Category: Juan Diego Rodríguez

“All this time ago, people have lined up here to buy ice cream to take home. But now things have become a bit complicated for them because they are serving very little at the tables,” Yoana, 25, explains to 14ymedio. “But that’s only a few days, you’ll see that by spending some money on the workers here, everything will be solved,” adds the young woman, who this Friday was able to enter Coppelia to consume the two sundaes allowed per person.

Yoana pointed out that the tables are well separated from each other and only two people are allowed at each one. The young woman ended up ordering two ice cream sundaes: one with almonds and another with strawberry-bonbon, for a value of 25 pesos each, which came accompanied by six sweet cookies.

Despite the reopening, this newspaper was able to verify that the line this Friday morning was like any other day and in less than 20 minutes customers could be seated at a table. All the ice cream parlor’s salons were open, except for the “4 Jewels,” which is air-conditioned and sells a creamier and more expensive ice cream. Formerly, the ice cream was sold in Cuban convertible pesos, but after the ’Ordering Task’* it went to Cuban pesos. This Coppelia location is among the most visited in the capital.

A few yards from Coppelia there are two other very busy state establishments on Avenida 23 in El Vedado in Havana: the Buona Sera restaurants, which planned to serve customers in the afternoon, and El Cochinito, where its employees could not confirm if they would receive customers this Friday.

As in Coppelia, at the entrance of Buona Sera and El Cochinito they have placed a table with a container containing bleach, and according to the hygienic sanitary measures imposed by the authorities, it is mandatory to disinfect your hands before entering any public establishment.

The governor of Havana, Reinaldo García Zapata, said this Thursday on the State TV Roundtable, when announcing the reopening, that it is essential to maintain the use of the mask, the disinfection of the hands and surfaces of the establishments, the locating of tables two yards apart, and among others, and a limited capacity depending on the characteristics of the premises.

Taking reservations by phone is viewed with suspicion by customers. “I am afraid that this is going to be allow the employees to sell the places and only accept their friends and resellers. As a 76-year-old retiree said, who is going to control whether someone actually called, or if they were put on the list for being a partner of a worker.”

“There are very bad experiences in reserving by phone. In the 80s some restaurants in Havana offered their service like this and when the number was not busy the phone would ring for long minutes and no one answered,” the man recalls. “Once part of the telephone exchange even collapsed when thousands of people called to reserve a turn to buy toys because of the rationing.”

“The measures are still the same, but I didn’t really see that anyone complied with them all: the bleach bottle on Coppelia’s door is there, but everyone passed by as if it didn’t exist, nobody took that on,” said Yoana. “Of course, everyone walks around with a facemask and some with their chlorine bottle in their backpack or purse.”

The authorities insisted that food services be reserved in advance to avoid prolonged stays while waiting fator the entrance of the premises. Private businesses such as Lolita del Mar, Mercy Bar Café, Bom Apetite and Ranchón Costa Bella, among others, have published on their social networks that from this Friday they will be offering food services at their facilities but customers will also be able to consume the orders at home because they will maintain Take-out service.

In other private businesses in the municipality of Playa, among them Tropikna Sport Café and Glamor Café, they are waiting for the authorization to open from Public Health, but the “approval” of the inspectors from the Hygiene and Epidemiology Directorate is still lacking, affirm the owners of the premises.

However, most of these businesses have told their customers that they will continue to bring the food to their homes and the main platforms that manage these purchases have extended their delivery hours throughout the capital. “Here we will continue to provide home delivery service from our premises to the door of your house so that you maintain your comfort and care,” reads the announcement.

Along with the 533 locales that will provide in-person food services, the notary services and Civil and Property registries have been resumed.

*Translator’s note: Tarea ordenamiento = the [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’ which is a collection of measures that includes 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 others.

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800 and 1,000 pesos and a single pack of H.Upmann costs up to more than 100,” he details.

Since the end of last year, the cigarettes that were sold freely, from the Popular, Aromas, Titanes and Criollo brands have disappeared from the network of state stores and cafes. The first to disappear were those that were sold in national currency, but the shortage also reached the supply that was for sale in foreign currency.

The government of the capital announced at the beginning of last July the sale of cigarettes in a regulated manner, in the rationed market, and specified that this point had been reached “due to problems with the availability of the raw material.” The measure was extended to the whole country a few days later and the head of the Ministry of Internal Trade, Betsy Díaz Velázquez, explained that, although it is not a product that is part of the regulated family basket, its sale will be controlled, due to the “deficit of a monthly demand amounting to 37 million packs” to “avoid hoarding.”

Other officials from the ministry itself insisted that the “intermittences in production” are due to difficulties “with the arrival of raw materials in Cuba.” They explained that for this reason the volumes of this product available for sale do not ensure 100% of the country’s demand.

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the leaders, he did not stop until they made him a deputy,” another resident of Los Sitios tells 14ymedio.

