14ymedio – Page 374 – Translating Cuba

Wife and Children of Jose Daniel Ferrer Arrested For Demanding His Release

At noon this Friday, four hours after the arrest, there is still no news on the whereabouts of José Daniel Ferrer’s family. (Capture)

An update from an article that appeared in 14ymedio later but was translated earlier, is here.

14ymedio, Havana, October 25, 2019 — The three children and the wife of the opposition figure José Daniel Ferrer García were arrested in the centrally located Cespedes Park, in Santiago de Cuba, while they were protesting to demand his release more than three weeks after his arrest.

“They just arrested Nelva Ortega and three of José Daniel’s children, at a protest they were carrying out at Cespedes Park to demand the release of José Daniel,” the activist Katherine Mojena reported to 14ymedio minutes after the arrest.

At noon this Friday, four hours after the arrest, there is still no news on the whereabouts of José Daniel Ferrer’s family, as Carlos Amel Oliva, youth leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), reported to this newspaper. continue reading

At the protest were the children of the Unpacu leader, José Daniel Ferrer Cantillo, 17, Fátima Victoria Ferrer Cantillo, 14, and his wife Nelva Ortega Tamayo, who was carrying Daniel José, four months old.

Ortega and the two teenagers displayed signs demanding “Freedom for José Daniel Ferrer” and “No + Political Prisoners.” A little after beginning the protest, several officials from the National Revolutionary Police and agents from State Security arrived on the scene, took away their signs, and detained them.

Ferrer was arrested on October 1 along with four other activists, among them Fernando González, Roilán Zárraga, and José Pupo. For the first 72 hours, the opposition leader was held without being able to communicate and in an unknown location, according to his relatives and close friends.

Shortly after, his wife was able to visit him at the Provincial Unit of Criminal Investigation in Santiago de Cuba and found him “greatly weakened due to the dreadful conditions of Cuban prisons.”

Ferrer is prepared, his wife maintains, to accept any sanction imposed on him, including years in prison “as long as the truth is told.” Those close to the Unpacu leader have claimed that authorities are fabricating a case against him to keep him in prison.

The Unpacu leader, ex-prisoner from the Black Spring in 2003, was released from prison in 2011 and founded the organization that he directs, one of the primary targets of the Cuban government.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Huge Crowds In the Stores Where Cubans Can Buy With "The Enemy’s Money"

Some people waited in line starting on Sunday morning for the Monday opening. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 28 October 2019 — The first ones line marked their places starting on Sunday morning, but the long wait failed to reduce the excitement when the foreign exchange store of Havana’s Focsa building opened its doors on Monday. With the official television cameras in place, the staff checked that the customers’ magnetic cards and matched them to their identity cards before letting them enter in groups of six at a time.

Everything shone, although still visible were the remains of some adjustments and repairs made in great haste to get the premises ready for the 28 October opening More than a hundred people crowded together when, at half past nine in the morning, the door hinges turned and the first sale of goods to the public in dollars in almost two decades began.

The first buyer to cross the threshold of the store was a lady with a walker who appealed to priority in line for people with disabilities. Inside, in the large room, air conditioners of one or several tons were seen, along with domestic electrical devices such as oil-free fryers, automatic washing machines and refrigerators with two or more doors. continue reading

“I just want to go in to look, take some pictures and show my husband what is there, so we can decide what we are going to buy,” explained a woman who was not allowed access by the security guard. In the first hours of the opening of these shops, only those who expressed their intention to buy could enter and those who came to browse the brands and prices were turned away.

The cameras of Cuba’s official TV station did not miss the opening of the new stores (14ymedio)

The scene reminded a retiree who lined up on Sunday afternoon what he had experienced in the mid-90s of the last century when the Cuban economy was dollarized and the first stores in convertible currency, known as shoppings (using the English word), opened . “Then you had to show the green tickets to enter and now the magnetic card is the same thing,” he compared.

The pensioner told 14ymedio everything he had had to do to be in line this Monday. “I stood in line at the Metropolitan Bank for hours last Tuesday and I was able to open the dollar account, in which I deposited 400 dollars that I had saved from the last time my son sent me money,” he summarized. “What I am looking for is a flat screen TV because my old Panda is almost no longer viewable.”

Before Monday, the retiree’s options would have been to resort to the informal market that feeds on the goods imported by the mules from Panama, Mexico or the United States, or pay the highest prices of the state store network, with a smaller variety and more outdated models. “As soon as they announced this option, I decided not to spend a centavo and to wait for the stores to open,” he says.

Niurvis, a woman who is seven-months pregnant, waits near the door to enter with the next group. “What I want is a washing machine that also dries clothes well, because I live in an apartment without a balcony and when the baby is born I don’t know where I can will be able to hang up to dry everything that gets dirty,” she explains.

Just before ten o’clock in the morning, a woman comes out pushing two boxes which contain the different parts of a Sanky brand air conditioner of the type known as a “split” — because one part of it is installed outside and one part inside. She had paid $361 for the equipment which has a ton of power and which in the black market as of this morning was quoted above 600 CUC (over $600).

“Today is the day for throwing flowers [into the sea] for Camilo [Cienfuegos] and I have had to walk a lot so that my grandson would not go empty-handed to school,” says a woman who came running for fear that she would lose her turn.

“It’s a tremendous day they have chosen to open these stores, some remembering the guerrilla and others here showing their card with the enemy’s currency to be able to enter to buy.”

For 10 CUC young couple bought, from another person, a place in line to access the premises, but once at the door the custodian warned them that only one person can enter for each card. “But we have come together and we want to decide the model of refrigerator that we are going to buy, because it is for our house, where we both live,” she insisted without managing to convince him.

“This seems like a military unit,” the young man lamented when he had to stay outside and gestured through the glass to the young woman to decide “together” which refrigerator was the most appropriate for the space they have in the kitchen. Like him, other customer’s companions also made gestures, mouthed words without uttering sound and indicated with the index finger through the window.

Several police officers stayed near the entrance and one of the uniformed men called the customer who had organized the list of names of the people in line the day before. As a general rule, although the practice of organizing the line is something traditional in a country where you have to wait to buy everything from ice cream to a television set, the authorities fine or arrest the “coleros,” those who stand in line for other people and are paid for their services.

There was no lack of cluelessness. “And what are they going to get here?” Asked a teenage girl who passed by the store half an hour after the opening. With patience, a lady explained the new method of buying appliances, auto parts and electric motorcycles with magnetic cards in foreign currency, but the girl just shrugged and said: “Ah, that …”

Buyers organized transportation on this first day. (14ymedio)

To her side, quick and fast, another buyer came out who had acquired a Royal brand fridge for his private business. With certain difficulties, he lifted the box onto a pedicab parked in the middle of the aisle of the central shopping arcade and left the place. The state stores do not offer home delievery right now and customers have had to solve it on their own.

Private carriers took advantage of the start of sales to offer their services for a price that ranges between 15 and 20 CUC, provided it is “in the same municipality of Plaza de la Revolución or nearby municipalities such as Cerro, Playa and Centro Habana,” clarified one of them while passing near the line. “But we can agree on a price if they go further,” he added.

“You can only buy two of each piece of equipment: two washing machines, two splits, two televisions …,” an employee repeated over and over to customers who kept asking questions every time he leaned out the door. Rationing by quantities seeks to prevent hoarders from reselling in the informal market and making a profit.

