14ymedio – Page 376 – Translating Cuba

The Dollar Increases in Value on the Informal Cuban Economy

Stashing away “greens,” as locals commonly refer to American dollar bills, is an option that many Cubans are choosing. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, August 23, 2019 — The dollar’s value rose last week on the unofficial Cuban exchange market. The U.S. currency went from 0.95 or 0.96 to 1.02 or even 1.05 Cuban convertible pesos (CUP) on the island’s informal currency market according to El Toque. The increase occurred shortly after the government announced its decision to raise salaries and impose price controls on some retail products.

A worker at José Martí International Airport in Havana tried to convince several foreigners to sell her their dollars. “I exchange one to one,” she said in a low voice while trying to avoid security cameras in the terminal. Her proposed purchase price was slightly lower than the going rate on the streets.

Despite the risk of being scammed, selling their dollars informally can be very attractive to tourists. At state-run currency exchanges, which are the only ones allowed to operate in the country, the effective exchange rate is 1 dollar to 0.87 convertible peso due to a 10% tariff and a 3% commission on the value of the US currency. continue reading

Experts say that there are several reasons for the dollar’s rise in value, among them the fear of a sudden unification of the two local currencies, the CUP (Cuban peso) and the CUC. Stashing away “greens,” as locals commonly refer to American dollar bills, is an option that many Cuban travelers, business owners are people who want to preserve their savings are choosing.

Another factor is the decline of tourists visiting the island, especially those from the United States. The fall has led authorities to revise the expected number of visitors to the country in 2019 downward. The new estimate is 4.3 million rather than the 5.1 million that had been initially projected. This translates into a decrease in foreign exchange earnings for both the state and for private businesses.

Linet, a resident of San Jose de las Lajas in Mayabeque, told 14ymedio that in her province the exchange rate is 1.03 CUC to the dollar but adds that “it’s getting harder to manage that every day.” She adds, “Getting it for 0.98 CUC is very difficult” and, even if she does, it is not in the amounts she needs. She often travels to Panama to buy items such as electronics, clothing, cell phones and air conditioners.

It is common to find online ads for homes and vehicles in which the seller asks that the transaction be executed in dollars. “I have a four-bedroom house in La Lisa and need to receive 30,000 USD or, alternatively, for that amount to be transferred to a relative in Miami,” reads one of many ads that stipulate payment in foreign currency.

The economist Pedro Monreal describes the dollar as “an animal that is very difficult to tame” because it has been the most tightly controlled “consumer product” for a long time. But, he adds, “It continues to operate in illegal markets, which are very dynamic.”

“It’s different than sweet potatoes or beer. It’s the scarcest commodity in the economy.”

The USD is an animal that is very difficult to tame. It has been the most tightly controlled “consumer product” for a long time. But it continues to operate in illegal markets, which are very dynamic. It’s different than sweet potatoes or beer. It’s the scarcest commodity in the economy.

— Pedro Monreal (@pmmonreal) August 22, 2019

Pavel Vidal, an economist and former Central Bank of Cuba employee, recently wrote a column for the Cuban-American Journal On Cuba in which he warned of the problems that a salary increase would bring on the island.

“We learned the lesson in the 1990s,” wrote Vidal, explaining the difficult years of economic crisis resulting from the end of Soviet subsidies. He states that at the time the Ministry of Economy and Planning, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance and Prices, and the Ministry of Foreign Trade set up working groups to prevent a devaluation of the peso and a loss of confidence in the Cuban currency. Despite inflation and deep budget cuts, the island managed to survive the crisis. Now, however, these groups either no longer exist or are being ignored.

“The arguments, explanations and actions taken by Cuban government officials this year are flimsy compared to the logic of the working groups which for years maintained of the stability of the Cuban peso and led to the de-dollarization of the economy at the beginning of this century,” he added.

For Guillermina, an elderly resident of Cienfuegos who has a son in Miami, the dollars are “a godsend.”

“My son was here a month ago and gave me 2,000 dollars because he is scared about what’s happening with Trump and worries he won’t be able to send remittances. He warned me not to exchange the money for CUCs because, if the economy collapses, I will lose everything,” she said via telephone.

Guillermina still remembers when Fidel Castro ordered the mandatory exchange of dollar bills in 1961 and fears something similar could happen again. “My uncle lost all his savings back then. It was a Friday. He always cursed Fidel for that,” she added.

In a surprise decision, Castro announced that the island’s currency and bank accounts over 10,000 pesos were no longer valid, even if their account holders had more money than that in them. It was a move designed to strip Castro’s opponents of resources, but for many years it led to a fear that something similar could happen, says Guillermina.

In recent months there have been growing rumors of a currency unification that would leave only the CUP in circulation. Currently, it is the currency in which salaries are paid and in which rationed items as well as water, electricity, gas and other public services are priced.

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After Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua

“We have no idea of the extent and depth of the way Venezuelan assets and resources have been squandered.” Photo: Nicolas Maduro holding a gold bar. (EFE)

14ymedio, Miguel Henrique Otero, Madrid, 24 August 2019 — I agree with those analysts who argue that the end of the Maduro regime will have numerous consequences at the international level, which could be analyzed in several chapters.

For Bolivia governed by Evo Morales; for Argentina on the verge of returning to the corruption networks of the Kirchners; for Brazil’s Lula da Silva, imprisoned for corrupted; for the Ecuadorian fugitive Rafael Correa; for the populist exhibitionism o Mexico’s López Obrador; for narco guerrilla groups such as the ELN and the regrouped FARC; for different drug cartels from Colombia and Peru; for the partners of the circuits dedicated to the smuggling of fuels, wood, minerals, food and medicines, which operate across the borders with Brazil and Colombia; for the unscrupulous who enrich themselves at the cost of the famine of Venezuelan families; for beneficiaries like Venezuelan ex-guerilla Gustavo Petro; for the bunch of scoundrels who traveled to Caracas from different parts of the continent, to participate in the large banquets, spree and drunkenness of the Sao Paulo Forum, during the last days of July; for gangs that scam, steal, kidnap, exploit and subdue those fleeing Venezuelan territory, often without a coin in their pocket; for all these, things will be very different, because the coffers of Venezuela and the Venezuelans themselves will cease to be a source of loot that is distributed daily. continue reading

Not only on the continent, but also in other parts of the world there will be questions to review, reorder, investigate, eliminate, adjust, challenge or denounce. Hundreds of agreements, negotiated, exchanges or deals without legal support, contrary to national interest, violating the Constitution and the respective laws, which were made with governments or companies of China, Russia, Belarus, Iran, North Korea, Turkey, Vietnam, India and some others.

