Category: Ivan Garcia

In the first hour of voting turnout was very light. Some retirees who, early in the morning, go out to buy the bread granted by the rationing book, took advantage and voted expeditiously.

“It’s that people like to sleep in, in the morning,” said a woman seated at the school table. The procedure was fast. They wrote down your identity card number, compared your data with the voter registration and then gave you a ballot.

The deficiencies in three of the four voting places visited were palpable. At the number two school in constituency 68 of the Lawton-Vista Alegre people’s council, the day before the vote, voters’ lists had not yet been posted. In three of them, instead of pens, they had put pencils, making it very easy to manipulate the vote.

In all the polls, propaganda in favor of a Yes vote was blatantly on display. The number one electoral college in District 68, where I had to vote, they did not even knock on my door to give me the summons used to call people to vote. They threw mine and my neighbor’s under the door. My name did not appear on the rolls, nor did that of my wife and daughter, eligible to vote. Where the voter’s name was supposed to be placed, they showed an address and an apartment number.

That Sunday, Daniel and his brother took out a bottle of rum and started drinking while playing dominoes with two friends from the neighborhood and listening to reggaeton. “A neighbor who worked at the polling station went through the corridor where we live and jokingly told us, ’when are you going to vote, then get drunk and forget them?’ You know, nobody wants to be marked [for not showing up]. We made a stop and went to vote.”

The domino players say they voted Yes. Do they agree with the text of the new Constitution? Daniel responds: “I have not read it. Everything is pure procedure. If you vote No, they win. If you vote yes, it’s the same.”

It may be true. But automatically a segment of Cubans continues to act like zombies. Luisa, a clerk in a state cafeteria, says she does not approve of the government’s management and is able to overwhelm you for a couple of hours with complaints about market shortages and deficiencies in public services.

But when she votes, she always checks the box that favors the regime. Why? “Hey, the dissidents do not give me a means to vote NO. If I am fired from my job the Embassy of the United States will not grant me asylum as a political refugee. This is the country that I have to live in. And if you do not look like you support the government, you are looking for a problem,” Luisa explains.

Fear always knocks on the door before civic citizenship. The reasons are understood. We Cubans reside in a nation of command and order. The good and bad that can happen to you in life depends to a great degree on your support for the autocracy. Sixty years later, that behavior works as a conditioned reflex.

In spite of everything, the fear has been overcome. In the referendum to approve the 1976 Constitution, 97.7% of Cubans ratified that legal document and attendance was 98%. Forty years later, in the imitation of elections to choose the deputies to the National Assembly, held in 2018, between 23 and 24% of citizens abstained, left the ballots blank or annulled them with rude words and slogans of “Down with Fidel.”

According to reports from observers and alternative media, in the majority of the polls visited, the number of abstentions exceeded the NO vote, while the Yes won comfortably.

Carlos, a sociologist, affirms that “in every election, votes against government proposals increase, but for various reasons, including fear, people feel more comfortable staying at home than going to vote and having to voteno or leave the ballot blank. Abstention can be justified in innumerable ways. I’m sick, I had a family problem, or a lie. But still many Cubans think that in the polling stations there are video cameras and voting NO or putting anti-government slogans can bring you problems.”

Although the ballot boxes are watched over by the young pioneers, in the vicinity of the polling stations the presence of State Security agents dressed in civilian clothes is visible. “Operations are mounted in all elections, with the participation of the police, DTI and Security. In areas where known dissidents live, surveillance is greater. If they are going to audit the vote count they are alert in case of any provocation,” says a former intelligence officer.

These operatives Olympianly transgress their own legal norms implemented by the regime. Dozens of opponents, such as José Díaz Silva, were assaulted or prevented from voting. Yoani Sánchez, director of 14ymedio, chronicled the tension she experienced in an electoral college when she demanded her rights. In the end, at the cry of Viva la Revolución, he had to endure the usual act of repudiation.

This fear of what can happen when acting voluntarily or against the interests of the government is always present among Cubans. That is why people prefer to see things from the stands or record from a distance with their mobile phones the protests and beatings of the political police to peaceful opponents.

In this referendum the victory was pre-ordained in favor of the Yes. After three o’clock in the afternoon of Monday, February 25, Alina Balseiro, president of the National Electoral Commission, appeared in a press conference informing that the new Constitution of the Republic of Cuba it was approved with 86.85% of the votes cast, according to preliminary data. Of the 9,298,277 citizens with the right to suffrage, 7,848,343 (84.4%) went to the polls to answer the question Do you ratify the new Constitution of the Republic?

Accepted as valid were 7,522,569 votes were, of which 6,816,169 voters voted Yes (86.85%) and 706,400 voted No (9.0%). 127,100 ballots were canceled and 198,674 were left blank.

In an article published in, the independent journalist Reinaldo Escobar commented: “The preliminary results of the referendum on the new Constitution confirm what was expected: that the new Constitution was going to be approved by the majority and that the process was going to make clear the increase in citizen dissent by putting a number to that group that rejects the administration of the authorities.

“More than two and a half million voters all over the country have distanced themselves from the new Constitution, between No, null, and blank votes, in addition to abstentions. Many have thus found themselves on the path to distancing themselves from the ruling political and economic system on the island.”

In Cuba, without international observers, reliable automatic voting machines, indelible ink, not to mention the excessive propaganda in favor of the regime, even inside the polling places, the official data usually awakens distrust among the opponents, independent journalists, exiles and analysts who follow Cuba.

Fear, for now, remains an involuntary ally of the olive-green autocracy.

My mother was always very clearheaded, but out of respect for my father, she just taught us to believe in God and we knew of the injustice that the Revolution had committed with her father, a Galician emigrant who arrived empty-handed and based on hard work managed to have land, livestock and property. Everything was expropriated by the agrarian reform. My grandfather did not survive that shock and the next year he died. After so much sadness and agony, after a while my grandmother also died. I did not know them in life,” says Luis David by email from Kentucky in the United States.

Very young he began to question the olive green totalitarianism and the economy of barracks implemented by the Castros. “I did not like that the double morality caused by the fear that prevented you from expressing your opinions with sincerity, nor the hypocrisy of the leaders: they preached as if they were proletarians and lived as bourgeois.

I never thought about leaving Cuba. When I graduated, I did my social service of two years in the National Institute of Normalization, an agency where bureaucracy and servility to the ideas of the Communist Party reigned, without the basic resources to work. The salary was 198 pesos a month (8 dollars). I was an engineer, but I felt miserable, with that salary I could not help my parents in the maintenance of the home. That reality made me change my mind and I decided to emigrate.”

