The Cuban People Are Packing Their Bags / 14ymedio, Eliecer Avila

"Obama Help Us." Cuban migrants stranded in Central America. (File sputniknews)
“Obama Help Us.” Cuban migrants stranded in Central America. (File sputniknews)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Eliecer Avila, Havana, 3 July 2016 – A great deal has been written in recent months about the permanent crisis of Cubans stranded in different Latin American countries. Those living outside the island and the few “connected” (i.e. on-line) within it, are certain to have read some of the news and have access to the emotional videos circulating which include ones of families with little children desperately asking for a way out that will allow them to reach the United States.

The truth is that the governments of the countries involved seem to be determined not to cooperate in any way to address the current wave of immigrants. Cuban’s own foreign minister took on the task of persuading them in a tour of the affected countries and managed to get a unanimous commitment for the sake of the “security and stability” of the region. continue reading

What is really worrying, incredible as it may seem, is that the vast majority of the Cubans who live on the island have not been aware of the seriousness of the situation their families and friends confront in those countries. This is the direct consequence of the censorship of information in the official media, where references to the subject are scarce and vague.

As a result, I’m amazed and frightened to hear about the number of people who at this very moment are packing their bags. Today, two friends I am very close to came by to say goodbye, and to ask for some details about airports and about “what we need to say” when immigration asks them hard questions.

One of them who is nearly 50 and works in the hotel industry told me, “I’m going to Guyana, a buddy left and is already there, and it connects to Mexico and there are cab drivers…” Right then I interrupted and said, “Compadre, have you looked at a map? Do you know where Guyana is? I go to the map and show him. It was something to see the look of amazement on his face on seeing that Guyana is on the far side of Venezuela and Columbia.

I asked the two of them if there were aware of the crisis and the dangers and they told me, “Well… yeah, it’s always hard but I know someone who already went and told me you can do it.” I looked at them and saw the faces of two people whose desire to leave is greater than any warning, and who had already sold even their pregnant dog to get the money.

The eldest, who was a doubtful after realizing his geographical error, told me, “All things considered compay, I think I’m going to go via Russia. Show me where Russian is.” I showed him and looking from right to left and seeing that at Russia is at one edge of the map and the United States is at the other he mutters, “Wow, but this is a lot longer, this is a boat at least…” I explain patiently, reminding him that the earth is round and that the extreme right of Russia is almost next to Alaska, separated by the Bering Strait. I also tell him, however, that there are direct flights from Cuba to Moscow, which is next to Europe, and that it would take a lot to get to the other end, less populated and at best difficult to access.

My friend looks at his friend and reaffirms, “Look, at least this is just one country and I even remember some Russian phrases. Let’s go that way,” he concludes.

The whole time my mind is filled with the idea of talking about political parties, human rights, market economies, civic resistance and Somos+, but the truth is that when someone is under the influence of a frenzy like this, it is as if rational thought is annulled by the obsession that is driving him.

The most complicated task is to stand in front of a human stampede and try to change the direction of its steps for good of everyone, the nation, the future, when the majority of these sacred things sound like blah-blah-blah.

So I decided to abandon the role of weighty protective father and give them a strong embrace. I said goodbye to them recognizing at least that in this season of the year, the Russian landscape should be gorgeous.

 

The Totalitarian Left and Their “Escraches” / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner

Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe (EFE)
Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Carlos A. Montaner, Miami, 2 July 2016 – Cesar Nombela is the chancellor of the Menendez and Pelayo International University located in Santander, Spain. He is a renowned researcher in the world of microbiology. It occurred to Dr. Nombela and the Governing Council to award former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe the institution’s Medal of Honor, as they had done previously with other politicians from the democratic West, and immediately the totalitarian left, which has it in for Uribe, launched a protest.

In the face of the orchestrated scandal, the institution’s authorities, startled, decided to delay the award ceremony and to “widen the inquiries.” Uribe, who had exerted no effort to receive the unexpected honor, asked that it be revoked and urged the Chancellor to promote a good debate about the topic of Colombia. A person whose enemies have tried to assassinate him 15 times is more interested in substance than vanity. continue reading

This is a perfect example of the growing climate of intolerance cultivated in Spain by the totalitarian left. In 2010, then-professor Pablo Iglesias organized an escrache at Madrid’s Complutense University in order to prevent Representative Rosa Diez, an open and tolerant social democrat, from being able to express her ideas. Escrache is a sinister lexicographic contribution from Argentina, apparently of Langue d’Oc origin, which describes violent acts undertaken to silence an ideological adversary.

Cuban Migration Crisis: Neither Economic nor Humanitarian / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya

Cubans demonstrating in Ecuador (14ymedio)
Cubans demonstrating in Ecuador (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 29 June 2016 — About 400 Cubans who remained ensconced in front of the embassy of Mexico, in the city of Quito, Ecuador, demanding an airlift to allow them entry to the United States, were violently evicted from the place by police in the early hours of Sunday, 26th June. It was the culmination of a protest that began on Saturday 18th

Days earlier, the Mexican authorities had informed the thousands of Cubans in Ecuador that there is no possibility for its government to establish a new airlift, which leaves unresolved this chapter of the immigration crisis for the Cubans fleeing the questionable benefits of Raul Castro’s socialist model. continue reading

Mexico, through whose mediation several thousand Cubans managed to arrive in the US this year, has noted the need for a solution through “dialogue,” without specifying who would take part in it or when it would take place. It is fair to point out that Mexico is not responsible for solving the Cuban migratory crisis. During the month of May, more than a thousand Cubans in Ecuador had been mobilized for the same reason: to find a safe exit to follow their route to the US, with no results.

Some leaders in the region have attributed responsibility for the steady stream of emigrants, especially those coming from Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia, to the existence of the Cuban Adjustment Act

As usual, the official Cuban press has stayed tight-lipped about this drama, part of that stream of refugees that continues to flow silently, as a kind of plebiscite without polls, very clearly showing how insignificant the performance of their government is to Cubans and where their real hopes for the future reside.

