insisted that the entire sector “relies on the land.” (Flickr/tTnman6)

14ymedio, Havana , 15 February 2022 — At this point in history, the authorities of the Ministry of Agriculture seem to discover that the large amount of idle land has something to do with the insufficiency of food production in Cuba. And yet, the delivery of these lands continues to be very slow and does not meet the demand.

This was commented on, in a meeting with the sector, by the delegate of the ministry in the province of Villa Clara, Yhosvany Martín Peña. According to the data provided, there are at least 37,982 hectares identified as idle, many infested with invasive plants or poorly cared for. Despite the fact that 43,910 hectares have recently been handed over, this amount only satisfies 0.9% of land applicants.

The authorities asked for agility when identifying the lands and handing them over, since there are too many delays “in the notifications of the possible usufruct [leasing terms] and delay in the conclusion of the contracts,” said Amado Pérez Colina, delegate in Camajuaní.

The official also pointed out some of the main problems areas in which the sector is not doing well, among them the lack of declaration of idle land by some state companies, the erratic inspections to verify the productive potential of the surfaces and the inadequate review of contracts with producers and marketers.

Among the worst consequences, an obvious one, is the very poor production of pork, which was 39% of the forecasts in December. Milk is not performing either, delivering just 79% of the plan with 40,324,200 liters, of which only 29,829,400 reached the industry, a decrease of 9,444,400 liters. continue reading

Somewhat better was the production of eggs, which, although low, was 95% of the forecasts. According to the Vanguardia newspaper, the harvest of “various crops” was 97% complete, almost 280,000 tons less than in the previous period.

In this sense, the authorities concluded that, despite the advances in research that have been made to increase harvests, there are no certified seeds that can be used to multiply crops, it is imposible.

The worst results were those for the grain, while the banana, cassava, sweet potato and malanga improved, although far from what was desired, reports the province without providing disaggregated amounts.

The same occurs with meat sales, of which it is said that the commitment was “exceeded” without specifying data, although Camajuaní, Encrucijada and the Jibacoa Agroforestry Company did not deliver the amounts that were agreed to.

The authorities attributed to the poorly performed practice of inseminations, the “low birth rates, decreases and incorrect management, as well as deterioration in mortality and low food quality for dry periods of the year,” but they also affirmed that, in Placetas, there was a proliferation of theft and illegal slaughter of livestock, damaging the whole.

According to the measures approved by the Government to encourage food production, only producers who comply with the State’s order are authorized to slaughter livestock

Regarding the economic stock taking, 11 state entities had losses and 39 closed with negative indicators.

According to Vanguardia , Carlos Amaury Figueredo Yumar, a member of the Party’s Provincial Bureau, made a special speech in which he asked the sector for “a change of mentality, and to demonstrate with concrete production facts the values of the socialist state company and the commitment of all agricultural actors linked to the land.” The same voluntaristic speech of the last 60 years.

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The Head of Cuba’s Guantanamo Military Region Dies in a Traffic Accident

One of the images of the accident in Baire, Santiago de Cuba, shared on social networks. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana , 15 February 2022 — Colonel Erasmo Méndez Fernández, head of the Guantánamo military region, died this Tuesday in a car crash in Baire, Santiago de Cuba.

The soldier collided head-on with his car, a Geely with license plate F001617, with a bus from the state tourist agency Transgaviota, when he was overtaking at the height of the elevated bridge at the entrance to the municipality of Santiago.

According to witnesses who reported on social networks, the Operational Investigative Guard appeared at the scene to clarify the circumstances of the incident, as well as Government and Party authorities in the municipality of Contramaestre.

The Guantánamo military region was created in 2000 as part of the restructuring of the Armed Forces in Cuba. Previously, Méndez had been head of the Las Tunas military region and, before that, of the Border Brigade, which guards the border perimeter with the territory where the US naval base in Guantánamo is located.

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‘My Greatest Fear is Setting Foot in the Havana Airport’

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 15 February 2022 — Cuban journalist Yailén Insúa Alarcón, 42, and her husband, Boris Luis Ramos Salgado, 48, have been sleeping on the floor of Bogotá’s El Dorado airport for ten days. “The most stressful moments are when there are flights to Cuba and we fear that they will deport us on one of them,” she tells 14ymedio.

