Juan Diego Rodríguez – Page 10

Havana, Without the Sunshine’s ‘Make-Up’

The man had to drain the pathway because the water “is very cold” and it’s already starting to rise higher and take away the two rubbish bins near his house. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 14 January 2023 — There was a warning of its arrival ever since the early hours of Saturday. From dawn onwards the gusts of wind and the cold drizzle marked the first day in 2023 in which Habaneros could be sure that a little bit of winter had indeed arrived. On the seafront avenue Malecón, the traffic continued to circulate towards the zone closest to Calle Paseo; however, in El Vedado the ingress of seawater forced the closure to traffic.

“The water’s rising fast”, a local resident complains. The man had to drain the pathway because the water “is very cold” and it’s already starting to rise higher and take away the two rubbish bins near his house. The flooding is bad news for someone who spends hours waiting in a nearby shop to buy the sausages and picadillo [ground meat]that had finally arrived after weeks of delay.

A grey Havana with winds and temperatures below 20C is much less frequently photographed and written about than when there are blue skies and the sea’s like a millpond — which is how it’s seen in the paintings sold to tourists and in all the travel agents’ publicity photos. Talking of cold fronts: sometimes you might see pictures of the waves which crash over the sea wall of the Malecón or of the sea’s assault against the Morro lighthouse, but much less often will you see pictures of the murkiness that sticks to the city — a city where these cold fronts have switched off the colours.

The cracks in the walls seem wider, the holes in the roads deeper, and the people smaller, dressed in overcoats several sizes too big or in threadbare jackets. When the mercury falls, the city takes on a certain sincerity, because without the sun’s “make-up”, all of its shadows begin to emerge.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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In Cuba, ‘There Isn’t Any’, Period.

“There isn’t any”, it read. And that was it. No explanation, and no telephone number to ring. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 13 January 2023 — In Havana it’s normal to find signs all over the place, offering articles or services. Written by hand, more often than not with spelling errors on an old scrap of cardboard with stains on it — from which one deduces it’s at the end of its useful life — these signs announce all those things which are difficult to find in the state-run shops. The most common one is for the sale of ice, but also many other things — as long as it doesn’t lead to problems with the authorities — from mouse poison to apartments, from plumbing services to fumigation.

One of these signs, attached to a balcony in the Havana district of Cayo Hueso, caught the attention. “There isn’t any”, it read. And that was it. No explanation, and no telephone number to ring. “There isn’t any”, as if that covered just about anything and everything, encapsulating in one brief phrase the entire state of the country. There isn’t any gas, there isn’t any bread, there isn’t any chicken, there isn’t any sugar, there isn’t any ham, there isn’t any transport, there isn’t any freedom. In Cuba, there isn’t any. Period.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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New Houses in a Ruined Neighbourhood for Victims of the Hotel Saratoga Explosion

The new houses for victims of the Hotel Saratoga explosion stand out among their surroundings. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 12 January 2023 – The residents who lived in the buildings at Zulueta 508 and 512 adjacent to the Hotel Saratoga have gone from having one of the best views in the capital to a view of the ruins which surround their new homes. After the tragedy on 6 May 2022, which caused them to lose their homes when the historical luxury building exploded due to a gas leak, those affected are now going to have a roof over their heads again, but the good news ends there.

On Avenida de España, better known as Calle Vives, between the streets of Carmen and Figuras, there are eight new houses which have been given to some of the victims of the Saratoga explosion, in which 47 people lost their lives. According to the official press, the buildings are “almost ready” and their new occupiers “may help in the finalisation of electrical details”.

Tribuna de La Habana published the news on Wednesday, detailing that in the houses they have used a system of ’formwork’ known as FORSA, for which they use precast concrete, and there’s a cistern for guaranteeing the water supply. “This Wednesday marks another day for demonstrating that with constancy, organisation and control, any target can be reached”, concludes the extremely short article, surrounded by close-up photos of the new buildings.

But you only need to zoom out a little bit to see the future occupants’ new reality. The surrounding houses are on the point of collapse, if they haven’t collapsed already, and there’s a stench which fills the streets of a district which, despite being in Old Havana, lacks any attractive features and hardly any tourists venture there. continue reading

Whereas before, they only needed to step outside of their homes to find themselves just a few metres from the restored Capitolio, the Brotherhood Park, the main taxi rank in the city, or the shops on Calle Monte and the restored areas around the hotels near to Central Park — now, their surroundings are much less pleasant.

As a street which takes you to Havana’s Central Railway Station, Calle Vives once had its fashionable heyday, due particularly to a constant flow of rail travellers and merchandise. However, with the passage of time this area suffered a deterioration of its building stock — via a decline in the Island’s rail system — and a disdain shown to it by plans for restoration of the Historic Centre, which have left this part of the city forgotten.

Now more of a neighbourhood with a bad reputation, Atarés lies among some of the the least valued districts of Old Havana, and not only because of its wrecked buildings and its potholed streets and its puddles of sewage water, but also because of its frequent problems in the water supply, which forces many residents to bring water in from other areas.

On one corner, a man selling chopos hesitates when a buyer asks him if they’re over-spicy. “Doesn’t matter — the customer concludes — I’ll have to eat them anyway, ’cause I don’t have anything else”. All the passers-by are residents of this forgotten corner of Havana, where the poverty feels even worse when compared to the more privileged area from where its new neighbours are about to arrive.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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In the Chaos of the Cuban Consumer Registry Offices, ‘The Dead Return to Pick up Their Bread’

The framed photo, dominating the Consumer Registry Office in Calle Juan Alonso, can be seen clearly by the crowd in the street. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 9 January 2023 — The Office for the Registry of Consumers (Oficoda) on Calle Juan Alonso, Luyanó, Havana, was in chaos on Monday morning. Scores of people crowded round the establishment trying to resolve the problems they were having with their ration books.

