Carlos A. Rodríguez – Translating Cuba

Collecting a Pension in Manzanillo Is a Real Obstacle Course for Retired Cubans

“I worked like a beast and now I look like a beggar, following officials month after month to get paid what they owe me,” complains Orestes

When the collection dates approach, the place is filled with retirees who wait patiently, sometimes all night, to receive their pensions / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Carlos A. Rodríguez, Manzanillo, Granma Province, 25 February 2025 — 14ymedio, Carlos A. Rodríguez, Manzanillo, Granma Province, 25 February 2025 — When he worked for the State, Orestes was happy when the payment dates were approaching. However, since he has been retired, the end of the month makes him worried at the prospect of banks without electricity and ATMs without cash in Manzanillo (Granma province). The obstacle course exhausts him before he even sets foot in the street to receive his pension.

Retirement, he says, is not a gift or a work of charity from the State. It is remuneration for the years he worked, for his contribution to society, which belongs to him. Orestes knows this very well, and that’s why he’s indignant that he has to go on an odyssey to receive his pension. “I worked like a beast and now I’m a beggar, going after the officials month after month so they pay me what they owe,” complains the manzanillero from outside the Post Office where he receives his pension.

When the collection dates approach, the place is filled with retirees who wait patiently, sometimes all night, to be paid their pensions. Orestes himself has experienced the despair of standing in line, which he almost always has to do for several days to finally obtain a few thousand pesos.

Orestes himself has experienced the despair of standing in line, which he must almost always do for several days to finally obtain a few thousand pesos / 14ymedio

At almost 70 years old, Orestes hides a catheter under his shirt and belt, just as he hides his everyday hunger and fatigue. He almost never has money to buy a snack, but even if he did, he couldn’t afford it. He spends every peso he receives each month on food and medicine. If it weren’t for the fact that he has no other option, he says, he would think that the hardships he goes through to get his pension are not worth it. continue reading

“This time I was lucky and can get paid on the third day. I almost always have to come four or five times because the power goes out, the connection goes out or there is no cash. Every day I dedicate to this – he laments – is a lost day.”

Orestes remembers the time when postmen brought the pensions to the homes of retirees, but with the lack of staff and “bancarización” [banking reform] now even that doesn’t happen. “Today they opened the Post Office around nine because there was no power, and at eleven they had to stop because they only had 1,000 peso bills. There were more than 50 people left, and we had to wait until a girl showed up with a money box and smaller bills,” he explains, still not being able to enter.

The situation is repeated at each of the collection points in the municipality / 14ymedio

The people in line complained, he says, but calmed down when the payments restarted, although the anguish did not disappear. Now, he claims, “they fear the imminent blackout after so much delay.”

On the same days and in the same line, Orestes has met many retirees like himself, and he has seen and heard everything: a woman fainted from fatigue in line; a housewife who does not have enough money even though she receives 7,000 pesos and remittances; people who, to collect their pension, must leave their sick relatives alone for hours.

The list goes on, and the situation is repeated at each of the collection points in the municipality

Being in the same line on the same days, Orestes has come to meet many retirees like him, and he has seen and heard everything / 14ymedio

In bank branches such as Bandec’s, the “desperate people,” the retirees who lengthen the line, sleep there the night before to try to collect. That, warns Orestes, “is if the cashiers have cash and the electricity does not go out.”

The discomfort, notes Orestes, spreads quickly in the lines, as the retirees are exhausted by the ordeal they suffer to collect their meager pension. “I gave my youth and my life to this process. I never thought I would regret it, but it’s one disappointment after another,” he says, throwing up his arms in despair.