Since 1999, agreements have been announced, trips by delegations, commissions, exchanges, signing of contracts, various works, creation of companies and infrastructure projects, which were not undertaken, which were abandoned shortly after, which were interrupted or that collapsed

Might we even have a brief idea of how much the trips of Chavez, Maduro, hundreds of ministers, thousands of officials, advisors, relatives, loved ones, assistants, friends, bodyguards, nannies, doctors, nurses, cooks and more have cost?

Do we have the right to know the amount of expenses incurred for the constant travel of Venezuelan officials to Cuba? Or those of Padrino López to Russia? Or, conversely, will it be possible to investigate and know how much the visits of Marta Harnecker, Juan Carlos Monedero, Maradona, Danny Glover, Ramonet, Hebe de Bonafini, Eva Golinger, and several other hundreds of communist parasites, usufructuaries of the Venezuelan oil industry have cost the Venezuelan nation?

I venture this: we really do not have an idea of the extent and depth of the way in which Venezuelan goods and resources have been squandered. Scholarships, donations, per diems, aid, air tickets, hotels, restaurants, advice, contributions for the most diverse purposes; all these total an amount unique in the world: billions of dollars. The destruction of national heritage is not limited to the great acts of corruption: there has also been a constant bleeding through these bureaucratic and frequent practices that, on another scale, are also corrupt and abusive.

As soon as the end of the dictatorship takes place, not only the less visible facts of the gigantic robbery operation that is and has been Venezuela’s “Bolivarian Revolution” will come to the surface: the acceleration of the collapse of the other two communist dictatorships remaining in Central America will also take place: that of the Castro brothers in Cuba — now under the care of one of their most servile officials, Miguel Díaz Canel — and the one headed by Rosario Murillo, Daniel Ortega and the rest of the members of the Ortega-Murillo cartel in Nicaragua.

Chavismo-Madurismo’s relationship with Cuba will constitute the most abundant chapter of corruption in these twenty years. There is probably no such case in the history of the world: that the governing power of a country has as its main economic policy to transfer, through all kinds of mechanisms, some of them openly illegal, the greatest amount of financial resources possible to another country.

Because it’s not just about the gift of crude and fuel oils. That is one part, the most scenographic operation of all, that prevents us from seeing the others. Chavez and Maduro have given Castroism control over key issues related to national security, business operations, imports, huge resources in exchange for services or advice that did not exist, financing the repair or reconstruction and even the construction of infrastructure, which disguised themselves as part of non-existent maintenance projects for highways, roads, schools and hospitals in Venezuela.

To a lesser extent, but using similar techniques, the regime, again with national monies, in an unqualified, illegal and secret manner, has financed the dictatorship of Murillo and Ortega, and has sent squadrons to repress and shoot their citizens. It has created mechanisms to launder money from corruption, and has been the driving force of similar policies to destroy the media and liquidate the citizen’s right to be informed.

First the dictatorship in Venezuela will end. And, once the diminished drip of resources is finished once and for all, those of Nicaragua and Cuba will follow.

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Editor’s Note: Miguel Henrique Otero is president and CEO of the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional .

Cuban Stowaway Demonstrates Credible Fear in a Bid for Political Asylum in the U.S.

26-year-old Junier García tells local media outlets that he fears for his life if he is returned to Cuba. (Captura)

14ymedio, Havana, August 22, 2019 — Yunier García Duarte, the young Cuban stowaway who arrived in Miami a week ago on board a flight from Havana, has demonstrated “credible fear” of returning to the island, a legal prerequisite for a person seeking legal asylum in the U.S. according to his attorney, Wilfredo Allen, in an interview with El Nuevo Herald.

The 26-year-old García, who escaped Cuba by hiding in the plane’s cargo area, told local media outlets that he would fear for his life if he were repatriated. “I risked my life. I hope they accept me… If they deport me, I will be tortured. I am urgently asking asking them to consider my case. I came here because this is a country of human rights,” he said.

Allen, an attorney who specializes in immigration cases, indicated that his next legal move would be to ask that his client be released on parole or bail, and to formally request political asylum in the United States. continue reading

“Don’t come back, my son, because I don’t know what would happen to you,” said a tearful Daysi Duarte, García’s mother, in an emotional video message from Havana that was released by Univision 23. In the message to her son, Duarte, who suffers from a serious heart condition, assured him that she would perservere. “Know that I am strong,” she said.

Upon landing in Miami, García asked for help in a bid to remain in the United States. “I risked my life. I hope they accept me… If they deport me, I will be tortured. I am urgently asking asking them to consider my case. I came here because this is a country of human rights,” he said in a telephone iterview with Telemundo.

García described a very difficult journey during which he was barely able to breathe in the plane’s cargo hold. The stowaway was working as a baggage handler at Havana’s José Martí International Airport when he took the opportunity to hide in the undercarriage of a Swiftair plane.

When he landed in Miami, García was wearing a polo shirt with the logo of the Havana airport’s aeronautical services company.

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The 14,000: The Venezuelan Regime’s Bureaucratic Disaster

Public sector doctors during a protest against the Venezuelan government. (EFE / Cristian Hernández)

14ymedio, Miguel Henrique Otero, Madrid, 13 August 2019 — There are 34 ministries with their respective ministers. 144 deputy ministers. 1.540 more people occupying positions classified as sector general director. Not counting Petróleos de Venezuela, the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana and Corpoelec, there are another 820 companies that are owned by the State. Read carefully: another 820 companies. Among them they have around 11,000 directors. These are approximately the positions of trust of the Chavez and Maduro regime: some 14,000 officials, members of the Central Executive Power, whose appointments have been published in the Official Gazette of Venezuela.

To these 14,000 officials is due, in the first place, the execution of the policies that have destroyed the Venezuelan public administration which, despite its chronic problems, had career professionals, technicians and experts of the first level, people trained with rigor and with a public service vocation. Most of these professionals, whose merits were evident in all institutions, were unknown, persecuted, harassed, dismissed or relegated to fulfilling tasks that waste and underestimate their abilities.

One of the most painful chapters of the destruction of Venezuelan institutions, undertaken by Chavistas and Maduristas, has been perpetrated against public officials, and this phenomenon, which has been massive and persistent over 20 years, has not been duly documented. The case of the 20,000 dismissals of Petróleos de Venezuela, which will one day have to be reversed, is just a chapter of the vile, disproportional, illegal abuse of power that has acted against Venezuelan public officials. continue reading

There are hundreds of thousands of personal stories, of Venezuelans from all regions of the country, in all the powers and levels of the vast world that we call the public administration — in that we must include governors and mayors — who were verbally veiled, their labor rights ignored, their social benefits stolen, their reputations tainted, their right to due process and defense violated time and again.