“This project raised its head extorting foreigners because that individual dedicated himself to the Yoruba religion and to making those who came from abroad holy. They made huge feasts, food of all kinds, and from that came the rivers of money he earned through these ceremonies,” the man describes. “It is a work of corruption from the very start, grabbing money from all sides.”

The neighborhood, one of the most densely populated in the capital, has for decades been an area with many housing problems, a large number of tenements and serious problems in its water supply infrastructure. Marginality, informal employment and the black market are an inseparable part of life in Los Sitios.

A good share of the residents in the area dedicate themselves to the purchase and resale of products from nearby stores such Ultra, the La Cubana hardware store and La Isla de Cuba. With tourism canceled due to the pandemic and mobility restrictions imposed on residents, many people have lost their way of earning a living and now survive by lining up at hard currency stores and reselling the merchandise.

“President Díaz-Canel signs the Guest Book where he recognizes the altruistic work carried out by this human sociocultural project from and to the community,” the official account of the Cuban Presidency tweeted this Friday, after announcing the visit of the president to the institution “that for more than 25 years has developed local projects” and that “includes 29 social works.”

In Quisicuaba, says another resident, “religious acts, drumming sessions and much more are held.” She speaks about Enrique Alemán Gutiérrez who is a doctor by profession and only ” practiced medicine for a short time because he had a serious problem in Public Health and was expelled,” she relates.

“Later, he was in official religious organizations and from there he ended up at the famous Summit in Panama, where Cuban civil society supposedly participated. But it was a gang of rabble, what he put together in that event was horrible, because he was one of those who led those scandals,” recalls the woman. “Oh, and also when Barack Obama was in Havana I saw him at several acts of revolutionary reaffirmation. He’s the worst.”

“They were stopping everyone who passed through that area asking what they were doing, where they lived,” a young man who walks through Monte every day to his workplace in Old Havana told this newspaper. “There were hundreds of security agents in civilian clothes sitting on the sidewalk having a Tanrico brand soda wrapped in a nylon bag and a snack, and another group was also doing the same in the Monte y Águila park,” he describes.

Shortly after Díaz-Canel left Quisicuaba, the Presidency released a video showing a group of people huddled together and not respecting the mandatory distancing to prevent contagion by covid. Along with that, where the president is clearly present, it was reported that he visited “with the population of Los Sitios, as always happens, and the population responds and accompanies him with enthusiasm and a very Cuban conga.”

The visit took place after the leader met with religious leaders and associations recognized by the Government last Tuesday. He also planned a meeting with Cuban Masons, but the Mason’s Grand Master Ernesto Zamora Fernández refused to participate. “We have decided not to attend the meeting called by the Presidency of the country, in order to preserve Masonic unity,” said the community leader in the document, released by several Masons on their social networks.

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avenues such as Belascoaín, Galiano and Prado, as well as having a strong presence of shops, private food venues and even a very popular agricultural market. But, as it is not a tourist artery, it has hardly benefited from any repairs, although most of its homes are from the first half of the last century.

It was precisely the collapse in January 2020 that caused the tragic deaths of three girls in the neighboring municipality of Old Havana, between Vives and Revillagigedo streets, in the Jesús María neighborhood. The structure, deteriorated by the years and the lack of maintenance, collapsed around four-thirty in the afternoon, when the children were on the sidewalk rehearsing for the events to celebrate the birth of José Martí.

Centro Habana is one of the most populated municipalities in the capital and is an area that, for decades, has been characterized by the high presence of tenements, mostly with infrastructure problems and overcrowding. Many of its buildings were built at the beginning of the 20th century and have not received repairs beyond a facade painting for more than fifty years.

The buildings near the Malecón suffer especially from the effects of the saltpeter from the ocean and none of the various government programs have solved the problem of the frequent collapse.

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into the San Rafael market, one of the most important in the Cuban capital, speaking to 14ymedio. The cost of a pound of this staple, widely used in Cuban cuisine, exceeds $14 US, according to the official exchange rate. “In addition, the heads are small and the cloves are very thin.They are not good quality.”

The merchant, however, defended himself against the criticism: “I am an easterner and for me life is not easy at all in Havana. What bothers me is the double standard that until a few days ago these same people bought garlic at that price on the street, because there wasn’t any in the agricultural market.” The seller assures that “now that it is on the stands, then they complain, but until yesterday they paid for it at whatever price.”

The explanation failed to convince those who passed near the sign with the prices. “Everything has risen, it is not only the garlic, but also onios, taro and not to mention the pork. At this rate, by the end of the year I do not know what we will be able to eat in this country,” questioned a pensioner who left the market with only a piece of pumpkin and some coriander leaves. A few meters away, another vendor exhibited grapes at 120 pesos per pound, more than two days’ pension for any old person on this island.

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private neighborhood delicatessens where they sell smoked meats that will poison you little by little because we don’t have any other choice,” she jokes sadly.

