14ymedio – Page 288 – Translating Cuba

Poet Javier L. Mora Arrested After Denouncing the Repression in Cuba on Social Media

Mora is also an essayist and editor of ’Hypermedia Magazine’ and Casa Vacía. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, July 16, 2021 – The poet Javier L. Mora (b. Bayamo, 1983) was arrested this Friday in Holguín after denouncing the repression against protesters in recent days, several of his colleagues confirmed to 14ymedio. The arrest of the writer occurred at his home hours after he made public his resignation from the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac) on social media.

“It is incomprehensible, from any ideological point of view, that Cuban artists (except for a few and honorable exceptions) have remained unfazed by the images of the police outrage, the house arrests, the beatings in the middle of the street by government agents who, with or without a uniform, smashed with sticks, shots and cruel beatings not only the marches and demonstrations of July 11, 12 and 13: they also trampled, right under their noses, the Constitution itself,” the essayist and editor of Hypermedia Magazine and Casa Vacía had published.

Mora argued that the country’s rulers “sneered at Articles 54 (Freedom of Expression) and 56 (Freedom of Demonstration) of the much vaunted Constitution. Today they continue laughing at Article 49 (Inviolable Domicile) when they go out to search for protesters as if they were hunting rabbits.”

In his manifesto the poet asked: “How is it possible that they continue in their impious silence in the face of the violence unleashed by the Cuban State to repress its own people? How is it possible that they remain silent in the face continue reading

of the incitement to hatred among Cubans provoked by Díaz-Canel’s call to take to the streets, ’the combat order is given’?”

Mora also questioned the lies of Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez in his appearance last Tuesday before the international press on the suppression of the internet and the police outrage. He also criticized Díaz-Canel for continuing in his position “after a huge mass of people came out to shout at him that they don’t want him there.”

Following the recent protests throughout the island, several creative artists resigned as members of artistic organizations recognized by the regime. One of them was the playwright Yunior García Aguilera, who was arrested last Sunday.

“I cannot remain in a choir that sings praises to those who ordered repression against the youth and combat between Cubans. I cannot be part of a group of artists and intellectuals who have preferred silence or complicity,” García wrote in his Facebook profile, publicly announcing that he was no longer a member of Uneac.

So far, there are no official figures for injuries, deaths, and arrests from the protests. The government has only recognized the death of a 36-year-old man who participated in a protest on Monday in the slum neighborhood of La Güinera, in Havana. Civil society organizations have counted about 5,000 arrested or investigated since July 11, including 120 activists and journalists.

Translated by Tomás A.

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Cuban Masons Stand ‘On the Side of the People’ and Condemn Diaz-Canel

On social media, reports multiplied of house-to-house arrests and police violence. (Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, July 16, 2021 — This Friday the Cuban Masons of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree condemned the performance of Miguel Díaz-Canel at the head of the country “for calling, inciting, and ordering a violent confrontation against the Cuban people” after the protests in recent days.

In a letter addressed to the Cuban leader, the Masons rejected the arrests and violence unleashed by the regime against “peaceful protesters and citizens who think contrary to the system” that Díaz-Canel represents.

They also declared their disapproval of the usual justification used by the regime to defend itself from the crisis “the country has been plunged into”, blaming “external reasons (the US ’blockade’ [i.e. the embargo] towards Cuba) without acknowledging the responsibility and ineffectiveness of the Government.”

Similarly, in the letter signed by IPH José Ramón Viñas Alonso, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council, he denounced the idea that the social outbreak on the Island “shows the manifest nonconformity in which the country lives.”

The Masons made it clear that their position continue reading

was to be “on the side of the people” and mentioned that they belong to an institution that years ago was one of those that most “influenced the independence and society of this country.”

They cautioned that the letter does not represent disrespect for Díaz-Canel’s inauguration as president of Cuba, but it is “a sincere and necessary position” for what the country is experiencing.

After the dissemination of the letter, Viñas Alonso was summoned to the police station on Zapata and C streets in El Vedado, Havana, where he was accompanied by a group of Masons from the same Lodge, as confirmed by the writer and fellow Mason Angel Santiesteban.

The Supreme Council’s position came after a statement from the Grand Lodge of Cuba characterizing as “disturbing” the excessive use of force by those in charge of keeping order.

“Today we watch with sadness as something that was foreseeable due to the discontent and deficiencies among the population has materialized in demonstrations throughout the country,” stated the Grand Lodge, and labeled as “unacceptable the call for a confrontation between Cubans.”

They also stated that they are “on the side of the Cuban people” and advocate “for peace, harmony, and social justice.” “We urge that tolerance, the search for truth, and brotherly love prevail under any circumstances.”

Masons have had a large presence in Cuban history, especially in the struggles for independence. Most of the heroes of that feat were Masons, like Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo. Even José Martí’s status as a Mason, which was in doubt for decades, was finally confirmed.

But with the passing of the years and the nationalization of the last half century, the social and political prominence of the Masons decreased notably, along with the number of their members. At present it is estimated that there are slightly more than 27,000 Masons distributed in 320 lodges across the Island.

Last Sunday, July 11, the streets of Cuba were abuzz with people who came out to protest against the regime. The peaceful mobilization started with a demonstration in the municipality of San Antonio de los Baños, in Artemisa, which was broadcast live on Facebook until the connection was cut off by the regime.

In all the gatherings, reported in various provinces such as Matanzas, Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, Cienfuegos, and Havana, cries of “down with the dictatorship” and “freedom” were heard. The Government cut the internet connection throughout the country to prevent Cubans from uploading videos to social media that showed what happened in the demonstrations, and also showed the repression of the participants.

Other protests were also reported during Monday and Tuesday in different parts of the country, but the dictatorship increased the wave of repression against the protesters. On social media, reports of house-to-house detentions and police violence multiplied.

So far, there are no official figures for injuries, deaths, and arrests from the protests. The government has only reported the death of a 36-year-old man who participated in a protest on Monday in the slum neighborhood of La Güinera, in Havana. Civil society organizations have counted about 5,000 people arrested or investigated since July 11, including 120 activists and journalists.

Translated by Tomás A.

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Cuba: Notes on a Roundtable with Nothing New to Say

A Cuban entrepreneur operates a micro business during the pandemic. (14ymedio)

Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, July 15, 2021 – The first reaction of the Cuban communist dictatorship to social protests was the repression and imprisonment of numerous protesters—this is to say, fear. The second has been propaganda, with the Roundtable television program espousing the government’s viewpoints.

Yesterday, this medium led the charge with Manuel Marrero, Cuba’s prime minister, and some speculation. In the end, it was the same as always. Buying time with superficial patches designed to appease social tension but which shortly will prove to be useless. On the other hand, the back and forth between the Cuban communist regime’s two power centers continues, and that tension is no longer hidden. At least, it was clear in the Roundtable, with a relaxed Marrero dressed in a black guayabera.

Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero appearing on the Roundtable program. (Ahora!)

The prime minister began by talking about the blackouts, assuming that it is an issue that worries people and is a factor in the protests. Nevertheless, he came to say that the power plants of Lidio Ramón Pérez (Felton), Antonio Guitera, and Máximo Gómez were not in the process of production and required “synchronization.” This a major issue behind the rolling-blackouts.

In addition, the PM warned that the matter was not resolved, so the blackouts will continue as long as the origin is not resolved, and this origin is none other than the lack of funding. He set the goal of permanently having 500 megawatts of reserve. This would be the only way to cover one of the large plants if it failed. The issue is that currently there is a reserve of 133 megawatts.

According to Marrero, in order to achieve the 500 megawatts reserve, the entire process of repairing and starting up the currently paralyzed machines must be continued. Many wonder what prevents these tasks from being performed on a regular basis, or alternatively, what the workers of these state monopolies do. Marrero did not speak about that. continue reading

Conclusion: there will continue to be blackouts, they will arrive without warning, suddenly, when people least expect it, and they will continue to affect the population. There is no alternative. And he ended by blaming Covid-19 and the growing need from quarantine centers, which has required protecting hospital circuits. They have had to resort to generators (12,000), which pollute and are the only response the regime can produce to the electrical chaos.

However, Marrero concluded by saying that the national energy situation is moving towards stabilization, and once again he insisted on the need to “save as much as we can save,” an argument that exasperates people who do not know what else to do to save. The dependence on oil, from Venezuela, that does not arrive leads us to think that the situation will not improve and that the minister lied. We will see.

In regards to vaccinations, he announced that by the end of August, almost 60% of the population will be fully vaccinated, but the difficulty is in producing enough vaccines, a statement that collides with recent announcements about possible sales of the vaccines developed in Cuba — Abdala and Soberana — to countries like Iran.

BioCubaFarma had delivered 3.4 million doses to the Ministry of Public Health and in June another 4.8 million, so that by July 12, 7,618,028 doses have been applied. As a percentage, this volume is close to group immunity in Cuba, yet Covid-19 is increasingly out of control throughout the country. Someone must have thought that something strange might be happening, because if, as Marrero said, Cuba exceeds the world average for the percentage of people who have received at least one dose, something is wrong.

He continued by stating that the Abdala vaccine’s efficacy of 92.28% places it among the most effective in the world, but without citing research from the WHO or other authorized bodies. He spoke of pediatric trials, the complexities of Covid-19, the difficulty of producing vaccines, in short, he did not say anything that is not known, without acknowledging that in the battle against Covid-19 Cuba (the great healthcare power) has lost. And that also causes discontent in the population.

At this point, the program segued into demagoguery and populism. The first came out of the blue and was unexpected. The regime authorizes the importing of food, hygiene, and medicines through special means. Remember, in this regard, the stores that only take payment in hard (i.e. foreign) currencies (MLC) were also announced as temporary and have been in operation for almost two years.

The decision of the regimen is justified by the shortage of drugs in hospitals and pharmacies. In other words, Cubans who come from abroad will be able to bring medicines without limits, an activity that will generate business, because the national system is collapsed due to the shortage of foreign exchange. Although the Cuban national industry produces almost 80% of the official drugs, the most affected products are related to antihypertensives, antibiotics, analgesics, contraceptives, vitamins and products for dental use.

At this point in the program, the United States embargo appeared, as it was responsible for the fact that suppliers, due to pressure and new US government measures, were unable to guarantee shipments. Marrero did not mention that Cuba’s trade with the United States currently includes more than 50 million dollars of medical imports.

He highlighted the measure, which is due to the priority of the production of medicines to combat covid-19 and the hospital network, for hemodialysis, hypertensive, antibiotics, diabetics and oncology patients, as well as for quarantine centers and the network of pharmacies. There is no doubt that more than one Cuban will be vaccinated with vaccines from abroad, which are more reliable.

In addition to medicines, food and hygiene items may be brought from abroad to natural persons, a decision that will relaunch the ’mule’ business, at levels similar to those before the MLC stores began operating. In fact, limitations on the quantities per type of article allowed are no longer in force, allowing for the free importation of these goods and also, as a gift, free of customs duties.

In essence, exceptionally and temporarily, immediately (Monday, July 19) the communist regime of Cuba authorizes passengers with accompanying luggage to import of food, personal hygiene and cleaning products, and medicines without limit and free of payment of tariffs until December 31, 2021. The limits will be set by the airline. It is a shame that the regime recognizes that it cannot feed the population or meet their demands for hygiene and medicine, and throws in the towel. The loss in foreign exchange that is will experience for this decision is in the millions.

Marrero then referred to the new measures for the distribution of regulated food. So complex is the communist bureaucracy that the case of people who have settled in other provinces, even without legal address, and who do not have a ration book in the place where they reside, have to be evaluated. It is intended to update this regulation that what should be done is to delete it.

Some 30,000 people are in this situation, mostly in the capital, although it also occurs in other territories. They also talked about the measures in the agriculture sector that, according to Marrero, have allowed an increase planting plans and have created the basis for moving forward, but he did not offer a single piece of information. And about the monetary system, he limited himself to saying that “decisions continue to be made regarding issues that arose during the implementation.” And a little more.

Another populist measure announced at the Round Table is the elimination of the obligation to use the salary scale for the payment of wages. It was the economy minister who took the floor to explain this matter.

He pointed out, by way of introduction, that on May 26, in a session of the Council of Ministers, the process of improvement of economic actors was approved, which includes the non-state sector and the state sector, with the state company as the main subject of the economic model.

And he cited the two measures approved for implementation in the state company. On the one hand he presented an update on the status of the process of elaboration of the legal norms on micro, small and medium enterprises, self-employment and non-agricultural cooperatives and, on the other hand, with reference to the agreements of the 8th Communist Party Congress, pointed out that the improvement of the remuneration system for the work contributed, that is, how the salary is set in the socialist state enterprise, was one of the priorities set.

The first steps have been taken in modification of the payment systems and the incorporation of the distribution of the profit as mobile income of the workers and the government has agreed to eliminate the obligation to use the salary scale for the payment of salaries in state-owned companies.

As the minister said, it is “a measure of great depth and depth, which gives autonomy to the direction of the state company and a great deal of responsibility. The payment of salary by a scale that, in practical terms, is already approved by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, which is not the same as having an approved salary fund and having the autonomy to distribute that fund in correspondence with the different positions, activities, professions of the staff in the company.” Of course not. The decision can lead to a spiral of wage increases without a productivity counterpart that ends up resulting in a lack of profitability of the companies, which forces them to come up with more subsidies from the budget.

For this measure to have an impact on the business sector, no matter how gradually it is imposed, productivity and competitiveness devices fail, which depend on market demand and technology. It is like building a house starting with the roof. Playing with salary scales and breaking the principles of “Cuban collective bargaining” without reforming the basic principles of the economic system can be a disaster for the field of labor relations.