While Venezuelan public employees are, in some way, the sector of the population most exposed to power, captive of their obligations and hierarchies, they have been the first victims of the lawlessness and humiliation committed by the regime’s ’connected,’ civil or military.

Not only have they been impoverished, like the rest of Venezuelan society, but they have been forced to wear red clothing and attend marches and rallies. They have been imposed upon, under different threats, to sign communiqués, to enroll in the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), to join in the policies of hatred and exclusion.

In the case of the military who were appointed in first and second level positions, the stories acquire grotesque and extreme proportions: brutes who have pretended to manage through screaming, threatening, insulting, dismissing and creating plots of terror.

But, and this is important, among those who remain — there are thousands and thousands who have the merit of having resisted and who continue to resist despite all adversities — and among those who were fired or resigned there is a potential mass of testimonies that will be fundamental for the reconstruction of Venezuela.

Public employees are the witnesses of thousands of appointments of incompetent persons to positions of high responsibility. It is they who have seen that mixture of ignorance and arrogance that is the predominant cultural sign of those put into these positions.

I insist: it is the Venezuelan public employees, active or not, who will report cases of nepotism, assault on per diem items, use of state resources for personal purposes, award of contracts to family members and frontmen, theft of the budgets, creation of chains of corruption in all areas where it has been possible.

The Chavista and Madurista bureaucracy is identifiable. It has signs that characterize it. I will list them below. It is, in the substantive, incapable. it does not know the subject for which it is responsible for making decisions. It takes office as a source of personal benefits. It excludes connoisseurs and surrounds itself with other ignorant people to have their own choir of praise. It practices impudence. It makes decisions against logic, forcing reality, and ignorant of the opinion of experts. To those who warn of or point out what it is doing, it accuses them of being conspirators, saboteurs and other insults.

The proof of what I affirm in this article is verifiable by the entire planet. There is nothing in Venezuela that has not been undermined, degraded, corrupted or partially or totally razed.

The 14,000 can be evaluated. Theft and devastation in the oil industry, in hospitals, in public services, in customs, in ports and airports, in SAIME (Administrative Service of Identification, Migration and Foreigners, that is the civil registry system), in transport systems, in registers and notaries, in the education system, in cultural institutions, in prisons, in psychiatrics and centers for minors, in the 820 companies — those created by the regime and those that were expropriated — which remain as empty shells, with no other utility than being an opportunity for and an alibi for corruption.

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Editor’s Note: Miguel Henrique Otero is president and CEO of the Venezuelan newspaperEl Nacional.

"SNet Is Not Fighting to Discredit the Cuban Government or Establish a New Political Order"

Ernesto de Armas has given up protesting for SNet after seeing the concern of his family and friends about the harassment of State Security.

14ymedio, , Ernesto de Armas, Havana, 16 August 2019 — Hi everyone. Those who have supported me and those who have supported SNet. I have something to tell you. During all this time I have stood firm for SNet, I have supported a cause that only seeks youth satisfaction, leisure, and sane and healthy information.

I have supported an initiative that has given us an opportunity, an alternative path, a space, a family… Unfortunately I have not been well received by the authorities of my country for doing this. Everyone knows very well what I have faced and do face. But today no more.

I am very sorry to disappoint you all, the users, many administrators that I know think like me but I don’t know how to dare to say it. To all those who from all parts of the world once belonged to SNet and today, seeing this phenomenon, have been humanized (sic) with us, because they know what Snet means to Cubans. continue reading

But I have a very close family outside of SNet, blood family, family in its strictest sense and my family is suffering. My mother and father suffer, my grandparents, my brothers, my partner… I can take it, I know I can, but unfortunately they cannot and I am making horrible moments happen to everyone around me. To all of whom I owe my life.

I carry the cause of SNet as if it were mine. However, those who represent us, the administrators, the general organizers, none of them have dared to even lift a finger for me. They have been the first to begin all this phenomenon and then have abandoned us to our (sic) fate.

I don’t want to be pessimistic but every day I see less clearly what SNet’s future will be. I want to make it clear that I have always supported SNet from peace and dialogue. I am against violence, no matter who it comes from, because violence only generates more violence. Hopefully someday those who threatened and intimidated me can understand.

But today I finally turn away from everything SNet is concerned with. I leave very sad, defeated, filled with bad memories, full of sorrows and much misunderstanding. Those who once swore to listen to youth, today call me something that I am not, just for being part of youth and raising my voice for a cause that is neither political nor religious.

I want them to understand something. Cuba is sometimes something strange, it doesn’t feel like this world. I know that it is hard for many to understand that SNet does not fight to discredit a government or establish a new political order. It is strange to understand that SNet only seeks to continue existing without leaving anyone out, including, without harming anyone, not even the Government or the leaders. The majority of SNet do not care about those things.

I respect that many are interested, but they have to understand that Cuba has a very different political culture from the rest of the world, and the majority of SNet, product of this culture, are not in the least interested in politics, from any side or from any mouth, they are simply politically apathetic.

I have put in my grain of sand for Snet, forgive me if I don’t have the strength to watch my family suffer for my decisions, maybe it’s a selfish decision on my part, but it’s the one I’ve decided.

Today I withdraw from everything that has to do with SNet and urge all those who believed in me not to lose faith, better times will come, someday SNet will be the whole world, that, unlike me, is impossible to stop.

To all who were going to gather on Saturday through faith in me, I am sorry to disappoint you, but I will not go. Neither Saturday nor any other day. There is too much division within ourselves, since I did my part and I will pay the consequences of defending SNet for a long time. But I will not allow my family or my friends to be dragged down with me.

A hug to all and thanks for supporting us all this time. Forever #YoSoySnet #FuerzaSnet

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Globalization Against Corruption

The Brazilian giant Odebrecht, which with its corrupt practices influenced a goood many Latin American Governments. (EFE)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, August 18, 2019 — Fighting globalization isn’t just counterproductive: it’s useless. It’s counterproductive, because one of the unforeseen consequences of globalization is the beneficial battle against corruption. Globalization leads us to behave better. When countries were isolated, it really mattered little if country A or B was corrupt. Today, now that they are joined in large circuits, the corruption of the other harms us much more directly.

His majesty the Internet and social media reign. Everything is known instantly and there is an electoral cost for shamelessness. Within the European Union, and within every society, there is less and less patience with nations like Greece, Romania, Italy, Portugal, and Spain that have corrupt practices. Meanwhile, for years the figure of “conflict of interests” has been in the penal code. Until relatively recently German companies could deduct bribes from their habitual costs of doing business. That is no longer possible.

