Juan Diego Rodríguez – Page 16

Once Again, Long Lines at Gas Stations and Fuel Shortages in Cuba

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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After Losing its Flavor, Cuba’s “Cathedral of Ice Cream” Loses its Lines

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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Goodbye ‘Moscow’, Welcome to the Kremlin

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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The Great Masonic Temple Building Also Falls Apart in Havana

“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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Artillery Salutes and Curious Glances Mark the Arrival of the Spanish Navy Ship ‘Juan Sebastian de Elcano’

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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Galiano and San Lazaro, Another Deadly Corner in Havana

Like a mortally wounded Titanic, the building on the corner of Galiano and San Lázaro, in Havana, has become a mortal danger. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 17 May 2022 — The corner of Galiano and San Lázaro has been left out of the “magic ring.” Too far from the Cathedral of Havana and the Plaza de la Revolución, this point of the Cuban capital has not received the benefits of the restoration of the historic center or the care given to the circle around the Council of State. But its orphanhood in the face of maintenance does not keep it from being one of the busiest places in the city

Every day thousands of pedestrians and vehicles pass through the area of that corner. At least three jeepney routes cross the intersection where a collapsing building stands. Like a Titanic mortally wounded, not by an iceberg but by the decades without repairing its interior and without even painting its façade, the building has become a mortal danger for those who inhabit it or pass by its location.

It’s just one of many dangers in a deadly city where cracked balconies, deep potholes and leaking gas pipes are claiming more and more lives. Opposite, just on a diagonal, the Deauville hotel shines with its blue façade with large balconies that makes it stand out on the Havana coastline. But although only a few yards separate them, the distance between both structures is an abyss: while one is designed for tourists to enjoy the benefits of a trip to the tropics, the other is the trap in which several families live.

No one knows how it is still standing, although most of those who walk hardly notice the danger that hangs over their heads. (14ymedio

The clothes appear on the clotheslines, there is a red shirt and a blue sheet that don’t even move because on this Tuesday there is hardly any breeze in Havana. The apartment on the same corner looks like a mouth with its front teeth knocked out. The upper part is in that magical balance that supports a good part of the city. No one knows how it is still standing, although most of those who walk by hardly notice the danger that hangs over their heads. continue reading

“Here we have experienced several building collapses,” a local resident tells this newspaper. Families rearrange themselves and locate other spaces within the building itself or go to a relative’s house, but the rest of the residents refuse to leave the building. They are reluctant to leave their accommodation because “this is bad, but there is no other option than a collective shelter” where you can live for decades in a city marked by a housing shortage. The other possibility is to rebuild the property, on the same site, but that is unlikely to happen.

The corner of Galiano and San Lázaro did not have the fate of restoration or privilege, but all eyes are on it. (14ymedio)

The corner of Galiano and San Lázaro did not have the fate of restoration or privilege, but all eyes are on it. A landslide in that place, which forces its inhabitants to be permanently removed to another place, would free up a succulent piece of the real estate pie. Now it is a danger for those who pass by, but tomorrow it could be the expensive land for another López-Calleja tower, as Havanans call the enormous hotel under construction in the El Vedado neighborhood.

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The Saratoga Hotel’s Decline Began as Soon as the Military Took It Over

The Hotel Saratoga in all its splendor, in March 2014, after it had been restored. (CC/LukaszKatlewa)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez / Olea Gallardo, Havana, 11 May 2022 — Though an explosion at the luxurious Saratoga Hotel last Friday led to the deaths of at least forty-three people and the destruction of an iconic Havana landmark, the seeds of its demise were planted within its walls much earlier.

Specifically, this was in 2016, when the Armed Forces Ministry seized the property from Habaguanex — a company had been operating under the auspices of the then all-powerful Office of the Historian of Havana, directed by Eusebio Leal — and handed over to the Gaviota group.

Leal’s agency had been successfully operating a number of tourist-related commercial properties when they were taken over by the Revolutionary Armed Forces Business Administration Group (Gaesa), led by Raul Castro’s former son-in-law, General Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez-Calleja.

