Two Russian Deputies put forward a proposal to President Vladimir Putin to study the reestablishment of the Lourdes signals interception center in Cuba, as well as the deployment of Russian missile launchers on the island “to protect the interests of Moscow and its allies,” as local media reported this Wednesday.
The initiative comes as a response to the agreement between the United States and Turkey which will allow the deployment in May of high mobility tactical missiles (Himars) in the Southeast part of the Ottoman country, near the border with Syria, to deal with attacks by the jihadist group the Islamic State. continue reading
“We believe it is possible to use the Soviet experience to contain the current expansionist intentions of United States,” said Valery Rashkin and Sergei Obukhov, members of the Communist Party, in explaining the request.
The center for signals interception, located near Havana, was shut down in 2002. However, the director of the Department of Latin America in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in an interview last February that Moscow had no intention of opening military bases on the island.
14ymedio, Lilianne Ruiz, Havana, 28 April 2016 — Martha Beatriz Roque has returned from Miami after receiving a permit from the Cuban government in late February, which authorized her to leave the country one time. The activist was one of the seven former prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003 who benefited from this permit. She returns with a certain pessimism and a critical impression of the state of the Cuban opposition.
Lilianne Ruiz. You returned from abroad after permission from the Cuban government, which allowed you to make only one trip. What impressions did you bring back from your stay outside the country?
Martha Beatriz Roque. I come back with a tremendous pain in my heart about what I have seen there. In Miami there is the historic exile, who love their country, their fatherland, who talk about democracy, who think about Cuba constantly and who have a great nostalgia for the island, but this historic exile, unfortunately, is getting old and some of its members have died. continue reading
However, many people who are coming to Miami through different countries, including now through Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama, are turning their backs on Cuba, they even want to forget that they are Cubans. These are people who are a part of a social fabric here that is broken, who have no ethics, no formal education and they are contaminating Miami.
LR. What do you think has been the outcome of Barack Obama’s visit to Cuba?
MBR. Obama has his agenda and within it is defending the interests of American citizens, as is natural, because that is his country. He has made it clear that the problems of Cuba have to be solved by Cubans and that is important. The people had a great lesson with Obama’s visit: for the people it has meant hope, which the Communist Party Congress subsequently tried to annihilate.
LR. And the opposition?
MBR. In Cuba there are opponents, but an opposition, as such, does not exist. An opposition exists in Venezuela, because it has been capable of uniting despite its disagreements. We are not capable of something like that yet. Here the unity lasts seconds.
LR. Did the 7th Congress of the Communist Party frustrate you, or were you were expecting something like what happened?
MBR. The Party Congress was going to be postponed to another date but it was held to try to counter what Obama said to the Cuban people, and because of this they didn’t have any finished [guiding] document. Some said, after the Congress was over, “We were right, Obama has achieved nothing.” Others say that the Congress was a way of demonstrating the failure of what Obama is doing, but I would not say that. Much less do I think it is a failure, because there are things that have been accelerated with Obama’s visit.
LR. Like what?
MBR. In the specific case of the eleven members of us from the [Black Spring] group of 75 who remain in Cuba, we were not allowed to leave the country and, at least in this moment, they allowed us one trip abroad. There have been solutions to some problems that you couldn’t say are changes, without the reestablishment of rights. This has to be seen as something satisfactory, not as something negative. In the not so distant future other solutions will have to come, because the economic, social and political situation of the country is unbearable.
LR. Will it be the self-employed who change Cuba?
MBR. The Cuban regime will not allow any self-employed to export, because that, they will say, is reserved for the businesses of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. The United States government is trying to have direct relationships with the self-employed, but that is not going to be allowed. Right now, when some self-employed turn their faces just slightly to the north, they’re going to cut off those businesses they’re going to stop everything.
LR. Can access to the internet help make the changes occur?
MBR. The regime does not allow it because they know that the internet is a source of knowledge, of the transmission of news and possibilities.
LR. What is the Cuban opposition lacking to be able to call forth the people?
MBR. First of all, it lacks leadership. Unfortunately, here everyone wants to be a leader, no one wants to be in the line, everyone wants to be at the head of it. It also lacks the exile,, which is capable of manufacturing a leader and putting forward a project with resources, but this does not solve anything.
LR. Do you see any chance for the opposition to influence the constitutional referendum announced by the government?
MBR. The opposition has not matured, it is still the same, generating documents, projecting itself abroad, meeting abroad, telling people what they have to do. But if the opposition doesn’t take advantage of this moment to work jointly with the people, it’s simple, nothing is going to happen. If they don’t work with the people, if they don’t raise awareness among the people, what does it matter that they go to meet the Pope in Rome, it’s all the same, it is simply not going to solve anything.
A tanker truck delivers water in the streets of Havana. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 27 April 2016 – Under the hot sun, while passersby seek shade under the balconies, one hears the sound of truck on Jovellar Street in Havana. It goes along loaded with tanks full of water, and as it passes the residents look out their windows and run inside their houses looking for a bucket to fill. The commotion in the neighborhood is reminiscent of holidays, but there is no music, no fun, just a water carrier selling his coveted merchandise door-to-door.
Idalmis, a young mother who lives on the route taken by El Primo, yells from the balcony that she wants to fill her tank. She asks him not to leave, that other neighbors need to store water in jars, pots and even a fish tank. It’s been months since the tanks in their homes have had a drop of water to dampen everything. continue reading
El Primo is a modern water supplier. He doesn’t carry buckets up the stairs. In his truck he has a little motor and some hoses that reach out to his customers and can fill any receptacle in a trice. Connected to an extension cord that someone loans him, the purr of the pump can be felt. He has the panache of a distant descendant of Francisco de Albear y Lara (a Cuban engineer from the 1800s responsible for Havana’s water supply), but his name will never appear on a monument in the Cuban capital.
