Miguel García – Translating Cuba

Faced with a 990-Peso Price Cap, Cuban Shop Owners Opt Not to Sell Cooking Oil

Imported from Mexico, Spain, the United States and even faraway Ukraine, the product is disappearing in Holguín.

Vegetable oil sets the price of a meal in Cuba, hence the concern over the rise in product prices in recent weeks. / Escambray

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 12 March 2025 — Cooking oil is a dominating presence in the nation’s culinary scene. If there is a lot left in the home cook’s bottle, all is good. But if it’s only a smidgen, things get tense. Vegetable oil is the key determinant of the cost of a meal in Cuba, hence the concern over the rising price in recent weeks despite the government’s attempts to control the it.

Given the heavy emphasis on meat and fried foods in Cuban cuisine, cooking oil represents a significant expense for Cuban families. Prices for the most common cooking oils— soy, sunflower and canola — at privately owned small and medium sized businesses (MSMEs) have risen nearly 20% since the beginning of the year. This dramatic price increase is being felt, with slight variations, throughout the country.

From January till today, the price of a liter of oil has risen from 820 pesos to 980 pesos at privately owned shops in the city of Holguín. Meanwhile, cooking oil is notably absent at government-run ration stores.

Outside the privately owned Dos Hermanos (Two Brothers) store here in Holguín, the hot topic on Tuesday was the rising price for a food item imported largely from Mexico, Spain, the United States and even faraway Ukraine.

In my house we have to buy at least three bottles every month, so I end up spending all my pension just on that”

“At this rate, it’ll cost 1,000 pesos by Spring break [in April],” predicted one customer, who fears that the vacation period will lead to a higher continue reading

consumption of fried foods by school children and teens. “In my house we have to buy at least three bottles every month, so I end up spending all my pension just on that.” Pork fat could be an alternative but it is not an option for her. A pound of unprocessed pork lard costs about 500 pesos in the provincial capital.

Looking for ways to reduce consumption, some people mill around outside the MSME, exchanging recipes that require less cooking oil. “My daughter bought me an air fryer that makes food crispy while using almost no oil but the problem is the blackouts,” said one elderly man. “I got some nice potatoes yesterday but they’re the kind that are very absorbent and soak up a lot of oil.”

In July the government lifted import tariffs on six basic products — chicken, powdered milk, cooking oil, sausages, pasta, and powdered detergent — while also imposing price caps on them. The price of a liter of oil was capped at 990 pesos. (Olive oil was exempted.) Subsequently, the price began to fall until December, when it reached 750 pesos at Holguín’s privately owned markets.

From January till today, the price of a liter of oil has risen from 820 pesos to 980 pesos at privately owned shops in the city of Holguín. Meanwhile, cooking oil is notably absent at government-run ration stores. / 14ymedio

No sooner had the year started, however, than the price of oil began to rise. The reasons for this are hard to pinpoint in a country where the economic crisis has impacted every aspect of daily life, especially food costs. “We used to buy it wholesale from a private distributor which imported it by the container-load, says a Holguín vendor who has a stall in the city’s downtown. The man, who prefers to remain anonymous, claims that, since government measures to “reorganize” the private sector took effect in August, the variety and quantity of merchandise his suppliers provide has declined.

The regulations include restrictions on private wholesale transactions, the phase-out of tax exemptions and higher taxes. “Two MSMEs that used to sell us oil have stopped importing it because they now have to go through government channels. They say it’s not profitable, not only because of the price but because it now takes longer to get it from the ports to them. By then, it’s too late,” he explaims.

I can’t risk losing my license because a lot of my family’s money is invested in this little store”

“Right now our profit margin on cooking oil is very low. Customers complain that the price has gone up but it has gotten more expensive for us too. What we do now is suggest vegetable shortening as an alternative but it’s not as popular because it’s not suitable for every kind of food. Plus, it’s expensive and doesn’t last as long.” He predicts that, given how close its price is to the government’s 990-peso per liter limit, “it [too] will become less available.”

The owner of another store attributes the rise in cooking oil prices to the current dollar exchange rate on the informal market. Trading at 345 Cuban pesos as of Wednesday, the US currency is essential for purchasing products on the international market. “Right now, a liter of oil — once it is delivered to Cuba — is costing us $2.50 a bottle based on the small quantities we buy. That is more than 860 pesos at the current exchange rate, ” she explains. “On top of that, there are transportation costs and other expenses to get it here.”

Rather than violate the 990-peso price cap, the owner of a small shop opts not to sell it at all. “I can’t risk losing my license because I have a lot of my family’s money invested in this little store,” she explains. If the supply of vegetable oil decreases, Cuban kitchens will be turning out a lot fewer French fries, malanga fritters, and “tostones” than they once did.