The trend, then, set by globalization is favorable. There is no longer glamour in corruption. In Cuba, when I was an adolescent, there did not exist a moral sanction against dishonesty in the administration of public resources. Jokes were told about thieving politicians and many people aspired to be a “tax inspector” or anything with the object of “making a killing.” That attitude, present in almost all of Latin America, is no longer acceptable. It exists, but it has a social cost. At least it’s a start. continue reading

Roughly speaking, in the world there are 180 nations who deserve to be called nations. Approximately 150 are fundamentally corrupt. It has always been that way. Economic power feeds big shots and big shots increase the resources of economic power. They are two social spheres that complement and mutually reinforce each other. This happens in dictatorial regimes and in the planet’s imperfect democracies.

Corruption does a lot of damage. It generates a growing atmosphere of cynicism. It belies the principle that all citizens are equal before the law, which is fatal for democracy. It hinders competition. It discourages personal effort: why study and do things well if economic success depends on relationships? It raises prices. All are problems.

The most honest countries, according to Transparency International, are the Scandinavian ones and those spawned by Great Britain: New Zealand, Canada, Australia, the United States, and Ireland. The countries of northern Europe are also on the list of the best, although on a second tier: Holland, Germany, the Baltic states.

At the head of the most honest pack is the kingdom of Denmark, but very close to it is Singapore, which contradicts the hypothesis that it is a question of culture. Within Europe, the nations of “Latin” origin are the most dishonest: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Romania. Even France.

But it’s necessary to go further. It’s not only about “moral rearmament” or the elimination of North American or European visas. That’s not sufficient. It is important to place legal barriers against corruption. In Denmark, for example, the commission that studies and assigns auctions is constituted of experts who have no access to those who offer their services and vice versa.

Antonio Maura Montaner, an honest Spanish politician at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, spoke of his country’s necessity of “broad daylight.” Today he would have recommended the Internet. Every public action should be recorded on a web page so that any citizen can find out what is done with taxpayers’ money, with their money, including auctions.

It is necessary to create barriers between corrupters and corrupt. There’s no need to prevent lobbies from existing, but they must exhibit their comparative advantages via the Internet and not in dark meetings with those who can use their services or products.

In Spain they used to speak, jokingly, of “envelope-taking” journalists. Corrupters would hand them an envelope and they would pocket it with a smile. The Internet, mobile phones, and international circuits — all instruments of globalization — have wiped them off the map. Magnificent.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Cuban Prisoners Defenders IDs 127 Political Prisoners on the Island

Daniel Llortente, “The Man With the Flag,” was pressured to leave Cuba under threat of arrest. (courtesy)

14ymedio, Havana, 6 August 2019 — One of the most controversial and anticipated figures on repression in Cuba has been updated by Cuban Prisoners Defenders (CPD). The independent organization states that on the Island there are 127 political prisoners and demands that foreign diplomats to call for their release.

In a report published on August 1, CPD breaks down the number into three groups and reports that in Cuban prisons there are 73 convicts of conscience “with accusations that are totally complete and proven false and fabricated, or of a non-criminal nature and absolutely [crimes] of thought.”

During the month of July, Reinaldo Rodríguez Hernández of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo Civic Action Front joined the list, “sentenced to one year in prison for a false crime of ’resistance’, while Humberto Rico Quiala was pardoned, as he was on the point of being considered a prisoner of conscience. Activist Yasser Rivero Boni was also released after spending five months in prison for the crime of contempt. continue reading

The CPD notes “that the achievements of freedom for such cases are not attributable to changes in the regime,” but rather to the regime’s interest in avoiding international condemnation. “It is necessary, we remind the diplomatic corps, to be braver and less opportunistic, if we really want to achieve effective changes in this regime that has been deceiving the entire world for 60 years,” they ask in the report.

In the second group, Cuban Prisoners Defenders classifies 24 prisoners as “convicted of conscience” because “they suffer forced labor at home, measures to limit freedom or probation under threats, which the regime also usually revokes and returns them to prison if the activist does not cease his pro-democracy activity.”

In that list is the revocation of parole and deprivation of liberty of Misael Espinosa Puebla who, “in spite of complying with the requirement that he periodically appear before the authorities during his sentence of home confinement, he continued with his firm position against the regime, and has been returned to prison in June.”

According to the report, these prisoners are forced into work unrelated to their “professional qualifications and that does not even allow for a minimum of sustenance,” which demonstrates humiliation as a method of psychological torture in those convicted of [crimes of] conscience to avoid their pro-democratic recidivism.”

Prisoners Defenders has also analyzed the duration of the sentences, whose average is in the 3 years and 8 months, two months longer than the previous year.

The other group that makes up the list includes 30 political prisoners, including Elías Pérez Bocourt, who was released last month after serving a sentence of 27 years and 192 days convicted for the crimes of “accomplice of murder and piracy,” in the case of the of Taará Nautical Club, where four police officers died.

Particularly serious is the situation of the 10,000 people who are in prison, according to the CPD’s count, for crimes of conscience classified in the Criminal Code as “pre-criminal.” The figure, the organization indicates, has been provided by a senior government official with whom they maintain contact, “an important regime leader, reformer and contrary to the state of current uncontrolled repression.” In Havana 1,800 people are imprisoned as “pre-criminals.”

These types of sentences have been denounced on multiple occasions by organizations such as Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which warn against a law that punishes citizens with penalties of one to four years in prison for an alleged crime that they have not yet committed. To this is added the strategy, widely used in recent years, to forbid activists and journalists from traveling outside Cuba by telling them that they are “regulated.” The organization Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) also warns that, lately, another control mechanism is being used consisting of offering dissidents the opportunity to “voluntarily” leave the country as an alternative to their expulsion.

Prisoners Defenders has also analyzed the duration of the sentences, whose average is 3 years and 8 months, two months longer than the previous year.

If the case of prisoners from whom a common crime overlapped with a crime of conscience is added, the figure skyrockets, the most common penalty being life imprisonment.

In more than 73% of convictions for political reasons an aggravating crime has been added, a common practice so that these inmates cannot be considered exclusively “prisoners of conscience” and therefore the organization recommends that any protest or act of opposition be peaceful, thus avoiding the possibility of receiving more than 20 years. Prisoners Defenders says it is continuing to get human rights organizations to consider these as cases of conscience.

Unpacu, with 49 activists of conscience convicted or charge, accounts 51% of the inmates tallied by the organization.

Cuban Prisoners Defenders, linked to Unpacu, is a group engaged in analysis, study and action, and collaborated with groups of Island activists and relatives of political prisoners to collect data.

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More than 25,000 People Sign Petition in Support of Cuban Stowaway Remaining in U.S.

The 26-year-old man has been transferred to Krome detention center in Miami-Dade county.