The minister recognized this when he said that companies have to “have accounting, organization, development in human resources management, adequate internal control, which allows us to test and generalize this measure to the rest of the economy until it reaches all the state companies.” Ah, what don’t they have?

It is fine to increase the salary of workers, but productivity is essential and if companies are not free to configure their productive structure, this measure is not going anywhere. The minister knows that if he wants to respect the principle that the more that is earned the more wealth is generated, the more efficient it is and the more it contributes to the State, there is no alternative but to privatize the business system, and establish a respectable framework of proprietary rights. There is no other way.

It is not a question of giving the non-state sector “certain freedom to set the amount of money paid to workers, which we are incorporating into the operation and management of the socialist state enterprise.” It is about liberalizing the technical and organizational elements linked to the productive structure so that companies can make decisions freely, both state and non-state.

Next, the Minister of Economy made reference to the new measures regarding the ways of functioning and operating of the micro, small and medium state enterprise, as part of the strengthening of the socialist state enterprise itself, which is owned by the state, assuming it must have a role distinct from that in a private company. The question is immediate, why should it be this way? There is no reason why the management of a company, state or non-state, is different. Both must respond to their boards of directors in terms of profitability, producing goods and services with demand in the market and at good prices.

Although the minister does not believe it, the budgeted units, companies and Higher Organizations of Business Management, and also scientific centers and universities, must act as described. The issue of mirco, small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) is being circled a lot and there is the feeling that the communist government does not want them to be free of, but rather subject to, political control. Bad business. Free enterprise does not believe in subordination of any kind or in political hierarchies or obedience. It only responds to the board of directors and its clients and stakeholders. The owner is the owner, and must be responsible for his company to workers and customers. Any patching is inefficient and will not make MSMEs work.

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Diaz-Canel Speaks Like ‘Karadzic, the Butcher of Bosnia,’ Says the Council for the Transition in Cuba

Miguel Díaz-Canel in San Antonio de los Baños, the place where the protests began, on July 11. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 July 2021 — The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC) denounces that the government’s reaction to the participants of the July 11 protests “has followed the Yugoslav model” with a “call from the State for a potential massacre,” says the new opposition alliance in a statement published this Thursday.

The regime has exercised “harsh repression against unarmed citizens, illegal rearmament of paramilitary mobs, and night raids to arrest protesters, mostly young people,” details the text that lists the first statements of Miguel Díaz-Canel after the demonstrations as comparable “for their content and gravity” to those of Radovan Karadzic, “the butcher of Bosnia.”

The CTDC laments that the president’s words — warning “the combat order is given” and saying the government is “ready for anything” — have not been criticized by the highest levels of the United Nations and its Human Rights Council. A silence that reveals “the weaknesses of a global organization that does not quite understand that continue reading

the only guarantee of peace between states lies in peace within states.”

The CTDC believes that July 11 was “a protest of freedom, not a protest of hunger, as in the latter case many establishments throughout the country would not have remained intact.”

The text emphasizes that “nothing is more important” in Cuban than the need for “free, pluralistic, democratic and fair elections.” And that “electing capable men and women, with a vision of the State, has never had more relevance” in Cuba.

The Council also notes that among the more than 5,000 detained during the protests are José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) and president of the CTDC, as well as his son José Daniel Ferrer Cantillo and government opponents Guillermo Fariñas and Félix Navarro Rodríguez. In addition, they mention the imprisonment of reporters Camila Acosta and Henry Constantín.

“With these arrests they intend to protect themselves with charges for the alleged crimes of public disorder, which fulfills the political purpose of twisting the surprising peaceful, civil and political nature of the demonstrations in more than 50 cities and towns in Cuba,” says the statement.

The Council called for the “immediate release” of all those imprisoned and announced the creation of a support network for their families “in order to seek legal advice and national and international visibility.”

“Families and citizens who want to publicize cases and seek legal protection can contact the Council through: consejotransicion11j@gmail.com or WhatsApp + 5354485695 / +34639338982″, details the text, while requesting international solidarity with the protesters of July 11.

For its part, on Thursday the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) demanded the immediate release of Constantín, the designer Neife Rigau and the photographer Iris Mariño of La Hora de Cuba, who have been detained since Sunday in the police unit known as Segunda Station, in Camagüey.

With regards to Rigau and Mariño, the IAPA learned from sources close to the police that they could be “released in the next few hours under house arrest for an indefinite period.”

However, with regards to Constantín, who is the vice president of the IAPA on the island and the director of La Hora de Cuba, it transpired that “charges will be brought against him and a trial will be opened.” On the same Sunday, the police raided the journalist’s home and seized cell phones, a computer and money.

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Diaz-Canel Offended by Biden’s Suggestion to Send Vaccines to Cuba

Image disseminated by the official media about the candidate vaccine Abdala, approved by CECMED last week for emergency use. (ACN)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 July 2021 — The suggestion made on Thursday by US president Joe Biden to send vaccines to the island has provoked an angry reaction from Miguel Diaz-Canel. Without alluding at any time to the matter at hand, the Cuban president has responded this Friday with a series of tweets in which he questions the “humanitarian concern [of Washington] for the Cuban people.”

When asked about the situation on the island at a press conference with German prime minister Angela Merkel, Biden stated, “I would be prepared to give significant amounts of vaccines if, in fact, I was assured an international organization would administer those vaccines, and do it in a way that average citizens would have access to those vaccines.”

The president, who also said that his government is reviewing whether the United States can help reinstate internet access in the island, used the opportunity to declare that Cuba is a “failed state” that “represses its citizens,” and ruled out, for the time being, the reestablishment of the ability to send remittances because “the fact is, it’s highly likely that the regime would confiscate those remittances, or continue reading

big chunks of it.”

One of the demands that was heard in the July 11 demonstrations across the country was “we want medicines,” contrary to the regime’s insistent propaganda about its vaccine candidates, which were still in the experimental phase when a mass vaccination campaign began in May, disguised as an “interventional trial.” This newspaper has published several testimonies from Cubans who are reluctant to receive the national vaccines because they have doubts, raised by the lack of transparency from authorities about the process to develop these drugs.

This very Friday, the state newspaper Granma talks about the progress of “immunization” on the island, declaring that it goes “from milestone to milestone,” but without giving much detail on the numbers of people that have been vaccinated. The vaccines that Cuba has used in its massive health intervention are Soberana 02, which the same health authorities say has an official efficacy of 91.2%, and that Abdala, which was approved for emergency use by the Cuban regulatory agency (CECMED) has an official efficacy of 92.28%.

Officially, they are still in phase 3 of clinical trials, and neither drug has had any results published in scientific journals. Only two preclinical trials in mice with Soberana 02 have been published.

