EFE – Page 23 – Translating Cuba

Cuban Authorities Prevent the Mothers of Two July 11th (11J) Prisoners from Boarding a Flight to Madrid

Marta Perdomo, mother of Jorge and Nadir Martín, at her home in 2020. (Facebook)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 17 June 2022 — This Thursday, Cuban authorities prevented the mothers of three men imprisoned for the July 11 (11J) protests from boarding a flight on the Spanish airline Iberia in Havana bound for Madrid, according to the NGO Cuban Observatory of Human Rights.

Liset Fonseca and Marta Perdomo, mothers of Roberto Pérez Fonseca , and of Jorge and Nadir Martín Perdomo, were scheduled to meet with representatives of the European Parliament, the European Union External Action Service (EEAS), and UN Human Rights organizations, in Madrid, Brussels and Geneva.

“As part of the abuse, they allowed them to obtain their boarding pass, in order to eliminate the possibility of a flight change or a refund of the Iberia ticket,” the organization said in a statement.

It also condemned this action as a “clear violation of human rights” by the Government of Cuba.

Fonseca told the Cubanet newspaper that an Immigration official took the documentation from both of them when they had already dispatched their bags and made them wait about 30 minutes before informing them that they could not travel.

“She only told us that we were regulated* and that she didn’t know why,” said the mother, whose youngest son, Alberto Ortega Fonseca, was traveling from Canada – where he lives – and was hoping to meet her in Madrid for the first time in eight years. continue reading

“We are exhausted and enduring one more blow. Add to that that the luggage does not appear and they beat us up,” added Fonseca. According to Cubanet, late at night, the two women were still waiting for their bags to be returned.

Roberto Pérez Fonseca, 38 years old, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, for the crimes of contempt, attack, incitement to commit a crime and public disorder, which were charged to him for his participation in the protest in San Jose de Las Lajas.

In the cases of Jorge and Nadir Martín Perdomo, 28 and 37 years old, also imprisoned for the 11J demonstrations in San José de las Lajas, they were sentenced to eight and six years in prison, respectively, both accused of the crimes of “instigation to commit crimes, public disorder, contempt and spread of epidemics.”

“The human rights situation in Cuba is becoming more serious every day. Society is suffocated by so much injustice and lack of future,” added the NGO, based in Spain, posting on its Twitter account.

The Attorney General of the Republic of Cuba (FGR) reported on Monday that so far the courts have issued 76 final sentences against 381 people “who attacked the constitutional order and stability” of the socialist state. The FGR statement indicated that 78% of those sanctioned (297) received sentences of up to 25 years in prison.

Most of the crimes for which they were accused are sedition, sabotage, robbery with force and violence, attack, contempt and public disorder. A total of 36 protesters were convicted of the most serious and sentenced to terms ranging from 5 to 25 years in prison.

Relatives of those convicted and non-governmental organizations have criticized the processes, to which the international press has not had access, alleging lack of guarantees, fabrication of evidence and long sentences.

The NGO Prisoners Defenders points out that at least 842 people were in prison on the island at the end of 2021 for political reasons, mostly for the events of July 11.

*Translator’s note: “Regulated” is the euphemism used by the Cuban government to refer to those who have been forbidden to leave the country.

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Cuba and Venezuela Advocate Accelerating Procedures for the use of Russian Bank Cards

The authorities expect the Russian MIR payment system to start operating in Cuba before the end of the year. (14ymedio)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Moscow, 16 June 2022 — This Thursday in St. Petersburg, leaders of the central banks of Cuba and Venezuela advocated the acceleration of procedures for the use of Russian MIR bank cards in their countries, after the American Visa and MasterCard suspended their operations in Russia and thus prevented Russians from paying with their cards abroad.

“We are working now for the acceptance of MIR cards in our country,” said Alberto Quiñones, general director of Systems, Technologies and Development of the Central Bank of Cuba during the Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg.

Quiñones, who attended the debate “New forms of international cooperation; What will the payment be like,” trusted that in the coming weeks the necessary steps will be taken so that the MIR payment system begins to function in Cuba before the end of the year. continue reading

MIR cards are currently accepted in Turkey, Vietnam and six former Soviet republics.

Calixto José Ortega Sánchez, president of the Central Bank of Venezuela, also spoke in favor of the acceptance of the Russian payment system in that Latin American country, along with the systems of other countries, such as Turkey.

“We can no longer delay it any longer,” said Ortega, who added that otherwise the Western “monopoly” will win, which could be used as a “weapon” when the time comes.

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Medical Supplies Donated by US Associations Close to the Regime Arrive in Cuba

Puentes de Amor and Code Pink sent material to Cuba for liver transplants. (Twitter)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 13 June 2022 — US groups connected to the Cuban government sent a donation of medical supplies, which arrived this Sunday, for liver transplants for eight children, according to the state press.

The products that make up the donation were purchased with $25,000 raised, according to Cuban-American Carlos Lazo, manager of the Puentes de Amor [Bridges of Love] project, who traveled with the leader of Code Pink, the American Medea Benjamin, as well as with other activists from those organizations.

Lazo said that the laws that regulate the economic embargo that the US has applied to Cuba for six decades prohibit the acquisition of these products through the market between the two countries, according to the Cuban agency Prensa Latina.

“The pressure we are putting on the United States Congress and the White House is aimed at trying to end the blockade imposed on Cuba for more than 60 years,” said activist Medea Benjamin.

She also pointed out that as long as this objective is not achieved “the most important effort will be aimed at continuing to help in the donation of syringes, food, medicines, and continue fighting to end the blockade.” continue reading

The acquisition of medical supplies is one of the exemptions from the embargo, under the same conditions as food. “The United States routinely authorizes the export of humanitarian goods, agricultural products, medicines and medical equipment to support the Cuban people. In 2019, the United States exported millions of dollars of medical products” to the Island, according to then Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the United States, Michael Kozak, speaking in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic.

