Private Construction of Homes Compensates for the Inaction of the Cuban State in Sancti Spiritus

The authorities say that the construction of new houses is ‘saved’ thanks to the push of private efforts and, although they do not give figures on how much expectations are exceeded, the number is assumed to be high. (Escambray)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 12 January 2022 — The housing built by individuals has exceeded what was agreed in the 2021 plan in Sancti Spíritus, while the State fulfilled just over half of what was agreed. The provincial director of Housing, Néstor Borroto, told the local newspaper Escambray that new housing is ‘saved’ thanks to the push of private efforts and, although he does not give figures on how much expectations are exceeded, the number is assumed to be high.

In February 2021, the plan for the year was announced which added 1,441 new properties to the precarious Sancti Spiritus housing stock. Of these, 993 had to be by private initiative, including 452 basic housing cells (CBH) of about 25 square meters (270 square feet). The remaining 448 would be carried out through state channels.

Borroto now places state homes delivered at 55%, some 246 homes, and 56% of CBHs delivered by the state (253 units). “It is not the same for private initiative housing, which exceeded the agreed figure,” he said, but without detailing by how much.

The article begins by saying that “despite complying with the delivery plan for new works,” the State did not meet its targets, from which it can be deduced that the planned 1,441 could be built thanks private initiative. If the figures provided by officialdom are correct, the state had to build almost a thousand houses, almost double the 541 it actually built.

The official attributes the breaches to the pandemic, which caused a high number of people in the construction sector to be infected, which affected the final result; and to the US sanctions, which are the origin of everything: lack of resources, inability to produce materials and a shortage of fuel with which to transport them. continue reading

Inflation is also mentioned as one of the causes, since, according to the text, “at the beginning of the year there was no budget to defray the expenses of those subsidized with the increase in the prices of construction materials.”  But the worst thing is that nothing bodes well for the situation to improve. Borroto explained that the housing plan for 2022 has not yet been established, but since it will have to include what has not been done in 2021, especially with regard to CBH, things get complicated.

The problem has been dragging on for years. According to the data, of the 2,752 CBHs approved from 2012 to date, 141 are still pending and, in addition, there are 508 unbuilt homes for those affected by meteorological events, with Sancti Spíritus being one of the provinces that suffers the most from the effects of climate change, according to the authorities. For this reason, the article indicates that more and more efforts will have to be made if the serious housing problem is to be resolved.

The experts, adds the official newspaper, ask that disused premises be adapted instead of new construction, as an alternative to the large amount of resources that are needed for it. Some 22% of the homes in the state plan were built in this way, saving money, supplies and earthworks.

In addition, they also point out that the lack of materials will continue and ask that construction techniques continue to be used with clay brick and zinc roofing, as opposed to concrete roofing, which would be more scarce. Last November, Vice Prime Minister Ramiro Valdés reproached, in Sancti Spíritus, those who resisted using these materials and more “natural and traditional methods” in favor of newer and more resistant ones.

The official also blamed corruption officials when assigning houses that are concluded without being finished or with poor quality and violations in the granting of subsidies. In addition, it also pointed out that numerous materials were stolen for resale.

“Very often the construction materials do not reach the population, we lack exchange with the people and popular control over these processes; we must pay more attention to the states of opinion of the people, but we cannot allow them to divert [i.e. steal] resources to the places they were not assigned to.”

Many of these thefts end up being produced by the scarcity of materials, which not only does not allow the completion of new works, but also prevents the repairs of faults in existing ones. At the end of February, the director of the Siguaney Cement Company, in Sancti Spíritus, revealed that the Government had given the order to send gray cement to stores that only take payment in freely convertible currency (MLC) instead of exporting it as was done before, so that it was assured that it would stayed in the country. However, the prices in these establishments are unattainable for many Cubans, not to mention those who only have national currency.

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Cuba’s Family Code, Including ‘Gestation Solidarity’, Is Ready for Review

A recognition within Cuba’s new Family Code is “full equality between women and men”, including “care among all members.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 13 January 2022 — Cubans now have the new Family Code available for review, which will be submitted to popular consultation between February 1 and April 30. The text, which was approved in its twenty-third version by the National Assembly on December 21, was published this Wednesday in the Official Gazette.

In it, as announced in the previous version of the document, same-sex marriage is recognized, defining it as “the voluntarily agreed union of two people with legal aptitude for it, in order to live together, on the basis of affection, mutual love and respect.”

Similarly, the de facto union is included, “established between two people for the purpose of carrying out a life project in common, sustained by affection, in a lasting or stable way.”

Another recognition within families in the new provisions is “full equality between women and men, equal distribution of time spent on domestic work and care among all family members, without overloading any of them.”

The new Family Code, which will replace the previous one, from 1975, “breaks paradigms” and is based on “inclusion,” said Leonardo Pérez Gallardo, professor at the Law School of the University of Havana. continue reading

Thus, in the first pages the right to “full development of sexual and reproductive rights in the family environment is recognized regardless of sex, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, disability status or any other personal circumstance,” although, the document specifies, “age-appropriate.”

The Code, as was also known from the previous version of the bill, eliminates child marriage, which until now was allowed in Cuba with parental permission from the age of 14 for girls and 16 for boys.

One of the most striking novelties of the new civil norm is the recognition of the right to form a family and, with it, assisted reproduction and, notoriously, “solidarity gestation.”

