Juan Diego Rodríguez – Page 13

Stones Rain Down from the Top of the Building of the Ministry of Public Health in Havana

The only signal that anyone walking on the sidewalk at that time would have to protect themselves would be the building custodian’s alert (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 19 September 2022 — From the facade under repair of the Ministry of Public Health, in the crucial ramp on 23rd Street, in Havana, numerous stones fell this Monday. They were not large, but they were large enough that, given the height from which they fell, would have caused a head injury to any passerby.

The only signal that anyone walking on the sidewalk at that time would have to protect himself would be the alert from a building custodian: “Walk fast, walk fast, don’t let it fall on you!”

“Is this normal?” A woman who was passing by at the time blurted out. “Stones are falling into the street, there are no signs, they have not stopped traffic. One drives by in a car and the windshield gets smashed, what do you do?” continue reading

Towards the top of the Public Health Building a green mesh can be seen that barely covers part of the scaffolding placed for the works. (14ymedio)

Toward the top, a green mesh can be seen that barely covers part of the scaffolding placed for the works being done to the building. Minutes later, two workers scrambled to sweep the debris from the street.

Fewer security measures can be seen in the works of the controversial tower at K and 23^rd Streets, also in Havana’s Vedado district, from where a piece of wood of considerable size shot out, also this Monday.

Also on Monday, a large piece of wood of considerable size shot out from the tower at K and 23rd Streets (14ymedio)

In this case, the building does not have a protective mesh, which is something various specialists have criticized.

The board was dodged by a man in his thirties, to the shock of the rest of the passers-by. “That’s why I don’t go through here,” one of them said to the young man, who was livid. “Because anything that falls might kill anyone and nothing happens.”

The building does not have a protective mesh, something for which it has been criticized by various specialists. (14ymedio)

Translated by Norma Whiting
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In Plaza Carlos III, an Identity Card is Required to Buy a Quarter of Fried Chicken

Some of the first forty customers this Wednesday, sitting and eating their quarter chicken. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 14 September 2022 — Forty people and forty identity cards, not one more. The crisis in the markets has made the leap to state cafeterias, and even in the cafeteria of the popular Plaza Carlos III, in Central Havana, it’s already impossible to sit normally and eat a quarter of fried chicken. The restaurant has decided to limit the sale, and, as if it were just another ration store, customers are obliged to identify themselves so as not to “monopolize” the 350 grams of chicken that the place sells for 37 pesos.

The line to buy fried chicken in the central place was a hive of people this Wednesday when a man, dressed in a T-shirt that identified him as “security,” went out to organize the line and ask customers to present one identity card per person, because he was only going to allow forty to enter.

Immediately the pushing and fighting began, epic for a reward as scarce as a piece of chicken. Or two, if the one you get is small. “No way you’re going here,” one said. “I’ve been here for hours,” shouted another. “You’re not going ahead of me,” a third party argued. Meanwhile, the guard continued to stop the tumult with his hand up.

Carlos III Plaza is known as the great palace of consumption in Havana and is the largest shopping center after Cuatro Caminos. Its location, in Central Havana, and its aesthetics, with a characteristic circular ramp winding through the structure, has made it since the ’90s one of the most prosperous and crowded shopping centers in the Cuban capital. continue reading

Dollarization had turned the old market that sold meat, each time more withered, into a place with establishments of all kinds, from shoe stores and perfumeries to hardware stores or clothing stores. The ground floor, with restaurants, was so busy that the neighbors complained about the sale of alcoholic beverages and fast food, which was crowded with people wanting to have fun and eat something different.

Now, fallen from grace, it barely has two stores in national currency and a supermarket in pesos where only the residents of Central Havana and part of El Cerro can buy as a result of the municipalization of commerce that the Government imposed in April of this year. The rest are shops that take payment only in MLC (hard currency) and a few restaurants with minimal offerings. The only fuss occurs when the cafeteria, called El Patio, begins to sell its famous fried chicken, the only food that can now be eaten on site.

Luckily, this Wednesday the first forty were not the only fortunate ones. The cafeteria again accepted another quota of forty when the first group had finished. Until the chicken ran out.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuatro Caminos, the Market Where Cuba’s Different Social Classes Come Together

View of pallets at the Cuatro Caminos green market this Friday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 16 September 2022 — The fruit and vegetable market at the Plaza de Cuatro Caminos, the largest in the capital, looked bleak this Friday. Old manioc and green plantains were the only things that were being sold in the stands, among empty pallets and counters.

“That manioc is so ugly that it looks like it has monkeypox,” a woman joked to the vendors, who laughed heartily. The memory of this green market, which before and after its major 2019 remodeling was the best supplied in Havana, with adequate prices for the always precarious economy of Cubans was left in the past. “This is empty,” another young man said out loud, one of the few people who could be seen in the place, along with elderly figures, beset by hunger.

In contrast with the scarcity in this part of the square, which is accessed through Matadero Street, the store selling in freely convertible currency (MLC) stands out, with its full shelves and its well-dressed and better-fed customers.

That manioc is so ugly that it looks like it has monkey pox”, a woman joked before the vendors, who laughed heartily. (14ymedio)

Barely grazing that abundance, an invalid woman sells plastic bags for 50 pesos, taking advantage of the blasts of air conditioning that escape outside every time the doors open.

This store has its entrance on Atarés Street, and those who cannot access this establishment due to their lack of foreign currency, can go to the store selling in pesos, which overlooks Monte Street. However, one cannot shop there unless it corresponds to your place of residence, as indicated by the rationing regulations established by the Havana authorities last April.

The area to buy in freely convertible currency in the Cuatro Caminos Market seemed to have full shelves. (14ymedio)

Halfway there, a line suddenly formed to buy a pair of yogurt cups at 16 pesos each and a small plate of ham at 55 pesos at the stand El Rápido. Several worlds in one, in short, with different social classes, something that the Revolution fought so hard against.

