EFE – Page 29 – Translating Cuba

South African Court Blocks a Multimillion Dollar Government Donation to Cuba

The planned donation sparked a strong controversy in the country. (The South African)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Pretoria, 22 March 2022 — On Tuesday, a South African Court ordered a stop to the donation of 50 million rands (3.25 million dollars) that the Government of President Cyril Ramaphosa was going to make to Cuba, according to the plaintiffs that acted against that initiative.

The decision was adopted by Gauteng High Court Judge Brenda Neukircher after the Afrikaner pressure group Afriforum denounced the Executive’s plans and asked the courts for an urgent order to paralyze it.

Neukircher’s measure does not cancel the plans, but leaves them “on hold” until the courts have decided on the complaint.

“We are very pleased that we managed to stop this illegal and scandalous donation,” Reiner Duvenage, Afriforum’s strategy coordinator, said in a statement.

The Afrikaner lobby was “optimistic” about the future of their complaint and promised to “continue to fight wasteful and excessive spending that squanders taxpayers’ money.” continue reading

The planned donation had been arranged by the South African Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation and came from its African Renaissance and International Cooperation Fund.

“South Africa responded to the call for humanitarian assistance in the context of reciprocity and historical friendship and solidarity with Cuba, which was established through the sacrifices of Cuba during our struggle for freedom,” said Naledi Pandor, head of that portfolio, in a written response on the matter to the main South African opposition party, the Democratic Alliance.

For Afriforum as well as for dozens of civil organizations and opposition groups, the news of the donation to Cuba — which was announced at the beginning of February — intended to alleviate hunger on the Island, represents a negligence toward the needs of the African country itself, that has not yet managed to overcome the crisis of the pandemic and that suffers from deep problems of inequality, unemployment and poverty.

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‘Cuba, the Future Under Debate,’ a Chronicle of Former Mexican Correspondent on the Island

Mexican writer and journalist Gerardo Arreola says that increased repression is not the way to solve the island’s problems. (Secretary of Culture in Mexico City)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Gustavo Borges, Mexico City, 20 March 2022 — The Mexican writer and journalist Gerardo Arreola, author of the book Cuba, the Future Under Debate, said this Sunday that the lack of decisions to solve the economic crisis and the increase in repression are not the way to solve the problems on the island.

“An absence of political decisions in economic matters and a reinforcement of repression through the courts does not seem to be the best way to move forward, said Arreola in an interview with EFE, reflecting on his work, a chronicle of the time of Raúl Castro in power and the challenges of the transition.

The volume, edited by Penguin Random House, is an analysis of the situation in Cuba by Arreola, a correspondent in the Caribbean country for more than 15 years.

As a witness to the events before and after Fidel Castro handed over power, Arreola recounted the Cuban reality in the last three decades, and focused on the death of the leader of the Revolution and its consequences.

“I tried to reflect that Cuban society is plural, there are those who are absolutely supporters of the government and do not admit criticism and there are critics of the government, without the possibility of dialogue, but in the middle there is an observant, polemicist, critical and active society; this is one of the novelties of the current Cuban situation,” he said.

Referring to the current economic crisis, the journalist considered that it may be greater than the ’Special Period’ in the 1990s which was a consequence of the collapse of the socialist camp, and he believes that the Government has lacked the will to apply measures that help the people. continue reading

“There is an absence of political will to accept proposals from researchers close and distant from the government, which are technically very similar,” he said, referring to debates by economists calling for freedom for state-owned companies, freeing economic space for agricultural producers and other alternatives.

When he was about to finish the book, Arreola had to extend it to refer to the massive protests on the Island against the Government, which occurred on July 11, 2021, repressed by the Government, which described the rebels as being at the service of the CIA, instead of acknowledging the disagreements.

“It is striking that the demonstrations of July last year have led to trials with high sentences, if one takes into account what happened. The background of the situation, recognized by the Government itself, is that there were dissatisfied people, outraged by the increase and spectacular rise in prices and shortages of basic products, perhaps aggravated by the pandemic,” he explained.

Arreola accepted that among the protesters there were violent ones who broke windows, but he wonders if, even in the case of the aggressive ones, they deserved harsh prison sentences.

“There are 16-17 year olds on trial,” he noted.

