14ymedio – Page 93 – Translating Cuba

The Cuban Government Once Again Uses Military Service Recruits As Firefighters

The photos published by the provincial media show the youth of the injured, in uniforms with the insignia of the Ministry of the Interior. (Facebook/La Demajagua)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 January 2023 — At least five people were injured, one of them seriously, as the result of a fire in a resin warehouse in Manzanillo, in the province of Granma. The accident occurred this Thursday around 5:00 in the morning in a warehouse of the state company Astilleros del Golfo, the official press reported.

By telephone with the Celia Sánchez Manduley Hospital, where the injured are being treated, this newspaper learned that the individual who is in serious condition is the head of the fire command, 35 years old. Of the rest of the wounded, who were also working to extinguish the fire, at least two of them, age 19, were recruits from compulsory military service. The other two were 20 and 21 years old, respectively.

The head of service for burn victims, Francisco Andrés Pérez Suárez, told La Demajagua that the patient in serious condition has 15% of his body affected. “We are assessing his progress due to the characteristics of the injuries, but vigilance must be maintained to avoid any complications. It all depends on the local evolution of the burns.” The article also clarifies that “the necessary supplies and resources are available for the care of patients.”

The provincial newspaper, which does not explain how the fire started, says that in the warehouse there were “more than a hundred tanks with resin, catalyst and over 88 pounds of cobalt, products with flammable characteristics that are used in the manufacture of boats.” Some social media commentators said that several explosions were heard in the vicinity and that the flames reached a considerable height. The depot is located in an industrial area where it was necessary to evacuate several work centers that store chemical materials such as ammonia. continue reading

The Gulf Shipyards, the text highlights, turned 60 in April, and “their collective is considered among the six most important in Cuba.”

The photos published by the provincial media show the youth of the wounded, in uniforms with the insignia of the Ministry of the Interior.

It iss not the first time that the Cuban government has used recruits to extinguish fires, a job that is highly specialized. The most tragic precedent is the disaster of the Matanzas Supertanks. Several of the fatalities, 17 in total, were young people who were on compulsory military service.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Police Prevent ’14ymedio’ From Accessing the Burial of the Bishop Who Challenged Raul Castro

Funeral rites for Pedro Claro Meurice Estiú, former archbishop of Santiago de Cuba. (Facebook/Archbishopric of Santiago)

14ymedio, Havana, 1 July 2023 — Reporter Francisco Herodes Díaz Echemendía, a collaborator of 14ymedio, was prohibited from entering the cathedral of Santiago de Cuba to attend the funeral mass of Pedro Claro Meurice Estiú, who was archbishop of that city. The remains of the priest, who died in 2011 in Miami, were transferred this Wednesday to the parish in a ceremony that summoned hundreds of people.

“You can’t enter because it’s behind closed doors and you need a credential to be invited,” two agents of the political police told Díaz Echemendía when he tried to approach the church. A strong police presence, with agents in uniform and in civilian clothing, surrounded the church, although the invitation issued by the religious authorities invited the “secular, religious, priests and people of Santiago de Cuba.”

The two agents, who called themselves Noel and Camilo, told the reporter to return home and not insist on accessing the cathedral. When Díaz Echemendía retraced his steps, in the direction of his home, another policeman pressured him not to take the road through central streets. “I felt very harassed and threatened,” he tells this newspaper.

This Thursday, Díaz Echemendía went to the archbishopric and was able to talk with Prelate Dionisio Guillermo García Ibáñez, who was surprised by what happened and said that no other person had been required to show a credential to access the church on Wednesday afternoon.

After the mass, the remains of Meurice Estiú, born in 1932 in the eastern town of San Luis and nicknamed “the lion of the East”, were placed in an open cavity on the floor of the Holy Metropolitan Basilica Cathedral Church of Santiago de Cuba, covered with a tombstone on which was written that he was the fourteenth archbishop of the city. The ceremony was broadcast through social networks. continue reading

After Meurice’s death in 2011, his remains were transferred from Miami and buried in the Santa Efigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba. That funeral was surrounded by a strong police operation, and numerous members of the opposition organization Patriotic Union of Cuba attended, along with its leader José Daniel Ferrer, who is currently in prison.

Many moments and anecdotes are remembered about Meurice Estiú, but none exceeds the mark left by his words on the morning of January 24, 1998 in the Plaza de la Revolución in Santiago in front of thousands of people. There he spoke to Pope John Paul II, visiting the Island, and the then Minister of the Armed Forces, Raúl Castro.

“I also present to you a growing number of Cubans who have confused the homeland with a party, the nation with the historical process that we have experienced in recent decades and culture with an ideology,” said Meurice Estiú in front of a Castro who showed great annoyance on his face at the words of the archbishop, then 66 years old.

At the end, the priest also alluded to the exodus: “They are Cubans who, by rejecting everything at once, without discerning, feel uprooted, reject what is here and overestimate everything foreign. Some consider this to be one of the deepest causes of the internal and external exile.”

With that speech, Meurice Estiú consecrated himself as the most critical voice of the regime at that time within the Cuban Catholic Church, in addition to honoring his career since he was ordained in 1955 and studied canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome. Upon his return, he was appointed vice chancellor and secretary to Archbishop Enrique Pérez Serantes, who saved Fidel Castro’s life after his failure in the assault on the Moncada barracks in 1953.

In 1967, Meurice Estiú was appointed auxiliary bishop of Santiago de Cuba by Pope Paul VI, and, after the death of Serantes, he was appointed apostolic administrator of the diocese of Santiago.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Two More Femicides, and the Official Federation of Cuban Women Remains Silent

Rosmery Ponce Peña was murdered in Güines, Mayabeque, by her ex-partner, who shot her in the head. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 July 2023 — The independent feminist platform Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba [Yes I Do Believe You] (YSTC) confirmed on Thursday the murder of two women, with which the number of femicides so far this year rises to 52. The new cases have triggered the alarms of the gender observatories because, with a growth of 52.9%, they already threaten to double those of 2022.