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With His Crusade Against the Private Sector in Holguín, Queipo Is Making Merits To Succeed Cuban President Díaz-Canel

“Everyone knows that the Castros were born in this province and whoever controls Holguín controls Cuba”

With the incorporation of Joel Queipo Ruíz in the position, many in Holguín held their breath / Radio Angulo

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 8 February 2025 — If there is a name that these days is pronounced in Holguín with a grimace and biting your lip, it is that of Joel Queipo Ruíz, first secretary of the Communist Party (PCC) in the province. Since the official took office last April, he has unleashed a witch hunt against entrepreneurs and farmers that has resulted in fines, confiscations of products and numerous closed shops.

The Chinese Fair, one of the most important points of sale in the Holguin capital, is among the main objectives of the Queipo crusade. “This, since the end of last year, has become a constant battle, and now they want to evict us,” José Alberto, owner of one of the stalls at the popular market, tells 14ymedio. Although the merchant has his papers in order, he has already begun to liquidate his products in order to leave.

The authorities have warned the merchants that the municipal ceremony of the next event on July 26 will be held on site, and that there should be no vestiges of the market. In the streets, it is rumored that “Queipo wants to make Raúl Castro happy in his birthplace.” The General spends more and more time in the nearby Cayo Saetía, where he has a retreat from which he frequently leaves for official events and meetings. continue reading

“When Queipo made his debut in office, more inspectors arrived, and the raids multiplied”

“They’ve been harassing us for months. When Queipo made his debut in office, more inspectors arrived, and the raids on the fair’s kiosks multiplied. People started closing their awnings thinking it was temporary, that it would pass, but we’ve been feeling this tension for almost a year,” he explains. “First they said they were going after the illegal stalls, some tables and pallets that didn’t have a license, near the road, but they have also made life impossible for those of us who have papers.”

José Alberto points out that the offensive reached a limit this February. “We have just been warned that we have to sell all the merchandise because they are going to close the Chinese Fair to prepare this entire area for the event of the 26th. Those who do not comply with that guideline before February 16 will receive a fine of 30,000 pesos,” he says. The announcement has raised a controversy that even reaches the official media.

“You have to find a solution to the problem, not remove it,” emphasizes a journalist from the program “In the Foreground” of the Telecentro Telecristal that alludes to the popular metaphor of “throwing away the sofa” in the face of any problem,* eliminating its visible expression but not its causes. Evidently upset with the order to remove the merchants from the fair, the reporter recognizes that “there are illegal sellers but also legal ones who are authorized.”

A Former Officer Insists That 13 Soldiers Died in Melones Because “Protocols Were Violated”

“Those children were ordered to be killed because the correct thing to do is to evacuate immediately” in the face of the risk of explosion

A still from a documentary for Russian television about the underground facilities of the Armed Forces. / Screenshot/Zvezda

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguin, 25 January 2025 — Of the Cuban Army arsenal that exploded in Melones, Holguin, on January 7, only a few structures remain standing. The shock wave and the fire consumed everything, from the barracks to the war material whose detonation caused the death of 13 soldiers, nine of them young recruits. The conclusion is clear: “Protocols were violated there.”

Speaking is a retired captain of the Armed Forces, interviewed on condition of anonymity by 14ymedio. His assessment of the case, as a former officer and in charge of weaponry in an Eastern Army unit, is that Melones is one of the most costly recent episodes of negligence for the Cuban people.

“The officers who lost their lives there knew the risk they were running; the soldiers did not,” the military man assures, categorically. “They knew what kind of military equipment was in there and how highly explosive it was.”

When the captain refers to “in there,” he refers to the labyrinth of underground tunnels that the arsenal consisted of. Cubans, accustomed to suspecting that “the mountains are hollow” due to the work and grace of the Army, cannot imagine the attention and resources that have been devoted to the construction of those warehouses, always adjacent to military units, which this newspaper’s source now describes in great detail. continue reading

The door of the Melones tunnels, and those of all the magazines in Cuba, are huge

“The door of the Melones tunnels, and those of all the magazines in Cuba, are huge,” he says. “It’s a big cement arch, an entrance where you can fit up to two war tanks, side by side. The doors are made of a special material, a mixture of lead, sand, iron and concrete.”

In Cuban military jargon, this combination of construction materials has a name that is reminiscent of the most thrilling years of the Cold War: the “anti-atomic league.”

The Melones tragedy took place in this scenario. Explosions screams, commands – negligent and carelessly issued in the heat of the moment, the captain says – and the recruits operating without understanding the caliber of the equipment. “Those kids were ordered to die,” he insists. “The correct protocol is immediate evacuation.”

“The Armed Forces have specialists in weaponry and explosives control, they even have technical forces trained in firefighting. They are what people call ’FAR firefighters,’” he explains. “People were not supposed to go in there, and the order that should have been given was to evacuate the facility and notify the right authorities.”

“Those tunnels were hermetically sealed. When there is a fire, if you open the mouth of the tunnel, you are oxygenating the fire.”

