It has been obvious for some time that the building has barely been able to hold itself up. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, June 14, 2022 — Stoicism seems to be a trait the residents of Central Havana have been forced to adopt. Accustomed to living among ruins, they barely notice when a building is facing imminent collapse, as has been the case for one on San Lazaro Street between Gervasio and Escobar. The building began to be vacated on Tuesday in advance of its partial demolition.
It has been obvious for some time that the structure is held together by little more than sewing pins. After the street was closed that morning without notice, the brave souls still living in the building began slowly leaving their homes, carrying their meager belongs away in bags, believing they had to look for somewhere new.
They had been surprised by the sudden, unexplained announcement that the building was to be demolished and quickly began packing their things. They were even more surprised to learn that, in reality, only the facade was to be demolished and that, once the work was complete, they would be able to move into the rear part of the structure. The six apartments that make up the building are wide and deep but their inhabitants will have to isolate themselves if they want to avoid seeing the sad ruins of what was once the visible face of their dwellings.
“It’s a shame. These windows are very valuable. Someone should pay the bulldozer to set them aside,” observes one of the many onlookers as the last person to leave the building shuts the door before the wrecking crew begins its work. continue reading
From the balcony of the building next door, a woman calmly leans out to watch the goings-on. Though the neighboring buildings are in no better shape than the one about to be demolished, few people seem alarmed by the constant threat of a roof collapse or the prospect that their building could be the next to come down. The falling rubble of the partially collapsed building is enough to make floors tremble, threatening weaker structures nearby.
A few yards away in a line for sausages, people can be heard chatting. Life goes on.
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The collapse occurred in a three-story multi-family building located on Luz street between Curazao and Egido in Old Havana. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 13 June 2022 — A staircase collapsed on Monday afternoon, leaving a resident trapped in a three-story multi-family building located on Luz street between Curazao and Egido in Old Havana. Firefighters arrived at the scene to help the elderly man who could not escape from the interior of the building, in addition to a strong police operation that cordoned off the area.
Moments before the collapse, the man, who lived in the apartment on the third floor, had gone up the stairs, according to several residents of the Havana municipality speaking to 14ymedio, and they also confirmed that no one was injured.
From a car with a crane, the firefighters accessed the balcony of the apartment to help the man, who shares the building with another family that lives one floor below. Then, both the man and the other inhabitants of the building were evacuated.
At the beginning of June, due to the intense rains that affected the west of the country, more than 60 building collapses were reported in Havana, one of which caused the death of two people.
After the collapse was recorded, a strong police operation was deployed in the area. (14ymedio)
During the afternoons in Havana this month it continues to rain and a few hours after a downpour on Wednesday of last week, a construction collapsed, specifically, the top floor of a three-story building in San Lázaro at the corner of Genios in Centro Habana. continue reading
“Luckily he was awake, because if was later, he’d be gone.” The residents of the place, gathered in front of the ruined building, commented last Thursday on the event in which no one died.
But the precarious housing conditions in this area of the capital have hundreds of inhabitants worried. Two women, who live in a building, also very deteriorated, near San Lázaro and Genios, affirmed that they are terrified, that they cannot sleep, that they also have no alternative housing and that, meanwhile, the Government is crossing its arms.
From a car with a crane, firefighters accessed the balcony of the apartment to evacuate the man. (14ymedio)
Both Old Havana and Central Habana report constant building collapses. In the vicinity of the Malecón, the buildings have especially suffered from the effects of saltpeter, which, together with the lack of maintenance, have turned the housing stock in the area into one of the most damaged in the Cuban capital. In addition, the successive programs launched by the Government have not resolved the increasingly frequent events.
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Cuban mother Amelia Calzadilla upon her departure this Monday from the government headquarters of the municipality of Cerro, in Havana. (EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 13 June 2022 — Amelia Calzadilla, the Cuban mother who, with her videos on social media, became a symbol of discontent in Cuba, is at home after spending three hours in the offices of the municipal government of Cerro, in Havana.
Around five in the afternoon, the young woman herself published a live video in which she explained what happened in the government offices, in a very different tone from her previous broadcasts. In it, she assured that the meeting “was not an interrogation,” despite the fact that in a previous video, published this Sunday, Calzadilla feared that the summons, timed for 11:00 in the morning, was a “prepared trap” and they might take her prisoner.
The mother also explained that the “conversation” revolved around the lack of gas service that she has been suffering from “for ten years,” that they cannot solve it in the short term “because the raw material does not exist” and they promised that she could meet with officials from the Ministry of Energy and Mines “in a future meeting.” Calzadilla insisted, “Nobody mistreated me, I didn’t mistreat anyone either,” and she thanked “any person who made me feel not intimidated.”
