14ymedio – Page 307 – Translating Cuba

Retail Sales of Beef to Begin after State Orders Are Filled

The sale of beef has been illegal for decades. (tiempo21.cu)

14ymedio, Havana, April 14, 2021 – Cuban authorities will allow retail sales of beef once the state’s orders have been filled and the livestock supply is stable, a measure similar to one governing milk and its byproducts, whose retail sale is conditional on certain indicators being met.

Both changes are part of a package of sixty-three measures announced on Tuesday which are intended to boost food production, though some independent economists think they will be insufficient unless they are accompanied by more fundamental reforms.

Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca proposed some of these measures, including a reduction in electrical rates for all agricultural activities. The new rates will remain in effect regardless of fluctuations in the price of oil or water. Costs for both will be covered in the state budget at a figure estimated to be between 240 and 400 million pesos. continue reading

Changes will be made in procurement procedures to guarantee that contracts with individual producers regarding planting, production and sales are fulfilled. Prices for raw materials and some products, local development projects, certain financial issues and taxes are other measures to be explained in greater detail, presumably on Wednesday, during the next broadcast of the State TV Roundtable program.

Tapia Fonseca claimed the changes “were not drafted in an office” and, according to official press reports, “the broadest possible range of opinions” was taken into account in their preparation. However, input from independent farmers’ associations has never been taken into account, either in meetings with authorities or in proposals they have made through open letters or written statements.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel himself, who was present at the meeting in which the new measures to increase food production were announced, said the package of reforms is a result of a “democratic, participative and inclusive exercise which took into account the opinions of both state and non-state producers as well as those of experts, academics, research centers, agricultural company directors and many other voices in the country.”

“We all have to do something for the country at this time. We all have to dedicate ourselves to defending the Revolution,” the president added.

Elias Amor, a Madrid-based Cuban economist, argues on his blog Cubaeconomia that these measures have come about “because of the terrible design of the currency unification process. “They have closed one hole but opened a much bigger one in the form of uncontrolled public debt.” [Related article here.]

The expert believes the changes are a response to protests from producers but sees them as little more than “populist patches” that will solve nothing.

“Anyone who works the earth, increasing its value and improving it, wants it to be his, to be able to use it as he freely chooses, in whatever way he deems appropriate, without any communist oversight… The path of freedom begins with property rights to land. From there, progress can then be made towards efficiency and food security, and even the export of surpluses, as in Vietnam,” he argues.

Another economist, Pedro Monreal, is more optimistic though he is waiting to see the details. He believes it is too early to come to any conclusions because this may only be the beginning of a process, with more significant changes to come.

“It is difficult to evaluate these new measures — they represent an experimental approach, which is not the same as an experiment — without a broader discussion of economics and politics. But the key aspects to look at it will be supply and price stability,” he said on his Twitter account.

In Monreal’s opinion, the eventual success of these measures could encourage adoption of other changes that would impact production, such as the direct distribution schemes of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), “which would benefit small and medium sized businesses.”

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Cuba: Taking Control of Your Own Health in Times of Rampant Inflation

Spice seller in Havana, this Thursday. Sign: “Attention! The products went up to 10.00 (pesos), please avoid malicious comments.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 April 2021 — Among sales kiosks run by the military, a private seller of spices in the Youth Labor Army market on Tulipán Street seems to have found the formula to prevent his premises from becoming a parliament of complaints to the “Ordering Task” and the rise of food prices, which have skyrocketed since the beginning of this year.

To take control of one’s own health, the self-employed person hung up a sign that reads: “Attention! The products went up to 10.00 (pesos), please avoid malicious comments.” His poster is not excessive.

Along with inspectors who fine sellers who dare to raise prices too high, the government has also thrown countless Communist Party militants and loyal Committees for the Defense of the Revolution members — known as ’cederistas’ from the initials CDR — into the streets to gather information on “unscrupulous merchants,” customers outraged by the cost of living, and anyone who lines up in a public square to complain against the Plaza de la Revolución.

These are days of talking quietly and taking care of each other, and the spice salesman knows it well.

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Castro Leaves, Castroism Remains

The responsibility of carrying out the urgent reforms that Cuba needs rests on the shoulders of the successors appointed by Raúl Castro. (EFE / ACN)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 17 April 2021 — A few hours before the start of the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), there were those who insisted that the conclave would be canceled and Raúl Castro’s departure from office postponed. The hypothesis was not entirely far-fetched but it failed to take into account two very important aspects of the man who, until yesterday, was secretary of the PCC: his mediocre predictability and the almost 90 years that weigh on his shoulders.

Without surprises, as one who carries out a long-drawn up plan down to the smallest details, Castro not only opened the Party meeting but also confirmed that his name will no longer formally head an organization placed above any institution or entity of power on this Island. He had long prepared for that moment and postponing it was to risk dying on the job.

Since the announcement, the international media has been filled with headlines about a farewell to a surname that has ruled the country for 62 years, but without perceiving that Castroism is more than a man and his clan. It is a way of managing politics, controlling the press, managing the economy from the military sector, defining education plans, managing international relations and structuring ideological propaganda. continue reading

Now, when Raúl Castro says goodbye to his secretariat in the Party and goes through the last stretch of his finite biology, he remains looking over the shoulders of the successors to whom he designated the responsibility of carrying out the urgent reforms that the country needs. But embarking on the path of these changes implies dismantling, to a large extent, Castroism, that system marked by voluntarism, inefficiency and intolerance.