The military staff did just the opposite. “Those tunnels were hermetically sealed. When there is a fire, if you open the mouth of the tunnel – that huge, heavy door – you are oxygenating the fire. They opened the mouth of the tunnel and went in carelessly.” According to some of his former colleagues who were aware of other details of the explosion, with whom he has discussed the case, toxic gases were already coming out of the Melones tunnel.

“They went in there and then the oxygen fueled the flames,” he continues. “There were two soldiers who tried to get in. One came out coughing, asphyxiated by the fumes and smoke. The other was the one who didn’t want to go in and said he would rather go to prison than die. A few minutes later, the tunnels exploded”.

The case is reminiscent of the 2020 explosion in the military unit of La Púa, in the town of Velasco -just 50 kilometers from Melones. What exploded then was also an ammunition warehouse “in poor condition.” Silos with bullets, rifles, various types of machinery. The mushroom of yellowish smoke that rose over the arsenal, photographed by the villagers, was almost identical to that of Melones.

The big difference, the former officer stresses, was that in La Púa the 1,245 inhabitants of the village were evacuated quickly and that, as the official note on the explosion stated, “there was no loss of human lives.” Besides, “that unit had less explosive material than the magazine of Melones.”

The Ministry of the Armed Forces will keep secret how much equipment exploded in Melones and what operation was being carried out there

There are other recent cases, all similar, that point to the obsoleteness of the equipment stored in the subway magazines of the Armed Forces. Almost everything dates back to the Soviet era when Fidel Castro intended to arm the country to the teeth. In 2017, a silo exploded in Songo-La Maya, Santiago de Cuba; in 2011, an ammunition depot exploded in Boyeros, Havana; in 2000, another warehouse blew up 20 kilometers from Matanzas.

Cubans know that, despite the death of the 13 soldiers, the Ministry of the Armed Forces will keep secret how much equipment exploded in Melones and exactly what operation was being carried out in the unit before the incident. “There are still sporadic explosions there,” confirms the former captain interviewed by 14ymedio.

“The government will never admit it, but there was negligence,” he insists. “There would have been material damage, of course, but all those lives could have been saved. Not one would have been lost.”

Translated by LAR

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Due to Shortages of Cattle and Chickens, Slaughterhouses in Holguin, Cuba, are Cutting Staff

Meat deboning at a plant in Mayarí, Holguín. / Trabajadores

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguin, 20 January 2025 — Employees of state-owned companies in Holguín are going through uncertain times. The successive staff reductions seem to have no end and another cut is expected in the month of February. The most affected entities are those linked to food production and processing, hit by low agricultural and livestock production, sources in the sector confirmed to 14ymedio.

“Every time I go to work I think that it will be the last day I will go.” With more than 20 years at the Felipe Fuentes Fernández Meat Combine, belonging to the Holguín Meat Company, Gerardo, age 45, is one of the most veteran employees of the state entity. However, his permanence in his position hangs by a thread. “Last year there was a staff reduction and they already announced another one for February. Right now we are about 200 workers and that number could be halved.”

The reason for the staff cuts is “the low number of animals to process,” Gerardo says. “We spent almost all of last year with our arms crossed because we weren’t getting any cattle. During that time, they put us to mow green areas and do beautification work in the surroundings, but the meat itself, we hardly touched it.”

In 2023 alone, more than 7,400 heads of cattle were lost in the province due to theft and illegal slaughter

The company receives mainly cattle farmers from Holguín must deliver as part of their commitments with the state monopoly Acopio. Although the quantity is agreed upon at the beginning of each year, it is increasingly continue reading

common for producers to fail to comply with the agreement and justify their cuts based on the drought, the lack of animal feed and the scourge of theft and illegal slaughter of their livestock.

In 2023 alone, more than 7,400 heads of cattle were lost in the province due to theft and illegal slaughter, according to data provided by the local newspaper ¡Ahora!. In total, taking into account other factors such as terrain conditions, diseases and feed, of the 307,053 heads that the province had in January of that year, 38,319 were culled in just eleven months.

Of these cattle “discounted” from the provincial inventory, 19% corresponded to crimes of theft and illegal slaughter, while 52% were classified as deaths due to different factors. This resulted in the loss of almost three million tons of meat and more than 4.5 million liters of milk that could have been dedicated to the population’s consumption.

“Our company supplies tourists, maternity homes and hospitals,” Gerardo continues. “When the animals arrive, they are separated into ’prime cattle’ for hotels and those for social orders, but now we lack cattle for both destinations, so most of the hotels in this province are stocking up on imported products that give them more stability in supply and higher quality, while we cannot meet our social commitments either.”

“During that time without animals, we painted, we did maintenance, we looked like a construction brigade”

“During that time without animals, we painted, we did maintenance, we looked like a construction brigade instead of workers from a place where pot roast, mincemeat, ribs, steaks and even bones are produced.” Towards the end of last year “a few animals came in, all quite thin, because the guajiros say they have almost no food to give them. On the days when we received the most, there were 15 or 20 cows, when a few years ago there were more than 100 each day.”

