Nelbys Leyva, 37 years old, had a daughter. (Facebook)
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 23 June 2023 — This Thursday, the Cuban independent feminist platforms Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo raised to 45 the total number of femicides verified so far this year in the country, with the confirmation of a new sexist murder.
The victim was Nelbys Leyva, 37, with a daughter, who allegedly died at the hands of her ex-partner on June 16 in Guanabacoa (west).
The formal complaint comes just one day after both groups confirmed two other victims of sexist violence in Cuba and four days after they registered two other femicides, in one of the most tragic weeks of the year.
So far in 2023, the total number of femicides verified in 2022 (34) has already been exceeded in Cuba, according to the records of the activists and collated by 14ymedio and EFE (in the absence of official public statistics).
In addition, the collectives have counted 163 sexist murders in Cuba since mid-2019, when they began to register them.
The activists called on the Cuban government to declare a “state of emergency” for “gender violence.”
The work of independent feminist collectives and its dissemination in the unofficial media has contributed to putting the focus on the cases of sexist murders and the disappearances of Cubans in recent years. continue reading
These groups also advocate 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.
Last April, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel assured that there would be “zero tolerance” of sexist violence.
The official Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) gave a presentation at the beginning of June to 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.” However, the data are not clear, based on convictions corresponding to the year.
The Supreme People’s Court reported in mid-May that in 2022 there were 18 convictions for sexist murders, all with penalties above 25 years in prison. However, it did not indicate when they occurred or detail the number of cases investigated that year.
The announcement was published after the court itself confirmed the sentence of life imprisonment for two men previously convicted of sexist violence.
These are the first sentences against perpetrators of femicides for the crime of murder, given that the crime of gender violence does not exist on the Island. They were made public in 2023 and correspond to cases filed in 2022.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo in Havana, while they were still free. (Anamely Ramos)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Mexico City, 23 June 2023 — Amnesty International (AI) said Thursday that the Cuban authorities must release the artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo Pérez “immediately and unconditionally.”
It is now one year since they were unjustly sentenced to five and nine years in prison, respectively, in a legal process that did not respect the guarantees of a fair trial.
“The continued arbitrary detention of Luis Manuel and Maykel is part of a pattern of repression based on imprisoning at all costs those who dissent from the authorities,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International in a statement issued today.
“These arrests seek to generate a paralyzing effect on activism and silence freedom of expression in Cuba,” she added.
The AI representative said that both sentences “are an example of the cruelty that the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel is willing to exert on anyone who criticizes the Cuban authorities.”
Given this, she said, “the authorities should abandon the use of the penal system to repress the population, and take the necessary measures to guarantee the independence of the Judiciary and the Prosecutor’s Office.”
Castillo Pérez, known as “Osorbo”, is a musician and human rights activist. He is co-author of the song Patria y vida, which criticizes the Cuban government and has been adopted as a protest anthem. He was arrested at his home on May 18, 2021 by security agents and has been in prison ever since. continue reading
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is also a member of the artistic collective San Isidro Movement, which has opposed a law that censors artists.
He was arrested on July 11, 2021 in Havana, after announcing in a video that he would join the protests that same day, in which thousands of people demonstrated peacefully and spontaneously in dozens of cities demanding a change in the laws. living conditions in Cuba.
According to the organization Justicia 11J, as of June 7, 2023, 773 people detained during the 2021 protests were still deprived of their liberty.
In 2021, AI analyzed the facts and the context of the detention of Otero Alcántara and Castillo Pérez and designated both artists as prisoners of conscience, since they have been deprived of their liberty solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights. Amnesty International considers that “the criminal process and the sentence in which it culminated consisted of a farce, lacking any respect for the minimum guarantees of a fair trial.”
And it added that “the sentences must be reversed and the people affected released immediately and unconditionally. Likewise, the Government must guarantee that neither they nor their families or relatives suffer repression for seeking justice in this case.”
On May 18, the NGO sent a letter to Díaz-Canel two years after Castillo’s arrest “for exercising his right to freedom of expression and criticizing the government,” for which he was sentenced to nine years in prison.
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Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez during a press conference for foreign media in Havana. (Screen capture)
EFE (via 14ymedio), 13 June 2023 – Cuba described this Monday as “false” and “a new disinformation operation” the statements of the U.S. Government about the presence of a Chinese espionage center on the Island.
“The statements of the Secretary of State of the United States (Antony Blinken) about the presence of a Chinese espionage base in Cuba constitute a falsehood,” said the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, in a statement released on his Twitter account and official media.
The head of Cuban diplomacy pointed out that “Cuba’s position on this issue is clear and categorical” and stated that Blinken’s statements “lack support.”