Also called surrogacy, which consists of implanting a fertilized egg in a “surrogate” woman, who has no biological relationship with the future child, is a very controversial option, allowed in very few countries. It is only regulated in Canada, some US states, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Greece, UK, Australia, and India, and subject to many conditions.

In the case of the Family Code that will be subject to debate, it is established that “it proceeds between people united by family or emotionally close ties, for the benefit of women with some medical pathology that prevents them from pregnancy, sterile people, single men or couples of men, provided that the health of those involved in the medical procedure is not endangered.”

Foreigners are not excluded in the rule, with which it is understood that they may resort to this process, for which, according to the text, “any type of remuneration is prohibited.” The exception to this is “the legal obligation to provide food to support the conceived and compensation for expenses generated by pregnancy and childbirth.”

In any case, determines the new Code, the parties require “judicial authorization.”

For a judge to grant this permission, they will take into account, among other requirements, that “the use of another assisted reproduction technique has been exhausted or has failed,” and if “the best interests of the girl or boy that may be born have been taken into account,” the full discernment and good health of the future pregnant woman and that she has not previously undergone a similar process.

The Cuban Government has not yet reported when — after the Code has been the subject of popular consultation — it will be submitted to a referendum.

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Human Rights Watch: Cuba ‘Represses and Punishes Practically All Kinds of Dissidence’

One of the surveillance operations organized by the Cuban authorities at the homes of activists, artists and independent journalists. (Facebook/Hector Luis Valdes)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 13 January 2022 — The Cuban government continues “repressing and punishing practically all kinds of dissidence and public criticism” on the island, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced this Thursday in its 2022 world report.

The section on Cuba in the annual study on the global state of human rights highlights the “brutal repression” carried out in the country after the massive and spontaneous anti-government protests of July 11, the largest in decades.

The NGO documents more than 1,000 arrests of protesters, most of whom were peaceful: “systematic” and “arbitrary” arrests of activists, artists and journalists motivated by intimidation, as well as of dissidents in their homes.

It mentions at this point the arrests of members of dissident artist groups, including the San Isidro Movement, 27N and Archipiélago, as well as people related to the protest song Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life], which became the anthem of the July demonstrations because it paraphrased the motto of the revolution “Fatherland or death” and criticized the repression in the country. continue reading

In this last group of imprisoned activists are Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Osorbo, who appeared in the Patria y Vida video.

The report also highlights the detention of “political prisoners,” their processing “without judicial guarantees,” the “disproportionate” sentences and the use of “summary trials” after the July 11 protests, in which a justice system is “subordinated in practice” to the Executive.

HRW especially denounces the case of the opposition José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, an organization considered illegal in Cuba. He was arrested on July 11 while on his way to the demonstration.

Ferrer was sentenced in August to more than four years in prison, the court saying that he did not “strictly respect the laws” or have an “honest attitude towards work,” sufficient reasons for imprisonment in his situation, because he was already serving a prior sentence – “arbitrary,” according to HRW – of “restrictions of freedom” for assault.

Likewise, the report criticizes the restrictions on the right to information and freedom of the press and expression, tightened in the middle of last year with a new cybersecurity law. The NGO notes that independent journalism continues to be prohibited on the Island.

It also points out that “journalists, bloggers, social media influencers, artists and academics who publish information considered critical” of the government are routinely subjected to “threats, violence, smear campaigns, movement restrictions, internet cuts, cyberbullying , searches of homes and offices, confiscation of work material and arbitrary arrests.”

It also accounts for the limitations on freedom of movement to enter or leave the country for activists, journalists and dissidents.

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Spanish News Agency EFE Plans to Leave Cuba if the Government Does Not Let It Do ItsWork

Gabriela Cañas spoke at a working breakfast in Madrid organized by Nueva Economía, where she described the situation of the EFE agency in Cuba. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 12 January 2022 — The president of EFE, Gabriela Cañas, lamented this Wednesday that it seems that the Cuban government is “throwing out” the media outlet with the withdrawal of accreditations from its journalists in Havana. She said that the Spanish news agency is beginning to consider whether to stay on the island.

Cañas made these statements while speaking at a working breakfast in Madrid organized by Nueva Economía, in which she pointed out that “almost 50% of the news” published in Latin America about Cuba comes from EFE, which has been in business in the country for almost five decades. She added that “perhaps this repercussion” does not please the Cuban government.

“They are kicking us out of Cuba. Currently, with only two journalists, we cannot maintain the quality standards that the EFE Agency has offered up to now in the country. It is very painful,” said Cañas. continue reading

For this reason, she said that the company is studying its options: “We are beginning to consider our permanence on the island. We cannot practice journalism freely,” the president stressed, adding that EFE has no interest in leaving Cuba, but perhaps it is necessary to “report from the outside.”

Cañas said that “unfortunately” the situation with the Cuban government has not been resolved despite the diplomatic support of the Spanish Executive. In mid-2021 there were seven journalists working in Havana, now there are only two — an editor and a cameraman — have press accreditation.

The complications for the agency began when the Cuban government began to delay without explanation the granting of the press visa of the new delegate, appointed in July of last year, and who has not yet been able to enter the country.

Cuba’s International Press Center (CPI) withdrew the accreditations of all EFE workers in Cuba. “We are left without witnesses on the island,” she said.