The discontent over the cuts in the workforce is worsening at the Combinado because “they are not reducing the administrative and management staff equally, here they are removing workers from the corrals, refrigerators, slaughterhouse and packing plant areas but in the offices no one has been touched. The bureaucrats will remain in their chairs and those of us in the production area are the most affected.”

Another of the state-owned companies that is failing on all sides and preparing to cut staff is the main poultry slaughterhouse in the province, located in San Rafael Adentro, at kilometer 5 and a half on the Mayarí highway. “This company never had 15 workers,” says Yaquelín, one of the employees who expects to be removed from the workforce in a few days, when the new layoffs are announced.

“We belong to the Ministry of Agriculture and we are among the companies where workers have the lowest salaries,” the employee explained to this newspaper. “Here, most salaries do not exceed 2,500 pesos a month, and you cannot even buy a carton of eggs* with that money.” “They are going to reduce positions and the equipment, such as the executives’ cars, and they will be moved to the main headquarters of the Provincial Poultry Company.”

“We were told that 50% of the workers would stay, now there are about 60 of us so maybe 30 will stay.” So far, the workers have received the offer to be relocated as security personnel in other companies linked to the poultry sector. “I have already done several night shifts, as preparation, in an egg warehouse belonging to Acopio, but I am not going to stay in that position because it is dangerous and at night you can’t even see your hands.”

In the middle of last year, the slaughterhouse was in the news because at least 54,000 laying hens had to be slaughtered on the premises due to the impossibility of keeping them because of the lack of animal feed. “Before, you would pass by these sheds and the sound of the animals would barely let you hear what another worker was saying,” Yaquelín says. Now silence spreads, and with that calm fear also spreads among the workers. “This is going to end up dismantled if it continues like this.”

*Translator’s note: This is literally true. Eggs are sold in cartons of 30, which currently cost about 3,500 pesos.
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“We Family Members Have Been Banned From Posting on Social Media Because Enemies Take Advantage of It To Harm the Country”

The “Explosion process” at Melones is still “active” and “it is still not possible to go in,” according to the authorities.

The government reported that it has “protected” several hundred people residing in the vicinity of the facility / Facebook/Joel Queipo Ruiz

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 10 January 2025 — The obsolete weapons stored in the military warehouse that exploded on January 7 in Melones, in the municipality of Rafael Freyre in Holguín, are still in the “process of explosions” and the experts have not yet been able to reach the site. Three days after the first detonation and with 13 people missing – most of them military service conscripts – the despair of the families is increasing.

“There are several mothers with nervous breakdowns because they are only told to be calm, but they do not make any progress in the search,” a relative of the family of one of the young soldiers told 14ymedio. “The mother of one of the boys from the military service who is missing is my friend and she is devastated. Yesterday she tried to go out on her own to the military base to look for her son and we had to stop her, but the lack of response is enormous, they only tell us that we have to wait.”

According to the head of the Communist Party in the province and member of the Central Committee, Joel Queipo Ruiz, the security forces have authorized the return of some displaced persons to houses “located at a radius distance that no longer poses any danger.” As for the “specialized actions, they continue to be carried out within the limits of a certain radius outward from the center of the place.”

Queipo, who referred to the warehouse as a “wrecked facility,” did not give a date for the search of the missing people, he said he is in contact with their relatives. The area is still dangerous for the “physical safety of any continue reading

human action,” he said. “As soon as conditions permit, the site will be accessed with all the established protective measures.”

“We are also afraid,” adds the source interviewed by 14ymedio, “because we have been told that we cannot talk about this with anyone or post anything on social media because enemies are taking advantage of what has happened to harm the country. I have my WhatsApp full of messages from our relatives who live in other parts of Holguín and I am afraid to answer them because I don’t know if something will happen to me.”

According to the source, “the officers’ families are handling this differently because many of them are very involved people, people from the government, and they know that their husband or son had chosen a job that involves risks. But the conscripts’s parents do not have that strength because they were not there because they wanted to be, they were forced. My friend’s son sometimes said that they were forced to move ammunition, but he talked about it as if everything was under control as if there was no danger.

Several accounts of failed attempts to approach the area have circulated in the official press

“I haven’t said anything to him, but I already have set up a little altar in my house with his picture and a candle. It’s not because I think he’s dead, but if he’s alive he’s also going to need that to get out of there.” She says there are two nerve-wracking issues: “not knowing if he is alive or dead and thinking, about what he could have suffered if he died and if perhaps he was trapped and it was something very painful and long.”

The official press has circulated several stories of failed attempts to approach the area. One of them, published in the State newspaper Granma, was about the president of the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power of Rafael Freyre, Alexis Driggs Gómez. The leader, according to the newspaper, “bears on his forehead, between his eyes, the mark of the impact of a shard of glass from the first big explosion that occurred in the Military Unit.”

