Mercedes García – Page 2 – Translating Cuba

Cuban Export Agencies Cite ‘Lack of Hard Currency’ for Not Paying Private Fruit Farmers

A shipment of Cuban lemons from a private producer being prepared for export by Frutas Selectas, a state-owned company. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Mercedes Garcia, Sancti Spiritus 23 February 2023 — “To say I am irritated is an understatement. I’m as hot as a bonfire,” says Luis Mario Godinez, who with his father and brothers produce charcoal from marabou weed in Cabaiguán, a town in Sancti Spiritus province. The family has been waiting for more than four months to be paid the hard currency they are owed for their product, which was sold for export.

“We did everything we were supposed to do. We delivered a high-quality charcoal, and delivered it on time, but we still have not gotten the hard currency payment we were promised,” says Godinez. He blames Cubaexport, a state-owned company that he describes as “the bottleneck where the money is stuck.”

In June 2020 the government began allowing privately owned companies and cooperatives to export goods they produced provided they did so through state-owned companies. Just two years later small and medium-sized private companies got the go-ahead to sell technology and energy-related services directly to overseas customers.

Since then official media outlets have reported extensively on farmers who export lemons and avocados to European markets but have said little about payment delays by government intermediaries.

“For God’s sake, just pay us,” implores a producer in Santo Domingo, a town in Villa Clara, who went through a state-owned company, Frutas Selectas, to export his mangos and citrus fruits. “They’ve been telling us it will get here soon but we haven’t seen the money.” continue reading

One farmer explains, “There’s a lot of frustration because no one has explained what’s going on. Some say the Ministry of Economy and Planning has put a stop on MLC* payments but no one has come here and explained that to us directly. I’ll begin harvesting again in a few weeks but, if this doesn’t get resolved, I don’t think I’ll be exporting again.”

Frutas Selectas is the same company that, three years ago, announced with great fanfare that a Cuban farmer had exported his lemons to Spain. At the same time 14ymedio confirmed that the fruit never made it to Spanish stores.

“My customers are extremely upset,” admits an employee of Commercio, who asked to remain anonymous. His company handles shipments of honey, charcoal and fruits from privately owned farms and state-owned companies that export their products. “Over and over they deliver what they produce but they don’t get paid,” he says.

“And it’s not just happening to private producers. State companies are also not getting paid or are seeing export agencies delay paying them the hard currency they are owed,” he says. Among the companies most affected are Apicuba, which is involved in honey production; La Estancia, whose focus is juices and jams; Tenpiel, a tannery and leather producer; and Empresa Pesquera, a fishery.

“We’re the ones who have to face private producers and state-owned companies to tell them they’re not getting paid because there’s no hard currency,” says the Commercio employee. “This isn’t a new problem. These delays have been going on for more than four months.”

The situation is the same in Cienfuegos province. The Plasencia brothers supply mango to the Arimao Citrus Company, which became the province’s “premier exporter” three years ago when the Ministry of Foreign Trade adopted new rules allowing private farmers to place their products in overseas markets, provided they went through official channels

After delivering tons of mangos, to be made into pulp for export to Europe, the family says it has yet to see a single MLC. “The process is very complicated,” explains Victor, the younger Plasencia brother. “We’re waiting to be paid what they owe us so we can buy a new water pump for the farm.”

“We’ve been told the priority now is to use MLC to pay the tobacco farmers,” he says. “To make matters worse, in addition to not paying us, they now want to charge us in MLC for many of the things we need to operate. But if we never manage to get our hands on hard currency, what are we supposed to do?”

“The opinion of most farmers in this area of the state agencies is negative,” he adds. “We believe they’re unnecessary, slow and very bureaucratic. Some even call them parasites. The question everyone is asking is: Why can’t producers export directly? Why can’t we have more autonomy and control the profits we make from selling our products in Spain or Australia?”

On one thing the Plasencias are adamant: “Next time we’re going to sell our mangos in Cuba. We’ll make less money, and we’ll be paid in pesos, but at least we’ll be paid something.”

* Translator’s note: Spanish-language initials for “freely convertible currency” (moneda libremente convertible, or MLC). A digital Cuban currency pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar.

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‘The Russians Have Already Arrived’ to Take Possession of One of the Largest Sugar Mills in Cuba

The Uruguay sugar mill, in Jatibonico, Sancti Spíritus. (Escambray)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 15 February 2023 — Jatibonico’s colossus no longer roars as it used to. Instead of the rattling of its machinery, the Uruguay sugar mill is silent and prepares for the arrival of its new managers, a Russian company that will try to revitalize what in its day was one of the greatest Cuban sugar mills. Meanwhile, the neighbors are questioning whether the town will experience a new economic opportunity with the change of industry administration.

“This place is more dead than the cemetery,” Luis Manuel tells 14ymedio. He is one of the many employees who in the middle of last year lost his job due to the closure of the mill, because “technological obsolescence and lack of investment became, along with the shortage of cane, dangerous threats to the continuity of the industry,” according to the local press at the time.

“In that time the only thing that has happened here is that young people have gone to sea. The family that does not have a balsero [rafter] child is because they have two,” he says. “Now the Russians are preparing to repair the plant and start producing. They say that although they bring their own workers, there will always be some places for us.”

In October 2022, four months after this newspaper first recounted the closure of the Uruguay sugar mill, the news was confirmed by the official provincial newspaper Escambray. The article hinted that the hope for hundreds of workers who were unemployed was in Moscow, because a Russian entourage visited Jatibonico and expressed the intention to create a joint venture that would save the moribund mill town. continue reading

Of the 424 workers that the plant had at that time, 192 began to undertake repair work to make improvements, and 102 were inserted into another “eight labor groups with payment systems adjusted to activities that generate income for them and the company.” Those areas ranged from carpentry to painting, sheet metal work and preventing ice, all of them dependent on the plant.

Then, Eddy Gil Pérez, director of the Uruguay Agroindustrial Sugar Company, expressed enthusiasm with the possible Russian management: “We are among the nine sugar mills of the country chosen for these businesses,” he revealed. More than half a year later, this February, workers in the sector have been informed that the agreement has been finalized with Moscow, and the Uruguay mill should not be counted on for the current harvest because it is being remodeled.

“It all ended quickly,” admits Luis Manuel. “Those of us who were relocated, for example, in agriculture, ended up returning to our homes because there are not so many other crops in this area nor does the State pay what was promised.” After several months, the family of the former Uruguay mill employee survives thanks to an emigrated daughter and the sale of guava candy on the side of the road.

