14ymedio – Page 252 – Translating Cuba

Repression and Internal Disagreements Cause Resignations in the Archipielago Group

Policemen in the streets, arrests and acts of repudiation marked the day of 15N (15 November) in Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 24 November 2021 — After the surprise arrival in Spain of Yunior García Aguilera and his wife, Dayana Prieto, on November 17, the Archipiélago platform, which the playwright helped create, is experiencing difficult times.

The harassment and repression by Cuban State Security since the call for the Civic March of 15N, (15 November) finally frustrated by the regime, are joined these days by the group’s desertions and criticism of the departure of García Aguilera.

One of the casualties is that of Daniela Rojo, who this Wednesday announced her resignation as coordinator of the platform. The young woman from Guanabacoa, the mother of two small children, who was kidnapped by the political police on November 12 and spent five days in a house of the Ministry of the Interior under the custody of several agents, now describes her decision to separate from the platform as being for “personal and family problems”.

In a post published on her Facebook wall, Rojo said that she has not had any run-ins with members of the opposition group. “My departure from the Archipíelago has nothing to do with a change in my ideas or in my political position,” she said, “but I need to shelter my family, the ones that have suffered the most from this process, especially my children.”

The activist has been one of those most harassed by State Security, which has imposed fines and summoned her to various interrogations. For participating in the demonstration on July 11, she spent 23 days in prison. Earlier this month, she was summoned for an “interview” with the Organ of the Ministry of the Interior responsible for attention to minor children to allegedly show interest in the way she raises her children,” a very subtle form of emotional blackmail that would understandably make any mother give up,” she considered. continue reading

“I will use my time to collaborate in other functions, to be useful as well, but perhaps not as persecuted by State Security as Archipíelago is at the moment,” explained Rojo, who expressed her “respect” for those “who continue in that and all of the projects of the cause of the freedom of Cuba.” And she concluded: “I will continue to advocate from my trench for a plural and democratic Cuba and especially for the release of all political prisoners.”

Before her, on Saturday, Professor Leonardo Fernández Otaño, also moderator of the platform, publicly announced his departure from the Archipíelago, and confessed not sharing “a group of political actions carried out by Yunior García Aguilera since his departure from Cuba.”

“I have always lived the platform as a horizontal and consultation space, but my exercise of criticism was taken as a negative attitude by a good part of the members, which I respect as their genuine intellectual right, but I do not believe that it is democratic or healthy,” he lamented on his social networks.

In any case, his resignation is, he insisted, a “personal exercise” and “free from all pressure,” driven above all by his social vocation to build “the Cuba house.”

Fernández Otaño was also one of those arrested on June 11, when he demonstrated, along with García Aguilera and other activists, at the corner of 23 and M, in front of the building of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, in El Vedado, to demand 15 minutes on national television. All were violently arrested and most spent two days in custody.

In addition to being the moderator of the platform, the young professor was also the main coordinator of Ágora, the space for debate that Archipíelago has on Telegram, a responsibility that he also abandoned.

“Today I feel that I have to go back to my books, offer my ear and word to many mothers who are expecting their children,” he said. “The vocation that led me to enter the Archipíelago is still alive as the first day: the intention to support the construction of the social fabric, ask for the release of prisoners and encourage citizen reflection, but I believe in the finite.”

Among those detainees is Humberto Bello, the first protester to take to the streets on November 15. The young man has been processed in a summary and secret trial, in which he has been sentenced to one year in prison, according to the complaint made by the Cubalex legal organization this Tuesday.

A source close to a member of the Archipíelago, who prefers to remain anonymous, details that the pressure from the political police has reached the activists’ family and friends, and that they are focused on many opponents making the decision to leave the country. “They suggested that I speak with the person I know on the platform to promote his departure from the country,” he says. “They also offered me to go to a hotel with that person with all expenses paid during the days of the protests, and thus get them away from the streets.”

At the same time, and after a few days of stupor, the criticism against García Aguilera and Prieto’s decision began to harden.

The art historian Carolina Barrero, a member of the group 27N – as is Yunior García Aguilera — was forceful on her social networks. “What has happened is one of the most irresponsible acts in the history of rebellion in Cuba before and after ’59,” she wrote, without mentioning the name of the playwright at any time.

“It has been said that it is human to be weak, that it is human to break, and yes, one also has the right to be a coward. But if you are, you do not put the trust and responsibility on yourself to sustain the desire for freedom of a whole country, if you cannot hold your pulse, if you abandon yourself at the precise moment you have to be,” Barrero said, and added: “It was not difficult to wait fifteen days to leave or do it fifteen days before. Because from the human point of view I also say that the image in which a visa is collected on the same day and in the same place where it is called to march is incomprehensible.”

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Charcoal for the Christmas Chicken, Offer Cuban Markets Lacking Pork

Before, on the sign that hangs in the agricultural market on Sitio Street, in the Havana neighborhood of El Cerro, it said “Charcoal for your piglet”, but now tthere is no pork. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 23 November 2021 — “Pork leg imported from the United States, ideal for Christmas dinners,” reads the ad on one of the many digital sites that promotes products for Cuban migrants to buy for their relatives on the island. This year the popularly called “national mammal” will come from abroad in the face of the collapse of local production.

Just as Cubans said goodbye to nougats, grapes and cider to see in the new year, this time it is the turn of the traditional pig on December 31 to say goodbye. The fall in supply and the rise in the price of meat means that many families will choose to make a meal with chicken or minced meat on those dates.

El Pana, a private producer from Alquízar, assures that “this could be seen coming.” With a large clientele – which included private restaurants and rental houses – the entrepreneur has been offering “not a single rib” for more than a year, he explains to 14ymedio. Although the closure of Havana’s borders due to the pandemic hit his business hard, the reason for the decline points the other way.

“The guajiros stopped breeding and the females that had to be put on for the mount a few months ago did not put on,” laments the merchant. “This is a chain and when it is interrupted it becomes a problem to start breeding again,” he details. “For two years, when the lack of feed made it more and more difficult to keep the animals, there were producers who left the business and who no longer want to return.” continue reading

“I myself took apart the corral, and the irons that I was using to hold the fences, I used them in something else. The people who live near me did the same, and now they would almost have to start from scratch, so I don’t think the lack of pig is going to be fixed soon, this is going to take a long time to get back to how it was before.”

The chain El Pana is talking about also includes sausage producers, food outlets that based their menu on pork steak or fried dough, as well as all those that offered spices, citrus fruits and charcoal for seasoning and cooking ” the pig of 31,” as it is also popularly called.

