14ymedio – Page 262 – Translating Cuba

The Ghost of Ayestaran Street

The building is located on the corner of Ayestarán and Estrella streets, in the Havana municipality of El Cerro. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 28 October 2021 — This week marks the 20th anniversary of the fire in the building that formerly housed the pharmaceutical and perfumery firm Warner-Hudnut, located on the corner of Ayestarán and Estrella streets, in the Havana municipality of El Cerro. Two decades after the flames devoured part of the structure, passersby avoid passing under its portal for fear of an imminent collapse of the remaining walls.

The building also housed the hotel El Sol for men and became, after 1959, family apartments full of wooden platforms colloquially called ’barbecues ’ — raised built in the rooms to increase the living space. That was precisely what happened, that fateful October 25, 2001, and it took firefighters many hours to put out the fire that spread at full speed through the beams, planks and false ceilings.

The construction housed no fewer than 60 families and, according to one of the victims speaking to Cubanet in those days, it had been declared uninhabitable ten years earlier. However, even in its dilapidated state it remained one of the most beautiful buildings in the neighborhood, with its shape sticking out like the prow of a ship with neoclassical and baroque details.

“But the only option they had given us was the shelters, none of the families agreed to move to those barracks,” said the man. “It is preferable for the building to fall on you than to spend ten or fifteen years living in those places, which according to what we have been told are unbearable.”

It was said then that one of the neighbors must have left a stove on in one continue reading

of the apartments, but there was also talk of a candle or a cigarette. The years without maintenance and the amount of wood did the rest.

Shortly after the accident, an agricultural market was set up on the ground floor of the building, ironically nicknamed “los quemados” [the burned ones] by the residents of the area, but which was closed when debris began to fall and the balconies ended up falling off into the street.

Since then, the only ones who dared to go there were the couples who used it as a free “motel” in a city where staying in a room is a luxury that few can afford, until, a few years ago, the property was completely bricked up to prevent people from sneaking inside.

Two decades later, there is still the mass, without being demolished, like an architectural ghost, with trees growing out of the holes of the windows. One more witness to the urban decomposition of the once opulent Havana.

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The Cuban Regime is the ‘Only One Interested in Yankee Money’

Until a year ago, Yunior García Aguilera was a respectable artist for the Cuban government, which now describes him as a mercenary day in and day out. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 October 2021 — A new chapter in the struggle between supporters and adversaries of the Civic March for Change scheduled for the 15N (15 November) in several Cuban provinces. This time, money has been at the center of criticism and the artist Yunior García Aguilera, tired of the mercenary accusations that the regime dedicates to him, has defended himself by attacking.

“The Archipiélago has even rejected fundraising among its members. The only ones interested in Yankee money, we already know who they are: those who built more hotels than hospitals in the middle of the pandemic, the creators of stores [that only take payment] in MLC [freely convertible currency], those who lied to us with that they would end the double currency,” the most visible face of the call has snapped from his Facebook profile.

García Aguilera, habitually calm in his speeches, could not contain the anger it caused him to see published in the official media a conversation he had with Ramón Saúl Sánchez edited for dissemination and in which fragments are clearly missing. The artist has challenged the authorities to present the full audio so that everything he said is clear.

During that conversation, the exiled Ramón Sául Sánchez, leader of the Democracy Movement and described as a terrorist by Havana, offers his support to Archipiélago, both through the support events organized for November 14 and for media coverage of communication inside and outside of Cuba. The fragments are enough for Cuban officialdom to claim that the US Government is behind Archipiélago — the convening platform — García Aguilera and the marches.

Yunior García recalls that he has been under surveillance for at least a year, since he addressed 15 questions to the Government, and he concludes that State Security lies when asserting that there is a relationship between him and the United States. The artist, in fact , vindicates the government’s position against the embargo, which he even expressed to Timothy Zúñiga-Brown, charge d’affaires of the United States Embassy in Havana, in a meeting held long before July 11. continue reading

With regards to that conversation, he says, “I spent most of the time explaining why I do not support any sanction that would starve the Cuban family and serve as excuses for the Government to justify its disasters. Archipiélago and the march was never discussed at that time. (… .) It focused on the need to remove the blockade/embargo, the subject of our talk on that occasion. Ironies of life … ,” he recriminates.

García Aguilera defends the purely Cuban character of the Archipiélago group and reveals that the first person to whom he commented on the project was the troubadour Silvio Rodríguez.

“Each decision made in the Archipiélago has been the result of a broad and deep debate among a group of CUBANOS (sic) moderators, of whom I am proud. The democracy that was born in such a diverse group, gives me back my hopes every night in the future of Cuba. Hopes that, inevitably, I lose every time I watch the news or listen to a speech by our stubborn leaders, trained in Soviet manuals and too convenient paranoias,” he continues.

García Aguilera also adds that he accepted an invitation to be part of Cuba Próxima, chaired by Roberto Veiga, but that he has not even been able to participate in it due to the continuous internet cuts they suffer at home.

García Aguilera is amazed that just a year ago, and even being a critical artist, he was someone taken into account by the authorities to participate in the meeting that the Ministry of Culture promoted with some participants in the protests of November 27, 2020 — an invitation that Yunior García Aguilera rejected as a farce — and now he has become a little less than a violent terrorist.

“Despite the shame caused by these gentlemen clinging to power, I will never lose my faith in my country and its people. Although, to be honest, I feel immense sorrow for all those Cubans who are still not capable of detecting lies when they have them in front of them,” says García Aguilera, who again asks for courage in the face of government threats. “The regime openly announces a crime against a beautiful generation, whose DIGNITY (sic) has become much greater than their fears. That is why the regime would never sit with us to dialogue. They have shown their panic at civility, and they do so by exercising the violence that characterizes them.”