Hours later the CPI returned two accreditations, but since then the situation has stalled. Havana assured that it would return the accreditations “for good will,” as EFE reported in November, but so far this has not happened.

“We have asked a thousand times to let us work there,” she said.

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Experts Predict ‘High Peaks’ of Covid in Cuba Until March

Line at a Havana polyclinic this Tuesday to carry out PCR tests. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 12 January 2022 — The progressive increase in coronavirus cases in Cuba will be the norm from now on, and will increase, at least during the first quarter of the year. “[There will be a] rapid growth in the number of confirmed cases, with high peaks, which could strain the health system, but also an abrupt decline in mid-March,” according to Raúl Guinovart Díaz, dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing at the University of Havana and a government statistical expert for the pandemic, who updated the forecast of the evolution of the disease in a meeting led by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero.

The mathematician explained to the committee of experts that it will be necessary to prepare for the possibility of high pressure on the health system, and take steps to guarantee the care of the most vulnerable. In addition, he asked to deepen the work of primary care, home quarantine and the communication campaign to the population.

Guinovart maintained that the booster dose of the vaccines will have to be accelerated and that Cuba starts with the advantage of having immunized 92% of the population, according to official data, although he stressed that the omicron variant is very contagious and cases will increase in all territories. continue reading

The high rate of vaccination in other countries has not prevented the explosion of infections that affects the world, where daily records are the norm, and the Island plans to continue along the same path, since the sequencing of most of the samples that are currently collected belongs to the omicron strain, according to María Guadalupe Guzmán Tirado, head of the Research, Diagnosis and Reference Center of the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine. However, the delta variant continues to circulate through Cuba at the same time.

The Minister of Health, José Angel Portal Miranda, indicated that it has been detected that omicron has progressively moved since its arrival in Cuba – the last week of November – from the western zone through which it entered to the eastern zone.

Currently, Pinar del Río, Camagüey, Matanzas, Havana, Cienfuegos and Las Tunas are the provinces where the highest transmission has been found, accounting for 62.3% of the cases diagnosed in the last month.

Despite the leaps and bounds in the contagion data in recent days, the Government tried to maintain optimism by insisting that the growth is not as great as in other countries. The authorities are confident that the high number of vaccinated people will serve to contain the disease, although it is enough for them to look at countries with similar percentages of immunization, such as Spain or Portugal, where not only have the cases been progressively doubling, but the intensive care systems are already under pressure.

The variant seemed to have milder symptoms – thanks in part to vaccinations – according to studies that came out of South Africa, where the existence of omicron was first reported. However, that country had some biases: although vaccination is not as widespread, the population is younger and is more resistant to the coronavirus than older people are. Now, in Europe, despite the fact that a large part of the population is immunized, we see that the enormous transmissibility increases the number of people who can end up getting seriously ill, especially the most vulnerable.

This Tuesday, at the experts’ meeting, the new care protocol was also discussed, which, according to the prime minister’s advance last week, will limit hospital admissions. Ileana Morales Suárez, National Director of Science and Technological Innovation of the Ministry of Public Health, explained that children under two years of age, children who have not completed the vaccination schedule or with risk factors, will be evaluated for hospitalization. The same will be true for pregnant and postpartum women, the unvaccinated and patients with co-morbidities.

In addition, the preventive use of Nasalferon will be used in risk groups, which include pregnant women admitted to the Maternity Home and contacts of positive cases, older adults in Nursing Homes, patients over 60 years of age in Psychopedagogical Medical Centers, and people older than 50 years in Social Protection Centers.

On Tuesday, Cuba reported 2,685 new cases of covid-19 in the previous 24 hours, in addition to one deceased from the disease. There are currently 11,136 active cases, of which 28 are classified as serious and three as critical.

The trend has forced the cancellation of the XXIII Edition of the face-to-face Havana Festival, scheduled for February 2022, which was announced yesterday and now for the second consecutive year. The same is true for the the Jazz Plaza de Cuba Festival.

The Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, asked that the measures and protocols be applied with discipline, because “in the face of ómicron there can be no confidence.”

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Group of Cubans Denounce Scammer Who Offers Visas and Entry to United States for $6,000

Image of Cuban and Venezuelan migrants in a shelter in the Mexican state of NL. (Collage)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 13 January 2022 — “It’s a scam,” Facebook users warned Roberto when he asked how reliable the announcement that Andrés Ramiro Naranjo Pardo uploaded to social networks might be, in which he offered to cross migrants to the United States. “I’ll pass you to the US with ’parole’* included,” read this Cuban who is together with his wife in the Mexican state of Baja California.

“Don’t believe anything,” Internet user Ana María warned him. “He has several profiles and mobile numbers. He is a fraud.” Ana María shared her case with 14ymedio: “When you’re desperate to leave Cuba, you look for the ways and this guy knew how to deceive us. He sold a family member an appointment at the embassy. It was all a lie. I don’t know how we believed.”

Naranjo, who presented himself as a native of Havana, made two deposits of $3,000 to the BanCoppel account 4169160813668085. “When we looked for him to make a demand he wanted more money. He is a very skilled scammer,” warns Ana María. continue reading

Yanet, another of the scammers, was contacted by the same scammer through the same social network. He introduced himself as Andrés Naranjo and said he worked at the National Migration Institute (INM). He offered to transfer her to Mexico from Guyana, where she works in a hospital.