Before, a sign in the agricultural market on the street, located near Collado, in the Havana neighborhood of El Cerro, said “good charcoal is sold for your piglet”, but it had to be changed and now it promotes the product for cooking “pollón” because, it jokes , “the piglet is lost and fleshy.” Among the customers who stopped in front of the ad, there was no shortage of ironies about the possibility that even the chicken (pollo) will disappear in the coming weeks.

“Soon it will be for the mincemeat, because the chicken is also being lost,” lamented a young man who claims to have seen more assortment in the market compared to other weeks, although it was fundamentally a greater supply of roots, vegetables and fruits, as the precious pork keeps coming in drippings and there are days when it doesn’t even show up.

“I bought a pound of pork steak for 200 pesos; if they had told me a few years ago, I would have believed it was a lie,” another Central Havana neighbor told this newspaper. “December has not started and the pig is already very expensive and missing. Before, this happened to people who left it for the end, those who were late in buying and wanted to have their leg in the last week.”

However, the woman believes, “now it is not even worth being cautious because since the beginning of the year the pig has been very expensive.” Her family will opt “for another meat, preferably chicken or mutton, if it appears.”

While in other countries it is customary to eat a turkey or roast a lamb, the star of Cuban Christmas is the pig. Along with black beans, rice and yuca with mojo, the pork dominates the tables. With its preparations, it also generates several family rituals, such as cutting the shoulder, frying the chicharones and preparing the mojo (marinade) for the meat.

“Chicharrones can also be made with the skin of the chicken,” says a clever family man who is already preparing for the change. “I’m not going to wear myself out looking for a piece of pork, now all my energy is going to go to see if instead of chicken drumsticks I can at least buy my family some breasts.”

But the breast is one of the pieces least likely to appear in the markets in Cuban pesos. “In foreign currency stores, people sleep in line all night to buy a box of breasts and those who have family outside buy it online,” he laments. “But I’m going to look for it even under the stones.”

“The trick is to cook it in the oven and put a piece of charcoal next to it,” he recommends, resigned. “Nothing to envy the roast suckling pig.”

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The Battle of the Grammys and the Example of Spain

The creators of ‘Patria y Vida’, with the exception of Osorbo, incarcerated in Cuba, collect the prize. (EFE)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 29 November 2021 — The Cuban regime turns everything into a ridiculous battle. It’s incapable of looking at itself in the mirror. It fears the image of octogenarians defeated by life and takes on a heroic vision of them. Right now, it has transformed the 2021 Latin Grammy awards into an epic struggle against Yotuel, Maykel Osorbo, who is jailed, Descemer Bueno, Yadam González, El Funky, Gente de Zona, and Beatriz Luengo. Why? Because they are the authors or the performers of Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life] (“Chancleta Records”), and because the organizers, in all fairness, chose that song as the best and the most outstanding of the year. At the same time, they received the Award for the “Best Urban Song” of 2021.

They weren’t even the only Cubans to win a Grammy. Gloria Estefan and the Aragón Orchestra also received one. Gloria Estefan won the “Best Tropical Album of the Year” award with Brazil-305, while the Aragón Orchestra, founded in 1939, 20 years before the Cuban Revolution arose, received the “Best Traditional Tropical Album” award for its Cha-Cha-Cha: Homenaje a lo tradicional (Tribute to the traditional.) The news surprised the members of the orchestra, according to Rafael Lay, its current director and son of one of the founders, although the sound quality was achieved in Los Angeles thanks to the efforts of Isaac Delgado and Alain Pérez, two excellent and charismatic performers.

Let’s look at the sequence of events. First, the clash with the San Isidro Movement took place. A group of very poor young artists, separated from political power, appeared in good faith at the Ministry of Culture to speak with the Minister. Their petition was not granted. Months later, the civic protests of July 11 occurred. Thousands of people rose up across the country. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to connect the two events. Finally, on November 15, the civic association “Archipiélago” took over. It was provisionally led by Yunior García Aguilera, who ended up exiled in Spain, and who offered a magnificent explanation of these phenomena delivered at a press conference. continue reading

The fact that the “Song of the Year” award has been given to Patria y Vida should have told the revolutionary leadership that its message smells like mothballs. It’s very old. Twenty or 30 years ago they would have awarded a song based on the motto Patria o Muerte [Homeland or Death], and it would have been awarded by a kid wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt, but today it is unthinkable that something like this would happen.

On January 1^st the 63^rd year of that revolution and that regime will begin! Of course, they can remain at the helm, but how long? General Francisco Franco died in bed like Fidel, as will likely happen to Raúl, but what they will not prevent is that the young generations completely modify the political course of the country. It has always been that way in world’s history.

Franco had carefully supervised the education of his successor in the executive power – the king – to ensure there would be no surprises. Even in Parliament – which at that time was called “the Cortes” and was made up of tercios, as the fascist manuals indicated – there were some fierce parliamentarians who made up “the 40 of Ayete.” They were known like that after the small palace in which they used to meet, very close to San Sebastián, in the Basque country, Franco’s residence in some summers. It was the group of Franco supporters that, supposedly, would resist any attempt to change. Only that at the head of “the 40 of Ayete” was no other than Adolfo Suárez, the man who, together with the king, led the transition once Franco died.

Neither King Juan Carlos nor Adolfo Suárez betrayed Franco. Or, if they did, they had to choose one of two conflicting loyalties: the one they owed to the old Caudillo who had personally elevated them, or the one they owed to the new generations who had not actively participated in the civil war, just like themselves. Both Juan Carlos de Borbón and Adolfo Suárez were products of World War II, or, in any case, of the Cold War that was then being fought. They chose to lead their compatriots to modernity and extract them from the first part of the 20th century to which the Generalissimo of Spain had dragged them.

I don’t know how the example of Spain can be ignored, despite the fact that, from an economic point of view, the last 15 years of the Franco regime were splendid. Cuba has a golden opportunity to correct the wrong course taken in 1959. All it has to do is rectify, consult society, and go, as Oswaldo Payá pointed out, “from the law to the law.” Otherwise, the country may fall into another stage of unnecessary violence.

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In Prison, Osorbo is Punished for Expressing Gratitude for the Grammys Awarded to ‘Patria y Vida’

One of the audios sent by Orsorbo from jail was to express his gratitude for the Latin Grammys for ’Patria y Vida’.

14ymedio, Havana, November 27, 2021–Rapper Maykel Castillo Osorbo, jailed for the six months, had his phone calls suspended for three months as punishment. As art curator Anamely Ramos explained on Friday, the motive was the recorded messages the artist has been sending from jail.