“What if I come back tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow?” a young man with colorful headphones and Adidas shoes joked. “How will they prevent me from buying several refrigerators if I come several times? Or is there a list of customers that they will keep from one day to the next?” His questions remained unanswered before the stunned look of the guard, who had no answers for so many questions.

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Unpacu Leader Marks Three Weeks Detained In Unknown Location

Amnesty International launched an urgent action, criticized the irregularities of the case, and affirmed that Ferrer García should be informed of the charges against him.

14ymedio, Havana, October 21, 2019 — “I still don’t know the whereabouts of José Daniel Ferrer,” reported Nelva Ortega Tamayo, wife of the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), arrested on October 1 in Santiago de Cuba.

In an interview with 14ymedio this Sunday, Ortega Tamayo explained that the habeas corpus she presented last Thursday to obtain information on the situation of the opposition figure has been rejected by authorities.

She also detailed that the lawyer who is advising her, Julio Ferrer, wrote a report explaining that the police violated article 241 of the Law of Penal Procedure by raiding their home and detaining the Unpacu leader without presenting an arrest warrant nor a search warrant. continue reading

The court suggests that José Daniel Ferrer was arrested after an inquiry at a preparatory stage was opened on him, a process that began on October 3, and it was then that the arrest warrant was issued.

The document also explains that José Daniel Ferrer has a preventative measure of remand in custody, issued on October 7, but the crime he is accused of is not specified, nor is the prison where he is held.

“I have only been able to see him once since the arrest, on the 4th in the Operations criminal investigation; here they say of that place ’everyone sings,’ but he is no longer there. I saw him greatly weakened, he has lost weight, he told me that he’s hardly drinking any water because it’s murky, blackish. The conditions are inhuman.

He told me that he is living there with two rats who walk over his feet. The mattress they give him is full of sweat, it stinks, because that place is really hot. The toilet is in full view of everyone, there’s no privacy. They don’t give him his medication and the food is dreadful,” says Ortega.

Civil society organizations in Cuba, as well as Amnesty International, Freedom House, Cuban Prisoners Defense, the United States government, and the secretary general of the OAS, Luis Almagro, have denounced the irregularities of the legal process in the case of the Unpacu leader and have demanded the release of the opposition figure.

Amnesty International launched an urgent action, criticized the irregularities of the case, and affirmed that Ferrer García should be informed of the charges against him, or, if not, be released.

Nelva Ortega is worried that they will try to prosecute her husband for a common crime. “In the interrogations they told him that they are tired of his activism, that he was nobody to get information on the lives of leaders on social media. That he had approved Trump’s measures, that they would not allow him to crush the achievements of the Revolution,” is what her husband told her in the brief visit she was able to have more than 15 days ago.

She also explained that they warned him that this time they weren’t going to prosecute him as a political prisoner, but rather for a common crime of harm so that “the international pressure that he has had and that there was at the time of the Black Spring would disappear.”

“For a mother this is very difficult, when they arrested my husband my son was only three months old, now he’s four months, he is a wonderful father and husband. Here at Unpacu we continue helping those who need it as always, although we don’t even have a place to sit down,” she added.

She also related that a few days ago she visited the Aguadores prison looking for answers on her husband’s whereabouts but they told her there that he wasn’t on the lists because it was a “personal case” of State Security.

Ortega confessed that she fears for José Daniel Ferrer’s life and his health, which is why she is demanding “proof that he as well and that the other three Unpacu activists” are well.

Ernesto Oliva Torres also presented the same appeal of habeas corpus in favor of José Pupo, Fernando González, and Roilán Zárraga, who are in the same situation as Ferrer, and he expects a response this Monday.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Is the Dollarization of the Cuban Economy Possible?

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 29 October 2019 — Since the Cuban regime authorized the new system of buying home appliances and car parts with hard currency and magnetic cards, Cubans once again feel a special attraction to the American dollar. Information from Havana speaks of a spectacular increase in demand in the first days of this new measure.

Some data.

It could be said that in quantitative terms, the operation does not seem complicated. The current GDP of the United States, 19.39 trillion dollars, is 221 times larger than that of Cuba (87.73 billion dollars); that is, Cuba’s GDP is only 0.45% of that of the United States. Monetary absorption would be immediate.

If looked at from the perspective of the value of the GDP of individual US states,, Cuba would occupy the 36th position behind Nebraska and before New Mexico. In that case, it represents such a small fraction of the US economy that it seems negligible. Florida alone, for example, has a GDP of 754 billion dollars, eight times higher than that of the island of Cuba. continue reading

In absolute terms, the total dollars needed to finance the monetary circulation and transactions of the Cuban economy would be equivalent to those of a state like Nebraska, which, however, has a per capita GDP of $49,778 seven times higher than that of Cuba, which is only $7,602.

From a quantitative perspective, it would not be problematic to replace the currencies that circulate on the island with the dollar, in a massive conversion operation similar to that carried out in the European Union when it was agreed to establish the euro as a common currency. But what the communist authorities would be willing accept is something else altogether, surely contrary to this process. The main difficulty of this is to establish a type of conversion that allows the Cuban economy to be competitive at the regional level, and I do not believe that the US would have any problem with this.

Bypassing the political obstacles, which are the most important, dollarization, under such conditions, would not be a quantitative problem, but a qualitative one. Because before establishing the dollar as a currency in Cuba and suppressing the other currencies, the variables of the fundamentals of the economy would have to be adjusted, and this requires determining what state they are currently in, what has been their recent evolution, and if it is possible to intuit what the dynamics may be in the coming years.

In that sense, the fundamentals of an economy include the qualitative and quantitative information that is essential to determine economic and financial well-being, and the consequent estimation of the value of the economy, having as its primary reference its currency. And given that qualitative information implies the need to access elements that are not easy to measure, such as managerial experience or the qualifications of human capital, economists use quantitative information whose statistical or mathematical analysis is very useful for measurement purposes.

It is useless to promote the dollarization of the Cuban economy if there is no necessary convergence of the fundamentals with the US macroeconomic scenario, which, on the other hand, cannot be immediate, and which would demand different economic policies from today’s. If that convergence did not occur, the Cuban economy could break into a thousand pieces, and dollarization would not be a correct decision.

The truth is that the contrast between the main fundamentals of the two economies forces us to reflect. Basically because the distance is huge.

First, GDP growth in the US is currently around 3%, showing remarkable strength, while Cuba is inexorably approaching a recession, after announcing a growth rate of 0.5%, and probably even lower for this year. The difference in terms of growth is very relevant, and places the Cuban economy far from convergence. Either it grows more and more stable, or it is better not to make the move.

Second, inflation, which in Cuba cannot be estimated with comparative data, because its current consumer price index does not follow the rules used in international calculation. In this case, it should be approximated through the price index of the GDP deflator, a figure that has experienced an average annual growth from 2013 to 2018 of 3.5%, with notable inflationary tensions. In the US in the same period, the inflation rate has stood at an average of 1.7%, or roughly half, which illustrates that the Cuban economy is at a considerable distance from any convergence process in terms of fundamentals.

Third, interest rates in Cuba are not determined by the market based on supply and demand, but are set by the government to finance the public deficit through debt issuance. The most recent data has interest rates at 2.5%. In the US, the Federal Reserve, autonomous in its monetary policy decisions in relation to the government, has set rates at 1.75% annually, which again displaces the Cuban economy from any convergence process, further separating its monetary conditions from those existing in USA.