Molded and promoted by Fidel Castro and later touched up by his brother with the flexibilities carried out in the past decade, Castroism has ended up establishing itself as a way of behaving. Hence, it does not matter if the surname that gives the system its name will no longer be in the minutes or documents. As long as the heirs to power do not dismantle such a legacy, it will be as if both brothers were still in command of the national ship.

Is Miguel Díaz-Canel willing to dismantle that strict network of controls and absurdities in which Castroism has gripped an entire country? Does he want his legacy to be as a continuist who sank the Island, or as a reformist who prioritized the well-being of the people over the dark task of prolonging a dysfunctional regime? As long as Raúl Castro breathes, those questions are unlikely to be answered, and by then the situation is likely to be even more catastrophic.

In order to say goodbye to Castroism, it is necessary to remove the fundamental pillars that make this stale populism, disguised as sovereign nationalism, an evil deeply rooted in Cuba. They would have to dismantle their hatred of difference, that deep allergy to any criticism or dissent that has been one of its most characteristic signs. But its end would also have to eliminate the economic centralism with which they have controlled everything from the sugar trade to the importation of a vehicle.

In order to say goodbye to Castroism, it is necessary to eradicate the confusion that national independence is only possible from the socialist management model and, incidentally, set aside the fallacy that something similar to a system of social justice and equality for all governs in Cuba. Burying Castroism involves opening the parliament to plurality, the newsstands to the diversity of the press, and the schools to other versions of history.

Raúl Castro’s farewell eulogy this Friday in front of a party organization increasingly diminished in number and social descent, is not enough. The true end of the Castro era will come with the eradication of that constant hatred of the other, of prosperity, wealth and freedom, that one family managed to sneak into the DNA of an entire country.
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Cuba: 27N Makes Public Four Demands to Build the Country it Dreams of

More than 300 Cuban artists and intellectuals gathered at the doors of the Ministry of Culture on November 27^th. (Reynier Leyva Novo)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 April 2021 — The group, known as 27N (27th November) because of the date they held a protest in front of the Ministry of Culture, has released a manifesto this Monday in which they express their idea of Cuba the country, and summarize the four fundamental demands through which to achieve it. 14ymedio is reproducing it in full below.

27N Manifesto

On November 27^th, 2020, more than three hundred intellectuals, artists and journalists went to the Ministry of Culture to demand the recognition of our freedoms and citizen rights; and to express the rejection of state violence, sustained for years, and increased in recent months. The trigger for this demonstration were the events that occurred in the San Isidro neighborhood the night before, from the need to continue the path of demands that began on that day, and from the will to participate in the present and future of Cuba. The 27N evolves from this.

We are an open, diverse community, driven mainly by young artists and intellectuals, brought together by chance and united by the desire to build a more dignified and just country for all Cubans. Constituted horizontally, we try to replace the verticality of traditional leaderships through debate and the generation of consensus that respond to the diversity of its membership and not to the unanimity of criteria, which encourages more democratic, plural and inclusive practices.

We are not a political organization or movement, but a civic one, with artistic creation and intellectual work as our main tools. Through decisions taken collectively and under constant interaction, we organize ourselves into work groups, voluntarily integrated by activists according to their time availability, their talents and abilities, without implying hierarchy or privilege within that community that grows each day and of which any Cuban citizen can be part of, regardless of their ideology, occupation, place of residence, etc., provided that they are accompanied by honesty, civility and respect for freedom of expression. continue reading

We do not act in secret because we do nothing illegal, we make our ideas visible on our digital platforms. We do not accept discriminatory pronouncements that promote political hatred or violate the freedoms and rights defended by our community. Our actions are civic, peaceful, supportive, with exchange of ideas, committed to the sufferings of current Cuban society and its aspirations for a future of democracy and well-being. There are no profit motives or influence of foreign interests or political organizations, the only thing that governs is the will of the Cuban citizenship.

We base our existence on the political and legal principle, contained in the International Bill of Human Rights, as well as in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba approved on April 19^th, 2019

We base our existence on the political and legal principle, contained in the International Bill of Human Rights, as well as in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba approved on April 19^th, 2019, that the citizens of a State must have guarantees to enjoy with full equality of all rights and freedoms, without distinction of race, color, gender, sexual identity, political position, level of economic access, social origin, place of birth, religion, disability status or any other condition. In this way, we assert our right to express ourselves, associate and demonstrate freely, condemning before Cuba and the world any act that violates these human rights. We demand that the Cuban government take responsibility in its administration to listen to the citizens and to promote peace and respect for our rights.

The country we dream of:

We want an inclusive, democratic, sovereign, prosperous, equitable and transnational country.

We want a nation where expressing oneself freely is not an act of courage, but a natural consequence of autonomous thinking, where there is no political hatred, police violence, repression, censorship, media manipulation, violation of privacy or acts of repudiation. In short, the abusive practices of power exercised by a centralized, military and partisan political leadership, which discriminates and annuls those who disagree, violating their human rights. We claim the legitimacy of open and free discrepancy and critical thinking as a vital exercise to avoid immobility, corruption and wrongdoing by officials or any other entity in society that threatens their development. As a country, we need to heal the damage that has been caused by indoctrination, replace the learned lies and bad habits with the will and commitment to rescue honesty and love of truth as a principle.

Cuba requires a change and, for this, it needs to build a more participatory citizenry with a greater degree of awareness which the political and economic future of this country depends on ourselves. In order to rebuild our nation, honesty must serve as a fundamental principle. It is urgent to decentralize and recover the political power that has usurped from us, and that our future Cuba be designed according to the needs and desires of all Cuban citizens, with equal rights to participate in its design, regardless of their ideology, political affiliation or place of residence.