One of them was the one he sent in regards to the Latin Grammy gala on November 18th, where the song Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life] on which Osorbo collaborated, won the two awards for which it was nominated.

Ramos stated that on Wednesday Castillo received a visit from his lawyer in the maximum-security prison of Kilo Cinco y Medio in Pinar del Río, after several days without news of the rapper. “This is how we confirmed that he is still there,” wrote the curator, a member, as is the rapper, of the Movimiento San Isidro (MSI).

“Maykel’s voice is unbearable for those in power, even though his body is imprisoned. With this, they only show their fear and how little authority they have left,” shared Ramos who stated that at first they punished Osorbo by denying him phone calls for one month, but when they called him to confirm the disciplinary measures that would be imposed, he wrote “Patria y Vida” below his name, for which the punishment increased to three months.

“A three word sentence is also unbearable to them,” denounced Ramos. “Three words have the power to leave an entire state without recourse, other than violence. Three words: each one a month of isolation for Maykel. They are shameful.” continue reading

Ramos insisted that Osorbo is “unjustly imprisoned” and sick. “Under these conditions, to keep him isolated is doubly grave. Now how will we know his state of health?” she asked.

“Taking away a prisoner’s phone calls for an audio expressing gratitude for a prize he won for his talent and his effort and which is a prize for all of Cuba (which does not belong to you), is a cruel act and an embarrassment in the 21st century,” she asserted, and then stated that the Cuban prison regulations violate “the Mandela Laws and are contemptuous of human dignity and life.”

Osorbo was detained on May 18th of this year and at the end of that same month was transferred to Kilo Cinco y Medio, a maximum-security prison. He is accused of “assault”, “public disorder” and “evasion” for what occurred on April 4th at a protest on Damas street in front of MSI’s headquarters, when police attempted to arbitrarily arrest him and he refused to get into the patrol car.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Fabricated Charges and False Witnesses Against July 11th Protesters in Artemisa, Cuba

Photo of People’s Provincial Tribunal in Artemisa. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, November 28, 2021–“Prepared testimony” and contradictions predominated the three days of trials against 13 young protesters in the Criminal Court of the People’s Provincial Tribunal in Artemisa, according to family members. “There is an extraordinary contradiction among the prosecution’s witnesses,” Roberto Rodríguez, who attended the trial, assured 14ymedio.

The young people, who did not have prior criminal records, have endured finger pointing and comments for participating in the massive marches on July 11th in the province where the first popular protests began. During the trial, the fabricated accusations were evident as were the false witnesses with which the prosecutors sought long sentences. The sentencing is expected within 15 days.

In Yeremin Salsine Janés’s case, he could be sentenced to 14 years in prison. During his detention and his transfer to the maximum-security prison in the municipality of Guanajay, the 31-year-old man received beatings, which resulted in head injuries, according to sources close to the family.

“It has been tense, inhumane and cruel to see, on the first day, one of the young men hav a panic attack because he didn’t have his medication, seeing his brother with high blood pressure transferred to the hospital in a patrol car. And then he spent a long, torturous night waiting until dawn to continue the trial,” relayed Rodríguez, speaking about the arbitrary nature of the processes within the People’s Provincial Tribunal. continue reading

For Eduardo Gutiérrez Alonso, who remains in provisional custody at the Técnico y Guanajay and faces charges for the crimes of public disorder, contempt and assault, the prosecutor seeks 12 years in prison. The trial against him has been plagued with irregularities, denounced a family member. The witnesses confirmed that Eddy was wearing shorts and a red T-shirt. “That is not so,” refuted a source close to the accused. “In the videos and the evidence presented, he is dressed in black and wearing slacks.”

The streets of Artemisa’s Provincial Tribunal have been militarized, stated family members of the young men. (14ymedio)

The tension of the first day of the trial was followed by intimidation the following day when family members of those detained were received with “militarized streets,” which caused the first shock. The second occurred within the courtroom, when pepper spray carried by one of the policemen exploded.

“The sad thing is that in our affected state, to evacuate the prisoners they wanted to handcuff them, then they removed them from the courtroom, washed their faces and helped them,” and one man with asthma required oxygen. That day one of the accused with epilepsy “suffered a crises and had a seizure.” We learned this person had already experienced a similar situation in prison.

Last Wednesday, after the presentation of evidence, the defense felt confident that, “the prosecutor did not have a case.” The defense pointed out the lies told by the prosecutor and witnesses, in which “the manipulation was plain to see.”

Family members demanded “freedom and justice” for Javier González Fernández, Alexandre Díaz Rodríguez, Yurien Rodríguez Ramos, Eduard Bryan Luperon Vega, Eddy Gutiérrez Alonso, Victor Alejandro Painceira, Yeremi Salsine, José Alberto Pio Torres, Leandro David Morales, Luis Giraldo Martínez, Iván Hernández Troya, Yoslen Domínguez, and Yoselin Hernández. They also demanded that authorities cease “the citations and persecution.”

To date, several independent organizations have documented 1,283 detentions resulting from the protests on July 11th and 42 convictions in summary trials. Of this total, at least 540 remain in prison.

In one report, the Cubalex legal information center, expressed special concern for “the use of sedition to impose exemplary sanctions on at least 122 people” and reported that prior to July 11th, Cuban Prisoners Defenders had registered 152 political prisoners.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Rapper Denis Solis Leaves Cuba

The rebellious rapper Denis Solís, captured at the Havana airport, in one of the images released by anonymous accounts at the service of the Cuban regime this Sunday. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 29 Noviembre 2021 — The rebellious rapper Denis Solís, who was released from jail in July after an eight-month sentence for contempt which was decreed in a summary trial, has left Cuba. After speaking with an uncle of the artist, Vladimir Lázaro González, 14ymedio was able to confirm that the trip took place on November 27 and the flight was destined for Moscow, and then headed to Serbia. “He left with his daughter and a cousin,” His uncle said.

The art curator Anamely Ramos later posted in her social networks that she has been able to talk with Solís, who is already in Serbia, and the decision was “personal and family… driven by the harassment to which he has been subjected since he was released from prison in July.” At the moment, the rapper does not want to give more details but has announced his intention to do so shortly.

The news had been disseminated this Sunday by anonymous accounts at the service of the regime, which announced that the destination of the activist, a member of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), was Serbia. In the official posts, the information was accompanied by images that show Solís at the José Martí International Airport in Havana, carrying a suitcase and accompanied by family members.

The arrest and imprisonment of Solís, in November 2020, was the origin of the protest of some members of the MSI, who gathered on hunger strike at the headquarters of the group, in Old Havana, for more than a week.