The demands for medicines and complaints against the dilapidated state of the healthcare system are evidence that alluding to the achievements of the international brigades against Covid-19 around the world is futile; the government already had to put them at the service of the internal crisis, sending 200 doctors and nurses from the Henry Reeve brigade to Matanzas last week.

Despite this, the government continues to welcome the mission teams with great fanfare. “Especially now, when the enemies of the Cuban revolution attack it under the pretext of false humanity,” says a note in the official press, two brigades: one from Panama, with 10 health workers, and the last one remaining in Mexico, with 97 members, have returned on Thursday.

Translated by: Rita Ro

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United Nations Denounces 187 Victims of Enforced Disappearances in Cuba

Several agents arrest a demonstrator in Havana on July 11. (EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa)

14ymedio, Mexico, 16 July 2021 — The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) urged the Cuban government this Thursday to release information on the whereabouts of 187 people who are still missing after the demonstrations that began July 11 across the country, as well as on the identities of the “perpetrators.”

The Committee’s request for urgent action is in response to a complaint issued on the previous day by the organization Cuban Prisoners Defenders, which states that hundreds of people detained in over 15 cities since Sunday, have not had any contact with their relatives yet, and “there is no official documentation stating their whereabouts.”

In response to the complaint, the UN urges the regime to carry out an investigation on the whereabouts of the missing persons “taking an integral approach, ensuring that they can communicate with their relatives and their legal defense.” continue reading

The Committee also urged the government to provide “updated information on the actions they have taken to resolve this matter,” underlining that Havana has until July 30, 2021 to respond to these urgent actions.

Regarding the identity of “those responsible for the enforced disappearances of the 187 people,” the UN requests that “the Committee be fully informed about everything.”

“In the event that the 187 people are being held incommunicado,” a call was made to ensure they can communicate with relatives, lawyers or any person they choose, and that they are allowed to receive visitors.

On the other hand, the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) denounced on Thursday “the lack of legal defense for detainees and the hunt perpetrated against the demonstrators.”

“There is no justice, Cuba is in an undeclared state of siege or exception*, while the forces of repression continue repressing, organizing raids, raiding homes to arrest protesters with complete discretionary power and violence,” denounced the Madrid-based organization.

The Observatory also alleged that “police stations are not allowing entry to defense attorneys hired by relatives of detainees.” Furthermore, “Cuban court rooms will remain closed for a week, so during that time it will be impossible to present any arguments in favor of the victims of repression.”

Reports received by OCDH point out that several people in Bauta municipality, in Artemisa, “have taken refuge in the mountains, avoiding persecution … Buses loaded with workers from state agencies are leaving their provinces to repress in other areas where the people do not know them,” the Observatory warned.

In cities like Camagüey, “buses loaded with police are being used to detain and transport demonstrators who have been identified in videos of the protests posted on social media. Meanwhile, mothers and relatives are roaming the detention centers seeking information about their detained and/or missing relatives.”

In its complaint, the OCDH also revealed that observers on the island have reported that “prisons remain closed,” and that many detainees have been transferred to prison “as a precautionary measure” and have no communication with their relatives. Those who have been released “are being forced to remain in their homes,” and many have also been fined between 300 and 5,000 pesos.

*Translator’s note: Source: Cuban government website (translated): The “state of exception” is a mechanism included in the constitutional text of a country and is declared in the event of a situation that warrants extraordinary measures…

Translated by: Rita Ro

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Now They Are the Ones Who Are Afraid of Us

“Freedom does not fit in a suitcase,” warn many on social media. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 16 July 2021 — In the line, nobody speaks. A woman stares at the toe of her shoe and a young man taps his fingers on the wall. A few days have passed since Cubans took to the streets in a protest without precedents in the last 62 years and outrage pervades every space. As images of police brutality emerge in the media, with more testimonies of mothers with their children who have disappeared since that Sunday, and videos of militarized cities, popular irritation grows.

Anyone who, before that already historic date, did not know this island might say that the authorities have managed to control the situation and that calm reigns again in the Cuban streets. But, in reality this apparent tranquility is just fear, anger and pain. In Havana, the tension in the air can be cut with a knife and everywhere there are police, military and civilians associated with the Government with improvised clubs in their hands. Inside the houses the discomfort increases and the tears flow. Few have slept through the entire night.

Thousands of families are looking for someone in the police stations, while many others wait for the uniformed men to knock on their door to take away a relative suspected of participating in the protests. Some new sources of disagreement explode in different parts of the national geography and are drowned with blows and shots by special troops, the dreaded “black wasps.” Many independent journalists are detained, others are under house arrest, and internet access has been censored on several occasions since the first popular demonstration broke out.

The people whom the authorities showed as completely faithful to the system, docile and peaceful, no longer exists. In its place, there is a country full of screams, some loud and some silent, so it is not possible continue reading

to calculate exactly when it will explode. The real Cuba has distanced itself even more from the nation that inhabits the official press. The former feel that they have recovered their civic voice, massively tested their strength in the streets, and tasted shouting the word “freedom” aloud; while the headlines controlled by the official press speak of conspiracies coming from outside, of small groups that demonstrated, and of criminals who vandalized markets. Both stories are mutually exclusive and cannot coexist for long.

Miguel Díaz-Canel tried to shade things with the first words he spoke before the microphones that Sunday when, practically every hour, a new focus of protest came to light. “The combat order is given” and “we are ready for anything,” he threatened then, and the ghost of civil war flew over the archipelago. Now, without retracting those words, he intersperses concepts such as “harmony,” “peace” and “joy” but fails to convince, because along with those syrupy phrases hundreds of buses throughout the country continue to discharge their shock troops in squares and neighborhoods.

So far, the only announced easing, in an attempt to quell the protests, has been to cancel the limits on travelers bringing medicine, food, and toiletries to the Island. But the measure comes late; after years of demands it is seen as a crumb before the strong social demand that the system be dismantled, its main figures resign and a transition to democracy begin as soon as possible. “Freedom does not fit in a suitcase,” many warn on social networks, just as rebellion is not stopped by a police shield. “We were so hungry that we ate our fear”, can also be read everywhere. But now we have so much anger that they are the ones who fear us, and it shows.

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This text was originally published on the Deutsche Welle website for Latin America.

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Los Van Van, Chucho Valdés, Leo Brouwer and Other Cuban Artists Take ‘The People’s Side’

Cuban musician and producer Leo Brower. (DC)

14ymedio, Madrid | 14 July 2021 — Voices of international Cuban artists, critical of the repression unleashed by the regime since Sunday’s protests, are multiplying. Among them are those of figures formerly related to the regime, and those of figures who have been very prudent in expressing their political opinion are striking, for example the musicians Leo Brouwer and Chucho Valdés, who signed a letter in 2003 justifying the execution of three young people for hijacking a ferry in an attempt to leave the country.