The Spanish agency EFE, one of the international media that was stationed in front of the government headquarters, as reporters from 14ymedio were able to verify, captured images of the young mother as she left the interrogation. The vicinity of the meeting place, located on Calzada del Cerro between Buenos Aires and Echevarría, as Monday dawned was taken over by a police operation. continue reading
Close to the corner of Tejas, one of the most important commercial enclaves in the city, the area is very busy but the traffic this Monday was different from other days. In the surrounding streets, rows of police patrol cars, a broad operation of plainclothes agents and the presence of accredited journalists marked the difference.
The headquarters of the municipal government of Cerro, in Havana, shortly after 11 a.m. this Monday, when Amelia Calzadilla was summoned. (14ymedio)
The internet signal in the place was also unstable. Residents of the neighborhood reported to this newspaper that in nearby stores, usually out of stock, they put sausage and chicken on sale this Monday.
“And what’s going on here?” asked a young woman who passed by the place a few minutes after Calzadilla had entered the building of the municipal People’s Power Assembly. “That girl was summoned here today,” replied another passerby without needing to add more details, since the story of this mother of three children has traveled the Island in a few days.
The surroundings of the municipal government of Cerro were taken over this Monday morning by a large police operation. (14ymedio)
Various activists, such as the businesswoman Saily González, from Santa Clara, invited Havanans to support Calzadilla on Monday morning, but only passersby and agents were observed at the scene.
Oppositionist Martha Beatriz Roque, director of the Cuban Center for Human Rights and former prisoner of the Black Spring, also launched a video message in which she asks Amelia Calzadilla: “Keep denouncing and don’t care what they say about you.”
Several members of the international press stood in front of the Cerro government headquarters building in Havana. (14ymedio)
“Unfortunately, they tell me that she does not want to talk to dissidents, which I greatly respect, but she has to know that her video has had a great impact on the networks,” Roque says in her broadcast, urging Calzadilla that she does not need to “defend herself.” She adds, “The dictatorship does this to get you out of sight,” and she insists, “No one is going to judge you, Amelia, people are very happy with what you uploaded on the networks, but if you want to speak again, don’t defend yourself at all, you don’t have to defend yourself, everyone knows what this regime has done for 63 years.
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Despite the fact that San Lázaro is one of the busiest avenues in Havana, the authorities have not closed traffic on that stretch, and the remains of the collapse spill over the sidewalk. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 9 June 2022 — The rains and hail were not the only things that fell this Wednesday in Havana. Again, in the capital, a building collapsed, specifically, the top floor of a three-story building on San Lázaro at the corner Genios.
“Luckily he was still awake, because if it had been later, he would have been gone.” The residents of the place, gathered in front of the ruined building, commented on the event on Thursday, which occurred around 9:15 the night before.
At that time, the roof of the upper floor, where a boy and his mother lived, gave way, falling on the apartment and the balcony, which also took down the balconies on the ground floor.
The young man, who was alone at home, managed to see how the beams gave way and took refuge under a table. “That was what saved his life,” says one of the neighbors, who reports that another of the residents was arriving home from work at that time when the noise occurred. “A glass of water gave him time to drink, and his wife came out white with fright.”
It was something that the neighbors were awaiting with panic. One of them, precisely, had been worried about the storm for days, because the upper balcony was in very bad condition. “The mayor was aware, the delegate… everyone, but they don’t do anything.” continue reading
Two women, who live in a nearby building, also very deteriorated, commented that they are terrified, that they cannot sleep, that they also have no alternative housing and that, meanwhile, the Government is crossing its arms.
“This is going to be a chain, they are going to fall one after the other,” said one of them. “The government is not interested in the fact that Havana is falling down,” replied the other. Just then, a young police officer appeared, clipboard in hand, and began to converse quietly with a man. Immediately, the residents fell silent.
Sobre las 9:15 de la noche, el techo de la planta superior, donde vivían un muchacho y su madre, cedió, cayendo sobre el departamento y el balcón. (14ymedio)
They are just waiting for at least one crane to arrive to finish knocking down “some walls that are in danger, that are very cracked.” These, they detailed, have been deteriorating not only due to lack of maintenance, but also due to the vibration produced by the buses that pass along San Lázaro, one of the arteries of Havana, which connects El Vedado with Old Havana and runs a good part for Central Havana.
Despite this, the authorities have not closed traffic on that section, and the remains of the collapse spill out over the sidewalk.
Unlike the more touristy streets, such as those of the Plaza de la Revolución or the Malecón avenue, San Lázaro has not received repairs for decades. The proximity to the sea has combined with the lack of maintenance to accelerate a deterioration that is deeper from the corner with Belascoaín and to the vicinity of Paseo del Prado.