They were violently evicted from there by State Security by agents dressed as healthcare workers on November 26, which in turn provoked the solidarity of more than 300 artists who, the next day, gathered in front of the Ministry of Culture to request a dialogue with the authorities, and thus creating the 27N (27 November) Group. The anniversary of those events is this weekend. continue reading

Subsequently, on December 4, Luis Robles was arrested December 4th on Boulevard de San Rafael in Havana holding a placard demanding the release of Denis Solís. Robles has not been released from prison, and almost a year later is still awaiting trial.

So far, Solís has not made any statements about his trip, and neither has any member of the MSI, inside or outside Cuba. It is not known if it is temporary or migratory.

It is not by chance that the main party interested in spreading the news is the Cuban regime. The recent release of the artist Hamlet Lavastida in exchange for his exile in Poland , where he traveled accompanied by his partner, the poet Katherine Bisquet, made clear the regime’s strategy toward opponents engaged in the most recent movements.

Members of MSI and 27N who are outside Cuba at present include Tania Bruguera, Camila Lobón, Claudia Genlui, Alfredo Martínez and Yunior García Aguilera. García Aguilera, through the Archipiélago platform, had called for the Civic March for 15 November, which was ultimately frustrated by the actions of the authorities.

Also outside of Cuba is Eliexer Márquez, known as El Funky, one of the performers of Patria y Vida, who from Miami declared: “Be clear that my objective is called Maykel Castillo Pérez (El Osorbo), my brother, and I will do what I can and do the impossible to support his freedom as much as that of all prisoners unjustly held. I am here today on behalf of the San Isidro Movement and without forgetting my brothers Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Esteban Rodríguez and Anyelo Troya because I am in a country of freedom and it is a right to express yourself. This starts now. ”

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Cuban Journalist Asks the Police to Go After the Thieves and Not the Activists

Journalist Ely Justiniani Pérez , on her social networks, questioned the inability of the Cuban police to deal with robbery cases. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 26 November 2021 –The robberies and the ineffectiveness of the Cuban police were exposed this Friday by journalist Ely Justiniani Pérez. “Three robberies on my block in less than a week,” she wrote in a post. There, she regretted that the authorities had not “done anything”: neither taken fingerprints nor followed up on the cases.

“What should be done? Put up a sign that says ‘patria y vida’ (homeland and life) or ’down with I don’t know who’, so that they put a little surveillance in the area?” asked the collaborator of independent news sites such as El Toque and La Joven Cuba, in clear allusion to the opposition slogans. Justiniani explained that the thief entered the house of an elderly woman who lives alone, and believes: “That means that he was in danger of death.”

The journalist addresses the authorities noting that the police officers’ salaries “are paid by the people,” and that their role “is not precisely to go after activists and young people with different political ideas,” as has been evident in the marches on July 11 and the frustrated one on November 15. “Do your real work, recontra,” she demanded.

Last October, Amanecer Habanero announced six robberies in a week committed in the El Vedado neighborhood, where the police implemented an “evasive tactic,” taking hours and even days to gather evidence continue reading

at the scene of the crime if it is common crimes. “People feel unprotected, thieves know it,” was the feeling of the robbery victim, Aniusca Labrada.

This crime wave occurs on the island, according to the Numbeo platform, which is a company registered in Serbia and founded by a former Google software engineer, and which in 2020 ranked Cuba as “the safest country in the Americas,” with a crime rate of 29.02% and safety of 70.98%, surpassing Canada and the US.

Given the silence of the official media, the thefts are reported through social networks. “One problem is that many people do not report because when they do, the police ask them for papers on the stolen objects,” one user told this newspaper. “If they are electrical appliances (properties or import papers), as there is so much illegal sale, people fear that they will end up going from accuser to accused.”

Thus, it is difficult to know the real incidence of these acts, because many times the victims choose to remain silent and, if anything, reinforce the security of their homes after suffering a robbery: buying bars, new locks or surveillance cameras. “I once reported a robbery and then I couldn’t leave the country because I was in the middle of a police investigation,” adds a woman from Havana who had a flat-screen TV and a laptop stolen from her apartment .

“When I went to leave through the airport they told me that I could not and when investigating it was my name was in the investigation file, so I withdrew the complaint because they had not caught the thief and to top it off I was receiving double punishment, I was left without my belongings and lost the money I paid for my ticket.”

Another of the most common thefts in Cuba is motorcycles, which leads the owners to organize a “hunt” for the thieves. Yoan Rosquete, for example, through Facebook “put baited motorcycles to catch them red-handed.” There are also groups in which the spoils are denounced.

To this must be added assaults, such as the one on November 10, when a medical student was threatened with a knife to steal her cell phone. The event occurred in the Ciudamar neighborhood of San Miguel del Padrón, in Havana, and was captured on video .

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A Member of Cuba’s San Isidro Movement Requests Asylum at the Zurich Airport

The reporter and activist Alfredo Martínez Ramírez. (Courtesy)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 23 November 2021 — Right now, the Cuban reporter and activist Alfredo Martínez Ramírez planned to be leaving the Zurich airport, where he arrived last Thursday, to enter a refugee center in Switzerland, the country where he has requested asylum after months of persecution and harassment in Cuba. However, he will have to wait until the end of this week, according to what the Swiss authorities just informed him.

Martínez is not one of the visible faces of the Cuban opposition, but he has been an active member and is loved by his colleagues, and this Sunday he received from exile the birthday wishes of the members of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), which he has collaborated with since 2019.

“Now I have to prove all the repression against me. Right now I am in the airport refuge and from here they are going to take me to the city refuge. Tomorrow is the fifth day since I have been here and the asylum process has a five month delay,” the activist told 14ymedio this Monday .

Martinez had had his ticket to freedom since February, but the pandemic thwarted his departure on numerous occasions. Finally, last Thursday, he boarded a flight from Havana that, after a brief stopover in Cancun, left him at the Kloten Airport, where the immigration police followed up on his request.

“They had me in a room for about three hours checking all my data, my criminal record, they took all my documents, right now I am without a passport or identity card. I have a green paper, which is a permit to be at the airport without documents,” explains the activist by telephone.

Although he describes the situation as “terrible,” he claims to be well and properly cared for. “They have treated me very well. I have had a bed and food, but it was difficult, I had to explain in detail what I was doing in Cuba,” he says.