Fourth, in relation to the state deficit, that is to say the difference between income and public expenditures, Cuba has announced for 2019 an imbalance of 11%, higher than in previous years, while the US, although it its deficit is high, 960 billion dollars, its economy has such outstanding dimensions that the deficit’s percentage of GDP stands at 4.95%, once again distancing the Cuban economy from any process of convergence with the US in the fundamentals.

Finally, the external sector of the Cuban economy is strongly deficient in trade in goods with an unfavorable real exchange relationship, which undermines the competitiveness of the economy. The trade deficit of the Cuban economy in 2018 (most recent data from Cuba’s National Statistics Office, ONEI) stood at 10.45% of GDP, totalling $9.112 billion, while in the US, although it rose to the figure of $621 billion, once again its relationship with GDP placed it at 3.2%, so that the necessary convergence of the Cuban economy with this indicator also is not observed.

The distance that separates the Cuban economy from that of the US in the fundamentals makes it very difficult for the currency of that country to serve as a benchmark for integration. It can be affirmed that there would be a serious danger in moving towards the dollarization of the Cuban economy, because it could pose serious problems for the different sectors and productive activities of the Cuban economy if the necessary adjustment are not made beforehand to correct for the notable distances that exist in the fundamentals.

It is enough to look at the current conversion that is established between the dollar and the Cuban peso (CUP), through the CUC (Cuban convertible peso), to understand the difficulty involved in the process. Similarly, the upward tension of the dollar that has been announced in recent days in Cuba reminds us of the times of the “Special Period” when the free circulation of US currency on the island was authorized. The Cuban peso is practically dead. Cubans’ betting on the dollar shows the remarkable distance between the two economies. The doors to the dollarization of the Cuban economy have been opened by the enemies of the colonial empire. Playing with fire in monetary operations means getting burned. We will see how this all shakes out.

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Diaz-Canel Didn’t Like My Question on Ideological Discrimination

Miguel Díaz-Canel made a stop in Ireland on a tour that will take him to Russia, Belarus, and Azerbaijan where he will attend the XVIII Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. (Presidencia de Cuba)

14ymedio, Annarella O’Mahony, Dublin, October 23, 2019 — Annarella O’Mahony, a Cuban living in Ireland and editor of the page We are not deserters, we are free Cubans, participated in the meeting Miguel Díaz-Canel had with Cubans living in the European country. Upon her return she wrote this testimony that 14ymedio reproduces with her authorization.

For a moment I felt like I was in Cuba. There, in the lobby bar of the Clayton Hotel, laughter, exclamations, and hugs among a dozen Cubans burst into the autumnal serenity of Dublin. I had never been in that part of the city, Ballsbridge, and I had never been among so many Cubans in Ireland. I was surprised to discover that the majority have lived here for years. The night was promising surrealism from all sides.

In addition to the ambassador, the consul, and the secretary of the Cuban embassy in Ireland, I had already met two more Cubans during the meeting with the Vice Minister of Foreign Relations of Cuba, Ana Teresita González Fraga, in September of last year, of which I wrote an account at that time. continue reading

We were soon led to a meeting room of approximately 6×8 meters with three or four high tables without chairs. It was difficult for me to imagine the 400 Cubans that, according to my embassy, are in Ireland, inside that small area, for which reason I was inclined to believe more the version told by some that only around 15 invitations had been sent, although it seemed to me that there were at least 20 people there.

A few minutes after 8:00 in the evening President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez arrived, accompanied by a retinue that included the Minister of Foreign Relations of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla. Both were coming from a meeting with the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

Canel greeted all present and began by mentioning various subjects of interest for the community of Cubans abroad. He said he was “on top of” a number of worries about the price of the passport and added that they were analyzing and assessing and looking for answers to all those issues.

He also promised more frequent exchanges from the authorities on emigration. It wasn’t clear to me if that is a pending claim of some Diaspora Cubans or if it is an initiative of the Cuban government. However, he didn’t give timeframes to respond to the worries that he mentioned, nor did he share any concrete action plans on the matter, but he clarified that “all the answers always depend greatly on how, when it comes to international relations, the United States government behaves with Cuba.”

He spoke of the worsening of the blockade and the moment of economic crisis that the island is experiencing. He said that he wasn’t going to repeat the term “temporary” because people everywhere had mocked him for it and, for some reason that I still don’t understand, laughter was heard.

Díaz-Canel also spoke of conversations held by him and his delegation with the Irish government regarding commercial relations and academic exchanges that he did not specify, beyond mentioning biopharmaceutical products as a possibility. By not clarifying, he didn’t even respond to my concrete question on when we will have a single currency. He dodged the question by answering approximately that he couldn’t tell me anything so that “the enemies” wouldn’t find out.

Someone suggested that it would be a good idea to develop medical cooperation agreements in Ireland, to which he answered that this country has not asked Cuba for doctors. Likewise, he spoke of the computerization of society and Cuban tweetplomacy and how it has facilitated exchange between the population and the authorities.

The president also noted the participation of Cubans living abroad (in a general sense) in the project of constitutional reform and assured us that more than 40% of their contributions were taken into account. It’s worth clarifying that he omitted data on which ones they were or how one can access the expanded information and other criteria of calculations of that statistic.

In this sense, the president of the Association of Cubans in Dublin took the opportunity to thank Díaz-Canel “that we have been permitted to vote.” I believe that everyone in that room was able to hear me when, in a stupefied state, I asked her, with invisible but audible exclamation points and question marks:

-And did you vote?

-Yes, I did, she responded.

-But, how? You aren’t a Cuban resident? I insisted.

-Yes, she nodded.

-I couldn’t vote, I told her.

Really, I was going to add that we Cubans living abroad do not have that right, although obviously she knows that, otherwise she wouldn’t be thanking Canel for what seemed to me, to the naked eye, a matter of favoritism (illegal, by the way). Only a nudge from the person on my left made me realize that I was disturbing the president’s discourse with my questioning. I was less than two meters from him, since by that time I found myself in the first row of the audience.

For around an hour, which was how long the meeting lasted, the speeches of the approximately 20 Cubans in Ireland present there centered around supporting the Revolution. At least, that is what I can vouch for, because I have never met socially with any of them.

There was one who brought up that he has a large family and that the procedures for Cuban passports are very costly for them. I managed to tell him that that was due to “effective citizenship” but I wasn’t able to add anything else, since he was addressing Díaz-Canel and I didn’t want to interrupt. There was indeed interaction and that is always healthy.

The president asked us to follow the platforms and profiles that support the Revolution because it’s very important for a Cuban abroad to defend the political and social project of the island. It was at that moment that I decided to intervene because everyone who knows me knows how I think.

It really wasn’t my intention to go there to “make confessions of faith,” but rather to participate as a Cuban in a possible debate where, at the very least I thought that real perspectives on the passport and its absurd extensions would be discussed, but it wasn’t like that.

I only said, briefly, that more important than unity was achieving tolerance among Cubans, that ideology could not be the center of everything and that, although the salary increase looked good, I didn’t approve the prohibition imposed by the government on many citizens not allowing them to return to the island.

Applause, although valid, has never resolved situations. Among the problems I see that we have in our country, one of the worst is discrimination based on ideological reasons, and I felt that it would have been irresponsible not to take advantage of the opportunity of that meeting.