Consequently, we advocate for laws that guarantee our right to develop as a heterogeneous society, where laws created for the benefit of the majority do not restrict or disregard the rights of minorities.

We need to reaffirm ourselves as different people among each other, as ecumenical citizens, tolerant, respectful of the opinions of others. Consequently, we advocate for laws that guarantee our right to develop as a heterogeneous society, where laws created for the benefit of the majority do not restrict or disregard the rights of minorities. We are not enemies, but Cubans who dream of a better Cuba to bequeath to our children, which will be with all and for the good of all.

We aspire to work for a society with social justice and well-being, where each Cuban can live in his country from the fruits of his work, where the productive forces are freed and bureaucratic parasitism is replaced by a capable and proactive civil service. That we may leave behind the misery and shortages imposed by the incompetence of the prevailing system, and that the rights to a decent life be guaranteed, with assurances – among other things – to health and public education.

In order to advance in the construction of the country we dream of, our community is setting the following objectives:

To promote citizen participation for the re-acknowledgement of rights

We seek to vindicate rights and freedoms, violated by the political power in Cuba and constitutionally endorsed. For this, citizen participation and the exercise of personal freedom are essential in the face of censorship, repression and any attempt to subject the Cuban people to the will of an authoritarian and exclusive government.

Create, strengthen and promote conditions for the creation of consensus

We intend to work with various groups of the Cuban civil society, associations and actors in general in order to find common concerns, interests and strategies, to establish spaces for debate, alliances, projects and goals together, to collaborate with each other, and move forward together – from each one’s diversity – in the construction of a better country.

Promote the legalization of independent positioning

By asserting the right to free association, we claim and exercise the right to create public and private spaces, both physical and virtual, that allow greater collective and personal autonomy.

Our main demands are:

Political rights:

We demand respect for the legitimate right to freedom of expression, of creation, of protest or peaceful demonstration, of political representation and participation, of association and mobility, of open and public debate in the search for citizen consensus. Political freedom is essential to be able to exercise any human rights, given their interdependent nature. There can be no prosperity or freedom of creation in any sphere of society without political freedom.

We demand that all people who have been tried for expressing ideas contrary to the political system be released. We advocate that the norms of criminal due process in Cuba be complied with, and that the Criminal Procedure Law be updated in terms of providing the accused greater guarantees than those that exist today.

We demand the cessation, by the institutions of the State, of repression of citizens who think differently. We demand a stop to media discredit campaigns against independent creators, political, cultural and civic activists and against civically active subjects in any area of society who claim unrecognized rights, including the right to protest.

Economic freedoms

We affirm the right of every citizen to different forms of economic participation, ownership and management. We recognize the role of private initiative and the exercise of economic freedoms that enable the promotion of productive capacities and are generators of essential goods and services for the nation’s development.

We defend the right of every citizen to enjoy decent work and the fruits that it generates. We consider any form of work legitimate as long as it does not harm human dignity or other citizens’ rights and their ability to prosper. We are convinced that, without the consolidation of a decent material base, well-being and social equity cannot be achieved.

Legalization of independent media

We urge the Cuban State to legalize the so-called independent press media, so that they can achieve legal status and register as such. By abiding to Cuban laws, these media could count on legal norms that would protect them, harassment of their journalists would cease, and they could transparently render accounts to society, complying with their ethical, technical and tax responsibilities. In a climate of tolerance and legality, a relationship between the State, the press, and society would be generated where the imperative for all the media would be truth in the news and rigor in their focus.

Right of association

We claim the right to generate communities to actively participate, without further delay or pretext, in the construction of a better reality, where our considerations and expectations are taken into account. We understand that the right of association is essential to achieve true citizen participation in the economic, social and political processes of the country.

We demand that the freedom of association that Cuba has endorsed in Convention No. 87 of the International Labor Organization and in the Labor Code of our country be respected, for the protection of the labor rights of all citizens, linked or not, with the State, through employment contracts, without distinction of race, gender, creed, or political position.

With the conviction that winning these rights begins with the will to defend them with bravery, we encourage all Cubans, whether they are in Cuba or elsewhere, to maintain union and peace, understanding and communication, to search for the truth by expressing what one thinks and feels, defending in solidarity those who are repressed and defamed for expressing themselves freely. 27N was born out of an act of solidarity, and it continues to live by its sense of responsibility, creating and adding, for the right to have rights and so that love and poetry may unite our people.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Last Castro Speech in Cuba

Brothers Fidel and Raul Castro before Fidel’s death.

Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, April 16, 2021 — There is expectation, and even a certain morbid curiosity, about what Raul Castro will say in his speech before the upcoming Communist Party Congress, a conclave that will serve as his final farewell as leader. The feelings are understandable given that he will be the last Castro to occupy such a prominent position in Cuban political life.

His brother Fidel used to have the starring role at these events, eliciting tears and applause from many of his followers, both national and international, without saying much of anything. Can we expect the same of Raul. I don’t think so.

Do not expect a panoramic speech, with dramatic overtones and triumphalist rhetoric, full of revolutionary fervor and messages intended for domestic consumption. No one buys that stuff anymore. From 1971, when the first speech was given, to 2021, our year of living dangerously, these speeches had to be carefully crafted if they were to reach their target audience. They are now aimed at those who still do not understand the collective madness of trying to assimilate into society a political party whose propaganda has continually distorted political and social reality. continue reading

And that’s Raul’s problem. Having survived for so long, anything he says at this congress will be applauded by the opportunists. But it will not reverberate with large segments of the population whose minds will be elsewhere and who long ago learned to tune out the official dogma. The revolution and everything it represents have grown old, which is why preparing the speech now requires so much care.

The reasons?