His first arrest in Cuba occurred on October 10, 2020, during a concert against police violence at which he was arrested by agents who dragged him around San Isidro for five blocks before taking him to the Marianao station. “It was the first time I met agent Darío.” continue reading

It was not, however, his first encounter with the Cuban forces of order, whom he had known as a collateral victim. His partner was a freelance journalist, which began to out the pressure on him. So, for example, he lost your rental home.

The practice of pressuring the landlord to terminate the contract with a tenant in the opposition has not been unusual in Cuba. It happened to him on two occasions, the second when he shared a house with the art curator Anamely Ramos, with whom he also collaborated on a project that called for the release of imprisoned activist Silverio Portal. Getting involved in the San Isidro Movement press group was definitely a turning point in his life.

“I had to help my friends, Katherine [Bisquet], Camila [Lobón], Carolina [Barrero], whom I met 10 years ago, when none of us were thinking of doing this kind of political activism, and I took it as something very personal,” he says.

On November 27, when he was already a contributor to the independent publication Tremenda Nota, he participated in the protest in front of the Ministry of Culture and was one of the 30 chosen to participate in a meeting that the authorities sold as a will for dialogue. Since then, his engagement has become a priority.

“I was in the group to help political prisoners, bringing meals for the ‘Where you fall I raise you’ campaign, medicines for the MSI medical kit and keeping my friends communicated and fed. That cost me a lot, because it bothered State Security that I was helping them,” he says, adding that they tried to prevent him from visiting Carolina Barrero on multiple occasions.

“They were not going to take from me a friendship of so many years. How could I not go help her if she was alone and I know she was having a bad time? She was besieged [surrounded by State Security] for more than 200 days, without food, without anything, how am I going to leave her alone in that,” remember.

Already then, when he accumulated several arrests, he bought a ticket to leave Cuba on February 8, but the restrictions due to covid-19 were joined by another issue. On January 27, he was arrested before the Ministry of Culture when the police violently dissolved the sit-in that several artists were holding after paying tribute to José Martí on the eve of the 168th anniversary of his birth.

“In that arrest they made me sign a letter in which I had to renounce all activism and pass on information to them, something that I denounced when I left. But I couldn’t handle those prohibitions and I broke everything I signed. They got very upset with me, because I continued doing my things. For me those papers are worth nothing; I signed at that moment because I was leaving in 10 days,” he adds.

After July 11, the harassment moved on to his family, which State Security began to pressure to force his departure. “They have not stopped insisting that I leave. They never ’regulated’* me , they even insisted on buying me a ticket, but I always said no, that I didn’t want anything from them,” he explains.

Martínez leaves Cuba convinced that his low profile has helped fulfill his objectives and, although he is grateful for the voices that lead activism, he claims his place. “I have always liked to be behind everything, to really help, without being in the foreground, because it does not interest me. I do not want to say things that are already more than said, but to carry out actions. That is my goal.”

*Translator’s note: ’Regulated’ in this context means forbidden to travel.

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One Year in Prison for an Opponent from Los Arabos Who Dressed in White on 15 November

Jose Hernández López was one of those arrested in a park in Los Arabos when he took to the streets on November 15 wearing a white shirt. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 November 2021 — Last Thursday, the Municipal Court of Los Arabos, in Matanzas, sentenced the opposition José Hernández López to one year in prison for the events of 15N (15 November), according to information from the opponent Martha Beatriz Roque speaking to 14ymedio. The former ’Black Spring’ political prisoner explained that the activist was prosecuted for the crimes of attack and contempt, and not for disobedience, as the prosecution had initially indicated.

Hernández López was one of those arrested in a park in Los Arabos when he took to the streets on November 15 wearing a white shirt. A police officer approached him to demand that he change his clothes but the activist refused and the officer proceeded to arrest him.

The Archipiélago platform had called a “Civic March for Change” on that date, which was joined by activists and citizens, but the few who managed to go out on the streets that day were arrested. Most suffered a strong surveillance by State Security and a police cordon around their homes.

According to the opponent and independent trade unionist Iván Hernández Carrillo speaking to Radio Martí, the court where Hernández López was tried “was taken over by the Military Forces of the Political Police and the National Police, in addition to paramilitaries and rapid response brigades and no access to family members was allowed. continue reading

Hernández Carrillo, who was convicted during the Black Spring of 2003, considers it “unacceptable” that the international community continues to observe the violations committed by the island’s regime and that “they do not take serious measures with the Cuban dictatorship.”

Another of those arrested and sentenced for the day of 15N is Humberto Bello, who was processed in a summary and secret trial, in which he has been sentenced to one year in jail. The Cubalex legal information center has compiled a database of those convicted in relation to 11J (11 July) and 15N, and has demanded “immediate dismissal” of all the cases in the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office.

Cubalex and the Justice 11 platform have also asked for the support of civil society, as well as that of the independent press and all those who can share information and details of these judicial processes in order to denounce them and sensitize the international community to the issue of political prisoners in Cuba.

To date, these organizations have documented 1,283 detainees as a result of the July 11 demonstrations. Of that total, at least 540 are still in prison and they report that they have verified 42 convictions in summary trials.

In the report, Cubalex showed special concern about “the use of the charge of sedition to impose exemplary sanctions on at least 122 people” and noted that before July 11, Cuban Prisoners Defenders registered 152 political prisoners.

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‘Cubadebate’ Tries to Give Lessons in Journalism to the International Press

The international press could not get any closer to Yunior García Aguilera’s home on November 14, when the police kept him under siege to prevent him from being able to march as he intended. (EFE)

14ymedio, Madrid, 26 November 2021 — On Friday, two weeks after the Cuban government withdrew the credentials of the EFE agency journalists without explanation, the State website Cubadebate published an extensive article intended to justify the measure, which it attributes to the “prominent role” of the Spanish media in the “manufacture of news.”

The official website makes it clear that the coverage of 15N (15 November) by EFE and CNN, to which they also dedicate half of the text, was not to their liking, more than enough reason, apparently, to prevent journalists from exercising their profession.

The note, titled CNN in Spanish and EFE on Cuba: Naivety or collusion? begins by explaining to readers how a political situation can be narrated in many ways and shown from different angles, forming a particular perception of the facts and generating in the receiver a specific political position. The media have, it adds, the duty to show reality so that citizens can consciously choose their sources and build their version of events.

Cubadebate’s journalistic theory class fits perfectly with the one that would be taught in a journalism school, but only up to that point. Next, the official media makes it clear that the only perception allowed in Cuba is theirs and that any method is good if it prevents the public from forming another point of view.