“The Russians are already here,” says an employee of the Zaza hotel, a nearby accommodation with an architectural style of the Soviet era and very similar to the so-called schools in the countryside. The place, which had been deteriorating for years, is now undergoing “capital repair,” says the woman. “The investment is great because this is made of wood, but you can see that the Russians come with resources and with their own people for repairs.”

“They arrived, signed the contract and are already working. They are staying here, and we are no longer accepting national customers,” says the accommodation worker belonging to the Islazul chain. “This place is not very nice but as it is set aside, it was cheap and close to the dam. People came here to spend a few days, but the word has already spread that we are not accepting Cuban guests.”

The idea is that the Zaza hotel will function as temporary accommodation for Russian technicians who will try to revitalize the Uruguay mill, operating since 1905, which has undergone endless transformations and repairs since its foundation. In recent years, stops due to breakdowns have multiplied, and the mill spent more months shut down for repair and maintenance work than grinding cane.

“This was the pride of our people and now it’s better not to mention it,” says María Elena, who worked at the beginning of the century in the administration of the mill, one of the largest sources of employment in the province historically. “We were like a family but all that was lost, and now no one tells us if with the Russians we are going to benefit from the Uruguay grinding again.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Wave of Layoffs Shakes Up State-owned Companies in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba

The directors of the state entity have not only significantly cut the workforce but have warned the workers who keep their jobs that now “they will have to work more.” (Facebook/Caribbean Stores)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus , 11 February 2023 — A call, the summons to a meeting or the simple phrase “the director wants to see you” make the workers of the province of Sancti Spíritus tremble these days. The state companies in the territory are taking on water and, forced to reduce their workforce due to the drop in income, the number of layoffs only grows.

In the Caribe Store Chain that manages part of the sale of food in the city of Sancti Spiritus, the employees have raised their voices to heaven. The brigades of stevedores that brought in the trucks with merchandise to unload the products in each trade have been deactivated, as confirmed by a company executive.

“Now it’s up to the store workers themselves, storekeepers and the personnel that deals with sales to the public, to unload the merchandise from the trucks, that is, to do the work that the stevedores did before,” the official details. “All this is based on Decree Law 53 of 2021,” he points out.

The regulation, approved by the Council of Ministers, creates greater flexibility in the mechanism to establish the organization of the salary system of the workers of state companies, and gives greater decision-making capacity to local managers. “In principle it sounds good, but what is happening is that they are laying off staff to adjust the numbers, instead of producing more; they are adjusting the accounts by removing people.”

When Decree Law 53 entered into force, many workers felt hopeful that the new legislation would help raise wages, but the reality has been quite different. “It leaves the hands of company directors and administrators free to readjust the workforce at will, they raise the salaries of some, but by leaving others without work,” laments this worker at the Caribe Chain Store in Sancti Spíritus.

Doubts about the application of the regulations were felt from the beginning. Last September, Guillermo Sarmiento Cabanas, director of Labor Organization, and Edith González, head of the Department of Salary Organization of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, had to answer, in the official press, the questions that were already arising about the new Decree. continue reading

The functionaries then assured that “the essence” of the change in legislation was “to transform the company, since to pay more it must obtain better results,” which they synthesized “in the formula more productivity plus efficiency plus salary.” But in reality, the directors of state entities seem to have opted for the easier way: fewer employees equals more money to distribute among those who remain.

At the Base Tiles Business Unit, belonging to the Sancti Spíritus Construction and Assembly Company, a process of eliminating jobs began at the end of last year. “They summoned us to tell us that they cannot continue paying all the salaries and we have to reduce staff,” one of the affected workers told 14ymedio. “But it won’t be easy for those who stay,” he stresses.

The directors of the state entity have not only significantly cut the workforce but have warned the workers who keep their jobs that now “they will have to work more” and take on “up to two responsibilities” in the tile manufacturing line. A measure that has been criticized by the employees who, however, do not find support in the local union.

“You spend your life paying union dues, but when you need the Union to stand up for you, then they do nothing,” laments another worker in the administrative area of this tile industry; one of the workers who was counted among the “interrupted workers,” the euphemism used by the Cuban government for the unemployed.

But not all the dismissed are a response to Decree Law 53; the lack of income and raw materials also raise the number of dismissals. In the asphalt plant in the city of Sancti Spíritus, located in the Chambelón neighborhood, this newspaper reported last January on the paralysis of the industry, equipped with old machinery, the Ukrainian-made DK-117 model, which arrived on the island during the years of Soviet subsidy.

The passing of the years, the deterioration and the shortage of parts took their toll on the plant, but the final blow has been given by the lack of fuel and materials. “Since April of last year, production began to decrease because we did not have materials for the process, although it was only a few days ago, at the beginning of this year, that it was announced that it was going to stop producing,” one of the employees told 14ymedio. After the closure of the factory, that employee has been left without work.

The options for finding a job in a province hit by the economic crisis and unproductiveness are “like finding water in the desert,” the same worker now quips, and reports that he has been “searching and searching for months and nothing appears.”

For most of the unemployed, however, there is at least one thing in which they feel very secure: “I won’t return to the state sector anymore, they use you when they want and throw you away for whatever. Now I’m going to earn a living selling churros or unclogging toilets, but on my own,” says the employee.

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Cuban Authorities Pressure Private Business Owners in Sancti Spiritus to Lower Their Prices

“Prices are through the roof and they have increased a lot since the beginning of the year,” said one customer. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 21 January 2023 — Food prices continue to increase and authorities in the city of Sancti Spíritus try to put the brakes on inflation by pressuring private business owners to lower their prices. The official call, however, has not been echoed in the sector hit hard by the high cost of raw materials and taxes.

Susana and her husband sell crackers and on Thursday were in a meeting called by the local authorities. “They told us we had to lower our prices because it is a directive of the Communist Party,” they told 14ymedio. “But we can’t, until recently we were buying wheat flour from a mipyme [a micro or small business] that sold it for 135 pesos but now we must pay more.”

“We’re between a rock and a hard place, because if we lower the price we practically won’t have any income. Everything we earn we would need to invest in purchasing ingredients for the crackers, that is, we’d work for nothing,” she says. “Between the raw materials and taxes there is no margin for a discount.”

“It is not only about the products we must pay high prices for to maintain afloat, but also that this work requires a lot of sacrifice: waking up very early to knead, shape and bake the crackers,” she stated. “Then, the time we must devote to sales, hours and hours on our feet and in contact with customers, who many times are bothered by the prices.”

“They are having these meetings with all those who are self-employed in Sancti Spíritus and the tone is not one of a suggestion nor recommendation, but of an imposition,” bemoaned Susana. “They don’t address us like people who must go through a thousand and one difficulties to keep their business open and who, in addition, offer a service: our crackers are the snacks for many children in this neighborhood take to school.”