“This year you must not lose your ration book under any circumstances. If you lose it again it won’t be replaced until next year”, warned an official in a loud voice, without clarifying whether you’d lose your right to buy rationed food if you did lose the book. “So are they going to write it on a piece of cardboard or what?” complained a woman, who reluctantly let pass, in front of her, a mother and her tired little boy who wouldn’t stop crying. It was already eleven in the morning and only three people had been attended to, while it was obvious that there were four other employees inside the office doing nothing.

If that were not enough, the process of getting the new ration book can be delayed by up to 17 days, when you used to be able to get it on the spot.

The lack of paper, which once again has caused the delay in the issuing of the new books, has added to a general disorder so bad that some unbelievable errors are being made. Like the one that has affected Caty, also a resident of Luyanó.

Some months ago she was pressured by the authorities to de-register her mother who had recently passed away, with the threat of a fine if she failed to do so. When she picked up this year’s book she couldn’t believe her eyes: they had once again printed her mother’s name in the book. “They told me I had to go back to Oficoda and correct the mistake, but I’m not going to correct anything. I did what they asked me to do, which was to de-register my mother. If they’ve put her name back on it, that’s their problem”, she told this newspaper. “The way things are going, anything can happen — even the dead come back to pick up their bread”. continue reading

The Juan Alonso Oficoda has been the subject of residents’ complaints for days. “Unbelievably, I’ve been coming to this office over three separate days to verify the information in my ration book, which has been retained by them, so I can’t even get basic supplies”, Zonia Suárez, a customer, complains, clarifying that all her data is in fact correct and that everyone registered in her book is alive and resident in Cuba.

The woman explains that the queues/lines for this process start to form at four in the morning and that they shut the office at midday. The picture she paints is similar to the one that 14ymedio found at Juan Alonso: “There’s a whole lot of errors in hundreds of ration books and the people who are supposed to be sorting this out are elderly and rather slow and there’s only one desk there which blocks the entrance to the building so that everyone has to crowd outside, including pregnant women and older people, so that arguments break out”.

Suárez says she asked them who gives the instruction to hold back basic food supplies from clients when the errors are not their fault but the fault of the authorities — and they replied: “it comes from the top”.

“I imagine it must be from Jupiter or Mercury then”, the woman added, wryly, “because no one who lives in Cuba could give themselves the luxury of doing that unless they had the right conditions to take similar measures with those who have only that book to get sustenance.

On the other hand, even those who don’t have any errors in their books are equally annoyed, owing to the reduction in the rationed products that are on offer. “People are ignorant of the reduction in the number of products that will be sold for cash in Havana shops where people use the ration book that’s given to every family. The price difference is significant, though many goods fall somewhere in the middle”, complains one young man from Central Havana in a store which put the January allocation on sale this Monday and doesn’t even have the new ration books available. “Last month they gave out four packets of picadillo [ground meat] and now they don’t even give out two, and it’s the same with sausages and olive oil. In my mother’s shop they haven’t given out any white sugar, only three pounds of rice per person”.

These are bad times — the worst — for the rationing system that the Island has been suffering under since 1962. Because if this weren’t enough, the new system of “cycles”, established by the authorities in Havana on 1 December, which is dependent on “the availability of produce” in the state run chains Tiendas Caribe and Cimex, has caused a situation in which even the January allocation is not yet available for many families.

“In our store they haven’t been able to even start the distribution of the January allocation because there are still hundreds of families which haven’t bought their December one yet. They can’t start selling the current allocation until the last one has all been bought”, warns a resident from Revolution Square district.

In Luyanó, it wasn’t until yesterday that Caty was able to buy her December supply. “So I’ll get my January one in February”, she says, resignedly. From the crowd in the street one can clearly see the framed photo that dominates the Oficoda in Calle Juan Alonso: Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro and Miguel Díaz-Canel, together with the slogan: “We are Cuba, we are continuity”.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Private Businesses Revive Around the U.S. Embassy in Havana

In the area, businesses that have been languishing for years due to the lack of activity at the diplomatic headquarters, are rubbing their hands. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 5 January 2023 — There were 20 minutes to go until 9 in the morning, when the U.S. Embassy opens in Havana, and there were already about 200 people lining up this Thursday, a day after the resumption of the delivery of immigrant visas in Havana. That, not counting those who were already inside and the two large rows of cars that stretched along K Street.

In the area, businesses that have been languishing for years due to the lack of activity at the diplomatic headquarters, are rubbing their hands. “It’s been five very hard years,” admits Mileydis, who with her mother runs a small bag storage business near the embassy. “Just when the consular procedures were closed, we had embarked a few months earlier on repairs to improve the premises, and the whole expense was for nothing because everything was paralyzed.”

After that time, “many cafeterias in this area, which survive from the clientele who come to their visa appointments, were closed, and in many cases the owners ended up leaving the country,” laments the 41-year-old woman, who saw her Havana coastal neighborhood languish. “Only people who come for the interview or go to the funeral home [at Calzada and K] come to this part of El Vedado, but without them there are not many customers.”

The crowd, in fact, is alien to the place. Most, even, have expressly arrived in Havana to carry out the procedures. “We are not from here,” they answer when asked about a place to find a coffee.

Street vendors proliferate in the area, although they still lack the life of yesteryear. A woman, in front of the park, sells snacks. Another man who proclaims peanuts aloud is called over from the cars for some food.

continue reading

Two police officers escort a woman who comes out every now and then with a list in her hand and calls the applicants by name and surname to form a group of between 30 or 40 people. When they are all there, she leads them inside. Many are just waiting to pick up their visa in the afternoon, while others are coming to their appointments for an interview, which the embassy began on December 29.

The faces are younger than usual. The restart of the family reunification program in May last year has rejuvenated those who are now waiting. Many retirees who took advantage of this method to meet with their children who are already established in the United States have already passed their procedures, and now the majority of people are something else. Among the lucky ones of the day, a family with a child left the building smiling, with the papers in their hands, and hugged those who were waiting for them nearby to congratulate them.

Although inside the embassy there is now a bag for certain belongings, Mileydis still experiences joy at being able to resume her task. “It still seems to me a dream that we have been able to reopen the business and also that they are reopening some places that offer coffee, breakfast and snacks,” she says. “This was a desert; even the home restaurant at the corner has had a very bad time, and it has a tremendous view from the terrace and has appeared in a lot of magazines.”