The digital medium, directed by Randy Alonso — self-defined as a ‘Fidel Soldier of Ideas’ — accuses EFE of “biased and tendentious actions,” specifically due to continue reading

the informational treatment given to the the 15N marches. According to Cubadebate, “the media usually report on events in progress or that have already had an outcome,” but both CNN and the Spanish agency “as of several weeks before November 15, already systematically ’reported’ on the alleged situation of instability in Cuba and about mobilizations that had not yet occurred and a ’strong government response’.”

In addition to forgetting that, for officialdom, the mere calling of an opposition march, by means of a request presented in the institutions and in accordance with the law, was news because it was an unprecedented event, Alonso ignores his site’s own practices. A quick search is enough to verify that Cubadebate has reported calls for marches against “imperialism” and the blockade on many occasions before they occurred. They have also advanced announced events, fulfilling the function of the press, such as the reopening of the country after the pandemic, the production of vaccines and the attraction of investments, even if the latter did not come to pass.

Cubadebate not only points out what EFE should not have published, but also indicates what it should have done, such as talking more about vaccines, improvements in the pandemic, and the reopening to tourism. In this case, the little analysis carried out by the official media is easily perceived, since the agency offered – and continues to do so – the daily data of the pandemic through the press conferences of Dr. Francisco Durán. Those cables also contained information on vaccinations.

Nor has the Spanish agency spared news about the Cuban-developed vaccines Soberana and Abdala, even praising an effectiveness that has only been tested on the Cuban side, as in the note entitled “The effectiveness of Cuban formulas opens hope for the first Latin American vaccine” and many others that one can locate in seconds with the help of a search engine. The same happens with the reopening of tourism.

On Saturday, November 13, the Cuban government withdrew the accreditations of the entire EFE team on the island and, hours later, returned two of them. Cubadebate insists that two members of the team kept their credentials the entire time and were able to work, without giving any reason why the limitation or cut is justified.

In fact, the official media considers it a demonstration of government benevolence that the agency published three articles between November 12th and 15th, and 16 more articles on the day of the call to march and that the two authorized reporters were able to “move and actively report.”

It can be assumed that they were very active to be able to maintain the publication rhythm with such a decrease in the team which, to this day, it is still very limited, despite the fact that it recovered.

Efe now adds this warning note in all their cables. “The decisions of the Cuban authorities in recent months have decimated the team of the Efe delegation in Havana, where currently only two journalists can continue to carry out their work. Efe hopes to be able to recover its information capacity on the island in the coming days.”

Cubadebate also points out that the relevance of EFE, the world’s leading news agency in Spanish, is one of its concerns, and highlights some information that, in its opinion, it should not have disseminated. This includes reports related to the arrests, the arrival of Yunior García Aguilera in Spain, and even the withdrawal of the credentials, which apparently have “political intentions.”

Although this Friday’s note devotes ample space to deploring the activity of CNN in Spanish, this channel does not have an office in Cuba, although its headquarters in English does have a representative, whose ambiguity towards the Cuban regime has been pointed out on several occasions.

What is new this time is the head-on confrontation with the Spanish state agency, which had been established normally on the island for 40 years and which it now accuses of having a line similar to that of the US television as an “expression of a coordinated strategy by the large media.of the international press to make viable the policy of the North American Government against Cuba and achieve the final objective of destroying the Revolution and producing a ’regime change’.”

Press associations and governments around the world rejected the Cuban authorities’ decision to withdraw the credentials of EFE journalists, and the agency’s leadership accused the Plaza of the Revolution of demonstrating “an unequivocal will to destabilize” its work.

“The harassment of the agency by the Cuban authorities is serious and sibylline,” EFE president Gabriela Cañas said last week. The Spanish Government might also respond to the note, since EFE is a company in which the State is the main shareholder. Two ministers, Foreign Affairs and Presidency, have already demanded the return of the accreditations and, even, summoned the Cuban charge d’affaires in Spain, who declined to attend the urgent meeting claiming to have covid.

Cuban officialdom, however, does not back down and in its article today threatens to continue to wage war on the press. “Our battle against such petty interests is prepared, right on the same terrain where they intend to fight it to deprive us of the freedom and the independence conquered based on a lot of blood from worthy Cubans.”
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Yunior Garcia Suggests an Alliance Against the Dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua

EUROPA PRESS (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 27 November 2021 — Cuban playwright Yunior García Aguilera, who arrived in Spain last week to escape repression, calls on the opposition to “reinvent itself” to try to “change things” on the island, for which he suggests, for example, the need to speak with opponents from Venezuela and Nicaragua who are facing “the same dictatorship” as in Cuba.Just a year ago on November 27th, García Aguilera, became one of the most prominent figures of the opposition.

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He was a part of the hundreds of artists who demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Culture asking for dialogue and freedom of expression, took stock from Madrid of these twelve months, in which he has seen how the threats and pressures have happened, both in private and in public.

In an interview with Europa Press, he explains that to this day the “regime” of Miguel Díaz-Canel is still engaged in the “discrediting campaign” against him through the official media.

“Cuba does not need more martyrs,” insists García Aguilera, who assumes, once again, that he may have “disappointed” part of the opposition by leaving Cuba in the midst of a wave of protests. However, he sees this stage as a necessary step to avoid being left “silenced” in his house in Havana. The playwright reiterated that for now he rules out requesting asylum.

“It is not necessary to give 20 years of our life to that regime,” he says. “It is not about going down in history, being given a street name, or putting up a marble statue in a park. It is about changing things,” he adds.

García asserts that his family has suffered threats “that perhaps it is not yet the time to talk about,” although he does confirm “pressure” by the diplomatic corps on relatives in other countries and whom the Government supposedly wanted to use as intermediaries in the “coercion.”

They wanted to “convince” him to leave Cuba. “They thought that I was going into asylum or to concentrate on my work, and that I was going to forget about politics,” says the playwright, who assumes that there may be people “following” him in Spain as well to give an account of what he does or says.

Opposition organizations have reported in recent months an increase in repression on the island, especially as a result of the July 11 mobilizations. Archipiélago already criticized the government’s veto of the protest that it had called for November 15 and the pressure continues even after this date.

Some of them “have had to lower their profile,” as the playwright explains when questioned about cases such as that of Daniela Rojo, who a few days ago resigned as Archipiélago’s coordinator. “It is human,” admits García when speaking of these types of situations, in which in his opinion they are the true “protagonists.”

Those who are still inside Cuba, he adds, are “those who need more attention.” The founder of Archipiélago considers that being in the media, making oneself “visible” is, in many cases, a shield against persecution, because what the authorities are trying to do is to make sure “no one is looking at you so they can do whatever they want with you.”