First of all, Cuban society has changed. People want to move forward, improve their quality of life, increase prosperity, end poverty. They know the government is responsible for the never-ending system of rationing, that it is a tool the regime uses to keep the population under its economic control. How to get out of this quandary, not even Raul Castro knows. Who would ever have imagined that Cuba’s communists would one day open foreign currency stores to sell basic products? Let’s see if Raul says something about that in his speech.

Secondly, at this point it is hard to fool people with obsolete, outdated messages which have no relevance in the face of worldwide trends such as globalization, digitalization and a new industrial revolution. Cubans have travelled overseas, they own cell phones and personal computers, they talk to foreign tourists. They are not isolated they way they were during Fidel Castro’s first congress. It is a historical oddity that Raul Castro, the person responsible for restoring some basic freedoms, became the victim of a process he started. That’s how it goes.

Thirdly, there is the issue of time. There is no going back, no matter how much we might want to do so. The train only moves in one direction, towards the final destination. Rewinding the clock is not an option. One could talk about the present but it is complicated, difficult, chaotic, and there are no concrete solutions. No one is interested in the future because all that matters now is getting by day to day. And any mention of past congresses is just a waste of time.

We will have to keep in mind what he says is largely determined by what the scribes, the guardians of official ideology and the bootlickers allow him to say. They exercise their influence by correcting speeches and inserting their own thoughts and ideas into the words of others. It would be a shame if this gang were responsible for Raul Castro’s last words to his party comrades. I am still hoping that the last of the Castros will pull a rabbit out of his hat and then retire to his eastern refuge.

The dream of any matador is to leave the bullring through the main gate of the plaza after a great performance, basking in the adulation of the crowd. But a time of severe economic crisis unlike any in the last five years is no time for communist fanfares. The people, the masses, would not understand. Though the crowd will not reward Raul with spoils of battle, he can at least try to leave the communist conclave with a good taste in its mouth. What will matter to the rest world, which in this case will be listening in, is that this will be the last time.

Therefore, if I were writing Raul Castro’s official farewell speech, I would recommend that he acknowledge the following:

That he did not have the courage to see the reform process he started to its conclusion. That he ended it too soon, succumbed to pressure and left things unfinished, with only 13% percent of the workforce employed in the private sector.

That he made a mistake in choosing his successor. That Diaz-Canel has not been up to the job, working on his doctorate in the middle of a crisis.

That the Castro family is out of control and possibly in danger. That they can be seen coddling their puppies while driving their high-speed luxury cars and hosting lavish banquets while most Cubans go hungry.

That, like his brother, he will not write anything in his final years of life. That he will retire and go fishing. That he will be happy.

That he has missed the chance to leave Cuba a big inheritance. That he no longer blames the U.S. embargo, or “blockade,” admitting it was always a secondary issue, that it was his brother’s thing, not his.

That he has left the nation’s economy in much worse shape than he found it. That he was not able reform the system and make it viable. That he acknowledge it is not viable and that he is leaving it to those who come after him to change it. That he insist this is something that must done.

That the momentum to restore relations with the United States faltered because he lacked political will and because his brother used his position as an influential writer to wreck the process from the sidelines. That there were too many missteps before Trump came along and everything fell apart.

That he has been unable to overcome the legacy of his brother, no matter how hard he tried. That people now speak less and less about Fidel and that, for this, we should all be grateful.

That there were too many years were spent stalling for time. That, yes, things should have changed during Perestroika, but Gorbachev upstaged Fidel, and Fidel never let anyone get in his way.

That, with him, the Castro dynasty ends. Once and for all. That he does not really care might happen to them other than that they stay safe, that he will leave them what he can. That they do not cry for him, that he doesn’t deserve it, that he be cremated and his ashes scattered in the Sierra Maestra, that they forget about him as though he had never existed.

That he ask forgiveness and walk away in silence.

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Cuba’s Communist Party Congress Multiplies the Eggs in Cuba but Doesn’t Manage the Same with the Nation’s Fish

The inhabitants of Havana will have four more eggs this month compared to last month. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 April 2021 — The imminence of the Eighth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), which begins its work this Friday, has had a beneficial effect on Cuban chickens and a rebound for residents of the capital. This was announced on Thursday, with great satisfaction, by the Ministry of Internal Commerce which reported a substantial improvement compared to the month of March: in April there will be four more eggs available under “controlled” sales for people living in Havana and one more egg per person in the rest of the provinces.

The ministry considers it an “improvement throughout the national territory in the availability of this product for controlled sale in relation to the previous month.” In March, the people of Havana were only able to enjoy three eggs, in addition to the five guaranteed by the rationbook throughout the island.

Medically authorized diets that include fish have not had the same luck, and the ministry will have to substitute chicken for fish in Havana and Santiago de Cuba, while in the rest of the provinces it has been able to assure a supply “with their own sources.” continue reading

The list of products that the State should guarantee, and cannot, continues, because there is not enough canned meat and it will be necessary to replace it “partially” with chicken, depending on availability.

The same occurs with ground meat and sausages, which also have “production limitations,” the ministry reports, softening the tone of the shortages, and these, too, will be “compensated or delivered” in part with chicken.

The situation in Havana with soy yogurt is spreading across the country and the lack of the material with which the packaging for this product is made will also mean that the children of Holguín, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo will have to settle for smoothie mix.

Smoothie mix, which is a powder of sugar, whole milk, cocoa and salt, must be mixed with water for its preparation, although most children reject the combination and prefer it made with milk, a product that is also in short supply.

At least Cubans can improve their grooming. What the State does guarantee for this month and the next are two bars of toilet soap, another “improvement” that the ministry celebrates since “the equivalent of the soap corresponding to each person was less.”