In his book, Arreola avoided judgments. He portrayed the Cuban situation from different angles, with topics such as the government’s relationship with the Church, the 2019 Constitution, the rise of the military in key government positions, and the issue of emigration.

Unlike other times, the internet has allowed the reality of Cuba today to appear on social networks, a blow to official censorship, on which the correspondent reflected.

“The criticism and observation of reality multiplied because there was a shot in the accounts on social networks. It is enough for something to happen in a corner of the Island for someone to record it,” he said.

Arreola believes that Cuba is bleeding to death with the departure of young people abroad, many of them high-level professionals, to which is added the aging of society, which in a few years will be the oldest in Latin America.

Another current issue is that of corruption in the Government, which Raúl Castro acknowledged in his presidency.

“Raúl pointed to corruption as something serious and over time it was identified as a national security problem. It has been recognized that corruption at high levels, with a considerable level of resources, is something that could become a political and governance threat,” he concluded.

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US Judge Says Cruise Ships Violated the Helms-Burton Act by Serving Cuban Ports

The ’Adonia’ cruise ship, which in 2016 made the first trip of this type in 50 years between the US and Cuba. (14ymedio/Rodolfo Hernandez)

EFE/14ymedio, Miami / Havana, 22 March 2022 — A US federal judge determined that the cruise companies Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises violated the Helms-Burton Act by using ports in Havana that were once confiscated from their owners after the triumph of the Revolution.

“By using the Terminal and one of its docks in various ways, Carnival, MSC SA, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian committed acts of trafficking” (usufruct), said a court document by the the Miami federal magistrate Beth Bloom, to which the Spanish agency Efe had access on Tuesday, .

With this decision, the judge sided with the plaintiff, the Havana Docks company, which filed a lawsuit against these four large cruise companies for using the Havana Cruise Port Terminal, also called Sierra Maestra Terminal, which had been confiscated by the Fidel Castro regime.

The plaintiff firm, which operated that terminal until its confiscation, alleges that by using the port facilities the four companies violated Title III of the Helms-Burton Act of 1996.

This title, activated by then President Donald Trump, in 2019, allows US citizens to sue for monetary compensation for the use of properties expropriated from their families and that have been used especially by shipping and hotel companies from third countries. continue reading

In his brief, filed in court on Monday, Bloom further notes that the four companies engaged in these acts “intentionally and deliberately.”

Havana Docks alleges that with these activities that occurred between 2015 and 2019, the four companies obtained up to 1.1 billion dollars in income and paid 138 million to Cuban government entities.

The firms defended that their cruises to Cuba were framed under the guidelines established by the US Department of the Treasury within the “thaw” process with Cuba established by the Administration of President Barack Obama (2009-2017), but the magistrate rejected those arguments.

She noted that this was fixed in 12 categories and that they did not include those related to tourism, nor those that could threaten the embargo against Cuba imposed by the United States.

After the judge’s decision, which thus rejected the motions presented by the four companies to dismiss the lawsuit, the case will continue in a jury trial that will begin in May and in which the financial compensation to the plaintiffs must be determined.

This judicial process may have implications for the lawsuits that dozens of Cuban-Americans have filed in United States courts seeking compensation for their assets expropriated by the Revolution.

At least 37 lawsuits against companies, especially tourist companies, many of them Spanish hotel companies, have been filed in United States courts, most of them in Florida, since Title III was activated in 2019, according to the Commercial and Economic Council USA-Cuba.

Trump activated the norm that has allowed these legal processes and that his predecessors, Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, never wanted because of the legal and commercial implications with third countries.

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Cuba’s Potato Harvest Will Fall to Record Lows This Year

Lines of Cubans to buy potatoes in Trillo Park. (14ymedio)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 18 March 2022 — The long lines to buy potatoes will continue to be the scene in Cuban neighborhoods, after the Ministry of Agriculture recognized this Thursday that the national production of the tuber will not cover the internal demand in 2022 and, in the best of cases, it will be at last year’s levels.

Potato consumption in Cuba in 2019 was 151,668 tons, of which 35,272 were imported from the Netherlands and Canada; 2019 is the last year for which international statistics are available since there are no national data.

This bad news comes while deliveries are being made, this week, allowing 4 pounds per person at 5 pesos a pound in various neighborhoods of Havana.