“The Gaviota people were driving the Saratoga into the ground,” claims one former employee, a man in his forties who prefers to remain anonymous. He quit working there two years ago and swears he will never go back. “Everything became run down and they weren’t taking care of anything,” he reports. continue reading

This was a far cry from 2005, when the Saratoga — built in 1880 and operated as a hotel at the corner of Prado and Dragones since 1933 — reopened as modern five-star establishment after a long period of decline that began with the triumph of the Cuban revolution. The restoration was carried out the Office of the Historian and financed by foreign investors.

One of those investors, who prefers to remain anonymous, tells 14ymedio that the tab for refurbishing the Saratoga — part of an ambitious plan by Leal to restore Havana’s historic city center — was on the order of fifteen million dollars.

“An English developer sought out investors in several European countries, including Spain,” he explains. That developer was Coral Capital, a company founded by Amado Fakhre, an Anglo-Argentinian with roots in Lebanon. “We liked this project because we always believed, and still believe, in the future of Cuba,” says the investor. “And we never thought the current governent would last this long.”

According to this investor, however, everything changed once the property was transferred to Gaviota. “It all went downhill from there,” he says, though he acknowledges that investors also realized that the developers, led by Fakhre, did not have much experience in the hotel business. “They tried to make agreements with international [hotel] chains but were not successful. And, on the whole, the way they handled the negotiation with Gaviota was disastrous.”

The relationship of Fakhre and Stephen Purvis, his partner at Coral Capital, with the Cuban military brings to mind the popular fable about the frog who agrees to transport a snake across a river only to be stung by the scorpion in mid-stream, dooming them both. The two men were arrested — first in 2011 and again in 2012 — and accused of bribery. They remained in detention until their trial in 2013, when they were found guilty of “misdemeanor corruption” and released.

However, some media outlets report that Fakhre was forced to sign a confession stating that he had been detained for “having revealed state secrets” and spent twenty months being interrogated by the political police in a government safe house.

According to a 2016 article published in Vice, his business had invested a total of tweny-eight million dollars in the Saratoga.

Eusebio Leal’s star shone brightly even when Fidel was still in power and it did not dim until a long time thereafter. A flattering 2009 article in the official press noted that Habaguanex, which was created in 1994, operated no fewer than 300 tourist facilities. These included restaurants, shops, markets, cafes and lodgings with a total capacity of 546 rooms. These operations were touted as examples of “sustainable” development, whose profits went to “both the rescue of buildings that make up the Historic Center and to various social programs.”

“One morning, the elderly were invited to an extravagant breakfast at Casas Museos as part of a cultural event. And this was no run-of-the mill event,” reports a dancer who who worked with the Office of Humanitarian Affairs, which was also affiliated with the Office of the Historian

“Everything was carefully worked out,” she explains. “Partnership agreements and donations from from overseas as well as the income that Habaguanex generated as a company from all its hard-currency stores and hotels.”

“Not just anyone worked for them,” says the artist, who defends the management skills of Eusebio Leal, who died of cancer on July 31, 2021. “The Office of the Historian was a country within a country. They were powerful but they did things well. I worked there for many years and I know the efforts that were made.”

“In the end, they were audited and everything was taken away from them,” she says, alluding to the moment the Armed Forces took control of Habaguanex’s most attractive assets.

Once its foreign investors pulled out, the Hotel Saratogo languished under Gaviota’s management. Other former employees report deteriorating working conditions and the loss of financial incentives that the hotel’s foreign managers often provided on an informal basis to their workers in addition to their salaries.

“The first thing to go at the Saratoga was the art. But before that was the class,” says another former employee. “When it was part foreign-owned and part Habanguanex-owned, the Anacaona restaurant on the ground floor was packed on Christmas Eve. But under Gaviota, it wasn’t even a shadow of its former self.”

Gaviota — proprietor of the luxurious Grand Hotel Manzana and manager of the Kempinski — has close to sixty hotels and villas throughout the island with close to 30,000 bedrooms, most of which are administered by foreign companies.

It is the operations under foreign management that enjoy the best reputations while the hotels over which the military conglomerate has exclusive control have not managed to achieve the same level of customer satisfaction.

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Every Corner in Havana Where Buildings Collapse Becomes a Garbage Dump

The corner of Belascoaín and San Miguel, in Centro Habana, which suffered a partial collapse two years ago where a Community Services worker lost his life. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 9 May 2022 — A stench spreads through the streets of Havana.