In November, 2019, when Cuatro Caminos reopened after four years closed for renovations, the influx of customers was such that the first day became a pitched battle to reach any product. People were stepping on each other to access the interior of the building, shoes were lost in the race. That restart was marked by those strongest or smartest people taking boxes and boxes of the same food.

Buying freely cannot be done in the sales area in pesos unless it corresponds to you by your ration book and place of residence, as indicated by the rationing regulations established by the Havana authorities. (14ymedio)

Nestled at the crossroads of several municipalities, the 1920’s market has always been, more than a sales outlet, the center of economic activity in the area. For decades, its function as a square with pallets for private peasants, private merchants and all kinds of informal vendors that hung around the place contributed to its neighbors’ survival.

The times when residents in the vicinity made a living by renting parts of their homes to store fruits, food and religious accessories, which were later sold in Cuatro Caminos, are long gone. After its last deep reform, the place gained in innovation, but lost the popular and boisterous character that characterized it since its beginnings.

Offer of two glasses of yogurt at 16 pesos each and a plate with diced ham at 55 pesos at El Rápido. (14ymedio)

Without being able to earn a living from the market, residents are now trying to get some income from the proximity of that imposing building that has two cornucopias on its main façade, prosperous cornucopias not reflected inside. The only advantage they seem to have is getting in line earlier than residents of other neighborhoods.

The new way of survival is now reduced to acting as coleros, selling turns in lines, to buy a product or acquire certain merchandise that’s offered for sale for just a few hours, in order to resell them in the informal market. Some of those who were waiting today for the yogurt and ham combo were probably included in that case: taking advantage of a market that is increasingly inaccessible to their pockets.

Enclavado en un cruce de municipios, Cuatro Caminos, construido en 1920, siempre fue, más que un local de ventas, el centro de la actividad económica de la zona. (14ymedio) — Located at a crossroads of municipalities, Cuatro Caminos was built in 1920 and has always been, more than a sales outlet, the center of economic activity in the area. (14ymedio)

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Is There a State-Owned Restaurant in Cuba that Has Good Food and Treats Customers Well?

Lunchtime customers waiting outside La Roca before it opens are a good sign. (14ymedio).

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, 17 September 2022 — The glory days of La Roca, a restaurant at the corner of 21st and M streets in Havana, only lasted for a few years. Inspired by Art Deco architecture and designed by Modesto Campos and Hugo D’Acosta Calheiros — two then-young architects, one of them still a student — it opened in 1957. With its multi-colored glass windows and live music, it was an immediate sensation.

It remained a required stop in the early years of the Castro regime, and even after it was nationalized, for Cubans and foreign visitors alike. Its main attraction was its location in the heart of the Vedado neighborhood. Its neighbors include the Focsa building, the giant Coppelia ice cream parlor and hotels such as Habana Libre, Capri and Nacional. But for a long time it was also known for having decent food.

Eventually, however, it began to decline and, like so many other state-owned restaurants, became known for bad service and questionable food. There was little incentive for eating there.

The same cannot be said today. At lunchtime, people wait in line outside before it opens, an auspicious sign. An employee at the door graciously greets customers and leads them to their tables.

The newly remodeled interior is a gloomy, impersonal setting but the food is good, inexpensive, and customers are not required to pay in hard currency. continue reading

For 150 pesos they can order tuna salad, chicken croquettes, ajiaco criollo or spaghetti alla Napolitana. The most expensive dishes are the grilled lobster (800 pesos), bacalao pil-pil (600 pesos) and a fish filet. More moderately priced dishes include ropa vieja (230 pesos), pork chops (200 pesos) and herbed chicken (350 pesos).

The side dishes — rice, salad, beans — cost between 40 and 120 pesos. At 80 pesos, the soft drinks are much cheaper than at other state-owned establishments, which charge up to 150 pesos.

La Roca is not immune to the shortages affecting the rest of the island, however. On Wednesday, for example, there were no shrimp on the seafood platter and the only dessert item on the menu was rice pudding.

The dishes are presented with grace and, unlike other places, are served very hot. The service is prompt, the wait staff is friendly and the food is good. Add to this a live pianist who plays boleros and other popular pieces from the international repertoire.

Why is La Roca able to do what other state-run restaurants cannot? According to regular customers, it has a new cook who is “spectacular.” That alone cannot explain it but what is clear is that there is at least one place run by the state that manages to do things right.

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Two Seriously Injured in Luyano, Cuba, in Fire of Two Motorbikes and Gas Cans

The flames reached a second motorbike and several fuel cans, which quickly reduced the interior of the house to ashes. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 13 September 2022 — Two people were seriously injured in the fire at a house in Luyanó, in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre, in the early hours of Tuesday.

According to the neighbors, who spoke to this newspaper, the fire began at four in the morning when an electric motorbike that was charging caught fire. The flames reached a second motorbike and several fuel cans that the family had stored, which quickly reduced the interior of the house to ashes. “Even the floor rose,” a neighbor said.

Inside the building, located on Arango Street, between Manuel Pruna and Rosa Enríquez, were the owner, Fidel González, well known in the neighborhood for working at a nearby carpentry shop, his three children, Denny (15 years old), David and Daniel (twins) and his wife, a Cuban-American visiting Havana.

The accident occurred when Daniel, who works as a taxi driver, was taking a bath after getting home from working. “The boy felt an explosion, and when he went outside, one of the motorbikes was on fire,” says another neighbor. “He alerted everyone in the house who were inside their air-conditioned rooms.”

One of the family’s two dogs, Floppy, stayed in the house and had to be rescued, with injuries, by a firefighter.

Daniel himself was the one who ended up with serious burns. Both he and his wife, who inhaled too much carbon dioxide, were admitted to the Miguel Enríquez hospital, known as La Benéfica. continue reading

Relatives of the family sent a petition via Facebook to all acquaintances to collect aid, because, they regret, they lost “everything: TV, washing machine, refrigerator, kitchen.”

Daniel González, according to the neighbors, was planning to go to the United States by the “route of the volcanoes” (Nicaragua).