14ymedio, Havana, August 19, 2019 — Yunier García Duarte, a young Cuban who landed in Miami last Thursday on a flight from Havana hidden in the plane’s cargo area, has now obtained legal representation. More than 25,000 people have also asked the government to allow him to remain in the United States.

“I risked my life. I hope they allow me… if they deport me, I’ll be tortured. I am urgentely asking them to consider my case. I came here because this is a country of human rights,” said García Duarte in a telephone interview with Telemundo 51.

García described a very difficult journey during which he was barely able to breathe in the plane’s cargo hold. The stowaway had been working as a baggage handler at Havana’s José Martí International Airport. El Nuevo Herald was able to confirm that the Cuban Interior Ministry is taking García’s escape very seriously and is conducting investigations at the scene according to airport employees. continue reading

Wilfredo Allen, one of the most prominent immigration attorneys in southern Florida, has agreed to provide legal representation to García, who told authorities he fears being returned to the island.

“I spoke with García Duarte’s family on Friday and Saturday. I also spoke with him over the weekend. I have agreed to be his attorney and am hopeful my client will be able to win this political asylum case,” said Allen in a telephone interview with El Nuevo Herald.

“The first thing we will do is request an interview to demonstrate ’credibe fear’ as soon as possible. After the interview we will ask that he be released on parole,” added the attorney, who said his team is already preparing a political asylum case.

Even if García is released, he might not be granted legal status under the Cuban Adjustment Act because, according to Allen, entering the country as a stowaway is illegal under U.S. immigration law. The 26-year-old has been transferred to Krome detention center in Miami-Dade county.

“If we manage to get him out on bail or on parole, we will have a political asylum trial in a Miami court. If he is not granted political asylum, he will be defended at Krome,” Allen added.

“A defense can be made based on political persecution resulting from past events or from possible consequences of a person’s actions. I think we can present a strong case of future persecution against Mr. García Duarte,” he explained. “Given all this, I am hopeful that we will be successful and he will be allowed to stay in the United States,” he said.

García has received massive support for his actions on social media. Groups of Cubans living in Florida have called upon local politicians to help the stowaway remain in the United States.

“Those of us who familiar with the sad reality of Cuba know that, if he is deported, he will be sent directly to serve a long sentence in one of the Castro dictatorship’s dungeons. I therefore join in calling upon immigration officials to issue a parole release that would allow him to remain in the United States,” wrote the iconic exiled singer Willy Chirino on Facebook.

A petition campaign on Change.org has recieved more than 25,000 signatures in little more than seventy-two hours. It asks the American government to grant the young man asylum.

Back on the island, his family has still not gotten over the shock. “He didn’t say anything to us. Yesterday he came home, he bathed, he ate and he went to work as usual,” said his sister, Yudeysi García, on Friday in Havana. The stowaway’s 2-year-old daughter remains in Cuba.

More than a dozen Cubans have escaped the island as stowaways on airplanes. Most died while making the attempt. The official Communist Party press has not reported anything about the incident.

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Speaking of Cowards

It is unjust to speak of cowards, especially when to be brave can turn out to be excessively costly.

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, August 16, 2019 — “Of cowards nothing has been written” is very unjust. In addition to inaccurate it is unjust, especially when to be brave can turn out to be excessively costly.

Many times in the commentaries of various texts that are published in the independent press there appear those whom they describe as “servile eunuchs, obedient scabs, accomplices of the dictatorship,” all those who do not dare to speak out publicly in face of the abuses and arbitrary actions of the Government. It’s necessary to point out that they are speaking about the majority, about millions of people, parents of families who every day have the obligation to bring home bread to their children.

One must exclude from that list the true believers, who have the foolishness, the stupidity, and why not, the nerve, to continue defending the current state of things in the country. It’s not worth venturing numbers on both sides of the scale to determine if those who don’t protest one way or another stand on the side of those who believe or in the group that pretends. continue reading

The magnitude of cowardice in Cuba is not a sign of the lack of humanity of its inhabitants, but rather an indication of the degree to which repression has reached.

It is detected in the workers of the state sector who work under difficult conditions without complaining; in those who accept the plunder of their salary in joint ventures, where the state employer is left with the majority of what the foreign investor pays for that scheme; in the thousands who leave to carry out international missions, sometimes at the risk of their lives, and meekly accept that the State will keep 70% of the value that is paid for their work.

Cowardice appears among the workers of the non-state sector who continue suffering the absence of a wholesale market, the pack of inspectors who hound them, the taxes that bleed them dry, the abuse of capped prices, the permanent dismissive insults of the official media sources that demonize them, the hypocritical stance of the officials who one day describe them as indispensable and another reduce them to a complementary part.

Cowardice is sensed in that false unanimity of members of parliament, in the massive marches on May 1, in the simulated fighting spirit of those who participate in a repudiation rally or in the silence of those who witness it. In those who inform on their friends or family members.

Cowardice shines in the journalist who doesn’t dare to stake his position on asking an official the uncomfortable question that everyone is waiting for, in the artist who withdraws a picture from his exhibition, the playwright or the filmmaker who deletes a scene, the writer who tears out a page from his original work to get it printed, the singer-songwriter who gets rid of his controversial songs so that his concert is allowed, the comedian who chokes on his best joke because he wants to continue hearing applause…

What causes the most pain is seeing how the brave crack.

Sometimes “showing them the instruments” is enough. Nobody can validate the certainty of the legend of Galileo murmuring “and yet it moves,” what is indeed historically confirmed is that Giordano Bruno burned at the inquisatorial stake for not renouncing his “heresies.”

But who is going to ask a university professor to dare to tell his students something that contradicts the dogma, or a last-year student to renounce the golden dream of his degree defending that classmate who is going to be expelled for not being a revolutionary?

It hurts a lot to see how the brave crack.

All of the aforementioned examples are common knowledge for anyone who lives in Cuba. They are not exaggerations; the cruelest tools aren’t even mentioned.

This Saturday, in front of the Ministry of Communications the most likely thing is that they suspend the protest, let us say the presence, of the young people who had gathered to show their dissatisfaction, let us say their opposition, with the elimination of the SNet network. Very few will go and those who try will not be allowed to get there.

Throughout this week a group of State Security officials trained in the sophisticated techniques of frightening decent people have been put in charge of dissuading leaders and threatening enthusiasts. They have resorted to everything.

Nobody should condemn these kids for cowardice, none of them has any reason to feel cowardly. The accusing finger should be pointed elsewhere.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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The Truths of Omara Ruiz Urquiola

Meeting of Omara Ruiz Urquiola with the ISDi authorities. (Courtesy ORU)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 9 August 2019 — Omara Ruiz Urquiola has lost weight. Since two weeks ago when it was announced that she had been fired from her job at the Higher Institute of Industrial Design (ISDi), she not only suffers from the loss of her source of income, but from the injustice she perceives in the lack of reasons and, in addition, the institution’s smear campaign against her.