The organization verified the murder of Rosmery Ponce Peña, 23, perpetrated on July 10 in the municipality of Güines, Mayabeque. The second case is that of Adela Verdecia, 30, who was murdered in Jovellanos, Matanzas, on June 26. Both women were victims of their ex-partners, whose identities are still unknown, as is whether they have been arrested by the authorities.

On his social networks, independent journalist Alberto Arego had reported on Wednesday about the death of Ponce, the mother of a two-year-old boy. According to sources consulted by Arego, the woman was in her home in the company of some friends when her ex-partner, a 50-year-old man, shot her from the window.

“A single shot straight to the head. Nobody saw the person, but it is believed that he was her ex-partner and the father of her child because he constantly threatened to beat her up,” said one of the sources who also declared his support for the approval of the death penalty against “abusive and murderous men.”

The victim’s aunt, Yesmely Peña, warned on social media about the alleged murderer. According to her account, Rosmery Ponce denounced her aggressor on several occasions to the police, but “they never did anything to him and look what happened: he killed my niece.” continue reading

“We draw attention to the previous complaints made by Rosmery and neglected by the Güines Police, in addition to the use of a homemade firearm in this irreparable crime,” YSTC wrote in a publication that was also shared by Alas Tensas [Tense Wings].

According to the record of femicides compiled by observatories and independent media, at least 13 women were murdered in June, making it the most violent month of the whole year. In most cases, the culprit is a spouse or a former life partner, from whom the victims had separated for mistreatment and had complained to the authorities.

The feminist platforms also record two attempts at femicide this year, in addition to four cases in which access to police investigations has been requested without result. YSTC said that it closely follows the death of Anna Hernández, known as Teudy, a Cuban trans woman who took refuge in Atenas, whose murder has fueled the struggle of the LGTBI community.

While the number of femicides skyrockets, the Cuban government assures that the crimes do not go unpunished, and even the official Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) presented its own Cuban Observatory on Gender Equality last June. This new unit would be responsible for keeping the statistics of “women who have been victims of intentional homicide as a result of gender violence in the last 12 months,” but to date it has not made anything public.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Population of Cuba in 2023: Low Fertility, Aging and Depopulation. And Then What?

According to a study, Cuban women have an average of 1.14 children, the lowest rate in the region. (14ymedio)14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 12 July 2023 — In order to study the demographic and social problems, countries conduct research through surveys of the main variables that affect the population. Therefore, the fact that the Cuban communist regime does the same as other countries is not new. Ideally, when this type of study is carried out, such as the National Fertility Survey reported by the state press, international methodology should be respected in order to compare the results. This time, it seems it was. The 2022 National Fertility Survey, carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI), in collaboration with other national and international organizations and presented on the occasion of World Population Day, confirms an alarming fact: the low level of fertility in Cuba. Is that the only one, or is it possible to “confirm” other, even worse results?

So what are we talking about? The synthesis variable was offered by the deputy director of the Center for Population and Development Studies of the ONEI, who said that the accumulated fertility rate is 1.14 children per woman from 15 to 54 years old; and 0.79 children per man. Possibly one of the lowest in the world, and of course, a limiting factor for population growth. For example, the overall fertility rate of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2022 stood at 1.85 live births per woman. Bolivia, with a rate of 3.24, had the highest index in the region.

What is happening in Cuba that men and women aren’t having children? The survey indicates that the nulliparity indicator, (the number of people who end their reproductive period without having had children) presents values classified as “remarkable”: 13% in women and 24% in men, while only 14 years ago, in 2009, these data were 9% in women and 18% in men. Significant? No. Alarming.

In summary, the study highlighted that there is a tendency to stop reproducing when you have a maximum of two children. And this, despite the fact that the age of beginning to have sexual intercourse is very early. According to statistics, 69.8% of women and 75.8% of men began to have sex before the age of 18, while 10.8% and 15.9%, respectively, began before the age of 15. continue reading

With regard to the indicator of reproductive plans, the low birth rates and intention to have children in people of childbearing age are confirmed. Among women aged 15 to 49, only 21.2% say they will have children, and 9.3% in the next three years. Within the same age range, 27.3% of men say they will procreate, while 12.8% would procreate in the next three years. Less than a quarter. The other 75%, no.

The authors of the study point out that there is low fertility with limited birth reserves, compared to the percentages in the previous survey, carried out in 2009. Among women of childbearing age from 15 to 49, a third of them, 32%, have no children (29% in 2009); 36% have only one child (32% in 2009); 32% have two or more children (39% in 2009); and 29% have fewer children than they would like to have (40% in 2009). This last percentage is dangerously close to half, 50%, and is evidence of the seriousness of the situation.

The survey also investigated the circumstances of so-called child marriage, observing the existence of a large gender gap. In the age range between 15 and 19 years, 16.9% of women married before the age of 18, and 3.8% before the age of 15. On the other hand, in that same age group, 7.5% of men married before the age of 18, and 0.7% before the age of 15. The average age for having a first child is 23 years for women and 27 years for men, which was interpreted as a relatively early age for a context of low fertility. It was even explained that this fact may be associated with adolescent fertility, since according to the results, 26.2% of women had their first child before the age of 20; 12.5% before the age of 18; and 1.1% before the age of 15.

Therefore, the survey also investigated teenage pregnancies, and pointed out that 20% of women became pregnant at least once before the age of 18 and 15.6% between the ages of 15 and 19. Research showed that 84% of adolescents became pregnant by carelessness and 48% by misuse of contraceptives. Also, the average age at the first pregnancy is two years lower than the age of having the first child, which suggests that many first pregnancies are interrupted before procreation.