The product, they say, will be from the Daily brand, although that will not be evident from the packaging, which will not be lithographed because the original packaging material is not available. However, that has not dampened the news and the authorities are pleased that this is “the highest quality soap, whose cost is equivalent of 7 Cuban pesos.”

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Four Cubans Arrested for Supposed Links to ‘Terrorists’ Outside the Country

Humberto López announced the alleged plans to attack civilian and military targets on the island in the coming days. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 April 2021 — On the eve of the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba this Thursday, Cuban television announced the arrest of four people accused of plans that were supposedly were to take place in the “next few days.”

According to Humberto López, director and presenter of the government TV program — who, himself, has recently been added to the list of “violent repressors” drawn up by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba — the supposed plans came from South Florida with ties to Spain.

The alleged terrorist organization is called La Nueva Nación Cubana (LNNC – The New Cuban Nation) and is led by Cuban-Americans William Cabrera González and Michael Naranjo, described on Cuban national television yesterday as “people with terrible behavior” and admirers of Brigade 2506, the former combatants who attempted the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. continue reading

Both individuals publish on their Facebook pages posters or videos related to the LNNC in which they call for unity to violently combat the Cuban regime. These posts have been shared by Armonía Díaz, a Cuban resident in Spain, whom the television report also accuses of links with “counterrevolutionary” groups.

Information from Cuban Television warned that this group planned to bring weapons and explosives to the island, infiltrate people, shoot up hotel establishments and set fire to shops and police stations.

In addition, López stated that the targets include civilians, with bombs to be detonated in childcare centers and healthcare facilities. He also said attacks are planned against leaders and officials, and include introducing a new strain of Sars-CoV-2.

The LNNC collective has already reacted by denying their links with the detainees and affirming that their struggle, armed as they admit, is not directed at civilians, but at the Communist Party.

Among those detained are two people from Holguin, Amaurys Casaels Martínez, 44, and Ernesto Javier Espinosa Mañé, 22, residents of Guaro who are accused of “receiving directions from counterrevolutionary elements from abroad to throw Molotov cocktails against a bank branch and the Police station” of the locality where they live.

The other two are Daniel Aponte Ruiz, 45, and Francisco Ángel Rodríguez Gronlier, 41, both from Havana. The former is suspected of recruiting people to “create clandestine cells” to carry out terrorist attacks against the Convention Center, electrical substations, stores that sell in freely convertible currency, and units of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior. Meanwhile, the latter, they maintain, was to be taken over by Aponte to carry out those actions.

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Raul Castro Hands Over Leadership of Cuban Communist Party to ‘Those Who Represent the Continuity of the Revolution’

Raúl Castro, during the presentation of the central report to the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, this Friday. (ACN)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 April 2021 — A nonagenarian and with a country in ruins, Raúl Castro has confirmed the handover to his successor of the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), after completing the two statutory terms that he himself imposed for high-level positions.

The first secretary of the PCC announced his retirement during the presentation of the central report to the Eighth Congress of the country’s single party, which opened in Havana this Friday and will end next Monday.

He did not specifically say who he will endorse as his successor in the leadership of the Party, but he hinted that it will be Miguel Díaz-Canel, whom he appointed as his successor to the presidency in 2018. continue reading

According to the official press, “the Army General said that he has the satisfaction of handing over the leadership of the country to a group of prepared leaders, hardened by decades of experience in their transition from the base to high responsibilities, committed to the ethics of the Revolution, identified with the history and culture of the nation, full of passion and anti-imperialist spirit, and knowing that they represent the continuity of the Revolution.”

Among them, he mentioned Miguel Díaz-Canel, handed the presidency of the country by Castro himself, and congratulated his performance in office: “He has known how to form teams and promote cohesion with the higher bodies of the Party, the State and the Government,” Castro said.

There are no surprises, at least in the methodical chronology that Castro himself had drawn up a few years ago. Perhaps what is new is the context in which the role is being passed. With the deepest economic crisis of the last quarter of a century, growing popular dissatisfaction, and Washington’s decision to maintain, for the time being, the sanctions adopted by the Trump Administration, the general could never have projected a darker scenario at the time of presenting his status report.

This is why the decision was made not to broadcast the speech of the first secretary of the PCC live on national television. Castro concluded his speech in a challenging tone and in the purest style of continuity: “Nothing, nothing, nothing forces me to this. As long as I live, I will be ready with my foot on the stirrup to defend the homeland, the Revolution and socialism with more force than ever. Long live free Cuba, long live Fidel, homeland or death.”

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The Cuban Government Will Control the Internet and Social Media to "Defend the Achievements of the Socialist State"

The so-called “On Telecommunications, Information and Communication Technologies, and Use of the Radio Spectrum” standard will establish a legal framework for “counteracting attacks via radio frequency and in cyberspace.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 14 April 2021 — The Cuban government will widen its control of the Internet and social media with the passage of a new decree-law. In order to “defend the achievements made by the socialist State,” the measure will allow official regulation of new technologies and communication, according to Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, Minister of Communications, who introduced the text on Tuesday, April 13, to senior government officials.

The so-called “On Telecommunications, Information and Communication Technologies, and Use of the Radio Spectrum” mandate will establish a legal framework for “counteracting attacks via radio frequency and in cyberspace,” among other things proposed by the minister.