For the paperwork, Naranjo asked Yanet for $5,000. “It is very difficult to leave this way, there is a lot of jungle and dangers, that’s why I shared his name in a group of Cubans, and a girl alerted me to this guy and others asked me not to do any business” with him.

The person identified as Andrés Ramiro Naranjo Pardo has at least 20 profiles on Facebook. In some he appears as a naturalized Mexican, in others as a lawyer, teacher, referee and even soccer coach. In March 2021, he stated that every weekend he shared barbecues with technical directors of Mexican soccer: “Miguel Herrera, José el Profe Cruz, Rafael Puente (the son), Francisco el Gatillero Palencia.”

A migration source tells this newspaper that the people who have been victims of this trickster “are innocent” by sending money without guarantees. “They can flood the networks with accusations, the unfortunate thing is that this subject is laughing because he knows that we cannot act against him. Mexico does not sell visas. The way he has stolen them is even childish.”

In October, a Facebook user identified as Sombra de Luz denounced Naranjo in the group Foreigners in Mexico. “He is an unscrupulous thief,” they stressed, saying that every time he scams he changes his phone number and profile. “He is discrediting the Mexican embassy in Havana by saying that he has contacts there and that he can get a visa in Cuba for Mexico.”

Over time, in another Facebook group, Anielis Torres exposed Naranjo as “a scammer” who even offered “apartment rentals and offered work to women.” He scammed the woman from Sancti Spiritus with the promise of giving her documents to process her visa. “Today, before 10 pm they are delivered to me, we stay late-night, can’t eat yearnings, thanks and greetings,” was one of the last messages received before he disappeared.

Internet user David AlBaqq shared another of Naranjo’s announcements on the networks on December 4, in which he asked “truly interested people” to send him 10% of the cost of the $6,000 visa to a Banco Azteca account. “The rest of the money is paid after being authorized by the Mexican consul in Havana.”

Currently, Andrés Ramiro Naranjo Pardo appears on social networks as a retired worker from the Petróleos Mexicanos company. And now he guarantees through social networks the crossing to the United States through the Mexicali Centro port of entry, in Baja California, a border state with the United States. He even promises to take the migrants “to the door of your house in Miami or whatever city ​​in the United States where your relatives live.”

For years, Cubans in their desperation to leave the Island, have been victims of scams, extortion, kidnapping and even rape. In October 2021, this newspaper received the testimony of several migrants who were victims of rape during their journey through Darien. Ana, a 45-year-old Cuban told Doctors Without Borders her bitter experience. She, along with other migrants, were threatened with guns. The women were not searched, they were taken directly to the top of the slope and raped.

*Translator’s note: In this context “parole” means legal entry.

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The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba Denounces Russian Blackmail

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, together with his Cuban counterpart, Miguel Díaz-Canel. (Kremlin)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Manuel Cuesta Morúa, Marthadela Tamayo and Elena Larrinaga, Havana, 14 January 2021 — One more time. The Cuban Government returns to its arrogant genuflection at the service of Russian imperialism in its most archaic expression: territorial expansion. As it was 60 years ago, the discourse of sovereignty is nothing more than the alibi for the double ambition of absolute power and the global representation of anti-Americanism. It was what we were missing: once again poker with our sovereignty as geopolitical blackmail from a disruptive and global actor, whose only assets are hacking, new supersonic weapons and the flagrant violation of neighboring sovereignties. The Cuban Communist Party is a national disgrace.

In the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba we have waited exactly twelve hours for a tweet from the Cuban presidency or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denying the declarations of senior Russian officials in which they advance the possibility, if it is not already a reality, that arms and armies could be deployed in our country and in our sister Venezuela if the United States insists on its defense of Ukraine’s sovereignty and on the expansion of NATO towards neighboring countries. And nothing. Silence of a government that boasts in front of Cubans and the world that is is the sacrosanct defender of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the peoples.

Russia’s threat is a triple humiliation that should outrage Cubans. Russia supplants the voice of the Cuban State by giving the world information that, if true, should have been communicated sovereignly by the Cuban Government. Russia disposes of the national territory behind the backs of the deepest interests of Cuba, and Russia violates the determination, announced to great fanfare by the Cuban Government, signed and declared together with other nations in the region, to convert Latin America and the Caribbean in a zone of peace. A declaration that we assume was deposited as an instrument in the United Nations. continue reading

Do the UN Secretary General or the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States have anything to say about this contribution of the Cuban Government to the strengthening and defense of peace in the region?

We Cubans do have a lot to say and do. Dozens of young people are being accused of sedition by the same government that humiliates itself and sells our sovereignty, once again, to a foreign power. In a design that, paradoxically, reflects the inability of the Cuban elite to escape its colonized mentality, the Government delivers Cuba in its most difficult hours to the dangerous combination of selling economic assets to external actors, of entering the geostrategic game of control of external powers and of depending on them for the basic survival of Cubans. All because of its pathology of power.

The Russian weaknesses of the Cuban political elite constitute the real danger to our national security. In 1962 it began as a silent tragedy that ends in humiliation. In 2022 it begins as a humiliation that can end as a tragedy.