He tried first in Venezuela and Colombia. In 1996, finally, he was able to travel to Chile, where before getting a job as an engineer, he was a door-to-door salesman and a doorman in a nightclub. In 2000 he traveled to the United States. Contrary to the vast majority of Cubans, who settle in Florida, because of the weather, to be able to speak Spanish and to see the same sea that bathes the northern coast of Cuba, Luis David, settled in Kentucky, in the southeastern center of the United States. For eleven years he worked as an environmental engineer-specialist in the Kentucky government.

In August 2009, faced with the need for information and publicity from the growing Cuban community, Luis David founded El Kentubano. “It was done with own resources, without external help. Something new for me, because I was not an entrepreneur or a journalist. I did it from nothing. I was learning along the way. The publication is supported by advertisements, one part is distributed free and another by subscriptions.

In the beginning, the money obtained was barely enough to pay the cost of production, printing, distribution and marketing. Many times I had to spend my income to continue putting out El Kentubano. At that time, except for the design, I was the one who wrote, did interviews, looked for sponsors and distributed the magazine, but now I have a team mde up of Yany Díaz, journalist, and Elizabeth Alarcón, designer,

“The digital era has decimated printed publications, but in the case of publications aimed at a specific group, be it health, sports or emigration, far from being extinct they have prospered. And in recent years, thanks to the increase in the Cuban community and new businesses, the magazine’s life was guaranteed. Sponsors contributing this include companies such as Humana, Kroger, Sprint, American Airlines, Toyota and McDonald’s, among others, have seen in The Kentubano a marketing tool and advertise in it. In 2009 a thousand copies of 20 pages per month were printed, today the magazine has 90 pages and 10 thousand copies are printed monthly.”

The Kentubano has color photos on its front and back cover. On the inside pages of the gazette paper, you can see photos and ads in color and black and white. Some of his texts are taken from Cuban digital sites. And in between the ads are interspersed advice to newcomers, interviews with relevant Cubans in Kentucky or recipes for traditional sweets. The business model of digital journalism is under construction. Newspapers like The New York Times already make a profit thanks to their 3.6 million subscribers on the internet. Other media implement proactive strategies and raise money among their readers by asking them what kind of stories they want to read.

“Taking the magazine forward was a titanic task. Two years ago I decided to take a break as an engineer and dedicate more time to my family, to the community through El Kentubano, the Capítulo Kentucky José Martí and the Cuban American Association of Kentucky (ACAK), a group created a year ago and whose members, selflessly, with their own resources, represent and defend the interests of our community under the José Martí motto Helping those who need it is not only part of one’s duty, but of happiness,” says Luis David proudly.

When Luis David arrived in Kentucky in 2000, the number of Cubans did not exceed 500. In 2006 there were already about 5,000 Cubans, currently there are more than 25,000 in Louisville alone, the largest city in the State. “Almost all of them come directly from Cuba and although their knowledge of economics is limited, they have managed to become a thriving and enterprising community that has managed to deal with the cold, language and customs that are so different.

The result of their integration into society is translated into the large number of shops, restaurants, consultancies and small businesses in Louisville. Also important has been the role of doctors, dentists, engineers, lawyers, computer scientists and police officers of Cuban origin, among other professionals with prominent positions in large companies and state offices.

Luis David had to pound the streets of Louisville to get sponsors. “At the beginning, it was difficult to convince Cuban business owners of the importance of advertising. The Cuban of the Island has no idea what marketing is. The only thing they had seen was a bodega manager writing out his accounts on the cash register paper. When you convince the first one, the others followed along, little by little.”

In his opinion, “after Florida, the Cuban community of Kentucky is one of the most prosperous in the United States and it is, per capita, where the largest number of small Cuban businesses exists in the world.” In 2018, Governor Matt Bevin received in his mansion about 200 Cuban leaders and entrepreneurs, a recognition of that community’s contribution to the economy and culture of Kentucky. Luis David has received several awards.

In the wake of the January 27th tornado that killed and wounded many and caused enormous material damage in five municipalities of Havana, Cubans from Kentucky raised $ 6,410. A member of the community traveled to one of the affected areas and personally delivered the donations. Words of thanks from the victims can be seen in this video uploaded to Facebook.

Luis David is married. Yamilet, his wife, is also Cuban and works as an interpreter and translator for the Kentucky government. They are the parents of two children, Fernanda, 15, a high school freshman, and Luis Manuel, 12, a 7th grader. Claudio Fuentes, a prominent photographer and dissident, is his cousin.

Despite having been away from Cuba for more than two decades, he is still passionate about Cuban music. “In 1996 I left for Chile with a suitcase with two changes of clothes. in one hand, a bag with my collection of vinyl records by Benny Moré and in the other my bongo, an instrument that I learned to play in my hometown. My professor was Arturo Linares, El hueso, bongocero by Joseíto Fernández.” Besides dancing salsa and rumba, he likes to drink coffee, smoke tobacco, have a drink of rum and play dominoes. He professes a deep respect for the hero José Martí.

Now established in Louisville, Luis David undertook the task of locating a bust of the Apostle, as Cubans call José Martí, given in 1955 to Kentucky by the Cuban government of the time, as a tribute to the brave Kentuckians who fought for the freedom of Cuba in 1850 and who had been missing for years. The makers of the magazine El Kentubano created a project named Facing the Sun, with the aim of replacing Martí’s bust in the Shively Park in Louisville. With the twelve thousand dollars collected, they were able to restore it and unveil it in a ceremony held on July 21, 2012.

Every 28th of January, that place is a meeting point for the Kentubanos, a name created by Luis David Fuentes, who at age 47 confesses that he does not know where life will take him tomorrow. “I never imagined living in Kentucky, it’s already been 19 years and I do not think I’ll return to the Island when things change. Yes I would like to contribute with my experience, do some business, maybe a magazine, be able to travel to my homeland. But the United States has adopted me as a son, here I have created a family, I have many friends and responsibilities in this society.”

As the Cuban poet Eliseo Alberto wrote, Cuba is a distant piano that someone plays behind the horizon.

With the shameful salaries the government pays, Cubans who voted Yes will not be able to buy quality furniture, modern appliances or a fifty-inch television. Nor an air conditioner to escape the tropical heat, nor lunch in a paladar (private restaurant) for a child’s birthday or a wedding anniversary.

Families will have to keep turning to relatives and friends abroad — los gusanos, the worms, as the regime called them when they left — so that they can continue to send them medicines, clothes, shoes or a smartphone that allows them to access the network faster. And they ask the same relatives to please recharge their monthly cell phone or internet accounts.

In 2020, at the level of microeconomics, things in Cuba will continue the same or worse.

The new Constitution does not allow Cubans to invest in their country nor can residents abroad aspire to a public office. The olive-green autocracy will continue to charge a luxury tax on the passports its compatriots who wish to visit their own on the island. And it will maintain its policy of apartheid, by making professionals who stay in other countries wait eight years to enter their homeland.