El Primo’s method, despite its sophistication, has its limitations. His hoses can’t reach above the second floor, but, he says, “the buildings in Central Havana aren’t that high.”
While filling a blue tank, which once held vegetable shortening and now contains the water for a family of four, the waterseller explains that since he settled in the city, coming from the east of the island, this has been his work. “The police have confiscated by motor several times, but the neighbors appreciate me so much that they themselves have come and gotten me out of jail,” he says.
In less than five minutes, a line has already formed in front of the truck. Antonia, a retired woman who lives alone on the first floor, tells about the time that a policeman prohibited the water-seller from filling his tanks at the water cistern near the Pioneer Cinema. “The whole block mobilized and we got him released from the station the same day,” recalls.
Problems with water supply in Havana. (14ymedio)
The supply cycles of the Havana Water Company have gotten longer in most of the capital’s districts. Areas like Old Havana are supplied almost entirely by tanker trucks (rather than piped water), but in the poorest neighborhoods, where there isn’t the money to buy it on a more frequent schedule, the trucks only show up “every seven days.” They prioritize “the schools, daycares, and the polyclinics,” the driver of one of these vehicles told 14ymedio on Monday, while supplying a building on Teniente Rey Street.
Abel Salas, first vice president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH), explained that about 70,000 people in Santiago de Cuba get water by way of tanker cars, while in the capital the figure is around 60,000. The deterioration of the water system aggravates the situation. According to data provided by the official press, “companies registered in the capital waste in one month almost 830,000 cubic meters” of water. The latest reports published on the subject indicate that 45% of the water pumped in the country is lost in breaks and leaks.
The contents of one tank can cost between 10 and 15 CUC, which is usually paid for by collecting money among all neighbors. The owners of B&Bs and private restaurants have the luxury of buying it for their businesses, but for most residents in Havana the price is too high.
On the outskirts of the capital, in areas such as Mantilla and Arroyo Naranjo, water comes through the pipes every other day but “with very little force” residents complain. There are also abundant water carriers like El Primo, and when their trucks show up in a street everyone crowds around to fill any receptacle they can.
For these water carriers there will be a lot of work in the coming months. Although the Climate Center at the Meteorology Institute predicted a rainy season with “normal precipitation” also warned that “the accumulated volumes will not solve existing deficits.” The cry of “water” will continue to ring in Havana neighborhoods.
An employee selects and packages spices at Purita Industries. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Lilianne Ruiz, San Miguel del Padron, 24 April 2016 — The spice route of Purita Industries begins with the pruning camp a short distance from the production workshop. It continues in the room where the machine is, a heated dehydrator designed by a mechanical engineer that processes 200 pounds of plants in 24 hours.
Located in San Miguel del Padron, to reach Purita’s farm you have to cross the Güines highway and continue down Dolores Street “until you can sense the odor of the seasonings,” as a nearby neighbor directs.
The aroma of the spices hits your nose before you enter the little factory. They produce basil, celery, rosemary, chives, tarragon and garlic, all “one hundred percent natural,” according to the producers. They also produce dried peppers, peanuts and shredded coconut. continue reading
Purita Industries is made up of a group of 11 professionals associated in the form on a non-agricultural cooperative founded two years ago, with a license to produce spices, condiments and dried fruits. “We are a small group of people who, with great effort, are trying to produce a highest quality product,” says the computer engineer Liuder Raspall, who became president of the entity.
The technology they work with is almost handmade. The dehydrator is designed by a mechanical engineer but constructed “together” by the workers, says Alfredo Gonzalez, farmer and partner. The equipment is made from galvanized metal and steel with nickel, with thermal insulation. Although currently it works off liquid glass and electricity, it was designed to also work with biogas and solar panels.
Certified by the National National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Purita products retain up to 60% of their organoleptic properties, that is those those that stimulate the senses to identify foods. A sample of them is taken to the laboratories of the institute to be periodically evaluated.
“The key to getting a product that, after being dehydrated, continues to have the aroma, the taste and the color is to maintain a temperature between 60 and 70 degrees and a continuous flow of air in one direction,” Raspall explains as he shows a package of light green chives, and describes that “the air supplied in a mandatory sense passes over the plants, removes moisture and does not return to touch them, because they would be rehydrated.”
At least ten fresh plants are required to get 2.2 pounds of dehydrated. Maintaining a stable volume of production is a challenge for Gonzalez, who has convinced farmers like himself in the surrounding area to plant herbs for culinary use. “We are starting to create direct partnerships with farmers who want to grow healthily, to operate the field in a certain way,” he says.
Farmers who have engaged in this new experience have discovered how profitable is to cultivate these herbs, because some, such as tarragon, thrive so easily that they hardly need watering if there are normal rains. “Science is pruning the branches in the right place,” Gonzalez said, pointing to a level in the basil. Plants are pruned every 21 days and some can last up to 10 years. Another incentive to plant is that the rational use of fields means that the crops never spoil.
The garden with herbs being grown for Purita Industries. (14ymedio)
The route of the spices, seasonings and nuts Purita ends in the stalls, which until very recently were only allowed in agricultural fairs held sporadically. Coming soon will also be a few sales points in the Ideal markets in the capital, a network of state stores that sells in Cuban pesos. A disadvantage in those places is that the lack the design of the space and striking publicity graphics to attract clients; for now people only look there for the cheapest deals.