This Wednesday’s collapse is located right in one of the most damaged sections, the one that starts from the beginning of the avenue to Galiano street.
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The cracks in two of the balconies of the Reina Building seem to deepen with the passing of days and the humidity left by this week’s downpours. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 7 June 2022 — Originally called the Reina Building, because of the street on which it is located, and renamed Almacenes Ultra because of the large store that is located on its ground floor, the building that bears number 109 on centrally located Reina avenue has become a danger for residents and passers-by. If inside there is a lack of water supply and leaks in the roofs abound, outside the threat is provided by the cracked balconies that overlook one of the busiest areas of Havana.
“I didn’t even look up, but after the collapses of the last few days due to the rains, I’ve started to look and this is a danger,” detailed a woman on Monday, while waiting in line for the bus in the park El Curita, a few meters from what was once one of the most famous and visited stores in the Cuban capital. The reason for her words is the balcony that overlooks the entrance to the Almacenes Ultra, cracked after the passage of years without maintenance.
The construction, which was once the envy of all who passed in front of its art deco facade, has been mired in disaster for years. In May 2022, a fire broke out in an apartment on the third floor and affected several adjoining apartments, but that was just one more step in the descent towards the abyss of deterioration that the building has experienced for decades. The problem of the scarce and sporadic supply of water seems to be what most despairs its inhabitants on a day-to-day basis. continue reading
“People believe that if you live above a store you have everything solved, but this is a disaster,” says Humberto, a resident there until a few months ago when he decided to move with his daughter to another neighborhood further from the center. “Yes, in Reina 109 I was a few minutes from Central Park and a jump from the Malecón, but what is all that if when I got up I didn’t even have water to wash my face. Very nice on the outside but a nightmare on the inside,” he details to this newspaper.
The soot that has been falling for years on the facade gives the entire construction a musty appearance, which in some parts still retains traces of the paint that once covered its walls. The cracks in two of its balconies seem to deepen with the passing of days and the humidity left by this week’s downpours. Beneath it passes a student in her uniform on her way to a nearby school, an old woman with a bag hanging from her arm and a young man with headphones who moves his hand to the rhythm of the music he is listening to.
Everyone is oblivious to the fact that a tragedy is brewing a few meters above. The same one that some have already seen from the tail of the bus, because the angle they are at allows them to see the terrifying perspective. “This is how misfortunes happen,” says a woman. He says it a few meters from the place where the Saratoga Hotel exploded a month ago, also very close to a collapse of a house at the back of the Fin de Siglo store, which left several families homeless, and a breath away from the collapse of a balcony on San Miguel street.
A sequence of the collapses of facades and roofs has redoubled the attention of Havanans when they walk through the streets. Some choose to look up to avoid the greatest dangers, others walk in the streets avoiding sidewalks and doorways, risking their lives with the vehicles. A considerable share reduces their outings outside the home, but in their own home there can also be danger. Like in the Almacenes Ultra building.
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The solution to preventing theft in community canteens is to have a perpetual inventory. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana,5 June 2022 — The crisis hits all of Cuba, but the state sector suffers twice. In addition to the lack of raw material, looting by employees is added. The most recent solution to reduce these robberies has been to apply the so-called “perpetual inventory” in the community canteens in Havana, which means supplying the goods daily instead of storing them for several weeks.
In El Cubano, belonging to the Family Care System (SAF) and located on Aguiar Street, between Obispo and O’Reilly in Old Havana, “since this week the perpetual inventory has already been put into practice,” says a worker in the canteen, which is mainly attended by the elderly and people with disabilities. “Now, the products that are going to be consumed will enter the warehouse daily, not like before, when they came in for two weeks or the month,” he explains.
“This is a diabolical invention and, although we knew that the concept of perpetual inventory or perpetual warehousing, as it is also called, existed, it had never been implemented here. We have a worker who now, every afternoon, has to go by bicycle to the central warehouse of the Gastronomy Company, to inventory the merchandise that will be cooked the next day,” he explains.
“There they must give him the products for the number of people who eat in our place every day, about a hundred.” The employees of El Cubano attribute the measure to the new municipal director of the SAF, who previously worked in the Ministry of Commerce. “This is overcontrol for the super-poverty that exists,” the source says.
“This means more work and more paper; now we have to make double and triple delivery entries but they don’t give us paper. In the first column we have to put the products, another for the price, another for the quantity that came in and another for what went out. With this new mechanism there is nothing left, it remains at zero.” For three days, the dining room has only sold “rice and a small piece of chicken, in addition to pea soup.” continue reading
In Cuba there are about 76,175 people registered with the SAF who attend 445 canteens of this type on the island. Users of this service often complain about the poor quality of the food, which often lacks spices, oil or fat. The deterioration of the dishes is due, to a large extent, to the looting of products by the employees themselves.