While the Cuban government remains mute and deaf, Cubans continue to invade the forests of South and Central America or to defy the Gulf Stream on rickety boats in the unpredictable waters of the Florida Straits to reach US territory, spraying the Cuban crisis throughout the entire regional geography.

Much has been argued about the causes of the current Cuban migration. Following the crisis sparked last April by the constant arrival of Cubans in Costa Rica and the closing the Nicaraguan border, which caused a traffic jam of refugees and strong diplomatic frictions between the governments of Central America, some leaders in the region have attributed responsibility for the steady stream of migrants, especially those coming from Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia, to the existence of the Cuban Adjustment Act

Some analysts, while deploring the preferential treatment of US authorities towards Cubans arriving in their territory, have indicated that the fears among Cubans that the Act will be repealed after the restoration of relations between the governments of the US and Cuba is the main source of such a constant and increasing exodus.

The preferential treatment includes immediate legal protection and access to the Federal Program for Refugee Resettlement, thanks to the 1980 amendment of the Cuban Adjustment Act. In addition, in just over a year, most get their permanent residence, regardless of their reasons for leaving Cuba.

Other migrants are returned to their countries of origin, despite the real violence of the situations they suffer in their countries, related to wars or drug trafficking

In contrast, migrants from South and Central America, Mexico, and elsewhere, are returned to their countries of origin when they are caught, either at any of the border crossings or by immigration authorities within the US, despite the real violence of the situations they suffer in their countries, related to wars or drug trafficking, criminal gangs linked to drug cartels, murder, kidnapping, the aftermath of the guerrillas, paramilitaries, poverty and other situations that Cubans within the Island do not endure.

The Adjustment Act has thus been turned into the alleged determining cause—and, therefore, the obstacle to eliminate in solving the problem of migration from Cuba—when the real causes for the Cuban exodus are the hopelessness, the absence of opportunities, the generalized poverty and the failure of the “revolutionary project” of Castro-communism.

In fact, the government’s economic program stemming from the VII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba under the guise of the documents Conceptualization of the Cuban Economic and Social Development Plan and National Economic Development and Social Plan until 2030, are, all by themselves, a stronger incentive for the national stampede than a hundred Adjustment Laws.

However, to focus the discussion of the migratory drama in the search for the alleged responsible villain, be it the Cuban Adjustment Act or the olive-green caste enthroned in power, not only masks and delays the solution of the problem, which undoubtedly is in the hands of Cubans themselves, but diffuses the explanation of the basic issues, which are not the mere existence of a particular foreign law that rules the personal future of émigrés from the island, but the fundamentals of the existence of a dictatorship in Cuba that has dominated the destiny of a nation for over almost 60 years, largely thanks to the acquiescence of Cubans themselves.

It is, therefore, about a vicious circle that seems to not have an end, because, though the main cause of the Cuban exodus is a situation resulting from a suffocating, long-lived dictatorship that nullifies the individual—and not a law enacted 50 years ago by a foreign government—it is Cubans’ incredible capacity for tolerance that has allowed the survival of the system to date that drives them to look for their future beyond the horizon.

It is the Cubans’ incredible capacity for tolerance that has allowed the survival of the system to date that drives them to look for their future beyond the horizon

The mobilizing ability of some bargain-basement “leaders” among Cuban émigrés is extremely noticeable. They are ready to demand from foreign authorities what they were not capable of demanding from the Cuban government, and implicate in such demands significant numbers of individuals including families with minor children.

It is also hard to believe that several hundreds of Cubans can organize themselves, demand a solution to the crisis they have provoked, and prepare themselves to make statements to the press and cameras that will show their faces to the world.

Are they the same individuals who remained silently acquiescent to the abuses of power in Cuba? Are they the same ones who accepted the ideological indoctrination of their children, the ration card, the dual currency, the high prices, the most miserable wages, the blackouts, the government-sponsored marches and all the existential humiliation under dictatorial conditions?

How can so much political willpower to demand rights in a foreign land that are not theirs be explained, when they were stripped of natural rights in their own land and accepted the humiliation in fearful silence? Is it less dangerous to traverse jungles and mountains riddled with dangers and drag their people into such an unpredictable adventure than to simply refuse to cooperate with the Castro regime that condemns them to eternal poverty?

The issue deserves a thorough anthropological study of the nature of the Cuban people and the catastrophic effects of more than half a century of dictatorship, beyond any logic of solidarity with their cause or wishes for the successful outcome for the efforts of those fleeing the Island.

There are signs that also indicate how deeply the uprooting from their land has infiltrated so many Cubans. For over half a century, the Castro regime has stripped the Cuban people to such a point that a significant number of Cubans don’t even feel the impulse to defend in their own country what is theirs by birth, history and culture.

The native moral duality becomes more evident especially when it comes to seeking immediate solutions to current problems, carefully avoiding any political involvement and placing on the shoulders of others the weight of problems that are ours.

This is what is happening now, when refugees stranded in Ecuador are defining their situation as a “humanitarian crisis,” though the issue is not about groups fleeing from a war, or about the politically persecuted, or about survivors of a natural disaster, of a famine, or ethnic conflict. Paradoxically, they are making demands in countries already facing their own national crises, without the need to put up with the Cuban crisis.

Paradoxically, they are making demands in countries already facing their own national crises, without the need to put up with the Cuban crisis.

What is more, these Cuban migrants do not risk jail or death if returned to their country of origin. They even declare: “We have nothing to do with politics and we are not against the Cuban government. Our aim is to reach the U.S.”

It is about generations shaped in the philosophy of survival, brought up in permanent simulation, of “pretending to go along,” where anything goes, in a society where the principle of every man for himself reigns, so they resort to any means to reach their objective, in this case, reaching the U.S. That is why they present themselves as subjects trapped in a “humanitarian situation” that, nevertheless, they have chosen not to associate with the political situation in Cuba.