The productions of sugar, rice and potatoes, among others, will continue to fall. Beef, fish and seafood will continue to be exotic dishes, forbidden to the majority of the population. What will we have then? More of the same. Unbuilt homes, unpaved streets, empty warehouses and markets… Broken dreams, unfulfilled longings. The future will remain a bad word. But if anything will abound it will be official promises and slogans.

The future constitution does not guarantee prosperity, economic freedom or democracy. It is a legal text that strengthens for life the inefficient system established by Fidel Castro. A punishment. Although neo-Castroism may try to wash its face by authorizing homosexual marriage or writing a family code consistent with the new times.

That face washing would not prevent poverty from becoming widespread and two hot meals a day remaining a luxury in a high percentage of Cuban families. Public services would remain chaotic. While corruption, theft, lack of control and bureaucracy continue to take root from one end of the island to the other.

The ’overwhelming victory’ of the Yes vote can be read in more than one way. The citizen response to the insane national economy has been slowly showing itself. In 2003, 6.13% of the voters left the ballot blank or nullified it. In 2017, the figure rose to 21.12% and in the constitutional referendum of February 24, 2019, it was 26.69%.

But totalitarian governments leave little room for error. The supporters of NO and abstaining could not campaign in the state media and never had a public space to present and defend their positions. Quite the opposite. In those conditions, despite the traps and alleged frauds, the fact that almost two and a half million Cubans living on the Island, did not openly support or had doubts about the new Constitution can be considered a political victory.

In the article “An Unsurprising Triumph,” (Cubanet, February 27, 2019), independent journalist Luis Cino wrote: “There is something positive from this referendum: it indicates that more and more Cubans are daring to show their disagreement with the regime. Those people who managed to overcome the fear of reprisals and dared to contradict the official designs, improved their self-esteem, stopped feeling like rags. Now they no longer feel like tame farm animals, but worthy, at peace with their conscience. And lighter, because there is no doubt that lying and faking weigh too much on the soul. ”

The Communist Party of Cuba “has about 720 thousand members and the Union of Young Communists with about 450 thousand, but Cuba has 11.2 million inhabitants. Nine out of ten Cubans are not communists in a communist nation,” said Roberto Álvarez Quiñones in “The Elitist Dictatorship of the PCC” (Diario de Cuba, February 19, 2016). If we take into account these data, the almost two and a half million people who voted NO, left their ballots blank, annulled them or did not go to vote, represent a greater number than the total membership of the only two political organizations authorized in the country.

There is no need for consensus among the ‘disaffected’, for example, to collect 50,000 signatures and submit citizen initiatives that allow amendments to the legal tome. The regime would have to respond to the demand or it would be evident, as it has been up to now, that it has infringed its own Constitution.

When the Constitution comes into force, endorsed with an 86.85% affirmative vote, various citizen initiatives could be presented, such as founding private digital media, political groups and non-governmental organizations.

Today we are two and a half million people who demand authentic changes. The best ally we have is the erratic performance of the government. Each year that passes, thousands of followers will join the ranks of the disgruntled. Because it is proven that the revolution started by the Castros six decades ago has not worked and will not work.

“This Constitution reflects the ideological spirit of post-Castroism. There is a genuine interest among a caste of military officials and heirs of the regime to disguise the growing state capitalism under the rhetorical garb of socialist manuals. There is a greater investment of foreign companies in sectors such as hospitality and tourism, but civil liberties and individual autonomy are still hijacked by political authoritarianism,” said journalist and writer Carlos Manuel Álvarez in “The Map of a Possible Cuba” (The New York Times in Spanish, February 27, 2019).

We can not and should not be discouraged. Citizen indifference and emigration are not the solution to Cuba’s problems. We need to fight. Here and now. The skeptics will continue to put sticks on the wheel.

The propaganda of the regime will call us mercenaries. But there is no other way. Democracy was never an easy road.

“Cuba has become a jungle. Everyone is trying to survive. And the government continues with its theater. It is rumored that after the referendum on February 24, Canelo (Díaz-Canel) will legalize la bolita (the now-illegal lottery). If that happens, then it will be the government that is going to make the money,” he says, adding:

“I’m going to vote Yes. I have no other choice. Otherwise, the sector chief (police) comes down on you and makes your life impossible. Vote NO and what does it solve? And if the Americans get their hands on Venezuela, they say they’re going to send Cubans to fight there. I would not go, I don’t need anything in that country. Why do I have to fight for Maduro? I would look for a medical certificate where it says I’m crazy. My thing is selling bleach and getting it on with my little girlfriend. There isn’t anything else.”

A few hours after the beginning of the electoral farce that would ratify the future Constitution, I asked all sorts of people in Havana if they had read the text of the Constitution. “One day in my workplace, from up above, they scheduled a debate. I didn’t understand anything. These legal issues are written in a language that only lawyers understand,” says Mara, a clerk in a state cafeteria.

Yadira, a pre-university student, responds: “No, I didn’t read it, I’m not for that.” And how do you plan to vote?, I ask. “I will vote Yes. At my school, in a debate we had, they told us that it was the only way to maintain the gains of the Revolution. We know it’s crap, but nobody wants to look for problems,” confesses the young woman, who on Sunday, February 24, will vote for the first time in her life.

Luis Manuel, a taxi driver, says he read the constitutional text “and that’s why I will mark NO. You have to be very forgetful to vote Yes after living so many years with a foot up your ass. Buddy, it is irresponsible to support a system that does not work and grant it the grace to govern us the rest of our lives.”

Ismary, a bank employee, does not intend to vote. “And if the polling place comes to my house with the ballot, maybe I’ll put Yes, so as not to stand out. But if I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, I’m going to vote No. In any event, if I vote Yes or No, annul the ballot, leave it blank, not go vote, nothing is going to change, everything will remain the same or worse. Diaz-Canel said it already, on Sunday the Yes will win. I do not know why they have elections in Cuba, if they do not want people to vote NO.”

Andres, a biologist, resident of the Capdevila neighborhood, twenty minutes by car from downtown Havana, says that in his neighborhood they prepared a debate “with stooges from the government, to encourage them to vote Yes. But you can’t live on rhetoric or the past, this revolution has already gone to hell. I intend to vote NO because the rulers have not been able to meet the demands of the people. They’ve been living off their story for 60 years, false promises and lies. And everything in life has a limit. It’s been a while since I hung up the gloves. I do not believe in any of them.”

Along with the referendum, the critical situation in Venezuela is a topic of conversation in the streets of Havana. If we give credit to the neo-Castro autocracy, it is only a matter of time before the United States invades Venezuela. And in schools, companies and institutions throughout the island, Cubans are being called to sign a book condemning the hypothetical invasion.