On Friday, Vicente’s shop, which mostly sells sweets and candy, was a hotbed of activity because many who are self-employed arrived there to talk about the meeting the day before. The discontent with the requested adjustment seems to be generalized among a sector in which many believe that they are being blamed for inflation. continue reading

“They tell us we must lower prices, but when I go to the MLC [freely convertible currency] store I am forced to pay high prices for products I need to make the sweets I sell here,” claims Vicente. “There are products I cannot find anywhere else and the so-called wholesale market they were going to open for business owners has been a complete failure.”

The customers feel caught in the middle. “Prices are through the roof and they have increased a lot since the beginning of the year, but if the government continues to pressure private businesses we will end up without the few cafeterias that remain open to sell something,” acknowledged a young man who paid 120 pesos for a small pack of cookies at a private shop, near the city center. “Of course I want to pay less, but we could reach a point when even if we have the money we can’t find something like this.”

The battle to regulate the prices of the private sector has been going on for several years and at time is reinforced, languishing before the reality of inflation or adding new official mechanisms to penalize those who do not adopt the price caps imposed by the authorities.

“We need to confront those prices that continue to rise for certain activities and by certain indiscriminate people so they obtain high profits,” the Minister of Finance and Prices, Meisi Bolaños Weiss, stated in January 2020 during an episode of the Mesa Redonda (Roundtable) program on State TV.

To ensure compliance with the measure, the government shared several telephone numbers for reporting vendors who do not comply with the order and also launched an army of inspectors to visit businesses and impose fines for merchants, but none of these practices have been fruitful.

Now they add local meetings and direct pressure on each merchant which, for the moment, seem to be causing more discontent among the entrepreneurs than beneficial results for the customers’ pockets. The next step for the authorities could be much more radical, in a context in which inflation seems to be out of control.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Individuals Sell Imported Beer for Less than State Stores in Sancti Spirtus

“At first sales were limited to ten per person but, since no one was willing to pay that price, they did away with that and now you can buy as many as you like,” says one customer. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Mercedes Garcia, Sancti Spiritus, 13 December 2022 — The beverage that would normally be lifting spirits at holiday parties in Sancti Spiritus has actually been enflaming the city’s already tense economic situation. When it was announced a few weeks ago that beer would be available for sale near year’s end, it created a certain amount of enthusiasm, but that ended as soon as the first cans arrived at state-run stores.

“Thüringer beer for 200 convertible pesos each,” reads a sign at a downtown store on Cespedes Street where rationed goods can be purchased. “At first sales were limited to ten per person but, since no one was willing to pay that price, they did away with that and now you can buy as many as you like,” says one customer who is not planning to buy the thirty cans he, his wife and his 25-year-old son were allotted. “Better to buy them from private individuals, who are selling them for 170,” he adds.

“We’re moving backwards like crabs. They’re selling the most expensive beers on the black market,” complains another customer whose hopes were raised when she learned that stores in every neighborhood would be carrying the product. For years it had only available in privately owned restaurants and hard currency stores. She had planned on buying twenty for herself and her husband. “Ten to drink on Christmas Eve and the same amount on New Year’s Eve,” she explains. Now she is altering her plans and is looking for a more affordable alternative.

“It’s a disgrace that it’s the state itself that charging these prices,” she adds. “My pension is a little over 2,000 pesos. That means that every beer I drank would cost me 10% of my monthly retirement.

Some stores in Sancti Spiritus have started carrying malt beers from the Dominican Republic. An employee at one store says they are also awaiting the arrival of “some jams and cookies.” Given the bitter taste “end of the year beer” has left behind, however, few people have any illusions about a few trinkets being able to sweeten the last days of December.

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Santa Spiritus Sausages Factory Leaves Grocery Stores Without Meat

Sausages from the Sancti Spiritus plant are being made with 50% ground chicken and beef, and 50% starchy fillers and water. (Captura/Centrovision

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Havana, 23 September 2022 — “Everything coming out of the slaughterhouse is being swallowed up by the sausage factory,” says a resident of Kilo 12, a Sancti Spiritus neighborhood named for the province’s meat producer. He reports that, for several days, meat has been increasingly hard to find. Not even the black market, where it is worth its weight in gold, has been spared the debacle.

“They used to set aside the pork loins and the cuts of beef, and you could buy those. But that was then. It seems sausages are more profitable than raw meat,” he says. The state-owned company’s sausages are produced with a particular customer base in mind, one that pays better: tourist hotels and the network of hard currency stores.

The man claims that a plant employee he knows, who works in quality control, told him a large container of imported pork entered the country two weeks ago. Half the shipment was sent to the plant, which has since greatly increased production.

Opened in 2019 after a six-million-dollar investment, the Sancti Spíritus sausage factory is the only one of its kind in Cuba. The company’s directors boasted of these figures on the local television station, Centrovision. During Wednesday’s broadcast, however, workers admitted that all production is focused on meeting the demands of the tourism industry and filling the shelves of hard-currency stores. continue reading

What Cubans get, if anything, comes from the company’s “parallel production line,” which supplies its mass market “product leader.” It also produces ground meat, hamburgers and chorizo. According to the employee, anything that is left over is made available to retail and dining establishments.

The factory has the capacity to produce six tons of cured meats but is currently operating on a half-day schedule due to a shortage of spare parts. One official, whose name Centrovision did not reveal, stated that the parts needed to return the plant to full capacity are available on the island and that the “only” issue to be resolved is the meat supply.

Another unnamed official stated that they had been making sausages with pork but, due to shortages, have had to use alternatives. “They’ve been made with ground chicken and beef. The formula is 50% these kind of meats, 50% water and starchy fillers” she says.

“I’ve bought them. They’re not bad. They’re better than they were six months ago when they were making them with horse meat,” added the Kilo 12 resident. “It’s too bad they’re so expensive. They’re meatier.”

In 2021 Cuban pork production fell 53.5%, to 132.90 tons, compared to the previous year. It was part of a trend that also saw beef fall 13.5%. Similarly, lamb fell 32.5% and poultry 20.8% according to the National Office of Statistics and Information.

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Rice Waste is Used to Stretch Rationed Bread Dough in Sancti Spiritus

“We can’t do anything; we’ve been told to add up to 20% of rice straw and husks to the bread.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 9 September 2022 — “No one has eaten it in two days,” laments Luciano, a resident of the San Luis de Sancti Spíritus neighborhood, while showing some neighbors on Friday morning the rationed bread. In the midst of the wheat flour deficit, state bakeries in several areas of this city must add up to 20% of husked rice waste to the dough, a mixture that gives it a sandy texture and sour taste.