Although the variety of ingredients has decreased significantly in recent years, SAFs maintain a basic offer that includes rice, some grains and a little animal protein that is often diluted with croquettes or tasteless hamburgers. Prices range from 1.55 pesos for a ladle of black beans to 2.15 pesos for a boiled egg or a peso for a small roll.
Although the prices seem economical compared to other gastronomic premises, the majority of SAF consumers have minimum pensions that don’t go beyond 1,500 pesos. Most of them are also elderly people who live alone and have to pay out of pocket for electricity, transportation and other expenses.
“This is a very sensitive system, because any failure directly affects people who have no other chance of putting some food in their mouths,” admits another employee of El Canciller, a SAF near the Havana neighborhood of La Timba. “People believe that we steal and that’s why the food is so bad, but here I have colleagues who even bring seasonings from their house so that lunch tastes like something to the old people.”
The employee doesn’t look favorably on the new measure of limiting the number of products they receive on a daily basis and also having to account for the use of these foods. “What it is going to bring is more bureaucracy, and we won’t be able to plan how to stretch some ingredients,” he laments.
“If this is designed for more control, we will go crazy, and the food quality will be even worse, because the day that we don’t get protein, we won’t have any for lunch, whereas now we always try to intersperse and distribute what we have in the warehouse during the week to achieve a menu as varied as possible.”
“More workers are planning to leave because it’s not worth the effort to come in, even less so because salary payments tend to be delayed in Gastronomy. The administrator has already started the paperwork to retire from the career because he says he can’t work like this,” he adds.
However, the reason for applying this method differs if staff members are asked. While in places such as El Cubano and El Canciller workers have been informed that this measure prevents the diversion of goods and maintains more effective control over resources, sources from the Ministry of Agriculture and the state company Acopio, interviewed by this newspaper, point to other reasons.
“We can’t know how much food we’re going to get to take to Gastronomy and then to the canteens in a week, much less in a month,” warns an Acopio official linked to the supply of these community premises. “We aren’t getting much merchandise, especially rice, beans and meat, so we’re going to distribute it little by little.”
Problems with fuel also aggravate the situation. “We have less than half the trucks we used to have to bring merchandise to the city, because the lack of parts and fuel are affecting us a lot. When we get a little something we have to deliver it the same day, it’s like that.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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View from Dragones Street where the Saratoga Hotel and the El Calvario Temple meet, headquarters of the Western Baptist Convention. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 6 June 2022 — Still surrounded by a strong police operation and with metal fences to prevent the passage of pedestrians and vehicles, the deteriorated structure of the Saratoga Hotel continues to remind everyone who approaches about the explosion of a month ago that destroyed part of the building and claimed the lives of 46 people.
The event, which shocked the entire country, continues to be involved in controversy and the results of the police investigation into the causes of the accident have not yet been made public. Since that fateful Friday, six people who suffered injuries in the incident, including a minor, continue to be hospitalized.
The Saratoga hotel is located in a 19th century building, and was categorized as five stars. At the time of the explosion, which left 99 injured, the tourist facility was closed for repairs and its reopening was scheduled for May 10. continue reading
Some of the buildings damaged by the incident still have not received major repairs, as is the case of the residential buildings that exist in the block, and all of which were affected.
Of the building located at Prado 609, which had to be evacuated, the official press reported that they would begin the shoring process and then begin studies for a possible repair “with the aim of maintaining the same façade.”
The building on Zulueta street marked with the number 512 continues in the process of demolition, and according to local authorities this work will take about two months. “Then the Historian’s Office will work on a proposal for new housing for that space and for the corner of Monte and Zulueta,” according to the State newspaper Granma. The properties adjacent to Saratoga located Prado 617 and Zulueta 508 also received irreparable damage.
Most of the residents affected by the explosion were housed in state facilities or at the homes of family and friends.
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“Look at that, what kind of danger, what irresponsibility!” A man in his eighties yelled at a father who was walking hand in hand with his unmasked daughter. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 31 May 2022 — For the first time in 26 months, starting this Tuesday, Cubans can go out without a mask, but the reception of the elimination of its mandatory use was, at least first thing in the morning, very timid.
In the streets of Havana, it could be observed, that out of every ten people, roughly only one or two were not wearing a mask.