“Cuba is not a threat to the United States, nor to any country. The United States applies a policy that daily threatens and punishes the Cuban population as a whole,” stressed the Cuban foreign minister.
He also said that Washington’s accusations are intended to “serve as a pretext to maintain the economic blockade against Cuba and the maximum pressure measures that have reinforced it in recent years.” continue reading
Secretary of State Blinken said on Monday during a press conference that Joe Biden’s government has “a strategy” to counter Chinese espionage in Cuba and other countries that is yielding results.
On Saturday, the U.S. Government declassified information from its intelligence services that claim that since 2019, or even earlier, China has had some “intelligence collection facilities,” a term that can include anything from centers with dozens of spies to a simple listening station equipped with an antenna.
According to those reports, when Joe Biden arrived at the White House in January 2021, he received information that China was trying to expand its intelligence services around the world with the creation of espionage centers in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Blinken made those statements days after The Wall Street Journal published that China and Cuba had agreed to build a large espionage center on the Island, a report that the Government of Havana categorically denied and that the White House initially described as “inexact.”
The Deputy Foreign Minister of Cuba, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, said that what was published by the New York newspaper was “unfounded information,” “slander” and “fallacies” to justify the U.S. sanctions against Cuba and destabilize the Island.
For its part, the Chinese government accused the United States of “spreading rumors and slander.”
One of the spokespersons for the White House, John Kirby, responded this Monday at a press conference to questions from EFE that “we have made our concerns clear,” when questioned whether there had been any communication with the Cuban Executive on this issue.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Deposits of the Russian state company Rosneft. (Energy Newspaper)
EFE/14medio, MRussia and Cuba are preparing an intergovernmental agreement for Russia’s Rosneft to supply 1.64 million tons of oil and hydrocarbons annually to the Island, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said on Tuesday during a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Mishustin.
The Prime Minister, who is on an official visit to Russia, commented that on Tuesday he spoke with directors of Rosneft, who informed him about the progress of the working group created to prepare the agreement between Havana and Moscow.
According to Marrero, this agreement seeks to guarantee the “stable supply” of oil to Cuba.
Marrero stressed the validity and importance of this agreement for his country and acknowledged that Cuba is experiencing difficulties with the supply of fuels.
Researcher Jorge Piñón, from the University of Texas, informed 14ymedio that the amount of oil that Havana is negotiating with Moscow (1,640,000 tons) is equivalent to 32,000 barrels per day.
“This will cover Cuba’s deficit of 90,000 barrels per day, assuming that Venezuela continues to deliver 57,000 barrels per day. At today’s prices, approximately $58 a barrel for Urals crude oil, the total value is about $676 million per year. How is this debt going to be paid?” continue reading
For his part, Mishustin, who meets for the second time with Marrero as part of his visit, stressed that Russia “considers the strengthening of friendship and partnership with Cuba as an unquestionable priority.”
The head of the Russian Government added that the cooperation between Moscow and Havana “has passed the test of time and repeatedly demonstrated its stability in the face of external challenges,” among which he cited the economic sanctions of the “unfriendly countries.”
Mishustin reported that both countries are working on the creation of a bilateral financial system of payments and have begun to trade based on national currencies, the ruble and the Cuban peso.
On Tuesday, the Cuban Prime Minister met with the former Russian president and vice president of the Russian Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev, to discuss bilateral cooperation, including the technical-military, transport, industry and investment spheres.
In particular, they talked about cultural and humanitarian cooperation and the scholarship program for Cuban students, as well as the creation of a special school for the teaching of the Russian language in Cuba.
Marrero, who has already participated in the intergovernmental council of the post-Soviet Eurasian Economic Union and has held meetings with senior Russian officials, plans to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum this week.
In the midst of an unprecedented rapprochement, Havana bets on the “generosity” of Moscow, which has already sent several loads of hydrocarbons. The Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, had already promised Manuel Marrero “the execution of large joint projects” in the oil field.
In this regard, Piñón stated in an interview with Radio Televisión Martí, last Wednesday, that Cuba lost one million barrels of storage during the fire in Matanzas and that, given the need to make space to store the 800,000 barrels of high-quality crude oil that arrived on the Island from Russia, it is likely that the loads of two of the oil tankers from Venezuela have been resold.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The dollar is scarce and there is a lot of demand. (EFE/File/Sebastiao Moreira)
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 13 June 2023 — The dollar once again reaches 200 Cuban pesos (CUP), a situation that the Island had already experienced in October 2022. This time, according to analysts, it has different characteristics.
If the previous time the dizzying rise was the result of speculation, this time it’s because of the “incomplete recovery after the pandemic, especially of tourism and macroeconomic imbalances, such as the fiscal deficit,” according to Cuban economist Pavel Vidal, a professor at the Javeriana University of Cali (Colombia).