Fires due to the explosions of electric motorbikes are frequent in Cuba. One of the latest reported occurred last June in the municipality of Cerro, also in Havana, and destroyed 12 motorbikes and two cars.

Last year, a 60-year-old woman and one grandchild, age 7, were killed in a fire caused by the explosion of a motorbike in Sancti Spíritus, and, months later, another 19-year-old girl died in a similar accident in the city of Matanzas.

Also, fuel storage, which in the case of Luyanó aggravated the accident, is also common on the Island. In many cases, it’s used for the operation of electric generators, some families’ alternative to the everyday blackouts.

In this case, the González family was storing it for the taxi operated by Daniel, in view of the increasingly frequent shortage of fuel in the gas stations.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Procession for Our Lady of Charity Draws a Crowd in Havana

“I haven’t seen this street so full of people and with so much emotion since July 11,” said a young man who claimed to have participated in the protests on that day last year. (14ymedio)

Some with candles, with very few sunflowers, that is how the devotees entered the church of the Virgen de la Caridad de El Cobre on the corner of Manrique and Salud Streets, in Centro Habana. This Thursday, the day on which the Patron Saint of Cuba is celebrated, inflation has also been noted in the price of sunflowers, the flower that is offered to Cachita (the Virgin’s nickname) because its yellow color recalls the golden mantle worn by her image.

From Galiano Avenue, metal fences and several policemen controlled foot traffic to the church in Havana, where thousands of people attend every September 8 to pay tribute to “the mother of all Cubans.” This year, the date has coincided with a deep economic crisis, which has cut the offerings that are left on the altar at the entrance of the church.

“I only bought one candle and it practically melted in my hand, because it seems that they mixed the wax with tallow. It cost me 50 pesos, but at least I was able to bring something, because the smallest bouquet of sunflowers cost 300,” lamented a young woman who, dressed in yellow clothes, approached the place this morning. “I’m going to have lunch and come back in the afternoon for the procession”. She said goodbye to her friends a while later.

At four in the afternoon, in a crowded church, a mass was presided by Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García, Archbishop of San Cristóbal de La Habana. (14ymedio)

At four in the afternoon, in a very crowded church, a mass was presided over by Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García, Archbishop of San Cristóbal de La Habana, together with the newly appointed auxiliary bishop of the capital’s Archdiocese, Eloy Domínguez. It was attended by the Spanish ambassador in Cuba, Ángel Martín Peccis.

The prelate said that the Church is the house “of all Cubans, the house of the Mother of God, in this house there is room for us all.” And he added that Cachita “wants peace and harmony for all Cubans.” “With God, everything and without God, nothing,” declared the archbishop during his sermon.

After five in the afternoon, the image of the Virgin appeared at the door of the church and was received with applause, tears and hundreds of raised arms trying to capture the moment with their mobile phones. On the church’s facade, a huge Cuban flag fluttered in the gentle breeze this Thursday. In the crowd, people dressed in alternating yellow and white clothes, some with masks and others with their faces uncovered. continue reading

The procession initially walked down Manrique Street, until it reached Zanja and then turned onto Galiano to join the stately Reina Street, where residents leaned out from the rooftops and balconies to follow the cortege. Some flower petals also fell from the heights as the Virgin passed by, although in a smaller volume than in previous years, when it was less difficult for Cubans’ pockets.

Applause, shouts of vivas a la Virgen and popular tunes like: “And if you go to El Cobre, I want you to bring me a Virgencita de la Caridad” were heard during the tour through one of the poorest and most populated areas of the Cuban capital. Megaphone in hand, on Zanja Street, the Cardinal asked Cachita to pray for “those who have died from Covid, in the Saratoga Hotel accident, and in the Matanzas fire.” The crowd received his words in silence, and then burst into shouts and applause when Juan de la Caridad García added “and those who have died traveling through jungles, rivers and seas, in search of other horizons.”

In Sancti Spíritus hundreds of people gathered and many others joined the procession that began after mass. (14ymedio)

“I hadn’t seen this street so full of people and so full of emotion since July 11,” said a young man who claimed to have participated in that day’s protests last year. The vicinity of the Havana Capitol, especially Galiano, Zanja and Reina streets, were several of the more frequented routes for the protesters, who later gathered around the Cuban Parliament building.

The crowd’s passage was guarded by a strong police operation and the obvious presence of State Security agents dressed in civilian clothes. The first procession after the suspension of public activities forced by the pandemic has also been marked by official edginess after the popular protests of July 11 last year and the demonstrations this summer in various locations in Cuba.

Among the Government’s fears has been that the procession would turn into the scene of some demand for the release of political prisoners, as independent organizations and relatives of those convicted have done in the past.

High prices also affected the devotees of the city of Sancti Spíritus, who had to pay 20 pesos each for roses and candles to be offered at the Church of our Lady of Charity in that city. Hundreds of people gathered at the Church, and many others joined the procession that began after mass. Mobile data network congestion frustrated many who wanted to stream the moment live on social media.

Initially, the procession walked down Calle Manrique until it reached Zanja and then turned onto Galiano to join the stately Reina Street, where residents leaned out from the rooftops and balconies to follow the procession. (14ymedio)

Similar processions were held in other parishes in the country, especially the one that left this Wednesday from the Sanctuary of El Cobre in Santiago de Cuba, where dozens of people participated to celebrate the 410th anniversary of the discovery of the image of the Virgin. This Thursday, a procession was also held in Santiago, from the Archbishop’s headquarters to the Cathedral.

For the remainder, the day has been influenced from the beginning by the calls for harmony and the desire for freedom for Cuba. The nun in charge of the Association “Daughters of Charity in Cuba,” Nadieska Almeida, published an article on Facebook in which she questioned what was going to happen in Cuba after the day of remembrance of the Virgen de la Caridad de El Cobre. “When it’s all over, what will be left?” she asked.