It is not only around the Saratoga hotel, destroyed by Friday’s explosion, whose rubble still covers more than a dozen bodies.

A few blocks away, in Centro Habana, the corners become makeshift garbage dumps, filling the environment with an odor that permeates clothing and skin.

One of them is around the corner from the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital, where a construction container, overflowing with material, is now used to throw bags and bags of garbage into it, some of them full of rotten food.

But perhaps the most impressive is the one located on the corner of San Miguel and Belascoaín, an abandoned corner since the building partially collapsed on 18 July 2020.

There are no flowers or cleaning to honor the memory of the Community Services worker who died there that day as a result of the collapse, instead there is a mountain of garbage that no one seems to care about for decades. continue reading

Improvised garbage dump around the corner from the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital, in Centro Habana. (14ymedio)

The building, one of the tallest in that area, is still in oblivion, as it has been for the last forty years. Already in the 1980s, passers-by avoided passing near it, with several collapsed balconies and its broken façade with cracks, and stepped off the sidewalk on that stretch of street.

Now, the danger of a new collapse is joined by the unbearable effluvia of waste.

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Five Dollars for a Bicycle Tire in Havana, 4,000 Pesos in the Provinces

Store in Havana’s Plaza de Carlos III where this Wednesday they they offered rubber bike tires for sale at 5.33 dollars each. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Mercedes García / Juan D. Rodríguez, Sancti Spíritus / Havana, 4 May 2022 — The shortage of bicycle tires drives Cubans from the provinces crazy, where there are no transportation options like the ones that still exist in a city like Havana. These days, in Sancti Spíritus, acquiring a single tire can cost up to 4,200 pesos. And only in the informal market.

“Here they never offer tires for sale and everyone has a bicycle,” says Rayner, who lives ten kilometers from the center of Sancti Spíritus and, as he says, “either you go by bus, which passes by twice a day, or you go on foot.” The young man says that this same Tuesday he paid 3,600 pesos for the tire for the front wheel that he needed, his income for the entire month.

The tires of his bicycle, which is eight years old, could not perform anymore, having been repaired with bits of shoes and rubber over and over.

Four months ago, he bought the tire for the rear wheel and it cost him 4,000 pesos, “and almost crying to the man who sold it to me, because there aren’t any,” he tells this newspaper. Since then, he has been saving for the front tire.

Meanwhile, in the Cuban capital, this Wednesday, a long line formed at a state store in Plaza de Carlos III where they had put out rubber tires for sale, for $5.33 each. continue reading

The customers who came out of the store did not carry one or two, but many. “Here I never see anyone on a bicycle,” commented a woman who passed by the place, surprised. “These are most likely going to be taken to the countryside to sell.”

Tires suffer great wear and tear in Cuba, not only because of the frequent use of bicycles as a means of transportation, but also because of the poor condition of the streets and the terrible condition of the brakes in many of these vehicles, which forces their drivers to brake by rubbing the tire with the sole of the shoe.

Streets with large areas where the asphalt is missing and plenty of potholes are common throughout the Island, but in the cities and country towns the situation is even worse. Also objects on the road, such as broken bottles, pieces of metal and even nails add greater risks. Hence the need to have frequent spare parts to replace the tires that are deteriorating.

To this we must add that the bicycle is also a means of family transportation, frequently used by street vendors to cover a wider area of potential customers, or an improvised moving truck, and it is also common to add motors to increase speed, an ingenuity that is popularly known as riquimbili. [For photos, see here.]

The bicycles transformed into light motorcycles, after adding an engine, also consume the useful life of the tires more quickly. But not all the ones that are sold are of good quality, the least valued are the so-called Creole rubbers, of domestic manufacture, while the imported ones can cost much more in the informal market.

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Havana, Cuba: Anguish Grows as Search Continues for Survivors at the Saratoga Hotel

The concern has affected even those who did not suffer direct damage but fear that the tremor has damaged other buildings in the area. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 7 May 2022 — Barely 24 hours after the explosion at the Saratoga Hotel in Havana, the area still looks like a battlefield and there are already 32 dead, 19 missing and 56 injured. A police cordon surrounds the area from the Parque de la Fraternidad to prevent pedestrians from passing through and the rescue brigades work against the clock to find survivors under the rubble.