Of course, there’s no denying the humanitarian principles of support for the needy or remaining indifferent to the fact that most Cuban migrants caught in transit to the US—just like other hundreds of thousands of migrants of so many countries in the region—lack the means and resources to survive, have no access to health care and other essential social benefits, such as a secure roof, basic housing conditions, water service, appropriate hygienic food and clothing, so they depend essentially on the solidarity of others. But they have voluntarily placed themselves in that situation.

We are facing a situation which doesn’t seem to offer any short-term answers, and, in any case, whose ultimate solution depends on surmounting Cuba’s internal crisis, whose essence is markedly political, though, by their irresponsibility, the government and those governed continue to pretend to ignore it.

Translated by Norma Whiting

Guillermo Fariñas’ Organization Withdraws from MUAD / 14ymedio

The Cuban regime opponent Guillermo Farinas. (Laura Maria Parra de la Cruz)
The Cuban regime opponent Guillermo Farinas. (Laura Maria Parra de la Cruz)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 1 July 2016 — In the same week, the Democratic Action Roundtable (MUAD) has lost two of its most representative organizations. On Tuesday, the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) withdrew from the organization of opponents, and Thursday the United Anti-totalitarian Front (FANTU), led by Guillermo Fariñas, made public its departure.

In a note circulated by email within the island, the FANTU National Council said that MAUD “is permeated by a majority of organizations and personalities that are not representative of the entire non-violent opposition.” Something that, according to the group, distances them from those who daily confront “in the streets, the Castro’s totalitarian regime.” continue reading

The statement, signed by eight activists among whom is Fariñas, winner of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, said that FANTU’s members believe that the opponents who belong to the United Roundtable reject the carrying out of “actions in the public rights-of-ways” and “reject the methodology” of the organizations that hold them.

Unlike UNPACU’s more diplomatic declaration of withdrawal from MUAD, the FANTU note offers very harsh criticisms of the entities that make up MUAD. In their opinion, they are “very popular in the media, but with few members in their ranks,” at times only one person, “and act only towards the exterior of Cuba.”

Manuel Cuesta Morua, one of the main drivers of the MUAD initiative, told 14ymedio that MUAD is preparing “a well-thought out” response to these criticisms.

For its part, FANTU has reproached MUAD for using “methods to buy and get commitment as well as votes from opponents, which consist of facilitating travel abroad”; a way that seeks to “defend the postures and opinions of certain personalities within this rebellious entity.”

The document notes that “the struggle must be carried out within Cuba and not be [going] constantly from airport to airport [since] the real scenario for the democratization our country is within the island itself.”

Cuesta Morua recognizes that the withdrawal of these organizations “is a blow” for the MUAD project, because both groups “have worked hard and are very prestigious within Cuba.” However, he dismissed the seriousness of the rupture, which he described a “a growth crisis” that “will not end” the umbrella organization.

Cuesta Morua, who is the leader of the Progressive Arc, said that there is still “a lack of maturity in the coexistence between the same proposal from different viewpoints, distinct concrete strategies of change, of how to push democratic change.” He notes that “the doors remain open from FANTU and UNPACU,” if in the future they want to return” to the organization.

Fariñas is setting his sights on the Second National Cuban Meeting, an event that will take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico, between this August 12th to 14th. That is “another attempt at unity in which we are involved,” the opponent emphasized to this newspaper.

Lack of Fans, the Lifelong Annoyance / 14ymedio,Yosmany Mayeta Labrada

Customers in a Havana electronics store, in line to buy fans
Customers in a Havana electronics store, in line to buy fans

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, Havana, 30 June 2016 – The star of home appliances in Cuban homes is not the television, nor even the powerful refrigerator. In the summer, the leading role belongs to a less serious but very important object for heat relief: the fan. But what happens when buying one of these pieces of equipment becomes a real battle against shortages, lines and bureaucracy?

For several weeks, temperatures have exceeded 86 degrees throughout the country, and like every year, the demand for fans is skyrocketing. However, in the government’s chain of “Hard Currency Collection Stores” (TRDs), the supply of these devices fails again, especially in Havana’s most populous districts, among which are Centro Havana, Cerro and 10 de Octubre. continue reading

Last weekend customers in the long lines in the centrally located Carlos III Business Plaza were alerted about the arrival of a new batch of fans. “They came!” shouted an employee to those awaiting the unloading of the coveted merchandise. Two hours later, more than a hundred people waited to carry home their “friend” with blades and motor.

“They didn’t come for more than a month,” explained an employee to 14ymedio while he helped test one of the devices for a family that arrived with two small children. Consumers came from several areas of the city since it’s the “only place they’ve supplied with them,” commented a worker from the nearby Nguyen Van Troi clinic.

The great flow of customers and the poorly functioning air conditioning in the well-known store made fan buyers resort to newspapers or magazine covers in order to fan themselves in the midst of the intense heat of the facilities.

“I don’t leave my house without my personal fan,” explains Eneida, a teacher who is dedicated to tutoring students for university entrance exams. “This is my special fan, it never fails, I don’t have to wait hours to buy one, and it doesn’t need electricity,” the woman says ironically about her popular fan, made with a thin wooden slat and colored cardboard.

One of the rooms in which they sell scarce equipment was also set up to relieve the long lines in the Carlos III Plaza electronics department. The prices of these pieces of equipment approached 34.45 CUC, the monthly salary of a Public Health professional, in spite of the fact that they are of low quality and have a high rate of returns because of technical defects.

A tour carried out by this daily of other stores in the city yielded similar results. In the majority of them there are no fans for sale, not even the most expensive ones that commonly “don’t sell as fast,” according to an employee of the Puentes Grandes mall.

The location, in the west part of the capital, has not received devices of this kind for more than four weeks and “all those that arrived last month were returned by customers because they had problems,” added the worker.