Recovering sovereignty from the hands of a party that places itself above it and the State is the most urgent political challenge for Cubans. Immediately, the unambiguous criticism of Russian expansionism, the solidarity shared towards the Ukrainian and Venezuelan peoples and the condemnation of a mediocre and incompetent government that, instead of concentrating on the search for genuine solutions to the national problems of a new society it detests, it dedicates itself to playing like a little soldier in the new cold war between powers.

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Cuba: The Prosecutor’s Office and its Witnesses Present Those Indicted for the 11 July Protests in Santa Clara as Terrorists

During the day of the trial, security forces multiplied around the Villa Clara Provincial Court. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 11 January 2022 — The tension between the relatives grew on the second day of the trial of the protesters on July 11 (11J) in Santa Clara. During the day the security forces multiplied around the Villa Clara Provincial Court and the news that came from the few who were able to enter the oral hearing was discouraging.

“The relatives came out devastated, crying, some almost on the verge of fainting” due to the amount of lies told by the witnesses and the Prosecutor’s Office, says a relative of the political prisoner Andy García Lorenzo.

“They are practically talking about the boys as if they were terrorists, that they threw stones, they beat the policemen,” he adds. Outside the room, family and friends who could not enter had to deal with police surveillance and the insistent rain.

“One of the things they said was that Andy had incited violence, that they had it in videos, but the videos now do not appear and the computers are broken, therefore those videos were not shown,” says the relative, pointing out, furthermore, that “the prosecution’s witnesses did not agree in their testimonies.” continue reading

“The police have also totally victimized themselves saying that they were in the demonstration unarmed, helpless and have even declared that they were very afraid at that time,” he says.

However, despite the fact that some moments of the oral hearings have been heard, the relatives say that they have been kept at the back of the room where the trial is being held. “It is all a strategy so that they do not hear much of everything they are talking about. They still have not been able to even hear the name of the judge, she practically whispers it.”

The families also denounce that some have had the internet cut off from their mobile phone lines to prevent them from reporting what happens in the trials. This is the case of García Lorenzo’s brothers, who until yesterday made several live broadcasts of what was happening outside the court, shared photos and gave their testimony to independent media, but this Tuesday they were deprived of access to mobile data.

Despite the regime’s censorship, and thanks to other mobile phone SIM cards that they managed through friends, the young people broadcast live from afar the departure of the defendants from the court, since the police cordon prevented them from approaching the vehicles in which the protesters were to be transported. Dozens of relatives, children, women, the elderly, looked vehemently towards the place.

Shouts of “Freedom,” “Freedom for Andy,” and “We are here” were heard at the top of their voices along with some names of the protesters such as “Andy,” “Yunior” and “José,” as a sign of support and to let them know that they are not alone.

The 11J detainees in Santa Clara who are being tried are, in addition to García Lorenzo, José Gabriel Arruebarruena, Randy Arteaga Rivera, Brian Amed Ceballo O’Reilly, Maykel Fleites Rivalta, José Miguel Gómez Mondeja, Armando Guerra Pérez, Liván Hernández Sosa, John Luis Machado Marrero, Amanda Dalai Matamoros Cabrera, Pedro Manuel Nicodemos Cabrera, Ariel Núñez Martínez, Mercy Daniela Pitchs Martínez, Lázaro Alejandro Rodríguez Ruiz, Yunior Sebey Mena and Leonel Tristá García.

This Monday, the Justice 11J platform reported that during the week of January 10-14, there will be four trials of 66 protesters in various provinces of the country, including those in Santa Clara. The crimes charged are public disorder, contempt and attack.

To date, the platform has documented the holding of ordinary trials of 223 protesters and, in relation to those under 18 years of age arrested by the 11J, it detailed that of the 48 detainees, 15 remain in prisons.

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Officialdom Publishes an ‘Inventory of Calamities’ in the Cuban Province of Ciego de Avila

The provincial industry barely accomplished 11% of the forecasts, that is, a total of 200,000 tons of sugarcane remained uncollected. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 12 January 2022 — The best example of the disaster in the economy of Ciego de Ávila is the sugar harvest, which did its part for what is already recognized as “the worst result in more than a century at the national level,” worst than the previous year. The provincial industry barely accomplished 11% of the forecasts, that is, a total of 200,000 tons of sugarcane remained uncollected.

This is one example of the many catastrophic data that characterized the economy of that territory during the past year and that this Wednesday is summarized in the newspaper Invasor, which promises a next installment in which they will tell about all the good that “was done.”

On the list of bad economic indicators is that 30% of state companies in Ciego de Ávila, a total of 23, have losses. In addition, income barely reached 23.6% of the forecast, 2,971 million pesos, and retail trade, due to its enormous shortage, remains at 77.2% of the forecast.

Ileana Venegas, director of Economy and Provincial Planning, attributed the poor general situation in the first place to the usual reasons, the US sanctions and the pandemic. And then to external and internal causes. As for the former, she made reference to the shortage of wholesale markets, which occurred in good part, she argues, due to the increase in import prices and the problems of international maritime transport. continue reading

With regard to Cuba, she mentioned the ’Ordering Task’*, the “partial dollarization of the economy in relations between companies and of these with the non-state sector,” and the mismanagement of the measures approved for the socialist state enterprise; but in no case did she develop these ideas.

The official also stressed that they are maintaining salary concepts based on productivity that are not sustained, since the latter did not reach 80% of what was expected but the payments were made at 86%, an imbalance that does not contribute to balancing the accounts.