“Now we are in a migratory limbo. Initially, the Foreign Ministry told us that it could not study our case because we were in the transit zone of the airport, but then an appeal for guardianship was filed and a judge ruled saying they must give us a five-day safe conduct to leave and to be able to process the asylum application.”

“We haven’t even been able to shower since we’ve been here, we can only wash in the airport toilets. At first we were hungry because we were buying food as best we could, we had one meal a day and my husband is diabetic so it was very difficult.”

Thanks to the intervention of the Colombian Public Ministry and Ombudsman, they solved this problem. “From last Saturday they have come to bring us food regularly,” she says. continue reading

According to Insúa, the judge has requested a report on the situation from several organizations that have been interested in her case, including Acnur (the UN Refugee Agency). “From 48 to 72 hours they must issue their final ruling to see if they grant us the safe conduct,” she details. Once outside the airport, it would be necessary to process the political asylum in Colombia.

“The safe-conduct that is normally given is renewed every two months and the time to process the asylum can last up to two years,” says Insúa, former director of the Cuban Television Information System, who told this newspaper of her departure from the island.

“I had a passport since 2016 but it was expiring, so for this trip I had to apply for a new one. My husband was given his quickly but it took me almost two months.” At that time, “I was not ‘regulated’,” – a term used by the Cuban government that means forbidden to travel outside the country – and she was able to leave without incident through the Havana airport.

“As soon as I arrived in Bogotá, the airline employee told me that I could not board the flight to Managua because I had a ‘do not board’ order from the Nicaraguan government and was considered a persona non grata” by the authorities of that Central American country.

Insúa does not understand why the Cuban authorities let her leave the island and then she was denied entry to Nicaragua, especially knowing the political closeness and the exchange of information between Managua and Havana. “Perhaps they wanted to make me lose the money for the trip.”

The reporter’s husband is a member of the Yoruba Cultural Association and she, for her part, has not worked for official television since 2017, when she was expelled. “There was an incident with some images of Celia Cruz that I broadcast on a program and I ended up, along with the editor, at 100 and Aldabó (Detention Center in Havana).”

“I was a thorn in their side and since then I can’t work in any [State] media. I even had to give classes to be able to support myself,” she details. The woman has a 13-year-old son who is in the care of his grandmother on the island.

Insúa thanked the support she has had from the Colombian media, as well as from Cubans who have emigrated to the United States who have expressed their solidarity with her situation. Two or three colleagues, still residents on the island, have preferred to send her greetings privately, although she regrets that some linked to the official media remain silent.

“We are waiting for State Security to visit my mother, who is 65 years old, is a teacher and director of a school. I told her that this was going to affect her and she told me that I was her daughter above all else. “My The greatest fear is setting foot in the José Martí airport in Havana because I know they will be waiting for me,” she says.

For the official Cuban press, the journalist reserves two harsh words: double standards. “Most people who work in television say one thing and think another.”

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A Tribunal in Holguin, Cuba Convicts 20 July 11th Protesters of Sedition

On Monday, Cuba’s state-controlled press focused its coverage on the trials in Havana, although the first sentence handed down to a large group for sedition was in Holguín. (Capture)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 15 February 2022 — On Monday, the Cuban justice system sentenced 20 protesters, including five minors, who participated in the July 11th anti-government protests, to between five and 20 years in jail for sedition.

This ruling of the Provincial Tribunal of Holguín, according to activist Salomé García Bacallao of Justicia 11J, is the first joint sentence for the crime of sedition handed down in the country as a result of last July’s protests.

The 15 convicted adults, the majority of whom are men between 18 and 59 years of age, received shorter sentences than those sought by the prosecutor. None of the accused was declared not guilty.

Two were sentenced to 20 years in prison, three to 18 years, two to 17 years, one to 15 years, two to 14 years, two to 12 years, and two to seven years. In addition, a young 18-year-old was sentenced to five years of “correctional labor without internment.”