As for reproductive care and family planning, the results verify that knowledge of contraceptive methods is almost universal, with 85% of women and men using contraceptives. Fewer than 2% used traditional methods, and 71.6% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 make their own informed decisions about sexual relations, the use of contraceptives and healthcare. Despite this, the rate of unwanted or inopportune pregnancies is high, with 25.6% resulting in live-born children and 35% terminated by abortion or menstrual extraction (emptying of the uterus before confirmation of a pregnancy).

The survey defines the pattern of low fertility of the country by identifying the demographic, socioeconomic and cultural factors that condition the decision to have children or not, and the motivations and circumstances that intervene in the delay of maternity and paternity, acting as inhibitors of the desired fertility. From a sample size of 12,093 people (6,471 women and 5,622 men), the universe and scope covers the entire population from 15 to 54 years old, men and women, permanent residents in private homes. It has national and urban-rural representation for four regions of the country (Havana, West, Central and East) and was carried out through direct interviews with members of households between April 1 and 30, 2022.

And at the same time that Cubans are not having children and the population is reduced in its growth potential, the regime also announced another fact: the accelerated aging of the population, a trend that has made the Island one of the oldest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, where more than 20% of its population is 60 years old and older.

The situation does not admit palliatives: a downward trend in the population, which is influenced by the low fertility described in the survey, the negative balance between birth and mortality rates, and the external migration. More than half a million Cubans have left the country in the last year and a half.

It’s not much of an “accomplishment” for the revolution that fewer and fewer people are being born due to low fertility, and the country is being depopulated by the emigration of young people and the elderly at the same time. It paints a picture that is difficult to observe. The regime considers that these trends will cause an increase in the demand for geriatric, gerontology, security, social assistance and care services for the oldest population. Also, this low population growth is a direct threat to the growth potential of the economy.

Economic models establish a proportional relationship between the increase in population and technology with GDP growth in the medium and long term. The case of Cuba, with a low technological level and a declining population, presents alarming prospects for which the regime has no solutions, because the Marxist model of the economy simply does not work and does not serve to face these threats. It is alarming that since 1977, population replacement has not been reached in Cuba, and it is estimated that by 2025, the total number of inhabitants will fall from the current level of 11 million.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Not All Cubans Are Allies of Russia, Says a Baseball Player in Ukraine

Raidel Arbelay arrived in Ukraine in 1989; his desire was to study in the Soviet Union. (Captura/video Raidel Arbelay)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 July 2023 — “Not all Cubans are allies of Russia or Vladimir Putin,” baseball player Raidel Arbelay, who has lived in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, since 1989, tells 14ymedio. He will never forget how, on February 24, 2022, a drone sent by Moscow was shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force. The aircraft fell 230 feet from his house: the war had just begun.

Arbelay condemns the confrontation and says that “there are no winners but only losers, families in mourning, mothers without children and many other things.” Despite this, he clarifies, he has not planned to leave the country at any time. His wife and two children returned from Spain two months ago, where they had taken refuge after the beginning of the Russian invasion.

While the media talks about the promise of the G7 — made up of the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada — to provide more military support to Ukraine to defeat Russia, and the possibility of its accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is being reevaluated, Arbelay’s attention is focused on the organization of a baseball game on July 23 at the Muromets Park stadium, in the capital, to honor both the professional Ukrainian baseball players who are at the front and those who have already been demobilized.

“Not everyone will be able to play because they are not in Kiev,” admits the athlete, who managed to position himself as coach of the runner-up team of the Ukrainian baseball championship last year. In addition, he has carried out an initiative to collect money for children who have been orphaned during the war. continue reading

Currently, Arbelay is the only Cuban baseball player based in Kiev. The two athletes who were with him in the conquest of the runner-up championship – Eriel Carrillo (former member of the Villa Clara team) and David Mena (who played for Industriales)- have emigrated. “Eriel is playing in Italy through the Cuban Baseball Federation. David emigrated to Mexico this year, I think,” he says.

The Cuban admits that “Ukraine, unfortunately, will not produce baseball players for several years to send to the U.S. Major Leagues, because there are few teams, few players, and the league is not very strong.”

Arbelay’s arrival in Ukraine was “a dream come true.” He says that since he was a child he longed to study in the Soviet Union. “I was lucky to be one of the last group of Cuban students who came in 1989,” he says. In his adventure he counted on the complicity of his parents. “My family supported me from the beginning. During that period you couldn’t emigrate as you can now, and not everyone wanted to do it.”

He also knows that the crisis that Cuban baseball is facing — marked by escapes, dropouts, low wages and the lack of clothing — affects the quality of the sport and the motivation of the athletes. “I know the problems firsthand. Whenever I traveled to Cuba, I brought them bats, balls and many other things,” he adds.

Now, in the midst of the conflict, Arbelay has few Cubans left to talk to in Kiev. “The Cuban community before the war was about 250 people. Now there are about 20 left,” he says.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Activist Maykel Osorbo Threatens to Sew His Mouth Shut Because of Ill-Treatment in Prison

Recent photo of Maykel Castillo taken clandestinely from the Kilo 5 y medio prison, in Pinar del Río. (Facebook/Anamely Ramos)

14ymedio, Havana, July 13, 2023 — Cuban activist Anamely Ramos, now in exile in the US, reported this Wednesday on her Facebook profile that rapper Maykel Castillo Osorbo tattooed the slogan “Patria y Vida” on his forearm and that he threatened to sew up his mouth, as a gesture of protest against the mistreatment suffered in the Kilo 5 y Medio prison, in Pinar del Río, where he has been imprisoned for two years.

“If you don’t hear from me again on Friday, you know what happened: plantado* in a cell, with my mouth sewn up. This is war!” warned the musician during a phone call he had with Ramos, who assures that Until now, Castillo had assumed prison as a race of “resistance” and had focused on reinventing himself, reading and “connecting” with his family, but now he asks for “respect.”