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The Mayabeque Prosecutor’s Office Asks for up to 25 Years in Prison for Nine of the July 11th Protestors in Cuba

The Mayabeque provincial prosecutor, Yerandy Calzadilla Dávalos, calls for severe sanctions against 11J (11 July) Cuban protesters. (Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 October 2021 — In another act of repression, the Mayabeque Provincial Prosecutor’s Office has requested sanctions ranging from six to 25 years for the 11J (11 July) protesters. Maikel Puig Bergolla and eight other detainees, who preferred not to make their identity public, have seen “forced some arguments to apply crimes” to them, such as attempted murder, attack and instigation to commit criminal acts, denounced the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH).

“The sentencing requests are a reflection of the vengeful spirit of the ruling regime on the island,” said the Madrid-based organization. “The use of supposed common crimes to condemn political actions is a systemic practice of the Cuban government and its repressive organs.”

The request of the Mayabeque prosecutor, Yerandy Calzadilla Dávalos, has already been submitted to the first criminal chamber of the People’s Provincial Court. The OCDH warned that the fiscal requests “are the most extreme that are known to date.”

The OCDH statement refers to “the disproportion between the crimes and the number of years in prison requested for them, a detail that also denotes the condition of Cuban justice.” And also to cases such as that of Maikel Puig Bergolla, arrested on July 12 for the crime of “public disorder,” as indicated by his wife Saily Núñez Pérez.

The request presented by prosecutor Calzadilla Dávalos with regards to Puig Bergolla, asks for a joint penalty of 25 years in prison for the crimes of instigation to commit a crime (18 years), attempted murder (10 years), public disorder (5 years) and contempt (one year and six months). continue reading

Núñez Pérez relates in a post that, during the process, things began to get complicated for her husband. “False accusations at the hands of five policemen began to appear” that allege that Puig Bergolla threw stones at the patrols, “which is not true.”

Added to the case of Puig Bergolla are several others — referred to with the initials of their names, for fear of reprisals and because the family members do not want their identity to be made public: LMVP (20 years), MDCV (20), NRC (10), YSD (15), YCP (15), DRC (5), ERL (6) and NMT (6).

The OCDH states that the repressive actions of last July have increased the number of political prisoners to numbers that have not been seen on the island since the 1980s.

Various organizations have documented more than a thousand detainees and as reported by the authorities, 62 people have been tried, mostly for the crime of public disorder — 53 of the defendants charged — although there are also accusations of “contempt,” “resistance” and “instigation to commit a crime.”

In San Antonio de los Baños, where the peaceful protests began, the Prosecutor’s Office asks, for the 17 people who are being tried, for sentences of between 6 and 12 years in prison.

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The Four Plagues of Santiago de Cuba

For hours, in the doorways and in the sunlight, the mothers are dedicated to the manual eradication of the lice that invade the hair of their family members. (El Mundo)

14ymedio, Alberto Hernández, Santiago de Cuba, 25 October 2021 — Covid-19 is not the only epidemic suffered by the city of Santiago de Cuba. Dengue fever numbers have risen so much that not even the official press can hide them. This Saturday, the Sierra Maestra newspaper reported that there is a “wide transmission of dengue in three of the nine municipalities” in the eastern city. Most of the cases are concentrated in the provincial capital and in the municipalities of Palma, San Luis and Contramaestre.

One of these cases is Antonio, a 22-year-old primary school teacher. “Last week I started to feel bad, I had a fever all day and I ended up in the Provincial Hospital, I was scared and thought I had coronavirus. I was diagnosed with dengue, which luckily was not hemorrhagic.”

The young man was ordered to remain at home for seven days. “The problem is that they prescribed polyvitamins, such as Polivit, also folic acid and a lot of liquids, especially lemon and citric juices in general.” Antonio calls it a problem because, in effect, a pound of lemons costs 40 pesos and polyvitamins are missing from pharmacies. “The only thing I could get was folic acid, and I found it on the black market: at 150 pesos for a blister pack of 10 pills.”

The situation in Santiago de Cuba is mainly due to the lack of resources against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, but also to its increase in trash containers and standing water, which, in addition, also affects the other two illnesses on the list of plagues suffered by the city: scabies and lice.

“Everyone in my house is suffering the same,” says Maritza, a 47-year-old housewife from Santiago, speaking about the itching suffered by her and the nine members of her family, which is unbearable at night, with continue reading

the heat. “When we went to the doctor they told us that it was scabies, but that there was no medication in the pharmacies.”

Scabies is not deadly like covid, or, as it is in some cases, like dengue hemorrhagic fever, but it is very annoying.

Those who are worse off, says Maritza while scratching her right arm, are two children and two older adults, “who despair of the itch.” Their doctor prescribed benzyl benzoate, even though the medicine is nowhere to be found.

Thus, they have had to resort to alternative solutions. “We have bathed with lots of leaves, including guava, isora, plum and nothing has worked.” Nothing except a remedy a vet gave them: an anti-parasitic used on animals. “A a little vial of about 10 milliliters cost us 50 pesos and this is what we have to resolve it.”

With the contents of the vial dissolved in a bullet of water (a liter and a half bottle), the family throws a small capful into the bucket of water with which they are going to bathe. “The children have almost lost their itchiness and I have improved a lot.”