“They’re even using it in cakes, and they are hard, very hard,” adds the retiree, who, after shopping last Thursday at the standard bakery, returned to complain to the employee about the poor quality of the product. “We can’t do anything; we’ve been told to add up to 20% of rice straw and husks,” the worker explained. However, nowhere in the store is there a sign alerting customers to the new recipe.

“She told me because she has known me all her life, but they haven’t been told that they should inform consumers about this change,” says the retiree. The employee confessed to Luciano that “when they make the new formula, they have to increase the amount of rice, and it’s very difficult to mix in. The bakers are very upset with this, because they’re the ones who have to face the customers.”

Another worker at a bakery in the Viento Negro neighborhood confirms to 14ymedio the change in the manufacture of bread. He says that it began to be implemented this week, although it’s not the first time that other products have been added to the flour to stretch it. “They bring the bags of waste from the mills on the Jíbaro road, where the rice is husked,” he explains. continue reading

“It has usually been used as feed for pigs, because it includes rice straw and also the husks. As animal food it’s not bad, but it doesn’t help much to make bread.” The man says that “before this ’invention,’ the guajiros who raise pigs paid about 250 pesos for a can of this waste; they cooked it and then had something to give the animals to eat.”

However, in the mixture with wheat flour for human consumption, the state employee says that “the final dough dries out, and that’s why the bread crumbles as if it were sand. It also gets dark, and what doesn’t look good to the eyes doesn’t enter the mouth: people buy it and return it. As soon as they cut it, they see that dark, yellowish color and get scared.” On top of that, “it tastes bad, like a sack, like straw.”

Mixing other ingredients with wheat flour to make rationed bread is nothing new. In the crisis of the ’90s and also in recent months, state bakeries have used sweet potatoes, cassava and bananas to meet demand. But these mixtures haven’t managed to convince customers, who claim that with these additions the bread can be kept for less time due to the heat, and, to top it off, it quickly takes on a sour taste.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Lack of Three-Phase Electrical Transformers Paralyzes High-Demand Services in Cuba

Workers change a transformer in the province of Villa Clara. (Unión Eléctrica)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Ciego de Ávila, 8 September 2022 — As he does very morning, Luis Andrés got on his bicycle to go to the private workshop where he fabricates bricks, blocks and tiles on the outskirts of Ciego de Ávila. But as soon as he approached and felt the silence, he knew that something wasn’t right: the electric transformer that supplies energy to the premises had broken, and he would soon know the dimension of his misfortune, because the Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) had no other of its kind to replace it.

“The oven we work with is electric and powered by a three-phase transformer that supplies 110 to 380 volts; a lightning strike damaged it and paralyzed production. We had several orders from people who are building a house and from other private businesses, but everything stopped,” Luis Andrés tells 14ymedio. He worked for years in the state sector as an accountant until he went to work in the self-employed sector.

The first reaction of the owner of the small industry in Avila was to report the break to the UNE, which took several days to get there. “When they came and saw the damage that the lightning had done, they concluded that they had to change the transformer but clarified that the country doesn’t have these three-phase devices, and they could only install a conventional, single-phase one,” explains the employee.

“When we insisted and commented that this workshop supplies a good part of the blocks and tiles that people need in these surroundings, they replied that being a private business, the State had no responsibility. In other words, if a new transformer arrives at the company later, it won’t be for us, but for a state entity that needs it.”

Seven people work in the small industry, all of them with families that depend heavily on the pay that these employees receive. For ten days, these private workers haven’t received a cent, because production has stopped and they haven’t been able to complete the orders. In addition, customers are also delayed in their construction work due to the lack of these materials. continue reading

The deficit of transformers of this type is confirmed in the Investment Department of the Electricity Union of Havana, where customers who want to install one to use the benefits of three-phase current in their private business must direct themselves. “There are difficulties, and we can’t guarantee that the device can be installed in the short or medium term,” an employee of this state agency confirms to 14ymedio.

“There are few resources right now, and what we’re doing is advancing the contract of the self-employed who need to install one of these transformers. We do all the paperwork and then the customer must keep calling to know when there is availability. But to promise that he will have it quickly, we can’t do that,” says the UNE worker.

In Havana, Enmanuel and Lucy have been trying for months to get a contract to have a three-phase transformer to supply their ceramics workshop in La Víbora. “We have gone to the commercial office of the Electric Union in the municipality, talked to several officials and explained our need to solve this as soon as possible, but they always respond that right now this equipment isn’t available.”

The couple, who have decided to start a private business in which they combine her industrial design knowledge and his experience as a potter, never believed that a metal rectangle from which cables come out could be the obstacle that would stop them for so long. “No one told us that this was going to be a difficulty the size of the Turquino Peak,” Lucy laments.

A mutual friend has recommended a faster way to solve the problem. This entrepreneur, who runs a turning business, has closed the deal with UNE employees “under the table.” “With 20,000 Cuban pesos, the three-phase transformer appears–the truck to take it, the cables to install it and even the technician who smiles at you after it’s ready,” the man says, ironically.

But Enmanuel and Lucy prefer to do everything “legally.” A path where “all phases are shut down” at the moment.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Due to Lack of Energy in Cuba, Sancti Spiritus Paralyzes Part of its Industries During Peak Hours

“The unforeseen exit of some generating plants and the fuel deficit in recent days have caused the current electricity situation,” said the Electric Company in Sancti Spíritus. (UNE)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 2 June 2022 — The promises made by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel last week in the Council of Ministers have not been fulfilled and energy continues to be a serious problem, to the point that in Sancti Spíritus there is a total or partial paralysis of industries and services considered not essential in “peak hours. The sections cover six hours a day, since it must shut down between 11 am and 1 pm and from 6 pm to 10 pm.

Camilo Pérez Pérez, an official of the Provincial Government, indicated that, in work centers, “working hours must be adjusted to shift them from the hours of greatest consumption and take advantage of distance work and teleworking as an alternative.”

In addition, he requested that the continuous production centers apply the restriction plans provided for these purposes, such as the shutdown of air conditioning systems and ovens, as well as refrigerators, refrigeration equipment and chambers “as long as they do not affect the state of the products,” an observation that could be of doubtful feasibility unless there are empty units.

The official also made reference to the irrigation machines, which should not be used during peak hours, and that the pumping of water to the population must be reorganized to avoid the night hours, which are the most demanded.