Above all, he remembers the years he was an employee of the State: “I worked in Minas del Frío, lived there and was a bricklayer in the construction of the Camilo Cienfuegos School City, in the Caney de las Mercedes in the Sierra. That’s why I was proud when I heard people talking about the leaders and the military as the historic generation of the Revolution. I am also the historic generation! Without me and others like me they wouldn’t have built this shit!”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Jehovah’s Witness is Arrested in Manzanillo, Cuba, for Selling Drugs That Would Resolve the Shortage

Kleisy Suárez had medicines sent to him from the US and others produced domestically

At Suárez’s house, located on Cocal Street, between Tívoli and Concordia, the police seized a significant volume of medicines. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Carlos A. Rodríguez, Manzanillo (Granma), 14 February 2025 — The case of Kleisy Suárez, recently arrested for the possession and sale of medicines – both imported and domestically manufactured – has shocked Manzanillo, in Granma province. The father of two girls, a graduate in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation and a Jehovah’s Witness, he is known in the municipality for his affable character and his sense of solidarity in business.

At his home – located on Cocal Street, between Tívoli and Concordia – the police seized a significant volume of medicines and other medical supplies that were being promoted on social media and then sold from home

Initially, Suárez only had medicines sent to him by his relatives from the United States. Later, he stocked up on other medicines produced in the country, the origin of which is under investigation. He sold antibiotics, antiparasitics, painkillers, anti-inflammatories, antihistamines, drugs for high blood pressure, heart problems, eye drops and ointments, as well as syringes and suture material, all of which are scarce.

The prices set by Suárez were governed by informal rates, although in his case they were usually below other similar offers. continue reading

La farmacia Piloto de Manzanillo, ubicada en la calle General Benítez, esquina a Martí. / 14ymedio

Suárez’s arrest divides the opinions of the people of Manzanillo. The shortage has even caused entire premises to become informal pharmacies. This is the case of a restaurant that last year became the best-stocked pharmacy in the municipality. Although many have suffered first-hand the exorbitant prices of resellers and hoarders, others admit that without informal pharmacies they would not be able to obtain their medications.

“If it were up to me, they should all be rounded up and sent to work in agriculture, so they can learn what it means to work,” says Ismael, 73, who has a radical view of the illegal drug trade. “It’s time they got tough on the criminals, because these people are exploiting the people. Prices are sky-high, you don’t have a penny in your pocket and they’re living the sweet life.”

Georgina, a housewife, also maintains a critical attitude from her religious ethics. “I know that boy and I really didn’t know what was happening. More than once I bought medicine from him from outside. Other times he gave it to me as gifts,” she says. “We share faith in the work and grace of Jehovah, even though we congregated in different places. This has caused me a lot of anguish, a lot of guilt. Since it happened, every day I pray for him and for that family. And for myself too. I should have acted differently.”

“I don’t think he did what he did out of greed, but out of necessity,” explains José, an acquaintance of Suárez who lives in the same neighborhood. Suárez worked in a rehabilitation center. His salary, he explains, was not enough to support his wife and daughters, so he decided to start selling what his relatives sent him.

Pharmacy on Martí Street, corner of Masó. / 14ymedio

“His mistake was to start selling State pills instead of continuing with what they sent him from outside, but believe me, it is a difficult situation,” he adds. “I knew him by sight from here, from the ICP neighborhood, in south Manzanillo. I understand that he moved a while ago. I never had to buy anything from him because my nephews send me the things I need. Of course, those who do not have that possibility have to solve it another way.”

For José, Suárez’s story has something of a fatality and any of the many illegal businesses in Manzanillo – and throughout Cuba – could have failed: “That boy is just one more and he had to lose.”

No one in the village forgets, José adds, that during the coronavirus pandemic – and even before – the State authorized the shipment of medicines from abroad without profit. There was some consent, even on the part of the authorities, to the fact that some of these packages, with all kinds of medicines – not only against Covid-19 – ended up in the stash of informal traders.

“No matter how sick someone is, no one consumes so many medicines daily,” he explains. “Thanks to that, people solved the problem because the State had no way to cover the demand for medicines, much less in the middle of the epidemiological crisis. As far as I know, this sale was never legal, but if it disappears, people will have a worse time because there is still no way to supply pharmacies with even the basics. And the hospitals are the same. There you have to bring everything from the medicine to the syringe to inject it because they never have anything.”