“One of the things that we have in a difficult financial state is to make the price affordable to consumers,” says Raspall, who along with the rest of the associates is expecting to gain sales volumes. The Purita products sell for 15 Cuban pesos (about 60¢ US) for 20 grams. In this way they compete with El Portro, a state company that sells imported spices that cost up to 2.80 CUC (about $2.80 US) for 20 grams.
El Portro seasonings have not been available to suit all budgets, so the challenge for Purita is to show its existing customers their quality and the begin to promote their spices to the rest of the population, used to using cheaper artificial seasonings, along with garlic, onion and chili, which shouldn’t be missing in the ailing Cuban cuisine.
Purita products are also sold on several digital pages that let people buy them pre-paid from abroad for delivery to friends or family in Cuba.
In the workshop, very close to the current dehydrator, which has a 100 pound capacity and works two shifts a day, new opportunities are already being conceived. The same formula will be improved in some detail and, above all, the equipment is much larger and can produce a ton of seasonings daily.
The technology could help strengthen the spice industry, for example by introducing freeze-drying techniques. However, importing equipment is difficult. “This cost us very little money compared to a Rational that would cost about $75,000 (US), and the big difference would be that that one would have temperature sensors and automatic regulators,” he concludes.
Juan de la Caridad García, the new archbishop of San Cristobal de Havana.
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 26 April 2016 — After nearly 35 years as head of the Archdiocese of Havana, Jaime Ortega y Alamino, the only Cuban cardinal and a crucial figure in the thaw with the United States, has been replaced. Pope Francis decided to accept his resignation, presented since 2011, and appoint in his place Juan de la Caridad Garcia Rodriguez, Archbishop of Camagüey, a man who is considered a “bishop of the people” and who is connected to the world of missions.
In an interview by telephone from Camagüey, a few hours after his appointment was confirmed, Garcia said he hopes his episcopate will serve to increase the dialogue with the Cuban government, so that “the Church can be present in spaces that belong to it, such as education, the media and prison ministry.” continue reading
He also said that his ministerial service will be based on the final document of the Cuban National Ecclesial Meeting of 1986 in which the Catholic Church said it wanted to be “praying, missionary and embodied” in the reality of its own people.
Ordained as a priest in 1972 and consecrated a bishop in 1997, Juan Garcia belongs to a new generation of bishops who act as bridge with regards to the infighting among the ecclesial institution itself, especially on issues related to its relationship with the government.
“With his discretion and centrism, he is the person less engaged in the intestinal struggles of the Cuban Church,” said Lenier González, deputy director of the civic project Cuba Possible, who considers that with this appointment “the historical cycle of old Cuban episcopate is closed.”
A Surprise
The news was greeted with surprise within the Cuban Catholic Church. The Vatican is very private with the selection process. Consultations with the clergy and the faithful and decisions about whether or not the candidate is accepted take place in the deepest secrecy.
The international press had referred to the possibility that Emilio Aranguren or Dionisio García, the bishops of Holguin and Santiago de Cuba respectively, would succeed Ortega. Also contemplated as a possible candidate was Juan de Dios Hernández, a Jesuit like the Pope and one of the auxiliary bishops of the Archdiocese.
Dagoberto Valdes, a Catholic layman who runs the magazine Convivencia in Pinar del Río believes that “the Pope has appointed a pastoral and missionary archbishop, which is what the Church needs at this time, especially the Havana Church.”
“The missionary work of Monsignor Juan has marked the Church in Camagüey. I am sure that this identity will be very well received in Havana,” said Valdes, who also considers this appointment as “a gift from the Pope to the people of Cuba.” According to him, Juan Garcia is a bishop who “truly smells of the flock,” as the Pope wants.
For Arturo Gonzalez, Bishop of the Diocese of Santa Clara in central Cuba, Juan Garcia is a man of the people, close to the faithful. “He is a very good man, he is a man of much prayer. He is a man of few words, but very clear,” said the prelate.
The Archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, agreed and also described him as “a man of few words.” He adds that it is “very good news for the people of the Cuban capital.”
Wenski, who recently returned from a pastoral visit to the island, said Garcia is a bishop who “has worked very hard for his diocese and is also very close to his clergy.”
The new archbishop of Havana, Juan de la Caridad Garcia Rodriguez, with Cuban President Raul Castro at the inauguration of the new headquarters of the San Carlos and San Ambrosio seminary in Havana.(Gaspar el Lugareño)
Raul Castro loses an ally
Cardinal Jaime Ortega has been a key figure in the thaw that led to the restoration of diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington. It was he who, in 2011, negotiated the release and subsequent departure of most of the prisoners of the Black Spring and it was he who was responsible for hosting three papal visits in Havana, which helped to strengthen an image of greater openness towards the outside.
Cardinal Ortega presided over the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba during three successive periods and was one of the main architects of the pastoral letter “Love Hopes All Things” of 1994, which harshly criticized Fidel Castro’s government in the middle of the so-called Special Period.
In recent months, Ortega was criticized by sectors of the opposition, especially after he made statements to the Spanish radio station Cadena Ser in which he denied the existence of political prisoners in Cuba.
The Archdiocese of Havana announced through an official note signed by Juan de Dios Hernández, that the cardinal will have his retirement residence in the Padre Felix Varela Cultural Center, a building that formerly housed the San Carlos and San Ambrosio Seminary.
A Cuban priest who asked not to be identified said that the departure of Monsignor Ortega allows the placement of a figure that does not fear the Cuban government, “because he owes nothing to them.”