There is another long line of people — this time outside the Cupet Servicenter on the corner of Infanta and San Rafael streets — waiting to spend their pesos on H. Uppman and Populares filtered cigarillos. “They have several items for sale, which is very rare because usually there’s only one and that’s it,” says another customer waiting in a line that extends for four blocks.

For months H. Uppman and Populares products have only been available at foreign currency stores (known as MLC). The network of state-run stores and cafes that accept payment in Cuban pesos stopped carrying these and other brands, such as Criollos, Aromas and Titanes. in June. They had been available “exclusively” at neighborhood stores “upon presentation of the ration book.” Authorities announced, however, that sales had been suspended “due to problems with the availability of raw material.”

Among the items for sale at the Plaza Carlos III shopping mall on Friday were laundry detergent, cooking oil, canned fruit, ground meat, chicken and hot dogs. Many of those waiting in line held out hope of at least being able to buy a bottle of cologne.

“Cologne is never anywhere to be found,” says one Havana resident who decided to wait in line outside the capital’s largest retail establishment. The line to get in stretched all the way to Belascoaín Street, some seven blocks away.

“I have never experienced a line like the one I am seeing at Carlos III,” says a resident who lives very close to the plaza. Dozens of people sit in the shade on the curb, trying to avoid the sun and heat as they patiently wait in hopes of buying something.

Just a few streets away from Carlos II, homes in Central Havana have been transformed into informal storefronts. Some of items purchased on Friday at state stores are on display in people’s windows — packages of chicken, bottles of cooking oil and cigars — ready for resale to those who did not manage to get inside or who were not willing to spend hours waiting in the endless lines.

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is wondering, if all this was in the warehouses, why they weren’t selling it; if people had to take to the streets to get them to release it.”

After widespread protests on July 11, government officials announced ration card holders would be entitled to an extra two pounds of rice per person. Farmers markets were also set up in Havana neighborhoods where demand has been high, such as La Lisa, El Cotorro and El Cerro. Unlike other occasions when the government tried to tamp down discontent, however, selections are few and supplies are limited.

“I remember one time there were power outages for several days in my neighborhood. After people started painting placards and throwing bottles off their balconies, they sold us canned meat, pastas, candies and even beer. That was when Hugo Chavez was sending over a lot of petroleum but times are harder now,” observes a neighbor of the San Lazaro fish market.

Nevertheless, in spite of the high prices and limited selection, the shortage of recent months has spurred dozens of local residents to join the line outside the store. “They’ll supply us with something this one time, then forget about us again,” observes a customer. “I am definitely going to buy some lobster, even if it costs me a week’s pension, because I want to experience the taste of seafood again before I die.”

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Centro Habana, without the colonial beauty of Old Havana or the modern buildings of El Vedado, has for decades been a municipality characterized by the high presence of tenements, infrastructure problems, overcrowding and a high population density. The successive programs launched by the Government have not resolved the increasingly frequent collapses.

In recent months, several collapses have been reported in the municipality. One of the most recent occurred in April on the Malecon, when two buildings collapsed and part of a third collapsed, and a man was seriously injured.

The fall of a balcony caused in January 2020 the tragic death of three girls in Old Havana, between Vives and Revillagigedo streets, in the Jesús María neighborhood. The structure, deteriorated by the years and the lack of maintenance, collapsed around four-thirty in the afternoon, when the young girls were on the sidewalk rehearsing for the events to celebrate the birth of José Martí.

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On the TV news/interview program Roundtable, officials described the decision as a necessary step to deal with obstacles created by the U.S. embargo. But the official explanation has failed to convince either ordinary citizens or economists, who expressed astonishment the day after the announcement.

At the end of May, the government suspended currency exchange services at the country’s international airports, claiming it had run out of cash. It indicated that, despite a “significant shortage” of hard currency, it had been able to continue operating within established limits but that a “lack of liquidity” had made those operations unsustainable.

Long lines formed again on Friday outside stores that only accept freely convertible foreign currency, especially those selling home appliances. Outside the Plaza de Carlos III shopping mall in Central Havana, dozens of people were already in line by 5:00 AM, when the pandemic curfew ends, eager to spend their dollars on a refrigerator, air-conditioning system or rice cooker.

“People are going crazy because they’re afraid they’ll be hit with more measures like this in a few days,” says one young man waiting in line to buy clothing at a foreign currency store in the capital’s biggest shopping center. “What this has done is create more doubt and given people the impression that the those at the top don’t know what they’re doing.”

For many the situation has brought back memories of the so-called Houses of Gold and Silver. In the 1980s the government operated stores known as “Houses of Diego Velazquez” — a reference to early Spanish explorers who traded tiny pieces of mirrored glass for gold — in which customers exchanged jewelry, gemstones and precious metal objects for vouchers which could be used to purchase clothing, footwear and household appliances.

No figures were ever released on how much gold and silver was ultimately collected but the operation lives on in the Cuban imagination as a kind of institutional scam, especially since the merchandise bought with the vouchers turned out to be shoddy and wore out quickly.

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