Alfredo, another man from Manzanillo, is reluctant to address the issue, but ends up admitting his relationship with the detainee. “It is hard for me to talk about this, because I have always been a man who has been part of the Revolution. What is wrong is wrong, and they say that I almost had a store of health products at home. However, I have to admit that more than once he got me out of trouble, especially with medicines for me and my old lady.”

Thanks to Suárez, Alfredo got the precious “American pills” he needed. It was a surprise, he adds, to find out on the Internet that he also sold national drugs. Despite everything, he has the best opinion of him. “You could see in his eyes that he was not a bad person. Nor was he ostentatious. There is a lot of talk about this on the networks without knowing him. If what they published is true, I cannot say that he was not wrong. I also do not doubt that there is even envy among other sellers. There are people who sell more expensively, here and there, and nothing happens to them.”

Pharmacy on Martí Street, corner with Salud. / 14ymedio

“The Aytana Alama, who published the police operation on the medicines, should also investigate and publish the corruption from above, which is where those resources should be well guarded,” Alfredo emphasizes bluntly.

Facebook profiles and Telegram channels have echoed Suárez’s arrest in recent days. Comments point to irritation at the lack of medicines in pharmacies and demand that there be no impunity for sellers, but also for those who, from privileged positions, divert huge quantities of products.

However, more worrying than the shortage of supplies in state pharmacies is the fact that there is also a shortage of medicines in the informal market – where everyone already buys regularly – and their prices, already inaccessible to many, are rising.

“People forget that during the quarantine during the pandemic, they had to wait in line at pharmacies for days and nights, without even knowing if the medicines they needed would be available,” recalls Hortensia, an elderly woman with varicose veins on her legs.

At that time, she says, you had to pay a high price for your turn in line or for the work of a colero — someone others pay to stand in line for them — and it was almost like paying an overprice for medicine. Anyone who dared to line up in person was faced with a night of pushing and mistreatment.

Hortensia takes Venatón and other drugs sold by the so-called card. More than once she returned home empty-handed because there was nothing in the pharmacy or the medicines were so few that she could not manage to buy them. She is not alone, she says. “There are also problems with treatments for asthmatics, epileptics, nerves, eyes… There are sickly old people like me who ended up in lines worse off than when they arrived.

Regarding the activities of Suárez and other drug sellers, she has no doubts: “Whenever I can pay, I do so and I secure my treatment.”

Kleisy Suárez’s situation is a national alarm and an unfinished business with those who depend on a stable supply of medicines. He did not create the crisis nor is he the one who steals medicines, medical supplies or other products or raw materials from warehouses and storage facilities under his responsibility. Many in Manzanillo fear that he will be made a scapegoat, without this solving the underlying problem of the shortage of medicines.

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“We Have Reified José Martí to the Point of Exhaustion and Young People See Him as a Distant Reality”

Armando, a professor in Manzanillo, regrets the manipulation of the image of the hero by the Cuban regime

The Cine Martí, one of the numerous public spaces named after the national hero. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Carlos A. Rodriguez, Manzanillo, Cuba, 29 January 2025 — “We have objectified Martí to the point of exhaustion, we have limited him to a photo, a slogan, a piece of marble, and children and young people increasingly see him as a more distant reality,” reflects Armando, a secondary school teacher in Manzanillo.

On the 172nd anniversary of the birth of the apostle of Cuban independence, the usual tributes were observed in Granma province. Pilgrimages, parades, special matinees, and vigils were held, but a growing apathy was noticeable among the already scarce public. “We are stuck in time. We have become monotonous and repetitive.” noted one observer, a local professor.

From the largest city to the most intricate village, there is a street, a school or a monument to Martí, like this Cultural Center in Manzanillo. / 14ymedio

From the largest city to the smallest, most intricate village, there is a street, a school, or a monument bearing his name. However, “a society that considers itself as embodying Martí must be able to build upon his legacy, and I think we’re moving backward in this regard,” adds the professor.