“I took it off because I wanted to feel what it’s like to breathe after so long with the air on my face,” said a young woman from Centro Habana, visibly happy not to be wearing one. “A curious thing is that people look at you as if they were looking for approval to take it off, and when they see you without it, then they take it off too.”
The youngest are, without a doubt, the most grateful for the end of this prohibition. There are not a few studies that have shown the ineffectiveness of masks to prevent infections in the child population and the learning difficulties that they have entailed.
Less happy were the elderly, among whom almost none were seen without a mask. “Look at that, what kind of danger, what irresponsibility!” shouted a man of about eighty years to a father who went hand in hand with his unmasked daughter.
Today, in any case, the fines for not wearing a mask are history. Previously they ranged between 2,000 and 3,000 pesos, according to the regulations in force since September 2020 (when the basic salary was still 400 pesos per month). The first weeks after the measure was implemented, the number of people sanctioned exceeded a thousand daily. continue reading
These punishments, however, once commercial flights were opened in the country, on November 15, 2021, were not applied to foreign tourists. In fact, the Police did not even call attention if they walked down the street without facemasks. In those days, it must be said, in much of the world the obligation to wear masks outside had been eliminated, after reaching large percentages of the population had been vaccinated with different antidotes, recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO).
In this sense, in Cuba, the elimination of the masks has been long in coming, despite the fact that the Government has presumed for months to have most of its population vaccinated with its own drugs, Soberana 02, Soberana Plus and Abdala, none of which, to date, have been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Cuban health authorities insist that the use of masks is a “personal decision” and recommend using one in places where many people are gathered or where it is not possible to maintain physical distance.
The comings and goings on the manufacture of national azulitas [‘little blue things’] within the Island will also be history, something that, after being announced with great fanfare in 2021, only began to materialize just last April, when the pandemic was on its way out all over the planet.
The relaxation of the measures against the covid-19 pandemic, announced this Monday by the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, are a reaction, according to the official explanation, to the decrease in the transmission of the disease in May by 81 .1% compared to the month of April.
However, the Government has called for caution. “Finally without masks, but not always or in all situations. I recommend that you see the adaptation of our protocols for this stage. An informed people is a protected people,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote on Twitter.
Health authorities insist that the use of masks is a “personal decision” and recommend wearing one in spaces where many people gather or if it is not possible to maintain physical distance. This is what happened this Tuesday in the markets of Havana, where, despite being outdoors, not many appeared without a mask.
Yes, its use will continue to be mandatory in medical consultations or in “areas with restricted focus controls,” according to Minister Portal Miranda. At the same time, the decision is maintained not to allow people “with respiratory symptoms” to enter workplaces and schools.
The measure will be in force depending on the behavior of the country’s epidemiological situation and its effectiveness will be evaluated “periodically,” and readjustments may even be made, the authorities warn.
This same Tuesday, the Public Health report shows only 29 positives for the coronavirus, 176 active and, again, no deaths, among the lowest statistics reported since November 2020.
In any case, the official figures have been questioned since the latest demographic data was made public this month by the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei). According to a report dated May 11, in 2021 55,206 more Cubans died on the Island than in 2020, that is, a total of 167,645 people compared to the 112,439 who did so the previous year, an increase of 49.1%.
The figure contrasts abysmally with the deaths reported by covid-19 during 2021 by Public Health, 8,177, which indicates an underreporting in the official data of the pandemic on the Island of 47,029. That is, the underestimation was 85.2% (there were 6.75 times more deaths than those officially attributed to covid). Or put another way, during the pandemic the Cuban government has declared only a seventh of those who died of coronavirus.
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Numerous “red berets” guarded the entrances and shops of the Plaza de Carlos III in Havana. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 1 June 2022 — The picture offered by the Plaza de Carlos III in Havana was not normal, with numerous “red berets”, known within the Armed Forces as “prevention troops”, guarding the entrances and shops of the market on Wednesday morning. The same thing happened in La Época, in Galiano and Neptuno.
“Normally there is a guarapito or two, never three, so six per corner is too much,” explained a boy on the outskirts of Carlos III, surprised by the presence of the agents. “You smell fear in the air.”
The last time such a deployment was seen was in the weeks after the July 11 and 12 demonstrations , to police hard currency stores. One of the elements that precisely formed part of the protests of those days was the complaint against the establishments selling in freely convertible currency (MLC), which the bulk of the population cannot access, which charges in pesos and does not have access. to money from abroad.
Precisely those who can only buy in national currency were busy early, this Wednesday, looking for some meat in the state stores of the capital. Unsuccessfully. They did not take out or mincemeat, or sausages or chicken.