Driggs was in the area with a group of military personnel at 2 a.m. when the shock wave from one of the detonations threw them to the ground, “amid a cloud of particles, dirt and dust flying in all directions.”

Authorities have not said much about the details of the accident itself, although it is estimated that there have been at least two separate explosions on the first day, and many more in the following days. Without information on how much military material was stored at Melones it is impossible to get an accurate idea of how much more ammunition will blow up in the area.

Translated by LAR

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Some Relatives of the 13 Missing From the Explosion in Cuba Criticize the Military’s Decision To Delay the Rescue

More details are known about the victims of the Melones explosion in Holguín
The alert has been extended to Sancti Spíritus, where helicopters fly over the weapon silos on the Zaza road

’Granma’ does not specify how many explosions there were in total, but in the videos spread on social networks by eyewitnesses can be seen at least two explosions that occurred during the day. / Screen capture

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 9 January 2024 — “We are doing what we can.” The response of the authorities is invariable when approaching the relatives of the 13 soldiers who disappeared after the explosions that occurred on Tuesday at the Melones base, in the municipality of Rafael Freyre, in Holguín. As explained to 14ymedio by the aunt of one of the young recruits affected, who asks for anonymity, the local government officials themselves visit the homes but are not able to give the families concrete information.

They hope, says this same source, that the soldiers – nine recruits of the Active Military Service (SMA) and four officers – “have managed to enter a security tunnel near the site of the explosion, to which they had access.” The woman continues: “They say that when they manage to lower the temperature of the place they will look there specifically, because it’s the only hope of finding them alive.”

One of them, Leinier Jorge Sánchez, only 18 years old, is the son of Gretel María Franco, secretary of the president of the Municipal Assembly of Popular Power of Rafael Freyre, Alexis Driggs Gómez, as confirmed to this newspaper by several local residents.

The shock wave of the explosion that happened “impacted them all, throwing them to the floor”

Driggs Gómez himself was injured in one of the explosions, as the State newspaper Granma published this Thursday: “He carries on his forehead, between his eyes, the imprint of the impact of a glass fragment caused by the first large explosion that occurred in the Military Unit.” The text details that the municipal president, along with several military authorities, “had reached the vicinity of a burned silo, where the military chief explained to them the continue reading

magnitude of the danger that threatened the residents in the vicinity and the need for a quick evacuation.”

The shock wave of the explosion that occurred, the article continues, “hit them all, throwing them to the floor in the middle of a cloud of particles, dirt and dust flying in all directions.”

After that first explosion, “around two in the morning,” Yamilé Suárez Serrano, one of the evacuees from the hamlet of Sao Nuevo, whose home served as an “address post” in the first hours, told Granma that “the warning was set in motion,” and “later the means of transport arrived.” The first evacuated were the elderly, children and pregnant women, said the same source, who is also the mother of a People’s Power delegate in the area.

The Communist Party newspaper does not specify how many explosions there were in total, but in the videos spread on social networks by eyewitnesses can be seen at least two that occurred during the day.

On Wednesday afternoon, says the official newspaper, “a press group gained the closest possible access to the damage.” “Columns of smoke still crowned several elevations,” although “no explosions have been reported since early Wednesday morning.”

More than 490 residents in the rural constituency of Sao Redondo, according to official information, were transferred to “safe places,” as were residents of Sao Nuevo, El Cerro and the town of Melones itself. Granma sources highlighted “the creation of rural brigades” that guarded “homes with the belongings of those transferred to evacuation centers and protected the homes of family and friends, in the municipal capital and in other places.”

General Ramón Pardo Guerra, 88, described the event as a “disaster of technological origin”

The report also indicates that “surveillance is constant with the use of various means, including unmanned aerial vehicles (drones).” According to sources from 14ymedio, the alert went throughout the country. In Sancti Spíritus, this Thursday “helicopters are flying over the city in the northern part, specifically over the weapon silos on the Zaza road,” says a former SMA recruit in that area. “In addition, you can see the coming and going of cars with soldiers.”

In the official press, the authorities claim that they showed “courage and responsibility” and that in the “area of greatest danger from the first moment” the “main heads of the Eastern Army and the Military Region of Holguín have been there, as well as Joel Queipo Ruiz, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and first secretary of the organization in Holguín territory, also Manuel Hernández Aguilera, governor of Holguín, and members of the Defense Council of the Municipality and other local authorities.”

The head of the National Civil Defense General Staff, General Ramón Pardo Guerra, 88, described the event as a “disaster of technological origin,” without specifying why he used this term, although he added that the causes were still being investigated.

However, the opinion of family members, who vent on social networks, is very different. Jesús Antonio, uncle of Liander José García Oliva who is missing, posted,”I feel that the right thing is not being done; I feel that those children are still alive but nothing is being done to save them. They are leaving them to God’s fate, because we know that they have not tried to look for them. And what hurts the most is that they had the courage to risk them all, but now none of them want to risk it for those children, whom they forced to do the dirty work that didn’t correspond to their rank.”