Mileydis has taken over from her mother who is now too old “to stand there holding the wallets of people who come to the embassy,” giving them a number to identify their belongings and placing them on a large shelf in the room on the ground floor. “Now I am at the front of the business, and I hope that in the coming months we will get out of the hole that we are in now.”

The place is just one more in the fragile network where there are also private accommodations for Cubans who travel from the provinces to go to their consular appointments; for the self-employed who devote themselves to filling out, for other people, the mandatory digital forms for consular procedures; and even for the parking attendants who take care of motorcycles and vehicles.

“It’s weird the things you miss; I was even nostalgic for that commotion of people. Luckily they’re back,” Mileydis says with relief.

Many of those who have reached the area around the consulate are also members of various Facebook groups in which Internet users exchange suggestions and recommendations for the consular interview. From how to dress, what are the best places to rent a room for those who come from another province, to tips on how to behave in front of the immigration officer.

Those groups have been in turmoil in recent months, and the mood that runs through many of their members is hope. “Now they are going to step on the accelerator and process all pending cases,” say some optimists, while others calculate when their interview will be from the time elapsed since another, who has already scheduled his consular appointment, presented the documents for the immigrant visa for the first time.

“No low-cut clothes, no eye-catching earrings,” advises one of the moderators of a group of parents applying for a family reunification visa. “Quiet in the line, everything must be well-organized there, not like a line to buy chicken,” says the woman who also recommends “speaking loudly and clearly” through the speaker inserted into the thick glass that separates the applicant from the immigration officer. And above all, “you have to present yourself as someone who is very enthusiastic.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Another Year, Another Shortage of Ration Books in Cuba

Sign in a Cuban store saying that they won’t be issuing new ration books. (Facebook/Jonatan López)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya and Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 29 December 2022 — “Customers please be aware that in January we will be using the same ration book as 2022. So please look after it!” Messages like this one, written hurriedly on a scrap of cardboard and stuck carelessly onto the shop door, have been appearing in numerous stores in Cuba over the past week.

These are the only sign of something that’s about to happen yet again: that they haven’t printed the new ration books that normally would get issued in December, for use from January onwards.

The ministry of Interior Commerce confirmed this on Thursday on its Facebook page. In the announcement, in which it also assures that “the distribution of already established family hampers for January is guaranteed”, they inform that “there are some changes to the usual timely distribution of ration books for 2023, because in six provinces, and, partially in another three, their production has not yet been completed”.

Because of this, the text continues, “food products corresponding to the January quota will temporarily be recorded in the 2022 book, for which a procedure has been sent out”.

This newspaper has established, by telephoning a number of grocery stores, that this is happening in Havana — in the Central, Cerro and Revolution Square districts. “There are problems in getting hold of next year’s books and people are going to have to continue to use this year’s”, they explain over the phone, “most likely beyond January or February – there’s no date yet”. continue reading

The only district that appears to be free of the problem is Luyanó, where, despite the scarcity, and all the general problems associated with buying from state shops, they have actually received the ration books.

Beyond the capital, there is a shortage reported in Sancti Spiritus. There, the stores are recording January orders in the old books.

The fact that there’s a lack of these things — things which have been a daily norm ever since rationing started in 1962 — isn’t new. It was exactly the same last year.

A statement from the Ministry of Internal Commerce later clarified that there were “delays in the importation of basic printing materials”, which delayed the “production and distribution” of the document, which is essential for obtaining basic subsidised foodstuffs. In other words: they’d run out of paper.

One would read from this announcement that until they re-establish the distribution of these documents in the western and central districts, that they’ll have to keep using the 2022 ones. And to avoid confusion, it would be appropriate to “cross out things that have already been bought” before adding to the new ones in the space available “on the January and February pages” of 2022. This December, Cubans are feeling a bit… deja vu.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Waiting in Line in Havana Behind 600 Others to Buy Pork

People in line to buy pork in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, December 21, 2022 — Yuleidi was thinking about going to a concert on Friday at Casa de la Obra Pia in Old Havana but it was cancelled for lack of an audience. When she pressed for more information, the explanation she got is one that has become common for many of the capital’s cultural events. Nobody is going to anything; everyone is waiting in line to buy pork.

This year, buying pork that the government has made available for the holiday season is harder that ever.

There are complaints that, in some cases, the pork being sold looks bad and smells worse. As though that were not bad enough, a whole cut costs thousands of pesos, the lines to buy it are slow and the holidays are only a few days away.

Silvia, Xiomara and Maria Eugenia — neighbors from the Revolution Plaza district — told 14ymedio that they had banded together to split a whole cut of pork, which is priced at 7,500 pesos. They are still waiting.

When contacted a few days ago, they thought it would soon be their turn. There were only eighty people ahead of them. The meat went on sale on Wednesday.

As of today however, there were inexplicably 600 people ahead of them. “We don’t really know if we’ll get to the sales counter before Friday,” says Maria Eugenia.

Pork lines are also becoming scenes of violence. More than a few social media posts describe physical altercations among people who have grown impatient and irritable from the long wait. continue reading

In other neighborhoods, such as Arroyo Naranjo, residents have set up makeshift camps outside butcher shops in hopes of getting a cut of meat. It is widely known that there is not enough for every household in the city to get its rationed share. Photos shared on social media show some people wrapped in blankets or drinking rum to keep warm in the cool early morning hours of December.

Silvia and her friends are seriously considering buying someone else’s place in line to speed up the wait time, which lasts a week. For 1,000 pesos they could reach the front by Thursday morning but they have to decide soon because prices for a good spot are expected to rise as Christmas Eve approaches.

Maria Eugenia has her doubts about making such an investment. Her son, who lives in Miami, has promised her a pork roast from Brazil, which can be purchased from any number of digital markets which markets to the island. “I don’t want him spending the money, which he needs for other things, but I cannot deal with this line anymore,” she says.