Perdomo also cited the need for the decree-law to regulate the computerization of the country, promote its sovereignty, and “safeguard the principles of security and invulnerability of telecommunications”, all with the aim of consolidating “the achievements of Socialism and the welfare of the population”. continue reading

Wednesday’s edition of Juventud Rebelde* featured an article reporting on the passage of this and two other regulations yesterday in the Council of State, wherein the Communications minister stated that this decree — whose content is as yet unknown — would be in line with the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, “as is the case with treaties and other international legal instruments.”

In July 2019, the Government had already passed legislation “regarding the computerization of Cuban society – Decree-Law 370, known as the “scourge law” — through which it attempted to “elevate technological sovereignty in benefit of the society, economy, security, and national defense” and to “counteract cyberattacks.”

Among Decree-Law 370’s most controversial articles was one that penalizes “broadcasting via public data transmission networks any information contrary to the public interest, morals, proper behavior, and the integrity of persons” — which was compared, for the virtual world, with the offense of “pre-criminal dangerousness.”

This legal concept is applied to dissidents and critics of the Government, and has been denounced by organizations such as Amnesty International and the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights for convicting citizens on allegations of crimes that they have yet to commit.

*Translator’s Note: Juventud Rebelde – literally, “Rebel Youth” – is a Cuban newspaper of the Union of Young Communists.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

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Cuba: A Year Without New Clothes or Shoes

Clothes hang from the front porch a building that had been a successful high-end restaurant before the pandemic.(14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana/Miami, 10 April 2021 — This week a “venduta” [small commercial space] opened on the front porch of a building in Havana’s Vedado district. Second-hand clothing now hangs a few yards away from the entrance of what had been a successful high-end restaurant before the pandemic. It is an attempt by desperate entrepreneurs on 23rd Street to generate some income.

Among the items are evening dresses that cannot be worn for their intended purpose due to Covid-19 restrictions. Pants that might have been used for strolling down a boulevard or dancing in a nightclub are now just everyday wear. For the past year state-owned stores have been selling little more than groceries and cleaning supplies. Customers can buy household appliances in hard currency stores but, because they are not considered emergency products, clothing and footwear are not available there.

Supplies on the black market, normally the island’s steady supplier of fashionable clothing, are very depressed because the ’mules’, who get their merchandise from overseas, have been unable to travel. “You have to dress in whatever is available,” explains a woman looking at some clothes hanging at a makeshift front-porch store on the Avenue of the Presidents. “No matter how much I look, I just end up going from place to place. And you can forget about finding anything even remotely elegant,” she says.

On the sidewalk a young man hesitates, unsure whether or not to reach for the hangers. A year ago he would have been looking for brand-new clothes but now it’s this or nothing.

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Letter to All Cuban Mothers: Let Us Not Remain Silent

Artists gathered in front of the Ministry of Culture in Havana, in November 2020, demanded that the Cuban government open up to dialogue. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Ines Casel, Havana, 12 April 2021 — Since November 27th of last year my heart has had no peace. That day, my son Julio César Llópiz Casal and a group of young Cubans waited for more than 12 hours to be seen by the Minister of Culture to present their concerns. Finally, at dawn on the 28th, a group of 30 was authorized to enter the ministry to dialogue with the vice minister and other officials, “in an atmosphere of respect and among revolutionaries,” as Fernando Rojas himself declared before Cuban Television, on the night of November 28.

Just a few hours later, Rojas made the following statement at a press conference: “We are not going to give legitimacy to those who, with the support of the United States Government, want to damage this country, and want to damage its tranquility, and it continues to be symptomatic that this is at a time when an American administration that has done the worst that can be done against the people of this country is coming to the end of its mandate. It does not seem gratuitous that this is so. I cannot affirm it, but I have every right to have that opinion.”

Since that day, a campaign of infamy has been unleashed against those Cubans who met with the government, in all the official media (the only authorized ones) in the country, in an escalation without restraint or measure. continue reading

I have said it and I will repeat it until my last breath: my son is not a terrorist, my son does not seek to destabilize the system, much less incite a popular uprising. My son is not manipulated, directed, paid by any foreign government, by any organization, by any media of the press. My son is not a criminal, he is a Cuban artist who works in Cuba, for Cuba and by Cuba. My son speaks his mind in any place and in any circumstance; my son is a good man.

Today, I have so present in my heart the thousands of Cuban mothers who have suffered and do suffer, often anonymously, the crimes and injustices committed against their children, (Mariana Grajales, Leonor Pérez, Salustina Benítez, Esther Montes de Oca , Rosario García, Joaquina Cuadrado, Lina Ruz, Reina Tamayo, Ramona Copello, Carmen Nordelo, etc.) I am writing to:

– The Government of the Republic of Cuba: I beg you to stop this media murder of people who only commit the “crime” of thinking differently and saying so. It is a responsibility that belongs to them.

– Journalists and spokespersons who lend themselves to this farce: do your job correctly and ethically (I don’t think I should tell you how, because you should know, at least theoretically) and don’t keep sinking into shame and cowardice.

– To the Cubans who, honestly, have blind faith or absolute confidence in the “Revolution”: I do not think it is unreasonable to ask them to seek information, by all possible means, about who my son is, who are the people who today they are being accused of being mercenaries and traitors to the country. Remember that “knowledge is virtue.”

– To those who, from their vantage point of comfort, do not want to “give the enemy wrong signals”: put your hand on your heart and secretly ask yourself if it is really that thought that guides you at this time.

– To all the Cuban mothers who today find themselves in a situation similar to mine: from wherever we are, let us not remain silent. That we don’t ever have to say, “We should have screamed.”

José Martí, that “mystery” that has accompanied me since I can remember, wrote on January 1, 1891: “Nations should have one special pillory for those who incite them to futile hatreds, and another for those who do not tell them the truth until it is too late.”