In the chapter on exports the sugar harvest once again plays a leading role due to another fatal fact – Ciego only reached 28.8% of the global sales plan for this product. At the same time, one of the most demanded items from Cuba in recent times appears: charcoal made from the marabou weed. Delays in international maritime transfers caused this natural fuel to be stranded in containers in the Mariel Special Development Zone, resulting in the failure to export 13,300 tons.

The investments did not go well either. The forecast was 5,000 million pesos, but only 62%, 3,100 million, has been executed, according to already consolidated data from the Directorate of Economy and Planning itself. Azcuba and the ministries of Agriculture, Tourism, Energy and Mines, and Transportation were the ones that were most responsible for this breach.

The deputy director of Economy and Provincial Planning, Yens Toledano Padrón, explained that most of the investment has not been executed due to personnel problems, due to the many on sick leave caused by the pandemic, but also to the lack of financing and resources .

“Despite these results, it is necessary to recognize the effort made, in the midst of confronting the epidemiological situation, to have made progress in various activities,” said Ileana Venegas, mentioning among them the approval of 26 MSMEs (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises), whose performance has not yet been measured, nor their work in the neighborhoods and with the vulnerable, which the majority of citizens do not value, judging by the palpable social discontent throughout the Island.

*Translator’s note: Tarea ordenamiento = the [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’ which is a collection of measures that includes 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 others. 

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Cubans Hector Valdes and Esteban Rodriguez are Missing

Independent journalists Esteban Rodríguez and Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho shortly after being admitted to El Salvador. (Twitter / @ R_Cucalon)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 11 January 2022 — Cuban reporters Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho and Esteban Rodríguez are missing. The General Directorate of Migration and Foreigners of El Salvador, where they arrived on January 4 from Havana, published a statement on Tuesday in which they reported that both abandoned the process of requesting refuge in that country.

The text details that on January 6, both, “on a voluntary basis,” had requested to the Secretariat of the Commission for the Determination of the Status of Refugees, with which the Salvadoran authorities activated the protocols of “protection and humanitarian assistance due to their vulnerable condition “and notified the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner (UNHCR).

In their request, the statement continues, Valdés and Rodríguez “exposed the situation of political persecution for which they were forced to leave their country, alleging torture, intimidation, threats and other harassment towards them and their families.”

Neither of them, however, appeared at the refugee hearing set for this Monday. The appointment was rescheduled for this Tuesday, but they did not appear at that time either, and the process was closed “due to abandonment of the case by the interested parties.” continue reading

“As part of the protocol for the protection of refugee applicants, an attempt was made to locate them in the accommodation that was offered by the Government of El Salvador after their arrival in the country, but they were not there and their location is unknown until now,” the letter specifies.

El Salvador had admitted the two activists to its territory after they were stranded at the capital’s airport, allegedly  because both were rejected from entering Nicaragua.

On the same January 4 at dawn, Rodríguez had been released from Combinado del Este, the maximum security prison where he was detained for the protests on Obispo Street, Havana, on April 30, and driven in handcuffs, always according to his testimony, to the José Martí airport with Valdés.

Then, Valdés published a post on his Facebook account, suspended today, in which he reported that both were forced “to make the decision” to leave the island “bound for Nicaragua,” although he added that his intention was to stay there for a few days. He alluded, without specifying, to finally landing at the “place where many Cubans arrive fleeing the terror perpetuated by a totalitarian system.” That is, the United States.

However, according to their testimony, the route had a stopover at the Tocumen airport (Panama), from where they had to fly to El Salvador before continuing to Managua. It was at that point, upon arriving at the San Salvador airport, when they say that they were called by the loudspeaker to inform them that Nicaragua, governed by a partner of the Cuban regime, Daniel Ortega, was rejecting them.

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‘New Cars’ Given to Cuban Athletes, Who Then Thank Fidel Castro

Among those who received cars this time are the taekwondo player Rafael Alba and the four-time Olympic champion Mijaín López. (HIT)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 12 January 2022 — A row of shiny cars parked at the entrance of the Ciudad Deportiva (Sports City), in Havana, caught the attention of passers-by on Wednesday. In social networks, an Internet user shared images of the singular scene with a text that read: “Mercedes-Benz for our Cuban Olympic champions.”

The news was confirmed by the JIT digital site this afternoon, which specified that the delivery occurs thanks to “an agreement of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers.” Cars of various makes, not just Mercedes-Benz, were assigned “free of charge” to “renowned sports personalities,” the publication notes.

Among the athletes benefited are Serguei Torres, Fernando Dayán, Julio César La Cruz, Andy Cruz, Arlen López and Roniel Iglesias, Juan Miguel Echevarría, Maikel Massó and Yaimé Pérez, as well as Omara Durand and his guide Yuniol Kindelán, Leonardo Díaz, Robiel Yankiel Sol and Leinier Savón. continue reading

According to JIT, the canoeist Serguei Torres, who was the Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020, spoke on behalf of “the stimulated ones” in an event that brought together several officials in the Sports City: “To express thanks for this gesture, turned into reality in the midst of harsh circumstances for the country, it means recognizing once again the priority assigned to a sport that owes everything to the Revolution and its undefeated Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz.”