The specialist, in addition, does not see an encouraging future and indicates that most likely the exchange rate “will continue to be above 200” in the future.
Mauricio de Miranda, full professor and researcher at the same university, adds another factor: immigration. “There is a shortage of dollars and a very high demand for them,” he told EFE, which has reported on the phenomenon. continue reading
At the beginning of 2021, with the start of the Ordering Task,* the authorities announced an exchange rate of 1 dollar for 24 CUP. That was always considered by economists as totally far from reality, and it was not long before it was proven that they were right.
On the street, the dollar took little time to reach rates close to 80 or 90 pesos, and a year later, in August 2022, the Central Bank announced a modification, going up to 120 pesos per dollar for individuals and the retail sector.
But today’s situation is different from that of last October, when the 200-peso barrier was broken for the first time, according to Vidal.
In those days, Vidal recalls, there was an “overreaction to the exchange rate.”
In a new attempt to retain foreign currency in the financial sector, the Government announced last April that, after two years, Cuban banks would again accept dollar deposits in cash.
Experts saw in that announcement a contradiction to the spirit of monetary reform that sought, precisely, the opposite: to stop dollarization.
One of those critics was de Miranda, who reminds EFE that in “the national market, the dollar continues to be the currency that solves many things.”
“As long as the Cuban national market continues to offer important goods in foreign currency, the Cuban peso will not recover,” he says.
*Translator’s note: The Ordering Task is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Since April, Cuba has suffered a crisis due to a fuel deficit that has resulted mainly in shortages of service centers. (14ymedio)
EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 13 June 2023 — The Cuban Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil, acknowledged that the diversion of diesel from industry to electricity generation has negatively affected the country’s productive activity.
Gil made these statements in his inaugural speech at the “Three Days of Productive Economics of Cuba,” a meeting of state and non-state economists and businessmen that takes place until Friday at the Chamber of Commerce in Havana.
“In recent months we have had to consume fuel for the generation of electricity, diesel mainly, due to the breakdowns we have had in the thermal plants. And that overconsumption of diesel affects the economy, because it leaves less fuel for use in productive activity,” he explained.
Since April, Cuba has been suffering from a fuel deficit crisis that has mainly resulted in shortages in gas stations and long lines of vehicles waiting to refuel, sometimes for several days.
The Cuban government initially indicated that it was from non-compliance by the fuel supplying countries and that the effects would last at least through April and May. The situation has not improved, and the government has not given any indication of when the situation could normalize.
Gil added in his speech that this situation has led his ministry to make difficult decisions in the face of fuel shortages. continue reading
“From time to time we call an industry and tell it to shut down. We have to stop the production of steel, the production of cement. Why? To try to help the population. And we always say when we pick up the phone that we are also affecting the population. We are less affected by the blackouts, but we are ceasing to produce,” he said.
The minister stressed that the country continues to consume “a lot of fossil fuel for the generation of electricity,” something that is “limiting economic growth.”
“That’s not how the economy can function. The economy depends on the basis of a stability of fuel and electricity generation,” he said.
Gil said that Cuba would not have enough foreign currency to support an economic growth of 4%. However, last December, the minister said that the Government expected the national economy to grow by 3% in 2023, compared to this year’s 2% and the 1.3% growth of 2022, so it would not yet be possible to recover the levels of 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The official announced these figures when presenting the 2023 Economic Plan to the National Assembly of People’s Power.
The Minister of Economy focused his speech on Tuesday on the substitution of imports and the export of goods and services in order to generate foreign currency and to attract foreign investment, which he called a “strategic ally.”
He assured that Cuba is in a “productive recovery process” after “three years of a very complex economic situation.”
The Island is suffering its worst crisis in decades, with shortages of basic products (food, medicines and fuel), frequent blackouts, depreciation of the national currency, partial dollarization of the economy and strong inflation.
The minister said that the country is suffering from “very complicated inflation in recent years” and that this price increase is “one of the most visible problems that the economy has to face and solve.”
In his opinion, part of the price increase is due to Cuba’s strong dependence on the foreign market.
“We import more than 20 cents of the dollar to produce one peso of gross domestic product (GDP). We have a very high imported component. We put a lot of effort in the plans in 2016 and 2017, but we never fulfilled them. We ended up with a tendency to continue importing more to generate GDP, and that is one of the main limitations for economic growth,” he explained.
One dollar is exchanged for 24 Cuban pesos in the formal market (for state companies and legal entities), but in the informal one it has depreciated up to 200 pesos per US dollar.
Currently, he added, national supply is “very restricted” and imports do not meet demand, which has a certain consumption capacity.