Ramos said that she has been reporting on Castillo’s situation in prison for months, where he has suffered “all kinds of abuses” and the recurring violation of his rights. “Not even the nine years that they have thrown at me matter to me. I am ready to continue being me, to assume whatever. But artists are treated with respect. I am not going to give my respect in exchange for anything, nor for my freedom,” said the co-author of the song Patria y Vida.

Ramos, an activist and art historian, also details a list of arbitrariness committed against the musician, which includes confinement in punishment cells, periods of solitary confinement of up to three months, cancellation of regular and conjugal visits, continuous disagreements with Security agents of the State, humiliation and threats from common prisoners allowed by the officers in charge of maintaining order within the prison. continue reading

In Ramos’s opinion, these warnings have been “directed by the prison bosses” to harass Castillo. “At this point, Maykel has decided to say enough is enough,” she clarified, noting that the inmate’s life is in danger, “like that of all political prisoners who are not willing to play at the pace that power wants.”

As a preventive measure, says Ramos, the rapper “tries to eat as little as possible of what they give there.” As he previously reported, his jailers have even installed a surveillance camera in his cell after accusing him of inciting a riot.

They have also delayed giving him immediate medical assistance when he needed it and refused to give his medical file to his family. “His situation has worsened significantly since they changed his company,” said the activist.

For his part, Cuban opponent Guillermo Coco Fariñas, who is holding a hunger strike in Santa Clara, has been urged by his own organization, the United Antitotalitarian Forum (Fantu), to lift the restrictions on water and food consumption that the dissident claimed to have started on June 26.

The General Council of Fantu reported this request to Fariñas in a statement at a time when the opponent’s relatives had declared to the EFE news agency that he is in a delicate state of health, with severe pain, great drowsiness and a general decay that prevents him from standing up, and they assured that the decision to request the cessation of the strike, unanimously, had been motivated by the approval in the European Parliament, this Tuesday, of a resolution that requests sanctions for the Cuban Government for violating human rights and demands the immediate release of political prisoners.

One of Fariñas’ demands when starting the hunger and thirst strike was to demand that the European Union (EU) break the Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement, the mechanism that governs the organization’s bilateral relations with Cuba since 2017.

Similarly, Fariñas urged the Organization of American States (OAS) to impose a “naval and air siege” on Cuba in application of its Inter-American Democratic Charter, although the island is not part of that body.

In addition, the dissident assured that he would maintain his protest “until all military personnel and their espionage teams currently based in Cuba, belonging to the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation, are withdrawn.”

Fariñas, one of the best-known Cuban opponents at the international level, and winner of the Andrei Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament, told EFE at the beginning of the strike that he was arrested upon arrival at the Santa Clara airport, after an incident involving the loss of his suitcases, after his return from a stay of several months in Miami, USA.

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For the Second Time in Four Years, a Private Bar Is Set on Fire in Santiago de Cuba

The most affected area is the main hall of the building, located on the central corner of Jesús Menéndez (Alameda) and Enramada streets. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 July 2023 — A fire caused serious damage to the ground floor of the M’ka bar in the city of Santiago de Cuba this Tuesday around 9:30 in the morning. The private premises also suffered a similar accident in January 2019. In both cases, there was no loss of human life or injury.

This week’s fire was classified as “small” by the official journalist Cuscó Tarradell, who through Facebook said that the incident was “promptly controlled by the Fire Department of the city of Santiago de Cuba.” However, the local press did not publish anything about the fire.

According to Tarradell, the flames started on a post “by a spark, allegedly due to a power surge in one of the power lines adjacent to the installation’s garden.” The most affected area was the main room of the building, located on the central corner of Jesús Menéndez (Alameda) and Enramada streets.

“The three air conditioning units were burned, the plasterboard that surrounds the structure of the premises, the refreshment displays, some chairs that lost their decorative vinyl, and the professional machine that makes varieties of coffee. The second floor of the building was left intact,” the reporter pointed out.

In the photos disseminated on social networks you can see the roof of the place stained black by smoke and an iMac computer that is blackened on one side. The owner of the premises, Angel Segundo Rodríguez Román, said that “everything will be recovered in the shortest possible time, and M’ka will continue to provide services outside, in the decorative garden in front of the entrance.” continue reading

However, several sources consulted by 14ymedio say that Rodríguez is not the owner of the bar and point to Juan Guillermo Almeida, son of Commander Juan Almeida, as the main owner. “He owns several private businesses that provide services even in hotels, and they consider him one of the “powerful” owners of private businesses and small and medium-size enterprises,” a regular visitor to M’ka told this newspaper.

Born in 1986, Juan Guillermo, known in the Cuban artistic world as JG, is a popular singer who has received an important boost to his career in the national media and frequently appears on the billboard of tourist centers and places for dance music.

“Although he lives in Havana, he also spends time in Santiago and, in a way, was spoiled by Lázaro Expósito (the former general secretary of the Communist Party in the city), who invited him as a musician to many events paid for by the Government,” says the young man.

At the beginning of this month, the largest pizza made in Cuba with 5.3 feet in diameter was made at the M’ka bar as part of the activities for the Fiesta del Fuego. Thirteen pounds of flour, 11 pounds of Gouda cheese, 4.2 ounces of salt and the same amount of basil were used in the product. The news generated criticism in the midst of the deep shortage of flour that has even affected the rationed sale of this food.

After its preparation, the giant pizza was distributed among local customers, passers-by and neighborhood children, as reported by the private business on its Facebook account.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Some 25 ‘Influencers’ Invited to Cuba To Promote Tourism Eat Lobster ‘Every Day’

The Grand Packard hotel on the Paseo del Prado in Havana is sponsoring a salsa class with choreographer Roclan González, the director of Ballet Revolution, for the “influencers.” (Facebook/Enjoy Travel Group)

14ymedio, Madrid, 12 July 2023 — Under the hashtag “Travel unites us,” at least 25 young people arrived in Cuba on July 8, who were characterized by the official press, without hesitation, as “the most important Spanish influencers.” With about 120 million followers altogether on their social networks, they were invited to the Island as part of a strategy to try to reactivate tourism, which continues to fall since the pandemic.