Maritza has already shared more than half the bottle in her neighborhood: “On the block, most of the neighbors had the same.”

Juana, for her part, is mortified by lice. She was infected while painting nails. Offering this type of service helps to support this woman who is a dentist by profession, during the difficult economic situation.

“I work twice a week in the emergency room, the rest of the time I spend fixing nails.” How, did she imagine, she got head lice. “After a second infection, I now protect my head by wearing a nylon bag when I have a client.”

The treatment, she regrets, is very expensive. Permethrin, which is also used against scabies, is missing from state pharmacies, and on the black market prices are through the roof. “These days, 1 milliliter of permethrin (less than a tablespoon) costs 20 pesos, and for a complete cycle I need at least 6 milliliters.” To this she adds shampoo, softener and other hair products, which means that the treatment, in total, exceeds 1,000 pesos, a good part of her monthly salary.

In the absence of products to combat the undesirable plague, the people of Santiago choose to detect the nits and extract them, in the old way, a task that not only requires good eyesight and a fine-toothed comb but also patience. For hours, in the doorways and in the sunlight, the mothers are dedicated to the manual eradication of the lice that invade the hair of their family members.

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Cuban Government’s Unpaid Bills Causing Low Milk Production, Admits Official Press

Dairy farmers complain there is no feed, water or medications for their cows, which reduces their milk production and sometimes leads to their deaths. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, October 26, 2021 — By September, dairy farmers in Villa Clara had delivered only 53% of the milk the Cuban government had been expecting, a total of approximately twenty-one million liters compared to the thirty-nine which contracts had stipulated. The shortfall was reported on Tuesday by the state-run newspaper Granma in an article entitled “Defaults, Paperwork, Transport and Other Ways to ’Cut’ Milk”, which looked at the reasons for supply shortages and rising milk prices.

The problem began in Ciego de Avila where less than half of the expected eighteen million liters has been delivered. The government’s broken promises are making matters worse. In April officials announced an incentive program: it would pay dairy farmers in both hard currency and pesos for every liter they sold to the state over the contract amount. But no hard currency is forthcoming because producers cannot easily open bank accounts to receive payment so the money is not going out.

As the Granma article explains, if a dairy farmer does not meet his target, he gets only 7.50 pesos a liter. But if he exceeds it, he gets 13.00, at least in theory. In the best case scenario, however, the payment is delayed.

“In practice, what’s been happening, for a variety of reasons, is that farmers have to wait a month or more to get paid. Rather than hand it over to the state, it’s more profitable for them to sell it ’on the side,’ where they can get between 15 to 25 pesos. Or they turn it into yogurt or cheese, which also command good prices,” explains continue reading

one producer quoted in the article.

Roberto Lopez Hernandez, director of the Villa Clara Dairy Products Company, claims in the article that part of the problem is due to delays in signing invoices, which he attributes to Covid-19. According to Betsy Arroyo Rafuls, president of the National Association of Small Farmers in Villa Clara, some producers got their money forty days late, “which obviously disincentivized them.”

Of the 8,000 producers with state contracts, only 1,837 fulfilled their part of the deal. As a result, thousands of liters of milk and other dairy products did not go to the rationed market. Another statistic: of the 281 production outlets in Villa Clara, 177 (or 63%) did not meet their target.

Price increases are just one consequence of milk being diverted to the black market. The government recently decided that people on medically prescribed diets would no longer receive extra rations of milk. And other consumers are replacing dairy products with soy-based yogurt and similar alternatives.

In addition to governmental foot dragging when it comes to paying bills, Granma cites other causes for the disastrous statistics, among them transportation problems. The sub-delegate for livestock in Villa Clara, Miguel Rodriguez, claims the fall in crop prices in the middle of the harvest season caused many truck drivers to leave their jobs; 188 in the province, 36 in Placetas alone. As a result producers have had to pay drivers out of their own pockets to avoid losing their milk.

Dairy farmers also point to shortages of medications — as one farmer notes, “a cow with tick fever doesn’t produce milk” — water and feed as reasons why many cows are malnourished, do not give birth and, even worse, die. Granma argues that 7,434 cows could not be milked due to the drought in July and August.

Rigoberto Rodriguez Fuentes, president of the credit and services cooperative Efrain Hurtado in Manicaragua, is not thrilled with the decision to adopt three different prices for milk. “It was not a great idea. It has created a lot of bureaucracy and red tape, which are not great motivators for farmers who need to be paid upon delivery,” he says.

In his blog Cubaeconomía, Madrid-based Cuban economist Elias Amor breaks down the key points of the Granma article. He cites one of the farmers quoted in the piece, who sums up the situation better than any expert:

“’They thought raising the price of this product a few pesos would automatically solve the livestock problem and milk deliveries would automatically increase, which is not the case.’ As we have long said in this blog, if [President] Diaz-Canel listened to Cuban peasants more, he would find out what has to be done to produce more,” Amor writes. He adds that technical and production realities, as well as market forces, are immune to many of the decisions the government makes.

“Price controls, late payments and bureaucratic delays are obstacles impacting Cuban milk production and preventing the needs of consumers and industry from being met. Agriculture is the economic sector most dependent on the state. Has the time perhaps come for restructuring it to operate freely?” asks Amor.

The milk crisis goes back a long way. In recent decades the government has found it very difficult to provide the ” little glass of milk” it promised the Cuban consumer. The situation has grown more acute in recent months. Today it’s Villa Clara; two weeks ago it was Ciego de Avila.