“Today, a very high percent, I could say more than 90% of the products sold in our store network [that accepts payment only] in MLC (freely convertible currency) are imported. And in the national currency network, very little is sold, and a good part is imported,” he said.
To reactivate the economy, he advocated replacing imports of intermediate and final goods with “efficient” investment in national production – especially in industries with “idle capacities” – and thus generate added value and employment.
In this way, supply could be expanded, inflation could be addressed, and imports could be reduced. “All that can be done perfectly. We have the opportunity to solve it,” Gil said.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, in Sochi this Friday, where he met with Putin. Today, Monday, begins his visit in Moscow. (Government of Cuba)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Juan Palop, Havana, 12 June 2023 — Cuba and Russia have announced plans to strengthen their economic and trade relations, but experts doubt that they can achieve a new bilateral golden age, and they glimpse geopolitical interests in difficult times for both countries.
This week the Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, is in Russia for the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, while the opposition warns of a new “Russification.”
The visit, the last after those of several ministers and President Miguel Díaz-Canel himself last November, comes shortly after Havana announced preferential treatment for Russian investors, from transfers of agricultural land in usufruct for 30 years to tax exemptions.
These measures complete a flood of announcements – including the entry of three Russian ruble banks on the Island – and the presentation of a package of reforms of the Stolypin Institute to liberalize the Cuban economy.
Experts consulted by EFE believe that this movement can be understood to some extent by necessity, due to the serious economic crisis that Cuba has been facing for more than two years.
“After the pandemic, the tightening of sanctions and the failure of reforms, Cuba has been economically and financially isolated. Russia can be an alternative to achieve some kind of international reintegration,” says Cuban economist Pavel Vidal, a professor at the Javeriana University of Cali (Colombia).
Cuban economist Tamarys Bahamonde, a PhD candidate in Public Policy and Public Administration at the University of Delaware, also alludes to the “preferential treatment” of the past and the lack of indications that Washington will change its policy towards the Island: “Cuba has no alternative but to look at Russia and Asian partners.”
However, Vidal emphasizes that, for this approach to prosper, “it is necessary to find mutually beneficial economic interests,” something that “is not yet clear.” The great Cuban bet is tourism, he adds, although the sector has not taken off after COVID-19, and Russia is far away.
“For greater integration between the two economies, it is necessary to look for something that is of value to the market and to Russian entrepreneurs,” explains Vidal, who recalls that Russian capitalists seek to “maximize their profits and minimize risk” and must “perceive” that they can achieve this.
It’s not easy. Due in part to negative experiences in “the recent past,” the Cuban government now has “to do much more to convince investors” that “they’re going to find a market with opportunities, institutions and a regulatory framework that guarantees and allows capital to be profitable.”
Regarding the specific announcements, Bahamonde indicates that the use of the ruble on the Island could have some impact if this currency were used “massively” in international transactions, but it is not. Vidal believes that its application in Cuba will not go beyond being something “marginal.”
“It is left to see if the Russians can convince the Cuban government to give more space to the private sector and move forward in a deeper transition from the Soviet-style economic model. The Russians know the shortcomings of this model and have experience in a transition that did not go well and from which they also had to learn things. If they succeed, even coming from the Russians, it would be an important contribution,” says Vidal.
Bahamonde believes that Russia is the “wrong” partner as a model of economic transformation and says that Cuba does not need economic policy recommendations from foreign experts, because its own national experts have already made them decades ago. The problem, he says, is that in the Cuban government there is a lot of “resistance to change.”
“What is needed are not new recommendations, but the political will to do what has to be done” to “implement the transformations that have been recommended for many years,” says this economist, who emphasizes that the transformations have to include “political institutions.”
In this attempt to relaunch bilateral relations, Bahamonde perceives geopolitical interests beyond merely economic ones. “All empires have their interests” and Russia is no exception, he observes.
In this same sense, university professor Michael Bustamente, a specialist in Cuban and Cuban-American studies at the University of Miami, has said: “In the absence of other options, of other partners, and, above all, in the absence of a different policy on the part of the United States, Cuba is opting for a new intensification of its relations with Russia and is trying to obtain whatever benefit it can.
For Moscow, he continues, “Cuba is, as it has been since the 1960s, a chip on the geopolitical board.” He speculates that in the Kremlin, the relationship with Havana could be seen as a kind of “counterweight” to Washington’s “intrusion” into Eastern Europe in the middle of the war in Ukraine.
Havana, for its part, could be seeking to “indirectly put pressure” on the United States to change its policy towards the Island, says Bustamante, although henwarns that such a movement would be counterproductive.