I had the impression that the president didn’t like it and I confess that at the end, when the chancellor asked my name and surnames, the first thing I thought was that I would be put on a blacklist; the same one that now prevents my cousin from seeing his only daughter and thousands of Cubans from attending a loved one’s funeral, a mother’s birthday, or a nephew’s graduation.

I know that I could have said many things, even though it wasn’t possible for me to finish my argument. Others wanted to speak and they spoke. I didn’t have the opportunity to refute the president that in Cuba there wasn’t persecution for ideological reasons, nor that we Cubans do not exclude ourselves, as he said, instead of being victims of the state’s exclusion, which is what really happens. I don’t believe it would have been worth it. They are the ones who dictate and impose measures. I don’t have to repeat to them what they know better than I do but are unable to acknowledge.

Perhaps many will criticize me because I had a dialogue with the dictatorship or because I criticized the Revolution, and they have every right, but my conscience is clear which is, at the end of the day, what gives inner peace. I don’t believe that a true, human, honest, and just Cuban should impose family separation, exile, and discrimination, for any reason, on another who has never committed a crime according to international laws and the Cuban constitution.

For my part, and despite the fear, I try to exercise my rights respecting those of others to begin to train my own tolerance.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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The Humiliation of Cuba’s National Currency

Under the denomination of each CUC banknote, this commitment is read in small letters: “Fully guaranteed by international freely convertible securities.”

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 24 October 2019 — A few days after the Official Gazette of 13 August 1993 announced the decriminalization of the dollar in Cuba, “the damned currency of the enemy” became the main object of desire for the inhabitants of the Island. To the candid question of “What does a Cuban who has no dollars do?” the most certain answer was: “Look for them.”

More from the uncontrollable tendency to choteo [“irreverent mockery and satire used to undercut authority”*] than out of patriotism, an anonymous author spread through the networks (then analog) a sympathetic parody of the well-known verses that Bonifacio Byrne wrote in January 1899 moved by the outrage he felt on seeing the American flag with the Cuban.

I quote from memory the first three stanzas of that memorable parody.

Upon returning from the Riviera hotel,

With my wallet in mourning and dark,

I eagerly looked for my currency

And saw another one besides my own! continue reading

Where is my Cuban pesito,

the most beautiful bill that exists?

I saw it from my house this morning,

and I have not seen a sadder thing …!

With the faith of austere souls,

Today I hold with deep energy,

There should not be two currencies

Where one is enough: mine!

As is well-known, in 1994 the Cuban convertible peso, the CUC, appeared to rescue the lost honor of the national currency and, in November 2004, it was decided to terminate the circulation of the dollar in commercial networks, although having dollars was not again penalized.

As of last Monday, the Central Bank of Cuba enabled new magnetic cards for dollar accounts accessible to ’natural persons’. These cards will be the only ones accepted in the new network of stores that will offer home appliances with a greater variety of products and at lower prices than the ones available to date in the State chain of so-called Hard Currency Collection Stores (TRD).

To clarify doubts (never nonconformities) the state newspaper Granma has published that on these cards “Deposits in Cuban pesos (CUP), or in convertible pesos (CUC) are not allowed. It is a network card referenced in dollars” and adds another bit of bad news: The magnetic cards of collaborators (Cubans working on governemnt “missions” abroad, for whom this card allows them to buy with a 30% discount) also cannot be used for purchases in this new network of stores.

To mention foreign currencies, recently accepted in commercial networks, the popular lexicon has coined the term “Really Convertible Currencies” where the added adverb substantially modifies the adjective convertible, now transformed into a euphemism when, below the denomination of each bill of CUC, this commitment is read in small letters: “Fully guaranteed by international freely convertible securities.”

At the moment, although its exchange value has decreased against the dollar, the CUC is still accepted in the TRD markets, which are increasingly more poorly supplied and where they already accept the Cuban peso (CUP) also known as “national money.”

In this regard, while standing in line at the bank to enable the new card, a young man commented: “The little boy (CUC) that they give me as a stimulus will only serve to eat chicken, sausages and canned sardines.” A man, almost at the end of the line, with that tone of experience so widespread among those who comb gray hair, warned him: “Be patient, it would not surprise me that with the dollars you put on that card you can soon get lobster, shrimp, fish fresh and even beef.”

Perhaps it is this ability to turn everything into folklore, to turn every tragedy into a joke, every government trap in an opportunity to escape, that distinguishes the Cuban way of reacting to problems.

For less than this, right now Ecuador and Chile are almost burning.

*Source: Cuba, A Global Studies Handbook, Ted A. Henken

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A Dead Man Who Weighs Too Much

In 1975 Fidel Castro decreed in Cuba an official mourning period for the death of Francisco Franco.

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana | 25 October 2019 — The day Fidel Castro died, I called my mother to tell her the news. I waited long minutes while the phone returned to me a monotonous and annoying ring. That night of November 25, 2016, when a voice answered from the other side, I only managed a brief phrase: “He died.” Nothing more was needed, no one has so dominated our lives that they could be alluded to without mentioning their name. My mother’s answer could not have been more significant: “Again?”

Thus, this Thursday, more than three years later, when I read in the Spanish press the news about the exhumation of the dictator Francisco Franco something in my head asked if I haven’t heard this before, if the general had not been disinterred and reburied many times. Dictators appropriate our lives in many ways, deciding the present and forcing us to talk about them in the future, becoming permanent and cyclic presences in our existence.

Now, the man who tried to leave Spain’s future “done and dusted” is just a mummy for whom justice, memory and political expediency have changed places, a shadow of that Franco to whom Fidel dedicated three days of official mourning after his death in 1975, the year I was born and an era when my island maintained strange and conflicting complicities: Russia’s Kremlin and Spain’s El Pardo Royal Palace. continue reading

There is a close sympathy among those whose vital force is to maintain power at all costs, no matter the political color or the ideology that moves them. They share the essence of a deplorable caudillismo, that which is based on authoritarianism, nationalism, fear of change, clientelism and searching for guilt always abroad, always the fault of the “other.” Franco and Castro handled these reins of power with perverse mastery.

One day, I hope not that far off, in Cuba we will debate what to do with the ashes of Fidel Castro, which now rest in the Santa Ifigen cemetery in Santiago de Cuba. Most likely, it will be a discussion that will take place in a country with an incipient democracy, still marked by the pains and wounds left by a regime that privileged polarization over well-being, confrontation over the country’s development.

The Parliament of a future Cuba will address the issue of Castro’s ashes, now located a few meters from the tomb of the National Hero José Martí. A placement that was carefully calculated, to give the controversial guerrilla a screen of historical glory, a patina of studied popular acceptance. The man in the military uniform, the man of the death sentences, the man of the always raised authoritarian index finger, wanted to be close to the poet in the shabby coat, the man of beautiful verses and an honesty that led to his death.

Those parliamentarians of tomorrow, whom I imagine much more plural than the current monochromatic National Assembly, will debate and present citizens’ demands about the final destination of Castro’s ashes, a heavy burden for a nation that has already carried too many encumbrances. I can imagine those discussions. There will be exalted exclamations, neck veins about to burst and voices for and against. A bath of democracy.

But in the end, the diatribe will come. The corrosive acid of history will fall on Castro as it has on Franco. No caudillo is saved. On an imprecise day of this turbulent century, the Cuban media will be filled with headlines for and against exhuming Castro and moving him to a less sublime, less historic, less symbolic place. We will look at each other and say that the gesture is important even if it does not solve our problems at that time.