All the above measures are aimed at industry and shopping centers, where in addition to monitoring the consumption reading so as not to go beyond what was planned, lighting should be reduced as much as possible. Sancti Spiritus residents must also grope through the streets, since it has been requested to disconnect public lighting and leave only those essential for the safety of vehicles and pedestrians. continue reading

“The State’s policy is to reduce the impact on the service to the population as much as possible,” said Pérez, who, however, asked the general population to contribute to the complicated moment by saving energy in homes as well.

“It is about disconnecting or turning off equipment that is not in use and having the support of the People’s Councils to implement these and other actions aimed at the rational and efficient use of energy,” he insisted. In addition, he requested that there be a communication policy from the State media that promotes the optimal consumption of resources.

“Although they announce it now, we have been suffering from measures of this type for several days now,” a woman from Sancti Spiritus tells 14ymedio, and reports that, despite the fact that it is true that in some state offices they do not take care of saving energy – closing the doors, for example, when the air conditioning is on – these places are also not designed for natural ventilation (in many there are no windows that open). The woman, familiar with state employment, says that “self-blackouts” are not uncommon: “They themselves disconnect all electrical appliances one day a week.”

State workers were informed at least four days ago, in addition, of the suspension of labor transport.

The state telecommunications monopoly Etecsa announced last Saturday that, as of that date, its commercial network was modifying its hours of service to the public, from 9 am to 4 pm from Monday to Saturday, and specified that, during the hours without power, they could carry out the procedures for bill collection, card sales, attention to procedures, doubts and complaints.

“We know that blackouts are annoying, but the intention is that we at least have the possibility of preparing ourselves for when this service is affected. The unexpected outage of some generating plants and the fuel shortage in recent days have caused the current situation with regards to the electricity, and although work is being done uninterruptedly on solving breakdowns, there is no generation reserve that can be said to end these annoying blackouts immediately, so we must keep ourselves informed through the different planning channels of the blocks of affectations existing in the province,” Yoanny Acosta Solenzar, director of the Electric Company in Sancti Spíritus, said on social networks.

A few days ago, the official defended himself against criticism from the population, who complain that the schedules are not kept, and argued that the lack of generation in recent days has exceeded 20 MW and, when this happens, they must “turn off circuits that belong to the other block, that is, shuffle some of those planned a little later for the one that is in blackout.”.

Last week, the Mesa Redonda (Roundtable) program explained the serious energy situation that, for the umpteenth time, is affecting the country. Officials commented on television that of the 20 blocks of thermoelectric plants in the country, eight are outside the system and the remaining 12 generate 1,023 MW, barely 39% of the total power of these plants (2,608 MW).

“Every two days we have almost three blocks out of service,” said Edier Guzmán Pacheco, director of Generation of the National Electric Union. In addition, and despite the fact that shipments of Venezuelan oil and its derivatives, which are free for the Government, have increased, the shortage is evident. The problem continues, already in June, and it shows no sign of improving in the face of the rising temperatures of another summer that is approaching too hot.

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Almost All the Industries of Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, Are Shut Down to Save Energy

In the meat industry, it is not enough to work during the hours without sun, but rather the temperature range at which the refrigerators work must be changed. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 14 June 2022 — The cuts extend throughout Cuba due to the energy problems that put an end to a summer whose worst part is just beginning. The directors of companies in Sancti Spíritus gathered their workers on Monday to give them the bad news: practically all production processes must be stopped.

The announcement is no small thing. Sancti Spíritus is part of a group of provinces with a high presence of state-owned companies dedicated to the production of food, from baby compotes to shellfish grown on its coasts, or in its livestock, including its traditional pig farming, of which there is very little left.

On June 13, several state companies received “a ukase from above,” an employee linked to dairy production in the province details to 14ymedio. “They told us that the electrical system cannot withstand the current rate and that we have to reduce all the consumption that we can,” says this source, who participated in one of the meetings in which the new savings regulations were distributed.

“I know that it was sent to all the companies because it was what was said among the big bosses,” details this employee. His fear is that in a traditionally cattle-raising province, the state cold-storage where meat from the entire province is stored “is going to implement the closing of the refrigerators and the reduction of personnel. During the day they are not going to be able to open the refrigerators, they have to do it at night or early in the morning, to avoid letting the cold out.”

But it is not enough to do it in the hours without sun, you have to change the margin in which the refrigerators where meat is stored work. “There is a margin of plus or minus -15 degrees, but normally they remain between zero and minus five degrees” and now they will have to be reduced even more, he explains to this newspaper. The limit of the cuts is set by a category yet to be deciphered, but the “vital” productions will remain unaffected. continue reading

Among the essentials for the new regulations are dairy products. “We don’t know how they are going to manage to maintain the milk distribution chain with this if, right now and despite the fact that the planned cut has not been implemented, the milk often arrives sour at the customers’ homes.”

The La Estancia industry, producer of compotes for children, could also be among the most affected by the measure. “They ordered it to shut down, even though most of what it produced is sold in freely convertible currency (MLC).” The final product, made from natural fruits, would be among the most affected by the cutback to the Sancti Spíritus industry.

“If they are going to stop our production, what are we going to produce?” laments the employee.

This same Monday, the official press reported that the Lidio Ramón Pérez thermoelectric plant, from Felton, in Holguín, is not operational, after “Block 1” of the plant was disconnected early Monday morning. It is the largest capacity plant in the country.

The newly disconnected unit will receive a “10-day planned maintenance.” This, together with the repairs to Block 2, which, as notified by the Electric Union (UNE), “will begin work in early July,” will increase “the tension in the National Electric System.” In other words, they expect more blackouts for the population.

The UNE also warns that the Otto Parellada thermoelectric plant, known as Tallapiedra, in Old Havana, and Unit 6 of the Antonio Maceo plant, in Santiago de Cuba, are “out of service for maintenance.” Nor does Block 3 of this last thermoelectric plant work “due to breakdowns” either.

Other damaged Units are 6 and 7 of the Máximo Gómez, in the port of Mariel, west of Havana; the 3 of the Ernesto Guevara, in Santa Cruz del Norte, Mayabeque, and the 4 of the Tenth of October, in Nuevitas, Camagüey.

Still working, indicated the UNE, is Block 4 of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant, in Cienfuegos, which “has already been incorporated into the generation.”

For now, the city of Sancti Spíritus spent the night from Monday to Tuesday without power. A dark omen for the whole country.

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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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Cuban Honey, Sweet for Export and Bitter for Nationals

“A few years ago, honey was found in stores selling in pesos, but after the Ordering Task, it disappeared.” (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 3 February 2022 — A teddy bear with a smiley face peeks out of a dollar store shelf in Havana. Inside the container rests honey that began its journey in the Cuban fields. The product that the authorities proudly displays hardly appears in the markets that take payment in pesos. Its destination is export or customers with access to foreign currency.