The confusion of the first moments has been replaced by anguish. In the whole city there is no talk of anything else. In lines, at family tables and on urban buses, the theme is the explosion in a hotel that until a few days ago was a symbol of tourist glamor and has now become synonymous with tragedy.

Each one has a story to tell. Like that of the employee who left the building just a few minutes before the explosion and she was paralyzed when she felt the noise behind her back. Or the one of the woman who cries next to the yellow tape that says “PNR* Do Not Pass, Keep Out” because her godmother, 78 years old, and the old woman’s puppy are under the rubble.

List of the 26 deceased identified so far. (Cuba Ministry of Public Health)

There is also the young man who points to the building on one side of the hotel that suffered considerable damage in the explosion and fears that Juan Carlos, a neighbor on the second floor, has not given proof of life since yesterday morning. The testimonies are mixed and there is no shortage of those who reach the groups and, conveniently, release some rumor where the words “enemy” and “attack” are always present, although the official version has insisted that it was an accident. continue reading

State Security agents, dressed in civilian clothes, are also deployed throughout the area. They are detected by their incisive gaze with which they register everyone who takes photos or records the scene of a building with its beams exposed to the air, and the rescuers with their faces getting longer as the hours go by.

The independent reporter Ángel Cuza, who broadcast live from the Saratoga hotel what was happening after the explosion, was arrested by the political police along with the activist Pedro Quiala this Friday afternoon. Both were transferred to Villa Marista, a place known as the State Security headquarters in Havana. The Cuban Human Rights Observatory condemned the arrests as arbitrary. Cuza was also one of the activists who protested on Obispo Street on April 30, 2021.

In the elementary school near the Saratoga Hotel, which also suffered many damages, a side door has been set up so that parents can collect the backpacks and other belongings of their children who were evacuated after the explosion. Some have approached early but crossing the security cordon is tortuous and many fear that the structure of the Saratoga could collapse at any moment.

The concern has spread even among those who did not suffer direct damage but fear that the tremor has damaged the other buildings in the area, a neighborhood with numerous tenements packed with residents, many of which are in a deplorable architectural state. In the central street Monte, some have not even wanted to sleep at home.

María Julia, a 58-year-old from Havana, tells this newspaper that she decided to spend the night at her daughter’s house. “There was a tremendous noise and everything shook here, the paintings on the walls and even some glasses that I have in a display case,” she explains. “This house has a very bad roof and columns and now I am afraid that this shaking has made things worse.”

The feeling is that the explosion is pouring rain on the long list of calamities that have hit Cuba in recent years. “This is going to be a hard blow to tourism,” says Ismael, an employee of a state cafeteria on Obispo Street. “Now that it seemed that we were going to start attracting more visitors, this happens to us.”

The feeling is that the explosion is pouring rain on the long list of calamities that have hit Cuba in recent years. (14ymedio)

This Saturday also coincided with the eve of Mother’s Day, a very popular date on the island. The hotel is located in a very commercial area where hundreds of anxious customers have come to try to buy products for the celebrations of this Sunday, where traditionally there is a family dinner and gifts are given to mothers.

However, together with the police cordon that prevents access to a wide area around the hotel, the shortage of products in local stores was setting the tone this morning. This newspaper was able to verify the long lines around several state stores on Reina, Galiano and Monte streets to try to buy food, drinks and some gifts.

Some have approached the site since the early morning but crossing the security cordon is tortuous. (14ymedio)

*PNR = National Revolutionary Police

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Cuba: The New Fress Store Lasted Less Time than a Frosted Cake at the Door of a School, Just Three Days

A sign behind the windows said the same thing as the employees of the place: it would be closed due to “technical problems”. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 26 April 2022 — The sale of food in Cuban pesos has lasted three days at the Fress store in Plaza de Carlos III, in Havana. This Monday, the brand new business, which opened its doors on Friday with great anticipation, was closed.

To the question of a client who was surprised, an employee of the place explained that he was without service “temporarily” due to “technical problems.” The same was written on a sign behind its windows. And indeed, inside it could be seen how an operator was messing around in a display refrigerator.

The employee also said that they would open tomorrow, Tuesday, but “only the food area,” that is, the cafeteria to consume already prepared products on the premises. This newspaper was able to verify that almost all the canned foods and also the dairy products that filled the shelves and refrigerators for sale to the public had disappeared.