There are historical wounds that must be healed even when it seems that they now hurt less and that their healing is barely an allegorical gesture. Call it The Valley of the Fallen in Spain, or the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery here in Cuba, the little we can take from those who took so much from us is their last abode. If they decided everything from what we ate to what we dreamed, it is not excessive that we impose ourselves on their plan for eternity and fracture the script of their eternal rest.

For that moment, when that hypothetical Cuban Parliament decrees the exit of the dictator’s ashes from the stone where he seems protected, my mother will ask me if we are not exhuming Castro for the umpteenth time. Mothers, like caudillos, are always there even if they are not. And I’ll have to answer, “No mami, no. This time is the last, the final one.”

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Eleven Activists and Independent Journalists Blocked From Leaving Cuba

Reporter Henry Constantin, third from right to left, was one of those who was not allowed to travel to the United States on Thursday. (Inalkis Rodríguez / La Hora de Cuba)

14ymedio, Havana, 24 October 2019 — On Thursday, Cuban authorities prohibited the departure of twelve political activists and independent journalists who had arrived at the international airport of Havana to take a flight to Miami.

They had all been invited to the Pasos de Cambio (Steps of Change) event, a meeting of Cuban civil society that will be held starting tomorrow at the Freedom Tower, in Miami. Luis Almagro, general secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS) is expected to attend as are several leaders of the Cuban exile.

According to the information transmitted to 14ymedio by the journalist from Camagüey Henry Constantín, this is the list of people who were not allowed to travel: Asunción Carrillo Hernández, Caridad Burunate and Yisabel Marrero Burunate, members of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party; José Díaz Silva and Lourdes Esquivel, of the Opponents for a New Republic party; Unpacu and Ladies in White activist María Josefa Acón; Adrián del Sol, son of Guillermo del Sol, who recently undertook a 55-day hunger strike to protest against arbitrary decisions of State Security to prohibit trips abroad from the Island; the cyber activist María de Lourdes Ayala Anazco; Leonardo Rodríguez Alonso, member of the Patmos Institute; the photographer Iris Mariño and Constantín Ferreiro himself, both from the media La Hora de Cuba.

Guillermo del Sol has been invited to the Miami event but was planning to travel on another flight. According to Constantin, “he seemed to be one of the two people who would not be banned from traveling, but when he learned that his son was still ’regulated’*, he said he was staying.” As this article was being written he was trying to convince the authorities that his presence at the event was important. The name of the other activist who was able to pass through the Immigration barrier has not been revealed so far.

At the airport there was a tense situation when the group decided to take a picture with everyone who was ’regulated’. “We watched as we were surrounded by a dozen State Security agents, some of them known to us, but happily there were no arrests,” says Constantin.

*Translator’s note: The Cuban government applies the term “regulated” to individuals who are prohibited from leaving the island.

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People with Real Businesses Don’t Fear Restrictions on Remittances

A shortage of cash, the closure of numerous offices and the irregular business hours have been plaguing Western Union for months. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, October 18, 2019 — The line extends all the way to the entrance of the Carlos III shopping mall. People are not in it to buy frozen chicken, powdered milk or even laundry detergent, a product in high demand here. Everyone is waiting in line to collect a remittance sent by a relative through Western Union, a service which has been impacted by a shortage of cash and new U.S. government regulations.

Most of those in line get between 50 and 100 dollars once a month, never more often unless it is “the end of the year or Mother’s Day,” notes Katiuska, a 39-year-old Havana woman who is waiting at the office under the yellow and black logo to collect money that her emigree sister has sent to pay the private caregiver of their bedridden mother.

Katiuska is not among those affected by new restrictions imposed by the Trump administration on money sent to the island by Cuban exiles. “I have never received more than $300 every three months, which is far below the new limit,” she points out. continue reading

Last week a series of measures took effect in the United States which limit remittances and financial operations in Cuba as part of a policy of tightening the embargo and imposing economic sanctions on the Cuban government.

The new regulations announced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) cover four areas of restriction, most notably family remittances, which are now capped at $1,000 per quarter. It is a restriction that can feel like a serious blow to private business owners while others, such as Katiuska, may not feel affected at all.

But she is only one part of a wide spectrum of beneficiaries of this aid. The items purchased with these remittances has changed greatly since 2009. They are no longer used only to buy food but are used for various purposes as well according to studies done by The Havana Consulting Group (THCG), a consulting firm based in Miami.

“From 2009 to 2016 remittances grew by two billion dollars compared to the previous period, from 1993 to 2008. In just eight years the number of consumer categories in which remittances were most often spent went from six to fourteen,” writes Emilio Mores, president of the group, in an article.

In the last decade remittances from overseas have also paid for telecommunication services in Cuba, including mobile phones, wifi and home internet. They have gone to pay for private tutors, home purchases and auto repairs. They have also provided the start-up capital for new privately owned businesses, whose growth has surged since the expansion of the private sector under Raul Castro.

Since long before the period of economic liberalization, remittances received through channels such as Western Union have served as the main economic pillar for hundreds of thousands throughout the island. But financial services companies now face a variety of difficulties getting money to their Cuban customers and the not all the problems originate in the White House.

Cash shortages, the closure of numerous offices and the irregular business hours have been plaguing Western Union for months. Weeks before the Trump administration’s measures went into effect, lines to collect remittances were already growing longer outside company offices. When exchanged legally, customers receive 97.01 convertible pesos for every $100 sent.

Western Union’s website mentions having more than 300 branches on the island. But customers often complain that these offices often do not have have enough cash on hand, especially in small towns. “Western Union isn’t like it used to be when you could get your money within a few minutes,” laments Guillermo Casas, a retiree whose son punctually sends his remittance to Morón, in Ciego de Avila province.

“Now you go there over several days and leave with empty hands because they haven’t been supplied with enough money to give the people who are expecting it. What Trump has done doesn’t bother me. My son can only afford to send me $60 a month so a reduction to $1,000 every three months is no big deal to me.”

Others fear that additional new restrictions will be introduced in the coming weeks or months. Twenty-two-year-old Alicia Fundora, whose birthday is this month, fears that money an aunt from Miami intends to give her will not arrive.

“She always sends me money on my birthday but she called me this week, worried because she got a message from Western Union about new restrictions on sending money. She called me yesterday to give me the pin number I need to collect it and said everything had gone well but she had to do it online. She has always gone through a bank that could do it but told me that’s no longer possible.”

Several Cuban emigrees in the United States have reported problems sending money from Western Union offices in the U.S. but so far they have not had major difficulties doing transfers over the internet as long as they respect the new limits.

Reactions among businesspeople have varied. One pizza vendor claims he has so far received “everything the business needs.” Others believe the U.S. measures are impacting the private sector but not Cuba’s political leaders in spite of the fact that they include prohibitions on Communist Party members and military personnel from receiving remittances from the U.S. Others are finding their own way to get cash reliably.

“People who get remittances through legal channels such as Western Union are the ones who don’t have other options. But anyone who needs large amounts to open or maintain a business will, of course, not use these services,” says the owner of a hostel with nine rooms and a pool for rent in Guanabo, a town east of Havana.

“Anyone who operates a real business does not use these services,” he says, “because everthing that comes through Western Union or a Cuban bank is controlled and monitored by the state.”