Another of the strategies used by the “regime” would be to foment division among the dissent. “All the time they make you feel that your colleagues are your enemies,” Garcia sums up, who immediately advocates prioritizing the “common goal” over any possible differences.

“It is not a race to see who comes first” or “who manages to get more attention,” he adds, speaking of “a diverse group” that tries to do “everything it can” to “change the reality of Cuba.”

“We have made mistakes and we will continue to make them,” he says.
García affirms that “no one has been trained to overthrow a regime, to build a democracy within a dictatorship,” but he does believe that “there are paths traveled without success” and it is time to “reinvent ourselves.” In this “intermission,” in which “the regime believes it has obtained a victory” by stopping the marches on the 15th, it is time to “regain strength.”

The playwright, who has already met in Spain with authorities such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, JosÃ? Manuel Albares, also wants to take advantage of his stay in Madrid to “exchange experiences” with other people who have gone through similar situations.

Therefore, it is feasible to replicate the “strategic alliance” that exists between the administrations of Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba, but at the level of the opponents. “In the end we are facing the same thing,” it is “the same dictatorship”, in the opinion of the opponent.

García redefines concepts usually associated with communism in Cuba, among others that of homeland. “Your homeland is the people you know. For me, homeland is not feeling alone,” he reviews, recalling his own experiences in a country that he even compares with the “Matrix.”

The Castro brothers, first, and Díaz-Canel, later, would work in favor of a “great lie” that “they have sold as the best commercial product… It has received better publicity than Coca-Cola” and “many people in the world have bought that commercial product called the Cuban revolution,” he laments.

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The New Escape Route for Cubans is Called ‘Nicaragua’

Dozens of people wait in the Copa Airlines line in Havana to get a ticket to Managua. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, 27 November 2021 — One of my first memories dates from 1980, when I was not yet five. In the Havana tenements where I lived the shouts of several neighbors captured my attention and I looked out into the hallway. A large group was shouting insults at a young man who had decided to emigrate through the port of Mariel. Forever engraved in my memory is that explosion of curse words and livid faces.

Now we are experiencing another stampede, but unlike those years, when the Soviet bear sent substantial resources to Cuba, the official pickets don’t have eggs to throw against the doors of those who want to escape the country, nor paint with which to smear their walls with slogans. Instead, the authorities seem eager for the social pressure cooker to be alleviated and new emigres to be added to the list of those who send remittances to the island.

On this occasion, instead of opting to open a pier for all those who would like to come to look for their family or lifting the closure of the borders so that thousands of precarious rafts could cross the Straits of Florida, as happened in 1994, officialdom has come up with a formula that kills many birds with one stone. Thanks to the complicity of the political ally Daniel Ortega, it was announced this week that Cubans do not need a visa to enter Nicaragua.

The Central American country thus becomes the hope of all those who can no longer endure the material hardships and the lack of freedom. But Managua is not the final destination, just a first step to continue reading

embark on the route to the southern border of the United States. The Plaza of the Revolution is well aware of these expectations and estimates that in a few months thousands of its citizens will crowd those border points demanding to enter.

With the move it has just made, the Cuban regime ensures Joe Biden will very soon have a headache, along with a great internal discussion due to the considerable increase in the number of migrants coming from this island. While, by the way, freeing the Island from the most dissatisfied and rebellious, those who might star in the next social explosion like the one that occurred on July 11.

But mass departures are a double-edged sword. The US Administration may see the matter very differently from what Havana projects, and the escape of thousands of Cubans would also have many effects on an already aging society. If, over the next few months, this Island loses a part of its young people, its professionals and those with enough self-esteem to believe that they can prosper in a competitive environment, not only will a democratic change be delayed, but it will also postpone the economic recovery and development of the entire country.

Toying with migratory alchemy can also bring other bitter surprises for Castroism.

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Damas Street in San Isidro Street, a Year After the Violent Eviction of Otero Alcantara

Calle Damas 955, in San Isidro, home of the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, as of today. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 26 November 2021 — A padlock permanently closes the two wooden panels of the 955 Damas Street door in Old Havana, which in the past was almost always open. According to many in the neighborhood, at the home of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and headquarters of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), “they always welcomed anyone.” Now, his figure is no longer visible in the doorway or leaning out the window as before. Since the protests of July 11, the artist has been held in a high security prison.

A year has passed since the violent eviction carried out by State Security to remove the group of hunger strikers and their companions from the property, who were demanding the freedom of rapper Denis Solís, and the outlook is now quite different.

This Thursday, November 25, Damas Street was passable, not like a year ago when police surveillance prevented it. From a staircase, music is heard at full volume, a Karol G song coming from the speakers. On the corner, a couple of boys fix a car, another cleans the roof of his pedicab while a young man charges his electric motorcycle.

“The block has been returning to normal,” says a neighbor. “I remember that in those days this was hell, even for us who lived here, they had us under control. The police and the officers had everyone scared, with threats, so that no one would get near Luis Manuel. But they could never screw up the relationship that that boy had with everyone. Here we adore him. He always said that what was his, belonged to everyone.”

The neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, insistently compliments Otero Alcántara’s generosity. “It was tremendous, the neighbors felt that this was also their home. They passed by, talked, even took food
from the refrigerator if they needed it and ’Luisma’ said not to ask for permission.” continue reading

Solidarity, he argues, went both ways. “His neighbor also gave him food made almost daily. If he made beans, he would bring him some, as if they were family. He made himself known as he is and I tell you something: it is impossible not to love him.”

The neighbor relates that State Security managed to terrorize the area. Long before — and after – -the eviction on November 26, the artist lived harassed and persecuted by the authorities. Upon leaving the Manuel Fajardo Hospital where he was taken that night after several days on a hunger and thirst strike, he found his home besieged by police patrols and State Security officers, who from then on exercised 24-hour a day surveillance.

The government’s violent action against the MSI headquarters unleashed, the following day, an unprecedented protest by citizens, artists and intellectuals at the doors of the Ministry of Culture demanding that freedom of expression and the right to have rights be respected. Where will we meet? What do we do? Where are we going? Were the questions that ran through the WhatsApp groups that was immediately created to coordinate a meeting on November 27.

Faced with the outrage and violence that many had seen on their cell phone screens, the reaction was to take to the streets, that place that in Cuba is reserved only for “revolutionaries”, according to President Miguel Díaz-Canel himself said during the day of protests on July 11, when Otero Alcántara ended up in prison again, where he has not yet left.