“I am a free woman and everything I have done is to assert my status as a citizen,” she tells 14ymedio in the doorway of her house as one of those torrential downpours of summer evenings falls.

After making her dismissal public, the ISDi published a post on its Facebook page entitled Omara’s Lies in which it states that at no time was she “fired, expelled, terminated, made surplus, made available, or any synonym for breaking the definitive work link of any teacher.” In addition, they argue that the teacher “was present in only the first 15 minutes of a 1 hour 10 minute meeting.” continue reading

“Here is the recording of the meeting, listen to it and then we can talk. I’m going to walk away because I don’t want to hear it again,” says Ruiz Urquiola.

The audio, about fifteen minutes, records the words of Sergio Peña, rector of the Higher Institute of Industrial Design (ISDi), to fifteen teachers who are enough to conclude that, when Ruiz Urquiola leaves the meeting, the official had already given all the details: “That was the information, I’m all ears,” says Peña.

Omara Ruiz Urquiola with her students in the house with green roof tiles. (Courtesy ORU)

In the audio the rector explains that for the coming course he cannot “defend” the current staff of the ISDi and that the institution will hire based on the needs it has. “To all of you, we will give you a letter of recommendation so that, if you want, you can find a new center,” he says. In addition, he adds that the new structure was made at the end of the semester and will materialize in the month of October. Peña also clarifies that they did not want to give this bad news through a message or a call, and that is why they had called the meeting even though the teachers were enjoying their vacations.

During the meeting, the rector argued that Omara Ruiz Urquiola was among those affected because last year she had only 32 hours of classes in a semester and had not participated in design-related events, such as the Forma congress, which the ISDi organizes every two years.

Ruiz Urquiola refuted this statement and clarified that she had been involved in the congress, as the paper published in the catalog indicates, but that she could not go physically because she was sick with the Zika virus (transmitted by mosquitos).

“At the meeting, while I was dismantling Sergio Peña’s points one by one, the department head who wrote the report about me not only did not say anything, but she lowered her head. She did not even confirm the Zika, which she was very aware of because I called her and explained myself, and she even told me how bad it had been for her when she suffered that illness on one of her trips to Guyana,” she says.

Milvia Pérez, dean of the ISDi and one of the people who have hindered the teacher’s work, was also present at the meeting. “Milvia went to see my department head and demanded that she assign another teacher to my classroom to monitor what I said. My boss said no, that she would have done that if she had wanted to but that it violated academic protocol.

“They cannot reduce my fixed position status when my evaluations have all been positive, not a single point has been made against me. They have visited me in many classes and all evaluations are satisfactory. It is too forced, and that is why I believe that there has been the reaction of solidarity that has been seen, because my students say it.

“It is inconceivable that I am in that situation, it is a great, great nonsense, a rudeness to get rid of me under any pretext. The problem they have is that I haven’t given them the pretext, they don’t have it and they have to invent it,” she denounces.

For Ruiz Urquiola, her dismissal is a maneuver of State Security and has a political background, as evidenced, she believes, by her exclusion from a new professional meeting.

“Four days ago I was informed that I am banned from participating in the Bauhaus Centenary, which is organized by the Palace of the Second Cape: Center for the Interpretation of Cuba-Europe Cultural Relations, to which I was going as a panelist. This event is sponsored by the German Embassy in Cuba and the Office of the Historian of Havana, and the latter is the one who vetoed my participation,” she says.

Now, Ruiz Urquiola’s idea is to demand her rights in the ISDi, although she has already been warned of the likely futility of that, with previous examples such as those of actress Lynn Cruz and biochemist Oscar Casanella. Her only option for now is to file a wrongful termination claim with the labor appeals court: “My health comes first, also the psychic damage is already noticeable; in me it is physically reflected by the weight loss, my body is feeling it.”

Ruiz Urquiola’s goal is to get her job back and the professional privileges that go with it. She is also demanding moral compensation for damage to her image. “They’ve use social media to make and corroborate crazy, fraudulent accusations, including professors who were at the meeting and are directors of the institution. I knew they gunning for me,” she laments.

She is also demanding that those directors be investigated and removed from their positions.

“They have lied, thay have abused their power, they have no way to undermine my judgment and have used their power to bully me. The day all my demands are met, then I will return to ISDi but otherwise no, because, simply, the social and psychological damage is great and irreparable. I have not done anything to be in this situation,” she defends herself.

Urquiola graduated in Art History in 1996 and taught at the Higher Institute of Art (ISA), where she was head of the Department of Scenic Design for the Theater Arts major. In 2009 she arrived at ISDi as a contract professor and in 2011 she became part of the permanent staff of the institute, where she passed her assessment as an assistant teacher of higher education.

That same year she received the recommendation of her students and won the Golden Chalk Award for “the quality of her teaching, her professional preparation and her role in the training and improvement of younger generations.”

Those who are or have been her students, in addition to some teachers of the institution, have come out in defense of Ruiz Urquiola on social networks and have launched a request for the teacher to return to the institute which already has more than 600 signatures and dozens of support messages.

Omara Ruiz Urquiola’s ’Golden Chalk’ Award

For Glenda Álvarez, a graduate of ISDi, Omara Ruiz Urquiola is “a jewel,” and her Semiotics classes were a “relief” within “the torments of the basic cycle” of subjects.

“Omara was my Cuban Culture teacher and the truth is that I could not imagine a better teacher for the position or a more appropriate subject for her. Omara taught us to love Cuba. The passion with which she gave her classes and the ease with which hours and hours of precious information about our country came to mind, combined to keep a class of 60 tired design students, alert and listening, “says Javier González, another of her students.

Yenisel Cotilla, also an ISDi teacher, said: “Being a teacher goes beyond knowledge, it is about making a mark on students, changing their lives. ISDi students deserve a teacher like her, that is more important than anything else.”

“From the first day I was captivated with Omara, the first class left me so full of emotions that I could not help telling her (…) She never influenced us in any way with her political ideas, quite the contrary, she showed us things that we didn’t know about our own history, things that made our sense of patriotism grow, with it I discovered a story that encouraged me not to miss a class…” said another student, Flavia Cabrera.

These messages are now a source of relief the Ruiz Urquiola. “Everything the ‘kids’ have done,” drives her to continue forward.

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Cuba’s Deputy Minister of Higher Education: Professors Must be "Activists of Revolutionary Politics"

An article by Cuba’sDeputy Minister of Higher Education was published on the page of the Ministry of Higher Education on August 14. (Twitter)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 August 2019 — A few weeks after the dismissal of Professor Omara Ruiz Urquiola, Cuba’s Deputy Minister of Higher Education (MES), Martha del Carmen Mesa Valenciano, has been given the task of defining the attitude a university professor should have. Her criterion has the merit of clarity since, according to her, teachers in higher education have to behave as activists of “revolutionary politics” of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).