The five minors — four 17 year-olds and one 16-year-old — for whom prosecutors were seeking sentences of between 15 and 18 years in prison, have been sentenced to “five years of limited freedom.” continue reading

The minimum criminal age in Cuba is 16 years, but those between 16 and 17 years of age may have their sentences reduced by as much as a half.

In the sentencing document, Yasmani Crespo did not appear; he was included in the docket but did not appear at the trial, according to García. There is speculation that he may have left the country.

Some activists denounced that several of those convicted were taken directly to prison following the ruling, although the sentencing document stated that they could remain free on bond until their appeal.

14ymedio spoke to Mailin Sánchez, wife of Yosvany Rosell García Caso, for whom the prosecutor sought a 30-year sentence and who was ultimately sentenced to 20 years. She only received the sentencing document on Monday, a month later.

In protest of the process which he considered unjust, García Caso went on a 17-day hunger strike in jail, said Sánchez who at the time alerted that García Caso ended up in the infirmary due to his deteriorated condition as a result of the protest. Another nine prisoners charged for 11J joined him on the hunger strike, although for fewer days.

The justice system did not publicly disclose the sentences and the official media still has not reported on the ruling, though on that day they did broadcast fragments of the trial, including witness testimony, which have been discredited, in some cases.

Activists and NGOs denounced the lack of guarantees, fabrication of evidence, and excessive penalties in these proceedings related to the largest anti-government protests in decades.

They also point to the application of the crime of sedition in the trials of the J11 protesters, for its political connotation and its ambiguous evidence.

Cuba’s attorney general recently argued that it opted for sedition charges in some cases for “the level of violence demonstrated in acts of vandalism” and “the tumultuous manner” in which they had “the deliberate intent of subverting the constitutional order” and, as a result, “seriously disrupted the public order.”

Justicia 11J, for its part, has stated on various occasions that the charge of sedition is applied arbitrarily with the goal of being exemplary, the events do not correspond to the presumed “disruption of the socialist order.”

The prosecutor stated that during the trials they verified “compliance with constitutional rights and guarantees of due process,” despite the “manipulations” that “intend to accuse Cuba of violations of human rights.”

Cuba confirmed the proceedings against 790 people, of which 55 are between 16 and 17 years old, for the events related to the protests on July 11th. Another 27 are younger than 16 years, to whom alternative measures have been applied as they are not of criminal age.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuban Painter Carmen Herrera, Who Came to Fame at 89, Dies at 106

The artist sold her painting ’White and Green’ for $3.9 million at an auction held by Sotheby’s. (tropicalcream.info)

14ymedio, Madrid, 14 February 2022 — Cuban artist Carmen Herrera died at her home in Manhattan, New York, this Saturday at the age of 106, according to information from her friend and representative, Puerto Rican artist Tony Bechara, speaking to The New York Times.

Herrera was born in Havana in 1915 and her parents were one of the founding editors of the Cuban newspaper El Mundo and its reporters. She studied architecture at the University of Havana and began traveling between the island and Paris in the 1930s and 1940s.

At the end of World War II, she moved to live in the French capital and later did an internship at the Art Students League in New York, where she moved in the mid-1950s after marrying the literature professor Jesse Lowenthal, who died in 2000.

Although she belonged to New York art circles, her work was largely ignored until he was nearly 90 years old. Her first painting was sold in 2004, when she became one of the most important figures of the abstract movement and minimalism. continue reading

According to her own testimony, in the 1950s being a female artist in the US was not easy. “People weren’t ready to receive my work,” she said in an interview in 2010, when she recalled how an avant-garde gallery owner in New York told her: “Carmen, you can paint circles around the male artists I have, but I won’t give you an exhibition because you are a woman.”

In 2018, her painting Blanco y Verde, painted between 1966 and 1967, fetched $3.9 million at an auction Sotheby’s held in New York. A year later she enjoyed another of her biggest milestones when there was a display of a group of her oversized sculptures in the gardens of New York City Hall. The sample was called Monumental Structures.

Her paintings, minimalist compositions full of straight lines, shapes and color, can be found in the permanent collections of major museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Tate Modern in London, as well as the Hirshhorn Museum, the Smithsonian Museum of Art American in Washington, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

In the late 2000s, Carmen Herrera exhibited at the Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern Museum in Germany and the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, England.

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