The official story they offer about Venezuela is very simple: Trump has blockaded it because it is a sovereign and independent nation and the United States and the Venezuelan opposition are to blame for all the evils.

The propaganda apparatus of the regime has designed a version of the events that excludes the disastrous administration of Nicolás Maduro, corruption, repression and torture of political prisoners as well as the parliamentary coup of the PSUV of the National Assembly which — after the opposition won a majority in 2015 — took away all its powers.

This strategy works with uninformed people, such as Cubans who drink coffee without milk (because there isn’t any) or with those who, due to the high cost of the internet, only use it to communicate with their relatives abroad and not to learn about what is really happening in Venezuela and in the rest of the world, except for a few exceptions.

“A military aggression by the United States against Venezuela would be a gift to Maduro, because it would justify the disaster by selling him as a victim. Trump is capable of anything. But there is a reality: the hyperinflation in Venezuela, the hunger and poverty have two culprits: Madurismo and the Cuban government, which with its crazy advice has caused the collapse of that nation,” says Sergio, a retired university professor.

Someday, those who have governed Cuba for six decades will have to offer a public apology. In the name of the worst socialism, they have impoverished Venezuela and polarized the country. For twenty years, the Cuban special services and their military advisers have designed defense strategies. The blatant interference of Castroism in Venezuela was proven in an audio, released in 2013, of a conversation between Mario Silva, a Chavista journalist, and Aramís Palacios, a senior Cuban intelligence official.

Caracas is a matter of national security for the Havana regime. They will fight with all the means at their disposal in order to keep Maduro in power. The defense at all costs of Hugo Chavez’s substitute has unleashed all kinds of rumors. In the streets people are saying that Cuba could send troops. “My son is doing his military service and I told him not to sign any paper that would commit him to fight in Venezuela. We are not living in the times of Angola, when many like me were naive enough to fight,” says Armando, self-employed.

Local analysts believe that unless they send elite troops, “Cuba is not in a position to deploy a vast operation like the one in Angola 44 years ago. It would be impossible, with outdated weapons and a precarious preparation. The doctrine of a war ‘of the whole people’ is the case for the military occupation of the country.

But if military events take place in Venezuela, modern warfare strategies should be used, such as air strikes to specific sites with smart missiles. The United States will not disembark troops in Venezuela. It would be a clumsy move that would reverse all the Latin American and global support that Washington has achieved,” predicts a former officer of the armed forces.

According to the prestigious Cuban-American economist Carmelo Mesa-Lage, the loss of the Venezuelan subsidy would impact between 10 and 15 percent of Cuba’s GDP. In an economy in recession, where Raúl Castro’s reforms do not encourage agricultural, productive or industrial growth, losing access to subsidized oil from Caracas could cause a dangerous setback.

Cubans are tired of shortages and false promises. A new Special Period could explode through the air the inoperative barracks economy and the lack of political liberties. And Fidel Castro is no longer there to help get through the disaster.

Angel considers himself a ’wealthy’ neighbor: he did not have to wait for the state brigades to start repairing his home. He already put up the roof plate and two masons are fixing the exterior walls. “But the tornado left me penniless. Where do I get the money? “Inventing” in my workplace. On Saturday, for example, we made the snacks and lunches for several electoral colleges in the municipality of Diez de Octubre that held a voting test in advance of the referendum on February 24. I sold the food that day and invested the money in the repair of my house.”

A few hours before the constitutional referendum, an authentic staging of the military autocracy, which tries to feign democracy, the propaganda of the regime is increasingly unbearable. “It’s an attack by land, sea and air. Not even covering your ears gives you an escape from the chant for the people to vote Yes,” confesses Sheila, a nurse, who recommends using the Weekly Packet to rent movies and American serials to escape the tedious political campaign.

When Mayra is disgusted, as now, while waiting in line to buy chicken quarters at a state market, she says aloud: “On Sunday, the 24th, I’m getting desperate. I’m going to put a big NO on the ballot [for the Referendum on the Constitution]. The government does not do anything right and wants Cubans to applaud their nonsense.”

Social networks became a battlefield of dissidents, both for those who support the NO and those who ask people to abstain, tonot vote. Each and every one of them turn the internet into a boxing ring, but everyone is aware that it would be a great irresponsibility to grant a new blank check to a dictatorship that has failed to administer public services and guarantee a decent standard of living.

According to some analysts, Sunday 24 February will be a victory in the tune of Yes. “But the number of negative or blank votes could approach 35 percent. We are talking about more than three million Cubans. It is a force that grows with each vote. In the near future it will be necessary to take them into account,” says Egberto, a graduate in political science.

Saul, a former diplomat, believes that “the dissidence should have asked in international forums sfor experts to monitor the referendum to protect from possible fraud. That would have placed the government in a dilemma. If it opposed, it was marked as intolerant and there was the suspicion of a plebiscite without guarantees.”

You do not have to be a legal expert to recognize that the future Constitution does not reflect the wide diversity that currently exists in Cuba. The result is a Constitution designed by the regime and for the regime. An ideological text to cement the power in place. Castroism would become a monarchy of a single party. A papacy.

Carlos, a sociologist, affirms that “even winning, the government will be questioned, because if the two million Cubans residing abroad and those temporarily abroad had voted, the majority vote would be NO.” Hundreds of Cubans living for a time in other countries, and who still maintain their rights in Cuba, in social networks have complained that the regime, in a clear violation of current laws, is not allowing them to vote.

“In Ecuador live thousands of Cubans who want to vote, but the embassy told us that to do so we should travel to the island. It is blackmail. Pay seven hundred or a thousand dollars for a round trip just to go to vote. When now, by new technologies, you can vote at a distance. As the government did with its international collaborators, to whom they guaranteed the vote,” says a Cuban resident in Quito, referring to the government’s having assured that all Cubans serving on government missions abroad were given a chance to vote.

In its attempt to win at any cost, the government plays in the arena inclined in its favor. While the regime’s propaganda invites a YES vote, in Caracas the anachronistic left that Fidel Castro founded is fighting for its life. The news from Venezuela sounds worse every day. In a media display, the neo-Castro rulers have burned all their ships. And they have deployed a campaign entitled “Hands outside Venezuela”.

Due to the absolute social control of the regime, in schools and workplaces, they are collecting signatures against a hypothetical intervention of the United States in Venezuela. The Cuban armed forces have joined the chorus of support for the unpresentable Nicolás Maduro. On the street, people wonder how Cuba can support Venezuela, when Cuba itself needs to be supported, especially after the passage of the tornado through Havana.

“If Fidel were alive or we were in the 1980s, when the FAR [Revolutionary Armed Forces] had a modern and logistical weapon to deploy troops abroad, I do not doubt that military officers would have been sent to fight in Venezuela. But the context is different. The generals are dedicated to businesses that generate dollars and the weapons that we possess are antiquated. We have no merchant marine to move large contingents of soldiers. And we should ask ourselves how many Cubans, voluntarily, would be willing to fight for Maduro.