He recalled that when Monsignor Garcia was appointed Bishop of Camagüey, “They had to go look for him in Cespedes because he went there on a mission. He is a bishop of the people.” And he said that by naming him a door has been opened for a whole generation of priests who were his compañeros in the seminary to acquire greater prominence within the Church, although they had not been able to do it until now because of the presence of the almost octogenarian cardinal.
The Challenges for the New Archbishop
Leinier Gonzalez believes that the new archbishop has before him dissimilar challenges. Among his main challenges is “reconstructing the pastoral work of the Havana Church” which, according to this analyst, is in profound crisis. Another important aspect will be the massive exodus of young priests and laypeople to foreign countries. In several parts of the world, and particularly in Miami, there is a large community of Cuban priests who were ordained on the island and who, for different reasons, ended up emigrating.
Another obstacle the new archbishop could face is the fact of always having worked in ecclesiastical areas outside of the capital, he said. Camagüey is an extensive archdiocese, but it is predominantly rural, while Havana is mostly urban.
Taking over the leadership of a territory where the national government is located, as well as the nunciature and the different political actors and embassies, the archbishop should also be more exposed to national politics. All this along with the proximity of the former archbishop, living just a few blocks away, and the figure of the president of the Cuban Bishops Conference, which for now rests with Dionisio García.
After the replacement of the cardinal, several questions arise about who will be the visible head who will carry forward the dialogues and negotiations with the government.
Some analysts compare the appointment of the new archbishop with the election of Francis in Rome, whom many see as a pope of transition.
Raul Castro, in the presence of Barack Obama, chides a journalist who asks about political prisoners on the island. (EFE)
14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 26 April 2016 – In films there are final epics. Systems whose final moments pass between the sound of the hammers tearing down a wall and the roar of thousands of people in a plaza. The Castro regime, however, is going through its death throes without glorious images or collective heroics. Its mediocre denouement has become clearer in recent months, in the signs of collapse that can no longer be hidden behind the trappings of the official discourse.
The epilogue of this process, once called Revolution, is strewn with ridiculous and banal events, but they are, indeed, clear symptoms of the end. Like a bad movie with a hurried script and the worst actors, the scenes illustrating the terminal state of this twentieth century fossil seem worthy of a tragicomedy: continue reading
Raul Castro erupts in fury at a press conference when asked about the existence of political prisoners in Cuba, he gets entangled in his earphones and comes out with some rigmarole a few feet from Barack Obama, who looks like the owner and master of the situation.
After the visit of the United States president, the government media releases all their rage at him, while Barack Obama’s speech in the Great Theater of Havana is number one on the list of audiovisual materials most requested in the Weekly Packet.
Two Cuban police officers arrive in uniform on the beaches of Florida, after having navigated in a makeshift raft with other illegal migrants who helped them escape from Cuba.
A group of Little Pioneers, dressed in their school uniforms and neckerchiefs, contort in sexually explicit movements to the rhythm of reggaeton at an elementary school. They are filmed by an adult and the video is uploaded to the social networks by a proud father who thinks his son is a dance genius.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accuses Obama of having perpetrated an attack on “our conception, our history, our culture and our symbols” a few days after receiving him at the airport and without having fearlessly said any of these criticisms to his face.
An obscure official at the Cuban embassy in Spain says in a chat with “friends of the Revolution” that this is “the most difficult moment and its history,” and calls the coverage of Obama’s visit in the foreign media as a “display of an unparalleled cultural, psychological and media war.”
Raul Castro is unanimously reelected as first secretary of the Communist Party for the next five years and choses stagnation. Thus, he loses the last chance to pass into the history books for a gesture of generosity to the nation, as late as it might be, instead of for his personal egoism.
Fidel Castro appears at the Congress’s closing ceremony, sheathed in an Adidas jacket, and insists that “we not continue, as in the times of Adam and Eve, eating forbidden apples.”
A few days after the end of the Party Congress, the government announces a laughable reduction in prices to try to raise fallen spirits. Now, an engineer no longer has to work two-and-a-half days to buy one quart of cooking oil, he only has to work two days.
Thousands of Cubans throng the border between Panama and Costa Rica trying to continue their journey to the United States, without the government of the island investing a single penny to help them have a roof over their heads, a little food and medical care.
An economist who explained to the world the benefits of Raul Castro’s reforms and their progress, is expelled from the University of Havana for maintaining contacts with representatives from the United States and passing on information about the procedures of the academic center.
Two young people make love in the middle of the San Rafael Boulevard in plain view of dozens of onlookers who film the scene and shout obscene incitements, but the police never arrive. The basic clay of the Revolution escapes in the individual and collective libido.
The credits start to run and in the room where this lousy film is being shown only a few viewers remain. Some grew tired and left, others slept through the long wait, a few monitor the aisles and demand loud applause from the still occupied seats. An old man is trying to feed a new, interminable, filmstrip through the projector… but there is nothing left. Everything is over. All that’s left is for the words “The End” to appear on the screen.
The cover of “Censorship of the Press in the Cuban Revolution,” by Minerva Salado (Verbum Publishing)
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, If the mid-seventies I had thought to tell Minerva Salado, then my chief editor at Cuba International magazine, that in some forty years she would write a book titled “Censorship of the Press in the Cuban Revolution,” I would have caused enormous problems for myself, only surpassed by that if I had predicted to her my current status as an “unofficial” journalist.
Unveiling the framework of obscenities and subtleties that was woven into the early years of the process called the Cuban Revolution in order to implement strict censorship on the media is a very complex task; what scholars would call “a multidisciplinary task.” Minerva knows this, as a writer, journalist and poet, so in the introduction she warns that her efforts “will have to address the documentary research, personal experience and memory of several generations of journalists and media.” continue reading
The theme of this testimonial essay is the magazine Cuba International, a medium that was designed to export a saccharine image of the country, similar to other publications produced by all the members of the so-called socialist camp.