“The abuse of power has reached such sadness and pain!” Brouwer writes on Facebook. “I never imagined that the sectors in charge of order in Cuba would attack the ordinary and peaceful people of Cuba. When Cubans protest, there is no doubt that politics, or rather, political and military power, has been exceeded”, and he asks: “How can they live in peace?”

The members of the famous Van Van orchestra also spoke via social networks. “Cuba’s Van Van exists thanks to our people; therefore, we will always support the people, whoever they are, whatever they think, defend the ideology they defend, always with the utmost respect”, they publish. “We support the thousands of Cubans who demand their rights, we must be heard. Let’s say “no” to violence and outrage, let’s call for peace in our streets.” continue reading

“I am very saddened by what my people are suffering, including my family”, Valdés wrote in his official networks. “Enough of deceit and lies! International humanitarian aid is essential”

Chucho Valdés and Haydée Milanés spoke in the same sense. “I am very saddened by what my people are suffering, including my family,” Valdés wrote on his official networks. “Enough of deceit and lies! International humanitarian aid is essential”.

Milanés, who sided with artists who on November 27^th achieved, in a peaceful demonstration, dialogue with the Vice Minister of Culture, Fernando Rojas, stated on Monday that the Cuban people “have peacefully taken to the streets with their demands” and that the Government has “the obligation to listen to them”. It is inadmissible, he asserted, “that the authorities are calling for a confrontation among Cubans. Enough of the repression, enough of the violence!”

Singer Leoni Torres, who had already spoken out in favor of Sunday’s protests and released a video clip with Willy Chirino last month, made a live broadcast from Havana on Tuesday, with his wife, actress Yuliet Cruz, condemning “the violence unleashed by the Government of Cuba against its people”. “There is no justification,” Cruz declares, “all this could have been avoided”. “You cannot repress people who are asking to be heard”, the actress continued. “They have their total and legitimate right to state what they don’t want, and it’s the rulers’ duty to listen and respond to that demand”.

Torres adds: “Fostering a civil war among Cubans is not the way. That was the worst decision the rulers could have made”.

Other musicians, who until now had never spoken out, are Pupy Pedroso, Elito Revé or Adalberto Álvarez.

Yunior García Aguilera, one of those arrested last Sunday, made public his resignation as a member of the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists

“With pain and indignation, I see how my people are mistreated,” Pedroso wrote, “just for disagreeing with what they do not want, just for protesting”. And he expressed: “My people, I am on your side”.

Revé, for his part, stated that “violence is the incompetent’s last resort”. “Say no to violence against my people, brothers, friends, public and family”.

“It is impossible to remain silent about everything that is happening in our country”, said Álvarez. “The blows and the images I see of violence against people that go out to the streets to express peacefully what they feel, hurt me … The streets of Cuba belong to Cubans”, he argued. “To these people I owe what I am today and I do not care about anyone’s way of thinking” because “beyond political thought is the human right”.

Artist Lázaro Saavedra has gone further and, in a video comment that he shared on Monday, in which officers, dressed in uniform and civilian clothes, are observed attacking with sticks an individual who is defending a young man. He stands: ” I will no longer exhibit in any State institution in this country, and I am canceling my personal exhibition with my children for this year at Galería Habana”. There is no justification, says the artist among exclamations, “for this excessive use of force against civilians and particularly with the intervention of special troops.”

Similarly, playwright Yunior García Aguilera, one of those arrested last Sunday, announced his resignation as a member of the Union of Writers and Cuban Artists (UNEAC). “I cannot continue to belong to an organization that turns its back on a considerable part of the population, and chooses to show obedience to an abusive power. I cannot remain in a choir that sings praises to those who ordered the repression against young people and battle against Cubans. I cannot be part of a group of artists and intellectuals who have preferred silence or complicity”, García wrote on his Facebook page.

On Wednesday, popular comedian Ulises Toirac stated that the Cuban government “has taken the path of repression and has closed itself off from any possibility of understanding”. “I cannot support the people’s claims be answered with violence. It is not a people’s government that beats and subdues. I beg the forces of power not to comply with orders of unjustified violence. They are facing their relatives, their friends, those that they swore to defend”, he said.

Carlos Acosta, an outstanding dancer and choreographer, joined the expressions of support for Cubans who took to the streets this Sunday: “I am absolutely opposed to all kinds of violence and all kinds of intolerances. It is not a crime to want to be heard, it is not a crime to aspire and want a better country. Cuba deserves to reach maximum capacity in its development. The people need to be heard. A better future is possible for everyone, but in order to achieve it, we must know how to listen and live with our differences. In this, I trust and believe”.

“To be aired live in Spain, I hold the Government responsible for anything that may happen to me”

So far, there are no official deaths, injuries, or arrest figures. The Government has only acknowledged one deceased so far, a 36-year-old man who participated in a protest on Monday in the marginal neighborhood of La Güinera, in Havana. Civil organizations estimate about 5,000 arrested or investigated since July 11^th, including 120 activists and journalists.

One of the arrests could be seen by Spaniards, live on open television this Tuesday. The well-known Cuban YouTuber Dina Stars, who had published a video of her participation in a peaceful demonstration in Havana on Sunday, was in an interview with the program Todo es Mentira, on channel four, when State Security agents broke into her home to take her to the Zapata and C station, according to the promoter. “Spain Live, I hold the Government responsible for anything that may happen to me”, she said, before having to cut off the communication.

According to Efe news agency, Edy Suárez, who witnessed the arrest, he and other friends went to the central station to inquire about the young woman’s whereabouts, but the agents explained that she had been transferred to another detention center several kilometers away, east of Havana.

“We don’t know her whereabouts. We are concerned”, Suárez told Efe, who hopes “that Dina’s example will help people show solidarity with other missing Cubans who were arrested on Sunday and whose whereabouts are unknown”.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Cuban Man’s Corpse Left Unattended for Days in a Varadero Hotel

The Cuban died in a room at the Puntarena hotel in Varadero. (Solwayscuba)

14ymedio, Havana, 8 July 2021 — Warning signs of a pandemic collapse keep coming from Matanzas, a province that has been leading the list of daily infected cases for days. In a room at Puntarena, a hotel in Varadero that functions as medical center for positive Covid-19 cases, the corpse of a traveler was left unattended for over two days by the authorities.

The man died on Tuesday morning, as reported by other travelers from the island who are quarantined at this hotel. In a video published on social media, the entrance of the room with an oxygen tank can be seen, as well as the silhouette of the legs of a corpse laying on a bed covered with a white sheet.

“I lent them my phone so they could film the video. I don’t have the guts to see it, but it hurts,” said Katia Jiménez, a Cuban who uploaded the video to Facebook showing what was taking place. The woman, who tested positive for Covid-19, said that the deceased person was continue reading

a fellow traveler who was staying in a room one floor above hers.

“Everyone who knows me, knows that I have a strong character, but I am very sympathetic. He was not my friend, but he was a human being who lost his life due to medical negligence,” she added.