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More Than Half of Cuban Households Live Below the Poverty Line, Human Rights Group Reports

8.1% of Cubans do not have drinking water service.

Europa Press (via 14ymedio), Madrid | October 22, 2019 — More than half of households in Cuba live below the poverty line, according to a report by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) that shows the incapacity of a wide majority of households to live in a dignified manner and with access to basic services like water and electricity.

The study concludes that 55.4% of households make less than $100 per month in a country where the minimum wage is barely $16. One out of every four families earns between $50 and $100, while a little more than 12% don’t make even 20 euros, according to the Observatory of Social Rights, which does not take into account funds from remittances.

Only 11% believe that the money they have is enough to live in dignity, as 45.6% believe that they can get ahead with limitations, and 43.2% label the funds they earn as “insufficient.” Despite that, three out of every four households receive no type of assistance, while 13% have help from the State and 7% from some NGO. continue reading

The Obervatory has questioned the regime’s official statistics regarding the employment level, given that only 21.5% of those interviewed said they work full-time and 23.2% have a part-time job.

Of those surveyed, 22% admitted that they have inadequate food and 38.4% consider it repetitive — the diet is based on rice, bread, and beans, while beef and fish are scarce. A third of the population eats two times or fewer per day, says the report, composed from 1,082 cases in 11 of the Island’s 16 provinces.

When it comes to medical attention, more than four out of ten people who recently needed some medication were unable to get it. In this sense, only 18.6% of Cubans find the medicines they need in the Cuban health system.

The report also examines the state of basic provisions and determines that almost 70% of Cubans do not have a permanent water supply: 32% have water between four and five days a week and 28% have it fewer than three days, and 8.1% do not have any drinking water service.

The Observatory has denounced the general living situation in Cuba, where approximately half of the houses need repair work, with 7.6% of the buildings at risk of collapse. Only one out of four houses remains in good condition.

The deficiencies also extend to the electricity supply, unavailable in an uninterrupted form for 80% of the population. Six out of ten citizens affirm that they have suffered up to ten power cuts in recent months, while 18.8% have suffered more than ten.

The executive director of OCDH, Alejandro González Raga, emphasized during the presentation of the study that “it is evidence of the reality that Cuba is experiencing… Not the reality that the Government says, but what Cubans say,” he stressed.

The report, the first of this type published by the Observatory, was compiled from personal interviews carried out between August 15 and September 8 of 2019 and has a margin of error of 3% and a confidence level of 95%.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

Awarding "Our Journalists" is an "Interference" by the US, Claims Diaz-Canel

Dayamis Sotolongo Rojas, from the newspaper ’Escambray,’ rejected the nomination for the IPYS prize. (Vicente Brito/Escambray)

14ymedio, Havana, October 14, 2019 — When Cubacron, a competition to award the Island’s best reporters held by the Press and Society Institute (IPYS), was announced this summer, nobody could have suspected that it would unleash a storm in the autumn over the inclusion of several pieces published by the Cuban official press in the list of finalists.

On October 1, IPYS made public the list of those who were eligible for the prize, which will be awarded during the next Latin American Conference of Journalism and Investigation (Colpin) in Mexico, from November 7-10. Among them were two pieces from the official press, For God’s sake, when will nitrazepam come? by Dayamis Sotolongo for Escambray, which is published in Sancti Spiritus, and Afterwards don’t blame the river, by Haydee León, for Juventud Rebelde. The other selections belong to independent media outlets such as Periodismo de Barrio, El Toque, and El Estornudo.

Far from understanding it as a pluralistic prize, the inclusion of the two state-controlled media outlets on the list has profoundly disturbed the government. Not only have the journalists rejected the nomination, but the Journalists’ Union of Cuba (UPEC), safeguarded by Díaz-Canel himself, has unleashed war against IPYS, which it has accused of a “new campaign against the Cuban public system” which “is printed with a counterrevolutionary political seal.” continue reading

UPEC made public on Saturday a statement in which it describes IPYS as being “linked to anti-Government political campaigns and progressive organizations in Latin America, particularly obsessed with lines of attack on the ’Bolivarian’ Revolution,” that is on the Maduro regime in Venezuela.

The labor organization identifies as donors of the institute the Organization of American States (OAS), the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in the United States, and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF), and dedicates a paragraph to pointing out the “dark” activities that, in its opinion, they all carry out, from the support of Juan Guaidó in Venezuela to the promotion of the Arab Spring.

For those reasons, it rejects what it considers to be a use of Cuban pro-government journalists by selecting them for a prize from an organization that it considers to have “hands stained with blood” and which “uses the rhetoric of freedom of expression with ideological ends and as a political battering ram.”

Additionally, UPEC believes that the rest of the media outlets chosen by IPYS have “an openly anti-socialist editorial line aligned with Washington politicians against the Cuban Government.”

“The Journalists’ Union of Cuba energetically denounces this manipulation and reaffirms that the most important thing for our organization is to persist with our project of transforming the public media system, for more socialism and more Revolution,” it adds.

The declaration was immediately backed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who didn’t miss the opportunity in his brief tweet of support to mark the line between “our” journalists and those who are not.

“Not NED, nor Soros, nor OAS: Declaration of the Journalists’ Union of Cuba. A dignified statement, an expression of the conviction and patriotism of our journalists against manipulation and interference. #WeAreCuba #WeAreContinuity,” the leader wrote.

This Sunday, one day after the Cuban government’s statement, IPYS entered into the controversy, explaining that the nominations for the prize were made by a selection committee choosing among reporters who presented their candidacy and those who had not.

“The panel of judges, made up of eminent chroniclers, appreciates the journalistic quality of the stories,” says the institute, which denies that any of its donors influences its mission, as UPEC charges. The journalists who made up the team tasked with deciding were Cristián Alarcón, Marcela Turati, and Julio Villanueva.

“The internet, fortunately, allows Cuban journalists to have their own idea of the role of IPYS as a promoter of independent journalism and quality. It also allows them to clarify if the aforementioned pronouncements are products of the facts or of hallucinations,” ends the statement.

The journalist Dayamis Sotolongo Rojas, a finalist for her reporting published in Escambray, has expressed her disgust over the situation as she believes that, given that she never put herself forward, she shouldn’t have been included. “I’m not selling my soul to the devil; they can go to…” said the reporter in the government media outlet at which she works.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Diaz-Canel Plays Tourist in Ireland, First Stop on his Trip Before Russia

Díaz-Canel plants an oak tree, symbol of friendship in Ireland, in the gardens of the residency of the head of state. (Presidencia Cuba)

14ymedio, Havana, October 21, 2019 — The European tour of President Miguel Díaz-Canel has a stop in the western part of the continent, a rarity on the trip that the leader will take to Russia, Belarus, and Azerbaijan before attending the XVIII Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which will take place in Baku on October 25-26. Díaz-Canel and his wife landed this Sunday in Dublin for a three-day visit to Ireland, a country with which Cuba established diplomatic relations twenty years ago yesterday.

This is the first official visit of a Cuban president to Ireland, which thus returns the one made two years ago by the head of state, Michael D. Higgins, to the Island. This morning he received Díaz-Canel in Áras an Uachtaráin (the official residence of the Irish president) with the Cuban national anthem sounding in a welcome ceremony during which the Cuban planted an oak tree in the palace gardens, an act considered a symbol of friendship on the European island.