Cuba’s support is only of a moral and publicity nature. When things are heating up there, they send back to the island the advisers in intelligence and military counterintelligence that they have in Venezuela,” predicts a former officer of the armed forces.

For now, the regime’s strategy is to get more than 4 million YES votrd in the referendum on February 24. And entrenched from a distance, attempting to shore up Maduro. As far as it can.

*Translator’s note: Mayimbe is a Taino (pre-Columbus Caribbean native) word for chief. 

Mercedes, a teacher, has been trying to get bags of liquid natural yogurt for two weeks. “I suffer from colitis and I have a medical recommendation to eat yogurt. In all of Havana, whether in foreign currency or in national currency, you do not find natural yogurt. But if only that was all. A lemon costs 4 pesos. And to buy fresh bread outside the rationed market you have to stand in line for an hour. In the search for food I lose two hours daily. To the problem of the food I can also add that the building’s water pump is broken, taking a bus is an ordeal and the salary they pay you is an insult. With that list of calamities, one must be very opportunistic to vote for socialism to be perpetuated in Cuba.”

Yania Suárez, an independent journalist, says: “From the people I’ve talked to, especially with young people, they still do not understand the content of what is being voted on, much less the importance of the vote. For them it is a hypocritical process that will perpetuate the state of affairs. They see it as something incomprehensible, boring and useless that those “up there” are doing behind the people’s back for their own benefit, as always. Apathy is what I have seen the most.”

Daniel, who works in a state cafeteria, affirms that in Cuba young people are not for the Constitution or anything. “They say that everything about the government is a lie and they do not believe in the leaders. Many young people talk like that, but they attend the events and go to vote. I do not talk so much, but I do not participate or collaborate with these people (the regime).”

Gerald, a Cuban who lives in Florida and often visits his family in Cuba, alarmed, refers to “the tremendous shortages in all the provinces. Even with enough money you can’t buy what you need. If there is no fraud in the next elections, I am sure that among those who will vote No, leave the ballot blank or not vote at all, you can reach 30 percent or more of the votes. If the almost three million Cubans living abroad could vote, that number would double. ”

Ramón, another Cuban resident in the United States, very active in social networks, confesses that “in all the forums I have put VOTE NO. At least that action will give Cubans the possibility of morally empowering themselves. They will know that they can oppose something, directly and openly, even in the privacy of an electoral booth.

“Mariela Castro said that Voting NO was sabotage and for me that indicates they are shaking in their boots. Millions of NO votes would give the world, and in particular Cubans, the confirmation that there are millions that do not support Castroism.

“No one on the island can bear another ‘Special Period’ and that is what Cuba is heading for if the regime does not change the rules of the game, even if it is in the economy like China or Vietnam. And it does not seem that they intend to do it, so they will continue heading over the cliff.”

Norge, a professor of political science, believes that “for the first time in the 60 years of the Revolution, the ruling caste feels the breath of discontent on their necks. I think there is a terrible fear. Perhaps many regime bigwigs are wondering why the hell they came up with this plebiscite. If they play cleanly, the percentage of negative votes, voided ballots and abstentions could be surprising.”

Luisa, a lawyer, points out that the statistics do not play in favor of the government. “In the last two elections, that of neighborhood delegates and candidates for the National Assembly, even with the symbolism represented by the recent death of Fidel, the number of people who did not vote or annulled their ballot was around 20 percent, plus or minus two million Cubans. Those figures have been increasing in each election. It would not be unreasonable that on February 24, votes against, abstentions and blank ballots exceed three million, an amount to take into account.”

Carlos, a sociologist, believes that there is a lot of fear within the government itself. “Otherwise you can’t understand the fierce campaign that all official media are carrying out to tip the vote in their favor. In social networks, there have been cases such as that of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who called Cubans who think differently ‘sons-of-bitches’, or the unpresentable Yusuam Palacios, president of the Marti Youth Movement, who, because he lacked the capacity to establish a civilized debate with Internet users, uses threats and offenses. If the promoters of the NO vote had space in the national and provincial press and if the Cubans residing in other nations could vote, the government would lose the referendum on February 24.”

While the debate for or against the future Constitution takes place on social networks and independent and alternative media, in Cuba the regime deploys broad propaganda to win supporters.

“Something that is illegal, because according to the regulations in force, neither the State nor the Communist Party can use electoral propaganda, is on every program at all times,” notes the retired sociologist Carlos Eloísa. “Whether it’s a ball game or a Brazilian telenovela, in the background on the screen that have ‘I’m Voting Yes.’ It’s exhausting. If it’s like this with a whole month left, if they keep up with the same onslaught imagine when there are just a few days before the vote you won’t be able to turn on the radio or TV.”

The same a ball game or during the Brazilian novel. You hang on the back of the screen I vote YES. It is harrowing. If you still have a month left and they’re giving you the same matraquilla, I suppose that when there are a few days left you can not turn on the radio or watch TV. ”

Olga Lidia, a doctor, says “It remains to be seen what the voting intentions are of the indifferent or the zombies, the segment of the citizenry that usually goes to vote and pretends to support the Government, the Party and the Revolution.”

Edgar, a communications specialist, believes that “the government should temper that campaign, because it is counterproductive. The opinions that come out in the news, most of the time do not reflect the diversity of points of view nor the dissatisfaction among ordinary people. In the absence of economic results, what they promote are details, such as the arrival of 450 Russian microbuses and 89 Chinese buses to improve transport in the capital.

“Messages that try to sell optimism. On the street, people say that this is a drop of water in the ocean, because in Havana, for the urban transport service to work, more than 3 thousand buses and 5 thousand taxis are needed. Not the 700 buses that are currently circulating. Many people, in a whisper, recognize that the sate media are manipulative and no doubt when they go to vote, they’ll mark their ballots with a No.”

Paraphrasing Lincoln, you can fool the people one time. But not all the time.

According to specialists in meteorology, the tornado that hit the capital at 8:30 on Sunday night, January 27, was formed in the Casino Deportivo neighborhood, located on the border of the Cerro and Diez de Octubre municipalities and extended to Regla, Guanabacoa, San Miguel del Padrón and Habana del Este.

A night guard who was on duty at that time, relates it this way: “A slight fog made it difficult to see on the First Ring of the Port road that leads to the town of Regla. A pile of tiles and work tools flew off to the bay. The brutal force of the wind overturned cargo trucks as if they were toys. One of them was dragged to a corner and turned over. Whatever they say happened, reality was worse.”