The trip, which takes advantage of the recent inauguration of an air route from Barcelona to Havana, was organized by Enjoy Travel Group, a Spanish tour operator, the talent agency Nickname, which brings together influencers, and several foreign hotel companies with facilities in Cuba.

Figures such as Carlota Boza, actress in the Spanish series La que se avecina; the twins Paula and Aitana Etxeberría, known for their Twin Melody profile; Marina Rivera, winner of La Velada del Año III, a boxing event among content creators; Julia Menu, the Tiktoker with the most followers throughout Spain, and about a dozen other young influencers have been welcomed with all the luxuries in hotels such as the Iberostar Packard, Meliá Internacional de Varadero, Royalton Prado and the Canadian chain Blue Diamond.

Other local agencies such as Gaviota, Ecotur and Cubatur, with the support of the Ministry of Tourism, have also sponsored excursions and events that included a reception at José Martí International Airport with mojitos, flowers and a Cuban music quartet on the arrival of the Enjoy Travel Group flight.

The young people arrived on the Island in business class seats, through a flight organized by Cubana de Aviación and the Spanish airline Plus Ultra. Since their arrival, they have been bombarded with all kinds of events, which have included cooking classes; salsa dances with choreographer Roclan González, director of the Ballet Revolution company; trips through the best areas in Havana in brightly colored almendrones (American cars from the 1950s); catamaran crossings in Varadero; a Cuban version of a safari to the Saturno Cave (Matanzas) and a boat trip on the Canímar River (they were not told that this July 6th marked the 43rd anniversary of the massacre of 56 people in that place by two Navy patrols); and, as the influencers themselves boast on their networks, food that includes lobster “seven days a week.” continue reading

The “young talents,” who are delighted with the wonders available to tourists and banned for the Cuban population, have filled their social media with paradisiacal images in the line of the Cuban Government’s propaganda in their intensive campaign to attract more tourism.

Nickname, the agency that represents the influencers, refused to offer their names when this newspaper contacted its sales manager. However, the social networks of their customers have been filled with comments from thousands of followers who soon recognized them and who question the intention behind the trip to Cuba, criticizing their link with the regime.

Claudia Tropiezos, a Cuban YouTuber living in Spain, recently alluded in one of her videos to some of the Spanish travelers, accusing them of destroying everything that Cuban influencers, “who know the truth [of Cuba],” had managed to expose, and she called the regime “hypocritical” for sponsoring the visit while “they don’t give food to the people.”

Enjoy Travel Group debuted on June 29 as a marketer of the A340 Barcelona-La Habana charter flight that has been held every Thursday on a weekly basis. The aircraft, with 275 seats, is part of an agreement between Cubana de Aviación and Plus Ultra. In addition to the charter line, available with a price starting from 799 euros, the agency offers tour packages throughout the country.

Likewise, the agency offers multi-destination tours from Mexico, where it manages 15 weekly trips to the Island: nine from Cancun and two for each of the other three cities, Mérida, Mexico City and Monterrey.

On the inaugural flight, members of different “familiarization trips” arrived in Cuba.These are promotional trips that are offered to tourism-related agencies so that they know the “product” first-hand. The Cuban representative was the actor and sports commentator Hector Villar, presenter of the program Jugada Perfecta.

Internationally, the project has been joined by the travel agencies Nego and Team Group, as well as others of Italian origin. Enjoy Travel Group also signed agreements with tourism companies such as Ávoris, Club 5 Estrellas, Viajes el Corte Inglés and the German TUI, to reinforce the intense promotional campaign to return tourism to the Island.

During the last year, the Cuban Government has taken desperate measures to attract customers to the numerous recently built luxury hotels that remain 84.4% empty, according to the latest official data provided for the month of May by the National Office of Statistics and Information itself.

The most recent projects included familiarization trips for journalists, the invitation of 400 travel agents belonging to the Spanish tour operator DIT Gestión, based in the Basque Country, and the call for the Santa Maria Music Fest in the Cayería Norte, which invited international musicians such as Tito El Bambino, Charly & Johayron, Tekashi 6ix9ine, Ñengo Flow, Fixty Ordara & Ja Ruley, and the Cuban Isaac Delgado.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Yo Sí Te Creo Platform Raises to 50 the Number of Confirmed Sexist Murders in Cuba in 2023

Several ambulances at the entrance to the Emergency Room of the Saturnino Lora Provincial Hospital in Santiago de Cuba. (Aris Arias Batalla/Facebook)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 10 July 2023 — On Monday, the independent feminist platform Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba (YSTCC) raised to 50 the number of sexist murders registered on the Island so far in 2023, confirming a new femicide in the province of Santiago de Cuba.

This time the victim was Rafaela Yusmila Ramírez Chacón, 45, who was killed by her partner and found dead on June 21 in the doorway of her home, in the town of Baire, in the municipality of Contramaestre.

“We send our condolences to the sons and daughters who survive them, relatives and other close people,” the YSTCC activists wrote in a note released on social networks.

They point out that they are waiting to verify if they can classify as a femicide the case of another woman who died violently, also in June, in Santiago de Cuba.

They also report that in addition to the 50 sexist crimes they have documented in the last six months on the Island, there were two attempts at femicides and four cases that require access to the police investigation.

Three days ago, YSTCC activists and the gender observatory of the Alas Tensas collective confirmed another sexist crime that occurred in June, the month with the most deaths of women at the hands of their partners or ex-partners in the current year.

The Cuban government does not disseminate data on sexist violence, and the official media do not usually address these crimes. continue reading

These independent groups insist in their calls to the Island’s authorities that they declare a “state of emergency for gender violence,” and they complain that the Government has not taken measures in this regard.

The work of the independent feminist collectives, which have social networks and hotlines for victims, and their dissemination of reports in the unofficial media have contributed to putting the focus on cases of sexist murders and disappearances of Cuban women in recent years.