This week, the Mesa Redonda [Roundtable] show dedicated one of its broadcasts to beekeeping production in Cuba. The space was full of optimistic data and even more rosy future forecasts. But the sweet export figures do not manage to cover the bitter reaction of viewers, upset because the work of bees and producers hardly reaches the national tables.

“A few years ago, honey was found in stores that sold merchandise in pesos, but it disappeared with the Ordering Task*,” laments Lola, a 79-year-old retiree living in the Infanta and Manglar area of the Cuban capital. “In the cafeteria near my house you could buy it and it was not a luxury to have a little honey for breakfast, but those times are gone.”

“Safe honey, certified under the Apisun brand, is now only found in stores in freely convertible currency”, the woman complains. “He who does not have dollars cannot consume it”

Now Lola must appeal to the informal market, where the adulterated product abounds, the presentation is unreliable, the supply is irregular and a 750-milliliter bottle already exceeds 100 Cuban pesos. “Safe honey, certified under the Apisun brand, is now only found in stores that require payment in freely convertible currency (MLC),” the woman complains. “He who does not have dollars cannot consume it.” continue reading

But before reaching these markets, honey has a long way to go. In Sancti Spíritus, as in the rest of the country, production is mostly in private hands. “Many farmers join in because it is a line much better paid for by the State, since it is for export,” Mario, a state worker in the sector, explains to 14ymedio.

“There are three honey processing plants in the country, one of them, although small, was newly built in Caimito, Artemisa, which is now going to close because the floors have to be redone. The one in Sancti Spíritus is the largest and the one that collects the product from the center and part of the west of the country, when the Caimito plant can’t cope,” says the employee.

“For marketing, we take into account four categories of honey, based on color: LA (light amber), ELA (very light amber), W (white) and WW (water white). LA and W are basically produced in Cuba, Mario adds. “Although some beehive apiaries in this area are managed by the military, most of those collecting honey are private individuals.”

Among those private producers, in the province of Cienfuegos, is the family of Daniel García, a young man who helps his parents to care for their bees. “We have our hives near the coast, but we live inland, which is very common here.” At dawn, the young man and his father must go to the area to start extracting the product before the sun rises.

“People say that the bee is the one that does the work, but if the producer is not on top of it, taking care of it and watching over it, the bee ends up eating the honey”

“Compared to a charcoal burner or a farmer who harvests vegetables, we still earn more. But that money is more than well earned, because it is really hard work. People say that the bee is the one that does the work, but if the producer is not on top of it, taking care of it and watching over it, the bee ends up eating the honey,” he details.

“The State sells us the boxes for the hives and the products we need, there is no other way to get them,” Garcia points out. “Apicuba has been a privileged company compared to other sectors. We do not lack necessary parts because everything that is for export is given priority here. If we ask for boxes or materials to protect the product, we’re able to get them immediately.”

“Currently, the producers of this province charge about 500 MLC for each ton of honey that we deliver, about three drums,” he explains. “Although on television a few days ago there was talk of payment in dollars, that is not true, the farmer never sees anything in dollars, but rather the payment is deposited on an electronic card that can only be used in state stores.”

The charge may vary depending on the category of the final product. “There are many types, although there are two main groups when it comes to marketing: organic and traditional. The first is produced in Cuba, mostly in the eastern zone, in protected areas over which planes do not even fly, and so on. The bees are in as natural an environment as possible,” explains Mario, the state employee from Sancti Spiritus.

“The one that is produced in Cuba is the traditional one, which also has very good quality due to the climate, the absence of long winters and the type of flowers we have,” he adds. “What many farmers do is take the honey rejected by the State and sell it on the informal market through intermediaries.”

“Everyone knows that producers do not sell only to the State, because with current prices of food and work tools, you have to look for money elsewhere”

However, the honey that moves in informal networks runs into several obstacles. “The packaging is a big problem because getting small-format bottles, with a secure lid and a certain attractiveness, is practically impossible for private beekeepers, so they put them inside recycled rum bottles and that limits consumer confidence.”

Adulterations are common, especially the thick syrup made from cane sugar some intermediaries use. “They add some coloring, molasses and as much as possible to stretch it,” explains the state employee. “There are people who, when they taste unadulterated honey, are amazed at the taste because they only know the one that has been manipulated.”

Mario is categorical: “Everyone knows that the producers do not sell only to the State because, although it is a sector that receives better payments than others, at current prices for food and work implements, it is necessary to look for money elsewhere, especially for the honey that is rejected because it does not meet the parameters.”

A few private and cooperative producers have managed to overcome the difficulty of packaging, even carving out a stamp for themselves by naming their product, placing a label on the jar and marketing a distinctive brand through digital sites or home delivery apps. Among them is Finca Marta, an eight-hectare farm, in the municipality of Caimito, in Artemisa.

At that location, one obtains white bell and romerillo de costa which customers like, and for which they pay about 5 dollars for 240 grams in an attractive jar, with an extra charge for home delivery. Last year, the place was involved in a controversy when Miguel Díaz-Canel published a postcard for Mother’s Day in which several producers from Finca Marta appeared.

The price ranges between 350 and 600 pesos depending on the size chosen by the customer, several times more than the price of honey without labels and in a recycled bottle from the informal market

The image generated harsh criticism for the women’s stylish clothing and the environment’s bucolic atmosphere, something that also increased rumors of differential treatment for this small company in relation to other private farms not promoted by the Government. Access to imported containers to sell their honey is one of the distinctions of the place, a privilege that very few beekeepers have.

One of the few with that possibility is Agrogourmet, another private management project, which markets its melipona honey in jars of 380, 700 and 1,000 grams through digital shopping platforms. The price ranges between 350 and 600 pesos depending on the size, several times more than the price of honey without labels and in a recycled bottle on the informal market.

Daniel García’s family, in Cienfuegos, is far from being able to market their own product with their own brand. “Even if we wanted to, we couldn’t, because with the money we earn now we have to buy part of the supplies, such as the colorimeters that the State sells in MLC,” he explains, referring to the device used to measure the percentage of light transmission through the honey and thus determine the color and moisture level of the product.

“In order to acquire containers with lids, labels and boxes for the shipping, we would have to establish an import or purchase contract for these supplies with a State company that would charge us, of course, in MLC. So, we would need a high initial investment in foreign currency that is now a dream in order to be able to count on that amount,” he details.