The nun described the current situation in the country with harsh words: “I see nothing but the same misery, the same repression, the same sadness on the faces of so many, tears like those of the family of the little girl who died in Guantánamo in a school disaster, or those of the relatives of the ones who are dying due to lack of medication, especially dengue fever… and so many more”.

Almeida summed up her plea to Cachita directly, and also by alluding to the ecclesiastical authorities in Cuba: “Give wisdom to the rulers and courage to the Church so that it does not stop proclaiming what is right. And there will continue to be a deep desire for a free, hoping and hopeful Cuba, and that we will continue to believe that it will be possible, and why not?

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Jesuits Denounce ‘The Dictatorial Power’ that Forced the Order’s Superior to Leave Cuba

The Jesuit priest David Pantaleón. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 13 September 2022 — The Dominican priest David Pantaleón, a superior of the Jesuits in Cuba, left the island on Tuesday due to the Government’s refusal to extend his residence permit. The Jesuit is already in his own country, according to a source.

The also former president of the Cuban Conference of Religious Men and Women was known for his critical assessment of the Regime and for promoting solidarity initiatives with the artists of the San Isidro Movement and, later, with those arrested during the July 11, 2021 protests.

The community celebrated a farewell mass for Pantaleón this Sunday. One of the nuns participating in the ceremony, Ariagna Brito Rodríguez, lamented on Facebook that the priest suffered in his own flesh the “faculties of dictatorial power, without principles or values.”

“They fear the truth; they fear the faces of good and get rid of what bothers them,” denounced Brito, who also said that “those who must be expelled from the country” are those who make up the government, who govern with a heavy hand a people who are “enslaved, punished, whipped and forced to flee.” continue reading

The source consulted by this newspaper specified that, as was said during Mass, Pantaleón was forcibly withdrawing from Cuba, due to the impediments of the Government, which made it clear that “he was no longer well received” on the Island.

He adds that, following, the directors of the Society of Jesus and other ecclesiastical authorities will issue a statement about the situation, which they have wanted, out of respect for the priest and his faithful in Havana, to handle with discretion.

The repression against members of the Cuban clergy has intensified in recent months, through surveillance, blackmail and regulation of travel permits.

From Camagüey, the Catholic priest Castor Álvarez confirmed to this newspaper that he had received the news that a group of nurses from that city had been summoned by State Security, after having taken a photograph with Pantaleón after the Mass of the Virgin of Charity, last Wednesday.

“One of the nurses is a neighbor of the priest,” Cuban layman Osvaldo Gallardo said on Facebook. “At the end of the mass she went with her colleagues to greet him. He blessed them, and then they took a picture.”

Gallardo adds that the headquarters of the political police in that city is located in front of the sanctuary of the Virgin of Charity, where Álvarez celebrated Mass. In addition, it provides an image where you can see an agent recording the procession from the second floor of the building. The priest is still waiting for information about the outcome of the meeting.

Catholics on the Island fear retaliation after the message published on Monday by the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba, which recommends voting no in the referendum on the new Family Code.

The statement, which opposes several traditionally problematic points between the Church and the State in the family sphere, also contains a criticism of the Regime’s propaganda.

“The information, flowing in one direction without other checks and balances, operates as a conditioning factor, and the vote that derives from it will express, necessarily and inevitably, a conditional will,” the prelates said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Even the Cats Won’t Eat the ‘Shrimp’ Croquettes from a Fish Market in Central Havana

Customers who lined up at the doors of the state fish market in San Lázaro, in Central Havana, could barely believe the product that had been put out for sale. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 7 September 2022 — “Shrimp croquettes at 57 pesos a pound!” Customers who lined up at the doors of the state fish market in San Lázaro, in Central Havana, could barely believe the product that had been put out for sale this Wednesday.

Since crustaceans have been a luxury at Cuban tables for decades and their production — ironically controlled by the State — is mostly destined for export, the supply immediately aroused suspicion.

“This is enchanted shrimp, because you need to know what it is,” a man commented sarcastically as he left the establishment with his pound of croquettes. Another woman preferred to pass by: “At 57 pesos? That’s just broth that they add to the flour. Show some respect!”

She wasn’t wrong, as those who have had the misfortune to taste them can testify. “They’re pure flour; they absorb oil like sponges, and from time to time you have to take things out of your mouth that don’t seem to belong to a shrimp,” says a resident from Central Havana. “They look like water in which they boiled some shrimp heads and at best threw in a little flour to hold it together.”

The woman was given the croquettes by a relative and at first she was excited, but the joy lasted only until as she took a bite: “I ended up giving them to the cats, but even they wouldn’t eat them.” continue reading

You don’t need to put them in your mouth to see that they’re not even fit for animals. Their color is grayish brown, similar to the play dough used by preschool children, in part because of the cornstarch they seem to contain.

However, many did buy the croquettes, especially older people. “Aren’t you going to take them?” the clerk insisted to a young man who looked disgusted: “No, thank you.”

Just around the corner, another refusal was presented in the form of a movie scene. From a balcony, an old woman stretched out her arm and threw all the contents of a nylon bag into the street. On the asphalt was what she had rejected categorically and with rage: a dozen shrimp croquettes.

On the asphalt was what she had rejected categorically and with rage: a dozen shrimp croquettes. (14ymedio)

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Gastronomic Debacle of the Habana Libre Hotel Reaches an Unprecedented Level

Located in the Habana Libre hotel, the La Rampa cafeteria has suffered the same fate as the establishment that hosts it and has become a small restaurant. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 7 September 2022 — The La Rampa cafeteria, with its terrace protected from the flow of 23rd street, has known better times. Located in the Habana Libre hotel, it has suffered the same fate as the establishment that hosts it and has become a small restaurant of little heritage, whose prices give no respite to the hungry citizen.

The old Hilton, destined to be one of the most luxurious on the continent, opened its doors in 1958 and was nationalized by Fidel Castro only two years later. Time and underdevelopment have reduced its category rating many times, but nothing, not even the resounding Special Period, compares to the debacle it’s going through today, which has already reached its dining establishments without adapting the prices to the poverty of the offerings.