Other provinces also suffer the fan shortage, among them Santiago de Cuba, known for its high summer temperatures. In the store at Troch and Cristina, a scalper whispers of the sale of a turn in line to access the business and reach one of the few fans on display. At a price of 39.45 CUC, the devices ran out before midday, to the annoyance of buyers and under the watchful gaze of several police officers who were guarding the place to prevent hoarding and fights.

The black market is delighted with the shortage situation of the in-demand appliance. In the illegal distribution networks prices have soared, and advertisements on digital classified sites offer products that are scarce in the state sector.

“I have pedestal fans called Cyclones that throw out a world of air,” said a young man outside of the Carlos III Plaza among the eager buyers who were waiting to enter the electronics department. “They are made in the USA and have remote control,” proclaimed the salesman who, for 90 CUC (roughly $90 US), heralded “a bargain and no waiting in line.”

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

A Cuban Cafecito At The Expense Of Our Rights / 14ymedio, Ricardo Fernandez Izaguirre

Nespresso advertising for a limited edition made in 2014 as a tribute to Cuban coffee. (Nestle)
Nespresso advertising for a limited edition made in 2014 as a tribute to Cuban coffee. (Nestle)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Ricardo Fernandez Izaguirre, Pinar del Rio, 29 June 2016 — For Cubans who, in one way or another, make their living in the countryside, the president of the United States, Barack Obama, set off a surge of hope. One month after that visit, the US State Department’s decision to allow the importing of Cuban coffee (as well as textiles), produced by “independent entrepreneurs,” made us dream of exporting our products directly, without Cuban government intermediaries.

We started to plan the purchase of farm machinery and inputs to increase the land’s yield with the money earned from these exports. We feel respected as individuals, imagining ourselves sitting in front of representatives from foreign firms to negotiate our production. continue reading

So it seemed the letter of protest from the National Bureau of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), seemed like a joke to us, that is the coffee “producers”; a letter that rejected the measures proposed by the US State Department, and accused them of wanting to influence Cuban farmers and distance them from the state.

Such a reaction is what we would expect, because it was too good to be true.

We know that the state monopolies in Cuba are not willing to lose the lush profits they earn at the cost of our work. But the gesture of support from the US government made me feel respected. This opening could serve as a mechanism of pressure on the island’s government, because the only way to negotiate with the United States would be through the producers whose rights have never been recognized.

So my confusion was great when I read that Nespresso plans to begin importing Cuban coffee to the United States this fall.

In Cuba there is no flexibility to allow coffee growers to negotiate, on the contrary. The 7th Cuban Communist Party Congress reaffirmed that there will be none of the long-expected, and necessary, changes. So, are the regulations of the State Department dancing in sync to the conga rhythm of the Cuban monopolies? Or is Nespresso being miserably deceived?

It has not been disclosed how this trademark, belonging to the transnational company Nestle, will negotiate directly with Cuban producers. The island’s famers don’t even have the right to sell directly to Cuban government entities. The Cuban state does not do business with natural persons, rather they create cooperatives (for example the UBPC, CPA and CCS) with legal standing as intermediaries.

In practice, for example, if a producer needs inputs they have to apply to the cooperative, because they can’t buy them directly from the entity that sells them. This type of practice involves delays and inefficiencies, as well as increasing costs for the coffee grower, since the cooperative applies a tax to each transaction processed.

When a company makes a purchase from a producer, it writes a check to the cooperative which pays the farmer, after collecting the tax, a mechanism that is also applied when the sale is between producers.

This is the reality we dreamt would change with United States government’s new policy of empowering Cuban entrepreneurs. It could be that Nespresso is being deceived by some artifice of the Cuban authorities, or it could be that the intransigence of the Cuban state has managed to break the good intentions of the Obama Administration.

But there is one thing we can be sure of: the new Cuban Nespresso Grand Cru, Cafecito de Cuba, will have the flavor of broken dreams, because it will be done at the cost of our rights.

The Private Press In Cuba / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

Newsagent in Cuba. (Luz Escobar)
Newsagent in Cuba. (Luz Escobar)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Miami, 30 June 2016 — In a recent discussion among colleagues of the national press, the issue of ownership of the mass media came up. With the firmness that characterizes those convinced that something is wrong, comments were made that in Cuba the media is social property and the idea was expressed that it could never be private property.

Perhaps the essence of the concept of property is explained by the capacity of the owner to make decisions about the object they possess. There is no value in titles and legal registrations that certify that a house, a business or a bicycle belongs to an individual if they can’t sell it, modify it or use it as they see fit, respecting the law of course. continue reading

The mass media in Cuba, in particular those that define themselves as “official,” cannot be classified as social property, because there is no channel that allows a citizen to make an individual decision about their workings, nor can even delegates chosen for this responsibility do so.

Since the 1960s there has been, in the structures of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), an entity dedicated to such things. At first it took the feminine gender in Spanish, under the name Commission of Revolutionary Orientation, affectionately called “La COR.” Subsequently, its grammatical gender was changed to masculine and it was transformed to the Department of Revolutionary Orientation and began to be called “El DOR.”

Among the powers of this entity—whose current name is the “Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the PCC” and which lacks any endearing nickname—is to name the directors of newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television channels. The entity also decides the editorial profile of every medium, what issues should be addressed in each space, and draws up a list of prohibitions where there is everything from people’s names to musical pieces. It also decides the distribution of financial and material resources to the different media.

To “address” the newspaper sector from the cradle, the Ideological Department participates in determining who passes the tests to attend the universities that train communications professionals, and remains close to the programs of study for this career, which is one of two that are subject to this kind of filtering. The other is the Higher Institute of International Relations (ISRI), where future diplomats study.

The media in Cuba have no commercial advertising and therefore are subsidized by the state coffers. It is unclear in what general sector the expenditures for these purposes are accounted for, nor what specific amounts are included.

As the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the PCC is in itself a selective part of an organization that is already defined as selective and, considering that it makes all decisions on information policy, it would not be incorrect to say that in Cuba this means that the mass media are the private property of the Communist Party, as L’Humanité is in France and L’Unità is in Italy.