“We must see Martí for what he truly is: a visionary, but above all, a human being with a solid ethical foundation and great wisdom. That is why I dislike certain manipulations about his person and his work. Martí was a profound patriot, an advocate for independence, and an anti-imperialist. However, it is questionable how his ideas are forcibly linked to a Marxist process. Of course, I cannot say this in class,” he says with a rueful smile.

“And even less can I say that they should have held a referendum to build Fidel’s tomb next to the mausoleum of El Maestro. The elders say that in the past, even for constructing a fountain or a plaque, one had to seek continue reading

permission from the municipalities. That was not the case at the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago. But nobody would dare to change that now. Fortunately, it’s not my subject, so I limit myself to telling my students that José Julián was brave and exceptionally intelligent.”

Martí Avenue is filled with ditches that mar its appearance, and the cinema has yet to fulfill its social purpose. / 14ymedio

Manzanillo has a primary school, an avenue, and a cinema all named after the apostle, and even a replica of his birthplace on Paula Street in Havana. However, Martí Avenue is filled with ditches that mar its appearance, the cinema has yet to fulfill its social purpose, and the Cultural Center, which includes the replica, has not yet realized its privileged position on the city’s promenade.

“Meanwhile, Lázaro, an elderly man who describes himself as a patriot since childhood, laments. In those years, it was common to have photos of ‘el Apóstol‘ in the homes of communists. Not a partisan orientation; it was something that came from within. Now, everything has changed. On January 27, we used to have a Noche Buena Martiana, a vigil that crowded the poet Navarro Luna’s house. I can no longer attend because of my health. Today, those who go do so because they are summoned by their work. In my time, we went as if going to mass, to pay homage to the greatest Cuban. And that’s it.”

When asked about his dreams and frustrations as an octogenarian, Lázaro disarms us. “At my age, I no longer dream. I would have wanted another city, another country. A truly Martian one. Beautiful, prosperous, even if I continued to carry sacks at the port. So I content myself with praying to Martí at night. And I ask for his forgiveness, like I would to the baby Jesus, for all the stains that have been placed on his name.”

Translated by Gustavo Loredo

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Overwhelmed by Garbage, the Inhabitants of Manzanillo Fear the Arrival of a New Epidemic

“What started in a corner with a small nylon bag, today is a mountain of branches, rubble and dead animals,” they say.

A dumpster was on fire for several days, next to a playground and a medical office / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Carlos. A. Rodríguez, Manzanillo, Granma Province, 6 Febraury 2025 — “I woke up with chest discomfort and shortness of breath. It was after 2 in the morning, and I could tell that something was burning. In the morning, when I took my child to daycare, I saw a metal container burning all kinds of waste five blocks from my house.”

This is how Gisela explains why she has to follow a new route to take her son to school in order to avoid the garbage dump that is growing in front of a playground and a doctor’s office. “What started in a corner with a little nylon bag is today a mountain of branches, debris and dead animals.”

“The Comunales [Communal Services] take so long to collect the garbage that the container overflows. They tell you that the truck broke down, that there is no fuel. It’s always something,” she laments. “In spring, the neighbors set fire, supposedly to scare away mosquitoes, but it is no longer justified. Many of us think that the officials are really the ones who set the fires, so that there is less to collect. They burn sanitary pads, plastics or who knows what. Now we are in the dry season with a lot of wind, so it’s better not to think about what you breathe or what gets in your eyes.”

A dumpster and a garbage heap block the street / 14ymedio

The city, once synonymous with culture and splendor, today is a distant memory. Manzanillo has gone from being the Pearl of the Guacanayabo to a huge open dump.