Meals at home are one option for those with relatives overseas. “A case of beer, a leg and sides for 250 dollars, with delivery [by December 24],” reads an advertisement published by a privately owned Havana business. When asked about the meat’s origin, the response by one employee is succinct: “Imported pork, nothing like the rationed stuff.”

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The Traditional Christmas Pig in Cuba, Badly Frozen and Only with a Ration Book

The meat is, according to Havana housewives’ diagnosis, “at room temperature” and the bad smell is impossible to remove, even by frying it in very hot butter. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 16 December 2022 — The stench comes from the back of the butcher shop, from the bundle of pork that the clerks handle with sweaty hands. As he approaches the counter, having survived being shoved and yelled at while in line, Carlos discovers that the unpleasant smell comes from the reddish suet that mucks up the floor.

The transaction is short-lived. The butcher sets his hooks and knives on the mass of smelly meat, weighs it –always cheating, but even Cubans get used to dishonesty — and throws it inside the shopping bag. The manipulation of the scale does not seem to matter to the policeman who watches over the buyers and who, at the end of the day, will be paid in kind for his “indifference.”

The smell is just the beginning of the odyssey to have a bit to eat to put on the family table during the New Year holidays.

The smell is just the beginning of the odyssey to have a bit of energy to put on the family table during the New Year holidays

The meat just bought is old, gray, and almost greenish. Fat, cartilage and bone predominate. Its texture is perhaps the most unpleasant, typical of pork that has not been well refrigerated and that, when it begins to thaw, becomes slimy to the touch.

Unfortunately, Carlos thinks, he listened to the clerks who were shouting on the outskirts of the butcher shop. “Make the effort and buy now,” they said this Thursday, “this is what’s left and tomorrow is going to be worse.” There were people who were more discerning, who preferred to not buy anything.

The meat that the government puts up for sale for the end-of-year celebrations is, according to the diagnosis of Havana housewives, “lukewarm” and it is impossible to remove the stench, even when frying it in very hot butter. continue reading

The conspiracy theorists in the neighborhood have already launched their explanation: in the absence of a recent product, the government makes available for sale its mysterious “war reserve,” the secret food arsenal that has always been attributed to the regime. It is not pork that has been kept in a refrigerator, hanging on a hook, but in little refrigerated warehouses, one piece on top of another. For this reason, they say, the meat is “crushed” and has an “ugly” color.

Crackling pork rind, fried pork chunks or some roasted ribs have always been part of the Cuban New Year’s festivities, even more than holiday trees and cider. The latter, the official hatred for the Christmas festivities has made them disappear and reappear from homes, but pork meat had remained a constant despite the fact that every December of the last decade its price has risen significantly.

In private markets, a pound of steak or leg is close to 500 Cuban pesos but, as the month progresses and Christmas Eve approaches, the product’s presence decreases

In private markets, a pound of steak or leg is close to 500 Cuban pesos, but as the month progresses and Christmas Eve approaches, the product’s presence decreases. Hence, the official announcement was received with relief that the product would begin to be sold in the city of Havana in a “limited, controlled-release” manner, upon presentation of the ration book.

Silvia, Xiomara and María Eugenia have come to an understanding. Between the three of them they will buy a piece of pork that costs about 7,500 pesos. It is a leg that will be divided for Christmas Eve dinner for their corresponding families. “We’re just going to buy just one because no one has the money for the piece that is allocated to her nuclear family,” María Eugenia clarifies.

Since last Sunday, having been alerted that the sales would begin this Wednesday, the three retirees began to stand in line at the butcher shop on Ermita and Conill streets, in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución. Since then, they have alternated the hours they spend in line, hoping that the time to go into the establishment will arrive this Friday afternoon. “We have about 80 people ahead of us, and sales are going very slowly.”

The long wait is not because the piece of meat has to be cut, since the customer must purchase the complete piece, a requirement that has made many needy people give up, since they do not have the thousands of pesos that a leg costs at a price of 250 pesos per pound. “They weighed a medium one for me and it came out at 6,800 pesos so I had to share buying it with a neighbor,” warns a nearby resident who went in “among the first” because she started standing in line last Saturday. The delay is attributed to “all the paperwork that must be reviewed before buying.”

According to the woman, it is pork meat “with a lot of fat,” it comes unpackaged, which makes her assume it’s from Cuban pigs, but the employees could not tell her if it was imported or from national farms. “The store has refrigeration problems and when I bought the leg, I ran home to put it in the freezer because otherwise it wouldn’t make it to the end of the year.”

In other municipalities, such as Arroyo Naranjo, the residents have improvised real encampments outside the butcher shops to be able to get a portion of meat

In other municipalities, such as Arroyo Naranjo, the residents have improvised real encampments outside butcher shops to be able to get a portion of meat, since it is known that what is available is not enough for all the households registered in the city’s rationed market. On social networks, some of them have shared photos of people wrapped in blankets or drinking rum to warm up in the cool early morning this December.

“I hope that the piece that I get is tenderloin, which is worth 235 pesos a pound and comes with some ribs for frying that my children love,” commented a resident of El Vedado this Thursday, who has to buy at the local store at 17th and K streets. “You can always convince someone else in line to take your piece if you don’t like it and he prefers it that way.”

However, the man fears that the meat that signals the holidays could also become a matter of contention. “Those who are buying legs for three households are not going to be able to separate it until everything is cut in their presence, because otherwise there will be a dispute due to a little extra lard that goes to one or a few chunks above what the other gets.”

Translated by Norma Whiting

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A Hotel with an Unknown Owner and Rates of up to 100 Dollars per Night Opens in Centro Havana

The Tribe Caribe Cayo Hueso Hotel opened on Saturday in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez / Olea Gallardo, Havana, 13 December 2022 — The neighbors of the hotel Cayo Hueso, in Centro Habana, watched with intrigue, for months, the remodeling of the building located at Aramburu 253, at the corner of Neptune. Little by little, the property — built in the 1930s and in decline, like all its surroundings — was becoming a luxurious establishment, judging by what could be glimpsed through the windows of the ground floor.