As explained by specialist Enel Espinosa to the Cuban News Agency (ACN), the estimated harvest for this year is 116,396 tons, which falls “far short from national demand.”

Of the area dedicated to this crop, 56% was planted “outside the ideal calendar,” mainly due to lack of inputs,” which will make it difficult to meet the objectives. continue reading

According to data from the National Statistics and Information Office (Onei), this objective is similar to the harvest obtained in 2020 (115,385 tons), the last year for which there is a record, and which was the worst year since 2017. If the official projection is achieved, it would be the fourth worst result of the potato harvest since 2000.

Espinosa also acknowledges that the tuber harvest will be far from the maximum recorded by Cuban agriculture at the end of the last century and in the first decade of the current one, when it exceeded 300,000 tons, more than double the current forecast.

In 1996, Cuba was even a net exporter of potatoes, reaching a production record of 348,000 tons. In 2010 the sale was released from the rationing system, but in 2015 the harvest collapsed (123,000 tons) and the Government had to import to cover the demand, which led to rationing potatoes as of 2017.

The information is becoming known at an adverse moment for the Cuban countryside, after negative data on its main crops, such as sugar, tobacco and coffee, which became known in recent months.

The country, which imports between 60% and 70% of the food it needs, is also going through a serious economic crisis, due to the pandemic, US economic sanctions and errors in national macroeconomic management.

The crisis is marked by the scarcity of basic goods, the partial dollarization of the economy and a sharp rise in prices.

Since the pandemic began, the situation has worsened even more and the lines to buy potatoes are several hours long, generating riots and disputes among people to get the pounds of potatoes that the Cuban State allows them to acquire, according to rationing, and only once since the year began.

The lines that must form to buy the tuber cover entire blocks and this year, the Cuban State has only announced the sale of the product one time.

In February, the Government doubled the price of potatoes due to the rise in the price of agricultural products and the increase in labor costs per employee. One pound of the tuber went from three to five pesos, and six in the case of refrigerated potatoes.

A resolution published on those dates in the Official Gazette established the new price for the collection and retail sale of potatoes harvested with national seed at 9,196.2 centavos per ton, equivalent to 423 pesos per quintal (100 pounds). The potato harvested with imported seed stands at 7,152.46 pesos per ton, or 329 pesos per quintal (100 pounds).

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The Cuban State Only Completed 42 Percent of the Homes Planned for 2021

The construction sector is experiencing serious difficulties in Cuba. (Collage)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 20 March 2022 — The Cuban Ministry of Construction (Micons) only completed 42% of the houses it planned to build in 2021 and 41% of the planned repairs.

According to the ministry’s annual report, presented this Saturday by official media, last year 18,645 homes were completed from the state plans, of the nearly 44,400 planned, and 14,245 were repaired, when the plan pointed to some 34,745.

The Prime Minister of Cuba, Manuel Marrero Cruz, who participated in the presentation of the report, spoke of the “dissatisfaction” of many families due to these breaches, including single mothers with three or more children, according to the Cuban News Agency (ACN).

Marrero also insisted on giving the “top priority” to the housing program and urged the Micons not to offer justifications and to get involved so that the programs are fulfilled.

The Micons plan for this year provides for the construction of 37,991 homes and the rehabilitation of 14,697. The State is the main constructor in Cuba. continue reading

The construction sector is experiencing serious difficulties in Cuba, with the lack of inputs such as steel and cement being one of the main obstacles.

Last January, it was reported that the housing built by private individuals exceeded what was agreed in the 2021 plan in Sancti Spíritus, while the State fulfilled just over half of what was agreed.

The provincial director of Housing, Néstor Borroto, told the local newspaper Escambray that the new work was saved thanks to the push of his own efforts and, although he does not give figures on how much expectations are exceeded, the amount is estimated to be high.

For February 2021, the plan for the year, added 1,441 new properties to the precarious Sancti Spiritus housing fund. Of these, 993 were be by private initiative, including 452 basic housing units (CBH) – about 25 square meters (270 square feet). The remaining 448 would be carried out through state channels.

Borroto now counts 55%, some 246, of the state homes as delivered and 56% of the state CBHs carried out (253 units). “Not so the own effort, which exceeded the agreed figure,” he indicated without saying by how much.