The condition is that Cuba must pay in advance for the purchase and in cash, a practice that is unusual in international trade, as Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez has pointed out on several occasions, but through which tons of products are regularly purchased.

This donation is added to others received on the island in previous months sponsored by US associations and foundations and from Cubans living in the United States.

Since last year Cuba has received donations of medical supplies and basic food from Russia, China, Mexico, Japan, Nicaragua, Vietnam, among other countries, from both governments and private groups.

Last year the country received 135 donations from 40 countries, mostly medical supplies and equipment for immunization and the fight against the pandemic, according to official data.

Cuba has been going through a serious crisis for months due to the combination of the covid-19 pandemic, the tightening of the US economic, financial and commercial embargo and problems in national macroeconomic management.

Last week, the authorities prevented the entry of the American journalist Anthony DePalma to the Island. The writer also had two suitcases loaded with medicines for his friends from Guanabacoa, Havana, which inspired him to write his book The Cubans: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times.
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Cuba: One Dead and Nine Injured in Accident in Cienfuegos

One of the passengers of the Azcuba truck died in the accident, while the remaining nine were sent to the hospital, where they remain under observation. (Facebook)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 13 June 2022 — One person died and nine others were injured when the passenger truck in which they were traveling fell down a steep slope in the vicinity of Loma de la Ventana, in the central province of Cienfuegos, the provincial newspaper 5 de septiembre reported this Saturday.

The accident occurred shortly after noon in the vicinity of Loma de la Ventana, one of the access points to the Cienfuegos mountain range through the municipality of Cumanayagua.

According to First Lieutenant Jorge Luis Pérez Rodríguez, duty officer of the Criminal Justice System in Cienfuegos, a truck belonging to the state group Azcuba, which was heading to San Blas, was involved in the event.

“Makeshift buses”are common in Cuba; here a cart pulled by a tractor is used as a bus in Pinar del Rio. (MJ Porter)

Emilio Ramón Mayor Llerena, 56 years old and driver of the vehicle, lost control of the truck, which plunged down a slope in an area where this type of dangerous terrain abounds.

The incident caused the death of one of the passengers, Alfredo Díaz Cabrera, from Aguada de Pasajeros and a resident of the La Federal neighborhood. continue reading

The Emergency Department of the General University Hospital Dr. Gustavo Aldereguia Lima, in Cienfuegos, said that nine injured were treated, including a minor who, after being evaluated in this center and found to be out of danger, was transferred to the Paquito González Cueto Pediatric Hospital.

The rest of the wounded were also classified in this way and placed under observation.

From January to May of this year, a daily average of 27 accidents have been reported in Cuba in which an average of two people die and 30 are injured. For every 14 accidents, one death results, according to evaluations by the National Traffic Directorate.

In the first months of this year there were 4,062 claims, a marked growth compared to 2020 and 2021, when mobility was very limited by the pandemic, according to the latest statistics from the Vehicle Registration department of that state agency.

Among the main causes of accidents on Cuban roads, the authorities point out that 89% of the accidents occur due to not attending to the control of the vehicle, violating the right of way, speeding, technical malfunctions and ingestion of alcoholic beverages.

Likewise, the crash of vehicles in motion is the type of accident with the highest incidence, while the deterioration of the road registered an increase, after a report of 333 accidents.

The poor state of the roads and the aging vehicle fleet in the country, where cars with more than 50 years old continue to travel, are among the factors that most influence conditions, with little reference from the authorities.

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Young Daughter of Cuban Rapper Maykel Osorbos Asks the Summit to Help ‘Free Him’

Jade de la Caridad Castillo, daughter of Maykel ’Osorbo’, at a moment in the video in which she asks the Summit to help free her father. (Capture)

EFE/14ymedio, Los Angeles/Havana | 9 Junio 2022 — The six-year-old daughter of rapper Maykel Castillo Osorbo, one of the creators of the song Patria y Vida, imprisoned for more than a year in Cuba, asked the leaders participating in the IX Summit of the Americas for help to “free” him.

“Gentlemen of the Summit, I am writing to you even though I do not know you from Cuba. I want to talk to you about my dad, who is in prison for just singing a song. He has not done anything. Please, can you help me free him? I want him a lot and I miss it,” says Jade de la Caridad Castillo in a video posted on social networks echoed by the singer Yotuel Romero, also co-author of Patria y Vida.

In the video, Osorbo’s daughter implores the solidarity of the participants in the summit that takes place in Los Angeles (USA) to achieve the release of her father, who awaits sentencing after the trial held on May 31, in which the leader of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, was also tried.

The musician was arrested on May 18, 2021 and from the 31st of that same month he was transferred to the Kilo Cinco y Medio maximum security prison. He is accused of attack, public disorder and the escape of prisoners or detainees for some events that occurred on April 4, in a demonstration on Damas street, in front of the MSI headquarters, when the police tried to arbitrarily arrest him and he refused to get in the patrol car.

Alcántara, for his part, has been in prison since July 11, when he was arrested before participating in the peaceful demonstrations that day. For the first, the Prosecutor’s Office asks for 10 years and for the second, seven, for the crimes of outrage against the symbols of the country, contempt and public disorder. continue reading

Yotuel Romero, Osorbo, El Funky, Descemer Bueno and the duo Gente de Zona won two Latin Grammy Awards for Patria y Vida, the song released in February 2021 and turned into the anthem of the peaceful protests that broke out in Cuba on July 11th (11J).

Jade de la Caridad Castillo is the daughter of El Osorbo and his ex-wife Rosmery Hernández, who was present during the oral hearing of the trial.

Organizations that defend human rights, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, denounced that the process against the two Cuban artists was full of arbitrariness.

On Wednesday, Cuban singer Yotuel Romero told Efe in Los Angeles that the one not invited to the summit is the “regime” of Miguel Díaz-Canel, but Cuba is invited.