“The stores are bare,” a resident of Centro Habana complained as she walked away to look for another establishment, the room she would visit in the morning. She “has” to buy “for the book” in the Amistad Market, located in San Lázaro and Infanta, but it has been closed for several days. “People are speculating that they’re going to turn it into a store in MLC.” continue reading
There was the same vigilance at La Época, on Galiano and Neptuno. (14ymedio)
On the other hand, food rationing on this day was meager. “A single pound of sugar per person was given today,” said an old man as he left the ration store.
Plaza de Carlos III is one of the shopping centers that have almost entirely gone to selling in foreign currency, with the exception of the food market located on the ground floor and some processed food stores. The rest are stores that offer their products for home hygiene, brand clothing or decorative elements in MLC (hard currency) only.
One of the new restrictive measures of the provincial government, in force since May 20, is that the bodegas – the ration stores – will be linked to the Cimex and Caribe stores. The regulations, in any case, force people to go to fewer establishments, which has further complicated daily shopping in Havana, especially in the municipalities farthest from the center.
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Drivers of state vehicles do not stop in response to signals of the new inspectors and, if they do stop, they do not take on any passengers. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 30 May 2022 — “Transportation is bad, but not worse than other days.” Havana residents have not been taken by surprise by the declarations of the provincial authorities acknowledging the critical situation the sector finds itself in, because they have been putting up with it daily for at least three months.
Neither is it any better. This Monday, after the Havana government made the announcement that 286 vehicles, “school buses and from different institutions and organizations,” would be added to the urban buses that are circulating in the capital “as part of the strategy to alleviate situation in this sphere”, there were more Transmetro buses, which normally transport state workers, but this hasn’t seemed to have alleviated the problems, the waiting lines or the crowds.
The inspectors, uniformed in blue, also returned this Monday. Their function is to force state vehicles to stop to take possible passengers who are going in the same direction but, in this regard, they do not impose much of their authority either. As this newspaper was able to testify, either the drivers do not stop in response to their signals or, if they do stop, they do not allow anyone to get in either.
The Government’s voluntarism, which has promised to expand “electric tricycle routes in the municipality of Boyeros” and study a “similar system” for Guanabacoa, does not hide what they themselves have acknowledged: “Currently, Havana has the lowest technical readiness coefficient of the last ten years”, Granma cites, based on statements by First Deputy Minister of Transportation, Marta Oramas Rivero.
Until April, Havana Provincial Transport Company only had 442 vehicles in operation, reports the same official press, which transported more than 580,000 people daily, “a figure that is far from the 780 buses scheduled three years ago, with 20% in reserve”.
Last Friday, the governor of the province, Reinaldo García Zapata, stated that “the situation is critical”, since only 30% of the total fleet of transport buses is active.
The authorities did not refer to the fuel crisis that, for a few days, has shaken the country again. They did mention “the energy issue”, only to announce “saving measures in the non-residential sector to reduce consumption during peak hours”.
At any rate, Cubans are resigned, although they can no longer stand the analyzing. “It’s one lie after another with the problem of electricity,” complained a man on crutches, while waiting for a bus this Monday in Central Havana, to which another man replied: “If they stopped building hotels, they could improve the state of the National Electric System.”
Translated by Norma Whiting
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At the gas station of G and 25th, in El Vedado, normally very crowded, they only sold regular gasoline and diesel. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 27 May 2022 — A new fuel crisis looms over the country, judging by the long lines at numerous gas stations that Havana woke up to this Friday.
In the Cupet station at San Rafael and Infanta, a line of vehicles that occupied a block and a half was waiting to be served.
Unlike last March, when due to the increase in demand – according to the government version – Cuba spent almost a week with controlled fuel sales, this time there was no official explanation or posters in the gas stations announcing any measures.
The San Rafael employee informed another guy who entered with a gas can, that these days “we are directed not to fill containers,” only to fill the tanks directly.
“What they don’t want is to create a scandal,” the kid said between his teeth as he left, “don’t you see that the owner of the oil is here?” he said ironically, referring to President Nicolás Maduro. continue reading
The longest line, surrounding the entire block, was at the Tángana gas station, on Malecón and 15th, where there was regular and special gasoline. (14ymedio)
Together with the leaders of the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (Alba), the Venezuelan is meeting this very day in Havana at the impromptu Summit called by Miguel Díaz-Canel in response to the United States’ doubts about whether or not to invite the Island to the Summit of the Americas, which will be held in Los Angeles between June 6 and 10.
The line of cars was repeated at the gas station at G and 25th, in El Vedado, normally with a large number of customers, where they only sold regular gasoline and diesel. With conditions. “Yes, there is diesel, but it can only be sold with a letter of authorization, because they are state reserves,” an employee of the establishment explained to a customer who came in to ask.