Jesús Antonio says that they are still waiting for the return home of the recruits, and adds: “All parents and close or distant relatives should come together and make it come true. Tell them to stop lying and do what they have to do, which is to give their lives to try to save those whom they forced to be there.”

More commentators joined his wish, such as Yeikel del Valle, who says that his ex-brother-in-law and uncle of his daughter is also among the victims, and Camila Ching, who says: “Very true, I have the brother of a dear friend on that list and there are no answers. It is not fair to leave them to the fate of what may happen.”

Leandro Pérez Alberteriz says he is “available in case they need volunteers. Those words are very well written. My first cousin is also among the missing, and they aren’t doing anything to get them out.”

From testimonies of relatives and comments on Facebook, it is possible to reconstruct scraps of the biographies of the disappeared.

Among the nine SMA recruits are a Japanese cartoon enthusiast and a future chef, and some who were only a few months away from demobilizing. Most are residents of the vicinity of the Melones base or other Holguin municipalities.

Leinier Jorge Sánchez, only 18 years old, is the son of Gretel María Franco, secretary of the president of the Municipal Assembly of Popular Power of Rafael Freyre

Along with the aforementioned Leinier Jorge Sánchez and Liander José García Oliva, the list of recruits consists of Brian Lázaro Rojas Long (from the community of Esterito, in the municipality of Banes), Yunior Hernández Rojas (originally from Holguín), Rayme Rojas Rojas (born in 2004), José Carlos Guerrero García (only 19 years old), Frank Antonio Hidalgo Almaguer (neighbor of the municipality of San Andrés), Carlos Alejandro Acosta Silva and Héctor Adrián Batista Zayas (from Las Tunas).

Among the officers is Major Carlos Carreño (from Santiago de Cuba, married and with a child), the second non-commissioned officer Orlebanis Tamé Torres, with a military degree also obtained by Yoennis Pérez Durán, a graduate of electrical engineering, as well as Major Leonar Palma Matos (also the father of a son).

Their identities were made public by the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces almost 12 hours after the event occurred, and after long hours of rumors and uncertainty.

These types of accidents are not rare in military installations such as Melones. In the first hours of the event, news was spread by mistake – even by the official press – that the damaged warehouse was the same one that in 2020 also suffered two morning explosions in Gibara, about 50 kilometers from Rafael Freyre.

In addition, in June 2017 there was a similar event, this time in Santiago de Cuba, when several explosions occurred in the municipality of Songo-La Maya, near the Ti Arriba military unit .

Then, half a thousand neighbors were evacuated for five days, without anyone giving them an explanation about the incident, which did not cause more damage than the consequences, reported by the residents, of leaving their animals abandoned for several days.

Last 2024, three workers died in several explosions at the Ernesto Che Guevara Industrial Military Company (EMI), located in La Campana, in Manicaragua, Villa Clara. In these cases, accidents occurred when employees handled potentially dangerous explosives.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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To Have Internet Despite Etecsa, Cubans Need a Bamboo Cane and 10 Meters of Cable

Cuban antennas are made of aluminum and plastic, and have become the queens of rooftops.

Next to one of Etecsa’s tower-antennas, the homemade devices look a bit pathetic.

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 3 December 2024. At first glance, they look like gadgets from a science fiction movie. Made from aluminum and plastic pieces and perched on top of a long bamboo pole, these antennas for amplifying 4G signal have become the queens of the rooftops in Cuba. Born of scarcity and ingenuity, they are the stars of the latest chapter in the Cuban fight against Etecsa, the communications monopoly on the Island.

Walking around Holguin in search of an antenna can, in fact, become a plot out of Star Wars or Dune. The setting is a planet in ruins: ramshackle buildings, oppressive heat and unfriendly faces. When you finally get – by way of acquaintances and contacts – the details of an “inventor”, you have to pay between 4,500 and 5,000 pesos to take home the gadget along with its cable.

You have no choice. No antenna means no internet, and no internet means no entertainment. The weight of reality without that little six-inch screen – a portal to entire galaxies of escape – is too suffocating. If the antenna is effective, the mental anesthesia is greater.

Getting the device in parts is another adventure. The coaxial cable costs 110 pesos a meter and it takes quite a bit of height -about 10 meters, if you add a house and the almost three meters of the rod- to get an improved signal. The pole, a long bamboo cane or a branch similar to the one used to cut guavas in backyards, can be obtained in one of the fields near the city. continue reading

Coaxial cable costs 110 pesos a meter and it takes a lot of height to get a better signal / 14ymedio

Next to one of Etecsa’s antenna-towers, the home-made devices look a little pitiful. But what they lack in technology they make up in numbers: most neighbourhoods have two or three of these stakes, with the device on top: a shaft with small circular brass attachments, pointing to the source of the signal. In theory, although antenna manufacturing is not an exact science, it works.