Just a month ago it was reported that no dairy farmer in Camaguey province, the island’s leading livestock producer, had delivered more than eight liters of milk to the state. When the Evelio Rodriguez Curbelo cooperative in Jimguayu managed to produce one million liters of cow’s milk, state media outlets portrayed it as a great success. However, if you take into account the number of cattle involved, the result is devastating, barely 1.1 liters per day per animal compared to 25 for a cow in Spain.

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Cuba’s Political Police Threaten Nairobis Schery with Prison if She Attends the 15 November March

Schery Suárez informed this newspaper that at the beginning of the week when she was arrested as she was leaving her house. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 October 2021 — Activist Nairobis Schery Suárez, wife of Cuban opposition member Manuel Cuesta Morúa, who was reported missing last Monday, told 14ymedio that she was arrested when she left her home and released on Tuesday morning under threats of jail for both her and her husband.

According to her testimony, the man who questioned her made “serious threats about 15N” [November 15] and warned her that both she and Cuesta Morúa could go to prison if they do not abandon their support for the Civic March for Change.

Schery Suárez informed this newspaper that on the day of the arrest she was leaving her house at 10:00 am to visit relatives, but on the way the police stopped the car she was in near the Pan-American Village and took her out of it. “They took my belongings there and I didn’t have time to call my husband to let him know,” she said.

She was then transferred to the Guanabo police unit, where she spent approximately eight hours in an office that, according to her, the officers called ‘the theater.’ “Around eleven o’clock at night they transferred me to the cells until six in the morning, when they took me to an interview with, supposedly, one of the chiefs of the police,” she explains.

“Then they took me to my house in a police car escorted by a ‘Mariana’, as they like to call the women of the Ministry of the Interior who they use to repress activists and who they have also used for acts of repudiation,” adds Schery Suárez.

It is the second time that the activist has been arrested since the call for the march was announced and despite these warnings and threats, Nairobis Schery Suárez told this newspaper that she maintains her support for the march, called for November 15. At the end of September, Cuesta Morúa was also threatened and the political police told him during interrogations that they would not allow the demonstration.

The Archipiélago collective initiative has gathered support in the main Cuban cities, but the repression against activists and citizens who have signed the requests addressed to the provincial governments to carry out the march has increased in recent days. Added to this is a tough campaign in the official media that points to the discredit of its main organizers, accused of being “mercenaries,” and to the mobilization of the government’s repressive forces in view of that day.

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The Stations of the Cross of Public Transport in Havana

Lines this Tuesday at Fraternity Park waiting to board the bus in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 27 October 2021 — About 200 people were waiting this Tuesday at Fraternity Park to board a bus home. Long lines stretched across the area and some jostled and pushed to get into the few vehicles when they arrived.

On board one of the damaged vehicles, the driver was talking with a colleague about the Stations of the Cross required for the driver to keep the bus running. “It’s a tremendous waste of money to have the bus ‘limping.’ When it’s broken it belongs to me. When it’s working it belongs to them,” he says sarcastically to the other driver. “I can’t take it anymore. For four years they haven’t even given us tires. If the windows fall out, I make it a convertible, but the problem is to keep it running.”

Each stop lasted an eternity due to the number of people crowded in the aisle, complicating the people getting on and off, with a crowd that never gets smaller, and as soon as the door is opened people try to get on.

In recent months, the shortage of transport in the country’s capital has worsened, a situation that is reflected in the crowded stops and the large number of people trying to hail a taxi. Private transport has not been able to absorb the overflow of passengers and taxis also pass by full and without stopping, stared at by the people trying to flag them down.
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Archipielago Denounces Cuban Police Harassment of its Supporters

This is how the home of Yunior García Aguilera, a member of the Archipiélago, appeared last Friday. (Twitter)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 October 2021 — More than 1,200 people risk being summoned by Cuban State Security for the mere fact of having signed the letters of support for the Civic March for Change called by the Archipiélago platform. According to the group’s complaint, the political police are summoning not only its members, but also all the people who expressed their support for the march by signing and even those who have only expressed their support through their social networks.

“What could be the motivation for honest citizens to be summoned in this way? Do they see any danger in the exercise of human rights that our Constitution recognizes and protects?” says the Archipiélago statement published this Sunday on Facebook.

The group considers that these citations are part of the government’s strategy to prevent not only the holding of the marches but any sign of support which, among other things, causes it to lose the ideological battle.

This same Sunday, in the closing speech of the Plenary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel assured that the country has “enough revolutionaries to face any type of demonstration that seeks to destroy the Revolution.” To support continue reading

this thesis, therefore, it is important that the marches do not have public support, nor that they appear to have it.

An objective also sought through the imposition of long prison sentences for some 11J (July 11) protesters, as the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights denounced this Monday in a statement. “The Cuban government has used its repressive attitude in order to silence the families of the victims and the victims of the 11J repression, sometimes with threats and sometimes with false promises. We are sure that the fear of reprisals will silence many, and that only with the passage of time we will be able to know in depth the dimension of the punishment,” says the organization, based in Madrid.

Archipiélago explains that it is aware that the aforementioned people are reproached for their support of the Civic March and are reminded that it has been prohibited and declared illegal.

“It is our citizen duty to remind the authorities of the DSE [State Security] that signing letters addressed to municipalities or local governments, whether for petition or complaint, constitutes a right recognized in Article 61 of the 2019 Constitution,” says the communiqué, which reviews other articles of the Constitution that protect the right to protest, to express support for a position and to guarantee the enjoyment of human rights without possible discrimination, including politics.