The warehouses, workshops and the José Antonio Echevarría wheat mill  were hit by the fury of the tornado winds that in 16 minutes traveled eleven kilometers and crossed five municipalities of Havana. The grass in that industrial zone looks like it was burned by a powerful blowtorch.

Dinorah, a housewife, crosses herself and says that in the Casino Deportivo neighborhood there wasn’t much damage. “But there was a thunderous noise, as if it were something supernatural. Then we learned that it was the tornado on its way.”

Despite the rain and bad weather, there were people connecting to the internet in the Wifi zone of the Monaco park. One of them, Pablo, a university student, says that suddenly the sky changed color, “it became reddish and the buzz was similar to that of the aircraft turbines. The wind storm devastated everything. It pulled a tree from the corner of Santa Catalina and Mayía Rodríguez and put it in the doorway of a house. It broke stoplight as if it were a pencil. When you walk through the places where the tornado passed, it looks like a war zone. ”

The meteorological phenomenon had a radius of from 500 meters to a kilometer in its exit to the sea. Its winds between 275 and 320 kilometers per hour devastated what was in its way. “Terrible, worse than a hurricane. In the area of the Paradero de la Víbora did no damage, but nearby towns such as Santos Suárez and Luyanó were destroyed. It seemed that the mother of all the bombs had fallen to us, recalls Rogelio, a meter reader who lives in Luyanó.

Antonio was at a party at his sister’s house in Santos Suarez when they suddenly felt a bestial howl. “I nevertheless can not believe that. My sister’s house was newly repaired and remained strong and solid, it looked like a bunker. But from a plume the wind destroyed the entire wall of the entrance, threw giant trees at thirty or fifty meters and crushed the cars parked in the block as if King Kong had stepped on them.”

Rosa, her sister, confesses that the problems start now. “Now comes the good part. The stage of recovering losses and rebuilding what is damaged. But I have money and cement bags, when they appear on the black market, sell for 300 pesos. On television, all this chitchat of the government, of municipal micro-industries to make construction materials, but when you need them, they do not appear, not even in the stores that sell in hard currency.”

Aida, a housewife, says she lost part of the roof from rooms in her house. “Some government authorities have come and they give you encouragement, because they have the gift of the gab. But in the real world the help is delayed, until it disappears and nobody remembers your tragedy. People are upset and can’t take anymore. We want them to finish fixing the electricity and start selling, at reasonable prices or in installments, construction materials and household goods for the families that need them.”

In the affected areas, the government began selling bags of cookies, food and some canned goods. In the newspaper Granma, it was announced that the Union of Commerce and Gastronomy of Havana set up 17 tents for the sale of prepared processed foods, in the municipalities Diez de Octubre (eight tents), Regla (four), Guanabacoa (three) and San Miguel del Padrón (two). “If you are careless, that is all that they will give to the victims in terms of food. Luckily the tornado did not cause damage in our humble home, “says Carlos Manuel, retired.

Osvaldo, an accountant for a textile company, affirms that “these people (the regime) have to understand that most people do not have a penny. No one is to blame for that disaster. The best they can do is donate or give away those things. They say that along the Calzada de Luyanó they saw some pinchos (leaders), as fat as pigs, but where I live, no one has come by.

“Diaz-Canel spoke at a Council of Ministers and said that we must shorten recovery times and have a lot of sensitivity. But as always happens in Cuba, the words mean nothing and when they do something, they do it badly. Did you see what Raúl Castro did? He joined the March of the Torches, but he does not deign to tour the neighborhoods damaged by the tornado. And he is the first party secretary.”

In a bakery where bread is sold unrationed, very close to the Miguel Henríquez hospital, in Luyanó, the lines were a block long. Gregorio, master baker, remembers that the day the tornado passed “people held on to each other or clung to the railings of the bakery so they wouldn’t be carried away by the tornado. Look there is a need, times are tough and a lot of people are hungry.”

With immediacy, Diaz-Canel on a Twitter announced that three people had died and 172 were injured. Later it was learned that there were four deaths and the number of injured had increased to 195, although unofficially it is rumored that the injured exceed 300, some in serious condition. “When the Boeing plane crashed, in May of 2018, they immediately gave the names of the passengers, Cubans and foreigners, but now it took four days to give the names of the four deceased, one woman and three men,” says Laura, retired.

According to official figures, 1,238 homes suffered property damage, 123 totally collapsed. There were 625 partial collapses, 224 roofs damaged, 154 partially. Of the damaged homes 112 are of type 1, that is to say with tile roofs, which are rarely affected. The most affected neighborhoods are those of Regla, Diez de Octubre, Guanabacoa and San Miguel, where the powerful EF4 tornado passed, which, in addition to damaging housing, caused considerable damage to public health facilities, such as the Maternity University Hospital of Ten de Octubre, better known as Daughters of Galicia, four polyclinics, a pharmacy and a nursing home.

The authorities reported that more than 100 thousand people do not have electricity, but they have not presented an evaluation of the cost of the losses in state assets. Dalia, economist, believes that “damages to companies and institutions of the State, in a superficial calculation, can exceed 600 million dollars. To this we must add the containers of goods that were damaged and part of their cargo was stolen, something that the press has not reported. Fifty state transportation vehicles suffered some kind of damage.” Even less is known about the damage and losses suffered by private entrepreneurs who had businesses in the four municipalities where the tornado passed.

While the State continues with its mottos and slogans and slowly prepares to help the victims and assess the amount of damages, musicians and artists are visiting affected neighborhoods and making donations from their own pockets.

Under the motto Fuerza Habana (Havana Strong), individual and collective campaigns were activated on Monday, January 28. By personal initiative, they have brought food to the affected areas. The singer Haydée Milanés uploaded a video to her Twitter from one of the affected sites and asked those who were willing to help, to do so. Periodismo de Barrio tweeted that the duo of Yomil and El Dany, plus Diván and Alex Duvall, in addition to the rocker Athanay, distributed water jugs, soft drinks and other products in Jesús del Monte, Luyanó. The actor Andy Vázquez, of the Vivir del Cuento TV program, toured affected areas and comedian Ulises Torac wrote that “there are people without homes walking around asking for votes,” a reference to the government mobilizing hundreds of university students and soldiers to touring the devastated areas wearing shirts with the slogan “I’m Voting Yes,” on the February 24 Constitutional Referendum.

Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz and Cuban actor Luis Alberto García appealed for solidarity so that all humanitarian aid from abroad can reach Cuba for the victims of the tornado that hit Havana, free of restrictions and customs duties. The reggaetonist Osmani García went to Díaz-Canel and told him that, “like other global artists, we are spokespersons and ambassadors of our people throughout the world.