The Cubans raising their antennas today are the successors of those who, until very recently, painstakingly sanded aluminum tubes, made a booster and hoisted heavy devices to pick up U.S. television. Many did not even understand English, but that succession of commercials, talk shows and car dealership ads was enough to thrill anyone who looked at the Panda’s screen.

There were plenty of “radio aficionado” groups, who took advantage of a kind of state-sanctioned loophole to traffic in cables and parts under the guise of being radio enthusiasts. Adapted to the times they live in, Cubans now form “antenna groups” on WhatsApp or Facebook, where, like in space taverns, they share ideas and tricks to perfect their inventions.

What happens in Holguín happens everywhere in Cuba. Even if the coverage is on the ground, if you place the phone on the attachment connected to the antenna -a rustic base with a small metal contact-the cell phone acquires superpowers. Or at least the Cuban equivalent of a superpower: having Internet despite Etecsa.

Translated by GH

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In Holguín, Cuba, the Windows of Hard Currency Stores Are Kept Covered for Fear of Being Stoned

“We Holguin residents are such that if they prick us we don’t even bleed”

Hard currency stores have been a frequent target of stone throwing in Cuba. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 25 October 2024 — Although the people of Holguín only have memories of October’s Hurricane Oscar, the El Nickel store, located at the intersection of Frexes and Máximo Gómez streets, still has its windows covered with panels. The reason for protecting the windows is not due to the winds or rains that the meteor brought to the province, but rather the authorities’ fear that popular indignation over the long blackouts will lead to a barrage of stones against the trade in freely convertible currency (MLC).

This Thursday, the downtown store offered a few goods, diminished by the lack of supplies and the compulsive purchases of customers who managed to prepare with canned goods, cookies and batteries for Oscar’s passage. “It seems that the windows will stay like this for a few more days, because we know that people here are very upset,” said Yunior, a driver of an electric tricycle that provides merchandise transport services on the outskirts of El Nickel. The social anger is summed up for the driver in a more than graphic phrase: “We Holguiners are such that if they prick us we don’t even bleed.”

Hard currency stores have been a frequent target of stone throwing in Cuba. The high prices and social inequalities that these businesses have contributed to aggravating are the fundamental fuel for these actions. The Holguin store sells household appliances, parts and accessories for motorcycles and cars, as well as sports equipment and food. “There are bicycles in there that cost 699 MLC, they have been there since the beginning and they have not been able to sell a single one,” Yunior criticizes. “In the four years since they turned El Nickel into a hard currency store, they have not reduced the price of those bicycles by a single dollar, despite the problems with transportation in this city.” continue reading

Other currency exchanges also keep their windows protected, which worsens the lighting inside.

Other foreign exchange markets also keep their windows covered, which worsens the lighting inside. “The height of absurdity, you go in and you can hardly see the products on sale because the few light bulbs that are on — when there is electricity, barely give a little light” — lamented a customer in another store in the MLC in downtown Holguin. Residents of the city have already experienced other moments of covered windows, such as in the days following the popular protests of July 11, 2021. “You can measure the degree of people’s discontent and the government’s fear by going around these stores to see if the windows are covered,” she adds.

This week, judging by the wooden planks covering the façade of El Nickel, it can be concluded that the discontent of the people of Holguín is high and so is the fear of the authorities.

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A Young Woman Was Murdered in Holguín, Cuba, by Her Ex-Husband, Who Was Blackmailing Her

Yoannia Hernandez had a four-year-old daughter from a new relationship and wanted to move abroad

Yoannia Hernández had been an art instructor and was the mother of a girl, who was orphaned at the age of four. / Facebook

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 31 October 2024 — Yoannia Hernández was murdered by her ex-husband early Thursday morning in the 26 de Julio neighborhood of the city of Holguín. According to a resident of the area who spoke to 14ymedio , the attacker had a history of violence. “A few years ago he stabbed a neighbor of mine,” said the same source, who knew the victim well.

The 32-year-old woman, known to her family and friends as Yuyi, had been an art instructor and had a daughter with a foreign man, who has now been orphaned at the age of four. Although she lived in Holguín, this neighbor explains, Hernández frequently traveled outside the island. Meanwhile, her relatives say, the alleged murderer harassed her.

“He blackmailed her and asked her for money for his vices and his habits,” said another neighbor. “He killed her in front of a group of people, it was not in private. Several people said she said ‘I told you no, I won’t give you any more’, and then he grabbed her by the arm, stood up and stabbed her.” continue reading

With this femicide, there are 41 sexist crimes in Cuba so far this year, according to the ’14ymedio’ registry

They also say that the young woman had previously sought legal advice to take her daughter out of Cuba to a European country, which the sources cannot specify, and where the girl’s father resides.