Jiménez also denounced “the lack of medical attention and medicine” at the isolation center. She added that she was treated with Interferon which gave her adverse reaction, and she was not examined by medical personnel. “It is easy to talk about it, but it is harder to go through it like I am.”

Since June 5, the government established that all travelers, who are Cuban residents, arriving at international airports in the tourist towns of Ciego de Avila and Varadero, have to pay a mandatory isolation package at a hotel in foreign currency (MLC).

According to health officials, travelers will have to stay quarantined for seven days. The isolation package includes, besides lodging, transportation from the airport to the isolation center.

People, I am broadcasting live something that happened at this hotel, this hotel [grab this] this hotel Puntarena, in Varadero. Were are people who traveled to Russia and [returned home and] we are here quarantined in this hotel but they really haven’t even treated us with Interferon here.

You can see there an oxygen tank. What we are going to show you is a human being who passed away three days ago, and this is the time that nobody has come to pick him up. [keep talking]

Three days ago, he passed away.

You can see it there. There he is. [keep talking] There he is, still laying in bed. Waiting. Waiting. We do not go inside because the room is infected. He has been in that bed for… like the boy says, approximately three days, and the doctors, nothing, not even the funeral car, nobody has come to check on him. Not even his family, I think, because nobody wants to enter the room.

Likewise, isolation packages are also enforced for travelers arriving at Havana and Santiago de Cuba airports, at prices ranging from 378 to 1,907 dollars.

This past Wednesday “a new protocol to confirm positive cases” was announced, which gives prevalence to antigen tests over PCR.

However two days before that, new regulations for travelers arriving from Russia were being implemented. After their stay at the isolation center, they needed to complete a 14-day quarantine in their respective homes, “complying with all the regulations indicated by the health department,” published by the official media this past Monday.

Health personnel is in charge of “watching” protocol compliance, provided that the homes were these travelers reside are identified, explained Dr. Neil Reyes Miranda, director of the Health Department for Villa Clara province. After ten days, the PCR test will be repeated because “some cases have turned positive on the ninth day. If they have symptoms, they have to report it to the health department so that they can be admitted into a healthcare facility.”

However, these regulations are not enforced for Russian tourists. Around 230 visitors from Russia were in isolation in Varadero because, allegedly, they tested positive for Covid-19. After many of them expressed their discontent on social media, saying that they were vaccinated and had traveled to the island after testing negative on PCR tests, Moscow demanded that Cuba “release” their quarantined tourists.

After the increase of infected cases, the country lives in a dramatic scene where social media has become one of the few channels to voice the collapse of medical centers. Patients and their relatives have demanded medical care, PCR testing, or ICU care.

This is the scene in Matanzas where some healthcare workers and residents denounced the conditions in which several hospitals were at maximum capacity, with no extra beds and patients confined waiting in hallways.

Translated by: Rita Ro

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The Cuban People Have Already Started Walking and Are Not Going to Stop

A moment of the demonstration this July 11th in the city of Santiago de Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Ariel Hidalgo, Miami, July 13, 2021 — The Cuban president de facto (because he was never elected by any vote) has blamed U.S. policy for the social explosion that shook the entire country this past Sunday. According to him, it was this policy that generated the critical situation, both in the economic and health spheres, which caused the people to despair.

But any Cuban who lives or has lived in Cuba knows very well that the responsibility for most of the calamities they have suffered for many years does not lie in a supposed external blockade, but in the internal blockade imposed by the government leadership itself against free economic initiative – through high taxes, high cost of licenses, and multiple prohibitions.

The well-known policy of not doing and not letting do: they neither carried out the structural reforms that could have freed the population from so many tribulations, nor did they allow them to improve their living conditions by their own means.

They were not even being asked to return to capitalism with a neoliberal policy. Congress after congress of that ruling party, intellectuals and groups of Cubans formed within that system, demanded an opening toward a more democratic and participatory socialism that would encourage greater productivity and generate an improvement in the country’s economic situation. As that path meant having to renounce the absolute power continue reading

that they have enjoyed up to now to the detriment of a population in the worst conditions, they did not want to listen.

This government has even rejected offers of humanitarian aid on several occasions, especially in recent months, with the worsening of the epidemic, and has refused to open a humanitarian corridor to help the most affected regions.

Sick people of all kinds deteriorate from lack of medication. The elderly die from lack of antibiotics, and children die, not only from the virus but from malnutrition. Many patients are sent home to die because nothing can be done in the hospitals. The suicide rate, especially among the elderly, has risen alarmingly. All of this they try to hush up. Moreover, during the first quarter of this year, the Government has allocated only 0.003% of its budget to public health and social assistance.

So who are the real instigators of these protests?

Díaz-Canel has also said that “counterrevolutionary” elements within the country have been instigated from abroad, but as he cannot deny that the protests have been massive in more than twenty important towns in all provinces – something in the style of the now disappeared Commander in Chief would be a plebiscite with a very clear result: “out” – he argues that many people are “confused”. But for more than six decades that dictatorship has maintained a monopoly on information by controlling the mass media of communication and dissemination. Who’s carried out the job of confusing the people?

No one can say that they were not alerted. Yesterday’s social explosion was like a chronicle of announced rebellion. At the beginning of 2021, the two survivors of the original nucleus of half a dozen political prisoners that started the dissident movement published in this newspaper and sent to Díaz-Canel’s office a proposal to begin, peacefully and in an orderly manner, a process of changes for the solution to the Cuban problem that would be satisfactory for all, and we warned that discontent “could explode massively with serious irreparable consequences.” The author of these lines himself published on May 21, in the Havana Times digital magazine, the article “The Cuban Leadership is Sleeping on a Powder Keg.”

The government response was not only to ignore the calls, but to further increase the precariousness of the population. In January, with the unification of the currency, purchasing power fell despite the increase in nominal wages, because the prices of goods and services rose greatly. And on June 21, it suspended deposits in dollars, which had allowed citizens access to the products of the basic shopping basket.

Did you think that the population was going to continue indefinitely with folded arms and bowed head, enduring so much neglect and so much injustice?

Now, his response is brutal repression: “The order to fight is given. Revolutionaries take to the streets!” And he clarified, so that there would be no doubts: “We are ready for anything!”

The demonstration was peaceful, a universally recognized right, until police repression and government mobs began, generally repressive agents in civilian clothes.

Many wonder what will happen now. The only thing I know is that the Cuban people have already started walking, and they are not going to stop.

Translated by Tomás A.

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Human Rights Organizations Report There Were More Than 700 Repressive Actions in Cuba During the month of June

The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) registered 713 repressive actions on the island in June. (Facebook / Héctor Valdés Cocho)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 July 2021 – “The dictatorship has lost much socially and this is what is going to explode in a moment.” This is how resoundingly Martha Beatriz Roque portrayed the situation in the latest monthly report of the Cuban Center for Human Rights (CCDH), which she directs. The Cuban government has imprisoned up to 36 dissidents so far this year, the organization reports, in what it continues to call “the new version of the [2003] Black Spring.”