Archipiélago called the Civic Marches for Change in different cities of the Island for November 20, although it made the decision to change the date to November 15 when the Government declared the 20th National Defense Day, and as a full stop after two days of maneuvers military. However, and despite the fact that the organization submitted the applications in a timely manner with the legal bases that protect them, the authorization has been denied.

But this has not been enough and, given the growth of support for the marches and the Archipiélago platform inside and outside the island, the authorities have declared illegal the celebration of these mobilizations that seek to express the disagreement of the population with violence, and demand respect for all the rights of all Cubans, the release of political prisoners and the solution of differences through democratic and peaceful means.

From Archipiélego, whose members have been summoned to be threatened with going to trial and harassed even in their homes, they report that “if the authorities are concerned that Cuban citizens express their dissatisfaction with the current situation in the country, with the deplorable treatment of those who disagree, with the violations of human rights and those who publicly denounce all the violations and deficiencies of the system prevailing in Cuba prevailing, [do not] give reasons. “

Archipiélago announced this Sunday the creation of an Independent Commission to Support the 15N protesters, chaired by Ivette García González and made up of Ernesto Pérez Alonso, Eloy Viera Cañive, José Ottoniel Vázquez, Erick Brito Barrios and other activists, intellectuals, jurists, political scientists and specialists in international relations.

The objective is to serve as a bridge for citizens who wish to demonstrate and need support to file complaints about repressive actions, whether of a physical or psychological nature. In addition, they put themselves at the service of family and friends of these people and provide contact addresses to channel communication.

“It is not the exercise of constitutionally endorsed rights that endangers the established order, but the irresponsible management of the Government and the arbitrary behavior of the authorities; the persistence and aggravation of these problems, far from discouraging our intention to express ourselves, strengthens it,” states Archipelago, continuing to urge Cubans who wish to march on November 15 or, failing that, use their spaces to support the demonstrations by displaying flags on balconies among other signs.

The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC) has sent a statement to once again support the marches and note that the terms in which this debate is taking place underline the urgency with which a Constitutional and Democratic State of Law must be defined and established in Cuba.

The statement reviews why the Archipiélago callto march fully conforms to Cuban legal norms, including the 2019 Constitution, and to prohibit the march is to go against the national laws themselves and most of the international agreements that Cuba maintains with other countries and communities, including the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

“The legitimacy of civil society and democratic actors does not depend on autarky. In which case the so-called Cuban revolution would lack legitimacy,” highlights the text, which recalls the support that some initiatives, such as the uprising against Batista itself, have received international solidarity without it being considered interference.

Manuel Cuesta Morúa, coordinator of the CTDC, was the first cited by State Security in relation to the Civic Marches for Change when they were still scheduled for 20N (20 November) and already at that time he was told in advance that they were not going to be allowed.

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Sancti Spiritus, With its Damaged Laboratory and an Alarming Level of Covid

Doctors confirm that relief is noticeable in the red zone, although the decline in infections is still insufficient. (Escambray)

14ymedio, Havana, 22 October 2021 — There is concern in Sancti Spíritus about the situation regarding covid-19. While there is a widespread sense that the pandemic is showing a general downward trend in infections, the province not only has the highest official rate of coronavirus cases, but it does not detect all of them. The laboratory has “technical problems” and is sending its tests to other provinces, according to the provincial daily Escambray.

Agnie Fernández González, advisor to the Acute Respiratory Infections and Tuberculosis Program, told the official press that a breakdown in the Molecular Biology Laboratory has forced Sancti Spíritus to send collected samples to similar institutions in Havana, which arrive later.

The laboratory was only able to process 516 tests according to Francisco Durán himself, national director of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health, admitted at a press conference that the data of 84 cases reported in Sancti Spíritus “is not representative of the result of all samples that were being processed.”

Despite this, the province scores 16.3% positivity, the highest in the country, a situation that generates fears, although continue reading

the newspaper admits that there is dispersion of cases by municipalities and considers the possibility that the highest figures correspond “to the places from which the greatest number of tests could be analyzed and not to those where the epidemiological panorama is more complex.”

In the provincial capital 25 infections were detected, in Cabaiguán 17, in Yaguajay and La Sierpe 10 each, in Trinidad nine, in Jatibonico and Fomento, five in each, and in Taguasco three. In addition, there were three deaths.

The truth is that the incidence rate of Sancti Spíritus is far from being acceptable, with an alarming 1,055 per 100,000 inhabitants, a figure much lower than that of the critical moments of August and September, but very high according to the standards of the World Health Organization. The covid standard used in the European Union places incidents greater than 250 at extreme risk.

In addition, this rate is the provincial average, but Yaguajay, La Sierpe, Trinidad and Jatibonico exceed it. Last week, Escambray published an extensive report focused on Trinidad in which several professionals gave an account of the relief they feel with the decrease in the numbers, and yet in just 15 days there were more than 2,500 positives.

“There is still resistance to admission by some people who hide the symptoms and expose the rest of the family. We are at a crucial moment to cut the transmission of the virus, but it is necessary to isolate the sick and the suspects,” warned the director of the Municipal Hygiene and Epidemiology Center, Yanisleidy Turiño Lema.

In recent weeks, the decrease in covid-19 cases has been visible, although the breakdown of Sancti Spíritus reveals that the official figures do not adjust to the real situation either. The downward trend in cases in recent weeks has made it possible to relax restrictions in provinces such as Havana, Matanzas or Santiago de Cuba, which is reflected in the resumption of transport between the capital and other cities and the reopening of food services among other measures.