For the mass media to be social property, its editorial line would have to be closer to that of civil society than that of the state. Its directors would have to be chosen and replaceable, and there would have to be space within them for the full range of opinions that motivate the distinct social sectors. There would have to be debates, and then, opinions contrary to the governments’.

What exists today is very far from fitting into this definition, not only because the media are private, but because they are an exclusive monopoly of the only political party permitted by law.

Selling the Fruit of an Avocado Bush / 14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez

The price an avocado in the informal market ranges between 10 and 15 Cuban pesos each, the salary of an entire working day. (14ymedio)
The price an avocado in the informal market ranges between 10 and 15 Cuban pesos each, the salary of an entire working day. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 30 June 2016 — He had tried everything: He sold the old family dishes, pawned his grandfather’s possessions and began renting an area in his house for parties. However, his retirement pension wasn’t enough to support Miguel Angel Garrido, known as “Gelmo,” a resident of Havana’s Calabazar neighborhood. And so it was, until one day he realized he had a treasure in his yard: an enormous clump of avocado that, every season, was covered with hundreds of the delicious fruit.

Gelmo sold the splendid tree to two pushcart vendors. He didn’t have to transplant it or move it to another place, but all the avocados will be placed in the hands of the two vendors of agricultural products. The transaction generated 200 Cuban convertible pesos for the retiree, along with the phrase, “Old man, when you want you can eat an avocado, because at the end of the day, the shrub is yours,” offered by one of the buyers with a certain tone of pity. continue reading

The price of this food in the informal market ranges between 10 and 15 Cuban pesos each, a day’s pay for a laborer, so everyone wins in this transaction, especially at this time when the increase in foreign tourists has unleashed a fury of avocado consumption in hotels, private restaurants, and homes rented to travelers.

Gelmo’s avocado bush is the most desirable kind, a Catalina. Although it is “middle aged” it is fully productive. The hardest thing has been to protect it from the winds of hurricanes, because the trunk is of an almost glassy wood, which cracks easily in strong gusts. The rest is up to nature because “it grows like crazy” says the proud owner, who believes that the best investment he’s made in his life is “planting this blessed tree.”

The old man nervously awaited the first rains of the summer. “Until the water touches it, it does nothing,” he says. The rainfall in early June helped out, and now in the middle of his yard are the branches bursting with this fruit which is used in salads and is gaining adherents among those who cannot eat butter because of the cholesterol, and is also in demand in beauty salons to make skin masks.

Gelmo guards the fruit hanging from sturdy branches now, to ensure that it is not plundered by the neighborhood kids, or doesn’t end up falling to the ground as food for the pigs he also keeps in the yard. Every single one of these costly fruits that the pushcart vendors manage to sell will be one more step to selling, again next year, his avocados.

Cuban LGBT Community Celebrates Gay Pride Day With A Kiss For Diversity / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

Project Rainbow validates the importance of the Stonewall events to celebrate 28 June as Gay Pride Day, beyond the official 17 May in Cuba. (14ymedio)
Project Rainbow validates the importance of the Stonewall events to celebrate 28 June as Gay Pride Day, beyond the official 17 May in Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 29 June 2016 — A rainbow of diversity and another formed in the sky by the light and humidity at sunset were the stage for Kissed by the Diversity and Equality on the afternoon on Tuesday, Gay Pride Day, where some thirty participants in Havana marked the Stonewall Inn riots in New York in 1969, a series of protests and demonstrations that were the beginning of the movement for the rights of the LGBT community.

Without any collaboration from official institutions or dissemination in the national media, for an hour 23rd Street from the Cuba Pavilion to the wall of the Malecon, became a tribute to the diversity of sexual preferences, freedom and love. continue reading

“Kissed” was organized by the Rainbow Project, a group not recognized legally that defines itself as “anti-capitalist and independent” and that fights against “the stigma and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the current context of Cuban society, and in its institutional and cultural spaces, from the LGBTI community.”

Isbel Diaz Torres, one of the young participants said that this year offered a “tribute to the people in Orlando, back in Florida, who died as victims of hatred, homophobia and all the misunderstandings that exist in this world. And also in Cuba.”

Torres regretted that the official Cuban press ignored the “two Cubans, two very young boys” who were among the victims of the Orlando attack. “For them and their families our embrace, our kiss,” he said. “Nowhere in the world are we still safe, so we have to keep fighting a lot. I think it is our great duty on behalf of the Cuban LGBTI community to continue organizing to protect us and keep coming together of course.”

The writer and playwright Norge Espinosa was pleased because “Stonewall, where all this struggle for gay rights began, has been declared a place of historical value by the US presidency, there is a feeling of recognition of this history.”

Two young men distributed papers in which they condemned the attack against the gay club Pulse in the United States. With phrases such as “We are Orlando” and “Orlando could be any city. We cannot be silent,” the demonstrators walked from N street to the iconic fountain a few yards from the sea. On some corners there was a visible operation by State Security agents, and the press outnumbered the demonstrators two to one.

Yasmin Silvia told 14ymedio that Project Rainbow has a regular commitment to remember this anniversary, something it has done since 2012. “We want to remember, in Cuba, June 28th as the anniversary of Stonewall and as a significant event in the LGBTI movement, in terms of rebellion and the spontaneous and self-organized exercise of power.”

The activist believes that “Kissed” is “a peaceful form of expression that sums up the willingness to occupy public spaces by a minority that cannot occupy and express themselves freely within them.”

Silvia said that the event is intended to be a day for the collective to be free in expressing its feelings in a safe space. “And demonstrating to other people that, first, we are not ashamed of who we are,” she added.

“Heterosexual people are not losing anything because two gay men or two lesbians kiss each other,” remarked Silvia.

The officially-recognized National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX) does not organize activities for Gay Pride Day because Mariela Castro – Raul’s daughter and the organization’s leader – “says that she does not like to imitate the Americans. That is the political reason not to celebrate on 28 June,” says the activist.