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Panama Exempts From Transit Visas Cubans Who Return to the Island

Hundreds of Cubans stood outside the embassy soon as they learned of the new requirement demanded by Panama to transit through its territory. (14ymedio)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana 17 March 2022 — The Government of Panama has established a new norm for Cuban citizens that exempts them from the obligation to carry a visa to travel through the territory of that Central American country upon their return to the Island.

Under the signature of the Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo, and the Minister of Public Security, Juan Manuel Pino, the new text published on Wednesday in the Official Gazette, modifies the previous provision, which since March 8 required a transit visa for all Cuban passengers and crew.

This Executive Decree also includes in the exception of the requirement to obtain visas to citizens who have Valid Residence or Multiple Visa, previously used in the State that granted it, valid for no less than six months at the time of transit, by other countries.

In this group are the current residents or those with multiple visas issued by the United States, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Singapore and the member countries of the European Union. continue reading

The measure will not serve to satisfy the population that, since last week, has been experiencing the imposition of transit visas for Cubans who pass through Panama, since most of them are looking to leave Cuba.

Hundreds of people who had purchased a ticket to emigrate to Nicaragua, which maintains the visa exemption for Cubans, were surprised by the new requirement. One of the few ways to get to Managua is through Copa Airlines, which stops in Panama, especially since Costa Rica, in February, also began to require the transit document.

For at least four days, many Cubans crowded as close as the Police allowed them to get to the diplomatic headquarters of Panama, where they demanded solutions and answers.

The director of Consular Affairs and Cuban Residents Abroad of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Ernesto Soberón, insisted that he would mediate to relax the demands that initially came into force immediately, although new dates had been established later to try to calm travelers.

Cubans who planned to travel between March 16 and 31 must reschedule their flights with the Copa airline, which offers connections at times for two or more months, and process their visas, which cost $50.

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In 2021 Cuba Detected the Highest Number of Dengue Mosquitos in 15 Years

The ’Aedes aegypti’ mosquito, responsible for the transmission of dengue and zika viruses. (James Gathany)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana 17 March 2022 — In 2021, Cuba detected the highest number of breeding sites for the mosquitoes that transmit the dengue virus in the last 15 years, as confirmed this Wednesday by the Island’s Ministry of Public Health.

In a statement, the Ministry indicated that 71.1% of the mosquito breeding sites were detected in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín and Villa Clara.

In addition, the highest incidence was found during the months of June, September and October of last year.

The Ministry’s press release clarifies that, as of September, dengue cases were reduced by 29.3% compared to 2020, although without citing the figures.

In addition, it reported that the presence of the mosquito that transmits the viral disease has been increasing since 2007. continue reading

On the other hand, the health authorities point out that there are no records of other arboviruses — transmitted by insects, such as the mosquito — such as chikungunya and zika since 2019 and 2017, respectively.

They also alerted to the fact that that in seven out of ten cases, larvae of the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes are detected in water storage tanks.

According to the Ministry, during 2021 in the American continent, 1,173,674 cases of dengue, 131,630 of chikungunya and 18,804 of zika were detected.

In January, a pilot trial of a nuclear technique by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) culminated in Cuba with almost 1.3 million mosquitoes, and managed to reduce the population of the Aedes aegypti species by up to 90%.
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The Number of Foreign Tourists in Cuba Quadruples in January

Hotel Grand Aston La Habana, recently built by Gaesa on the Malecón. (14ymedio)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 13 March 2022 — The number of foreign tourists who visited Cuba in January was almost four times higher than the same month of the previous year, when the figures sank due to covid-19.

As published this Saturday by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), the number of international visitors rose to 134,661 in January, compared to 35,842 in the first month of 2021.

The strong increase is linked to the global recovery from the pandemic, both in Cuba and in its main tourist source markets, and contrasts with the evolution in 2021 as a whole.

The ONEI estimated 573,944 international travelers as the number who visited Cuba throughout last year, which represented a decrease of 60% compared to 2020.

The figure for the whole of 2021 represents a quarter of the official projection at the beginning of the year, which was around 2.2 million visitors, and very far from the between 4 and 5 million annual tourists prior to the pandemic. continue reading

The Ministry of Economy and Planning estimates that this year some 2.5 million international visitors will travel to the island, who should contribute some 1.159 billion dollars to the Cuban economy.