Yotuel, who met with other activists with the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said that he had explained to the US authorities “the will of the Cuban people to be free.”

“We hope that the world will continue helping Cuba to find its happiness,” he said.

Blinken also met this Wednesday with businesspeople, a moment he took advantage of to commit, on behalf of the United States, to train 500,000 general practitioners and specialists over the next five years in the American continent, to strengthen the region’s health system.

“One of the great announcements of this summit, and the private sector is going to have a fundamental role, is that we have committed ourselves in the coming years to train 500,000 health workers, both generalists and specialists,” said the head of US diplomacy.

Blinken assured that this plan, which President Joe Biden will detail during the summit, “will make a huge difference to improve health services if it is deployed efficiently.”

“We need to build a more resilient health system in our region. We need to be better prepared to manage future pandemics. We need to provide better health services,” he claimed.

The plan is to train the 500,000 health workers over the next five years in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, later said during the president’s flight to Los Angeles.

PAHO, which applauded the US initiative in a statement, estimates that the region has a deficit of 600,000 health workers. “Without health personnel there is no resilient health system, no access to care, no pandemic preparedness,” PAHO Director Carissa Etienne said in the statement.

The US government will commit to ending “the acute phase” of the pandemic through improvements in the health system and aid for recovery in the region, a senior administration official said in a call with journalists.

Meanwhile, the invited official delegations have been arriving, including Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who asked the United States government to get involved in promoting “another type of relationship in the Americas” based on “mutual respect,” “non- intervention” and the “benefit” of all the countries of the region.

“The organization that we have in the Americas must evolve, I even proposed a moment ago that we take into account what President (Franklin Delano) Roosevelt said about good neighborliness to make a policy based on non-intervention and mutual benefit,” he said.

Ebrard did not consider that the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela is “a lack of respect”, but something “very controversial.”

“Several countries mentioned it at the meeting of foreign ministers (today) because it had already been discussed ten years ago, in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), in 2012, and it was concluded” that Cuba would be invited, which happened in Panama (2015),” he defended.

In this sense, he regretted that in 2022 there is the same discussion although this does not signify “conflict” with the United States. “We respect each other,” he said. However, he believes that “there are things to change” and that it is “feasible” to do so at this IX Summit of the Americas.

In addition to López Obrador, the exclusion of these three countries by the Biden Administration deeply bothered other Latin American leaders who also gave up attending the conference, such as the Bolivian Luis Arce and the Honduran Xiomara Castro. This is the first time that the United States has hosted a Summit of the Americas since the first edition, which was held in Miami in 1994, under the Bill Clinton administration.

This Tuesday, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, criticized not having been invited and viewed it as a missed opportunity, although he also angrily expressed that he would not have wanted to be in such an event. “We are honored to head the list [of exclusions] along with Nicaragua and Venezuela,” he said.

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Clothes, Cocktails and Music: A Cuban Entrepreneur Against the Crisis and Covid

Izaguirre laments the high prices in her store, but explains that she does not have the capacity or the resources to increase her production. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Raquel Martor, Havana, 8 June 2022 — Cuban Loypa Izaguirre, with her small business in Old Havana that offers designer clothes, cocktails and music, is an example of the new generation of young entrepreneurs that is emerging on the island despite the crisis and the pandemic.

The 33-year-old has been promoting the Color Café fashion workshop and café since 2018, a multidisciplinary and modern space installed in a remodeled 1900 premises, an establishment that has just reopened after two years of forced closure due to restrictions to counteract covid-19.

“Every day there is a new challenge that changes your perspective and you have to face it,” Izaguirre tells Efe in an interview. The young woman, who declares herself self-taught, acknowledges that there are plenty of problems in Cuba, but she believes that the “positive vibe” must be maintained with the philosophy that “no doesn’t exist.”

Despite the paralysis caused by the pandemic, Izaguirre chose not to stay home. “We couldn’t stop sewing,” she stresses. Although she was forced to close Color Café and materials were missing, she searched among her friends for fabrics, thread, buttons and other recyclable materials to make masks and clothes.

Then, when steps could be taken towards normality, she reopened and called her employees with a “we start again.” continue reading

The lack of some food in her café-bar, as a result of the shortage of basic products that the Island has suffered for months, was remedied with “a healthy proposal that has been well received by customers.”

She brought fabrics and remnants from abroad, which have been turned into small purses, bags and other wardrobe accessories. Skirts, blouses, dresses and clothes that fit various sizes make up the “comfortable and fresh” proposal of this Havana company, one of the more than 3,600 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) approved in recent months.

Izaguirre laments the high prices in her store, but explains that she does not have the capacity or the resources to increase his production.

“The fabrics are expensive, the workshop is small and I have to pay my employees well (15 in total) so that they feel stimulated to work every day and make an effort to make quality garments,” she summarizes.

Among her clientele there are foreign women living in Havana, although Cuban women also frequent her store, and she tries to favor them with “adjusted prices,” and those who are looking for “custom-made” men’s shirts have joined.

White, red and blue, ruffles, flowing skirts, and stylistic references inspired by the 40s and 50s prevail in the designs. Her commitment is based on “pleasing customers, who understand the importance of coming to a workshop and making clothes.”

An example of her way of facing challenges was her first individual catwalk, just a few days ago in Havana, which was not overshadowed despite a monumental downpour and the still persistent fears about covid in public spaces.

“All of us who worked on it knew each other and we were willing for the job to come out, for that catwalk to be done, totally inclusive,” she says.

Her new collection, “Seasons,” brings together 30 pieces with color, elegance, classic style, daring and a mixture of cultures, conceived for plus size women, the elderly and girls, exhibited on models of the traditional type, of various races and gender.

Izaguirre explains that in Cuba there are currently those who are torn between staying in the country and trying to carry out a project there and those who choose to migrate.