To put makeup on the reality a team was formed where the reporters wanted to be writers and the photographers artists, and it was precisely in this situation that the contradiction arose between the militancy that was intended and the quality demanded.
It will be very easy to rebut what is stated in this book, both from the trenches of those who will call it a betrayal, probably paid for by the empire, as well as by those who, from the opposite extreme, will read it as a justification of the censorship imposed on the Cuban press. But those who are looking for good arguments, irrefutable data and convincing explanations will be grateful for its publication under the imprint of Verbum Publishing in Madrid.
The book needed after this one is the one where someone tries to demonstrate that in this last half century there has been no censorship of the Cuban media, or where they at least try to justify it as a necessary “loving gag.” I already know that it will not be Minerva Salado who will write that one.
Customers at the Carlos III shopping center in Central Havana this morning waiting expectantly for the reduction in prices on some products announced the night before.
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, 22 April 2016 – As the journalist Regina Coyula warned, in order to understand what the press in Cuba is saying you have to know “Granmática” (the language of the newspaper Granma) and, even though the note on the first page of the official organ of the Communist Party appears signed by the Minister of Finance and Prices, one has to have read a lot of official editorials, listened to enough speeches by Señor Machado Ventura and dedicated several days to studying what they say on the Roundtable TV program, to assimilate a single paragraph of a dissertation on the economy in its purest form.
The note says, “The final solution to this complex reality will be achieved with increased productivity and efficiency in the national economy,” but a few lines affirm that it has been “the political will of the Leadership of the Party and the Government (…) as well as the reduction in food prices in the world market” that have led to the adoption of “a set of measures aimed at gradually increasing the purchasing power of the Cuban peso in the short term.” continue reading
Every economic measure that has been taken from political will, be it to raise or lower wages, raise or lower prices, will be unsustainable if there is no increase in productivity. On the other hand, any increase in the purchasing power of the Cuban peso, subject to the fickleness of prices in the world market, will inevitably be impermanent unless we can count on an efficient economy.
So the official note is clear while confusing. Clear because it warns that there shouldn’t be many illusions that these price decreases will be lasting, because they are dependent on the capricious world market; confusing because it doesn’t explain the lack of political will to make the national economy truly efficient and productive.
Every time that there is a proposal from the heights of power to control prices, or when it is affirmed that there will never be shock therapies, or that no one will be abandoned, or that the accumulation of property and wealth will not be allowed, what is really being proclaimed is the populist and voluntarist posture that aims to put political decisions ahead of economic emergencies.
Now, the good and paternalistic State just realized that the wages aren’t enough to live on, something they apparently ignored all the times they mercilessly sent prices through the roof and perverted the concept of the “acquisitive power of the population” through dark and twisted paths of corruption, the diversion of resources and the absolute lack of belonging that workers have in relation to their workplaces.
Those who criticize the price reduction measure as insufficient will be labeled as ungrateful; those who suggest that it would have been better to raise wages will be considered irresponsible. Any proposal to remove the straitjacket from private entrepreneurs could be considered as a frontal attack on the socialist model of production, the state enterprise and certainly the Nation.
Voting unanimously at the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba.
14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Havana, 23 April 2016 — Army General Raul Castro, newly re-elected first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), in his closing speech at the Party’s 7th Congress spoke of moving forward with our democratic, prosperous and sustainable socialism. It turns out that the adjective democratic has just been added to the socialism officially promoted in Cuba.
The leadership of the first Communist Party was allowed to take the name, later used to turn the country into a disaster, even recognizing one day that “no one knew how to build socialism.” The leadership of the PCC has the right to name the society they are proposing whatever they want. But those of us who have been defending a democratic socialism in Cuba also have the right to make it clear that this name has nothing to do with the socialism as practiced by the PCC. continue reading
Everything done from the leadership of the PCC is solely intended to strengthen the state monopoly capitalism with ingredients of paternalistic populism that has always characterized what has been intended in Cuba since 1959.
In his speech, the general was precise: one party, the Communist, based on Marxist-Leninist ideology, which, in any case, is based on democratic centralism (promoted by Lenin to crush the growing dissent within the Bolshevik Party) and not on democracy.
He also argued that Article 5 of the Constitution regarding the leading role of the Communist Party in society will remain, and that there will be a continuation of the centralization of decisions and state ownership as the linchpin of the economy. Only wells are built from above: everything from the top down.
The election of the first and second secretaries of the Politburo was not performed by the full Congress nor directly by the Party membership, but by the members of the Central Committee. The age limit for new members of the Central Committee is established as 60. By the stroke of a pen the possibility is eliminated that the generation that fought at the Bay of Pigs, that ran the literacy campaign, and that carried the hardest tasks of the Revolution on their shoulders, will serve on the Central Committee. And the limit applies arbitrarily to new members, but not to those who are now in their 70s and 80s and who have been in the PCC leadership ranks for more than five decades.
Self-managed cooperatives and self-employment are still regarded contemptuously as secondary “non-state” forms of work, while appropriate ways of self-management for workers in state enterprises is not even mentioned.
How can there be democratic socialism when the means of production are controlled by the bureaucracy and the wage labor that typifies the form of capitalist exploitation is maintained, without democratization of politics and without socialization of the economy?
If the Communist Party decided to honor the democratic qualifier for its socialism, it should assume the minimum standards of democratic socialism: democratization of politics, socialization of property and ownership in the economy, and allowing free expression and political activism of our groups and all democrats.