According to two workers from the Plaza speaking to 14ymedio, “they held an emergency meeting here in Carlos III due to criticism on social networks, and starting tomorrow they can only sell prepared food.”

Another worker asserted that “they had ordered the closure from above, from the Government,” due to criticism of the resale of products such as condensed milk, which was sold for 250 pesos at Fress, a few meters from the Plaza supermarket where it costs 35 pesos but where the lines to enter can take long hours. The same goes for gouda cheese at 4,000 pesos for a wheel of three kilograms, which is only found in stores in hard currency. continue reading

The opening of the store caused outrage among its first customers, who left dismayed by the extremely high prices of products that are much cheaper in state stores in the same shopping center.

The Fress store, in Plaza de Carlos III in Havana, closed this Monday. (14ymedio)

Sources from Carlos III Plaza had confirmed to this newspaper that the state premises were rented to a Spaniard, something unusual in Cuba for a private establishment of this type. The man himself welcomed the customers on opening day. Until now, Fress provided its services through various online shopping sites for home delivery, supported by payments from abroad.

“If the only thing that is going to remain here is the hot table, this will not last even a week, because the food was bad, bad,” commented a young man, this Monday, upon learning of the sudden turn of business.

“But of course, if people here are persecuted for that when they do it at the door of their house, or in their cafeteria, in their paladar (private restaurant),” a woman replied. “I have nothing against the private ones, but the problem is not that it is private, but that it was cheeky. Why some yes and others no?”

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Customers in Havana Frustrated at the Prices of the New Private Business in Carlos III Plaza

The colorful decoration, the neatness of the tables and Fress’s fully stocked shelves attracted the attention of those who passed by. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 22 April 2022 — A new store that takes payment in Cuban pesos opened its doors this Friday in Carlos III Plaza, in Centro Habana. The private business, named Fress – which until now provided its services through various online shopping sites with home deliveries and payments from abroad – not only offers a variety of food products, but also has cafeteria service. In addition, it has two peculiarities: very high prices and a foreign manager.

Sources from the shopping center confirmed to this newspaper that the state premises were rented to a Spaniard, something unusual in Cuba for an establishment of this type. The manager himself cordially welcomed his first customers this Friday.

Already in the early hours of the morning, a score of people gathered at the doors of Fress. The colorful decoration, the neatness of the tables and the large shelves called the attention of those who passed by.

However, two women waiting to enter commented loudly that the prices were not that attractive. “For example, a can of condensed milk, which is in state stores for 35 pesos, is sold for 250,” said one of them.

As the hours passed, the line began to grow, and the employees of the place had to establish an order of entry.

“Is this on the ration book?” An older man asked him, approaching the line, to which they replied: “No, sir, if it were the normal price, there would be a crowd of people here.” continue reading

Before opening this place, Fress offered its services through several online shopping sites to deliver at home and with payment from abroad. (14ymedio)

Inside, the disappointment was directly proportional to the expectation raised by the opening of Fress, especially considering that almost all the premises in Plaza de Carlos III — since it reopened after months of being closed due to the covid pandemic — accept payment only in freely convertible currency, with the exception of the food market with very long lines.

“The pizza is cold and the drinks are hot, you tell me,” a girl complained, getting up from the table. “And the potatoes and croquettes are hard,” pointed out another young man sitting at a table in the cafeteria area.

Faced with the complaints of a couple of elderly women, who regretted that there was no differential treatment with the vulnerable, the head of the café told them that eating there was “a luxury and not a necessity.”

Many of the curious did not go beyond looking in the windows, from where they could see a box of Pringles potatoes at 350 pesos, Toblerone at 380, a box of 24 cans of soft drinks at 2,640 or a little more than three kilograms of Gouda cheese at 4,000 pesos.

Many of the curious did not go beyond leaning into the windows, from where Fress’s high prices of could be seen. (14ymedio)

“It’s the same prices as resale on the street,” a Havana woman protested before walking past.

The resellers, along with the coleros — people who stand in line for others, for pay — are the key targets of the authorities since the Government authorized the sale of goods for payment in foreign currency, first of food and cleaning products and later, of other essential items, such as clothing or footwear.