“There is no one living here anymore,” says Eduardo, a neighbor of La Kaba, an agricultural market. “They throw out garbage from the houses the same as the decomposed merchandise from the shelves. They continue reading

thought they were going to solve it with a metal container but it made things worse.” He refers to the huge orange dumpsters scattered around the city center that have proliferated in the face of the inability of Communal Services, subordinated to the municipal government, to do its job, and which, in addition to ruining the ornamentation, legitimize the garbage piles.

“It will take a century to clean it up, and in the meantime you have to stomach all that filth. There are coffee shops in the surroundings, and they are now disgusting because of the flies and the plague,” says Eduardo, who remembers better times.

“There was a time when you didn’t see so much filth on the streets. They managed to hire carretoneros, horse-cart drivers, who were quite efficient. They stopped working because they were paid very little, and the raw honey for the horse feed went up in price. It even affected the closure of the sugar mills,” he said. The same thing happened in Las Tunas, where the carretoneros hired by Communal Services complained about the low wages and the terrible conditions.

The dumpster was eventually located half a block from Céspedes Park / 14ymedio

“With the coming of the dumpsters, the ‘divers’ resurfaced. It’s terrible that someone survives like this. They dive in looking for scrap metal, firewood or anything they can sell. It’s depressing, and I’ve seen old people eat rotten fruit thrown away by street vendors. We have reached that extreme.”

Despite the pride they have always shown for their city, the residents of Manzanillo admit that it has entered an unstoppable spiral of decadence.

They fear that at any moment a new epidemic like COVID will arrive, this time caused by the contamination and the lack of sanitation. And what saddens them the most is to see children and the elderly who, pushed by necessity, rummage through the trash for a piece of metal or an empty can of beer that can be exchanged for food.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Without Light and Without Hope, the People of Manzanillo, Cuba, Are Back in the Stone Age

Darkness reigns on Calle Martí. In the background, three blocks away and impossible to appreciate is Céspedes Park / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Carlos A. Rodríguez, Manzanillo (Granma Province), 4 February 2025 — “It seems like we’ve gotten used to the blackouts. Now people get up to cook at four in the morning to take advantage of the current, or they buy coal that is scarce and goes up in price due to demand,” Eneida says as she selects some battered bananas in the market.

“Before six they had already turned off the power, so I had to start a fire to make coffee and cook peas. But life at home is not just about cooking. You have to wash and iron clothes and even watch a telenovela. Everything can’t be work, I’ve already done enough,” says the retiree.

Businesses that can afford it are illuminated with generators sent or acquired abroad / 14ymedio

Yordanki faces the same difficulties in his daily life, although he must also worry about his family. “Everything has become a problem,” he says. “In the house and on the street we walk like zombies, thinking about what to cook, and with what. This is an abuse. Even if my boys start their homework early, they don’t have daylight for long, even less so for the period of exams. They study with rechargeable lightbulbs and even with cell phones, but in the morning they go to school already tired. And so day after day passes, with no prospects for improvement.”

The blackouts have long ceased to be an event and now are one of the most important daily problems for the Cuban people. The consequences are catastrophic for industry and the economy, whose growth is unfeasible without energy; also for families, the most fragile link in continue reading

society.

“It’s no longer about whether it’s the Felton or the Guiteras [power plant]. Just yesterday we were without electricity from eight in the morning until dawn today. It’s too much,” Mariela protests. The Matanzas thermoelectric plant, the largest-capacity unit on the Island, left the National Electric System on Sunday morning in an “unforeseen” way. It was synchronized again on Monday night, but before 8 pm, it had suffered another breakdown. “You don’t recover from the shock. My daughter lives in the United States, and my fear is that when there is a blackout, landlines, cell phones and the internet don’t work, so you can’t even communicate with your relatives. What’s
more, the television signals go down and even Radio Granma, so there’s nowhere to find out about anything.”