“We return to green and patriotic Ireland, that of Che’s ancestors, that which accompanied Félix Varela, that which Martí discovered, that which earned Fidel’s admiration,” said Díaz-Canel at the event. continue reading

In 2016, after the death of Fidel Castro, Higgins was the lead in a controversy over describing the ex-leader as “a giant among global leaders whose view was not only one of freedom for his people but for all of the oppressed and excluded peoples on the planet.”

Leo Eric Varadkar, who as prime minister exercises the real power in Ireland, will today receive Díaz-Canel in a courtesy visit. Also this Monday, the leader will visit the old prison of Kilmainham and will meet with Cubans living in Ireland and Irish people close to the Cuban government.

On Sunday, Díaz-Canel and his wife were received by Emma Madigan when they arrived in Dublin. The presidential entourage was completed by the ministers of Foreign Relations and Foreign Commerce and Investment, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and Rodrigo Malmierca. The Cuban leader traveled around St. Stephen’s Green led by Brian Glynn, director of the Americas at the Irish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Ireland and Cuba are two islands united by friendship,” affirmed the diplomat, who emphasized his country’s support of Cuba against the blockade of the US and for the “update” process of Cuba’s economic model. The two countries signed an agreement on political dialogue in 2015 and have several commercial agreements.

Díaz-Canel also took advantage of the tourist trip on Sunday to go to Trinity College, whose library opened its doors to show the Cuban leader the Book of Kells (one of the most important medieval manuscripts in the world) and the more than six million other tomes that it houses, explained by Patrick Prendergast, the institution’s rector.

The Cuban president highlighted, in writing, in the visitors’ book: “The sentiment of independence and the patriotic Irish feeling, which so much unites us as peoples and as islands that we share the same sea of fights, hopes, and future.”

The Catholic Church also received Díaz-Canel, who went to the cathedral of St. Patrick, patron saint of the nation, where the reverend William Morton took him on a guided tour of the building and its relics.

The Cuban president leaves the Dublin pub where he was drinking beer this Sunday. (herald.ie)

The day ended for Díaz-Canel in O’Neill’s pub, on Suffolk Street, where he was able to have a pint of Guinness, the country’s most famous beer.

Neither Fidel nor Raúl Castro ever visited Ireland, although the former did make a stop in the Dublin airport in 1982 and left a gift (a box of Havanas) for then-Prime Minister Charles J. Haughey, who wrote him a thank you letter.

Two years ago, the Irish Post Office released a stamp with the image of Ernesto “Che” Guevara to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death and recall his Irish roots. The idea generated a forceful controversy between defenders and critics of the decision and the Ministry of Communications had to clarify that the measure was taken in 2015 after following the normal procedures.

“The subject matter of the drawings of the stamps is presented to the Government in advance,” added an official spokesperson to overcome the criticisms.

Weeks earlier, the national airline Aer Lingus found itself obligated to remove ads containing images of several personalities, among them Che, from Miami International Airport.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Spanish Royal Palace Upset over Government Forcing King to Visit Cuba

King Felipe VI (right) does not understand how Spain’s caretaker government under Pedro Sanchez (left) could authorize a visit to the island, and only a few days after the November 10 elections. (Europa Press)

14ymedio, Jorge Sainz, October 21, 2019 — The royal palace is very upset with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez for committing King Felipe VI to a visit of Cuba in mid-November.

Irritation at Zarzuela Palace is palpable, as Vozpópuli has learned. The monarch does not understand how the caretaker government could authorize a visit of such importance, especially when scheduled to take place only a few days after the November 10 elections.

On top of that, the king’s visit to Havana will coincide those of other leaders, including Russian president Vladimir Putin, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. And the crown is not too enthusiastic about some of these attendees. continue reading

Sanchez’s decision

Felipe VI has been trying to get out of this trip for months. And the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has had its own doubts, realizing this would not be the best time. But according to sources within the executive, Prime Minister Sanchez made his decision final.

The foreign affairs minister, Josep Borrell, committed to the visit during a quick trip to Havana this week. The palace is doing a tricky balancing act in an effort to avoid, for example, having photos taken of the king standing next to Maduro.

The reluctance of the palace, which has pushed back as much as it could, is shared by Spanish diplomats.

The impetus for the king’s visit to Cuba is the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the founding of Havana, to be celebrated in mid-November. The idea is that Felipe VI will visit the island “within the framework of that commemoration,” not to participate in the commemorative celebration itself, which will be attended by leaders such as Putin and Maduro.

The palace wants to frame the trip in strictly cultural terms. The king will focus on Spain’s legacy in its former colony while trying to avoid politics altogether. As well as an unwanted photo.

The reluctance of the palace, which has pushed back as much as it could, is shared by Spain’s diplomatic corps. The last caretaker government, under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, opted to shelve the head-of-state’s international agenda. It postponed state visits, such as the one the king and queen were scheduled to make to the United Kingdom.

Retaliation by Trump

According to sources, one of the risks is that Sanchez will have been voted out of office after the November 10 elections. Current opinion polls suggest such a scenario is unlikely. But if it does happen, the new government — one with a different agenda and international priorities — would be forced to respect this decision.

Nevertheless, Sanchez has made up his mind, as he has done with other exceptional measures such as those regarding regional funding. The king will accompany the caretaker government to Cuba and will also visit South Korea in the days following, though the latter trip will produce no political controversy whatsoever.

Among other problems are the possible consequences facing some businesses. The American president, Donald Trump, has put tremendous pressure not only on Cuba but also on countries with interests on the island in the form of tariffs and sanctions.

According to sources, a gathering of world leaders hated by Trump and meeting that week in Havana could mean a setback for Spain if the U.S. retaliates economically.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on the Spanish website Vozpópuli and is reprinted here with permission of the publisher.

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Why Are There No Canned Tomatoes in Cuban Stores?

A recent photo of Cubans in line at a store hoping to be able to buy powdered milk (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 18 October 2019 — In the midst of the serious crisis in the Cuban economy, some news that jumps out from the official Communist newspaper deserves special attention.

President Díaz-Canel said in one of the meetings he has been holding with the different sectors of the economy, that it is necessary to “exploit the country’s potential in industrial matters, due to its high impact on the national economy and its relevance in the [replacing] imports [with domestic products].”

It is not bad that the term “exploit” is installed in the official language of the Castro regime. It was time. Let’s see if they lose their fear, and also start talking about such noble and important and necessary things for an economy, such as enrichment, accumulation of wealth, investment and benefits. Everything will go. continue reading

Supporting a country’s industry is common sense. In particular, if one takes into account the structural problems that exist in Cuba in relation to the manufacture of containers and packaging, with the chemical industry, the sugar industry, the non-sugar industry, the food industry in general; pharmaceutical, biotechnological and biomedical products; also with hydraulic resources, construction, transport, light industry and tourism.

Finally, to be used in depth in the development of a relationship of different activities, when the problem of the industry is general and is summarized in two or three words: abandonment, lack of productivity and obsolescence .

And why does this happen in Cuban industrial activity? The answer is simple. Ask the business owner who is solely responsible for this situation. Yes. Ask Díaz-Canel as the representative of the state, the sole owner of the companies that operate in the economy in the field of industrial activity. To date, as far as is known, self-employment is only authorized in the services sector and in activities of low productivity.