“My decision has been to stay with the perspective of opening up with my Cuban, tropical style and touch, with a design and added value that I believe would make it possible to project myself abroad, and we will try,” she says.

As part of its identity, the brand has a logo that resembles a coffee pot — “a symbol of Cuban identity” — but it is really the idealized silhouette of a woman, explains this entrepreneur.

The young woman is satisfied with the results she is achieving. “They have accepted us, we have positioned ourselves, they recognize the quality and the work we are doing,” she says.

The project, she adds, is “sustainable” because she is convinced of “always finding a solution” with “creativity and human capital,” although she admits that she would like to have more resources.

His look is “to the future” to leave a mark: “That people remember me as a girl who created something beautiful and that is my feeling and what I put into what I do.”

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At the Summit of the Americas, the United States Will Promote a Migration Pact Without Cuba

Migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela arrested before crossing the Rio Grande and reaching Eagle Pass. (INM)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, June 5, 2022 — While some analysts think that the absence of Venezuela, Nicaragua and, probably, Cuba have made next week’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles meaningless, others think that there will be no consequences and that it won’t overshadow the plan of the United States to promote a migration pact, as contemplated in the official agenda.

To date, the government of President Joe Biden has avoided publishing the list of guests for the event, which will take place from June 6 to 10, amid warnings from countries such as Mexico, Honduras and some territories of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), which could boycott the summit due to absences.

Washington has been categorical regarding the non-participation of Venezuela and Nicaragua, and has been lukewarm about that of Cuba, despite the fact that in recent weeks it has resumed contacts with Havana on migration and has withdrawn some sanctions on Caracas to facilitate dialogue with the opposition.

Atlantic Council expert Jason Marczak, who directs the Adrienne Arsht Center in Latin America, a laboratory of ideas, told EFE that it would have been “very difficult” for the United States to invite the presidents of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega.

In his opinion, these two rulers are not interested in working together with other nations to reach an immigration agreement, since they carry out actions that destabilize the continent. continue reading

Therefore, it makes more sense to Marczak for Washington to promote a pact with the countries receiving migrants in order to coordinate their policies on this matter.

“Migrants and refugees leave Nicaragua and Venezuela, not because of Maduro’s or Ortega’s immigration policy, but because of political and legal repression and the economy,” said the analyst. Neither Maduro nor Ortega will modify the actions that cause citizens to leave their countries.

Meanwhile, in the absence of confirmation of attendance at the summit of a Cuban delegation, the US expert remarked that for some countries in the region it has been “a priority” to promote the participation of “some level of the Cuban Government.”

Given the lack of clarity on the part of Washington, the Cuban Government seems to have removed itself. The president himself, Miguel Díaz-Canel, said last week that he would “in no case” participate in the summit.

The possibility of a second-tier government delegation or a representative of Cuban civil society coming to Los Angeles has been fading as the date approaches.

The Cuban regime prevented activist Saily González from attending the IX Summit of the Americas to which she was invited as a representative of Cuban civil society. She let her know through her family that she could not pick up her visa at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, and State Security summoned her to remind her that she had an open criminal investigation against her.

The activist Aimara Peña was informed that “no one would participate” in the IX Summit of the Americas. As she denounced this Saturday on her social media, State Security “did not allow me to travel to Havana and kept me imprisoned in a dirty dungeon after threatening me.”

The final Cuban slamming of the door came with the recent celebration in Havana of a summit of leaders of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), which included Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, its main members, who could puff out their chests in the face of exclusion.

For Mexican academic María Cristina Rosas, of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Biden Administration has put itself in a predicament no matter what final decision it makes.

“Biden is on bad terms with God and the devil: the Republicans and a part of the Cuban community in the United States. On the other hand, he is giving many weapons to Cuba to continue blaming him for the evils there,” she said in an interview with EFE.

In the same vein, former Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugaray pointed out Washington’s position as a mistake. “There’s no middle ground with Cuba. (Barack) Obama realized it perfectly. (Bill) Clinton paid dearly for having tried to swim between two waters,” he argued in statements to EFE.

In his opinion, the United States is reoffending with the veto on “failed policies” and diverting attention from the important problems of the region: “That is not convenient for anyone,” he said. Rosas highlighted at this point the “power” of the Cuban-American lobby, which she considers to be the “best” among Hispanic communities in the United States when it comes to influencing the country’s foreign policy.

Alzugaray said that Cuba is being harmed by not being able to participate in the hemispheric forum, but at the same time it benefits politically from exclusion, because of the regional support it has gathered — especially from Mexico — and the demonstration of Washington’s “inefficiency.”

He also pointed out that Cuban migration to the United States — which has increased significantly in recent months — is an issue that can be discussed in a regional forum, but one that must be addressed bilaterally.

The self-exclusion that Cuba seems to have chosen was not an option for Venezuela and Nicaragua, since the White House made the resounding and irrevocable decision not to include them in the list of invited countries.

Of the three, Ortega was the one who showed the greatest disinterest in participating in the summit and downplayed the event that — he believes — “does not exalt anyone.”

“We have to make ourselves respected, we can’t be asking the Yankee, begging him to go to his summit. We are not inspired by his summit,” Ortega argued on May 18 during a government event in Managua.

However, Maduro is convinced that his voice will be heard in Los Angeles, “whatever the host says,” whom he despises, by disavowing his will and ensuring that the marginalized will also be there.

“Whatever happens in Washington, the voice of Venezuela, the voice of Cuba and the voice of Nicaragua will be heard in Los Angeles in the great protests of the people and our voices will be in that room (…) we will be there with our truth,” the president said on May 24 in Caracas.

As Benigno Alarcón, director of the Center for Political Studies of the Andrés Bello Catholic University, explained to EFE, it’s most likely that Maduro’s words hide the plan to organize protests in Los Angeles, in parallel with the summit, as both Venezuela and Nicaragua did on previous occasions.