This, today, is my pillory!

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Sanity and Green Spaces Return to Havana’s Iconic G Street

View of G Street in Havana on Friday, with paving stones now removed. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, April 9, 2021 — The power of Cuban social media has once again been demonstrated. After months of intense criticism, internet users have won the battle to rescue the gardens of Havana’s iconic Avenue of the Presidents (G Street) in the area closest to the Malecón seawall. Authorities have now removed recently installed paving stones and will restore its former lawns.

“Many institutions of local government have been involved in the rescue of the landscaped areas along the last two stretches of G Street,” reads an article published on Thursday in the official news website Cubadebate, which assured readers that the project has received “technical input from the National Botanical Garden” and will be planted with “high-quality grass that is resistant to salt air.”

Commentators expressed their relief over the decision but also demanded accountability for those responsible for the previous botched job. “All that money gone, who will answer for that?” asks one reader, who blames “waste and the lack of urban impact studies” as causes for the blunder. continue reading

“Too bad they realized this so late,” lamented Olivia Cadaval, another commentator. “After doing all these horrible things, they now want to respect nature and consult design professionals to make sure they end up with a decent project,” she adds. “I am very happy there are still people with good taste and who feel a sense of identity with the city.”

To Berlin-based architect Rafael Muñoz, the fact “that a bad remodeling project is already being fixed is something to be applauded.”

“I am happy that sanity has returned,” he tells 14ymedio. “Avenue of the Presidents in not just another city street. Besides being one of the most beautiful, it is a site that encompasses much of the capital’s architectural and urban history from the first half of the 20th century.”

“Muñoz hopes this is the “beginning of a trend to restore green spaces that have undergone changes that compromised their original designs.” He points out this decision should be reinforced by committing to ongoing “maintenance work on the the entire area’s landscaping.”

In July, social networks seethed when photographs of a section of Avenue of the Presidents were posted which showed how formerly green areas had been turned gray. Some photos show how a large stretch of grass near the sea had been covered with paving stones.

The alteration unleashed a wave of criticism from architects and ordinary citizens, who watched the wide, park-like medians — one of the distinctive features of G Street, along with the monuments, modern buildings and grandiose mansions that flank it — being razed.

The transformation reached deep into the Vedado district, all the way to Linea Street. The thoroughfare’s wide medians, which had grass lawns extending three kilometers from the Malecón to the Linea Street tunnel, had been covered over with paving stones. Officials justified the change in the name of “pedestrian safety” and said it was intended to keep “soil and grass out of the street.”

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Cuba: Reforms in the Countryside Should Not be Left Half Done

Cooperatives are one of the forms of agriculture in Cuba. (Bohemia)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 5 April 2021 — While more and more images are arriving of the impact of the social protests that increase throughout Cuba — including the San Isidro Movement and UNPACU — the communist leaders try to cope with the great problem of lack of food and introduce small reforms such as renting a part of the State Agricultural Markets (MAE) to farmers, agricultural land leaseholders and cooperatives, as sources of supply. Meanwhile, the inefficient and unproductive state intermediary, ceases to provide these functions.

Measures that have yielded, where they have been implemented, immediate results, such as a greater number of products sold, higher collections from sales, customers who are more and better satisfied thanks to greater freedom of choice, in short, small advances in the serious problem of scarcity that exists in the country. The field-to-market channel, previously obstructed by communist inefficiency, now serves as a win-win for everyone.

However, the incorporation of private management into the State Agricultural Markets for the commercialization of agricultural products is a formula that, without reaching the structural reforms that the Cuban economy needs, confirms that where private initiative increases its participation and occupies spaces that, until then, had been prohibited by communism, the economy begins to function again and to produce. continue reading

This means that it is not a question of leasing the facilities from the private sector, while the state continues to be the absolute owner of the means of production, but rather that it is necessary to privatize, transfer ownership of the means to private actors so that they can be drive profitability, motivation, and scale growth.

Everything that can be done in Cuba to open spaces in the economy and society to private initiative should be welcomed. And it is necessary to provide legal guarantees so that a return to nationalization does not take place, when the regime wants, but rather that there are stable reforms that provide security to the new private actors. The same thing will happen with the opening of licenses to 2,000 activities or the allocation of food services and small businesses to private operators.

All of a sudden, positive effects will be noticed, because private initiative works much better than state initiative, and is capable of reversing the state of prostration and inefficiency in which the economy finds itself. It is a pity that these opening decisions are adopted by the Cuban communist regime as a consequence of social pressure and the latent threat of a social outbreak of great proportions. The transfer of economic power to private parties should be the result of a decision based on the opportunities that arise from it, and that it is the only way to open general spaces for freedom, prosperity and development in Cuba.

Trade reforms, as a note from the State newspaper Granma says, have been applied slowly and only in certain areas, because the government does not want to lose control of the economy. And this despite the fact that the new markets sell between 10 and 13 products, planning to expand that to 23, a consumer basket unknown to many Cubans, made up of numerous meats, vegetables and fruits, among others. The level of collection also increases, around 19,000 pesos as a daily average, a figure higher than previous businesses, and all this without increasing prices, despite the general inflationary environment.

The leasing of the establishments incorporates another measure, which is still in the testing phase, in Ciego de Ávila and Morón, according to which greater autonomy is granted to the management of the market itself, which has transport and can contract for products directly anywhere in the province, as well as in the base business units of Acopio.

Announced in the same Granma article is the possibility of making online sales for which the customer can pay digitally, and then has 12 hours to reach Market 3 (Marcial Gómez, corner of Benavides ) to collect their products in more prominent formats. The objective is to transfer the products purchased in this way to homes, say those responsible for it.