At the entrance of La Rampa, the clerks place a black, battered banner with the menu of the day written in chalk. A ham and cheese sandwich costs 250 pesos; a juice, 100; depending on the amount, the coffee will cost 30, 60 or 70; and for those who are in the mood at the time to buy a drink of 150 pesos, you can choose among a mojito, a daikirí and a cuba libre.

There’s nothing more. Inflation and the lack of products pull each other down, so that not only is supply expensive, but there is no supply at all.

A maid, very busy scaring away two foreigners who have chosen her space, is slow to write down the request of Cubans. “This table is dirty,” scolds the woman, “you can’t sit here.” “So clean it,” they reprimand her. For them, the state of the cafeteria is inconceivable.

At last it’s possible to request something to eat and when, after a long wait, the food arrives at the table, the Cubans devour it quickly and bitterly. The “natural” juice is actually an artificial preparation to which too much ice has been added; the tiny bread, baked with whole wheat flour, is pale and tasteless. The worst: the cook had no scruples about frying “chopped” sweet potato flakes, bitten by insects, and the little insect pieces leave a black border. continue reading

The total cost of a lunch is 400 pesos. As the hotel is partially managed by the Gran Caribe company and not by the all-powerful Gaviota, there is still the option of paying in cash. Otherwise, you would have to present a magnetic card that not all Cubans have.

But that’s not all. There are other examples of the sad decline of the Habana Libre. The 25th and L sweet shop, before full of exquisite sweets even despite the pandemic, offers empty refrigerators, and only a few small, lackluster pieces are offered. “Thanks for the four sweets!” exclaimed an ironic customer on Wednesday. “Now if I want to buy cake, I’ll have to come when you open.”

The El Polinesio restaurant, which was once the gastronomic pride of the hotel, follows the same route as the cafeteria and the sweet shop.

As soon as he approaches the entrance of the premises, the customer is hit by the smell of moisture and accumulated fats stored on the carpet. Where before was the roasting area for its mythical barbecue chicken, which diners could see while it turned golden on the firewood, now there is only one useless area full of dust. From the decor that recalled the wildlife of Polynesia, there are a few masks left on the wall and some wooden logs covered with flies.

Despite this, you need to make a reservation to eat at the premises. “You have to call on the phone or come the day before,” clarifies one of the waiters. After the culinary disappointment at La Rampa, reading the Polynesian menu is enough not to eat there. All dishes exceed 300 pesos, and the famous chicken reaches 500, although it has little to do with the recipe of yesteryear.

Ordering a coffee or a sandwich in a hotel cafeteria and hanging out in a different environment was something acceptable even for some Cubans capable of making the economic effort in exchange for escaping routine and the heat of Havana.

Inflation and the recent measures of the Ministry of Economy to capture as much currency as possible have made this option impossible for the majority of the population, for whom even several salaries are not enough to cover a lunch.

“Where does the rope break? On the weakest side,” a social networks user commented this Friday, attributing to the “crazy monetary reorganization” his decision not to consume again in the prestigious Manzana, Parque Central, Packard or Paseo del Prado hotels. “Bye bye, cubanitos; bye bye, terraces of Havana,” he wrote. In the case of the Habana Libre, you can pay for luxury, but you can’t find it.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubans Wait All Night at the Currency Exchange to Buy Dollars, Which Now Cost 150 pesos in the Informal Market

Like an anthill, the people of Santa Clara hunkered down during the early hours at the junction of Cuba and Tristá streets. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez and Juan Izquierdo, Havana, September 5, 2022 — The night begins to cool off over Santa Clara and, after having a bite to eat, the coleros [people standing in line for others, for pay] cross Vidal Park on their way to the currency exchange (Cadeca). The custom is new but the method is as common as poverty and underdevelopment on the island: hold on all night to guarantee one of the first places in line.

The booty: the hundred dollars “per head” that the Government promises to sell to anyone who has a place. Like an anthill, the people of Santa Clara hunkered down during the early hours of Friday at the junction of Cuba and Tristá streets.

It’s a central corner and a crucial one for the movement of the city, interrupted, however, by a long zinc fence, which slows down traffic. The inhabitants of the city are accustomed to going around the obstacle, which “protects” them from the ruins of the old Florida hotel, to reach the Cadeca and the branch of the Bank of Credit and Commerce.

“A tremendous show broke out that night,” one of its readers in Santa Clara tells 14ymedio. “More than a hundred people waiting, and everything is a disaster. A guy started shouting that it was a shame and that he couldn’t take it anymore.”

At ten at night, the man says, the atmosphere was already “heated.” From afar, in the park, the police didn’t lose any time in harassing the coleros. “It’s normal that they patrol that area and, from time to time, intercept a drunkard or an unsuspecting university student and ’invite’ them to enter the guasabita,” he adds.

The guasabita is the name that the people of Santa Clara give to a small gray bus where the officers improvise their “interrogations.” “People leave there on a stretcher,” says the man, “that’s why the coleros also avoid it.” continue reading

But not even a hypothetical beating or an unforeseen arrest stop those who have to exchange their dollars. In the Cadeca, the mechanisms of a gear that no one fully understands and that works based on traps, tricks and bribes, begin to rotate.

The fundamental rule: maintain your ground and be aware of the movements of others. The euphemism par excellence, “taking care of the line,” is the ace up the sleeve of those who appear and disappear, exchange places with someone, or duplicate their place under all kinds of pretexts.

The “dollar line” is confusing and exhausting, with the additional danger of knowing that everyone who goes in or out carries money in their pockets, which tempts the city’s bandits and assailants.

“I’ve even been afraid of standing in line,” admits the man, who says he feels the same neurosis in the Cadeca as in a line for chicken, coffee or cigarettes. The overnight sale of foreign exchange has become another business in the informal market.