“What they’re going to try to do is what they’ve done on other occasions, which is to fund some groups to protest at the place where the summit is held. They’ve done it other times and under other circumstances. They’ve funded groups that join a protest,” Alarcón said.

But neither the absence of these countries nor the demonstrations that can be organized around the summit will overshadow, in his opinion, the plan to promote a migration pact, as contemplated in the official agenda. On the contrary.

For Alarcón, it must be the countries that receive migrants from the three excluded nations, with the United States at the head, that must address any issue that has to do with the agreement, so it will not matter that those countries are absent.

Those who have to agree on that pact are the recipient countries, to see how many each receive and how they can help, and what capacity each country has to receive and other issues of interest in this matter,” said the Venezuelan expert.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba’s Central Bank Denies That it is Selling US Dollars

The depreciation of the dollar is linked, according to some experts, among other issues, to the announcement made by the Cuban Minister of Economy. (14ymedio)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 31 May 2022 — The Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) denied on Tuesday that it is selling, to individuals, U.S. dollars and freely convertible currency (MLC, the Cuban virtual currency backed by hard currencies). According to the official newspaper Granma, the monetary authority has thus responded to rumors that have arisen after an announcement by the Cuban Government that it would sell dollars to economic actors under certain conditions, a measure that has not yet been applied.

The BCC assured that this is “fake news” that is circulating “on social networks and digital media.” “Don’t be fooled, follow our official channels,” the BCC wrote on Twitter.

The newspaper criticized that “it is the second time this year that an attempt has been made to manipulate the issue.”

It argued that there are those who take advantage of the impact of inflation derived from the scarcity caused by the pandemic and the tightening of U.S. economic sanctions on Cuba.

The country temporarily suspended bank deposits of dollars in cash in June 2021 due to “obstacles” from the U.S. embargo, although banks continued to accept other cash currencies such as euros, pounds sterling, Canadian dollars and Japanese yen. continue reading

In mid-May, the Cuban government announced that it would sell MLC to some state and private economic actors, without specifying the conditions.

The Cuban Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil, said that this sale would be “gradual and selective,” at a rate higher than the official rate (24 Cuban pesos, CUP) but without exceeding the informal rate (currently around 100 CUP).

For the first time since January, the dollar traded this week below 100 CUP in the informal market, a depreciation that some experts link, among other issues, to this announcement by the Cuban Government.

This exchange rate is the calculation made daily by the independent media El Toque, which weighs the figures of hundreds of ads for the sale of foreign currency on several websites in the country, and which many experts take as a reference value. For their part, the euro and the MLC maintained values of 110 and 106, respectively.

Alejandro Gil’s statements immediately aroused criticism from experts, such as the economist, Pedro Monreal, who called it “one more nail in the coffin of the ’Order’ and a possible source of illegalities.” In any case, the collapse of the MLC, since last week, seems to be a direct consequence of those statements.

Another factor that has influenced the fall in currencies is the new measures announced by the U.S. government of Joe Biden last week, on May 16, among which is the elimination of the remittances limit of $1,000 per quarter and per person.

This restriction had been in force since 2019, when it was promulgated by then-U.S. President Donald Trump along with other provisions that largely paralyzed the official business of foreign exchange, such as the prohibition of doing business in which the Cuban military was involved. This was the case of Fincimex, blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury in June 2020, which managed remittances up to that time.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Decrease of Protests in Cuba Coincides with Approval of the New Penal Code

Carlos Varela’s performance this Sunday in Havana, where cries of “freedom” were heard.

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 2 June 2022 — Cuba registered 185 public protests in May, 108 less than in the previous month, according to the report of the Cuban Observatory of Conflicts (OCC) released this Wednesday. The report ties this “decrease” with the entry into force of the Island’s new Penal Code, with its “greater penalization of crimes.”

“Nine months after the popular uprising of July 11, 2021, the cries of ’Libertad’ [Freedom] were not extinguished in Cuba,” the OCC, an autonomous civil society project supported by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, based in the United States, says in its monthly report.

According to the report, among the 185 public protests registered on the island, one occurred in the “largest coliseum in the country,” where the slogan Libertad “rumbled” for several minutes.

“The cries of ’Libertad’ chanted for several minutes at the Sports City Coliseum, during a concert by singer-songwriter Carlos Varela, revealed the mirage of supposed ’governance’ that was intended to be exhibited with the compulsory May 1 parade,” says the statement.

The OCC also attributes the 37% “decrease” in the protests in relation to the previous month to the reduction of prison sentences for some of the participants in the 11J protests, “which could have created positive expectations among family members and sympathizers of who are still awaiting sentencing.”

Other factors cited are the “migratory exodus that is equated to a new Mariel,” and “the measures of the Biden Administration making the sanctions more flexible, which create hope that tourist activities will resume” on the Island.

Among the May protests, which occurred in the 15 provinces of the country and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, those motivated by economic and social rights predominated for the first time (58%), while 77 protests (42% of the total) focused on political and civil rights, the report details. continue reading

May presents two new features. For the first time, the protests decreased to levels equivalent to those of March 2021 (184). Also for the first time, the number of economic and social protests (108) surpassed those motivated by political and civil rights (77),” it says.

According to the report, the “lack of transparency” by the Cuban government regarding the explosion that occurred on May 6 at the Saratoga Hotel, with a toll of 46 dead and almost a hundred injured, was also a reason for mistrust.

“The hasty and final official assessment — given by politicians, not by experts — that it was an unfortunate accident, was not well received,” the report finds.

According to the OCC, “the victims demand explanations and question why there were more police patrols in the place than the few ambulances that took time to arrive to attend to the wounded.”

“Cuba continues to be a social bomb with a short fuse, especially in the summer months when schools close and young people return to the streets, today fraught with serious economic and social tensions,” the report concludes.