This Thursday, 1,435 cases were reported throughout the island, a new day of decline that the authorities attribute to the advance of mass vaccination that, according to official figures, already covers more than 6.8 million Cubans.

The Sancti Spíritus laboratory was inaugurated at the beginning of May of this year, so it only took five months for the first breakdown to occur. The building was finished in April 2021 and the first samples were processed on May 4. Then the authorities warned that the initial rate would be 500 tests analyzed daily and that, little by little, one thousand would be reached.

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Calls for Violence and the Kidnapping of a Dissident to Intimidate Cubans Ahead of November 15 March for Change

Alberto Reyes, the priest from Camagüey, calls the rapid response brigades “rapid violence” groups. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, October, 26, 2021 — Nairobis Schery Suárez, the wife of Manuel Cuesta Morúa, disappeared around midday on Monday, according to information received through the social media accounts of Mathadela Tamayo, who was alerted by the opposition leader of the Council for a Democratic Transition in Cuba. As of late Monday, Suárez was still not responding to phone calls and her phone was off, unusual behavior for her. However, nothing has changed this Tuesday and this morning her family is still unaware of her whereabouts.

If a detention is confirmed, Suárez would be one of the most recently affected by the growing hostility that the state has displayed toward anyone who supports in small or large part the Civic March for Change scheduled for November 15.

After images of regime sympathizers armed with sticks and rifles emerged Monday in “defense of the Revolution”, the offensive has continued, unstoppable, through the bellicose language of state media officials.

The website Cubahora evokes an episode which occurred 62 years ago during which Camilo Cienfuegos “affirmed to defend Fidel and the homeland unconditionally.” Since narrating the event, which recalls the emergence of national militias, the columnist made a call to continue reading

continue the task.

“Today, the circumstances for the Revolution remain just as complex and the defense of the Homeland continues to be the highest priority for maintaining its conquests intact, though the combat theaters have been modified and the ideological, on social media, gains prominence.”

In the daily from Santiago, Sierra Maestra, they did not avoid employing unsettling militaristic language throughout the column: Morir por la patria es vivir [To die for the homeland is to live].

In that piece, the opposition is accused of appropriating the “patria y vida“ [homeland and life] slogan, which they attribute to Fidel Castro, and praise what they consider the true meaning of the more recognized words of the ex-ruler: “patria o muerte” [homeland or death].

Luis Alberto Portuondo Ortega, author of the text, signaled the importance throughout history of giving one’s life and fighting imperialism and colonialism and offered as an example the U.S. war of independence from the United Kingdom or of Cuba with respect to Spain. “The history of humanity shows how entire people have preferred to immolate themselves, rather than be enslaved.”

These texts are in addition to those published yesterday in Escambray and replicated in various state media with the title Las máscaras caen, in which they once again attacked playwright Yunior García, one of the main spokespeople of the group Archipiélago, with the same accusation repeated throughout the last year: of having participated in a workshop in a private university in Madrid called “Dialogues on Cuba” which presumably included training courses to promote non-violent political change, like those which inspired the color revolutions in Europe toward the end of the 20th century or the Arab Spring this past decade.

The note also mentions the presence of Reinaldo Escobar, editor-in-chief of 14ymedio — which they refer to as a “digital platform of the anti-Cuban media industry” — at an event organized by the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (Cadal), which they consider another “counterrevolutionary” platform and linked to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Manuel Cuesta Morúa is also mentioned and described as a mercenary on the very day his wife disappeared.

“A line was crossed that never should have been crossed and that should never be crossed by any society: pitting brothers against brothers, attacking your neighbors, your own, your own people.” That is how the priest from Camagüey, Alberto Reyes — a scourge of the Government– defined the rapid response brigades, which he calls “rapid violence” in a post which criticizes the escalation in tone of the state three weeks ahead of the scheduled March for Change.

The clergyman accuses authorities of convening the violence precisely when the other interlocutor seeks dialogue, and signals the cowardice with which they call on citizens to raise their fists.

“In the end, who will take the bat and expose his face? Who will raise his fist against a brother? Who will sell her soul to the devil, sinking in thoughtless evil? Who will appear in a photo on Facebook with a note that says name, address and the label of ’repressor’? The lowly ones, the disposable masses, the dumb useless ones, the expendable ones, if the tables were turned, no one will raise a finger,” he writes.

Reyes asks Cubans to pay the price of being free by resisting the call to violence and, though he knows that this attitude has a cost, it will inspire them to be brave. “This is the moment, today, now, the present still serene, the moment to realize that your political option, whatever it may be, is valid and you have the right to defend it, but what is not valid, what is impermissible, what is not a right, is that to defend your options you choose violence and raise an armed fist against your brother.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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The Next Move of Lopez-Calleja, Raul Castro’s Man

Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja (center), has a double link with the first group of power in Cuba. (Cubanet)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 25 October 2021 — It is assumed that the agenda of Division General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja now has room for his new commitment: responding to the requirements of the 16,500 inhabitants of the municipality of Remedios, in the province of Villa Clara, where they have chosen him as their representative to the National Assembly of People’s Power.

In this hypothetical agenda, digitized or on paper, the most confidential data of the Gaesa Business Group, which he controls, as well as bank accounts and properties abroad, and probably the most covert secrets of political activity on the Island, should be noted down.

In the Extraordinary Session of the Municipal Assembly of Remedios held on Saturday, October 23, only one of the 76 delegates of that delegation was against him when he was proposed to fill the void left by Antonio Alberto Pérez Santos, one of the two deputies representing the city in Parliament and one of the 17 vacancies that remained to be filled since last year. continue reading

Pérez Santos, who also served as president of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) in Villa Clara, had died at the age of 55 on September 15, 2020. Since then, his position in Parliament has been vacant.