“But make no mistake,” he adds, “this is a small business; it isn’t the ‘mafia’ of Santa Clara. This is the same thing that happens when people ‘struggle’ with their ration books for meat or some tobacco. The idea is to spend the time that others can’t or don’t want to spend. That’s why they [the coleros] take a percentage.”

At the moment of greatest agony, when there is no longer any desire to shout or protest, the sun rises. Cadeca workers, very calmly, open the door and start calling the first numbers. But there is no guarantee that there will be enough dollars to cover the demand.

“Everyone knows that you can spend the night here and that it’s a choice,” the man concludes, “but that’s what it is. This is the only country where you can live from standing in line for someone.”

Those who read the daily reports of the official press won’t be able to detect any abnormalities. With subtlety, the Government is recalibrating the balance of exchange: every day it sells the most expensive dollar, but demands to buy it at the lowest possible price.

Meanwhile, exchange rates have skyrocketed on the informal market. The dollar reached 150 pesos on Saturday, according to the monitoring of the digital media El Toque. Those who experienced the instability of the currencies during the Special Period soon recognized that this was the figure at which the dollar came to be valued during the previous crisis.

At exchange rates of 149 and 148 pesos, respectively, the euro and the Freely Convertible Currency (MLC) almost reached the threshold of the US currency. With these figures, phrases such as “recovering the purchasing power of the salary in Cuban pesos” or “single type of exchange,” formulated by Minister Alejandro Gil Fernández, are already terrible jokes of economic humor.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Liquid Ground Chicken in Havana for Only 65 Pesos

The ground meat — what else to call it? — had an almost liquid consistency, a color like vomit and a nauseating odor. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez and Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 2 September 2022 — The street is Carlos III, in Havana. The place: a hovel that is part corner store, part market stall. It could be in any town on the island. A line has formed in front. Havana’s midday sun reverberates through the listless crowd waiting to get in.

With the thriftiness of someone who has the whole day ahead of him, the vendor puts on an apron and grabs a wooden palette to use as a counter. He is a tall, sweaty man for whom washing his hands before handling the food serves as a pointless formality.

“Let’s go,” he says quietly to the first customer, who opens the mouth of his bag, as wrung out and hungry as he. The store is a hodgepodge, which is to say that its shelves display plastic pots, kitchen utensils that will not last more than a week, thick strainers and dull knives. There are also some canned goods and products sold in bulk, like the one for which people are now waiting in line.

#Video Picadillo de pollo líquido en La Habana, por "solo" 65 pesos👉Un producto nauseabundo estaba a la venta este viernes en una tienda de la calle Carlos III https://t.co/g5TJ1vLnUl pic.twitter.com/2V9tHx0avf

— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) September 2, 2022

Most know what’s to come but no one has a real sense of it until they see it, smell it and feel its texture: some kind of ground meat — what else to call it? — with an almost liquid consistency, a color like vomit and an odor as nauseating as the rest of the street, for 65 pesos a pound. continue reading

One distracted customer makes the mistake of paying for it beforehand. He cannot hide his disgust, which turns his stomach and almost causes him to utter an expletive. “What’s wrong?” asks the vendor as he gently stirs the mixture in the muddy bucket before scooping out a portion of watery ground chicken with his hand.

Nothing,” says the boy as he approaches the makeshift counter in resignation. “Toss it here.”

“They mix it with water to stretch it,” explains an elderly man who is also in line. That’s how they make a little more.” “I remember they sold slop like this during the Special Period,” says another. “And they passed it off as goose paste. The goose is a bird related to the guanajo. Ask your grandparents,” he adds, laughing at his own humor.

Next to the bucket of ground chicken is a can advertised as tomato paste. “No one buys it anymore because people know what goes into it,” says one woman. “Haven’t you seen the online videos? They use guava, banana, some kind of peel, but tomato it’s not.”

After the stench of ground chicken, the air outside has the sweet aroma of syrup and the odor that permeates Cuban soup kitchens. Local residents recognize it as a syrup made in a factory on the same block. It is sold not only at the ground chicken stall but also by a string of elderly people and beggars along Carlos III.

Well-sealed in a backpack, it is now up to Cuban mothers and fathers, armed with their arsenal of tricks, to figure out the most convenient method for cooking it.

Oblivious to all this, however, is the ever-optimistic party newspaper, Granma. As though describing a consumer’s paradise, the Thursday edition allays its readers’ fears. It promises, perhaps in time, “deliveries of rice, beans, sugar, salt and cooking oil” as well as eggs, coffee and a packets of cigarettes of one sort or another.

“Milk is guaranteed” — the paper’s favorite word — “for children, pregnant women and those suffering from chronic childhood diseases, and is encouraged in some areas in liquid form.”

For those who enjoy a nice bath after preparing a banquet from rationed ingredients, a nice “soap made from nuclei, the bimonthly toothpaste and detergent” are promised.

Granma does not ignore, however, peoples’ greatest concern. That is the current shortage of flour, the key ingredient of bread, which they are guaranteed — that word again — as part of a basket of basic foodstuffs. Of course, officials are not responsible for the “changes in hours of operation due to power blackouts or the transport of the raw material.”

The Cuban who arrives home with the “merchandise” dispatched by the tall, sweaty vendor and reads this piece by the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party will, inevitably, have to laugh. If he had known that everything — breakfast, lunch and dinner — was guaranteed, he would not have wasted 65 pesos on the disgusting ground chicken he bought on Carlos III.

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A Blackout Frustrates Dozens of Customers in a Foreign Currency Store in Havana

Supermarket at 3rd and 70th, in Miramar, Havana, during a blackout. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 29 August 2022 — Scheduled power cuts don’t bypass even profitable businesses. This Monday, it happened in the 3rd and 70th Shopping Center, in Miramar, Havana, three times. After the power went out the first time, the center turned on a generator, but it quickly stopped working. The second time, they used another generator, which also went out quickly. The third time the blackout arrived, there was no auxiliary equipment to turn on, and the store was completely in the dark.