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Fidel Castro Ordered the ‘Water Shut Off’ to Pedro Luis Boitel, Says His Former Cellmate

Valladares was jailed at the age of 21 for refusing to hang a plaque that read “I am with Fidel.” (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 26 May 2022 — Pedro Luis Boitel was forced to go thirsty during a hunger strike in prison, because “Castro gave the order that they cut off his water until he died,” according to what his cellmate, the human rights Armando Valladares, told Efe.

“You cannot write the history of political prison in Cuba without naming Pedro Luis,” says Valladares, a painter, poet and former US ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council, in an interview with Efe.

“Fidel Castro expressly hated Pedro Luis, a leader of the 26th of July Movement and exiled (by Fulgencio Batista) in Venezuela,” Valladares comments shortly before participating in a colloquium in Miami on Wednesday for the 50th anniversary of Boitel’s death.

“He was well known and the candidate with the most possibilities to win the elections (for president) of the FEU (University Student Federation)” before the Revolution, he adds about his companion in cell 64, of circular building number 4 in the Isle of Pines prison, now in disuse and from which they both fled.

In 1961 Boitel was arrested and charged with conspiracy against the state. He was sentenced in a trial to ten years in prison, a sentence that was later extended with other charges.

A kind of maximum security Alacatraz, found in a small island in the south of Cuba, the Isle of Pines was considered “impossible” to break out of, recalls Valladares, who turns 85 next Friday.

Valladares, imprisoned at the age of 21 for refusing to hang a plaque that read “I am with Fidel” and who spent 22 years in prison, during which he suffered torture and punishment of all kinds and went on eleven hunger strikes, met Boitel at the La Cabaña prison in Havana. continue reading

“When they finished my interrogations in the political police, they sent me to galley 12 in La Cabaña. At the door was Pedro Luis, thin and with very large glasses. Then we were together for years and years and years,” he recalls.

“When we escaped on October 21, 1961 – I remember it because I was released on the same day 20-odd years later – there was a guard who walked around at sunset with a dog and a rifle,” he relates about this installation, in which Fidel Castro was also imprisoned before being amnestied by the Government of Fulgencio Batista.

“We went inside the barracks dressed as soldiers, greeting the guards. They captured us on the third day because the people who were supposed to pick us up on the coast did not come, they thought it was impossible for us to escape,” adds Valladares.

“We were the only ones who managed to get out of the cordon of the prison, it will remain in history, I don’t know why there is a tendency to eliminate this heroic and almost novelistic act from the interviews,” he laments, and clarifies that the idea of the escape was Boitel’s.

Upon being captured, they were taken to the punishment cell where they remained “almost a year,” says Valladares. “We went on strike to get us out of there, which was the first,” recapitulates the author of the book Against All Hope, where he recounted his memories after 22 years in prison.

According to the activist’s account, Boitel was taken to the Military Hospital (in Havana), where he was one of the first to be given civilian clothes. “He was making strikes until the last one in (the prison of) the Castillo del Príncipe.

It was a hunger strike, not a thirst strike. Fidel Castro gave the order that the water be cut off until he died,” says Valladares.

Boitel died at the age of 41 on a hunger strike on May 25, 1972 in the Castillo del Príncipe prison in Havana.

The organizers of the tribute to Boitel, among which are the “Plantados hasta la Libertad de Cuba” [Resisters until Cuba is Free], the Institute of Cuban Historical Memory against Totalitarianism and the PEN Club of Cuban Writers in exile, yesterday brought a floral offering to the tomb of the Boitel’s mother, Clara Abraham de Boitel, at Miami’s Flagler Memorial Cemetery.

In the afternoon, the documentary Boitel: Murienda a plazos, directed by Daniel Urdanivia and produced by Pedro Corzo, was screened at the Tower Theater in Little Havana, where Valladares spoke to the audience.

Next to him was “another great friend of Pedro Luis”, Richard Heredia, also an anti-communist and who was with Boitel “underground.”

“It is a well-deserved tribute. Pedro Luis is a legend for all political prisoners like me. Fortunately, we have groups within Cuba that have even adopted his name,” he stressed.

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Only Five of 524 Cubans Charged for 11th July (11J) Protests Have Been Acquitted

The press does not have access to the trials, only a few images are captured and broadcast on the Primetime Newscast. (Screen capture)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 25 May 2022 — A total of 519 of the 564 people who have been tried in Cuba for the anti-government demonstrations last July – 92% – have been sentenced and 40 are still awaiting their sentencing, the NGO Justicia 11J reported on Tuesday.

According to a statement from the organization, only five of the defendants have been acquitted after the start of the trials, at the end of 2021.

In the event that the 40 people who are still awaiting their resolution are found guilty, the percentage of those sentenced would rise to 99%, according to data from the association.

The NGO also reported that “of all the people tried or awaiting trial, we can say that around 70 to 80% have awaited trial under pretrial detention.” In addition, it criticized that 101 people are still waiting for their legal process to begin.

On the other hand, Justicia 11J increased its record of detainees after the demonstrations from 1,444 in April to 1,470 today, 12 minors of whom are under 18 years of age.

With the data of this same association, it can be asserted that the appeals of the convicted are not serving to modify the sentences either. As of 13 May, 40 people had received a response to the review of their sentence in the first instance, of which only one managed to go from one year in prison to acquittal. continue reading

Also in another case, after appealing a sentence of 3 years and 8 months, a prisoner obtained a reduction to 2 years and two months. Most of the remaining cases, at least 32, have kept the sentence intact and some isolated cases have modified the form of imprisonment or reduced the time of internment by one month.

Despite this, organizations defending the rights of prisoners insist that the families continue to resist and not give up a right that could be useful to them, even though the percentage of success is very low.

Relatives of those convicted and organizations have not ceased to criticize the trials, with a total lack of guarantees, fabrication of evidence and high sentences, accusations that the Supreme Court rejects.