The all-powerful general, Raúl Castro’s former son-in-law, was promoted in the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba to one of the 14 positions in the Political Bureau, so that his “election” as a deputy does not mean an increase in power, where it will only be one vote among the 600 who traditionally raise their hands complacently to approve what is decided in the party leadership.

If we accept that his entry into Parliament is not due to the need to have someone there who can answer for the problems (without remedy) of the municipality of Remedios and considering that he already has a voice and vote in “the highest instance,” it will be necessary to jump to the conclusion that his appointment only seeks the fulfillment of a requirement.

López-Calleja cannot be elected president of the Republic when he is over 60 years of age, the limit established for accessing the position according to article 127 of the Constitution. However, article 143 allows him to be prime minister as long as he is a member of parliament.

Analysts, who like to speculate, say that the current prime minister, Manuel Marrero is “a López-Calleja man” because he was Minister of Tourism for 16 years and this branch of the economy has, for all practical purposes, been in the hands of the military conglomerate Gaesa.

On October 10, 2023, when the first presidential term of Miguel Díaz-Canel expires, Marrero will have lived 60 years and three months, which, according to constitutional requirements, makes him (still) a presidential man.

It is no secret to anyone that the popular acceptance of Miguel Díaz-Canel, if he ever had it, has worn down to a point where many consider him inadmissible for a second term, nor even to conclude the first.

The speculations bet on something similar to what chess players call a castling, where Marrero would be President of the Republic and López-Calleja Prime Minister, but these theories have their fragile point in ignoring not only the popular will but also the invisible internal struggles that will emerge when Raúl Castro is no longer in a position to exert his influence.

For those who are not familiar with the Electoral Law, it is advisable to clarify that it was not an initiative of the voters or the members of the Municipal Assembly for General López-Calleja to represent them in Parliament.

It was the Council of State that considered and ordered that it was necessary to choose a substitute to fill a vacancy, as established in Article 232 of this regulation. Then, the National Nominations Commission approved the candidacy project and the Municipal Commission presented it to the delegates. They only had to mark one ballot to give their approval.

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UN Rapporteurs Show Concern About New Internet Regulations In Cuba

The UN Rapporteurs analyzed Decree 35, approved in April, as well as Decree 42 and Resolution 105/2021, published in August. (14ymedio)

EFE (via 14ymedio) — Law decrees approved in April and August by the Cuban government to regulate telecommunications, which, among other things, establish various cybersecurity crimes, “could undermine freedom of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association,” warned three United Nations rapporteurs.

In a recent letter to the Cuban authorities, the rapporteurs for freedom of expression (Irene Khan), of assembly (Clement Nyaletsossi) and defenders of human rights (Mary Lawlor) analyzed Decree 35, approved in April, as well as Decree 42 and Resolution 105/2021, published in August.

In this sense, the experts warn that these new regulations empower the Cuban armed forces to implement “special measures” on telecommunications, without precisely defining what they would be or requiring the authorization of a judge.

“Any restriction of rights must be provided for in the law, pursue a legitimate objective and meet continue reading

the requirements of necessity and proportionality,” said the three rapporteurs, who warned that otherwise legitimate expressions could be withdrawn for political and other unjustified reasons.

They add that the provisions that empower service operators to suspend telecommunications services are vaguely formulated by allowing this possibility when “the information is false, offensive, harmful to human dignity” or “public morality and respect for public order.” .

“States should not suspend access to the Internet as a means to combat disinformation,” said the experts, who recalled that regulations with content too vague in this regard can limit the rights of journalists, political opponents and human rights defenders.

In light of these and other concerns, the rapporteurs ask the Cuban Government to modify these provisions “in order to define in a strict and limited way the contents that may be restricted, in accordance with international law.”
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Sticks, Stones and Rifles: the Weapons Against the 15 November Civic March in Cuba

The repressive preparations include almost theatrical representations of an alleged popular response to subjects who play the role of protesting citizens. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 October 2021 — Several workers posing with sticks in their hands, a man proudly displaying a stone and some neighbors caught on camera test firing with rifles. The photos have been published in recent days on the social networks of Cuban state entities, accompanied by messages against “the mercenaries” and “the provocateurs” of the civic march planned for November 15 (15N).

The Cuban officialdom not only greases its Rapid Response Brigades to confront the protesters, but also makes a media display of what awaits in the streets for those who dare to demonstrate against the regime. The repressive preparations include almost theatrical representations of an alleged popular response to subjects who play the role of protesting citizens. The scene ends the moment they are surrounded and reduced by a plainclothes shock trooper.

The appearance of the images has been accompanied by public commitments from unions, employees from various productive sectors and even private entrepreneurs, who show their support for the Government and their rejection of the call for 15N. In each case, they claim “to be ready for anything.” They shout “we will defend our country to the last drop of blood” and “mercenaries will have no place on our streets.”

The comments that are published under these postings call for all dissidents to be “put in jail” and “applying a strong hand.” Several of the accounts continue reading

that have published these scenes have already been denounced for promoting violence, and there has been no lack of account owners on Facebook or Twitter who have made their posts private after receiving criticism for disseminating images of people in a threatening pose with clubs and steel bars.

As the date approaches, it is expected that these photos and statements will become more and more numerous and involve students, cultural personalities and even retirees. Before the confrontation reaches the streets, there will be plenty of trenches and battles on television and other national media.