“I know that Washington is worried,” says Bustamante, but he doubts that there will be a change of policy from the United States towards Cuba, because he senses in the Democratic administration a “lack of disposition.”
Bustamante is struck by the fact that these movements by Cuba have not had a response from the European Union, which in addition to being the Island’s first trading partner, is in one of its biggest political crises with Moscow due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I’m surprised that Cuba isn’t taking care of its relationship with Europe a little more. It will be interesting to see to what extent Cuba can balance this new intensification of its relationship with Russia with a relationship with Europe that continues to be crucial and strategic for the Cuban economy. There is a lot of tension and contradiction, and there are risks for Cuba,” he says.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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EFE (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 7 June 2023 – More than 40 intellectuals from Spain and Latin America have signed a manifesto against the”siege” on freedom of expression imposed by “dictatorial” regimes – an initiative led by the Nicaraguan writer Giaconda Belli, stripped of her nationality by Daniel Ortega’s government.
Literature, always on the side of freedom and democracy, is the document’s title, signed by intellectuals from Nicaragua, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba. It will be read out next Friday at the Madrid Book Fair.
Belli will share the reading with Spanish writer Rosa Montero, Cuban opposition leader Yunior García and Venezualan author Juan Carlos Chirinos.
Between February and March the Nicaraguan authorities withdrew the nationality of more than 300 people critical of Daniel Ortega, including Belli, “for betrayal of the country”.
Among those signing are: Héctor Abad Faciolince, Alberto Anaut, Nuria Azancot, Valeria Correa-Fiz, Antonio Lucas, Inés Martín Rodrigo, Joan Manuel Serrat, Juan Cruz, Alfonso Mateo-Sagasta, Soledad Puértolas, Carme Riera, Germán Solís, Dani Torregrosa, Manuel Vilas, Juan Villoro, Alexis Díaz Pimienta y Fernando Iwasaki.
They demand democracy and respect for human rights in countries “where totalitarian regimes have left the mark of death, prison, plunder, confiscation and banishment on those who have opposed the “dictatorships”. continue reading
“Countries which brand critics as traitors and condemn them in farces that they call ’courts’ without proof nor the right to defend themselves” – they say. “Countries where citizens are subjected to a regime of terror and espionage, where they remove a citizen’s nationality, steal their possessions, force them abroad and refuse their return”.
These are the countries where they shut down language academies and poetry festivals, silence civil society and the independent media are gagged”, they declare.
And they emphasise the need to never forget or be indifferent to these situations, and to support those writers, artists and media who denounce them from exile.
The signatories encourage the writers to work actively and coordinatedly in this fight against the abuse and violation of human rights.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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A total of 16,523 Venezuelans received for the first time a permit from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in 2019 that authorized them to live and work in the Caribbean country. (UNHCR)
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 11 June 2023 — The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated on Saturday that Venezuelan asylum seekers in Trinidad and Tobago continue to be vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and a multitude of problems.
Last week, the Anti-Trafficking Unit of Persons of the Ministry of National Security revealed that the police were investigating allegations of abuse presented by a Venezuelan woman who had been arrested at the Chaguaramas heliport, in the northeast of the island of Trinidad.
The authorities stated that after an investigation of the complaints there was no evidence of sexual abuse at the heliport. The UNHCR stated that refugees and asylum seekers in Trinidad and Tobago “cannot regularize their immigration status, enroll in official educational institutions, access medical care or work legally.”
It said that “when it is unavoidable, governments must guarantee access to legal assistance and advice.” Likewise, the High Commissioner said he was willing to help the Government “to establish reception mechanisms that offer alternatives to the detention of refugees and migrants.” continue reading
A total of 16,523 Venezuelans received for the first time a permit from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in 2019 that authorized them to live and work in the Caribbean country and that was extended, but without meeting expectations.
For their part, several Cuban refugees in the country have also denounced the difficulties in processing their asylum applications and the close surveillance to which the Cuban Embassy in Port of Spain subjects those who emigrated from the Island. This is the case of Carlos Jiménez Vasco and his Russian wife, Daria Jiménez.
The couple escaped to Havana from St. Petersburg (Russia) after the invasion of Ukraine, to avoid the possible recruitment of Carlos, and they also fled Cuba for Trinidad on April 18, after disagreements with his family — supporters of the regime — and pressure from State Security.
According to Jiménez, the problem of Cuban refugees begins with the UNHCR itself, which does not adequately manage cases. There has been little progress with the asylum process, even after the couple’s campaign to be noticed and attention from the independent media.
Interviewed by this newspaper on May 24, Jiménez noted the precarious conditions of refuge to which he has been subjected and said that “every day is a new battle for survival.” “Although the Government of Trinidad and Tobago signed the UN agreements on refugees, it did not ratify them, and that is why it isn’t complying with them,” he complained.