The figures are corroborated by the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH), which registered 713 repressive actions on the island in June, of which 114 were some kind of detention, and 599 “other abuses.”

The main abuses consisted of harassment at activists’ homes, fines, threats, citations, and acts of repudiation. Of those arrested, three ended up in prison, as did five of those issued citations.

Martha Beatriz Roque highlights, among them, the arrest of rapper Maykel Castillo Osorbo, catalogued by Amnesty International, she recalls, “as one more example of the repression and racism of the Government of Miguel Díaz-Canel.” In addition, she mentions the case of the artist Hamlet Lavastida, arrested upon returning from Germany from a residence in a Berlin gallery. continue reading

Roque points to the economic situation as the main factor for popular discontent. “At this time, there is nothing that is representing so much damage to the dictatorship, as the dictatorship itself, because the rejection of the people is very great,” says the activist. She recalls the announcement of the return of nationwide blackouts, a scenario similar to that experienced during the Special Period in the 1990s. The power outages, “together with the serious water supply situation, irritate the Cuban family in general,” Roque says.

The report also refers to the European Parliament resolution on human rights and the political situation in Cuba, which was approved by an absolute majority on June 10. For Roque, this document shook the foundation of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between Cuba and the European Union. However, the activist is sure that the dictatorship skillfully put that matter in the background “with the announcement of the elimination of the use of the dollar in the country.”

The resolution indicates “the lack of commitment and will” of the Government to make more than “minimal” progress towards a change that will allow the reform of the Cuban political system to improve “social and political participation, in addition to the living conditions of the citizens.”

These claims join those of other organizations such as the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, which denounced the Government of Cuba to the United Nations for more than 30,000 arbitrary detentions committed in the last five years. Added to this are the alerts from the Cuban Center for Human Rights and Cuban Prisoners Defenders about the increase in political prisoners and convicted on the island. There are currently 152, of which 14 were incarcerated last May, considered the highest monthly number since March 2003, and 11 in June.

Translated by Tomás A.

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European Union Asks the Cuban Government to ‘Allow’ and ‘Listen’ to the Protesters

Protesters this July 11 in front of the Cuban Capitol, in Havana. (EFE / Ernesto Mastrascusa)

EFE (via 14ymedio) – The High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, urged Cuban authorities on Monday to “allow” peaceful protest demonstrations and to “listen” to their participants.

“I want to ask the government to allow these peaceful demonstrations and listen to the demonstrations of discontent from the protesters,” Borrell said at a press conference after a Council of EU Foreign Ministers.

The Spanish politician explained that the situation in Cuba was not on the Council’s agenda, since events on the island had been developing in the last hours.

“I have discussed with colleagues the news that was arriving from Cuba. As far as we know, there have been important demonstrations in a significant number of cities to protest the lack of medicines, the increase of those affected by Covid, and also protests in against the regime,” he said.

Borrell acknowledged that it has been a “manifestation of discontent that, as far as we know, has reached a dimension that continue reading

has not been known since 1994.”

He noted that there have been a “significant number of demonstrations and there has also been a response from law enforcement authorities that, for the moment, has not been been of a character that has produced particularly violent clashes, according to the news I have available.”

In any case, he asserted that “everything must be said very carefully and with much attention because events may change in the next few hours.”

“The issue has not been the subject of discussion but, certainly, I want to express the right of the Cuban people to express their opinions in a peaceful way,” he stressed.

According to European sources, Borrell mentioned the situation in Cuba in the Foreign Council “without elaborating”, “without commenting” and without evaluating “in a very descriptive” or “in depth” way.

The sources justified that the discussion of the protests in Cuba had not gone further in this meeting of Foreign Ministers due to the fact that it is an “ongoing” situation and, therefore, it is “premature” to pronounce on the matter.

This “political-social” process must see “if it is prolonged or acquires a more consistent appearance” in order to be able to analyze the situation on the island with greater perspective, according to the sources.

The United Nations, for its part, said on Monday that it is following the development of the protests in Cuba and stressed the need for the authorities to fully respect the freedom of expression and assembly of citizens.

“We are simply monitoring what happens and … we want to make sure that the basic rights of the people, especially freedom of expression and the freedom of peaceful assembly, are respected,” said spokesman Farhan Haq when asked about it in a press conference.

Haq stressed that, in the face of these protests, the United Nations maintains its “position of principle” on the importance of respecting these fundamental freedoms and said that he hopes that will be the case in Cuba.

Asked about the alleged attacks suffered by journalists, including a photographer for the AP agency, the spokesman for the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, stressed that “anywhere in the world the press must be free to do their work without harassment and without violence or threats of violence. ”

Translated by Tomás A.

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Shopping Visas for Cubans for the Colon Free Zone Reactivated

The Deputy Director of Migration, María Isabel Saravia, clarified that it was not a new visa category. (Wikimedia)

14ymedio, Havana, July 12, 2021 — Businessmen from the Colón Free Zone and representatives of the National Migration Service of Panama reached an agreement to resume the granting of tourism shopping visas to citizens of Cuba and the Dominican Republic. In a meeting on July 8, with local media gathered, they highlighted as an objective the economic reactivation of the shopping plaza.

The Deputy Director of Migration, María Isabel Saravia, clarified that it was not a new visa category. The provision is included in the Administrative Procedure Resolution adapted to the reality of the Colón Free Zone. In it, a person who demonstrates economic solvency to enter the country and take care of their own expenses is established as a possible visa applicant.

At the meeting, the manager of the free zone, Giovanni Ferrari, affirmed that the goal “is to reach figures in the tens of thousands with buyers from the Caribbean islands that positively impact the finances of the companies in the free zone and the city of Colón.” continue reading

The new agreement, he added, seeks to meet the requests of citizens with restricted nationality, and that could be extended to other countries in the future, “analyzing case by case, according to their specifics.”

For her part, Saravia said that to access the visitor’s card, applicants must present a plane ticket at the respective consulates once the visa is approved. According to the law, they will not be able to enter Panama with “dependents” and the document includes multiple entries as established by the immigration scheme of “entry-purchase-exit from the country.”

The tourism card, known as a “shopping card” among Cubans, simplified the procedures to enter the country for nationals of the Island. Created in October 2018, the document allowed the arrival and stay in Panama for up to 30 days by citizens, the self-employed or artisans.

In mid-2019, the Migration Service of Panama temporarily suspended the issuance of the visa, alleging irregularities detected by the Government in the allocation and use of this procedure. On March 16, it issued an order permanently eliminating the tourist card.

On that occasion, the Panamanian Administration declared that from that moment on, both Cubans and Dominicans had to apply for a Tourist Visa before “the Panamanian Consulate of their country of origin or residence, or through a legal representative at the headquarters of the National Migration Service,” complying with current regulations.