All of these reforms are positive, but they fall short. There is no private property either at the origin of production, or in the distribution markets. Private property grants the necessary independence and autonomy from political power for free and unconditional decision-making by the members of the supply chain, except for the objective of efficiency and profitability. It is necessary to continue the reforms towards the legal and structural aspects that weigh down the economy and lead to the current scarcity and poverty.

The problem of the Cuban countryside, its unproductivity and inefficiency, is not fixed by leaving production cost increases that fall on the profitability levels of the producers, as Murillo has done with electricity, water or airplane transport among others, by disproportionately increasing budget subsidies, with the increase in the additional public deficit that this may entail in a context of high inflation. The Ordering Task has dealt a severe blow to the agricultural sector and these patch-type measures try to mitigate the effects. But they are not being taken in the only area that matters, that of structural reforms.

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San Isidro Movement Artists Organize a ‘Patria y Vida’ Street Party

Damas Street, in Old Havana, was filled with residents of the neighborhood with a strong police operation remaining in the afternoon. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 4 April 2021 — At the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) a collective birthday was celebrated this Sunday, planned by the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. Damas Street, in Old Havana, was filled with residents of the neighborhood with a strong police operation remaining in the afternoon.

During the celebration, and from loudspeakers placed in the house, the musical theme Patria y Vida was heard, while dozens of neighbors took to the streets and chanted verses of the popular song that has given hives to Cuban officials. The lyrics of the song Héroe by Al2 El Aldeano and Silvito El Libre also played.

From the beginning of the celebration, the headquarters of the MSI was surrounded by police patrols and several uniformed policemen had been harassing the artists since the morning. “If we have to bunker down again, we’ll do it,” said Alcántara, accompanied by rapper Maykel Osorbo and Eliexer Márquez, known as El Funky.

With the collective birthday, Alcántara seeks to bring joy to the children of an area with an economically very vulnerable population. But, the State TV’s official presenter Humberto López warned last Friday that the birthday celebration was a “subversive activity” financed by the National Democratic Institute of the United States. continue reading

From the beginning of the celebration, the MSI headquarters were surrounded by police patrols. (Screen capture)

The police tried to arbitrarily detain Osorbo when he went to the MSI headquarters this Sunday, but the rebellious rapper refused to get in the patrol car. From the failed arrest, he had handcuffs hanging from his wrist as can be seen in the live broadcasts posted through Facebook. Around 9 p.m., Castillo said the artists returned home without being arrested after the unusual protest.

Alcántara expressed solidarity with the hunger strikers of the Patriotic Union of Cuba while calling for all Cubans to do the same. “We are going to focus on Santiago de Cuba,” he said.

At another time they chanted ¡Díaz-Canel, singao! , a song also by Al2 El Aldeano and Silvito El Libre and the song Un Sueno, by reggaetoner El Micha. The images of neighbors dancing and celebrating on Damas Street have sparked hundreds of messages of support on social networks in a few minutes.

The day before, both Alcántara and Osorbo were arrested, the first when he bought some children’s books destined to be distributed at the children’s party this Sunday. Several activists who went to the police station in Cuba and Chacón were also detained for several hours.

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Million-Dollar Bank Deposits Amount to an Illegal Operation by the Cuban Government

At least five people report finding a million convertible pesos in their bank accounts. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, April 8, 2021 — “It’s to cushion the reorganization,” was the response one young businesswoman got from Banco Metropolitano after waking up on Tuesday and finding a million convertible peos, or CUCs, in her bank account. “This doesn’t make any sense to me. A lot of people are complaining about the same thing. I’m really worried,” she says.

Madrid-based Cuban economist Elías Amor raises the possibility that “the Cuban banking system is moving significant sums of money through bank accounts to hide problematic situations in anticipation of an investigation by some of Cuba’s creditors such as the Club of Paris and Russia,” he says.

“It suggests an attempt to hide fortunes amassed by private individuals working for the regime or huge sums of money in some state-owned commercial accounts.”

Either way, it would amount to financial engineering, which he describes as “an illegal operation.” continue reading

This week a dozen Cubans have reported the same experience on social media: unexpectedly large balances in their bank accounts. In at least five cases it was the same figure: one million CUC.

The bank explained it was a “fictitious amount,” warning them not to “touch or withdraw” it, without providing further information.

“That’s what worries me. It’s the equivalent of 24 million Cuban pesos, which translates to [hundreds of] thousands of dollars,” says the young woman. She is also concerned about the possibility of having to pay taxes on a huge sum of money she has not earned.

When she shared her experience on social media, she learned she had friends —most of them artists and private-sector workers — who were in the same situation. “They are all self-employed and all suddenly found they had a third bank account in CUC,” she explains.

“The same thing happened to me yesterday” and “I just took a look at my account and I’m a millionaire” were some of the comments on social media.

“The bank doesn’t notify you in advance that they’re going to do this or send you an alert. It’s really alarming,” replies one of her colleagues.

“I woke up to find a million CUC in my bank account. I reported this to the bank and they told me it’s because of currency unification, that I can’t touch the money. Am I the only one or are there other people like me?” asks someone else on social media.

It’s not the first time a problem like this has been reported. In early March 14ymedio learned of a technical problem that had affected account balances at Banco de Crédito y Comercio (Bandec) and Banco Popular de Ahorro (BPA), which operate Transfermovil and EnZona banking apps in various parts of the country. At the time several depositors reported having lost part of their savings while others told of receiving surprising large sums of money.

The official response was a brief message on Twitter that alluded to “some difficulties” in network payment services due to “technical problems” with the Transfermóvil app.

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