Category: Jose Daniel Ferrer

I stopped having any contact with the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC) almost thirty years ago. That experience was marked by some close friendships, affection and oversized hatreds. But reading “BNC’s Dancers Reveal a Long Tradition” brought me back to an Orwellian 1984 when a group of dancers — all young people at the time — staged an attempted protest. Basically the issues were the same as those being raised in writing today: poor lodging, transportation and food during international tours. In addition the dancers of that time, who “we are now longer the same people,” also complained of favoritism, which was a factor in choosing who would go on tour. Though everyone would have preferred to practice internationalism in Europe, it was the era of friendship with Nicaragua. And then there were the roles. The principal ones were also under fire, since many of them were cast based on personal rapport rather than on merit.

Among the non-conformists there were excellent professional leaders in both the company and the UJC (Union of Communist Youth), who were treated badly by the BNC. The atmosphere was tense in classrooms, dressing rooms and behind the scenes. Situations were neutralized with threats or favors, which explains the anonymous nature of the current complaint.

Certainly our dancers live better than most Cubans, but if we compare them to their counterparts in world-class companies — a league which includes the BNC — they are malnourished, exploited and involved in shady dealings. Everything is done to increase the stipend and better the quality of life. Because for many years dancers and maitres were able to work anywhere in the world without having to hand over a substantial portion of their earnings to the Ministry of Culture — a gift courtesy of its prima ballerina assoluta — the BNC opened a pathway to exile.

Nothing seems to have changed, nor do I think it will, but it is my heart’s desire that the young people who authored the letter of complaint in 2013 might be able to fight for their artistic and labor rights without the need for anonymity.

It was well-known within the BNC that Alicia Alonso and Fidel Castro were mirror images of each other. Each ruled at whim, as in a royal court. Each was surrounded by sycophants, eager to fawn and even to play the fool. Some did it out of conviction, others in hopes of gaining advantage. Subordinates maintained a love-hate relationship with the matriarchal-patriarchal figure. But woe to anyone who dared question a decision or challenge their leaderships! It was embarrassing to see how many of the people who mocked her backstage would file through the diva’s dressing room after a disastrous performance, or her office on the following day, to assure her that she had been magnificent, divine (though never a “bitch.” No, that would have been very coarse). At the time Jorge Esquivel was still her partenaire. With Orlando Salgado it would have been even worse.

My personal relationship with Alicia was decent enough until Fidel Castro gave a reception for the BNC after a successful international tour. Bruzón, one of Castro’s personal bodyguards, approached me to say that Fidel wanted to meet and chat with some young dancers. I rounded up a few, including some who inevitably felt uncomfortable, and drove them to a small establishment.

Castro was talking to Alicia, her husband, Sonia Calero and Alberto Alonso when I burst in, preceded by Bruzón and this insolent group. As directed by the bodyguard, I introduced them one-by-one to Fidel, who went about asking them questions. At one point Alicia’s thumb, painted “pink pearl,” found its way into my shoulder, a gesture which foretold of problems. “He already knows them,” she told me in a tone of voice that matched the finger in my shoulder.

The next day my boss was called into Carlos Aldana’s office. At the time he was the heir apparent and was “dealing” with ideological issues, in other words party-related matters. Alicia had called him to demand my ouster. Aldana realized it was just a tantrum; my boss was aware of everything there was to know and backed me up. But in light of complaints from “the old lady,” I was not allowed to have further dealings with the company. Almost all the rebels of that period now live outside of Cuba, so it does not behoove me to lie.

For some scatterbrain who plugs along cluelessly, in the same way that Aldana used to deal with ideological issues, I “dealt” with the country’s dance movement. It’s the stuff of G2.*

Regina Coyula
*Translator’s note: Also known as DI, an acronym for Intelligence Directorate, the main state intelligence agency of the Cuban government.

Diario de Cuba, December 1, 2013

It happened in the early morning hours of Monday, 19 November: suddenly the usual transmissions were cut and all the official TV channels were linked. Many thought it might be news of great impact: the death of Fidel Castro or something like that. The image of Raul Castro raised the expectation. But it was all a big fiasco. Castro II announced the beginning of the military exercises all over the country. Perhaps war is coming, many wondered.

We all know how far the country is from participating with its men in any of the conflicts that plague the planet. The regime doesn’t have the will nor the resources for it. The words of the General were clear: “With the engagement in this exercise we propose top continue raising the level of preparation and cohesion of the organs of leadership and control of the troops (…) to confront the different actions of the enemy.”