Nothing, however, reported its future use, and the only sign it displayed was the work license number written on a piece of cardboard and poorly hung on a window. The gossip began to flow without confirmation: a yuma had bought the property and was turning it into a hotel.

And not only that, but he had bought other houses and planned to relocate everyone who lived there.

If it was true that the project was for an American, in any case he had to be influential. In this regard, several residents of the place tell another anecdote. One day a cement truck was parked in front of the building, and a police patrol car arrived to ask the construction workers for identification. One of them phoned someone, and, after having a brief conversation, passed the device to the policeman: “Someone wants to talk to you.” “The policeman changed his expression, apologized, and they never bothered the workers again,” says a neighbor who asks for anonymity.

Thus, a name began to be repeated during the last few weeks by the neighbors. They dared to say that behind the project, headed by two American businessmen, was none other than Raúl Castro’s daughter. “There the meter is running, but it’s not for the Americans. That’s not theirs, but Mariela’s,” the residents said confidently, insisting they saw her on Friday inside the building.

True or not, no one saw Mariela Castro last Saturday, when the hotel was inaugurated and several unknown people were cleared. To begin with, its name: Tribe Caribbean Cayo Hueso (Key West). continue reading

The only sign that the establishment had was the construction license number written on a piece of cardboard and poorly hung in a window. (14ymedio)

On its webpage, where you can now book a room for 150 to 550 dollars a night — booking a full floor costs 1,000 — the “founders” appear: an American investor, Chris Cornell, and music producer Andrés Levín, born in Venezuela but with a US passport. In Cuba, Levin is known for participating in several cultural projects such as the Havana Biennale, in addition to his marriage to Cuban-American singer Cucú Diamantes.

Hence, he was the most recognizable figure on Saturday, at an unusual “neighborhood” inauguration party, which lasted six hours and included an exhibition by photographer Juan Carlos Alom, the sale of items by private businesses such as the Clandestina brand and musical performances. “Here in Cuba this is not allowed for just anyone,” commented a young man, who stopped humming what they were singing on the stage: El Necio [The Fool], by Silvio Rodríguez, to the rhythm of salsa.

Levín, with a cap and characteristic dark glasses, came and went, smiling, greeting with familiarity the neighbors gathered in front of the street stage, for whose installation the traffic on Aramburu Street between Neptune and San Miguel was closed off.

Nearby was a bus with the electronic sign “PROTOCOL” in capital letters, and the various Lada vehicles with drivers normally used by public officials, parked nearby, were obvious.

A group of young people dressed in T-shirts saying “Tribe Caribe” prevented people from entering the hotel and monitored the movements of the curious.

Tribe Caribe is a company registered on April 30, 2021, in Florida, with the address 1521 Alton Road 460, in Miami Beach. Levín and Cornell both appear as directors. The company, linked to the world of music, affirms that it “promotes and distributes exceptional original Caribbean content,” according to its website, and is “a proactive force, a voice and an educator in the continuous emergence of the rich cultural offerings of the Caribbean.”

On the hotel’s page, Chris Cornell points out that he is “a long-time professional entrepreneur and investor in arts, creative businesses and impact projects, who provides momentum and entrepreneurial spirit to the project,” and who “has directed all the important decisions of restoration, construction and design of the hotel, and is deeply aware of how these decisions affect the neighborhood, the local cultural identity and the preservation of the artistic heritage of Cayo Hueso.”

Andrés Levín iba y venía sonriente, saludando con familiaridad a los vecinos congregados delante del escenario callejero. (14ymedio) — Andrés Levín came and went smiling, familiarly greeting the neighbors gathered in front of the street stage. (14ymedio)

Of that mysterious investor, with unknown biography and background, there are no traces other than his alleged signature in the office in North Palm Beach, Florida, where the Tribe Caribe company was created. Of course, his name and surname coincide exactly with those of the famous singer of the Audioslave band, the first American rock group to play live in Cuba, in May 2005, at a venue none other than in the Anti-imperialist Bandstand, and for hundreds of thousands of fans on the Havana Malecón.

Levín emphasizes that he has been nominated for 26 Grammy awards — he won one in 2009 for the recording of the musical In the Heights — and that he has “propelled initiatives and produced numerous cultural events in Cuba, including TEDxHabana.”

Founder of the Afro-Cuban band Yerba Buena, the producer has collaborated, as mentioned on the official website, with artists such as Miguel Bosé, Aterciopelados, Orishas, David Byrne, Caetano Veloso, D’Angelo, Julieta Venegas and Tina Turner.

In addition, he is the producer of several film projects such as Amor crónico, directed in 2012 by the Cuban Jorge Perugorría, with whom he has a personal friendship, according to the photographs that show them together and messages.

An actor who prefers not to give his name and who was in business with Levin years ago, tells 14ymedio that both had agreed to collaborate on several projects, but that the producer cut off all communication after the artist’s participation in the demonstration on November 27, 2020 in front of the Ministry of Culture.

At that time, the actor attended two parties organized by Levín. One, in a house that he had rented in the municipality of Playa, near 5th Avenue, and another, in Siboney, where the mansions expropriated by the main architects of the Revolution are located, to celebrate the birthday of the producer’s father.

The source did not see, on any of these occasions, “anyone who was a heavyweight in politics,” but just “plain show business.”

Nearby was a bus with the electronic legend in capital letters “protocol”, and the various Lada vehicles with drivers were obvious. (14 and a half) — Nearby was a bus with the electronic legend in capital letters “protocol,” and the various Lada vehicles with drivers were obvious. (14ymedio)

But if he is associated with Mariela Castro, it is because Levín himself appears on social networks next to her, for example, in an “anti-homophobia” gala held in 2016. The Spanish singer Marta Sánchez, who performed on that occasion, also posted on Facebook about it: “Thank you Cuba for so much love and recognition! Thanks to Mariela Castro for that support to those who choose in this country to love as they want! Thanks to Andrés Levín for counting on me!”