However, two weeks ago, Raucel Ocaña Parada, former prosecutor of Palma Soriano, in Santiago de Cuba and now exiled in Europe, awaiting a resolution of his asylum request in Switzerland, said in an interview that the sentences are decided by the party and are imposed on the courts, which are not independent.

The Cuban Attorney General’s Office assured in January that 790 people had been prosecuted for the July 11 protests, of which 55 were between 16 – the minimum criminal age – and 17 years old.

Amnesty International requested to be able to attend the trials, to which the press also does not have access, but it has never been answered in the affirmative. For the upcoming trial of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday, the opposition has asked the correspondents to do everything possible to cover it.

The NGO Prisoners Defenders points out that at least 842 people were in prison on the island at the end of 2021 for political reasons, mostly for the events of July 11, although the authorities insist that there are no political prisoners and assure that the legal charges have to do with “acts of vandalism.”

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American Businessman Authorized by the U.S to Invest in Cuba Is Keeping His Deal Secret

Kavulich still needs the approval of the Cuban side and is sure that he will get it. (Cubadebate)

EFE (via 14ymedio), New York, 19 May 2022 — The United States authorized for the first time in six decades an investment in a private business in Cuba, undertaken by John Kavulich, who told EFE today that he has been in contact with “officials of the Joe Biden Administration,” congressmen and senators who have allegedly been helping to bring this operation to fruition for almost a year.

Kavulich, President of the United States-Cuba Economic and Trade Council, does not give many details about the investment “up to 25,000 dollars,” nor does he give the name of the Cuban business, since he prefers to wait for Cuba to give the go-ahead. He only announced that this business is not related to the Government of Miguel Díaz-Canel, has more than 5 years in the service sector and has continued growth.

The businessman doesn’t want to give names of who his partners have been in the Biden administration: “[They were] officials of the Biden-Harris administration, including the State Department, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice in all areas, as well as the two houses of Congress,” says Kavulich.

Until now, the U.S. embargo on Cuba, in force since 1960, prevented this type of investment and, according to Kavulich, it’s the first time that this type of license has been approved since the boycott came into force.

No official of the Biden Administration has so far spoken on this issue or on the eventual lifting of the embargo on investments in Cuba.

The investor submitted the license request to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on June 10, 2021, and this agency gave him the green light on May 10, 2022. continue reading

Kavulich points out that his efforts with the White House and Congress date back long before the Biden Administration, during which time he has been figuring out if his investment efforts can be successful.

After formally submitting his petition last June, the businessman was optimistic, but as the months went by he lost hope.

“They gave me contradictory statements and communications in the past two months that shattered all my optimism,” he recalled, stressing that the final news of the approval of the investment took him completely by surprise.

In order for Kavulich to be able to invest in this company – -which he discovered thanks to a Facebook group — he still needs the approval of Cuba, but the businessman says he is “90% sure” that he will get it.

“My 90% certainty is not because the Cuban government is enthusiastic, but because of how necessary it is,” he stressed, explaining that this need has become more evident with the great blow that the island’s economy received with the pandemic.

Likewise, Kavulich notes that his objective in this investment is not intended to look for “a fast dollar,” but to pave the way for future investors.

“My role as president of the council and the work that the council has done since 1994 is that if there is a problem, we try to solve it and then let everyone know what we did. And that is precisely what we are doing here,” he says.

For Kavulich, the fact that an investment is allowed by a U.S. businessman on the island can represent a great “potential” for Cuba’s private sector.

Yesterday, Biden took another step in opening up to Cuba by announcing a relaxation of the limitations on remittances and flights, among other things, reversing part of the last round of sanctions applied by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

“It’s hard not to see a connection. We applied for the license on June 10, 2021. They issued the license on May 10, 2022, and six days later, they announced all these other changes. If one plus one equals two, in this case there is no doubt that it’s not a coincidence,” he concluded.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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San Isidro Movement Receives the Pedro Luis Boitel Award for its Struggle in Cuba

Antúnez collected the award for the Free Yoruba Association of Cuba, given that the leaders of this group are imprisoned on the island. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 20 May 2022 — The opposition groups Movimiento San Isidro [San Isidro Movement] the Opposition Movement for a New Republic and the Yoruba Free Association of Cuba received the Pedro Luis Boitel Freedom Prize this Thursday for their fight for freedom and democracy in Cuba.

The awards were presented in Miami by Cuban dissident Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez, who in turn collected the award for the Free Yorubas Association of Cuba, given that the leaders of this group are imprisoned on the island.

Within the framework of the 50th anniversary of the death of Pedro Luis Boitel, Antúnez said that with these recognitions delivered this Thursday, tribute is paid to all the “martyrs” who have “fallen in the fight against oppressive communism.”

Antúnez stressed that the “hardened” San Isidro Movement represents the “civic consciousness of society” and embodies the “loss of fear” of confronting the Castro regime that exists on the island.

The singer and co-founder of the San Isidro Movement, Eliecer Márquez Duany El Funky , one of the interpreters of the song Patria y Vida, received the award and said he is “sad” to learn that his “brothers are in prison,” referring to Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Osorbo Castillo. continue reading

As José Díaz Silva, president of the Opposition Movement for a New Republic, is also in prison in Cuba, Ramón Saúl Sánchez, president of the exile group Movimiento Democracia, received the award on his behalf.

The prize was awarded to the Opposition Movement for a New Republic for being one of the “most combative organizations within Cuba”, its “impressive convening power” and its “unquestionable influence in awakening and raising awareness among the Cuban population,” Antúnez said. .

The Pedro Luis Boitel Freedom Prize was created in 2001 by a coalition of non-governmental organizations from Eastern and Central Europe together with the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

The award is presented annually to recognize the exceptional work and leadership of a representative of the resistance within Cuba who promotes a change towards democracy.