It remains doubtful what actions they’re thinking of resisting, because any moderately informed person knows that “the enemy” is not planning any military actions. It’s a great blunder to believe that the United States (a country with which we have ties of all kinds) is thinking of a military attack on Cuba. This is the strange idea that the regime constantly tries to sell to justify huge and unnecessary military expenditure in a bankrupt economy, as well as for maintaining internal repression.

Bastion 2013 — as these maneuvers are called — are simply intended to remind Cubans about “our eternal struggle against the empire,” in line with the Castro ideal that “as long as imperialism exists, the Party, the State and the people will offer themselves to the greatest defense. The Revolutionary guard will never be neglected.”

It’s well known that, lacking enemies, totalitarian systems invent them, their livelihood depends on confrontation with an external rival that supposedly tries to “colonize” or “invade” the national territory. Such an archaic idea in the 21st century, with an economic interconnected at the planetary scale, and where borders tend to disappear, is obvious to the least of the analysts.

The Cuban leaders live in another epoch, disconnected from reality. They force citizens into a condition of western pariahs in the era of the Internet and smartphones.

One of the collateral objectives of these useless efforts in which university students and other sectors of society participate, is the constant glorification of violence as the only method to resolve the differences that exist in any modern community, to the detriment of the peaceful way.

Reconciliation and open dialog among all Cubans (living where they live and thinking how they think) should be the fundamental premise for the rebirth of the country, leaving being once and for all the ballast of Castro’s totalitarianism that today oppresses is. Cube is not a bastion and the vast majority of its people just want to live in peace. The speeches of the barricade have died and the only Stalinist dictator of the West — without a doubt — also has an expiration date.

Orlando Delgado

From Diario de Cuba, 25 November 2013

Havana, Cuba, November, www.cubanet.org — The details of the corrupt practices detected in the Carlos III Complex of stores and in a municipal entity in the business of community services reinforce opinions about the incapacity of the government to stop a phenomenon that has metastasized in Cuban society.

As on previous occasions, people have counted on documentary proof of the facts, recorded on flash drives that are distributed furtively from hand to hand.  One never knows who is the initial provider, but presumably it is a premeditated act in the Ministry of the Interior. The lack of official information is compensated for by the traffic in copies, rented or sold, to a clientele eager to find out the identity of the guilty parties and their schemes to enrich themselves.

Both cases, occurrences in Havana, again reliably demonstrate the infeasibility of economic centralization. In most state enterprises. a lack of administrative control still prevails, which facilitates the growth of corruption in all its forms.

The efforts by the General Controller of the Republic to put a stop to it are worth nothing. Few wind up in prison. The rest contrive to continue their dirty shenanigans which include embezzlement, extortion and bribery.

“Prices in all the stores are ’fined.’  Besides being already inflated by order of the enterprise that provides the merchandise, extra is added that is later shared between the management, the financially responsible, and the employees,” a store clerk explained to me on condition of anonymity.

“Our salary is a pittance. If we don’t do this, it would be like working for free. It’s true that we steal from the customer, but those are the rules of the game. This is every man for himself,” he added.

In the conversation I found out that the managers make off with the greater part of the illegal revenues. In some cases their earnings exceed 300 convertible pesos a day. Such dividends represent a fortune in a country where the average salary is less then one convertible peso daily.

Among the beneficiaries of these illegalities must also be mentioned the hundreds of former counter-intelligence officials. Not a few are listed on the security payrolls of each shopping center, others work as inspectors of those who have to deliver part of the booty. Refusing to do it is the shortest path to jail.

In the end, everything functions without setbacks. They only have to comply with the established codes. From time to time, the general controller, Gladys Bejerano, in order not to completely lose her credibility, decides to put an end to some of the corruption. It is like putting your hand in a drum with your eyes closed. You will always extract a corrupt person, but at a low level, since the big ones are untouchable.

Jorge Olivera Castillo

Cubanet, November 20, 2013

Translated by mlk

Santa Clara, Cuba November 13, 2013. Officers of the Ministry of Education (MINED),   Central Region, at a government meeting on Monday the 11th, suspended the Schools in the Countryside program for November and December, because of the complicated epidemiological situation in the province.

Guilfredo Martin Betancourt, a MINED official, said the province is experiencing cases of cholera and dengue fever, without giving specifics with regards to numbers, given the environmental and social indiscipline problems.

Captain Robert Rodriguez said, during a meeting with families of the students at the school, that since the beginning of the summer rains and despite the efforts of workers in the provincial health system, foci of the vector (mosquitoes) have accumulated in the capital city and other municipalities.