In a text published on the official page of the MES, the official refers to the case of Ruiz Urquiola without mentioning her name. Mesa Valenciano acknowledges that the professor’s complaint, which circulated in social networks, motivated her to “take a tour” of Cuban higher education and make clear the official position regarding teachers.

“You are a university professor in order teach timely, constructive, contributing and supportive criticism and to build a better society together,” says the Deputy Minister, for whom “the wrong procedures, the bad actions of cadres, officials, leaders must be fought against,” without confusing these criticisms “with disrespect or with positions contrary to ‘revolutionary principles’.” continue reading

Mesa Valenciano cites the case of another professor, again without citing his name, who, in her opinion, “initiated a strong criticism of the decisions of the” Cuban leaders, “without perceiving that, with his irresponsible behavior in the comprehensive education of his students he confused them and showed them a wrong path.”

The official borrows a phrase from Fidel Castro, where he defined the educator as “an activist of the revolutionary politics” of the Party and an advocate of ideology. Mesa Valenciano adds to the citation that whomever does not feel this way “must give up being a university professor” on the Island.

Her statements have been questioned on social networks. The journalist and university professor José Raúl Gallego strongly criticized the official’s words. “This is being said by a Deputy Minister of Higher Education in Cuba, but also published by the official website of that institution. The Cuban university undermining human rights,” he denounced on Facebook.

“While the networks are scandalized with the exclusionary, dogmatic and antidemocratic statements of Vice Minister Mesa Valenciano; the University of Camaguey shares them calmly on its Facebook profile and calls for “reflecting together for Cuba, for higher education and especially for the young people we educate,” Gallego added.

The journalist, currently residing in Mexico after being expelled from his position at the University of Camagüey, reported that just this Thursday the rector of the University of Havana, Miriam Nicado García, was invited to give a speech at an event on university autonomy in Mexico. “It is a pity that I did not find out in the morning so I might have gone there and read the article of Vice Minister Martha Mesa to her fellow rectors, to see what they think of university autonomy in Cuba,” he said.

The headquarters for higher learning in Cuba has been criticized for the expulsion of students and teachers due to political issues. In June 2017, the professor and philologist Dalila Rodríguez was expelled from the Central University of Las Villas and was relieved of her credentials due to her proximity to groups that promote religious freedom.

University student of journalism Karla Pérez González was expelled a few days later, after being accused of belonging to the Somos+ (We Are More) Movement and “having a strategy from the beginning of the course to subvert young people.”

Her case sparked a wave of indignation and speaking in her favor were ‘official-friendly’ voices such as the singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, who wrote in his blog: “How brutish we are, coño, and decades go by and we don’t learn.”

The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC) added Carmen Mesa Valenciano to its list of “white collar repressors.” Other officials who are on the FHRC list are Sergio Luis Peña Martínez, rector of the ISDi; Ernesto Fernández Sánchez, Deputy Assistant Director; Milvia Pérez Pérez, Dean; and María Deborah Maura López, Department Head.

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Cuban State Security Threatens Several SNet Users and Administrators with Prison

A new protest is planned for this Saturday by SNet users, but there are divisions in the group and some choose not to support it. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 August 2019 — A few weeks ago he was a young man obsessed with playing video games, finding company and chatting through the night, but now he watches his back, seems nervous and has not touched a computer keyboard for days. Chen is his nick, the mask behind which he hides to talk about what some of the users of the SNet wireless network are experiencing in recent days.

“After the meeting we held in the park in front of the Ministry of Communications last Saturday, I went to my girlfriend’s house and was there for several hours,” he says. “When I left, there were two men waiting for me and they told me that they knew everything I was doing and that I should be very careful because I was being manipulating from the United States to go outside to protest.”

Chen’s astonishment did not fade. He is one of those few Cubans who has no family on the other side of the Florida Strait, but the two State Security officers who intercepted him assured him that “mercenaries paid from Miami are trying to get young people to throw themselves into the street,” telling them that the most recent chapter of frictions between SNet and the authorities “is the time to foster a confrontation and overthrow the Revolution.” continue reading

The young man is a specialist in video game heroes, he knows perfectly the story of Anti-Mage, Earth Spirit and Shadow Fiend, characters of the popular DOTA 2, but suddenly he has been caught in a saga of “revolutionaries” against “mercenaries,” according to the State Security officer who spoke more as the meeting continued. “You crossed a line, because you were summoned very close to the Plaza of the Revolution and there were minors among those who were there,” he was warned.

“If this Saturday, August 17, you reappear there, we will respond with the full weight of the law, and those who called the meeting will be responsible,” concluded the agent, who only identified himself with the brief name of Camilo.

In the conversation, some SNet administrators were accused of having sold themselves to imperialism and were told on the web “things happen that undermine morale and there are people who are lining their pockets.”

The largest wireless network that exists on the Island, with more than a decade of existence and 40,000 users, is experiencing days of internal tension. A group of node administrators has decided to abide by the new regulations that came into force on July 29 and accept the official offer to be subordinated to the Young Computer Club (JCC), a decision that will make them lose autonomy and scale.

If these conditions are accepted, SNet users will have to wait for the JCCs to evaluate videogames and other tools that they want to add to the network and they will have to go through a commission that determines whether or not they have political problems, or if they threaten morality, ethics or the figure of national political leaders, as was clear in a meeting held on Monday between several administrators of SNet, officials of the Ministry of Communications and executives of the JCC.

Some of those who called the public protest a few meters from the Ministry of Communications for August 17 have retracted and have called on social networks for people not to attend. For that reason there is great confusion about whether SNet users will come next Saturday.

Chen’s story agrees on several points with the complaint made early this Thursday by Ernesto de Armas. On his Twitter account, the young man reported that State Security stopped him at home a few hours earlier. “They threatened me, falsely accused me of things, even threatened me with jail. I am very sad that this happens just for defending SNet in my country. I don’t hurt anyone,” he wrote.

Armas has been one of the most active Internet users in favor of the permanence of the wireless network and has published numerous messages with the hashtag #YoSoySnet (I Am Snaet). After learning of his arrest, dozens of Twitter users responded with words of encouragement and showed their support. “Be calm Ernesto, that’s the way things are here, don’t worry much, nothing happens, they’re just creating a bit of terror, don’t let them do it. Raise your head and move on,” a tweeter advised.