Also receiving cars this time were the taekwondo practitioner Rafael Alba, the shooter Leuris Pupo, the judoka Idalys Ortiz and the wrestlers Reineris Salas, Luis Alberto Orta, as well as the four-time Olympic champion Mijaín López.

Official  media in media also reported the news. It specified that they were “new cars,” and that the Granma discus thrower Leonardo Díaz Aldana, who won bronze in throwing the disc at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, received one of the vehicles. In addition, it was reported that the athlete had received “a Ventus range wheelchair,” donated by the German prosthetic firm Ottobock.

A few months ago, other images of “awards” to athletes generated a wave of memes and criticism on social networks when, on their return from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the athletes received as a stimulus in their community a basket with taro, yuccas, two packages of sausage, a carton of eggs, two bottles of oil, a cake, detergent, deodorant, pumpkin and bananas.

In 2017, a group of Cuban coaches and athletes from eleven disciplines who won medals at the Olympic, Paralympic and World Games received Chinese cars as a “stimulus to honor” and recognition of their results.
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Roberto Batista, Author of a Book that Vindicates the Memory of His Father Fulgencio, Dies in Madrid

Roberto Batista is the author of the book ‘Son of Batista’ (Verbum). (Courtesy)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yaiza Santos, Madrid, 12 January 2022 — Roberto Batista Fernández will not be able to fulfill his desire to return to a democratic Cuba, where human rights are respected and there is a Constitution based on the division of powers. The lawyer, the son of Fulgencio Batista and his second wife, Marta Fernández, died this Wednesday in Madrid at the age of 74 as a result of pancreatic cancer.

“They cannot operate on the tumor at the moment. While waiting they will administer chemo and in three months there will be a revaluation,” he had written to his friends in September, on the eve of the presentation of Hijo de Batista (Son of Batista) at the Madrid Book Fair, leaving, at the same time, a halo of good humor: “I’m in good spirits.”

This newspaper witnessed his spirit when it interviewed him on the occasion of the publication of his memoirs, which caused no little controversy. In them, he reported on the mixed feelings towards his father, who staged a coup in Cuba in 1952 and was in power until he was overthrown by the Castro Revolution on January 1, 1959. continue reading

‘Bobby’, as Roberto insisted on being called, described Fulgencio Batista as an extraordinary father who breached the constitutional mandate and that mistake “took a heavy toll,” but even worse was releasing Fidel Castro from jail in 1955, acquitting him, months after the assault on the Moncada Barracks.

Born in New York, Roberto Batista returned to that same city at the age of 11, together with his younger brother Carlos Manuel, two days before los barbudos [the bearded ones] entered Havana, and he practiced there for many years as a lawyer.

In his book, he vividly describes the shock of exile and of having that surname. That experience was for him, he repeated insistently, “a wound that never healed and will remain there until I die.”

There will be a wake for him this Thursday from 7:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. in the funeral home of the San Isidro Cemetery in Madrid. He will be buried there, in the family pantheon, where the remains of his parents and his brother Carlos Manuel lie.
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Donating Cell Phone Minutes, a Simple Way to Support Change in Cuba

Wright and Miralles, partners in life, not just in art, told Efe that the purpose of this project is to support the social protest and help people on the Island. (EFE/Wright/Miralles)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 11 January 2022 — Cuban-American artists Antonia Wright and Rubén Miralles have volunteered to support a plan that will keep members of the Cuban opposition connected so they may coordinate amongst themselves and inform on events on the Island through something as simple as donations to pay for cell phone minutes.

Wright and Miralles, known for their art in public spaces, have transformed two benches at strategically located bus stops in Miami-Dade county with text that alludes to political prisoners on the Island, which number more than 500 after the July 11th protests, and “Patria y Vida” [Homeland and Life], the anthem of those demanding political change in Cuba.

In addition, those benches, one located in the center of Miami and another in Hialeah, a city where the majority of the population is Cuban, urge people to send a text message with the word “Cuba” to 56512, through which donations of any amount can be made to “recharge” mobile phones of people on the Island.

“There are still more than 500 Cubans detained. Send mobile minutes to help Cubans organize,” the bench reads, along with the number to be texted, a Cuban flag and “#patriayvida.” continue reading

Wright and Miralles, who are partners in life, not just in art, told Efe that the purpose of this project is to support the social protest and help people on the Island.

Donations will be distributed by Cuba Decide, which defends the right of Cubans to decide which political system they want, because, according to the artists, they can ensure these funds “directly reach those who need them,” without Cuban government intervention.

Rosa María Payá, Cuba Decide’s leader, told Efe that being connected amongst themselves and with the world is fundamental for opposition members and activists on the Island.

“When Cubans are connected, mobilization is much more effective,” emphasized Payá, to signal the important role cell phones played on July 11th, the largest protests on the Island since 1959.

It is also important so they can make known the results of repression unleashed by the Government since then, the situation of political prisoners, and the trials to which those that participated in the protests are subjected, she added.

Cuba Decide has launched a campaign targeting Cuban-American artists and small business owners to volunteer and raise funds to help the cause of freedom in Cuba.