The activists advocate for a comprehensive law against gender violence and the implementation of protocols to prevent these events, as well as the creation of shelters and rescue systems for women and their children who are in danger.

Yo Si Te Creo in Cuba has highlighted that “nothing would have been possible without all those people who share content, verify data and provide support networks for survivors.”

Last April, President Miguel Díaz-Canel assured that there would be “zero tolerance” for sexist violence.

Last June, the official Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) presented the creation of the Cuban Observatory on Gender Equality, which includes statistics of “women who have been victims of intentional homicide as a result of gender violence in the last 12 months.”

The People’s Supreme Court reported in mid-May that in 2022 there were 18 convictions for sexist murders, all with penalties of over 25 years in prison.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Abortions and Menstrual Regulations in Cuba Increased by 14 Percent in the Last 13 Years

According to a study, Cuban women have an average of 1.14 children, the lowest rate in the region. (14ymedio)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, June 12, 2023 — Abortions and menstrual regulations have increased by 14 percentage points between 2009 and 2022 in Cuba, according to the National Fertility Survey released this Wednesday in official media.

The study, which included 12,093 people (6,471 women and 5,622 men) between the ages of 15 and 54, interviewed in April 2022, showed that close to 35% of unwanted pregnancies on the Island ended in abortions or menstrual regulations (emptying of the uterus before confirmation of a pregnancy).

The last survey of this type carried out in Cuba dates back to 2009, when 21% of women of the same age range stated that they had resorted to terminating their pregnancy.

The 2022 study, carried out by the state National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei) with the support of UN agencies based in Cuba, also points out that 25.6% of the respondents said that they carried their pregnancy to term despite of not having wanted it.

Abortion has been legal in Cuba since 1965, although some experts have warned that the use of this practice as a contraceptive method can be considered a health problem. continue reading

The 2022 National Fertility Survey also reflects a low fertility rate among women between the ages of 15 and 49 and an increase in adolescent pregnancies.

According to the survey results, Cuban women have an average of 1.14 children, the lowest rate in the region (where the average is 1.85, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) and equal to the low birth rates of industrialized countries.

In addition, the study indicates that only 21.2% of those surveyed stated that they plan to have children in general and that percentage drops to 9.3% when they are asked if they plan to have them in the next three years.

The survey also showed that 20% of women became pregnant at least once before the age of 18, and 15.6% of those between the ages of 15 and 19 have been pregnant.

The research showed that for the 84% of adolescents who became pregnant it was due to carelessness, which included, for 48%, the misuse of contraceptives.

Many women in Cuba postpone or do not contemplate starting a family due to the economic difficulties that the country is going through, from low wages and high inflation to the limitations to access to their own home and food, medicine and other basic products.

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Cuba Imported More Food From the United States in May, but ‘Scared Off’ Other Investors

Line to buy the chicken that is unloaded at the Tulipán store in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 11 June 2023 — After three months in which chicken exports from the United States to Cuba seemed to be plummeting, May brought a miraculous recovery: chicken experienced an increase of 33% in value and 62.4% in the number of tons imported compared to April. The Island bought 25,281.8 tons at $0.89 per kilogram, which was a total expenditure of $22.69 million.

Havana took advantage of the 18.3% drop in the price of the kilogram of chicken in the United States (compared to the 1.09 dollars per kilogram spent in April) to increase its purchases and reverse a trend that began in February, when the Island could only import 23,014 tons (21.7% less than what was imported in the first month of the year).

However, for Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, the data, despite being a “leap” in Havana’s ability to acquire chicken, is not a good sign because it reveals the “growing import dependence” of the Island with respect to other countries in the region, with the United States in the lead.

Even so, it is to be expected, Monreal foresees, that imports from the United States will maintain their “oscillating” condition, and it will not be uncommon for new highs and lows in both the value of chicken and the number of tons imported by Cuba to be recorded throughout the year. continue reading

With a more than remarkable difference with respect to the United States, Brazil is Havana’s second most important exporter of chicken, and it sent 1,066.2 tons to the Island in May. In third place is Paraguay, a partner that Cuba counted on for the first time in February of this year, and that this month sent only 27.8 tons, a significantly lower amount than that of February, when it sent 83 tons.

Spain, Poland and the Netherlands, which had sold chicken to the Island on several occasions during 2022 and the first months of this year, are not on the list of importers in May.

“The dynamics of chicken exports from the United States to Cuba (with cash advance payment) indicates Cuba’s difficulties in finding stable, high-volume suppliers that offer credit,” Monreal summarizes.

Although the data don’t specify which parts of the chicken Havana has imported, it is enough to review the offers in state shops and in the informal market to notice the prominence of hindquarters and thighs. The breasts are much scarcer, and the sale of the whole bird is also significantly lower.

On Tuesday, the economist criticized another unfavorable aspect of the Cuban economy: the “dysfunctional secrecy” with which the government hides the data on foreign investment and which, among other harmful effects, “scares off” potential investors.

Monreal’s opinion was issued after learning that Cuba was the only country in the region that did not collaborate with the annual report of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on foreign investment. The Island “does not appear reflected in the tables,” despite the fact that other dysfunctional and “parsimonious” economies, such as Venezuela and Haiti, did provide information to the organization.

For its part, the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council reported that the United States registered, during the month of May, a 3.7% increase in its food exports to Cuba, the equivalent of $26,476,991. Among the products sent to the Island are coffee, waffles, cookies, powdered milk, beer, toilet paper, pork and preserves, as well as chicken.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Putin Uses Cuba in His ‘Political Blackmail’ With the United States, Warns Former Cuban General Rafael Del Pino

Russian ship ’Perekop’, whose arrival is scheduled for this Tuesday at the port of Havana. (Wikimedia Commons).