CENESEX gives more prominence to 17 May, as the anniversary of the exclusion of homosexuality from the list of mental diseases by the World Health Organization in 1990. “That was followed by this line critical of the celebration of June 28th and its commercialization, and a resolve to promote in Cuba the Day against Homophobia, which is what 17 May has become,” says Silvia.

Rainbow Arc maintains a position critical of the official posture, and commemorates both dates. “If the commercialization of June 28th bothers you, it also bothers us because we are an anti-capitalist group,” she emphasizes.

At the conclusion of “Kissed,” Pedro Manuel Gonzalez, known as Roxy, thanked those who came, saying that “joining together is always an act of love for one’s neighbor, no matter what their identity or preference, whomever comes is always welcome to join us.”

Havana, Definitely a “Wonder City” / 14ymedio, Pedro Campos

Completed in 1929 and home to the Cuban government until 1953, the Capitol was the tallest building in Havana until the 50s (Marius Jovaisa)
Completed in 1929 and home to the Cuban government until 1953, the Capitol was the tallest building in Havana until the 50s (Marius Jovaisa)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Havana, 27 June 2016 — Recently, Havana has been declared a New7Wonder City of the Modern World, based on the votes of thousands of people in a contest by the Swiss foundation New7Wonders, citing its “mythical attraction, the warm and welcoming atmosphere and the charm and gaiety of its inhabitants.”

Winning the honor, given the palpable deterioration of the city, has kicked up a bit of scandal with protests from those who believe that Havana does not deserve such a title because of the amount of trash, debris, destroyed buildings, potholed streets, and shattered sidewalks where there are drunk people lying on every corner. continue reading

All this, along with economic backwardness and socio-cultural disaster that has been brought to us by more than half a century of populist authoritarianism, have not been able to bury the splendor of Havana’s exquisite and eclectic architecture, from earliest times to the first half of the twentieth century, the warm and welcoming atmosphere of the city and the traditionally friendly, attractive and cheerful characteristics of its population.

No, it has not been possible. Neither abandonment of the capital by the all-powerful state, occupied with survival, nor so much filth dropped or thrown on Havana could hide El Morro and La Cabaña, or conceal the intact Malecón, the Paseo del Prado with its lions, 23rd Street known as La Rampa, Paseo, G and 5th Avenue with its green areas and benches made for love, the still fabulous tunnels of Linea and 5th Avenue, or the entrance of the bay.

No amount of contempt could tarnish the luster and lineage of Central Park, or the monuments to Marti, Maximo Gomez, Maceo and Jose Miguel Gomez. Still shining in all their splendor are the Capitol building, the Government Palace, the Palace of Fine Arts, Aldama Palace and the Asturian Center.

Still standing today are the magnificence of the Hotel Nacional, the Hilton Hotel – now the Habana Libre – the Riviera Hotel, and the majestic and unsurpassed Focsa building and the Civic Square complex, just to mention signature buildings, along with the old and historic Havana Cathedral.

The damage so-called “state socialism”has brought us has not been able to destroy this work, the wonder of Havana remains intact, as does the welcoming atmosphere offered by the charm of its multi-ethnic population with their cultural diversity, musical spirit and good cheer.

Havana was and remains a Wonder City thanks to the charm that remains from the decade of the ‘50s, with the classic and antique cars, maintained and embellished by popular initiative, which present us with a city that moves slowly, as if frozen in time; leaving us unclear whether our future never comes, or we yearn to return to the past. The greatest charm of the city is its children for whom, despite all the nonsense and inattention from the unchanging government of the last 57 years, we have done what we could to care for them bring them joy.

The wonder of Havana resisted outright the snub from a government that, only in recent years, has begun to realize that it is not Varadero but the City of La Giraldilla* that is Cuba’s greatest attraction, capable of enticing millions of tourists, and so it has begun to devote some attention and resources to the restoration of some of the city’s historic buildings, including the Capitol.

It is worth noting that the historic center of Havana was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982 and, thereafter, an intense and reverent restoration work was undertaken by the Office of the Historian of the City as a self-funded** project, independent of the central authorities.

Hopefully, in the future, given the interest of the military and state monopolies in exploiting the tourism potential of the city, they will continue the restoration of facades, parks, main streets and sidewalks, although without the ability to add new wonders of construction to the traditional splendor of those buildings.

But ignoring of the lesson of the New7Wonder designation, the government and military remain engaged primarily in promoting golf courses and housing complexes for millionaires that could produce some money in the medium term, but which have the effect of diminishing our already critical sources of drinking water, s, living in overcrowded conditions and carrying water in buckets, are the thousands of ordinary citizens who are the ones who continue to provide the most important part of the wonder that continues to attract tourism from all over the globe.

Translator’s notes:

*A statue of a woman, and a symbol of the city, atop the observation tower in the former governor’s house.

**That is, relying on donations from overseas.

Patriotic Union of Cuba Withdraws From MUAD / 14ymedio, Havana

Joanna Columbié, Eroisis Gonzalez, Jose Daniel Ferrer and Rolando Ferrer at a presentation of the MUAD program. (14ymedio)
Joanna Columbié, Eroisis Gonzalez, Jose Daniel Ferrer and Rolando Ferrer at a presentation of the MUAD program. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 29 June 2016 — The Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) announced Tuesday its intention to withdraw from the Democratic Action Roundtable (MUAD), a political association involving at least 42 groups and social projects.

A statement signed by UNPACU’s board of coordinators also explains that the organization will not continue to be involved in the #Otro18 (Another 2018) campaign, because at this moment any involvement in “training structures” can affect its “dynamic” and “effectiveness.” continue reading

The text clarifies that the largest opposition organization in the country will continue to enjoy “the best relationship and collaboration” with MUAD, which was defined as a political association “under construction.” UNPACU says that it values the work of the coalition “in favor of a democratic, just, prosperous and fraternal Cuba.”

UNPACU made the decision public a few hours after its leader, Jose Daniel Ferrer, presented the democratic project of his group in the European Parliament, according to a press release from the Association of Ibero-Americans for Freedom (AIL).