Yudmila de la Caridad Vázquez, a teacher of the institution, told this publication that the curriculum of the Cuban school is planned such that students from eighth grade upward, spend 30 days of work in the fields, thereby strengthening the Marti principle of Work Study, but that this time the suspension is the right thing to do, because they can not endanger the health of students.

15 November 2013

HAVANA, Cuba, November 2013, www.cubanet.org – The ban was issued by the Director of Farmers Markets just a month ago, because the vendors were making excessive use of chemicals (fordimed and carbide) to advance the ripening process in fruits, which in turn brought several complaints by customers who claimed that the uncontrolled use of these chemical altered the taste and texture of the fruits and was bad for one’s health.

Although the intention is to “protect the population,” it’s contradictory that this measure has only been applied to farmers markets, when the practice is a common one among most vendors operating in almost all points of sale, whether its one belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture, or a roving vendor.

The prohibition on the sale of bananas and papayas in the farmers markets in the capital, has only been strictly maintained in the market at 160th and 51st in La Lisa.

Julio Castillo Martínez, a vendor at one of the stands at the La Lisa market, and the source of this information, offered ripe bananas and papaya there, and said, “I was selling around 2,200 pounds of papaya a week and the same amount of bananas, and never had any customer complaints,” and he added, “the use of flordimed in small quantities diluted in water has been used for years by all the papaya producers at the time the fruit is picked and sold. In the case of bananas, I don’t use the chemical because they ripen quickly. This ban has affected my income.”

A truck driver who refused to identify himself, transports these fruits from the rural village of San Antonio in Mayabeque Province, to 114th Street in Marianao, where almost all the vendors of agricultural products get their supplies, said, “The fruits can’t be transported ripe because they get crushed and the measured or exact use of flordimed is not harmful, it facilitates the sale and has always been used.”

At the markets at 19th and B in Vedado and at Elgido in Old Havana, they’ve stopped selling papayas and bananas for more than 15 days, but they’ve started to offer them again in the last few days. One of the vendors at the market at 19th and D said, “Now we have to have papers that support the phytosanitary control of bananas and papayas in order to have them at our stands, although my products have always been high quality and no one has ever complained.”

The truth is that the absence of these products in the markets can’t be justified by the inefficiency of phytosanitary controls which the State itself should guarantee, or at least create conditions for others to guarantee it. And that must necessarily start from the same field the fruits come from.

Beyond this, the problem lies in the lack of reviews of some irresponsible sellers who, eager to sell, sprayed the precious products with chemicals. This nebulous situation is annoying both the serious sellers, as is the case of Castillo, who have nothing to do with this, and who are now unable to sell their most popular products — papayas and bananas — as well as consumers who like these precious fruits and have to look for them in far off places.

For some, the measure taken by the director of the farmers markets, and so far maintained at the establishment at 160th and 51stin La Lisa, is not appropriate. A solution other than prohibition — so abundant on the island — should be demanded. Especially when we know that papayas and bananas are the only fruits Cubans can count on year-round. Don’t even talk about canistel, cherimoya, soursop, cashews, mandarins, star apples, and much less about good quality oranges.

Leon Padron Azcuy
Cubanet, 11 November 2013

CIENFUEGOS, Cuba, www.cubanet.org – The first case of infection was discovered last August 8 in the peripheral district of San Lazaro and although at the beginning epidemiologists thought that the virus could have been transferred from the city by Havana by Juan Arbolay Águila, who works as a driver in the port of Mariel, studies could not prove it, arousing suspicion among the specialists that it could be endemic form of cholera.

This August 16, a week later, we have verified that evil has spread to the districts of Reina and La Juanita, the latter the most populous neighborhood in the city. Reina presents a complex situation with the network of sewers and the water supply, many nearly a century old, causing contamination of water consumed and wastewater leaks into the road, both of which often facilitate viral infection.

In La Juanita the “Sunshine Cuba” State snack bar on Gloria Street was closed. Cubanet learned through one of the workers there that one of the cases in the area was reported in a kitchen worker there.

Reports broadcast on Radio Martí by independent journalist Arévalo Padrón reported that in the city of Aguadas de Pasajero at least five infections have been reported. Cubanet has not been able to verify this.

The perception of risk is still very low in the population as the government media have reported nothing, limiting its actions to disseminating prophylactic messages about maintaining sanitary measures to avoid what they call acute diarrheal diseases.

19 August 2013