“Only words and no protection,” Jiménez summarized the situation in the Caribbean country. He and his wife also suffered “a scam” by those who hosted them. “We had to sleep with rats three nights in a row,” he said at the time. When denouncing the situation in the Living Water Community – “UNHCR’s right arm in Trinidad” – the officials seemed to suggest that the owners of the house were right. Carlos faced them and recalled that, as asylum seekers, they also had the right to be treated as human beings.
Several days ago, Jiménez again denounced the stagnation of the situation and the lack of attention by the officials, to which he added the surveillance of the agents of the Cuban Embassy. In contact with several refugees from the Island, they told him that they had the impression that Trinidad and Tobago – one of Cuba’s allied countries in the region – practices a “discriminatory policy” against Cubans, and the migration services make them wait several years before giving them a response about their process.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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In its May update, the group of activists added that 1,845 people have been arrested for political reasons since those protests, and in 2023 will mark their second anniversary.
Justicia 11J stated that the people arrested are being held in seven prisons spread throughout the country.
The NGO added that since the demonstrations in the summer of 2021 — the most numerous in decades — it has registered another 236 protests, 33 of them so far in 2023.
In its April report, Prisoners Defenders, an NGO based in Madrid, increased the number of political prisoners on the island to 1,048, 35 of whom are minors younger than 18 years of age.
The organization stated that in April, 24 new names were added to the list while 42 others “were removed” after having completed their sentences. continue reading
Last year, Cuba’s attorney general reported on the proceedings against 790 people related to 11J, 55 of whom were between 16 and 17 years of age (the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Cuba is 16).
During his visit to the island at the end of may, the High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, stated that the European bloc’s delegation and the Cuban government spoke about the “situation created before, during and after” 11J.
In November the European Union’s Special Representative for Human Rights, Eamon Gilmore, will visit Cuba to follow up on the situtation of those sentenced for 11J.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Carlos Fernández de Cossío. (Foreign Ministry of Cuba/Facebook)
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 8 June 2023 — The Cuban Foreign Ministry denied on Thursday the report in the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal that the Government of the Island signed an agreement with China to allow the installation on its territory of a large, secret espionage center.
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, claimed in a statement to the media that this report is “unfounded information,””slander” and “false,” and its purpose is to justify the U.S. sanctions against Cuba and destabilize the Island.
He added that the Cuban government rejects “all military presence” in Latin America and the Caribbean, including the American one in Guantánamo.
According to information from the New York newspaper, the center would allow communications to be intercepted at the regional level. For allowing the installation of this infrastructure, for which no location or more data were provided, Cuba would receive “billions of dollars” as a counterpart.
“Slanders of this type have often been fabricated by U.S. officials, apparently familiar with intelligence information,” Fernández de Cossío said. continue reading
The diplomat linked the contents of the article to other reports published in the past such as the “supposed acoustic attacks against American diplomatic personnel” on the Island, “the non-existent Cuban military presence in Venezuela” and “the imaginary existence of chemical weapons laboratories” in Cuba.
“The hostility of the U.S. against Cuba and the extreme and cruel measures that cause humanitarian damage and punish the Cuban people cannot be justified in any way,” he concluded.
Speaking to the American MSNBC network, John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, pointed out that the newspaper’s article is “inexact” but that the U.S. “is focused on making sure that it can mitigate any threat from China in the region.”
“What I can tell you is that we have been concerned since the first day of this Administration about China’s influential activities around the world, even more so in this hemisphere and this region,” Kirby said. “We are observing this very, very closely.”
For his part, the Pentagon spokesman, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, quoted by Reuters, also said that the information from the U.S. media “is not precise” but that the U.S. is “aware that China and Cuba are developing a new type of espionage station.”
“In terms of that particular report, no, it’s not exact,” he added.
“Beyond that, we are well aware of China’s attempts to invest in infrastructure around the world that may have military purposes,” even in Latin America and the Caribbean, Ryder said. “We will continue to monitor it closely and trust that we can meet all our safety commitments at home and throughout the region.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Manuel Vázquez Portal presents his book on Friday in the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in Miami. (EFE)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, June 9, 2023 — In Miami on Friday, Former Cuban political prisoner, poet, and journalist, 72-year-old Manuel Vázquez Portal, jailed during the wave of repression in 2003 known as the Black Spring, will present a book Cartas marcadas [Marked Letters] 20 letters he wrote from the “solitude of isolation” in his cell to overcome the “censorship and silence”.