In addition, the producer himself mentions Raúl Castro’s daughter in an interview granted in 2016 to Tablet, a magazine on issues of the Jewish community (the producers’s roots, whose parents, “very left-wing” according to their own description, were Argentines exiled in Caracas).

“It seems to me that I was at a dinner with you a few years ago and there were secret service people there and one of the Castros was with us or something like that. What happened?”, asks the interviewer, to which Levín replies that he does not remember well, but that it would surely have to do with the TEDxHabana event, in which he collaborated with “designers, programmers, artists and scientists” of the Cuban LGTBQ community.

The “neighborhood” opening party, last Saturday, lasted six hours and included an exhibition by photographer Juan Carlos Alom, sale of items by private parties such as the Clandestina brand, and musical performances. (14ymedio)

“One of the most advanced LGBTQ sex education programs in Latin America is led by Mariela Castro,” says the musician, who recognises having collaborated with her “on many projects related to culture and education.”

And then Levín unravels into praise for the Cuban people, whom he affirms “have a lot of potential and desire to prosper and are very different from what people think,” and who have “things that most of the world doesn’t have”: “Healthcare and education. Eleven million educated people. It is the most educated country in the world,” he says.

Tribe Caribe Cayo Hueso is offered precisely as a cultural project: “We continue a 25-year mission to preserve and pay tribute to Afro-Cuban culture and its musical legacy, we celebrate multi-generational artistic expression, and we come to share our exclusive access to a side of Cuba that visitors and guests could not experience on their own.” Not a word about the business purposes, nor the obvious opulence that the project exudes, nestled in the depleted heart of Centro Habana.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Three Turkish Floating Power Plants Scramble to End the Blackouts in Cuba

The Turkish floating plants next to the Tallapiedra plant, in Havana, this Friday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana | 9 December 2022 — Three floating plants of the Turkish company Karpowership can be seen these days in the vicinity of the Otto Parellada power plant, known as Tallapiedra, in Havana. Of them, only two, the one that arrived on November 15 and one more, seem to be working, connected to the thermoelectric plant through which the ship transports the electricity they produce (110 megawatts each).

The other, a short distance from these, and smaller (with a generation capacity of 15 MW), has stopped working this Friday.

Belonging to Karadeniz Holding, the power stations of this type, of which there are seven in Cuba, according to the official press, distributed between the port of Mariel and Havana – are, the authorities pointed out, “part of the strategy to gradually increase generation and move the country away from the effects of energy deficits.”

Once all of them are synchronized with the National Electric System (SEN), they will only contribute a little more than 400 MW, a figure that is, in principle, insufficient to alleviate the energy deficit on the Island. However, one thing is certain: since the beginning of December, and according to the daily reports of the Cuban Electric Union (UNE), the “affects” on the service have been decreasing. continue reading

From the figures of December 1, when the UNE forecast a deficit of 1,054 MW and an affectation of 1,124 MW in peak hours, it has gone on to have no deficit this Friday.

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Trunks and Branches Felled by Hurricane Ian Remain on the Streets of Havana

Corner of 17 and K in El Vedado, Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 8 December 2022 — The trees felled by Hurricane Ian in Havana, more than two months ago, seem to be nobody’s problem. The roots of a formidable specimen of Indian laurel, which stand out among the rubble and garbage at the corner of 17th and F, in El Vedado, Havana, attest to this.

Due to the impact of the winds in September, the laurel tore apart the gate of a state office linked to tourism and its trunk remained there until the return of the workers, after the cyclone. Then, workers from the Electric Company cut down the fallen trunk and several branches of the neighboring laurels.

According to an office worker speaking to 14ymedio, all the trees were planted together and belong to the same variety. “A few days after the cyclone, the people from the office tried to clear the place with machetes and left the garbage on the corner,” he reported. “After many days, a truck passed and took what it could.”

The current appearance of the corner of 17 and F, however, leaves much to be desired. Separating the trunk from the roots, they threw the latter into the same flowerbed where the tree was planted. Dirt has been accumulating around the pavement, also broken by the tearing up of the laurel, and even the neighbors have already transformed the place into a small dump. continue reading

Nor has the gate been repaired, its bars having been bent by the blow from the trunk, and there do not seem to be any plans to restore the concrete column that immobilized the gate, and also destroyed by the laurel.

The neglect of Community Services and the careless passage of passers-by does not augur any change in the terrible hygiene of the street. The tree, the trash, and even a rusty aluminum tank that keeps them company have fallen into no man’s land.

For greater irony, the entrance to the building proudly displays the plaque that distinguishes its occupants as a Collective of Heroic Tradition.

It is not the first time that 14ymedio has verified the lack of cleanliness in the streets of Havana, on which Hurricane Ian has left traces that remain more than two months later. “Since the sidewalk is the responsibility of the authorities, no one, neither the company nor the neighbors, will do anything more,” says the worker.

The trees uprooted by the hurricane, the leaves and roots that no one will clean up, and the garbage that people leave are now a common sight in the capital’s neighborhoods. This newspaper denounced how the residents of Parque Trillo, in Centro Habana, must skirt the fallen branches and avoid the poorly paved walkway.

Added to the chaos in public areas is damage to monuments, broken benches and poor quality pavement. None of these realities is discussed in the official press and, of course, local leaders and the Government of the Island don’t lose any sleep over it.
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Cuba’s ‘Fight Against the Coleros’ Continues, Despite Official Announcement in Havana to the Contrary

A store in San Nicolás street, between Zanja and Cuchillo, in Centro Habana. (14ymedio)

Havana, Juan Diego Rodríguez, 1 December 2022 — Although the Government of Havana insisted that the Lucha Contra Coleros (LCC) [Fight Against Coleros*] operations would end as of this very Thursday, a tour of the capital shows that the measures are still in force. In Plaza de Carlos III, for example, the LCCs were working normally. “But hadn’t they said that they were going to shut down the bandits?” asked a customer at the doors of one of the stores in the mall. “I wonder the same thing, when are they going to remove them,” replied another.