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During the Plenary Session, Cuban Communist Party Calls for Reinforcing the Organization’s Ideological Work

The meeting will continue until Sunday in the capital’s Convention Palace (ACN)

14ymedio, Havana, October 24, 2021–The first of two sessions of the second plenary of the Central Committee of Cuba’s Communist Party began last Saturday with an analysis focused on economic issues and the functioning of the organization, which brings together 700,000 militants and is consecrated by the Constitution as “the organized vanguard” of Cuban society.

The state newspaper, Granma, highlighted the Government’s call to confront the U.S. embargo, the pandemic and subversion. “The virtue will be in knowing how to close ranks in defense of the homeland, entrusted to us by those who preceded us,” said Miguel Díaz-Canel, in the midst of one of the most profound economic and political crises of the last half century.

The 112 meeting attendees — led by Díaz-Canel, in his role as first secretary of the PCC — evaluated the participation of the socialist state enterprise and the contribution to the economy of new arrangements such as micro, small and medium enterprises (mipymes), reported state television.

This was the Party’s first meeting since the protests of July 11th and the repression unleashed by the state against protesters that day. All eyes are on the conclave to determine if from their meeting any directives emerge that would indicate a political and economic opening, or if instead the Party bets on a hardline. continue reading

During the event, they also debated over “the need maintain interactions between the militancy and the people,” additional information about the meeting, which will continue through Sunday in the capital’s Convention Palace, and which is not accessible to the foreign press.

Since the popular protests of July, the Cuban government has launched an offensive in neighborhoods where the protests were strongest. Visits by high officials of the Government and the Party have been covered by national media, but they’ve also been surrounded by criticism for the prolonged exclusion from investment and lack of attention by the executive to those vulnerable neighborhoods.

The purpose of the partisan conclave has been to analyze the agreements made during the political body’s eighth congress in April, as it confronted the difficult situation the country was experiencing; decisions applied with a sluggishness that despairs many Cubans, including militants of the only partisan organization recognized in the country.

At that time, delegates tackled the economic reforms announced a decade ago, the functioning of the Party, and the ideological work, but putting those accords into practice has taken longer than expected, a delay exacerbated by the restrictions imposed on the Island by the pandemic.

During that meeting, former president Raúl Castro delegated leadership of the political organization to Díaz-Canel and he also chose the new composition of the governing bodies. Since then he has made appearances on several occasions to support his replacement, the current president of the Island — a political figure who has not managed to gain popularity among Cubans.

The Central Committee of the PCC is the highest governing body of the Party between congressional sessions and is currently composed of 114 members; meanwhile in the Political Bureau, of 14 members only three are women. Whatever comes of this meeting could be the “law tablet” for the next course of organization, the Cuban executive and the entire country.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuba Postpones its Paris Club Debt Payment to 2022

The Cuban government did not pay even one dollar on its debt to the Paris Club in 2020 or in 2021. (Twitter/@EmbajadorElioRP)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 October 2021 — Cuba will not have make a debt payment to the Paris Club until next year, according to the British agency Reuters. The document signed between the parties in June represents a new moratorium for the Government of Havana by postponing until 2022 the resumption of debt payment, whose arrears are currently estimated at 200 million dollars after meeting the deadlines was suspended in 2019.

The document also provides for a readjustment of the new payment terms, but Reuters’ sources, diplomats from five countries involved, do not know if there will be penalties for non-payment.

Last Friday another agreement was overridden, this time with Russia due to the delinquency of a loan that Havana also stopped paying on last year, which contemplated an increase in the final amount by 11 million dollars, for the late payment of interest.

In 2015, Cuba signed an historic agreement with the Paris Club, which forgave the country $8.5 billion of a total debt of 11 billion, with a commitment to pay the remaining amount in installments until 2033. However, the Island stopped paying the full installments in 2019 continue reading

and in 2020, with the pandemic in full force, did not pay a single dollar.

The agreement had been advanced in June, when the parties announced modifications after a meeting between the Cuban deputy prime minister, Ricardo Cabrisas, the main negotiator of the nation’s foreign debt, and Emmanuel Moulin, director general of the Treasury and president of the Paris Club.

At that time, the Cuban side blamed the defaults on the “unprecedented tightening of the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States and the impact of phenomena associated with climate change and the covid-19 pandemic.”

“I expect a fairly robust return of tourists that affects other activities, and that should improve the payment prospects a bit in 2022,” one of the diplomats told Reuters.

The reopening of Cuba’s borders, scheduled for November 15, will reactivate one of the first sectors of foreign exchange income for the Cuban Government, although the authorities’ forecasts expect 100,000 travelers who will arrive on the island this winter season, a small number compared to what is received in a normal year. If the forecast is fulfilled, the recovery will be slow and Cuba must continue to face multiple commitments.

“I understand that most of the payments are also on hold,” said another of the sources of the British agency, in relation to the debt with Russia, Japan, the London Club and Mexico, among others.

In the original 2015 agreement, the Paris Club forgave Cuba all interest on the debt until 2020. Afterwards, only 1.5% of the total outstanding debt remained, a part of that money was allocated to funds for investments in Cuba.

“We are united in the conviction that the agreement must be saved and we believe that the Cubans agree,” said a diplomat from one of the Paris Club countries a year ago. The rich countries thus hope to get at least some of what is owed to them.

Havana declared its foreign debt to be 18.2 billion dollars in 2016, but several experts indicate that it has increased significantly since then. The country is not a member of the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank.

The Paris Club is made up of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

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