Without going any further, in a speech made public only a few days ago but delivered on April 9, President Miguel Díaz-Canel denounced “some phenomena that cause there to be a certain way of distribution through channels that deviate from the concepts of justice that defends our socialist construction.”

On a first visit, it does not seem that social justice is among Fress’s objectives, which does not look very much like ‘socialist construction’ either. After spending more than half an hour in line, a young man who managed to get in came out empty-handed said, “Forget it, this is a reseller store authorized by the dictatorship.”

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Hellish Transportation, Impossible Prices and Little Literature at the Havana Book Fair

“This year things are worse than last time,” observed a woman from Havana while covering herself from the sun with her hand. “There are very few buses.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, 21 April 2022 — The line this Thursday to take a bus to the fortress of San Carlos de La Cabaña, the venue for the XXX Havana Book Fair (FILH) until April 30, was long and crowded. The wait for transport was almost an hour, as transit is, once again, experiencing a crisis in Cuba.

“This year things are worse than last time,” observed a woman from Havana as she covered herself from the sun with her hand. “There are very few buses.”

During the wait, the visitors were filling the bags they carried in their hands with food. They would eat upon arrival, in the gardens surrounding the fortification, from where one can see, in the distance and with the sea in between, the advanced construction of the so-called “López-Calleja tower” competing for the first time in more than 63 years with the profile of the emblematic Habana Libre hotel.

At the gates of the fairgrounds, the waiting time multiplied: hundreds of people waited in line for up to two hours. “Fortunately there is something cool,” commented an old man with a snort.

At the gates of the fairgrounds, the waiting time multiplied: hundreds of people waited in line for up to two hours. (14ymedio)

Once inside, visitors milled around and crowded around the counters, but they didn’t buy much. In the first FILH after the launch of the so-called Ordering Task*, complaints about high prices were widespread. Miniature books (ranging from literary classics such as The Little Prince to titles with jokes for adults or self-help) at 650 pesos, glitter at 400 pesos, markers at 1,200 pesos… “Not to mention, even water and soft drinks,” protested a young man who asked about the price of a backpack. continue reading

The featured guest country, Mexico, aroused some expectation, judging by the line of people waiting to enter its pavilion, located in room A. However, people left soon, dissuaded by the more than 400 pesos average cost for the books, almost all of them edited by the state publisher Fondo de Cultura Económica.

Once inside, visitors milled around and crowded around the counters, but they didn’t buy much. (14ymedio)

Among the few Mexican private publishers represented were Planeta, Almadía and Sexto Piso, all of them at small tables covered with a precarious table cover and colored “papel picado” – elaborate paper cuts – typical of the traditional Day of the Dead in Mexico.

It was the books of these publishers that were offered at a more accessible price, which was understood by looking at the publication dates: none was new and there were titles from 2012 and 2013. Unsold inventory.

One of them stood out: Commander. The Venezuela of Hugo Chávez , by Rory Carroll from the Sexto Piso publishing house (2013). It is a report that illustrates the rise of authoritarianism in Venezuela and the failure of the social programs of Bolivarism, something that would surprise the Cuban authorities who allowed it to be offered if they knew. Such a thing is doubtful: the two copies on display were closed, and the public passed by when they saw the face of the deceased president.

Among the few Mexican private publishers represented were Planeta, Almadía and Sexto Piso. (14ymedio)

Outside the fairgrounds of La Cabaña, in the Casa Benito Juárez (known as Casa de México), in Old Havana, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, director of the Mexican state publishing Fund for Economic Culture (FCE), presented Nueve noches con Violeta del Río [Nine nights with Violeta del Rio], by Leonardo Padura.

The Havana author was not present in person but he sent a video message from Madrid, where, he said, he is “for work.” In the message he thanked the FCE for the presentation and expressed his wish that the Fair be successful and bring reading closer to the Cuban public.

Taibo, for his part, highlighted the relationship between the two since they met in the International Association of Police Writers in the 1980s and referred to Padura as a “author critical of the Cuban reality that he lives.”

Attendees in the gardens that surround the fortification, from where one can see, in the distance and with the sea in between, the advanced construction of the so-called “López-Calleja tower.” (14ymedio)

The director of the Fund explained that the new book, which he defined as a “long love story,” will be included in the Vientos del Pueblo collection, a series of books launched by the Mexican state publisher at very low prices (and published at very low quality).