14ymedio, Madrid, 10 July 2023 — The arrival at the port of Havana of the Russian military ship Perekov, scheduled for this Tuesday, hides other interests beyond the sending of humanitarian aid, warns Cuba Siglo 21. According to a dossier made public on Monday by the organization, based in Madrid, and signed by former Cuban General Rafael del Pino, exiled in the United States, the visit of the ship, with 500 cadets on board, is a first step in a new strategy to test Washington.

The document is entitled “Cuba 2023: Are we Sacrificing Ourselves for Putin?” In it, del Pino says the objective is “to establish a constant flow of trips to Cuba by air and naval ships with conventional and nuclear coup capacity that will serve Putin to obtain concessions in a theatrical game of political blackmail in which he assumes the role of ’irrational actor’.”

For this, Cuba Siglo 21 states, “The massive mobilization of the resources of 1962 is not necessary, but instead there will be the continuous presence in Cuba of at least one ship with the capacity to launch a limited nuclear attack that could cause intolerable damage.”

The NGO considers that the probability of this hypothesis becoming a reality “grows directly in proportion to Putin’s military defeats in Ukraine.” continue reading

The Cuban “oligarchs” of the Business Administration Group (Gaesa), says del Pino, “seek to accelerate – in the current context of their alliance with Putin – the strengthening of the Electronic Radio Exploration Brigade (BERE) of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DIM)” of the Armed Forces “through the improvement of their teams and collaboration with Russian and Chinese advisers.

In return, Havana would allow the presence of Russian ships in its waters, with humanitarian and economic excuses. “The Kremlin could be tempted to play the role of an irrational Bin Laden sitting at the gates of the United States wearing a suicide vest with nuclear explosives. The vest is not enough to liquidate your opponent, but it is enough to inflict significant damage if they do not grant you what you request,” del Pino explains as a metaphor.

It’s a strategy, documents the former general, which recalls the one suggested in 1982 by Raúl Castro, then Minister of the Armed Forces, to Yuri Andropov. “We think that perhaps visits from some Soviet naval detachments, such as the one in Cuba at the moment, will help us,” Castro wrote to the then Soviet president in the face of a possible aggression by the United States.

The letter, referred to in an Appendix in the document, continues: “If possible, we carry out a joint maneuver. We didn’t publish it, but the enemy finds out. More often. In short, their ships are all over the world, including Cuba. We do not violate any international law or principle, any international norm. And I think that visits from high-level military delegations help that, such as the one made by Comrade Orgavok, Chief of the General Staff, or, more importantly, like the one made by the comrade and friend, Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union D. F. Ustinov. This type of visit, I think, would have a great political and security connotation for our country.”

The report also includes Andropov’s response: “Comrade Raúl Castro, I will start with the most unpleasant and most important part of a communication that both you and we have to always keep in mind. We can’t fight in Cuba. Simply because you are 12,000 kilometers away from us […] Go there to get our faces broken? No!”

In the same vein as a previous report, published last March, in which he warned of the dangers of a possible military alliance between the Island and Russia, del Pino points out that “there is an invariable pattern of behavior: Moscow uses Cuba as a token of exchange to pressure the United States in favor of its own interests, and then abandons it if it stumbles into an intransigent posture towards Washington.

Therefore, he asks the United States to “decisively and energetically prevent Cuba’s military and intelligence alliance with Russia and China from becoming more dangerous and intolerable.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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More Than 200,000 Doses of the Cuban Vaccine Abdala Will Expire This Summer in Mexico

Mexico bought 9,000,000 doses of Abdala. (Secretariat of Health of Mexico City)

14ymedio, Mexico City, 11 July 2023 — About 227,449 doses of the Cuban vaccine Abdala, which the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador bought in 2022 from the Island as a booster drug against COVID-19 for the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Jalisco and Puebla, will expire between July and August of this year. “The population does not trust” the Cuban drug and prefers other brands, explained Roberto Bernal Gómez, in charge of Health in Coahuila.

Abdala is not among the vaccines recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or its European equivalents, which Mexicans trust, the official said. There are “serious” instances, he added, that “advise the use of ambivalent vaccines,” such as Pfizer and Moderna.

Mexico bought 9,000,000 doses of Abdala that, if this situation continues, will expire over the coming months. This urgency perhaps explains the announcement, days ago, of the inclusion of the Cuban drug in a vaccination campaign, next October, against influenza and COVID-19 for older adults and people who suffer from more than one disease, which is known as associated morbidity.

According to the Undersecretary of Health of Mexico, Hugo López-Gatell, the inclusion of the Cuban drug in the program was carried out in strict accordance with the provisions of the World Health Organization (WHO), which has specified vaccination with the drugs provided for the initial treatment of the coronavirus, such as vaccines, because many countries don’t have access to other medicines more appropriate for the current post-pandemic phase. continue reading

However, doctors have pointed out the dilemma in which Mexican hospitals find themselves: on the one hand, the Government of López Obrador recommends the use of the vaccine; on the other, Abdala is not approved by the WHO, argues Francisco Moreno Sánchez, head of Internal Medicine at the ABC Medical Center, in Mexico City.

For the specialist, the inconsistencies cost the country more deaths from coronavirus: 900,000 Mexicans died during the pandemic, he emphasizes.

A source from the Ministry of Health in Puebla confirmed to 14ymedio that, in that state alone, 16,730 Abdala vaccines are about to expire. In addition, other data obtained by this newspaper indicate that in seven states more than 600,000 doses of the Cuban vaccine remain in refrigeration, of which 87,000 are in the state of Coahuila, and they will expire this July.

On December 19, the Government delivered a batch of 104,600 doses to the state of Baja California. Of this total, it is known that 68,141 vaccines were used and 36,459 remain in refrigeration, but they do not match the data offered in February by the deputy director of the state Ministry of Health, Néstor Hernández, who claimed to have 32,780 doses that are valid until August and September.