It is called the Pedro Luis Boitel Freedom Award in memory of the activist who fought against the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and later against the regime of Fidel Castro who died during a hunger strike on May 25, 1972, while serving a prison sentence.

On this occasion, the award was presented during a meeting in Miami of the Hemispheric Front for Freedom, made up of politicians, NGOs, former diplomats and academics from several Latin American countries.

One of the Latin American deputies who participated in the summit, the Uruguayan Martín Elgue, asked the European Union and the Government of the United States not to “finance the regimes that help the Sao Paulo Forum,” a mechanism for coordinating parties and leftist and progressive social movements in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Regarding the controversy over whether the United States should invite Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua to the Ninth Summit of the Americas, to be held in June in Los Angeles, California, the Mexican René Bolio, president of the Cuba Justice Commission, assured that the governments of These three countries should not attend since they do not “legitimately” represent the peoples of these countries.

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Cuban President Diaz-Canel Accuses the US of Trying to ‘Rekindle’ the July 11th Protests

Image of the protests held on July 11, 2021 in Santiago de Cuba. (14ymedio)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 16 May 2022 — On Monday, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, accused the United States Embassy in Havana of “reviving what happened” in the anti-government protests of last July 11.

During his speech at the closing of the extraordinary sessions of the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP), in which former president Raúl Castro (2008-2018) was present the president spoke out against Washington. He accused the United States of promoting actions to “provoke a social outbreak” on the Island.

According to Díaz-Canel, the United States — whom he accused of “cynicism” — has constructed “infamous versions of the trials” against the 11J protesters. “Blind with frustration, the empire and its employees resort to old practices of attack with modern techniques of unconventional warfare,” Diaz-Canel charged.

According to the Cuban Attorney General’s Office, 790 people have been prosecuted for these protests, of which 55 are between 16 and 17 years old. Since December, trials of 11J protesters have been registered in the country, with hundreds of defendants.

The United States and the European Union, as well as Cuban and international NGOs, have denounced irregularities in the processes and criticized the high prison sentences, which have sometimes reached 30 years. continue reading

Díaz-Canel also rejected the accusations from Washington that accuse the island of imprisoning minors under 16 who participated in the protests. “From the country that holds world records for incarceration and prison mistreatment of girls and boys, we are accused of having tried and sentenced minors under 16 years of age,” he criticized. The minimum criminal age in Cuba is 16 years, according to the Island Prosecutor’s Office.

In recent weeks, the president assured that “the established legal procedure” was applied to 27 children under 16 years of age. Ten were interned in schools for comprehensive training and conduct and 17 were given “individualized attention” in their own school.

The NGO Prisoners Defenders, for its part, reported in its last count that at the end of March it had registered measures against at least 26 adolescents between the ages of 14 and 17.

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There Will be a Privileged Exchange Rate for Producers of High-Demand Goods in Cuba

A store that takes payment only in hard currency at 3rd and 70th in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 15 May 2022 — The Cuban government announced this Saturday that it will establish a special exchange rate for some state and private producers of high-demand goods. Without further details, the Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil, explained that these sectors, “in a selective and gradual manner,” will be able to obtain foreign currency at a price between the official rate of 24 pesos to the dollar and that of the informal market, which reaches 125 pesos.

This move comes two years after the first freely convertible currency (MLC) stores selling groceries and other staples were opened.

According to the minister, a scheme for the sale of foreign currency will be implemented in a “gradual and selective” manner and the Government will agree with suppliers on the prices of commercialization in Cuban pesos, Radio Rebelde published.

Gil explained that this new process will be focused on the production of food and high-demand products. “Today we have a missing piece in the design of the country’s monetary functioning, which is the sale of MLC, that is, of foreign currency, to the population that has a demand for it.”

Regarding the price of the currency, the minister pointed out that it is impossible to maintain a stable offer at the official exchange rate, since this “would require an amount of these currencies that would force us to give up the support of the main needs of the population,” adds the media official.

Also, according to the minister, after this step it is possible to “think about re-establishing the sale of foreign currency to the population.” continue reading

The announcement was made during Gil’s presentation in the National Assembly that is in session this weekend and immediately provoked strong criticism.

The economist Pedro Monreal harshly evaluated the official decision: “From the initial dream in 2020 of adopting a single exchange rate, it has gone to three rates: the official one (1:24), the informal one (1≈ 115) and the “secondary”(not yet quantified). One more nail in the coffin of the ’ordering [task]*’ and a possible source of illegalities,” he wrote.

In February of this year, the Cuban economy minister explained that the stores in MLC are a lifeline. “You sell in MLC or you don’t have (currency), because debt is paid or commercial credit is only guaranteed with currency,” he said at the time and defended the opening of stores that take payment exclusively in foreign currency.

The stores in MLC began to operate in Cuba at the end of 2019, first with offers of electrical appliances, hardware or furniture to capture the “dollars that escaped the country,” according to explanations given by the minister at the beginning of 2022. In the summer In 2020, the first markets for food and toiletries appeared, also in foreign currency.

The opening of these stores has been surrounded by strong popular criticism. Cubans complain that the commercial network in Cuban pesos has hardly any products on offer, while in the markets in MLC merchandise is supplied with more regularity and diversity.

During the popular protests last July, foreign currency stores were stoned and looted in several locations in the country. Product resellers have also generated a thriving business of buying in MLC and then offering these goods in national currency at sky-high prices on the informal market.

In his speech at the National Assembly this Saturday, the minister also indicated that the country’s imports between January and April of this year totaled four times its exports.

Exports of goods were about 590 million dollars in those four months, while imports reached about 2.397 billion dollars.

The island’s trade deficit, therefore, stood at 1.807 billion dollars, slightly more than three times the total volume of exports in that period.

*Translator’s note: Tarea ordenamiento = the [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’ which is a collection of measures that includes 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 others.

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