*Translator’s note: Tarea ordenamiento = the [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’ which is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and other measures.

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Cuba’s Cimex and Caribe Stores Will Distribute the Scarce Goods by Municipality and Ration Book

The line this Tuesday to shop in the Plaza de Carlos III, in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 19 April 2022 — One day after 14ymedio reported the return to the restriction by municipality of residence on the sale in pesos in the Plaza de Carlos III, the official press confirms the measure for the entire capital as of this Thursday 21.

The decision has been made, the Tribuna de La Habana acknowledges this Tuesday, “taking into account the existing situation with the availability of products and with the aim of making sales more viable, achieving greater equity and therefore reducing the crowding of people in the establishments.” That is, because of the shortages and to avoid the long queues.

From now on, warns the local newspaper, “all the products that are sold will be controlled and regulated,” and in the establishments of Cimex and Caribe the “scanning system” for identity cards will be re-established.

The official note details that in the Cuatro Caminos market, only residents of Old Havana and Cerro will be able to buy; in the Plaza de Carlos III, those of Centro Habana and Plaza de la Revolución, and in El Pedregal, those of La Lisa.

It was the Cuatro Caminos shopping center that was the scene, on April 7, of a line that reached a length of almost 20 blocks, and, two weeks before, the area was heavily guarded by the security forces, coinciding with a blackout of the internet that the State telecommunications company Etecsa attributed to an “energy failure.” continue reading

The return of this regulation, which was in force to prevent the spread of covid-19 and was repealed at the beginning of November, could be fatal for the Havana municipalities farthest from the center. The disproportion of the number of stores in Plaza de la Revolución, Centro Habana or Old Havana, for example, is enormous compared to the numbers in Arroyo Naranjo, La Lisa or Alamar.

“The other time they did this, it brought a lot of need,” confirms a Luyanó neighbor to this newspaper. “In the two little shops that are in my neighborhood, everyone had to buy one way or another and you had to spend three or four days in a line.” During that time, this woman chose not to leave her house and to order the week’s groceries from her son, who lives in Centro Habana and went to Luyanó on foot, because, due to the pandemic, transportation was also restricted.

Another woman from Havana asked: “When all of Key West has to go to the Carlos III market on the day assigned to them to shop, imagine if they are going to be able to buy a quarter of [what they need]. Many people are not even going to go.”

“They don’t do anything that works,” protested a boy in the line at Carlos III this Tuesday. “Every time they do something, it’s not looking forward, but looking back, like crabs.”

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A Line Ends in Blows this Good Friday in Central Havana

A massive line for the El Bodegón store in Centro Habana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 15 April 2022 — Several policemen and patrol cars, blows, arguments and many, many people set the tone for a line to buy vegetable oil, which extended through Salud Street in Centro Habana this Good Friday, a holiday in Cuba.

“The police can’t fight the hungry people. People brutalize themselves to buy oil and chicken,” says a resident who from her house sees how several women hit each other in one of the fights provoked by the massive line for the store El Bodegón, with its entrance through Belascoaín street.

“I don’t understand why on July 11 there wasn’t a little more force, like in this line to buy oil because the police go after people, but people don’t let go, they keep hitting,” adds the resident. “On a day like today God was dead and the devil is on the loose.”

A liter of vegetable oil in the capital’s informal market costs between 500 and 700 pesos, while the sale of oil in state stores continues to be rationed like other basic necessities. For more than two years, vegetable oil has begun to be scarce.

People who were able to purchase the product today at El Bodegón, at a price of 50 pesos, had to present their supply book from the rationed market where the purchase was recorded and they will not be able to purchase oil again in another state establishment for the next 15 days. continue reading

The situation is repeated throughout the country. In Santiago de Cuba, the Edible Oil Refining Company, which also supplies the province’s black market, was paralyzed for several weeks and a liter cost more than 700 pesos. Currently, although the factory has started processing, the product is still scarce and a liter can be bought for 500 pesos.

The authorities have insisted that the stopwork of the Santiago refinery was due to “a breakdown and maintenance work” and that “at no time has the raw material been lacking,” something that residents celebrate because they will have oil for several months, even if they have to buy it from informal vendors.

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