The explanations of the employees didn’t alleviate the displeasure of the customers. “With all the dollars they extort from people here, you’d think they’d have power,” a woman protested aloud. Meanwhile, workers shouted to the customers to go to the cash registers next to the windows, where there would be natural light.

“You can’t record here, please, you damage the image of the shop,” a cashier told a young man who took out his cell phone to photograph the corridors in the dark. “Same with the image here; it’s not very good,” the boy replied.

The 3rd and 70th supermarket is one of the largest in the city that sells its products in foreign currency. It was also one of the first stores to be dollarized when there was economic flexibility in the 90s, and nearby is an abundance of embassies, the houses of diplomats and the homes of more affluent families, so it’s considered a business with a somewhat exclusive clientele.

But not even this location and the uniqueness of its consumers has saved the place from shortages, fights in the lines and the deterioration of its facility. To prevent the semi-empty shelves from being seen, the Center’s administration places the same product repeatedly, a very common practice in Cuban state stores. This Monday, the sequence of cans of the same vegetable or the row of mustard bottles tried to hide the reality that even these markets don’t have a great variety of goods. continue reading

The butcher’s area was the one that showed the least number of options. If it weren’t for the products of private businesses, the refrigerators of the place would have been practically deserted, devoid of dairy products, frozen food or the long-awaited boxes of chicken quarters and breasts, which are so in demand in a country where no one knows when they’ll come across certain foods again.

This Monday, at one point and to the chagrin of the buyers, the employees sent everyone out. Just when almost everyone had left, the current came back, and people began a stampede. “The light came back, the light came back!”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Many Cubans with Dengue Fever Hide at Home to Avoid a Bad Time at the Hospital

A family waits on their balcony minutes after their home is fumigated in Centro Habana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 22 August 2022 — The tiredness that María felt last Wednesday did not bode well, although, at first, she thought it had been the walk in the sun throughout Central Havana in search of bread. Later, her discomfort made her fear the worst of it, of which she had no doubts the next day, when she woke up with a fever of 101F: she had dengue fever.

The woman, however, refuses to have it confirmed by a doctor. “I take a lot of fluids, vitamins and paracetamol for the fever,” she tells this newspaper. “If you go to the doctor they don’t give you anything either.” María remembers that the last time she suffered from the disease, 12 years ago, when she was visiting relatives in the province, “they almost brought me to the police because I refused to go to the hospital.”

At that time, she points out, they hospitalized people to avoid contagion. Now, she ventures, alluding to his central Havana neighborhood, “this must be riddled with dengue, because today they were fumigating the streets early and they never do that here.”

“If all those who get sick went to the doctor, the official figures would be much higher, but a good part of the population is afraid of being admitted, and so people do not go,” the official press published this Monday, citing a patient from Pinar del Río.

In the same article, the director of the Provincial Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology of that province, Andrés Villar, offers the figure of 1,457 outbreaks as a result of the Aedes aegypti mosquito in the Vueltabajo area alone. However, the State newspaper Granma does not go beyond describing the situation as a “complicated scenario.” continue reading

In Ciego de Ávila, the newspaper Invasor echoes that the infection rate in the provincial capital, of 0.43 –- compared to the permissible 0.05 -– “sets off the alarms.”

Yordanka Hernández Rodríguez, deputy director of Epidemiology at the Municipal Hygiene Unit, reported that last week, of 114 samples analyzed in Ciego de Ávila, 48 were positive.

The Ministry of Public Health, for its part, has not issued any alert or figures that encompass the entire country. The minister, José Ángel Portal Miranda, appealed to “individual and family self-responsibility” in the face of the spread of the virus.

The minister also warned that patients can progress to a serious condition “very precipitously” and are asked to go “immediately” to medical services “at the slightest sign of alarm that may appear, especially between the third and seventh day after the first symptoms, such as repeated vomiting, edema or swelling, severe abdominal pain, irritability, drowsiness and bleeding.

This Sunday, on the fourth day after her first symptoms, the fine rash characteristic of the disease appeared on María’s extremities. She no longer has a fever, but she prays that it does not turn into severe dengue, hemorrhagic fever, the only case in which she would go to a doctor: “If I go, I only help them with the statistics; they are not going to help me.”

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After Milk and Beef, Bread Disappears from the Cuban Table

Bakery on Carlos III Avenue in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez and Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 24 August 2022 — From the balcony, Yudineya watched dozens of bread and cookie sellers pass by every day in her neighborhood of Los Sitios in Havana, but for weeks they have practically disappeared. The shortage of wheat flour has hit private bakeries hard and has also put state bakeries in check.

For decades, “bread with something” has been the fundamental comfort food in Cuban homes. From the elaborate bite of ham and cheese to the poorest bread with oil and salt, the snacks of students and workers depend to a great extent on that baked product that has been disappearing in recent weeks.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do when our child starts school,” says Yudineya, 38, whose son will start the second grade of elementary school in September. “What my son always takes for a snack is bread with whatever appears, but now not even that is available,” she explains to 14ymedio.

In Nuevo Vedado, a colorful private bakery that until recently offered bags of the so-called “ball bread” in addition to hard-crust French bread, baguettes and rolls, now offers only roasted peanuts and egg-white merengue. “We’re not offering bread because we don’t have any flour,” the employee explains. “Sales have fallen a lot, and if we continue like this we’ll have to close.”

Line to buy bread on August 24 at the Pueblo Nuevo Council, Central Havana. (14ymedio)

But it’s not only bakeries that are feeling the blow of the shortage of wheat flour. Businesses that base their gastronomic offerings on pizzas and sandwiches are also suffering. “We were selling bags with 10 pizza crusts for 300 pesos, and now we’ve had to raise the price to 500,” says the delivery man of La Paloma, a private business in Diez de Octubre. continue reading

In front of the bakery on Carlos III, one of the few that still sells “released” [unrationed] bread, the elderly, physically disabled, kids, mothers and all kinds of people begin to show up. Neither age nor the numerous ailments exempt the Cuban, who must defend his place in line as if he were in a besieged fortress.