Among the arguments put forward by State Security officials who have interrogated several members of SNet is that the call for protest has been made in a place very close to the Plaza of the Revolution, “a strategic point that the enemy wants to defile,” one of those detained who preferred anonymity told this newspaper. “They repeated that all this is manufactured by the same people who staged the LGBTI march of May 11.”

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Five Killed in Mayabeque by Lightning

Every year between 16 and 17 million storms occur worldwide. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 August 2019 — Five people in Cuba died on Thursday after being hit by lightning at La Puntilla beach in Santa Cruz del Norte, Mayabeque, as reported by the official press.

The deceased are two adults and three minors who have not been identified and whose ages are not yet known, although the local press said they will report the details later.

A minor was treated for the same event at the Alberto Fernández Polyclinic in the town, and transferred to the Juan Manuel Márquez Pediatric Hospital, in the capital, after being stabilized.

The authorities of the Party, the Government and the Administration of Santa Cruz del Norte went to the scene.

As the press has explained, Cuba is one of the countries most affected by lightning in the world, with a high concentration of strikes in the north of Pinar del Río, the interior of Havana, Artemisa and Mayabeque, and in the west of Matanzas, especially during the rainy period from May to October.

Each year lightning strikes an average of 65 people in Cuba, this being the first cause of death caused by weather phenomena on the Island, which between 1979 and 2013 have left 1,682 dead.

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A Cuban Man Arrives in Miami in an Airplane’s Cargo Hold

14ymedio, Havana, August 16, 2019 — A Cuban immigrant arrived in Miami Thursday night hidden in the baggage cargo area of a commercial airline arriving from Havana.

The man, who was dressed in a T-shirt with the logo of Ecasa Cuba, the island’s airport and aeronautical services company, has been identified by Miami’s Telemundo 51 as Yunier García Duarte, a 26-year-old Havana airport worker.

“We opened the door, went inside and heard a noise… A voice screamed: ’It’s not a dog, it’s me, it’s me.’ All he said was that he wanted water, that he was scared they would call to his family,” reported an airport employee who wanted to remain anonymous.

One of García’s aunts in Havana told the news media, “He’s my nephew. I saw that he was O.K. What I most want is for him to be able to stay in that country and have a better future. I am very worried about him.”

Telemundo 51 was also able to speak with Garcia’s father, who said he thought it was a joke when his son called from Miami to let him know.

In a video recorded by the passengers on the Swiftair flight, agents of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service can be seen detaining the migrant, who must now request asylum if he intends to stay in the country.

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18 Hours to Santiago de Cuba on a Chinese Train

The dining car on board the new Chinese trains is still not operational. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, August 15, 2019 — Alfredo and his family welcomed the news that the train from Havana to Santiago would be adding new passenger cars purchased from China. After not visiting their family in eastern Cuba for years, they would now be able to make the journey quickly, economically and safely. They bought tickets and their children were excited to finally experience the inside of “a real train.”

One morning in August, after a delay of almost three hours, they heard an announcement from La Coubre terminal’s loudspeakers to board “the long iron snake” that was arriving huffing and puffing a few yards from the waiting area. “When I got to the platform, I noticed that there was a policeman and a train attendant in every car,” Alfredo tells 14ymedio.

Once all the passengers had taken their seats, they were “read the riot act.” The attendant explained that the minimum fine for improper behavior was 200 pesos and that getting off at stations before the final destination was forbidden. The policeman added that passengers could only go from their seats to the bathroom and back, and were not allowed to walk between cars. continue reading

Windows on air conditioned cars must be kept closed (14ymedio)

“Officials get off at every stop to make sure that no one leaves the train, not even the smokers,” recounted one surprised passenger. By the time the train departed Havana, children were still excited by the new seats and the train whistle but some passengers were already feeling uncomfortable.

“The trip itself takes fourteen hours to Santiago but it was delayed,” complains Alfredo. His own journey lasted almost eighteen hours, during which time his family went from euphoria to discomfort, desperately wanting to get out of the car and stretch their legs.

In another car, whose seats are cheaper because there is no air conditioning, sat Maricela, a woman who had been employed by the railroad company for twenty years but had never boarded a train in all that time. “The trains now are not like they were when I was young and was a transportation engineer for the Western Railroad Company,” she recalls.

“Back then the cars were nice, very comfortable, but that didn’t come as a surprise to anyone,” notes the 67-year-old retiree. “Now everyone wants to take photos as though this were the Eiffel Tower. I don’t know what all the happiness is about. It’s just an ordinary train, with not a lot of comforts,” she adds skeptically.

One of the few novelties the new vehicles have is a cell phone app that tells passengers and family members the train’s location in real time and its estimated time of arrival. But the app does not allow travellers to reserve or purchase tickets. “In the old days you didn’t need that. Trains arrived at every station right on time,” says Maricela.

The new train does not have a separate baggage car. Passengers must store their luggage and other packages in the space above their seats. After numerous complaints, rail employees informed passengers that the company is considering imposing restrictions next month on the size of suitcases, which would be limited to roughly 62 inches.

The size seems small to passengers accustomed to traveling with bulky luggage — typically filled with food, gifts and accessories — which they carry on their backs when they go on vacation.

When the new trains first went into service, passengers were not allowed to bring food from home onboard but now they can, though employees ask that they take special care to keep things clean. “In the car where I was, there was a cold water fountain which the attendant said had more than enough of water for the entire trip,” says Alfredo.

Although TV news reports had indicated that the new trains would have a dining car, it is not operational at this time. “They don’t think it even works,” adds Alfredo, who wonders how passengers are going to eat if they are not allowed to walk between cars.

A seat in a car that is not climate controlled costs 70 Cuban pesos while one that is air conditioned costs 95. For 20 pesos more you can get a snack consisting of a medium-sized ham and cheese sandwich with a canned soft drink that the attendant hands out during the trip.

For the last three years this route has had no new rail cars; they have always been second hand. (14ymedio)

Each car seats seventy passengers and there is adequate space between seats for them to stretch their legs. But as the rail attendant points out, “The cars are very long and they put a strain on the locomotives, which aren’t new.” This combined with train tracks that are in poor condition contribute to frequent delays.

At Santa Clara the train had to change engines. Employees explained this was due to the extra weight of the cars, which the engine could not handle. This technical maneuver further delayed a trip whose departure had already been pushed back by an hour.

Before getting off at the final destination, passengers had to present their tickets with their names, surnames and identity card numbers as well as their seat numbers. “It’s so that, if something is lost or broken on the train, they have someone to look for or investigate,” Alfredo speculates.

The train finally pulled into the Santiago de Cuba station. After it had stopped, the car doors opened and a surge of humanity spilled out at full speed. Relieved and tired, passengers were eager to get away from the railcars and locomotive as quickly as possible.

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