The UNPACU leader told 14ymedio unity exists and they are in agreement with MUAD’s actions and cooperation. “The problem is that our dynamic is more active will act together to them, or they with us, when both sides believe it necessary.”

Also participating in the presentation to European Union parliamentarians, entitled “Cementing civil society in Cuba,” was Manuel Cuesta Morua, spokesman for the Progressive Arc Party, an opposition party and one of the most visible faces of MUAD.

Ferrer’s visit to Brussels is part of an intensive travel itinerary that has included several European and US cities, in response to the Cuban government having issued the former political prisoner of the 2003 Black Spring a special travel permit allowing him to leave the country “only once.” The permit was granted after intense pressure.

During his stay in Miami, Florida, Ferrer said in an interview that estimated UNPACU’s membership at more than 3,000 activists and supporters, mainly in Santiago de Cuba and other eastern provinces.

Last week several members of MUAD participated in a meeting in Quintana Roo, Mexico, sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Christian Democratic Organization of the Americas (CADO). The meeting served to reaffirm the consensus projects and elect the members of its Executive Secretariat.

The Hidden Pastors Of Cuba’s Evangelical Churches / 14ymedio, Ricardo Fernandez

Minister holds a service in the Cuban Evangelical Church League (Hispanic Evangelical Church)
Minister holds a service in the Cuban Evangelical Church League (Hispanic Evangelical Church)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Ricardo Fernandez, Pinar del Rio, 26 June 2016 – Religious visas for foreign pastors invited to Christian events exist in all countries, but in Cuba they serve as a mechanism of repression and blackmail by the state, with the aim of silencing the voices that are raised against it within the Christian community.

When this kind of visa is requested, the Cuban government demands that the churches submit a detailed schedule of the places where the foreigners will be and where they will stay, from the time of their arrival in the country until their departure. If the itinerary includes any of the churches that express disagreement with state policies, then the request for entry into the country is denied. continue reading

In addition, the Cuban governments demands that the church councils submit all the data on the preachers involved before offering them a visa, and if they are found to be associated with any NGO in their countries of origin that does not sympathize with “the Cuban cause,” the request is denied. If everything for one pastor is “in order,” according to their preferences, but the event has also invited other pastors who dissent from the communist process, the visa will probably be denied. Faced with this stark reality, the Christian community has been forced to hide foreign pastors who are invited to preach at their events.

This generates persecution by the Department of Immigration and Aliens, which levies heavy fines on offending churches or pressures their guests to leave the conference venue. On many occasions we have seen police operations mounted to stop pastors, as if they were drug dealers, who manage to make it to our activities.

How can the Church hide these preachers? It requires a great deal of audacity. The basic thing is to omit the names in the conference programs that are made public, and to have the guests travel on a tourist visa (sometimes through a third country) and reach the island by way of an airport in another province.

When they enter with a tourist visa (at least in theory) they can move freely around the country. That means it is not illegal for them to be in one of our churches and, if found with microphone in hand, we can always claim that they are “witnessing” (a term in Christian speech that is similar to preaching) rather than lecturing. As a security measure, these preachings are not made public through audios or videos, in case they might appear on social networks and become incriminating evidence against us.

While this happens with pastors of all nationalities, most abused are the Americans, because they provide most of the financial support for our congregations. This support is not some “Machiavellian plan of the Empire.” The Cuban Evangelical Church has had its roots in American congregations since 1900, when they began sending evangelists to our country, who established what we know today.

By denying US religious pastors visas, the Cuban government “punishes” the rebellious churches twice, because not only do they prevent their members from listening to the words of the guest, but they also cut off all possible financial aid.

That this happens in our country is contrary to the Constitution, which states in Chapter 1 Article 8: “The State recognizes, respects and guarantees religious freedom. In the Republic of Cuba, religious institutions are separate from the state. The different beliefs and religions enjoy equal consideration.”

How much longer will we have to wait for our religious freedom to be recognized and guaranteed? And above all: What is the government waiting for to start respecting our rights?

Gagged Words / 14ymedio, Jose Gabriel Barrenechea

The writer Amir Valle. (Photo EFE / File)
The writer Amir Valle. (Photo EFE / File)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Jose Gabriel Barrenchea, Santa Clara, 27 June 2016 – The Eva Tas Foundation, located in Amsterdam, publishes and promotes texts that have been and are censored, regardless of where or how. Indeed, as a part of this laudable and necessary work, this institution just published two books by one of the most important figures in Cuban letters, and one of the highest contemporary examples of commitment to the truth and the defense of freedom: Amir Valle.

Gagged Words is one of them. The book was completed this 20 February, and though the ink hasn’t dried yet it is essential reading for anyone who wants to know the history of the Castro regime’s censorship, harassment and persecution of creative work and thought in Cuba, mainly in literature and film, but above all it reveals the subtle mechanisms of intellectual repression that the regime has adopted in these times of what some call late-Castroism. continue reading

Amir Valle, one of the most important Cuban intellectuals of all time, describes certain keys to this veiled censorship or repression that goes unnoticed by many strangers to the Cuban island. This censorship or repression in many cases is considered by the new Mr. Magoo as a hoax invented by enemies to discredit the “greatest example of human dignity and social justice in the world today”: The Cuba of Fidel. For example, the complex mechanisms which prevents foreign publishers at our Book Fairs from breaking the “ideological firmness” of our people by giving them access to controversial literature.

The foreword of the book is by another great of our literature and a person with an intellectual commitment to truth and freedom: Angel Santiesteban. Thanks to this prologue, the reader from other cultures (what Cuban does not know who we are talking about?) can learn the essential aspects of Amir’s life from the mouth of someone who has known him intensely for almost three decades, and who addresses the worth of information that one is about to receive, in very direct language, with which a master of the language aims to reach the widest possible audience.