The line did not reach the dimensions of March, but it did reach 23rd Street. “It is going to be fixed,” expressed a taxi driver. “Because if here they only have the Government’s reserves for diesel, there is no special gasoline and only regular, that means that in other places there is none.”
They only sold regular at the service center on 17th and L, where there was also a respectable line of cars. (14ymedio)
This is what happened in Cupet de Malecón and 23, also in El Vedado. However, a small group of waiting cars was also visible, not resigning themselves to leaving the place despite the fact that there was no fuel for sale.
“Is there regular?” asked a customer, desperate. “I wish there was, at the moment there is nothing,” the employee replied, without giving further explanations.
The largest line, surrounding the entire block, was at the Tángana station, on Malecón and 15, where there was regular and special gasoline.
They only regular was sold at 17th and L, where there was also a respectable row of cars.
The lines at the gas stations were s long as those at the bus stops. Transportation in the capital is beginning to suffer in the face of the imminent and umpteenth new crisis.
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On the ground floor, half of the tables were also empty, something unusual in the history of Coppelia. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 27 May 2022 — Coppelia, Cuba’s “Cathedral of Ice Cream” in the heart of Havana’s Vedado district, has always been characterized, more than by the quality of its product — always far from that sixties dream of Fidel Castro of producing more and better flavors than the United States- – due to the very long lines that had to be endured before entering under the shade of its concrete ceilings.
In recent weeks, those lines, like the flavor of their ice cream scoops, which they have been making since March with soy milk instead of cow’s milk, have disappeared. “Go up to the tower, it’s empty!” employees shouted at customers who agreed this Friday to cool off in the May heat, asking them to go up to the top floor, traditionally the most frequented.
On the ground floor, half of the tables were also empty, something unusual since the place was founded, in 1966.
“It’s just that lately it has very few flavors,” argued a girl, who admits that she goes to Coppelia less than she used to. “When the price increase started, they increased the variety and improved a little bit. Now they all taste the same.” continue reading
One of the generalized complaints is the scarcity with which they distribute the ice cream scoops for the ‘salads’ – as the multi scoop treats are called. In the opinion of a young client they are only half of what they should be.
Another regret is that in the salads they offer for sale – two per person at 70 pesos – there is less and less variety of flavors (this Friday, only vanilla and guava). The chocolate, which is part of the obligatory combination, vanishes within a few hours of opening.
“Niño, if you combine the salads with the same flavors, how come you run out of chocolate first?” a lady complained to one of the employees, who tried an unlikely response: “In the areas where the employees went out to lunch, they still have a little left.”
The woman was not satisfied. “Here what happens is the usual, intrigue and business,” she murmured between her teeth. “They are doing something with that chocolate*. Because if they start out with the same amount of chocolate as guava and vanilla, it cannot be that it runs out hours earlier.”
Beyond musings, the reasons for Coppelia to be emptied of customers must also be sought in the increase in competition. In recent years, other ice cream parlors, private ones, have proliferated, offering a slightly more expensive product, but of much higher quality.
Another young man, who usually frequents these businesses, is blunt: “Here in Coppelia the ice cream is bad and they have raised the price, and that’s it. This ice cream should be served to the visitors of the Cumbre del Alba [the Alba Summit], so that they know what ‘integration’ is.”
*Translator’s note: She is implying that they are selling it ‘under the table’ and/or taking it home.
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Demolition of the remains of the building that housed the Moscow restaurant, this Tuesday. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, 24 May 2022 — It seemed unbeatable. The years of splendor and subsequent decades of decline, but the physical survival of the building made many Havanans believe that the plot located at the intersection of 23rd Avenue and P Street would forever be an imposing mass. This week the city says goodbye to the local Moscow restaurant, synonymous with the end of an era.
There is only one piece left and it is rare. A fragment of the building that once condensed the most mundane pleasures and the fiercest parameterization. All in one. There has been no structure in this city that can summarize so much: relaxation and sobriety; the Cuban self-confidence and the tough Soviet muscle. In the same place where the Montmartre cabaret was located, where Rita Montaner and Josephine Baker performed, borscht soup and fear were established. Then came nothing.
A fire put an end to the stage that began after Fidel Castro came to power and the nationalizations that followed. Then, the building ceased to house the famous Montmartre casino and cabaret. In the late 1960s the place was renamed Moscow, a nod to the Soviet Union. Bolero nights came to an end and the space was filled with dishes of Solyanka soup and Russian salad. Later the flames came. continue reading
Now, three decades after a fire extinguished the brightness of the central location, its ruins have become a headache for the closest neighbors and the city authorities. The news of its demolition fell like a balm among the desperate residents of the vicinity. But nothing turned out as planned. Neither was the ruin so easy to tear down, nor was the city the same as before its dismantling was announced.