“They were written so as to not allow myself to be defeated by the solitude of isolation,” he said to EFE on Thursday. Vázquez Portal, to whom love of family, freedom, and faith in God gave the strength to sustain himself in the “oppression of a punishment cell” he endured while in “isolation, in solitude” for over a year.
The former Cuban prisoner managed for his letters to mock the penitentiary’s controls and were “clandestinely” smuggled out of the Boniato and Aguador prisons, both in Santiago de Cuba, to his wife, Yolanda Huerga, a co-founder of the Ladies in White and his son, Gabriel, who was 9 years old at the time.
“These 20 letters written to my wife and my son were born marked; first because I had to mark the envelope so my wife would know which ones were for her and which ones were not; later to circumvent the censorship and silence, the mark of the cross with ashes the Cuban government had placed on me,” said Vázquez Portal.
It has been 20 years, he adds, since the writing of these letters that served, at least, to “safeguard psychological balance” and that constitute a “political and esthetic ideology”.
The book, edited by Berlin-based Ilíada, also serves as an homage to the 75 Cuban dissidents, intellectuals, and human rights activists who were incarcerated during the Black Spring and to the Ladies in White, the latter being “the most solid and courageous group in the history of the Cuban opposition, its symbol,” he highlighted. continue reading
Released in June 2004, thanks to a strong international campaign, the Cuban journalist states that “the terror and the domination of the Cuban dictatorship does not allow the successful articulation” of protests in the medium term, as was shown during the peaceful protests of July 11 (11J), 2021.
The largest antigovernment protests in decades took place that day, a “spontaneous social explosion” that spread thanks to social media, though it lacked coordination, maintained Vázquez Portal.
That is, continues the dissident once sentenced to 18 years in jail, “the terror that reigns in Cuba dismantles the exercise of opposition to achieve liberty”. He predicts, however, that this will be a “determining” summer because “always during summers in Cuba there is an explosion.”
In this context, he maintains that “Cuba is a pressure cooker, without escape valves and the dissatisfaction inside is great,” with a “collapsed government that does not govern and the only thing it does is repress to stay in power.”
The book will be presented in the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in Miami, within a tertulia titled “The other corner of words”, which will include as presenters writer and activist Janisset Rivero and President of PEN Cuban Writers in Exile, Luis de la Paz.
Written in the “most anguished solitude and poverty”, Cartas marcadas [Marked Letters] act to potently “awaken love of family, homeland, and freedom” and a revulsion against hate.
“Not even after they sentenced me to 18 years did I let hate soil me. On the contrary. I thought it necessary to cleanse the soul to explain to others how to confront a dictatorship.”
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Refugees arrive in Bosnia-Herzegovina by bus, taxi, or even crossing the Drina River by boat.
EFE (via 14ymedio), Nedim Hasic, Sarajevo, 6 June 2023 — Carolina is a 50-year-old Cuban who for a long time lived between the dilemma of remaining in poverty or trying to emigrate to Europe. Today she is stranded in the far west of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a few kilometers from the border with Croatia and the EU.
“It was my husband who made the decision for us. To go to a place where we can work and earn more, not just survive,” she tells EFE at the reception center for refugees in the town of Borici.
She did not want to reveal her real name or surname, fearing for the safety of their daughter and three grandchildren who have stayed in Cuba.
Carolina and her husband, like dozens of other Cubans in Bosnia, dream of being able to enter Croatia, a country that is part of the Schengen zone of free community movement. In this way, they hope to be able to arrive in Spain one day, “because of the language,” the desired destination for many Cubans.
“In Cuba I worked wherever I could. I am a seamstress by profession. I sewed clothes in my house and also worked in a factory where work clothes were made,” says Carolina. continue reading
They arrived in Bosnia from neighboring Serbia, where they entered when Cubans still did not need a visa. They stayed there for eight months but, in the end, decided to continue on the road to the EU.
Her compatriot Maria (another fictitious name) is a physics teacher. At 43 she is the mother of two children ages 18 and 19, who stayed in Cuba.
Together with her husband, she left the Island due to the poor economic situation of the family. “We had no other choice. We simply couldn’t live with the money we brought home; it didn’t even cover our elementary needs,” she recalls.
Both Carolina’s and María’s husbands refused to talk to EFE.
In the Bosnian Office for Foreign Affairs, EFE was told that in the Borici reception center, of the 1,620 migrants registered so far this year, 713 are citizens of Cuba, including 346 women and 97 children, and the rest are mostly Afghans.
In the center of Lipa, located in the same western area but intended only for adult men, 3,253 migrants were registered this year, most of them Afghans and Moroccans, as well as 114 Cubans.
Refugees arrive in Bosnia-Herzegovina by bus or taxi, or even crossing the Drina River by boat, Cubans say. Some traveled first to Russia, Cuba’s main ally, and from there to Belarus, Turkey and finally to Serbia.