And this, explained a resident from Centro Habana, despite the fact that last month the new system announced, which requires each shopper to have a card or ticket that identifies them, was already im place in the municipality. The cards distributed to each person or family include the name of the purchasing establishment, the ID number of the bodega (ration store) and the details of the family nucleus and its number of consumers.

In a store on San Nicolás street, between Zanja and Cuchillo, where they announced that they would put chicken out for sale, the “cash” of the fight against coleros was also at the door. The same scenario was found in the establishments of Cayo Hueso, where the LCC conversed with a police officer in the most natural way.

In Luyanó, in the store on Melones street, at the doors of which the death of an elderly man occurred, which uncovered a network of corruption between the employees of the establishment and the controversial LCC, the new “chief” of the operation told this newspaper that she did not know when the newly announced system would launch.

“All this is going to take at least fifteen days,” assured the employees of another business in Luyanó, in Concha y Fábrica. The people of Havana were stupefied this Thursday: “But then why did they announce anything?”

Translator’s note: A line or queue in Cuba is called a ’cola’ (literally ’tail) and ’coleros’ are people who others pay to hold their place in line, lines that can be hours, or even days, long.

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Even the Stamps for Paperwork Have Disappeared From the Post Offices in Cuba

Line at the post office at Carlos III and Belascoaín this Tuesday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 29 November 2022 — A long line of people winds around the corner of Carlos III and Belascoaín and crosses the door of the imposing building located in that central point of Centro Habana. The reason for the tumult is not the purchase of frozen chicken or the much sought-after cigarettes, but to acquire stamps for processing paperwork, an increasingly non-existent product in the Cuban Post Offices.

“In recent days there has been a deficit of stamps for processing paperwork in the Cuban Post Offices, due to the increase in the realization of procedures by the citizens and state entities of the country,” begins a note released by the Tax Administration Office (Onat) and the Correos de Cuba Business Group (Gecc).

Both entities classify the situation as “unforeseen” and blame “increased demand” for the impact on the service. Although the text doesn’t mention the reasons for the increased interest in these stamps, everything points to the mass exodus that the Island is experiencing and the need for migrants to have documents such as birth certificates or criminal records for their departure, among other things.

“My son arrived at the United States border a few months ago. He has already managed to enter, and now he needs to prepare everything for when he has to appear before a judge for his asylum request. They asked him for several documents, including a birth certificate,” said Juan Carlos, a Havanan who this Tuesday passed through the Post Office on Infanta and San Lázaro Street in search of official stamps.

“They didn’t have any kind of stamp. The employees stood with their arms crossed but unlike other times, they didn’t put a sign on the door clarifying that there were no stamps of 5 or 10 pesos, which are the most sought after,” he explains. “In the few minutes that I was there, other people came in asking for the same thing, but we all left empty-handed.” continue reading

In its official note, Correos de Cuba has called for calm, assuring that this week “the existing reserves in the different territories have been circulated, in order to ensure a balance between them,” and that “a new stamp is being printed.”

To avoid hoarding and reselling the stamps, they have established strict rationing. “The limit of sale allowed per person will be up to three units of stamps of the denominations of 10, 20, 40, 50, 125, 500 and 1,000 pesos. For the stamps of 5 pesos the limit allowed per person will be 5 units,” they clarify.

But the measure has not managed to alleviate the despair of those who are against the clock in some paperwork that needs to be processed. “I have to present an exchange at a notary and I don’t have the stamps,” said one of the clients on Tuesday, who was waiting outside the Correos de Carlos III and Belascoaín, where the 20, 40 and 1,000 peso stamps were for sale.

“They are going to close at 11 and don’t open until 1:00 pm because they have to do the mandatory blackout to save electricity at that time,” a woman complained. “People are protesting because they say that, even without electricity, stamps can still be dispatched, but employees refuse, so I will have to stay until the afternoon, because from here I have to leave, no matter what, with the stamps.”

Correos de Cuba assures that in the month of December “the printing of another seven million stamps will begin, in order to stabilize the sale in all units,” and will have “the main post offices of each municipality” as the priority. But distrust in state institutions is deeply rooted.

Together with the General Customs of the Republic and the telecommunications company Etecsa, the Cuban Post Office is one of the entities least valued by citizens. The frequent loss of letters, the violation of the privacy of parcels, the delay in attention to the public in their offices and other ills have made their official announcements unbelievable.

“The one of 500 comes out in 1,000 and the one of 5 I have in 80,” explains briefly and quietly a young man with a folder, who hangs out a few feet from the post office in Centro Habana. “I’m already out of 50, but tomorrow I’ll bring it again,” he added to the interest of several customers who weighed whether to stay in the line or opt for the informal market to get that tiny piece of paper with its holographic band and its watermark in the light, indispensable for fulfilling their dreams.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With Uniforms Donated by China and Without Textbooks, This is How the School Year Begins in Cuba

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, November 28, 2022 — Not even in Cuba, immersed in a deep economic crisis, do children cease to be excited about the first day of school. Thus, this Monday, when the 2022-2023 cycle begins, enthusiasm and shouts were evident at the school doors, not only in Havana but in other provincial cities.

Parents, of course, know full well that the course not only begins off balance, once again, due to the various interruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, but with worrying shortages. Hence their long faces, distant from the enthusiasm of the children.

We walk around like crazy people looking for polyester for linings and fasteners,” a Havana mother complained this Monday. “Not to mention the price of backpacks or shoes, or all the notebooks that will have to be bought, because they have already said that they’re not going to distribute what they did in other years.”

Indeed, the Minister of Education herself, Ena Elsa Velázquez, explained the situation last week in State Television’s Roundtable program.

On the one hand, students would receive half of the notebooks that are usually given to them, Velázquez said, an “adjusted standard” that will also be applied to pencils: one per month, unlike the two that used to be offered.

Students will continue to use the dilapidated textbooks that have already passed through hundreds of hands. “We have indicated the need to recover the existing ones for redistribution,” the minister said, alluding to the custom of many students to “stay” with their books, often “solved” by paying the teachers for the privilege of a copy in good condition.