“Therefore, we have the duty and responsibility to speak for those who can not and do not ask for help. I know that you are a good father of a family, please it is necessary and urgent that a humanitarian channel be opened in Cuba so that the thousands of victims of that terrible tornado can receive donations and help from the world,

For some time, Cubans living on the island have considered that the government should decree a customs moratorium and free of cost, deliver the packages coming from abroad. “They talk about human rights without blushing their faces, but they charge dearly for the family help packages that come from outside. A few days ago, my daughter-in-law who lives in Europe, sent clothes and some gifts for my daughter’s birthday and to receive the box, which weighed little more than 4 kilos, I had to pay 50 cuc [roughly $50 US]. It is an abuse.

“Because of the anguished situation that so many people are living through, in Havana because of the tornado, but also in the rest of the country, where there are still families affected by floods and the passage of hurricanes, they should authorize the sending of packages at no cost to the recipients. Three months ago, milk powder was impossible to get in Havana, not to mention the scarcity of bread and eggs, among other products,” complains Marta, a housewife.

Despite the campaign that emerged on social networks (and which have been echoed by Florida media and independent Cuban sites), calling for a humanitarian aid channel to be opened, to date, the regime has only opened a bank account in pesos and another in convertible currency for those people who want to help.

In a country of excessive control, only the State has the green light to receive and distribute humanitarian aid. They do not even permit stipulations on how and where the donations are distributed. It is the intrinsic nature of a totalitarian system. The individual and spontaneous initiatives sound like an enemy plot against the Castro regime.

Names of the deceased

Lázaro Javier Ruiz Varela, 23 years old, from Mayabeque and resident of Cintra No. 55 between Empresa and Reyes, Cerro, Havana. Cause: When the bus in which he was traveling overturned, he suffered a fracture of the base and vault of the skull, with severe brain contusion, causing injury to upper nervous centers.

María Esther Linares Deroncelé, 56 years old, from Santiago de Cuba and resident of Calle H No. 26 between Adolfo del Castillo and Final, Guanabacoa, Havana. The collapse of the roof of her house caused severe thoracic-abdominal compression, causing acute anemia.

Juan Francisco Cuesta Kessel, 79 years old, native of Havana and resident of Calle 377 No. 17823 Apt. 10 between 178 and 184, Mulgoba Neighborhood, Boyeros, Havana. The collapse of the roof of his house caused him chest and abdominal compression, causing him to suffocate.

Ronner Hernández Caso, 42 years old, from Pinar del Río and resident of 3rd Avenue. No. 1410 between 14 and 16, Caraballo, Jaruco, Mayabeque. The bus in which he was traveling overturned, causing an acute subdural fracture and subarachnoid hemorrhage that caused him intracranial hypertension. He was operated on, but died.

In that list, released by Civil Defense and published in the Granma newspaper on January 31, does not include the case of a 13-year-old teenager who died from electrocution by a high voltage cable, while helping a neighbor in Mangos Street No. 133, Santos Suárez, Havana.

Note: On Friday, February 1, Cubanet reported that in a video posted on social networks showing residents chasing after an official delegation headed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel shouting “shameless,” The official delegated ran and hurriedly got into their vehicles. This happened in Regla, one of the localities most affected by the passage of the 300 km/h tornado that hit Havana on the night of Sunday, January 27. Three of the four dead and at least 50 of the injured are from Regla.

Nor does Rubén, a winemaker, understand the Venezuelan situation. “Maduro is always screaming and cursing at someone. Who would think to make a busdriver president? In Venezuela, scandals and problems follow each other and have no end.”

Denise, a university student, is more informed. Her father is a doctor and he is working on a mission in Maracaibo, Venezuela. “That’s a mess. No food, a pound of pork has one price today and in three days costs twice as much. According to my father, the majority of the population don’t like Maduro, but there is also a certain distrust of the opposition. However, Guaidó has come across well, he is young and when he speaks he seems like an ordinary Venezuelan.”

With the exception of political analysts, journalists, dissidents and well-informed people, Cubans are unaware of what is happening in Venezuela. Norge, a graduate in political science, believes that “the manipulation of information in the national media and in Telesur is atrocious. In the press, you can’t find statistics the on hyper inflation (in Venezela), the depreciation of the Bolívar (national currency), the decrease in oil production, much less can you can read a report or a report about the hardships, hunger and lack of medicines in Venezuela.”

Alicia, a designer in private business, says that in Cuba they blame the United States, the opposition and private businessmen for the economic difficulties in Venezuela. “The political situation where Guaidó proclaimed himself [interim] president and pointed to Maduro as a usurper, is not explained in [the newspapers] Granma or Juventud Rebelde. You can not read a serious analysis that provides elements to understand the current state of affairs in Venezuela. Then they say that the Americans are to blame.”

The Venezuelan context has the ingredients of a Hollywood thriller. Espionage, corruption to spare, violation of human rights, torture, degrading treatment of political prisoners and even alleged suicides.

From the Island, Maduro’s Venezuela is seen as cornered between the ideological scams of the Cuban regime and the advice of the Special Service troops of Castroism. The lack of liquidity, the economic crisis and the isolation from the West has caused Chavismo to become a toady of Russia, China and Turkey.

“On January 24 and 25 I woke up early, with the TV remote in my hand. From the bed I expected to see the news of Maduro’s departure, almost certainly to Cuba, but unfortunately it did not happen. It is a real pity that the Venezuelan military commanders have not made the leap, but that reaction is normal, because they are corrupt to the core. They live on perks like the generals here. And in the case of Venezuela, we must add influence peddling and drug trafficking,” says Rolando, a secondary school teacher.

Recently, in the newspaper ABC, a story was published entitled “This is How Chavismo’s Children Spend their Nights in Madrid.” It focuses on Mitchell Padrino Betancourt, eldest son of Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López. “Mitchell knows well the intricacies of the Madrid night and engages in long revelries regardless of the day of the week. He knows how to get the most out of the wee hours with expensive champagne, hookahs and a lot of reggaeton.”

Mitchell and his sister Yarazetd study at Madrid universities. Both were born of the marriage of Padrino with Yarazetd Betancourt, daughter of a colonel. A source told ABC that “Padrino’s children frequently leave home for security reasons, travel a lot to Venezuela, but right now no one knows where they are.”

For Professor Rolando, “all that and more happens with the approval and the special and express advice of the Cuban misgovernment. The penetration is so evident that Maduro now appears with Interest Sections [stand-ins for embassies when there were no formal relations], those that opened in Havana and Washington before relations with the United States were re-established in December 2014. There can be no stronger evidence of the presence of the hands of Cuba in Venezuela.”

Venezuela has long ceased to be sovereign. Silently, without firing a shot, Fidel Castro, with the authorization of Hugo Chávez, began to control key points of the power structures in the South American nation. Military advisors and Cuban counterintelligence have access to privileged information, be it the control of identity cards and passports and customs, or military strategies in case of an aggression from the United States.