“A beekeeper has no time for anything but his bees, there are months that I only see my house in darkness because I leave at dawn and return at night,” he says. “But my family has to eat taro, pork, corn and plantain like any other, so the money I earn from honey goes for food. The bees are good for that, period.”

*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.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Without Salary and Without Protection: This is How Cuban Inmates Work in Charcoal for Export

Cuban charcoal is currently one of the most valuable items for export. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 31 January 2022 — They stack the sacks of charcoal on top of the truck, and as the sun gets stronger, their sweat mixes with the soot on their skin. There are dozens of prisoners who work for the State-owned Various Production Company (Provari) in Sancti Spíritus and, although the merchandise they transport is for export, they do not receive any salary for their hard work.

“They don’t pay us a single peso and we know that they sell a ton of charcoal for about 400 euros,” complains one of the prisoners who has been carrying sacks for weeks and also working on the preparation of the ovens, the sifting of the charcoal and the composition of the bags. “This is a job I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, and without pay, it’s even worse,” he laments.

“They don’t pay us because they say that we have to see this as one of our benefits, being here working in the open air, because the other option is to go to the Nieves Morejón prison, which is a closed place, a hole,” he explained to 14ymedio. “They tell us that we are privileged and that there are many prisoners in jail who would like to take our place.” continue reading

“They don’t pay us because they say that we have to see this as one of our benefits, of being here working in the open-air, because the other option is to go to the Nieves Morejón prison”

The prisoners are being held at the Banao 6 Work Farm, a former pre-university school converted into a labor camp for inmates that is advertised at its entrance as the Union Reeducation Center. The inmates work in the nearby fields through contracts with Provari, a company managed by the Ministry of the Interior, whose director is Lieutenant Colonel Juan Luis Baffil Rodríguez.

Every month, the prisoners of Banao 6 take out up to four containers full of the product, with a minimum of 18.5 tons each. “It is a long-lasting charcoal, highly appreciated because it burns slowly,” explains the prisoner who complains that they do not have specialized masks to protect themselves, girdles, gloves, boots or adequate clothing. Even the charcoal sifter is an invention by the hands of prisoners.

“We sift by hand, while we move the charcoal on the plates, all that dust that comes out when we remove the carbon and the smaller charcoal pieces that cannot be exported falls on us,” explains the worker. “We should have a professional device for that, but there isn’t one, so we had to make it ourselves.”

“We have practically no means of protection, people come to work in rags and covering their faces with a piece of cloth. Sometimes, at the end of the day, we can’t even see because of all the soot that got into our eyes that are tearing all the time,” explains Juan Carlos, one of the prisoners who works with Provari in Sancti Spíritus.

In Sancti Spiritus, Provari is also dedicated to the production of furniture, cleaning products, insecticides and the assembly of vehicles. Prisons act as intermediaries between the military company and the inmates. In theory, Provari is supposed to provide the prisoners with clothing and tools, and the cost of those supplies is subtracted from the final payment they should receive for their work.

“When we ask, they tell us that Provari is paying the Directorate of Jails and Prisons, but the money never reaches the hands of the prisoners”

However, in the production of charcoal managed by the military in Sancti Spíritus, these commitments are not fulfilled. The inmates work without pay and in appalling conditions, producing three product categories, of which the first and second are exported because they are of better quality, and the third stays in Cuba for state-owned companies, local producers, pharmacies and for sale to private clients.

“When we ask, they tell us that Provari is paying the Directorate of Jails and Prisons, but the money never reaches the hands of the prisoners,” claims another of those affected. “Some say one thing and others another, but in reality, we are the ones who do not receive anything.”

This is not the first time that Provari has been at the center of the complaints. In 2014, it had already been singled out for using “slave workers” who worked “with little security” and received low wages or were paid nothing, according to an extensive article published in El Nuevo Herald.

That same year, reports circulated that the Swedish chain Ikea and a company from communist Germany had contracted in 1987 the state-owned Export-Import Company of Technical Supplies (Emiat) to use the labor of prisoners in the manufacture of furniture. The quality of the products already made was not good, according to several documents found in the Stasi archives.

After that scandal, Emiat’s relationship with Provari, created during the economic crisis of the 1990s as a provider of labor, was made public. This gives prisoners the chance to “integrate into useful work for society,” an employee of the Emiat office in the Havana municipality of Marianao explains by phone to 14ymedio.

Both Emiat and Provari are part of the list of entities penalized by the US Department of State and commercial links with them are banned for North American companies. However, in 2015, Provari presented its catalog for foreign investment in Havana, which includes the production of charcoal, aerosols and disposable items.

“You’ll stand out if you don’t want to do it, and that can affect the time you have left in jail, if they give you a reduction or not for good behavior. It’s practically mandatory”

The exploitation continues, and several inmates consulted by this newspaper allege that they cannot say “no” when they are assigned to work in the charcoal. “You’ll stand out if you don’t want to do it, and that can affect the time you have left in jail, if they give you a reduction or not for good behavior. It is practically mandatory because I have not met anyone who has refused, nobody wants to mark themselves like that,” says one of them.

“Before, we also worked in agriculture, which is hard but not as hard as charcoal, which destroys your health. There are people here who can’t even sleep at night because of coughing after carrying sacks all day,” he adds. “But in this area, there is more and more land dedicated to charcoal so there are not many options.”

The production of charcoal for international sale has increased in recent years in Cuba and the central provinces, such as Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila and Sancti Spíritus, have jumped on the bandwagon of growing their local production, especially from marabou, an invasive weed that has spread through Cuban fields and seriously limits the cultivation of other plants.

The charcoal that is made on the island is obtained from the artisanal method of heaps, by which the wood is stacked on the ground and covered with earth. Experts extol the good qualities of the Cuban product for its “glossy black color, metallic sound to the touch, absence of carbon, ashes or other particles.”

Charcoal is sold in Europe for 400 euros per ton and its export grows year after year. In 2013, 70,200 tons left the Island for Germany, Belgium, Canada, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Israel, Portugal and Turkey, a significant increase in relation to the 40,000 tons of 2012.

Cuban charcoal already packaged for sale. (ACN)

The Ministry of Agriculture has even confirmed that after tobacco, charcoal is the item that brings in the most foreign exchange from its sale abroad and currently production is close to 80,000 tons per year.

In 2017, the first export of charcoal from Cuba to the United States was announced with great fanfare through the company Coabana Trading LLC, a subsidiary of Reneo Consulting. In an agreement signed with the state-owned Cubaexport, the operation marked “the beginning of a new era of trade between the US and Cuba,” Scott Gilbert, president of Reneo Consulting, said at the time.