But we are not exclusive nor sectarian. Hopefully Raul Castro and his Party will act consistent with this new adjective and not as occurs with the term socialism, which they converted into an undesirable word for many.
If the Communist Party is open to the interests of the entire Cuban nation, it will promote a true popular, broad, horizontal participation, without restrictions in discussions of the documents 7th Congress and of a new democratic constitution, in town meetings, without pre-conditions.
If, as a part of that process it assumes the overall defense of all human rights of all Cubans; if it prevents repression against peaceful opponents and those who think differently and releases all prisoners of conscience; if it endorses freedom of expression, association and election; if it accepts the free development of various forms of production and property; if it grants ownership, management and profits to workers in state enterprises; if it accepts that Cubans living abroad can visit their country with passports from other countries and that those who want to can invest in it; it would not be democratic socialists who turn their backs on them.
If they take steps in that direction, I am sure they will have the support of many Cuban democratic socialists and democrats.
Cuban president Raúl Castro speaking last Tuesday at the 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (EFE)
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Miami, 20 April 2016 – I ask for a minute’s standing ovation, gentlemen: the Communist Party of Cuba has died. The internment, which will be known to future generations of Cubans as the 7th Congress of the PCC, held its memorial service Tuesday, 19 April 2016, exactly 55 years after the dazzling “first great defeat of Yankee imperialism in America.”
Due to those whimsical paradoxes of history, the “Socialist Revolution,” proclaimed in those days of pure popular enthusiasm, has finally succumbed, but not by any action of the imperialist enemy warrior, but by the arrogance of its own makers. continue reading
The death of the PCC, after a long and painful illness, was authenticated with the election of the “new” Central Committee, headed – but for unavoidable exceptions – by the same crested brains of the revolutionary gerontocracy, irresponsibly clinging to power counter to the country’s deterioration. The octogenarian party has not had the capability to renew itself to make way for a new generation of leaders trained to meet the challenges of these times.
Nevertheless, there were earlier signs of the inevitability of this death. In the last five years, the Cuban “political vanguard” allowed itself the luxury of wasting one more opportunity to reverse the state of national calamity , and elected instead the path to stagnation, if not retrogression. Cognition of its own frailty and the fear of losing control over society paralyzed the once powerful PCC, which ended up losing its last shreds of credibility among Cubans.
In the last five years, the Cuban “political vanguard” allowed itself the luxury of wasting one more opportunity to reverse the state of national calamity, and elected instead the path to stagnation, if not regression
Some of these signs of weakness and decay are the lack of programs of reform that would allow for the beginning of a process of changes and overcoming the persistent poverty; the disconnect between the ruling elite and the social base; the inability to move beyond the experimental phase of the few and insufficient economic openings; the improvisation of insufficient and ineffective measures designed to alleviate the consequences of the crisis rather than eliminate its causes; and the constant and growing exodus that further impoverishes the nation. The capital of popular faith which rallied briefly at the beginning of the transfer of power from F. Castro to his brother (the “pragmatic reformist” Raúl) has died.
Over a year after being announced with much fanfare, and after a process of secret meetings where only a select group of anointed ones “discussed” the documents to be analyzed in its sessions, the conclave that supposedly would trace the fate of 11 million souls not only ignored the national drift, it squandered the additional time in an attempt to counteract the harmful effect that, according to the leaders of the geriatric caste, the imperialist enemy has injected into the soul of the nation.
Behold the political power that has consecrated Cuba’s destiny according to a new turning point.
In short, there will not be a Cuba before and after the 7th Congress of the PCC, but before and after the restoration of relations with the US, specifically, after the visit of the American president, Barack Obama, to the Cuban capital. This is the implicit recognition of the failure of the Castro-communist project.
In short, there will not be a Cuba before and after the 7th Congress of the PCC, but before and after the restoration of relations with the US
Thus, the issues that would occupy de jure the discussions, namely, the conceptualization of this absurd unreality called “the Cuban socioeconomic and political model,” the problem of the dual currency, feeding of the population, constitutional reform, the highly vaunted foreign investment program and an endless list of other emergencies related to ordinary Cubans, are left hanging. The PCC has no answers to social demands.
Instead, the leaders have opted for entrenchment, and, as if current generations of Cubans believed in symbols of the past, the leadership decided to play as trump a devalued card: it dusted off and preened as much as possible the former President, former First Secretary of the Central Committee of the PCC and former Undisputed Commander in Chief, and placed him before the monastic convent’s plenary session – after also cloistering the doors to the tabernacle, safe from the inquiring inquisitorial foreign press – in an attempt to legitimize his new ideological war against the Empire.
With all certainty, a war with not enough followers, unless the new Cuban soldiers could be called that: the migrants who are invading the enemy by land, sea and air in robust legions to defeat the enemy by occupying his territory, triumphantly and permanently. Memories of the old ex-warrior’s battle and moral victories, whether real or imagined, have been left way behind in our national recollections.
Now it becomes clear that the PCC has died. The so-called 7th Congress was not that at all, but a swan song. Just the sad spectacle of a group of recalcitrant elders addicted to power and their cohort busybodies (buquenques, in good Cuban). If there is any honest communist left in Cuba – if in the imaginary case such ever existed – he must be plunged into the deepest mourning. Had our half a century of history been different, the late Party might deserve a minute of silence. But we don’t need to be hypocrites, at any rate; we Cubans have been silent for way too long.