Fidel Castro achieved an unprecedented political feat. With a third of the population, a miserable GDP and an army with obsolete weaponry, he managed to colonize Venezuela at the stroke of ideological ingredients. Like tropical Rasputins, the Cuban advisers walk around Venezuela’s Miraflores Palace advising the cream of the Chavista executive.

In the vast operation of managing a country from a distance, the island regime has distorted the rules of the economic and productive game in Venezuela. Castroism has a significant share of guilt in the bestial Venezuelan crisis. In addition to getting oil at rock bottom prices, Cuba obtained billions of dollars in subsidies.

Like a leech, the olive green autocracy has sucked resources, managed operations to buy food with high cost overruns, and re-exported Venezuelan fuel at international market prices. If we give credit to international scholars, in these twenty years of Chavismo, Cuba has obtained benefits equivalent to one hundred billion dollars. Maybe more.

ALBA — a kind of European Union for Latin American and Caribbean countries, designed by Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez and with the participation of leftist governments or those dependent on Venezuelan oil — never worked. “Fidel said that thanks to ALBA, in Cuba, chocolates, toys and cans of sardines would be sold at reasonable prices and Cubans could go as tourists to Margarita Island. Everything was a lie,” recalls Ignacio, a retired cigar worker.

In the offices of the Palace of the Revolution a space and a common currency, the Sucre, was delineated. Half jokingly, half seriously, the comrades of the PCC (Cuban Communist Party) and the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) called their alliance “Cubazuela.”

When the economic crisis in Venezuela worsened, due to the fall in oil prices, Chávez’s handpicked successor opted for new credit lines with Russia and China. The debt between Cuba and Venezuela then grew. Currently, the United States is one of the few countries that pay cash for their purchases of Venezuelan fuel. Oil exports to China are pay downs on the debt. Russia has invested ten billion dollars in the oil sector and Turkey has received concessions for mining and gold mining.

With his erratic economic policies and concessions to great powers, in search of support and geostrategic balance, Maduro has sunk Venezuela and transformed the rich country into a poor nation and a hostage of external political chess.

Because of his great irresponsibility and ideological blindness, and for the good of Venezuela and the Venezuelans, Nicolás Maduro should resign now.

“In spite of all the serious transportation problems which the government has not been able to resolve, the authorities have refused to sit down with and talk with us to come to some consensus. Last year, when we started charging flat fees for fixed routes, the government decided to impose restrictions without consulting with the taxi drivers. Nothing positive has come out of this war. It’s the people who are suffering.”

According to Ignacio, “95% of the fuel on which the private transport sector relies is supplied by state agencies. It’s not our fault there’s so much corruption. Having to buy fuel from CUPET (Cuba Petroleo, a state-owned company) reduces our profits substantially. Most of our cars are made up of parts from here and there. Given the heavy daily use and the poor condition of roadways, something is always breaking down.

“Since 2017 we have been willing to negotiate with the state in hopes of reaching an agreement acceptable to both sides but they have always refused. What they did instead was threaten to take away our licenses and impose fines. Agents  from DTI (Technical Research Department) and State Security began to harass those who were openly calling for a strike.”

He adds, “Though it didn’t ask us for our opinions, when the government published the new rules a month ago, they did include some things we had been asking for, such as a subsidized price for gasoline and a wholesale market for spare parts. But we have no guarantees and most of us disagree with the requirement to open a bank account.

“At first we have to set aside 80% of what we earned. It’s now been reduced to 65% but that is still very high. It’s also very inconvenient. There are very long lines at the bank to deposit or withdraw money. And banking hours are from 8:00 A.M to 3:00 P.M., hours when taxi drivers are working.

“The regulations for taxi drivers who choose to work without depositing their money in the bank and who don’t receive 220 liters of gas at the CUPET price (around 5,500 pesos) is simply absurd. Since it refuses to have an open dialogue with us, the government has left us with only one option: to not go to work.”

Gisela, a government ministry employee who frequently uses collectively owned taxis, says, “The problems with privately owned transport began more than a year ago and have gradually been getting worse. The straw the broke the camel’s back happened last Friday, December 7. I spent three hours on Tenth of October Avenue and only six or seven private taxis went by, all of them full. The only options were to struggle with the buses or find a cooperative taxi. The government should talk to the drivers because they don’t have ready solutions to the ongoing transportation crisis in the capital.”

The regime’s response has been to look backwards. Minister of Transportation Adel Izquierdo assures the press that “before year’s end, four hundred microbuses from twelve locations and ninety buses, sixty of them articulated, will be put into service.”

The announcement has led to increasing complaints from Havana residents who note that, if authorities had vehicles in reserve, they should not have waited until the situation reached its current extreme.

Posts in official digital media criticize authorities for their inability to manage the public transport system. Pedro, a Havana bus driver with forty-years’ experience, believes, “These measures are just a band-aid. In the 1980s the city had 2,500 buses and 5,000 to 6,000 government-run taxis. Now there are only 700 buses and 200 taxis. That’s not enough to meet the demand of more than a million passengers a day. And though 12,000 almendrones* have been added in the last two or three years, it’s still not enough to meet demand.”

André, a transportation specialist, notes, “There’s nothing wrong with the way the main bus routes P and A are laid out. But for a P route to function properly, there should be thirty buses coming every five to eight minutes. That’s not happening. At the moment there are more than 200 buses out of service due to a lack of spare parts. China stopped selling them to us due to unpaid bills.”

Arturo, the shift manager at the Santa Amalia terminal in Arroyo Naranjo, reports that on December 7, before the strike was announced, “Transmetro buses and school buses are added to the routes.” On that day police cars and plain-clothes agents patrolled the area surrounding Fraternity Park, where various independent taxi routes converge, trying to pressure independent taxi drivers.

“They took away my DSE (Department of State Security) card and threatened me, saying they could decommission my car. I used the excuse that it was broken,” says a taxi driver who works the route from Fraternity Park to Playa.

“These people are tightening the screws on us. They mean business and are trying to pressure us to work under their conditions. Most of us are not going to accept that. It has been reported that the government had changed or cancelled the regulation it was going to apply to self-employed workers and independent artists, so I don’t understand why they are taking such an aggressive stance with us.”

For Ignacio, who drives an old 1948 Ford, it is a matter of resisting. “If we insist on our rights, the government will change strategy. But we have to keep shouting,” he says.

In the first eight months of his mandate, the hand-picked president Miguel Díaz-Canel has demonstrated that he knows how to listen. And also how to retreat if the circumstances require it. At least that’s what he expressed on Twitter on 7 December: “There is no reason to believe that rectifications are setbacks, or to confuse them with weaknesses when listening to the people.”

*Translator’s note: Restored 1950s American sedans used as taxis by their individual owners.