Cuba, which reopened its borders in the middle of last November after the closure forced by the pandemic, sees tourism as a priority sector. This is its second largest item of gross domestic product (GDP) and its third largest source of foreign currency, behind the sale of medical services to other countries and remittances sent primarily from Cubans abroad to their families on the Island.

The state tourism sector expects to end this year with 84,906 rooms, 5.7% more than the previous year, despite the pandemic. As this newspaper has confirmed, the construction of new hotels is going at full speed.

In Havana’s Vedado, for example, the dilapidated structure of the Moscow restaurant is being rapidly demolished to make way for accommodation to be managed by the Cuban company Gran Caribe and the Spanish company Be Live, and ten days ago the Telégrafo Axel Hotel was reopened as the first LGBTI friendly establishment in the capital.

Despite coronavirus restrictions, a lack of tourists and a shortage of construction supplies across the country, the Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA (Gaesa), the military conglomerate, has not stopped its massive projects. One of them is the one that is being built at 25th and K, in El Vedado, a luxury hotel that is projected as “the tallest of its kind in Havana” and that aims to reach 42 floors and 154 meters in height. .

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Cubans Berta Soler and Angel Moya are Detained Again on Sunday, for the Seventh Consecutive Week

Photo taken by Ángel Moya from his home to document the surveillance by State Security. (Facebook)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 7 March 2022 — Ladies in White leader, Berta Soler, and her husband activist Ángel Moya were once again detained for several hours on Sunday, as he confirmed on Monday.

“They imposed a fine of 7.50 pesos for being undocumented and they confined me to a cell until they released me at 11:20 pm in the street of the Ladies in White national headquarters,” wrote Moya on his Facebook account.

The two activists were detained on Sunday when they attempted to go out once again, for the seventh consecutive week, to demand the release of all those arrested in relation to the antigovernment protests of July 11th.

As they explained, the detention took place outside the headquarters of the Ladies in White in the Lawton area of Havana.

“[Berta and Ángel] have been detained and disappeared at 11:16 this morning at Calle E and Porvenir in Lawton as they went out to the street to exercise their right to freedom,” denounced Ladies in White member Lourdes Esquivel Vieyto on social media on Sunday.

According to Moya, both were transferred to different detention centers, where they were held in the cells for more than ten hours. continue reading

Since the Ladies in White announced that they would protest each Sunday, as they did before the pandemic, demanding the release of those detained for the antigovernment protests on July 11th, they have been arrested every week.

The Ladies in White movement emerged in 2003 as a result of the wave of Cuban government repression known as the Black Spring. Two years later, they received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament.

The EU and NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International criticized that wave of politically motivated arrests. Cuban authorities, however, alleged that it was an attack on national sovereignty on orders of the United States.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Díaz-Canel Meets With the Canadian Sherritt Company to Expand its Energy Activities in Cuba

Díaz-Canel meets with Leon Binedell. (Granma)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 6 March 2022 — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel met in Havana with the president of Sherritt International, Leon Binedell, to talk about the participation of the Canadian company in the island’s economy and the energy sector.

As published this Saturday by the official newspaper Granma, the meeting addressed Sherritt’s participation in the development of “activities such as mining, oil prospecting and power generation.”

Sherritt, one of the foreign entities with the greatest presence on the island, operates in a joint venture in the Moa mining area, in the province of Holguín.

In a previous visit to Cuba in November 2021, the executive of the Toronto-based company said that he intended to increase nickel production in Moa to continue exploiting the deposits for “several decades,” according to official media.

That mining complex produced 31,506 tons of nickel in 2020, lower than the forecast figure of 33,000 tons for that period.

Sherritt is also working on the exploration and drilling of crude oil on the northern Cuban platform, in conjunction with the state-owned company Unión Cuba Petróleo (Cupet).

The Canadian company has a more than 20 year presence in Cuba and is considered one of the largest foreign investors in the country.

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Aeroflot Flies This Weekend to Return Russians and Cubans to Their Respective Countries

Russian Tourists in the Cancun Airport in Mexico. (EFE)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 6 March 2022 — After spending more time than planned in Cuba, Russian tourists began to return to their country this weekend, thanks to the Aeroflot airline making special flights to the island and the Dominican Republic, according to the Juventud Rebelde newspaper.

The delay is due to the suspension of permits to fly over US, Canadian and European airspace imposed on Russian airlines, after the invasion of Ukraine.