An employee announces that they will soon sell a few breadsticks. What in Creole gastronomy used to be long and crunchy, in socialism assumes the dictionary definition: “small stick, crude and poorly made.”

Invoking strength that they don’t have, battered Cubans, hoping to get a breadstick, stampede to take their place in line. One woman complains, “All we can get is a little piece of breadstick per person.”

Once the “sticks” have been bought and packaged, the crowd recovers its place in the shade. They must keep waiting: in an hour, they think, the bakery will take out a small amount of garlic bread.

“It will get worse,” predicts a bakery employee. “As of September 1, only the popular council can buy bread here. We’ve been told that there must be an establishment in every place that takes care of the people in that area.”

The shortage of flour occupies the gossips, as do the newspaper articles, the panic of daily hunger and the comments about the imminent school year. It scares mothers and overwhelms retirees, accustomed to a Spartan ration of bread and water with sugar.

An audio circulated on social networks, attributed to a Commerce manager, whispers to anyone who wants to listen that there will be no more flour. “Neither for hospitals nor for the army,” says the anonymous voice. Some sacks of flour will be available for standard bread and some for prisons, whose tranquility cannot be risked.

A prison riot, in a country where a protest can break out every night, has become one of the favorite topics to discuss during the blackouts and domino games.

At the bakery on Reina Street they handed out shifts before selling bread this Wednesday. (14ymedio)

“Today for breakfast I had only a hard roll that I brought from Havana several days ago,” Kenny Fernández Delgado, one of the Havana priests who bothers State Security the most, wrote on his social networks.

Fernández lambasted “communism,” which “took away my beef before I was born, and my milk at the age of 7” and now even “the ‘released’ bread has become a prisoner… Take everything away from me and that’s it,” the priest concluded, “as they did to Jesus Christ on Good Friday, because that way I will know that Easter Sunday is closer.”

The Government, as usual, used the State newspaper Granma to “rewrite” the alarming reality on the Island. “There are no problems with the production and distribution of bread from the Regulated Family Basket and the Cuban Bread Chain,” the media said, citing a note from the Ministry of Internal Trade.

He admitted, however, the “difficulties in the import of wheat,” attributed to the embargo, Cuba’s “financial constraints” and the “international logistics crisis.” The report concluded by “calming down” the vulnerable sectors of the population, apparently saved from scarcity.

Meanwhile, the official reporter Lázaro Manuel Alonso was trying to reconcile the fiction with reality: “Señores, stop the interpretations now,” he demanded on Facebook, supporting Granma’s version.

However, he admitted in the same publication, “Yes, there have been difficulties with the processing of bread due to the lack of electricity, which has nothing to do with the supply of raw materials for production.” Regardless of the contradictions within his own message, he tried to settle as “false” the rumor of scarcity that “some users have shared on social networks.”

The “white dust crisis,” as some Cubans have begun to call it, keeps private producers in suspense. Pastry shops have substantially reduced their supply, while the price for any empanada, jam or cake, no matter how squalid, is increasing.

Not only flour, but also eggs, sugar, oil and other ingredients of the family pantry will be removed from the symbolic Cuban’s table. The meats, the fruits and now, finally, the bread basket are also gone.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Old Cheater and the Suspicious Guajiro Negotiate the Crisis in Cuba

This Thursday morning an old woman rehearsed an apology for taking a pound of rice without paying from the improvised point of sale located in the park on Carlos III and Belascoaín streets. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 18 August 2022 — With a paper cup in his hand, a man with a tanned face approaches those who pass through Havana’s Central Park. “My daughter suffered an accident yesterday and I need to buy her medicines,” he explains. He has been repeating the same story for years, which he seasons with more lurid details as the economic crisis worsens. A few feet away, a shaved-ice seller cursed because he had been paid with a five-peso bill as if it were 500 pesos. This very common counterfeiting swindle is due to the recent arrival of high-denomination banknotes whose colors resemble lower-value banknotes.

Upon hearing this story, the colleague who helped him push his cart also took the opportunity to talk about the scam he suffered in transfers through his mobile phone, which cost him his whole telephone balance. “You can’t trust people; they say one thing and then try to stab you in the back,” he said.

The feeling of mistrust spreads everywhere, and the most notorious scams of the Special Period are again recounted with fear. From steak made from a carpet to pizza with condoms masquerading as cheese, the urban legends of street fraud return in force to everyday conversations.

But beyond these milestones of deception, the small scam or apparent naivety is the one that’s most widespread on the Island.

This Thursday morning an elderly woman rehearsed an apology for taking a pound of rice without paying from the improvised point of sale located in the park on Carlos III and Belascoaín streets. “Mijo, give it to me and I’ll go right away to the ATM and bring you the money,” the lady repeated several times, but the merchant didn’t buy it. “Go and come back with the 50 pesos and then I’ll give you the rice,” the farmer responded categorically, adding in a lower voice: “I may be a guajiro but I’m not stupid.”

The deception also spreads to private cafes: snacks that show a slice of ham only on the outside but inside are empty, and presumed natural juices that are sold at exorbitant prices and are actually artificial concentrates mixed with water. However, the champion pickpocket is still the State: meat slices that don’t even have the memory of animal origin but continue reading

are marketed at the price of gourmet food, all-inclusive tour packages where you have to take a glass with you because in hotels they don’t have the packaging to serve drinks, and an internet access service, among the most expensive in the world, which barely guarantees a few hours.

The corner scammer justifies his villainy by pointing to the constant economic crimes committed by the ruling party. He himself is a victim of voracity and state inefficiency. “My old lady, if she goes to the cashier now to get money, she will return tomorrow because there’s a blackout and they’re out of service,” joked another customer from the point of sale on Carlos III Street. The crisis can lead to scams but, at the same time, it’s noticeable that people are more suspicious and don’t allow themselves to be scammed so easily.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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