Shortly after, a video filmed by activists of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) in the Río Cauto municipality denounced the exploitation of the prisoners of the Jucarito prison who worked in the production of charcoal, also managed by Provari.

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Dental Services Are Hard to Come By in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba

“They tell you they don’t have the materials, but if you offer a little money they will take care of you,” complained a patient. (Escambray)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Havana, 6 December 2021 — Ernesto, a resident of the Kilo 12 neighborhood in the city of Sancti Spíritus, has had to wait for the relaxation of measures due to the covid-19 pandemic to go to the dentist. For almost two years he has had several cavities that bother him but since the arrival of the coronavirus on the Island only emergency cases are treated.

Unable to bear the toothaches for another day, he decided to go to the Provincial Dental Clinic this Monday. Upon arriving at the health center, he found the receptionist talking on the phone with her feet up on a piece of furniture; he had to wait about ten minutes for the state employee to attend to him.

“Only emergencies are being seen,” the woman said bluntly, as soon as Ernesto asked if they were offering consultations. “I can’t keep waiting, it’s been almost two years without attention, I get a lot of pain when I drink cold water,” the patient explained. “The autoclave (equipment used to sterilize the instruments) is broken,” justified the employee. “And it is not known when they will fix it.”

Ernesto then asked if he could be treated urgently and given some procedure to stop the pain, but the receptionist told him that there were no materials in the clinic for this procedure either. “I can pass you on, but we don’t even have materials to cover you there,” she added.

The man did not lose hope of solving his ailment and decided to go to a polyclinic in the city to be treated and “at least they would put a temporary filling or a band-aid” as it is popularly known, he told 14ymedio.

When visiting two polyclinics, he found several people in the same situation, who were also informed that there were no materials and continue reading

that the emergencies were being treated at the Provincial Clinic until six in the afternoon, at the same health center where he had gone before and where they assured him that they had nothing to take care of his cavities, they could only open a hole and leave it exposed until there were materials.

“They tell you that there are no materials, but if you offer a little money they treat you. Medical power? Power of lies is what we are,” complained one of the group’s patients.

Facade of the Provincial Dental Clinic of Sancti Spíritus. (14ymedio)

The panorama is repeated throughout the island. In Havana, 34-year-old Niurka Tamaris has “a hole in a tooth” that she has managed to overcome by filling it with gum, pieces of adhesive tape and other emergency solutions. “My quality of life has been reduced, I can’t eat anything cold, I can’t eat sweets and I can’t eat anything that I have to chew too much.”

Tamaris’s problem started in December 2019. A piece of a molar, with an old aluminum filling, broke off. After several attempts to be treated at her polyclinic in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality, she returned home discouraged. “When there was no lack of electricity, it was because the sterilizing apparatus was broken or else there were no gloves.”

The dentist who saw her on her last visit assured her that new supplies would arrive in the summer of 2020 and the problem could be solved. But the coronavirus arrived before then and a split tooth did not classify as an “emergency” to be treated in the emergency room. “They told me the only thing they could do was extract it and I didn’t want to lose it.”

A year and a half later, he still has the problem that threatens to generate an infection. “Now the situation is even worse because they tell you that they are seeing to pending cases according to the order of severity and, a tooth that is missing a piece but does not have an abscess, is nothing that they are going to attend to first.”

“Here they talk a lot about the quality of Public Health but you have to look at people’s teeth, in very bad condition,” says Tamaris. “My sister, who is four years older, does not have a tooth left and my father has needed a prosthesis for four years and there is no material to make it.”

The Ministry of Public Health said last March that “despite the pandemic and the strengthening of the United States embargo, Cuba arrived at World Oral Health Day with dental indicators similar to those of the most developed countries.”

However, infrastructure problems, materials and power outages have become a constant in Cuban state dental services, which are almost the only services allowed in the country. Private practice of the profession is only allowed for those who received their degree before 1959, or outside the country.

The few private practices that still remain on the island are suffocated by the inability to import supplies and to hire personnel who have obtained a diploma in “the revolutionary universities.” Hence, many professionals perform illegal work in the same official premises or maintain a small informal dental office that they feed with products purchased on the black market diverted from state distribution networks.

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The Official Press Invents an Intense Storm to Explain the Loss of Shrimp at Tunas de Zaza

The official press reports that the company managed to recover roughly one and a half tons of shrimp. (Escambray)

14ymedio, Mercedes Garcia, Havana, December 8, 2021 — Two days after an article appeared in 14ymedio on the breach of a holding pond, the official press responded with an improbable explanation for the “escape” of roughly fifteen tons of shrimp intended for export from an aquatic farm in Tunas de Zaza, a town in Sancti Spiritus province.

According to an article in the local newspaper Escambray, which was later reposted on Cubadebate, the incident was precipitated by intense storms which caused a failure in one of the ponds used by the state-owned Cultizaza company to farm shrimp. “The water in the damn overflowed and, with it, a large portion of its growing biomass,” the article states.

Cultizaza’s director, Luis Orlando Rodriguez, is quoted in the article as saying, “We were able to recover about a ton and a half of the crustacean after the precipitous loss of water from the upper end of the dam.” However, neither local weather reports nor meteorological websites indicate there was any heavy rainfall on either the day of the incident or on previous days in the coastal Caribbean town.

This is confirmed by several area residents, one of them a man named Rafael, who tells 14ymedio that there had only been light rainfall, “with no water running through the streets,” in recent days.

“It takes at least three days of heavy rains before a pond will overflow,” explains Rafael, “and no water was getting into the ponds. Not from a river or continue reading

from any other source. They are only fed with seawater. If there had actually been that much rain, it wouldn’t have been the ponds that were inundated. It would have been the town of Tunas de Zaza because it’s at a very low elevation.”

A company employee who prefers to remain anonymous told 14ymedio on Tuesday that the walls of the giant reservoirs where the shrimp are grown are very thin and have not been properly maintained for a long time. “They emptied the pond from one side and the pressure from five feet of water caused the walls to blow out. When two adjoining ponds are full, they balance each other out. But as one of them was being emptied, it couldn’t withstand the pressure from the one alongside it” she explains.

Responding to pleas from company employees, dozens of residents rushed to the site and gathered up all the shrimp they could before they could spoil. At the time of the spill, the shrimp had been ready for harvest. “A lot of people were even putting them in their pockets,” said Yisel, one of the lucky volunteers.

In his statements to Escambray, Rodriguez insisted that his workers “showed up immediately” and “worked together to collect the animals, which were about to be harvested, so damage was minimal.” He also pointed out that, after being alerted, dozens of local volunteers showed up at the site to help recover some of the shrimp.

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