Residents on the island are accepted on flights from Russia, but from Cuban airports domestic passengers will be admitted only after all Russian tourists have a seat, the Aeroflot airline said.

This weekend, some 400 Russian tourists left the Cancun airport, in Mexico, for Moscow, Russia, after more time than expected on their trips.

Five days after the Russian invasion began, the Association of Russian Tour Operators (Ator) reported the suspension of trips to Latin America and the Caribbean. That day, Aeroflot announced that it was stopping its transatlantic flights to Mexico, the United States, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. continue reading

Russian tourists in Cuba had to send the embassy an email, individually, with their name and surname, passport number, date of entry to Cuba and arrival flight number, expected departure date and flight number, airport and, if there is one, the tour operator.

The Cuban Airport and Aeronautical Services Company (Ecasa) broadcast a message on its Telegram channel last week, announcing that the Nordwind airline company would maintain flights from Russia to Cuba and vice versa, with specific instructions for Cubans.

This message indicates that Cubans will be accepted on return flights from Russia to the Island, while “from Cuban airports, Cuban passengers will be accepted only after all Russian tourists are accepted.”

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More Than 400,000 People in Cuba are Affected by the Drought

The reservoirs of the Island are filled at only 52% of their capacity.

EFE/ 14ymedio, Havana, 4 March 2022 — A severe drought has left more than 400,000 people in Cuba without water supply, state television reported Thursday. The provinces with the greatest scarcity are the eastern Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Las Tunas and Camagüey, as well as Havana.

In the report, the president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH), Antonio Rodríguez, warned that the forecasts indicate that it will rainfall will be below average in March, April and possibly in May.

Holguín is one of the provinces most affected because its surface and underground reserves have decreased in the main city and some of its municipalities, such as Gibara and Rafael Freyre, are facing the main limitations with the water supply.

The report indicated that as of the beginning of March, more than 67,000 people in Holguín are affected by the water service. continue reading

The island’s reservoirs are filled at only 52% of their capacity, which represents some 815 million cubic meters of water less than the average for these dates.

To mitigate the situation, actions are carried out in conductors and networks, interconnections of systems, increase in pumping stations, drilling of wells in order to incorporate a greater volume of water in the areas affected by the low levels of rainfall that have caused the drought.

However, in most cases the repair work is insufficient and only patches that do not improve supply. The authorities have admitted for years that the water lost through leaks is enormous. In 2015, the press claimed that the amount was around 3.4 billion cubic meters.

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European Union Concerned About ‘Severe’ Sentences Against 11 July Protestors in Cuba

The Cuban press reported on the Holguín trials this Monday for the first time, two weeks after the sentence was known. (LP)

EFE/14ymedio, Brussels, 1 March 2022 — The European Union expressed its concern on Monday over the “severe” sentences of up to 20 years in prison handed down against twenty demonstrators who participated in the anti-government protests on July 11 in Cuba.

“We are concerned about the severe sentences imposed,” said the European Commission’s foreign spokesman, Peter Stano, on his official Twitter account.

The spokesman for the European External Action Service (EEAS), headed by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, urged the Havana authorities to “respect fundamental rights, including freedom of expression.”

“Transparency and respect for due process must guide the trials related to the July 11 protests,” Stano stressed.

On July 11, the largest anti-government protests in decades took place in Cuba, spontaneous and massive demonstrations linked to the serious economic crisis that the country is going through and demands for freedom. continue reading

Last week, Cuban Justice, in a ruling by the Provincial Court of Holguín, sentenced 20 protesters for sedition, including five minors, to between five years of limited freedom and 20 years in prison.

The Government of the Island did not publicly disseminate these sentences and the official media had not reported on this case until late on Monday when the official press released a Prensa Latina note generically titled Trial in the province of Cuba, highlighting violence after disturbances, which did not detail either the sentences nor the crimes for which the defendants were tried.

The text speaks of alleged evidence presented that demonstrates the involvement of the United States in the protests, affirms that the accused were repentant and that the right to defense was guaranteed, contrary to the versions that the protesters, through their families, have maintained at all times.

In a recent document, the Attorney General’s Office reported the prosecution of 790 people for acts related to the July 11 protests. Of the total number of defendants, 55 are between 16 and 17 years old.