Many people consider the drop in prices insufficient when compared to their wages. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Luzbely Escobar, Havana, 22 April 2016 — The Carlos III shopping center in Havana Center opened its doors this morning before an expectant public looking for the price reductions on some products that was announced on Primetime News last night at eight. On leaving the market, many customers expressed dissatisfaction with a measure they consider “insufficient.”
Outside the shopping complex, a parking attendant in his 50’s commented on those who crowded around waiting for the opening. “They are doing this to try to shut people up, people are very discontented.” A young pedicab driver added, “I see it more as tremendous chutzpah, the prices they’ve marked are the same as they were when these stores opened and it was an abuse then.” continue reading
A few minutes after the market opened, most of the customers went directly to the food departments, which is where the new prices are most visible. There, looking over what was in the freezer, a gentleman who said he was a maintenance worker at a polyclinic in Central Havana explained, “Marking everything down is good, but for me it is still going to be hard to feed my family as God commands.” A gentleman responded, “I’m self-employed, but it seems insufficient to me (…), I’m going to lose a few pounds but still it’s not enough.”
With an empty bag and a scowl, a retired seventy-something named Lazarus responded to a lady who was talking loudly about “the new measures.” “What measures, madam? So I can lose 40 pounds? All this is a joke and a lie. I get 270 Cuban pesos [about $11] a month for my retirement, I worked forty-some years. How can I live? Thanks to family I have abroad, if I didn’t I would die of hunger.”
The lady, who didn’t want to discuss it, murmured, “Well, any reduction is noticeable, especially on chicken and picadillo [ground ‘meat’, often largely or entirely soy], it’s better than it was, clearly.”
As usual in these circumstances, people are reluctant to speak up to someone who presents themselves as a journalist, but there are always exceptions. “The wages today are not what they need to be for many workers, and almost no one lives on their monthly wages. If we count what people ‘divert’ and ‘steal’ [from their workplaces] and what they ‘invent,’ then they can come to this store once a month and spend 20 or 30 CUCs, but this is what an engineer earns as a monthly salary,” explained a young man at the exit of the market, comparing the average Cuban salary with the price reductions.
Reinaldo, owner of a cafe in Old Havana, also dared to comment. “The truth is I do not see much of note in these price reductions. For me who buys in bulk, at best I would get some business, but for someone who buys one kilogram, they’re going to save enough to buy the kids a few suckers,” he said.
A couple of hours after opening, the Carlos III market, the only work of the Revolution which bears the name of a king of Spain, had returned to normal. A few curious people looking on from the sidewalk asked those coming out of the store if it was true about the lower prices. A gentleman with a sense of humor responded this way: “Did you bring a truck to carry your purchases?”
NOTE: The average monthly salary in Cuba, according to data from last December’s session of the National Assembly, is 640 Cuban pesos, the equivalent of about 26 dollars US. 1 CUC = 1 US dollar.
14ymedio, Eliecer Avila, 22 April 2016 – A new TV program, LaVentana (The Window), debuted in Cuba on Thursday, the work of the young artist Ignacio Gonzalez, director of the project En Caliente Prensa Libre (Free Press in the Heat of the Moment).
The program highlights the professionalism of the set as well as the technical team. In a small and modest space they managed to create the conditions for the production of news, analysis programs and interviews. With value added by editing and set design, they are ready to compete not only with national programs but also with those produced outside the country. continue reading
The inaugural program revolved around the pronouncements made at the 7th Congress of the Communist Party, especially with regards to economics. Interviews include both man-on-the-street and invited guests.
Gonzalez stands out in recent times for his high quality reporting and his dedication and consistency in his work. His work during the floods in Havana, camera in hand swimming with the residents of places where the national press and the foreign press accredited in Cuba never go, was striking.
On his Youtube channel there is a wide range of products that attest to the commitment and seriousness of his work, as a result of which most of the videos are picked up by various international broadcasters.
An entrepreneur without limits and a dynamic person who enjoys his work and lives for it, today Ignacio is looking to make the leap to establish himself in the Cuban market as a leader in alternative television production. He brings a great deal of experience and contacts, as well as a large viewer base.
Ignacio dreams of founding a “respected” television channel in the future. La Ventana is only the first pebble of this dream, which, for the good of Cuba, we hope he is able to realize.
Demonstration at the headquarters of Carnival Cruise Lines.
14ymedio, 22 April 2016 – The Cuban government changed its immigration policy with regards to maritime travel. The scandal provoked by the refusal of Carnival cruise lines to sell tickets on its cruises to the island to citizens of Cuban origin – a policy subsequently rectified by the cruise line – has forced Havana to authorize the entry and departure of Cuban citizens “regardless of their immigration status” both as passengers or crew members on merchant and cruise ships. Similarly, the same measure will be gradually implemented with regards to pleasure yachts.
The Government issued a news release early Friday that details the new provisions and reminds crew members wishing to enter Cuba by sea that they have to apply for the permits “through the established employment institutions.” continue reading
The note also points out that “Cuban citizens residing in the country will have to have a visa for the country or countries they will visit.”
The Government said that the measure that would have prevented travel between Cuba and the United States by sea was intended to avoid and prevent “terrorist actions” that “Cuba has been the victim of numerous times since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959.” For the same reason, changing immigration policy will be accompanied by an exchange with the US authorities aimed at establishing bilateral measures to ensure national security of both countries.
Carnival signed contracts with Cuban companies last March for the start of cruise operations cruise Cuba and the United States and announced that the first of its cruises would take place on 1 May. However, controversy erupted when the company’s decision not to sell tickets to Cuban passengers came to like, excusing itself by noting that Cuban law did not allow entry by sea to Cubans.