The Cubans of Borici are afraid because they receive news about “hot returns” of migrants from Croatia, or about problems with clandestine boats to cross the border River Sava.
When they enter Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cubans announce their desire to seek asylum, which allows them a month to leave since they don’t want to stay in that country, one of the poorest in Europe.
Thirty years ago, Bosnia was the scene of the bloodiest of the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, with about 100,000 dead and hundreds of thousands injured and displaced.
The Cubans interviewed by EFE point out that it was very difficult to decide to leave their country and leave for an unknown world. The key factor was confidence in a better future.
“It is said in the world that health care in Cuba is excellent. We don’t see it that way; in the end we have to pay for everything with our money,” says Valeria, another Cuban from Borici.
“Donations arrive in Cuba from abroad, but we do not see that they are invested in infrastructure or schools, nor do we know where the money goes,” says this woman, who wants to get to Germany, where she has relatives.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, located on the so-called “Balkan route” of refugees, there are currently about 850 immigrants in reception centers, most of them from Afghanistan, according to data from the International Organization for Migration.
However, the local press estimates that so far this year, more than 7,000 immigrants have passed through the Balkan country, dreaming of reaching the EU.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Manuel Cuesta Morúa during a speech at the Political Institute for Freedom in Peru. (Archive)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 5 June 2023 — Three Cuban dissidents were arrested this Monday after convening a press conference in which they intended to present a global strategy against political, gender, racial, institutionalized and economic violence in the country.
The opponent Manuel Cuesta Morúa explained to EFE that he was temporarily arrested on his way to the place of the media appointment and taken back to his home, where a police team was installed in the neighborhood, presumably so he couldn’t leave. María Mercedes Benítez and Juan Antonio Madrazo, who had borrowed a house in Havana for the press conference, were also arrested.
The Ministry of the Interior has not made a statement so far on these arrests and their causes. The official media have not referred to these events either.
The three arrested were trying to present a security strategy called Shanti, backed by the dissident platforms D’Frente, Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba and the Democratic Action Unity Committee, according to the documents they sent to the media.
“Cuba is entering a vacuum of violence that is harming individuals, families, communities, groups and sectors of civil society,” warns the press release, which says that this violence is being “blacked out by the media and poorly disguised by the rhetoric of the authorities.” continue reading
The document highlights femicides, 34 so far this year according to the feminist platforms that record them (in the absence of official statistics), “murders,” “thefts” and “daytime assaults.”
It also talks about “institutional violence normalized by the political system,” emphasizing the role of the new Criminal Code and the recently approved Social Communication Law.
The proposal, which they describe as “ambitious” work, advocates for “amnesty and the decriminalization of dissent,” “initiatives against gender violence,” “the recovery of citizen sovereignty” and “the pacification of the streets.”
It also calls for addressing “institutionalized economic inequalities,” “flagrant violations of the Constitution and laws,” establishing a “culture of respect and tolerance” and a language that does not encourage “exclusion and hatred from the State and society, and by Cubans inside and outside Cuba.”
Among the symbolic actions it proposes is an “orange march” for Human Rights Day.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Since the beginning of April, the Island has been going through a fuel shortage that has resulted in long lines at gas stations. (14ymedio)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 2 June 2023 — A court in Havana sanctioned 13 people with sentences of up to 2 years in prison for reselling fuel in the midst of a severe shortage crisis that has affected Cuba for two months, official media reported on Friday.
According to a statement from the People’s Provincial Court of Havana, cited by Cubadebate, two people will serve their sentence with correctional work, while 11 more will go to prison. The minimum prison sentence is one year and four months.
In total, 15 people were tried – two were acquitted — for the crime of speculation. The sentence is not final, so it can still be appealed.
Those sanctioned, according to the court, sold the fuel on the Island’s extensive black market at prices ranging from 350 to 600 pesos per liter, that is, more than 20 times the price at service stations.
Since the beginning of April, the Island has been going through a shortage of fuel that has resulted in long lines at gas stations, which often don’t have the fuel. continue reading
This situation has led several Cubans to resell the fuel they manage to get at exorbitant prices as a quick way to get cash. The country is also going through a deep economic crisis that has been exacerbated since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
According to the court, they increased the framework for sanctions to 11 people, taking into account that the crimes “were committed in a complex scenario, nuanced by the shortage of fuel.”
The Cuban government reported at the end of April that the lack of fuel would continue until May due to “non-compliance by the supplying countries.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 23 June 2023 — This Thursday, the Cuban independent feminist platforms Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo raised to 45 the total number of femicides verified so far this year in the country, with the confirmation of a new sexist murder.