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Russia Extends Payments on Cuba’s Debt to 2027

Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas, negotiator of the Cuban debt, with the Vice President of the Russian Government, Yuri Borisov. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

EFE/14ymedio, Moscow, 22 February 2022 — The Russian Duma ratified today the regulations that allow an extension of the payments of Russian credits granted to Havana until 2027. The moratorium had been planned since last October and was confirmed after the corresponding document was presented to parliament by the Russian Government , as reported by the legislative body on its website.

As already advanced, Russia considers the extension will not have a significant impact on the restructuring of the debt, since the deficit due to non-payment is 57 million dollars, but between 2022 and 2027 Cuba will return what it owes, in addition to 11 million dollars in interest for the delay.

The document approved today establishes that the last payment must be transferred by December 15, 2027.

Between 2006 and 2019, Russia offered Cuba export credits worth 2.3 billion dollars to finance projects in the fields of energy, the metallurgical industry and transportation, as well as for the supply of goods necessary for the development of the economy of the island.

At the beginning of 2020, Cuba practically stopped paying on what it owes Russia, thereby increasing its debts to Russian commercial banks and export entities. continue reading

At the request of the Cuban side, which asked to review the payment conditions of these loans and in correspondence with the decision of the Russian Government on August 7, 2021, the corresponding intergovernmental protocols were signed to extend the payments.

The ratification takes place in a delicate international context due to fears of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, to which NATO threatens to respond militarily. This January, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov did not rule out in an interview Moscow’s interest in deploying military infrastructure in Cuba and Venezuela, something that provoked a strong reaction in the West.

Shortly after, Miguel Díaz-Canel and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had a telephone conversation. Last Friday, Yuri Borísov, Russian deputy prime minister, finished a tour in Havana that had stopped in Caracas and Managua the previous days. During the visit, all partners confirmed their intention to increase cooperation, including military cooperation.

During his mandate, Raúl Castro achieved the cancellation of 90% of the debt that Cuba acquired during the time of the Soviet Union and still owed to Russia. Mexico forgave 70% of the 487 million dollars that it had lent to the Island and Japan forgave almost one billion dollars of an old debt in 2014. For their part, Vietnam and China also forgave part of their debt, but it has not been informed of these amounts.

The Island has failed to comply with several of the forgiveness agreements for part of these defaults. In August 2020, Argentina claimed 2.7 billion dollars from the Cuban government that it had been owed since the 1970s. On the same date, Spain formally stalled the debt cancellation agreement that it had reached with Cuba in 2015, which affected outstanding payments for a total amount of 201.5 million euros.

In June of the same year, the countries that make up the Paris Club offered Cuba a one-year moratorium for the payment of its debt (Havana had requested a two-year margin and exemption from sanctions for late payments due to the coronavirus pandemic), although that year has already passed.

The island’s external debt amounted to 18.2 billion dollars in 2016, the last year that the island reported official data, and since then the figure has increased substantially, according to several Cuban economists.

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Cuban Government Restores the Accreditations of three EFE Journalists

The recovery of the accreditations comes at a time of great journalistic interest on the Island. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 22 February 2022 — On Monday, the Cuban authorities restored the accreditations — withdrawn last November — of three journalists from the EFE team on the island, a decisive step towards the normalization of the journalistic activity of the Spanish agency in the country.

The International Press Center (CPI) took this step after a meeting in Havana between its main officials and a delegation from the Spanish public media.

The Cuban authorities also assured that in the next few days the press visa of the new delegate of the EFE office in Havana, which had been requested in September, will be processed.

In addition, the Cuban authorities indicated that they will approve the credentials of the new editorial coordinator as soon as the agency provides him with the necessary documentation. continue reading

When these two press visas are delivered, EFE will recover the reporting capacity it had at the beginning of last year, with seven active journalists (delegate, three editors, two photographers and a cameraman).

On November 13, the Cuban authorities withdrew the accreditations of five journalists from the agency and restored two the following day.

The recovery of the accreditations comes at a time of great journalistic interest on the Island, which is carrying out an unprecedented process of popular consultation of its Family Code, a legislative reform that includes, among other novelties, the recognition of same-sex marriage.

The country is also going through difficult times due to the economic crisis, aggravated by the tightening of US economic sanctions, the pandemic and the poor results of macroeconomic management.

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