The industry, the industrial companies belong to the state, and therefore, the president is responsible for is bad state and malfunctioning. According to the primetime news on Cuban television, which the newspaper Granma cites in the note that serves as a reference to this blog post, “the sector requires a technological renovation because its deliveries do not meet the current demand and a high amount is imported annually of raw materials and products.” Well, if we all agree, why don’t they get to work.

It seems so, and there is, of course, a “planned development project until 2030.” In the Castro regime, where the passage of time has a different dimension to that of other countries and the emergencies end up being filed away, that the solution to the problems of the industry is available at a distant date like 2030 has several readings: the situation can be aggravated, it is not possible to apprehend the result of the investigation and its application to technology, and what is worse, a critical scenario is maintained, in which nobody believes that industry can end up being competitive and manage to meet the basic needs of Cubans.

This comes to mind because in the same edition of Granma another piece of news appears that shows to what extent Cuban industry has fallen behind and been abandoned by its sole owner. I refer to the information according to which, the communist’s newspaper celebrates as a great event, that “despite the deficit of raw material that has faced the industry, canned tomatoes will return to the trade network from the month of November”after having disappeared almost entirely in the last months.

Canned tomatoes. Yes. A basic product, essential to Cuban cuisine, that struggles to return to the underserved bodegas of the Castro regime. I have never seen it. A product that is simple to manufacture, which does not involve major complications and for which Cuba has the resources, since the raw material does not have to come from anywhere.

After 60 years, Cubans are accustomed, to a forced coexistence with products of little or no presence in the bodegas. Now it’s this one, later it’s another. Canned tomatoes, which are manufactured by a state-owned company, depend on deliveries of raw material, that is, tomatoes.

The planners who know so much, estimated tomato deliveries for the year 2019 to total 79,940 tons. But as always, the planning is not right in their plans and only 22,814 tons were received, a satisfaction of the plan of only 28%, and then, nobody did anything, and that’s why the canned tomatoes disappeared.

You have to get tomatoes from wherever you can, don’t you?

So the question is, who cares that only 6,733 tons of finished products equivalent to 35% of what was planned for, have been achieved? In Cuba, the market cannot punish this type of results with its behavior, because the system does not allow it. The owner of the canned tomato companies, the Castro state, doesn’t give a damn, that is to say it cares nothing, whether Cubans can put mashed potatoes or tomato sauce on their tables. It is a matter about which no one will ask for explanations.

And they are all so content, because the profitability of the company is under wraps, its marketing (that is, satisfying consumers) is unknown, and therefore, if there are no tomatoes, nor tomato sauce, nor tomato paste. Cubans are left to “resolve” the situation with other things. And so it goes for 60 years. And nobody protests or says anything. Amazing.

There is no justification for the lack of existence of raw materials or supplies for the production of canned tomatoes. If in Cuba they are not produced, for any reason, the supply is sought outside and the product is brought from the Dominican Republic, Mexico or Haiti. Yes, there may not be foreign exchange, but this is an example that once again the communist state puts its priorities before the free choice of citizens. It is how the game is played in Cuba, or you take it or leave it.

We must tell Cubans that there is another economic model where, when they go to the market every day, they would find what they are looking for without any problems. They can choose from many brands and buy the one that really satisfies them in price and quality. That it is not possible to live with the sword of Damocles hanging over them about what is going to be missing at the bodega today, and that the only person responsible for this situation is the communist state, absolute owner of industry, the land, the infrastructures in short, of everything. The productive capital of the nation.

If that productive capital goes into private hands, the situation would be very different. Products would always be in the retail sales network, industries could invest their benefits in R&D, pay higher wages to workers, be more productive, meet the population’s choices and consumption needs and export surpluses with which to get more income.

That model exists and Cuba enjoyed it before 1959 . Going back to it is possible and necessary. Instead of wasting time with harangues and slogans that do not go anywhere, calling for reducing imports, working more, etc., etc., what needs to be done is to reintegrate the productive capital of the nation into the private sector and let it run freely.

The example of the situation of the industry and canned tomato is well worth it. You have to get out of the Castro time capsule and take a deep breath. The future is much better than the past.
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The Intervention of Cuba in Venezuela: The Alliance of Two "Captive Nations" To Communism

Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel with the Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and Raul Castro in Havana (Marti Noticias)

14ymedio, María Werlau, Washington, 20 October 2019 — A recent report on Venezuela by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights confirmed the Chavista strategy to neutralize, repress, and criminalize opposition and dissent. It also reports on the militarization of State institutions, restrictions on democratic space, dismantling of institutional checks and balances, the shrinking space for independent media, patterns of grave human rights violations as well as extensive extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions. and other abuses.

The deepening economic and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is constantly in the news. At least 87% of Venezuelans now live in poverty, social services have collapsed and people go hungry and die in hospitals for lack of supplies. More than 4 million Venezuelans have fled and the mass exodus continues.

This devastation in Venezuela results from the progressive transfer of Cuba’s socio-political and economic “revolutionary” template to Venezuela. It stems from a comprehensive integration plan forged by Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro of an ideological, political, military, security, economic, judicial, and socio-cultural nature that also encompasses information and communications. Unbeknownst to the Venezuelans, Cuba had plotted for decades to secure the dominating role. continue reading

Venezuela also adopted the Cuban prototype of socialism that imposed poverty on the people through centrally-planned “social” ownership of the means of production and distribution but with a captive capitalism (so-called “state capitalism”) for the exclusive enjoyment of the elite in power. However, the Venezuelan “Bolivarians” have brought plunder and ostentation to its maximum expression, likely beyond any historical precedent.

The investigation, with 800 bibliographic sources, describes how Cuba has essentially occupied Venezuela not with a traditional military force but by asymmetric means, strategically placing assets to control its economy, security forces, information, communications, and society in general.

It’s impossible to know from open sources how many Cubans are in Venezuela at the service of their government — many have passed no migration controls and pose as Venezuelans — but Cuban official sources (although never reliable) have reported around 46,000 Cuban “collaborators” there working on “more than 200 projects,” 21,500 of which are in the health sector.

That would officially leave at least 24,500 in unspecified capacities (most would presumably be in a security or military capacity). Other sources believe the number is much larger. However, the measure of Cuba’s role is not in the number of Cubans in Venezuela, it is in the influential and wide-ranging controlling roles they have in all of Venezuelan society, exerted both inside Venezuela and, importantly, from Cuba.

My study attributes Cuba’s colonization of the much larger and richer Venezuela to the Cuban military regime’s competencies or comparative advantages, enabled by the totalitarian nature of the system. Cuba’s intelligence and propaganda apparatus is formidable. In addition, the State exploits its citizens with no restraints or checks and balances through forced migration and as exported or expatriate workers (through a huge business of trafficking in persons), also engaging in transnational criminal activities.

The Cuba-Venezuela integration is part of a continental plan and is sustained by shared international criminal networks. This alliance, akin to conjoined mafia states, is involved in drug trafficking, illegal mining, money laundering, and other illegal activities in conjunction with transnational actors that are enemies of liberal democracy and share nefarious interests: states such as Iran, China, and Russia, and non-state actors such as Mexican and Colombian drug cartels, Russian mafias, Hezbollah, ELN and FARC.

This situation not only affects the citizens of both Venezuela and Cuba but also poses grave security threats, especially to the region.

Cuba’s intervention in Venezuela: A Strategic Occupation with Global Implications is available here in English

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