The protests of exiles in Miami, which have reached the courts, led US Secretary of State John Kerry to speak out against the decision of the shipping company, to ensure that it would not discriminate against Cubans. Carnival announced earlier this week that it would allow Cubans to make reservations and that it would try to get the Cuban authorities to modify the contested legislation. The chain of events has finally forced the Cuban government to make a decision that it will allow the signed contract to go forward.
14ymedio, Havana, 21 April 2016 — Economist Omar Everleny Perez was expelled from the Center for Studies of the Cuban Economy at the University of Havana, accused of maintaining contacts with representatives of the United States and passing on information about the work of the Center without authorization. An academic and a consultant on the reforms promoted by President Raul Castro, Everleny Perez had been critical of some government measures.
According to a senior academic source, the rector of the University of Havana is responsible for the firing, being the “one who pulls the strings behind the curtain.” continue reading
The news of the expulsion began circulating last weekend, although it occurred a few days after US President, Barack Obama’s visit to the island in late March.
In December 2014, after the announcement of the reestablishment of relations between Cuba and the United States, the expert was excited about the repercussions it would have on the island. “I think the change will be much faster than we think, because the possibilities are endless because it will unlock one of the main problems of Cuba, which is the inflow of foreign exchange,” he said.
Obama’s recent trip to Cuba raised a wave of criticism from the authorities that reflect the concerns of some sectors of the regime to the new situation created by the resumption of diplomatic relations with Washington. The first to speak out, at the end of March, was former president Fidel Castro, who reproached the US president for his “syrupy” words.
On Monday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez told the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party Obama’s trip was “a visit in which there was an all out attack on our conception, our history, our culture and our symbols.” The voice of the number two man at the Cuban embassy in Madrid, Miguel Moré Santana was added in a video that recently spread through the social networks, where he called the coverage of Obama’s visit by the Spanish media “a display of cultural, psychological and media war without parallel.”
Everleny Perez, 56, has been viewed for years as an example of what can be done from within the system. His criticisms have been directed on many occasions to the excesses of centralism and he has ensured that Cuban state companies “have many ties to the non-state sector, which has advanced much more.” He has also been a champion of cooperatives, especially in the non-agricultural sector.
In an extensive interview with the magazine Palabra Nueva last February, he called on the government not to establish price controls on agricultural products, and the government decided to do at the beginning of this year, “because we already tried that in the long run the results are not what was hoped for.”
The resolution of dismissal from the Center for Studies of the Cuban Economy, signed on 8 April, speaks of the “permanent separation” of Everleny Perez after more than three decades of collaboration with the university.
Specializing in development economics, Perez met on numerous occasions with foreign scholars, especially Americans, as part of his work at the Center for Studies of the Cuban Economy.
In 2013, he was removed from the management of the institution for defending employees who wanted to publish in unofficial media and he also withdrew his membership in the Communist Party.
This reckoning, rather than an individual matter, is seen as a warning to those excited about an eventual deepening of reforms, similar to what happened when many were enthusiastic about Soviet perestroika in the late nineties.
A shop with goods for sale in convertible peso (hard currency), Havana. (EFE)
14ymedio, Havana, 21 April 2016 — The Cuban government has announced a reduction in prices of food and other basic products sold in stores in Cuba convertible pesos (CUC) and Cuban pesos (CUP). The measure, which comes at a time of growing popular discontent over the rising cost of living and shortages, takes effect Friday in the state retail sales network.
A note read on Cuban TV primetime news on Thursday, announced that sales of products such as toilet paper, milk, soap, peas, toothpaste, chicken, corned beef, cookies, instant soft drinks and seasonings, will range from 20 centavos to 2 Cuban convertible pesos. continue reading
The move comes a few days after the conclusion of the 7th Congress of the Communist Party and seek to gradually increase the purchasing power of the Cuban peso in the short term, said the official note.
The text clarifies that the price cuts respond to the Central Report of the party conclave where Raul Castro reiterated that “wages and pensions are still insufficient to meet the basic needs of the Cuban family.”
The regulations provide for a decrease of 6% in the retail price of chicken sold in boxes using a single price in the so-called Hard Currency Collection Stores (TRD) managed by the Ministry of Domestic Trade (MINCIN). The product will experience a drop from 7 to 5 CUC per kilogram.
The so-called “cold light” fluorescent lightbulbs, will also benefit from a 40% discount, dropping from 1.00 CUC to 0.60 CUC while the popular floor mops for household cleaning, will cost 20 cents less.
Among the products most in demand that will have a new price is cooking oil, which will drop from 2.40 CUC a liter to 1.95 CUC.
Among the main complaints of the Cuban population are the high prices that do not correspond to salaries. As reported in the last session of the National Assembly, which met last December, the average monthly wage in the country was 640 pesos, the equivalent of $26 (US) or 26 CUC.
The digital site CiberCuba published the list of prices that will be effective this Friday which appears under the logo of the Ministry of Finance and Prices, although the official announcement said that the list will only see the light this Friday.
The announcement includes the price controls that have been implemented at a growing number of agricultural markets since the beginning of the year. A measure that has not managed to reduce popular discontent.
From the early hours of Thursday afternoon the rumor had spread through Havana’s neighborhoods and customers delayed their purchases to benefit from cheaper food which comes into effect tomorrow.
However, the “definitive” solution to the “complex reality” of prices will only be achieved with “increased productivity and efficiency” in the national economy, explains the official note.
Two Russian Deputies put forward a proposal to President Vladimir Putin to study the reestablishment of the Lourdes signals interception center in Cuba, as well as the deployment of Russian missile launchers on the island “to protect the interests of Moscow and its allies,” as local media reported this Wednesday.