Before being eliminated, the “shopping card” had cost 20 dollars in Cuba and could also be requested by Cuban citizens who had previously traveled to Panama or to a third country and who did not have a stamped visa.

The ease of entering Panamanian territory allowed many Cubans to increase their personal wealth by importing all kinds of merchandise that they later sold in Cuba on the black market.

In 2018, 57,251 Cubans visited Panama, and by mid-2019, more than 17,000 Cubans had arrived there, leaving Panamanian merchants in the Colón Free Zone a profit of more than 100 million dollars, according to figures for those years provided by the authorities of that commercial center.

Translated by Tomás A.

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The Schemes of Cuban State Security

A young man is arrested by police and State Security agents in the July 11 protests in Havana. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Frank Calzón, Miami, July 14, 2021 — In the midst of the enthusiasm, and as a result of the spontaneous and eminently peaceful protests on the island, there is speculation about what should be done to bring an end to the dictatorship that has so badly governed Cubans for more than 60 years.

A growing number of young Cubans, on the island and in exile, continue to demonstrate, demanding the end of the tyranny.

If the opposition on the island, democratic and peaceful, is a reflection of the composition of the Cuban people–men, women, whites, blacks, believers, atheists, homosexuals, artists, independent journalists, priests–the vault of power is not.

As can be seen in the photos published by the state newspaper Granma, the Castro leadership is composed mainly of white, fat, elderly men, some of them soldiers who accompanied Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra exploit.

In the search for ways to the future, Cubans ask themselves: what triggered the protests of thousands of compatriots in many parts of the country? In addition to what everyone recognizes–the prevailing hunger, arbitrariness, and corruption–Cuba undoubtedly entered a new stage with continue reading

the death of the dictator Fidel Castro.

It is the rebirth of civil society, despite the government’s measures, and a new generation that does not want to be like Che, nor leave the Island, and that opposes the state of affairs openly, not clandestinely in the least, the same as the Poles of Lech Walesa, the electrician and union leader of Solidarity, and the Czechs of Václav Havel, the playwright who organized artists, poets and musicians against his Marxist government.

Both are models for the Cuban opposition, whose intellectual forebears are headed by José Martí, who defended freedom at all costs, and wrote that “dictatorship is the same in all its forms.” They are also guided by Mahatma Gandhi, who defeated the British Empire, and Martin Luther King, who ended racial segregation in the American South.

They all have many things in common and put into practice a strategy of peaceful resistance that, precisely for this reason, extended to the populace in general. That has been denied by the Cuban government, which claims that it faces a violent opposition, and tells the international community that these young people from the poorest neighborhoods are Yankee mercenaries.

In this scenario, an understandable reaction has recently surfaced, due to despair, and the lack of knowledge of, on the one hand the nature of Castroism, and on the other the way Central Europeans and others managed to achieve freedom.

Despite the statements of the San Isidro Movement, despite José Daniel Ferrer, despite Cuba Decide, and of religious leaders of all confessions, opposing violence and an armed uprising, in recent hours young people have emerged abroad who say they are preparing several small boats with weapons to “liberate Cuba.”

We must ask those young people, many who act in good faith, to listen to the Patriotic Union of Cuba, and to study how, without shedding Cuban blood, the San Isidro Movement and the song Patria y Vida have put the Plaza of the Revolution on the defensive like never before. Naturally, many of these young people are not State Security agents, any more than were those who many years ago came to the island in commando operations (resulting in a few sugar-cane fields being burned) and were frequently intercepted and killed when disembarking.

Let us remember that the second-in-charge of one of the organizations best known for such actions told the Miami Herald that for years he had been an infiltrator for State Security, that he had worked as a double agent, that the Cuban authorities knew in advance the details of each disembarkation, and that when the diaspora did not provide resources for the purchase of boats and weapons, the funds came from the Cuban Government.

The message, as the most distinguished and courageous leaders of the opposition have recognized, is that, just as in Central Europe, it is the dictatorship that benefits from violence and the use of arms against it.

If that handful of young people does arrive on the island with their initiative, the regime will surely say that they are CIA agents, salaried employees of imperialism, and will imprison them, claiming that the opposition movement in Cuba is part of such nonsense. Hopefully this does not happen, not only to save those lives, but also to deny excuses to Raúl Castro and Miguel Díaz-Canel in their discrediting campaigns in this country, in the European Union, and in the international press.

Translated by Tomás A.

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‘Lay Down Your Arms,’ Asks General Lopez-Calleja’s Nephew

Rodríguez Halley is an actor and an audiovisual creator. (Captura)

14ymedio, Havana, 14 July 2021 — Carlos Alejandro Rodríguez Halley, nephew of General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, sent a strong message to his uncle and to the island’s power leadership: “Lay down your arms.” The young man called for the beginning of a “process of transition to democracy” after the protests that took place throughout the island in recent days.

López-Calleja, Raúl Castro’s ex-son-in-law, although he has kept a low profile within the regime’s politics, is a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, executive president of Grupo de Administración Empresarial, S. A. (Gaesa) and is considered by analysts as the man behind the economic power of the Castro family.

“At the moment I am not in Cuba, I left for fear of reprisals from my own family for projecting myself in my social networks in favor of human rights and continue reading

dialogue between intellectuals and artists with the government,” said Rodriguez Halley.

The young man said that his family is part of the power elite on the island and mentioned that his words were addressed to them, to the Cuban military, and with special emphasis he mentioned his uncle López-Calleja and his cousin Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Raúl Castro’s grandson.

“I call for harmony and for them to lay down their arms. Let a process of transition to democracy begin in Cuba. The people have shown that they no longer want you in power, listen to your people,” he added.

Rodríguez Halley called for an end to violence, imprisonment and repression: “do not be responsible for more bloodshed.” The people demonstrated in the streets, he said, “that they do not agree with their government, a failed government that has led to a situation of health, economic, social and political crisis.”

Lopez-Calleja’s nephew also rejected the position of the island’s regime of blaming the U.S. Government for what is happening in the country. The U.S. Administration “has demonstrated that it is not going to intervene militarily in Cuba,” he said.

“Enough repression, lay down your arms. I make a call from the love I have for my family, for my country, for all Cubans and for humanity. Let us not forget that ’homeland is humanity’,” he concluded.

At the Eighth Party Congress held last April, López-Calleja was appointed a member of the Political Bureau. The military consortium Gaesa controls a large part of the tourism business and other strategic sectors on the island. Analysts had been predicting for years the military man’s rise to positions closer to the top of Cuban power.

Rodríguez Halley is an actor and audiovisual creator, and has worked in films such as Caballos, by Fabian Suárez and in 2019 he independently wrote and directed the short film Un chino cayó en un pozo, awarded a Diploma al Mérito by the jury of the Panama Human Rights Film Festival (BannabáFest).

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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