It is not by chance, but by ineluctable statistical necessity (here surveillance and harassment never sleep), that this book came to me from the hands of another intellectual who is often quoted in the pages of Gagged Words, whom the police arrested Friday in my and my wife’s presence at one of the busiest intersections in Santa Clara. As the captain of the secret police informed us, on suddenly materializing next to us out of nowhere (what a shock to me, an atheist!) they took him to talk “a little while” with them: “Because, compadre, with Vilches we couldn’t have done better, check it out, we’ve even resolved (they = the secret police, it is understood) to put him on the jury in a contest there in Varadero.”

Gagged Words is a book with which, if you are still one of the clueless of good faith who remain out there, you should do two things: the first is to read it. The second is to go to Cuba with it in your suitcase so that you can, with total sincerity, declare it at Customs, and share it with any Cuban with the face of a reader you run into in the street. Only then will the reality of the “Raulist opening” be known first hand with regards to intellectual creativity, thinking and the free discussion of the ideas. Keeping in mind, if you are one of those anti-Yankee global-phobics who come and go in the world today, that Amir Valle, even though they invited him, never stepped foot in what was then the United States Interest Section in Cuba.

And it is my good friend, who then returned to the plane, expelled from the island as a persona non grata, as Amir summarizes in an epilogue: (In Cuba) “independence, creative freedom, free expression of creativity are elements as palpable as galaxy EGS-ZS8-I, the most distant, 13,000 million light years from earth.”

A pdf of Gagged Words is available here.

Archbishop Of Havana Wants “Socialism To Progress” / 14ymedio

Archbishop of Havana, Juan de la Caridad Garcia Rodriguez. (EFE)
Archbishop of Havana, Juan de la Caridad Garcia Rodriguez. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 27 June 2016 — The newly appointed archbishop of Havana, Juan de la Caridad Garcia, said in an interview broadcast Monday by the Associated Press (AP) that does not want that Cuba “to have capitalism or anything in that style, but for socialism to progress” to go “forward to fair, balanced and fraternal society.”

The priest defended the work of his predecessor, Jaime Ortega. “I think that the cardinal did a great deal of good,” he said. “In some places there is a slightly negative image of him, and it is false. I am going to continue doing what he did.” continue reading

The archbishop said he doesn’t fear the criticisms of government opponents, which for years demanded that Ortega, who led the archdiocese for three decades, press for a change in the country’s political model.

Born in 1948 in Camagüey, Garcia did not support the Revolution after its victory in 1959. He was ordained a priest in 1972 and became Archbishop of Camagüey in 2002. His father died in prison accused of being responsible for a train accident, which took place in unclear circumstances, at the end of the 1960s, an era marked by harassment of religious figures. Despite the fact that he challenged the state in the 1970s by offering catechism in homes, he later changed his attitude toward the authorities. “There were always people who remained faithful despite the great difficulties at the beginning of the Revolution. One can walk, talk and look to the future,” he told the AP. “We can’t live in the past.”

Cuba’s Port of Mariel Lags Behind Panama Canal Expansion / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

The Mariel Special Development Zone in Cuba (Amelia)
The Mariel Special Development Zone in Cuba (Amelia)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 25 June 2016 — “We want to be on the front pages of newspapers” claimed a taxi driver in the middle of heavy traffic on a Panamanian street after being asked about the leaked documents from the firm Mossacl Fonseca. A few weeks after that conversation, the media focused again on that country this Sunday, but this time for the opening of the new Panama Canal locks.

Between the cacophony of the official celebrations and the criticisms provoked by the megaproject, one thing is missing from the news reports: the supposed beneficiary of such improvements – Cuba’s Port of Mariel. A cloak of silence surrounds the details of its current conditions, or lack of conditions, to serve as a stopover for ships that will pass through the new facilities and can carry up to 13,000 20-foot-equivalent-unit (TEUs) containers each. continue reading

When the Cosco shipping company’s vessel Andronikos, from China, with a capacity of 9,400 containers passes from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the new facilities today, it will awaken the competition between the region’s ports to win the largest numbers of vessels using the canal.

In April of 2015, one of those responsible for the development of the Cuban port facility some 28 miles from Havana, said that the government aspired to convert the container terminal at the Port of Mariel into a “better choice” for transshipments in the region, once the Panama canal expansion opened.

A projection also confirmed recently by Alicia Barcena, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), said that the port will be “a major logistics hub and regional transfer” and stressed “the huge advances in the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZDEM) and its port terminal.”

However, the flagship project of Raul Castro’s government, intended to boost the national economy, generate exports and attract investment, is not ready at the precise moment when it might tap the huge flow of cargo through the improved Panama locks. Several sources consulted suggest that the the main cause for the delay is the poor dredging of Mariel Bay.

With 4,268 workers, including 454 technicians and 221 engineers, the Port of Mariel has not taken advantage of the nine-year duration of the work on the Panama Canal, including the fact that that project is more than 24 months late in relation to its initial schedule. A reality that belies Cuba’s official forecasts that placed the beginning of 2016 as the date for the opening of its terminal for Post-Panamax containers.

However, Miami-Dade County has done its work. Last year that port city served the highest number of containers in ten years, and has been preparing to welcome the large freighters that transit through the new locks. Officials there hope that port will become the first stop in the southeastern region of the United States, before the boats file through Panama.

The works in Miami have been mentioned over the past few days by the international media, linking them closely to the Panama Canal. Improvements in the port facilities include new railroad service, plus a tunnel connecting the port with the interstate highway system. While in Cuba, tons of rice and fertilizer have remain stuck in the Bay of Havana in recent weeks, in the absence of freight cars to transport them.

Significantly, the issue of the Port of Mariel has a diminished presence in the official Cuban media and the few reports that are transmitted avoid specifying the current volumes of activity. No ZDEM specialist or authority has explained to the national press how the country will take advantage of the opportunities opening from today, while Panamanians celebrate the inauguration of the work of the century.

Instead of information, we get only silence and rumors. The dark wall of secrecy installed around the Port of Mariel separates the official megaprojects from reality.