In Chihuahua there are 75,899 Abdala vaccines in refrigeration, of the 118,960 that were sent to them by the federal Ministry of Health in February. Thanks to the fact that the campaign was extended, 43,061 people were immunized in that territory.

In Tamaulipas, only 7% of the available Cuban vaccines have been administered. According to official data, the federal Secretariat of Social Welfare delivered 119,800 doses to the state, while the registry data of the agency that have been made public indicate that until February, only 8,386 vaccines were administered.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Sentences of Up to Nine Years in Prison for Eight Cubans Who Looted a Dollar Store

The protests in the Covadonga neighborhood were part of those that took place throughout the Island at the most critical moment of the 2022 energy debacle. (Facebook)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 8 July 2023 — A Cuban military court sentenced eight people to up to nine years in prison for a protest against the blackouts in July 2022, which ended in the looting of a state hard currency store in the town of Covadonga.

According to sentence number 13 of 2023, of the Criminal Chamber of the Central Territorial Military Court, to which EFE has access, the convicts — between 19 and 63 years old — were mostly found guilty of the crimes of public disorder and contempt, although there were also cases of sabotage and robbery with force.

Of the eight convicted, seven were sentenced to between two and nine years in prison, while the remaining defendant was sentenced to “two years of correctional work with internment as an alternative to imprisonment, to be served in a penitentiary establishment.”

The prisoners must also pay restitution for the damage that they caused.

The court decided in addition to impose on them an “ancillary sanction of “deprivation of rights.” Until they fulfill their sentences and pay the “civil liability” imposed, they will not be able to apply for a passport or leave the national territory. continue reading

The ruling indicates that Lieutenant Colonel Wuilder Pérez Gamboa was the judge, and Lieutenant Colonel José Antonio Comas Llanes acted as the prosecutor in this case.

The sentence considers it proven that several of the condemned started a protest in Covadonga following a blackout on the night of July 30, 2022, during weeks of prolonged and frequent blackouts throughout Cuba, lasting at times for more than twelve hours a day.

It also claims that the protest, in which insults were shouted against Miguel Díaz-Canel and the slogan “Homeland and Life” was chanted, brought together between 600 and 700 people. The march culminated in the launch of several blunt objects against a state foreign-currency store, and the windows and entrance door were broken during the looting of the establishment.

The robbery from the state company CIMEX — part of the Gaesa business conglomerate of the Revolutionary Armed Forces — involved 80,128.91 Cuban pesos (667 dollars in the official commercial exchange, 385 in the informal market).

In addition to the material damage, the ruling details a long list of stolen goods, from a toaster oven worth 5,160 pesos to two packages of chewing gum worth 22.5 pesos.

The blackouts between July and October 2022 generated several dozen minor protests in Cuba, highlighting the importance of this issue for the population.

In fact, blackouts were also among the economic and political causes behind the demonstrations of July 11, 2021, the country’s largest anti-government protests in decades.

Cuba is going through a profound economic crisis with a shortage of basic products (food, medicine and fuel), rising inflation, dollarization of the economy, frequent blackouts and an unprecedented mass exodus.

Translated by Regina Anavy

A Russian Warship and a U.S. Submarine Arrive in Cuba

The Perekop – whose visit was announced by Marrero last June – belongs to the Baltic Fleet. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 11 July 2023 — Without any senior Cuban official receiving its crew, the Russian warship Perekop anchored on Tuesday morning in the port of Havana. The policemen, who moved restlessly along the dock and blocked access to the ship with their patrol cars, prevented Cubans from approaching the mammoth hull of the ship, as this newspaper found.

At the same time, the Cuban Foreign Ministry issued an official statement about the passage through the U.S. naval base of Guantánamo, from July 5 to 8, of a nuclear-powered submarine, as part of the “provocative escalation” of the United States.

“The presence there of a nuclear submarine at the moment forces us to question what is the military reason for the event in this peaceful region of the world, against what objective it is directed and what strategic purpose does it pursue,” argued the text that, however, refrained from alluding to a military ship with a capacity of 500 Russian soldiers that, days later, arrives in Cuba on the second anniversary of the massive protests of July 11, 2021.

The official press, which published on the front page the message of the Foreign Ministry, has been succinct in reporting the arrival of the Perekop. According to Cubadebate, the crew was received by Cuban captain José Luis Souto and the Russian ambassador to Cuba, Víctor Koronelli. continue reading

The simple ceremony – topped off by the firing of several salvos from the fortress of La Cabaña – was not attended by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero or any senior official of the Armed Forces, whose head, Álvaro López Miera, recently visited Moscow. In the “full program” of activities there will be a courtesy visit to the head of the Cuban Navy and the governor of Havana.

Cubans who wish to visit the Perekop will be able to do so this Wednesday, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and on Thursday, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The Perekop – whose visit was announced by Marrero last June – belongs to the Baltic Fleet and usually travels with hundreds of cadets from the naval academies of the cities of St. Petersburg, Vladivostok and Baltiysk. It is supposed to bring to the Island “a humanitarian cargo,” according to Russian official media, but so far it has not been clarified what the aid consists of or why it is being delivered.

The military collaboration between Havana and Moscow has developed in an atmosphere of secrecy. Although General Lopez Miera has joined the caravan of senior Cuban officials who have gone to the Kremlin for help, little or nothing is known about his meeting with Sérguei Shoigu, his Russian counterpart.

The Perekop senior staff is expected to spend several days in Havana as part of a process of “cultural and business” exchange with the Island.

However, Cuba Siglo 21 warned on Monday that the arrival of the ship hides “other interests,” the result of a conspiracy between the regime of Vladimir Putin and that of Havana. In a dossier signed by former Cuban General Rafael del Pino,* the organization warns that it is Russia and not the United States that intends to “cause” military tension in Caribbean waters.

*Translator’s note: Rafael del Pino, 84, was a General in the Cuban Air Force. He defected to the U.S. with his wife and children in 1987 by piloting a civilian aircraft.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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