Now, photos taken from nearby balconies have been given new angles, but the city isn’t ready to celebrate such frivolities. People complain about the speed of clearing an area when it is going to become a hotel zone. It has been known that an accommodation will be erected in the place that will be managed by the Cuban company Gran Caribe and the Spanish company Be Live.
A few meters away, there are tenements housing dozens of families that are about to collapse due to lack of maintenance. Calle 23 is, without a doubt, part of the heart of a cake much desired by tourist companies and the military conglomerate that manages a good part of tourism in Cuba. But nobody knows if the place of the Montmartre cabaret will give way to a zone of freedom and creativity, as it was in its beginnings, or if it will return to the control of a quiet and nervous Kremlin.
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“Do not pass, danger,” reads a sign on Saturday, that barely indicates a pile of debris. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 21 May 2022 — Pieces of the structure are falling from one of the most emblematic buildings in Central Havana, the Great National Masonic Temple of Cuba. Due to the lack of maintenance, the building shows fragments of part of the roof in its large portal that can be fatal for any passer-by.
“Do not pass, danger,” reads the sign, this Saturday, that barely indicates a bundle of debris that fell a few hours earlier. The sign is hanging from a rope that marks the space with the remains of the roof, on the corner facing the street. Santiago.
The eleven-story building, considered by many as one of the most solid in this area of the capital and whose construction was carried out by the architect Emilio Vasconcelos Frayde, on the ground floor houses a Cuban Post Office and the Security and Protection Company of the Ministry of Communications. continue reading
Very close to the busy corner of Belascoaín and Carlos III, where the Yumurí store is located, countless people pass through the portals of the Great Temple every day and others line up to buy postage stamps or get a money order. Also, very close by, there is a bus stop for routes such as the P12 and A65, as well as several primary schools.
Some passerby could have been the victim of the falling of a piece of the building. (14ymedio)
Each of these passers-by could have been the victim of a piece of the building detaching, although chance meant that at the moment it fell to the ground there was no one close enough to be injured. A coincidence that some fear will not be repeated in the next building collapse if the state brigades do not do something to stop the deterioration.
The building of the Grand Lodge can be seen from different points of the city and is clearly identified by its dome, a terrestrial sphere with the symbol of the Freemasons. With a mixture of styles in which rationalism and Art Decó coexist, until recently the property raised sighs among the residents of a neighborhood where housing deterioration is the most common.
The Lodge, with its spiritual connotations and its sober entrance from which a peculiar sculpture of a seated José Martí, was one of the few constructions that survived with some dignity the onslaught of time and lack of maintenance. But for years it has been playing its own turn in the decline that marks the passage of the entire city.
Countless people pass through the portals of the Great Temple every day and others line up to buy postage stamps or make a money order. (14ymedio)
The globe of the world crowning the building stopped working for years after a fire, the granite floor of the portal is full of scars left by hydraulic repairs and even the map of the continents that was displayed on one side has seen the tiles tiles that make up the countries fall off. The clock over the entrance stopped ticking the hours long ago, something that few have noticed in a Havana where time is of little value.
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The ‘Juan Sebastián de Elcano’, a training ship of the Spanish Navy. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 12 May 2022 — The Spanish Navy training ship Juan Sebastián de Elcano made landfall this Thursday morning in the port of Havana and quickly attracted onlookers and passers-by to see the four-masted vessel.
Although it positioned itself in front of Havana Bay yesterday, it was not until the morning of May 12th that it entered the capital and, to announce its arrival, fired 21 salvos as a salute to the city.
Some official media announced the planned detonations, but almost no inhabitant of the city noticed that information and when hearing the sound of the salvos, some ran scared, others were startled by the tragedy that the city experienced almost a week ago with the explosion of the Saratoga Hotel and, a few days later, a house in Old Havana, which has kept the inhabitants with their nerves on edge. continue reading
The Juan Sebastián de Elcano has a displacement of 3,770 tons and was received by the ship’s captain Juan Vázquez Reyes, head of the Department of the Revolutionary Navy and the Spanish ambassador to the island, Angel Martín Peccis. This visit marks the 13th time the ship has come to the Island. The vessel was launched in the shipyards of Cádiz, Spain, on March 5, 1927.
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14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, June 14, 2022 — Stoicism seems to be a trait the residents of Central Havana have been forced to adopt. Accustomed to living among ruins, they barely notice when a building is facing imminent collapse, as has been the case for one on San Lazaro Street between Gervasio and Escobar. The building began to be vacated on Tuesday in advance of its partial demolition.