At 8:30 at night, darkness hangs over the streets, and neighbors prefer to stay in their homes for fear of being victims of violence or crime / 14ymedio

“Manzanillo is unrecognizable,” says the night watchman of a company. “The city is completely dark. You only see a few public light bulbs at the beginning of the boardwalk and a few others on some streets. That, and in a couple of private businesses. People don’t go out anymore. They hardly even sit on their front steps for fear of being assaulted or having stones thrown at them. You see me here because they still have music in El Castillito, but I’m going to pick myself up just in case. And you should do the same,” he suggests frankly.

Except for a few who can relieve their nights with generators provided by relatives abroad, the people live like they’re back in the Stone Age. In the shadows, February promises to be a long month, too long, although 2025 is not a leap year.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The ‘Most Modern Aqueduct in Latin America’ Is in Manzanillo, Where the Residents Receive Water Every 45 Days

Anyone who wants to save the 50 or 70 pesos they charge for a 20-liter bottle must stand in long lines to obtain water

Carrying water has become a daily task for the population / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Carlos A. Rodríguez, Manzanillo (Granma Province), 7 January 2024 — Housewives, doctors and engineers, children and adults over 70 stand in long lines at any time to carry water in Manzanillo, in the province of Granma. It doesn’t matter that it’s 5:00 in the morning and they have to go to school or work later, or if it’s at night. Nor whether they are healthy or have heart disease, hypertension, hernias or any other health problem. Anyone who wants to save the 50 or 70 pesos charged for a 20-liter bottle or the 5,000 that the water truck charges cannot miss this appointment, which confirms the failure of the new aqueduct that the authorities announced – with their usual triumphalist spirit – in 2005.

The new infrastructure of the city of Manzanillo was announced as the most modern aqueduct in Latin America and was supposed to solve the severe crisis in the water supply, since it would provide the service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The project returned hope to a city, which despite being on the banks of the Guacanayabo Gulf, with an important water table and wells just 10 kilometers away, suffered a shortage due to the deterioration of the hydraulic infrastructure.

The new infrastructure of the city of Manzanillo was announced as the most modern aqueduct in Latin America / 14ymedio

The reality was very different from what was planned, since not even in the beginning could the promise be fulfilled, except in the upper part of the city. In the populous neighborhoods of Caymari, Taíno, Dagamal, Horacio Rodríguez and Orestes Gutiérrez, the water supply cycles began every three days, quite an achievement if you take into account that, at present, the cycle is 45 days. Some areas even go two to three months without water, a continue reading

situation that, especially since 2021, seems to be permanent.

The authorities have been exposing on local television and radio programs for almost 20 years what they consider the causes of the disaster: continuous leaks in the pipes, breakdowns in the pumps or in the storage and distribution tank within the city, the chlorine deficit, dispenser problems and, of course, power cuts. Endless misfortunes for “the most modern aqueduct on the continent.”

In the absence of solutions, the population has seen the need to turn the transport of water – in all types of containers and at any time of the day – into a daily task, although it often involves carrying it from a distance of 300 meters to their homes.

Elizabeth, a 37-year-old worker, says she prefers to go before dawn to get to work on time. She, her two teenage children and her husband get up early to collect as much as they can on each trip and, if possible, rest one day before repeating such a tiring task.

“In the municipality there are already two pumps to relieve the crisis, but no cement to repair them,” says Jorge, a 72-year-old retiree who carries, almost daily, two water bottles in a wheelbarrow. It takes him at least three hours, between waiting and walking.

Manzanillo is still without solutions today, but full of ditches like scars, left by the Aqueduct company / 14ymedio

Meanwhile, the abundant leaks found throughout the hydraulic network not only mean the loss of water but also the waste of what was invested in its sanitation, including chlorine, electricity and human resources, a highly worrying situation in a city that suffered a cholera outbreak in 2012. That year, almost 90 people were diagnosed with the disease and three died. Since the cholera epidemic in Cuba in 1882 and a last handful of cases in 1959, the condition had been eradicated.

Manzanillo is still without solutions today, but full of ditches like scars, left by the Aqueduct company. Scars or wounds that demonstrate indolence in the face of a thirsty people.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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