“We appreciate all the friends for their help in elevating the voices of those who have no voice, supporting our movement until we achieve freedom and democracy in Cuba,” adds Cuba Decide on its Instagram account.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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A Ration Store Clerk in Havana Posts Signs So People Will Stop Asking Her if There is Coffee

A ration store (bodega) located on e Street between 23rd and 21st in Havana’s El Vedado district with a sign that says “No coffee has come in.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 11 January 2022 — “No coffee has come in and no coffee has come in.” The clerk at the ration store on E Street between 23rd and 21st, in Havana’s El Vedado district, has chosen to put up two large signs with these words, as she is tired of saying it over and over again to customers who come in asking about the product, while she has no idea when there will be coffee.

“I put up the signs so that people would be warned,” she says with annoyance, while noting that at the beginning of the year the official press published  that the distribution of coffee through the ration book corresponding to January was imminent. “It is not only coffee, there is no compote or milk for children, there are minors who have not had milk since last month,” she adds bluntly.

In another ration store in the same neighborhood, at 27th and A, the picture is the same. “There is no coffee here either,” said the clerk.

Where the product does appear is on the black market, but only now and then. A few blocks from E Street, at the agro-market on 19th and B, this newspaper was able to verify that an informal vendor was offering each package, exactly the same one that is distributed in the family ration basket, at 50 pesos. But residents of the area say that it is not always available in the informal market.

The disappearance of ration-book coffee, and its disappearance in stores that take Cuban pesos or only foreign currency, has coincided with a significant rise in the price of the package that emigrants abroad buy for their families on the island. continue reading

Mayra, a resident of Centro Habana, says in a smiling tone that “her mind cannot function without a sip of coffee.” A few days ago, she was forced to ask her daughter, an emigrant in Spain, to buy her a package from one of the online stores.

Her daughter “flatly” refused, she says, because “a 250-gram package of Cubita or any other brand costs more than $20 on these sites.” For example, one of the stores that offers its merchandise on the Cuballama page, managed from Miami, is selling 250 grams (half a pound) of the El Arriero brand for $25.

“Luckily a friend from the neighborhood, who despite living alone in his house has five more relatives who are  now living in the United States still listed on his ration book, sold me the six packages that he received from the bodega last month,” explains Sergio, a resident of Cerro. “Thanks to that I still have coffee. He sells me each packet for 40 pesos because otherwise I would have to give up to 60 pesos for one on the black market.”

Brewed coffee is also absent in private coffee shops. “I go all over El Vedado and Central Havana looking for a place to have a snack and, incidentally, have a little cup of coffee and they aren’t selling it anywhere,” says Madelaine, a housewife who decided to go out this Tuesday to do some shopping in the agro-markets. “Even in the cafés they put the price on the board, but all the shop assistants tell me the same thing: ’We don’t have coffee’.”

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The Cuban Prosecutor’s Office Says that Otero Alcántara is a ‘Social Danger and Must Remain in Prison’

The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. (EFE / Archive)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 11 January 2022 — The Prosecutor’s Office has rejected the request for a change in the precautionary measures for the artist and member of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, considering that he is a “social danger.” In a statement released this Monday through Facebook, the group reports that the activist’s lawyer has received the notification denying him the provisional release requested almost a month ago and indicating that he must remain imprisoned until the date of his trial.

“This fact does not surprise anyone because it has already occurred historically when they have tried human rights defenders in total arbitrariness. And more recently they continue to do so in the ’performative’ and cruel trials in which the system has sentenced hundreds of Cuban citizens just for exercising on July 11th (11J) their constitutional rights in the public spaces that belong to them,” affirms the San Isidro Movement.

According to the group, the artist is currently “in a total state of vulnerability, sick and every day more psychologically damaged. The damages that the Cuban government has caused him are already irreversible.”

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has been in the Guanajay prison, Artemisa, since the July 11 protests. The artist was accused of public disorder, instigation to commit a crime and contempt when, in April 2021, he attended a birthday party in which the residents of the neighborhood where he resides ended up singing Patria y Vida. Although he was at liberty awaiting trial, he was detained during the summer protests when he was sent to prison.

In addition, in 2019 he was also accused of “outrage against national symbols” for a performance with a Cuban flag, although the case was dismissed in 2020.

“It is regrettable that the arbitrariness to which Luis Manuel is being subjected continue reading

continues. The cruelty towards him continues by the agents of the Cuban state. Luis is an artist, a human being who has not harmed anyone, he has only made use of his right to freedom of expression to raise your voice for all of us,” adds the message published yesterday by the MSI.

The post adds that the artist is relieved since he knows that Esteban Rodríguez is out of jail despite the forced exile to which he is subjected, but that “his concern for Maykel [Castillo Osorbo] increases with each passing day, mainly because he also is sick in prison.”

The repression that the State has exercised since 2018 against Otero Alcántara began to worsen in November 2020, when he began a hunger and thirst strike together with several activists to demand the release of rapper Denis Solís. The action ended with the the police, on November 26, storming the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement in Old Havana, where the members of the group were entrenched, and the arrest of the 14 activists who were inside the building.

This event prompted the protest of a group of artists and intellectuals on November 27 at the entrance of the Ministry of Culture to ask for solutions from the authorities of the sector. Two months later, the events led to a new dispute in which officials ended up coming to blows against the protesters.

At the end of April, Otero Alcántara once again declared a hunger and thirst strike to demand an end to the police siege of his home. State Security entered his home at dawn and transferred him to the Calixto García Hospital, where he remained for a month controlled by the security forces without explanations.

The artist was considered one of the 100 most influential people of the year by Time magazine.

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