However, Velázquez assured that the books are also available in digital format for “students who have conditions for it,” a measure that, in her opinion, will be beneficial for “those who don’t have the necessary resources.” Although the school year is about to begin, the workbooks are barely “in production,” and the minister warns that there is little paper available in the print shop. continue reading

As for school uniforms, to the lack of which the population is already accustomed, there is a demand for 2,153,310 garments, according to Mirla Díaz Fonseca, President of the Light Industry business group. According to the official, the blackouts have prevented achieving the “work rhythm” necessary for the uniforms to be ready for the beginning of the school year.

Thus, only 1,274,000 garments can be delivered. The rest, if the materials are obtained, will have to wait until February. Díaz Fonseca explained that not even that amount would have been possible without “a donation from China” and the “new method” of re-dyeing the old mustard-colored uniforms blue. The old uniforms were worn in basic secondary schools before the change of design, which was carried out in the midst of a serious commodity crisis, and the dying process is now carried out by the textile manufacturer of Villa Clara.

The deficit of uniforms will be felt in the establishments provided by the Ministry of Internal Trade to sell them. Although it is customary to bribe the salespeople of these shops or to resell garments, the fact that the uniforms will be available for sale in only 1,900 stores will make the purchase even more difficult.

Those who don’t manage to get the uniforms or don’t reuse the ones they already have will still have to “attend school with the appropriate clothes,” said the Minister of Education. Without explaining where and how parents will be able to buy those clothes for their children, or defining what she considers “appropriate,” Velázquez apologized by stating that the school year was “a challenge for everyone,” and that things would be different if not for the US blockade, which is “hardening.”

Food is another issue that will not improve, and Velázquez avoided talking about it, although it mainly affects boarding schools, semi-boarding schools, households without subsidiary protection and basic secondary schools that follow the school snack regimen.

What she did say was that “the confrontation with cultural colonization” is, now more than ever, a priority of the educational system and its “political-ideological work system.” Invoking as “paradigms” Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, Velázquez said that the Ministry of Education is targeting those “young people who do not study or work” and teachers and managers who support “unacceptable” behavior, because “from indiscipline come crime and corruption.”

This newspaper has collected numerous testimonies of students in primary, secondary* and pre-university* schools who have been prohibited from entering classrooms with T-shirts that include the name of brands, signs or eye-catching figures. In some schools, the wearing of black T-shirts is not allowed, because black is considered “an opposition color.”

Another problem that the official media don’t talk about is the gap between those who have hard currency to buy what is necessary and those who don’t. “And now the cellphone is a problem,” adds a father of Sancti Spíritus. “Imagine that since everyone has a cellphone, my daughter also wants one, and I don’t know if we’re going to be able to afford it.”

As for the foreseeable lack of teaching staff, caused by last year’s unstoppable migratory exodus, the authorities did not give figures, but in schools in Havana they found many “new faces” among teachers. “And not all the positions are covered,” says a teacher from the capital who prefers to remain anonymous.

*Translator’s note: In the United States these designations would be “junior high school” and “high school.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The New Electric Tricycles in Havana are (Practically) Phantoms

Electric tricycles, presented by the Havana authorities, for operating on the new routes in the Playa (Beach) district. (Tribuna de La Habana)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 25 November 2022 — The authorities in Havana have twice announced, in their customary pomp, the arrival of electric vehicles onto new transport routes in the Playa district. The first time, two weeks ago, the official press assured us that a tricycle service would commence on 15 November, but this didn’t materialize.

Days later, and without any explanation, Tribuna de La Habana changed the start date: it would be the following Monday, 21 November, when a total of 20 electric tricycles would begin to operate, increasing later to 25, They would be organised on three routes: from 3rd and 80 to La Ceguera hospital; from avenue 120 to the hospital; and from 120 to La Puntilla, on a timetable running from 7am to 7pm.

“People will be able to access an affordable, quick and efficient alternative to, and complement to, the public bus service, which will generate local employment”, boasted the provincial newspaper.

However, the vehicles didn’t appear anywhere. At La Puntilla, for example, the supposed final stop on one of the routes, none of the local residents said they’d seen the new means of transport, which was meant to help alleviate the ever pressing crisis of mobility in the capital, owing chiefly to the shortage of fuel.

Neither could any signage be seen at the supposed stops along the routes, such as on Calle 0 and 1.

Julio, who works near to the Sierra Maestra building — headquarters of the Cimex Corporation — was already thinking they must be nothing more than “phantom tricycles” when, on Friday, he finally got onto one. “It was quite by chance. I found it when I was walking down Third street, but hardly anyone knows about them, so much so, that where I boarded there were no other passengers waiting, and just one woman got on board during the whole journey”. continue reading

The vehicle, which has a capacity of 6 passengers and a range of 120 km, was driven by a woman, like other electric tricycles operating in Havana, but on these new routes, according to the driver, they have hired men too.

At a price of 4 pesos people usually pay 5 and don’t expect any change. “I’m not going to ask for one peso back”, Julio explained. “No, and I’m not going to give it to you!”, replied the driver, laughing — in a country where the decreasing value of small denomination notes and coins makes them more and more useless for making everyday payments.

Regarding energy sources, there’s still no news about those solar powered hubs that were promised for the Ecotaxis in Central Havana. “This thing is charged up on the normal mains power supply, no solar panels or anything like that”, explained the vehicle’s driver. “Those kinds of things only work on television. Beyond that, no, nothing”, her passenger replied, cynically.

It goes without saying that the arrival of the new tricycles is designed to force a lowering of prices by the taxi drivers operating the beach zone. One journey in a big almendrón* taxi costs at least 50 pesos, but the likelihood of a price drop remains far off. While the old Chevrolets or Fords circulate constantly around the city, the new initiative by the authorities can hardly be seen. They might have three wheels, but the others have many years of struggling with inflation and with state experiments.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

*Translator’s note: Almendrón — from the Spanish word for ‘almond’, because of the shape — is the name given to the large classic American cars operated as taxis in Cuba.

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