“When Luis Manuel was there, we felt safe, his brave attitude was contagious.” That is why, he says, on April 4 “the whole block” came out to sing Patria y Vida and shout “Díaz-Canel singao [motherficker]” in “the face of the Police” and helped prevent the arrest of Maykel Castillo Osorbo.

Now, “with him in prison, everything is different, there is no one who defends us from the abuses of the Police and it’s quiet here,” he laments.

Another neighbor on the block says that Otero Alcántara went to live with an aunt in El Cerro and almost did not return to Damas Street when he left Calixto García Hospital, where he was in custody for a month after another hunger strike he carried out.

“He just came to get some things and left quickly, because here there was the fixed guard of the State Security and the police patrol cars on the corner,” says the woman. “It is very hard what that boy has lived through, the only thing he does is art.”

A relative of the artist who spoke with 14ymedio remembers that the last time he visited him in prison, Otero Alcántara told him: “Living here has taught me that nothing belongs to anyone, if you want to watch a movie on television and the one who’s bigger and stronger wants to watch the ballgame, that’s what you have to watch.”

Although the artist was laughing as he said it, the relative did not have the courage to answer what he was thinking: “It is 955 Damas Street that is your house, Luis Manuel, not this dungeon where they have put you.”

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This Year’s Sugar Harvest Announced Even Worse Than Last Year’s and Cuba Will Have to Import Sugar

The authorities allege delays in repairing the machinery of the sugar mills and lack of resources to start this year’s harvest. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 24 November 2021 — The Azcuba State monopoly itself has filled its latest statements with caution when announcing the start of this year’s sugar harvest on the island: no good news is in sight for the sector.

“The most important thing is to talk with the sugar workers about the difficult conditions in which the country will carry out this harvest,” warned Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca, deputy prime minister, during a meeting with officials and producers from Matanzas.

An industry expert, who gave spoke anonymously to Reuters, put it bluntly: “The industry has more or less collapsed. The situation is worse this year than it was in the past and it will take time to reverse it.”

The British news agency reported this Wednesday that the Cuban Government transformed its 56 plants into separate companies that will include local plantations and that they will be able to set wages and continue reading

cane prices as well as maintain control of 80% of their export earnings.

“For the workers of the recently created agro-industrial sugar companies, it was not easy at all to face the period of repairs, both of the mill and the agricultural machinery, under the pressure of enormous limitations of spare parts, supplies and other material resources, and in addition, the scourge of covid-19 in the most critical months of the pandemic,” Azcuba explained in a note on Tuesday .

The note informs that the harvest, which normally starts in November, will begin late, on December 5, at the 14 de Julio station in Cienfuegos.

Tapia Fonseca insisted on a “critical analysis” and “we have to pay more to those who produce and review the workforce of non-direct workers in each group.” He spoke of the need to evaluate sowing “by the degree of germination of the crops and not for the fulfillment of the plan of hectares,” and requested “a diversification of the agricultural productions in all the productive forms.”

For his part, Jorge Santana Hernández, general director of the agroindustrial sugar company Mario Muñoz, from the municipality of Los Arabos, in Matanzas, confessed that they have “a 6% delay” in repairing machinery, but said they hope to start production on December 20.

Last year’s harvest was a real catastrophe . With just 816,000 tons of sugar, 68% of the 1.2 million planned, the Island had the worst figure since 1908.

According to official figures, last year Cuba was only able to count on 416,000 tons of sugar for national consumption, since it had committed an annual sale of 400,000 tons to China. The Island consumes annually between 600,000 and 700,000 tons of the product.

The worst harvest since the 1959 Revolution was 2009-2010, when 1.1 million tons were reached, which forced the Cuba to import sugar from France made from beets.

Of the 156 sugar mills were in operation before 1959, only 56 remain. In that year, 5.6 million tons of sugar were produced, which increased in the 1970s and 1980s to seven and eight million tons a year.

However, the expert consulted by Reuters announced that the situation could improve if appropriate measures were taken: “They will have to go further with reforms, attract foreign investment or divert money from other sectors such as tourism.”

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Electric Motorbike Fire Forces a Building Evacuation on Tulipan Street in Havana

The incident affected the garage of a five-story multi-family building located on Tulipán and Central streets, near Rancho Boyeros Avenue in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 24 November 2021 — A fire of medium proportions affected the garage of a five-story multi-family building located on Tulipán and Central streets, near Rancho Boyeros avenue in Havana, on Wednesday afternoon. The accident was due to a ‘motorina‘ — an electric motorbike — that was parked on the premises, according to several residents of the property speaking to 14ymedio.

The smoke caused at least four residents to be transferred by ambulance to receive oxygen. As this newspaper verified at the scene, an elderly woman and two children were able to walk out of the building on their own, although with coughing and breathing problems. In addition, another woman needed to be carried.

Just before, around 5:20 p.m., residents in the area began to smell a strong odor of burning plastic. “We went out to the balcony and the whole street was pure smoke,” a resident in the same block told this newspaper. “There was tremendous shouting because nobody knew exactly where so much smoke was coming from,” she added.

A few minutes later the smoke could be seen in several of the tall buildings that characterize the area and a strong smell of burned plastic spread throughout the neighborhood where several ministries continue reading

such as Transport and Agriculture are located, in addition to other official entities.”

It was a motorina that they had in the garage, it seems that it spontaneously burst into flames when people realized it there was already smoke inside the house,” explains another neighbor. “Now they are cordoning off the area and evacuating everyone in the building.”

Electric motorbikes catching fire is becoming more frequent in Cuba. Last September, a fire in a house in the city of Matanzas caused the death of a 19-year-old girl and wounded two, a 13-year-old boy and a 20-year-old boy.

Only a few months earlier, in May, another motorina fire caused the death of three members of the same family in the city of Sancti Spiritus, including a seven-year-old boy. The vehicle, which was plugged in to charge the lithium battery, exploded inside the house. The accident became the most serious of its kind in Cuba. In 2019, 208 fires of electric motorcycles with lithium batteries were recorded, 164 of them serious and 44 minor.

With the transportation crisis, electric motorcycles with lithium batteries have become increasingly popular on the island, a phenomenon that has increased since the product is also available for purchase in the state stores that only accept freely convertible currency.

In the last year, 10,000 electric units of 21 different models have been marketed, including motorcycles, bicycles, scooters and tricycles.

Official investigations revealed that among the main causes of the fires are reckless acts when charging electric motorcycles, for example leaving the lithium battery charger connected without the corresponding control, using inappropriate chargers, not cooling the motorcycle before charging it, replacing original parts of the electric motorcycle or the illegal manufacture of batteries.

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