With this femicide, there are now 41 such crimes in Cuba so far this year, according to 14ymedio’s records. The most recent known murder was that of Tamara Carreras Martínez, 57 years old and a resident of Santiago de Cuba, last Thursday. Her partner and alleged aggressor was later attacked by local residents.

Before her, also in Santiago de Cuba, the femicide of Yucleidis Morales was confirmed.

The murder of Yoannia Hernández in the early hours of Thursday morning took place two days after the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw) issued its observations on the island, which included a section dedicated to gender violence.

In this regard, the organization asked the government to incorporate the crime of “femicide” in the Penal Code, to “raise awareness and public recognition,” “strengthen measures to prevent, prosecute and punish perpetrators of cases of gender violence against women,” and establish shelters throughout the State, “including in collaboration with civil society organizations.”

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“At Least Until Wednesday, There Will Be No Electricty in Sancti Spíritus”

In Holguín, hospitals are in the dark, and anguish is growing before the arrival of Hurricane Oscar
There are mile-long lines to buy propane to cook food before it rots in the refrigerators

The situation has escaped the hands of the authorities / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García/Miguel García, Sancti Spíritus/Holguín, 20 October 2024 — When Olimpia saw last Friday that her entire neighborhood in Sancti Spíritus was in a blackout, she thought that the episode was just one more of the many they have been having for weeks, when the daily deficit of the Electric Union did not fall below 1,000 megawatts. It was not until a neighbor uttered the words “total disconnection” that her concern skyrocketed. In the last two days, her block only recovered service once, this Sunday morning, only to lose it again soon after.

“The whole night all of Sancti Spíritus was in the dark,” explains the woman, who has seen the city transform into a ghost town in a few hours. “People only go out to buy food, but there is not even that. Many have lost all the food they had because without a refrigerator it begins to rot. The bread that is mainly supplied by private bakeries also suddenly disappeared,” she says.

Olimpia explains that the bread from the bodega (ration store) continues to arrive, but – she highlights – those places have not been spared from the consequences of the general blackout. “Since there is no current, they are selling all the rationed chicken that came in for the ration quota until it runs out in all the bodegas. It’s one small piece of chicken thigh, but people buy it even if they have to cook it right away so it doesn’t spoil.”

Olimpia, like other Cubans, saw her parents and grandparents “resolve” with what they could to overcome any situation. The inventiveness she received by inheritance, however, did not prepare her for a situation like the present one, she says. “People are going crazy watching what they eat, how they cook. Gas lines have become impossible. They suspended the tickets in the on-line application because, since there is no connection, there is no way to know if it was your turn. Only the physical line works. I signed up and have a number close to 700,” she says. continue reading

The bodegas have started selling the rationed chicken to prevent it from spoiling / 14ymedio

The alternatives in these days of uncertainty, she says, are few: “In several places they sold some broth for eight pesos.” In practice, Cubans have had to manage as they can. “This morning I was able to charge my generator and am using it only for the fridge, so that my meat doesn’t spoil. Otherwise, I stay in the dark,” she states.

Olimpia has been able to communicate very little with her family, which she finds – as she explains – as uninformed as she is. “The radio works occasionally. This morning I was able to listen to it for three or four hours, but the news gave little information, and the only useful thing they said is that in this area, at least until Wednesday, there will be no electricty.” The internet connection, she continues, has also been “terrible” these days. “The cell phone continues to show 3G or 4G, but in reality you can’t send messages or make calls. The information that people have is what they hear from the neighbor, who in turn heard it from someone else.”

The movement of the authorities also does not give any indication that there will be changes soon. “There is an orientation for workplaces that they cannot turn on the generators, and those who turn them on out of necessity cannot turn on air conditioners or computers. Only the essentials. The transport is not working either. There is only one bus going around in the mornings, but there are almost no people on the streets.”

One thing, however, has caught Olympia’s attention these last few days: “The military is running around like crazy ants.” “There are policemen and agents everywhere, especially those in green uniforms that say Operational Guard. I don’t know what they are doing, but they are mobilized,” explains the woman, who saw an army vehicle pick up two neighbors from her block. “The wife of one of them told me that she has not yet heard from him,” she adds.

In Holguín, Manuel has seen the same symptoms of the crisis. Refrigerators full of spoiled meals, the stench of garbage accumulated for days, the scarcity of water that begins to hit families and, to top it off, the arrival of Hurricane Oscar this Sunday that keeps the people distressed by the scarce resources they have and the little information they receive.

Many people have spent up to 12 hours in line to buy something / 14ymedio

“I had to go out to a field on the outskirts of the city to be able to contact my family. I got as close as I could to an antenna, and although the connection was bad, I was able to call. However, all the numbers I dialed were off or out of the coverage area,” Manuel explains .

The situation in the provincial capital, he summarizes, is “as everywhere”: dark. “I talked to my 70-year-old grandmother, who lives in the San Rafael neighborhood, and she told me that she had to cook with wood,” says Manuel, who explains that in recent hours the residents in the city have bought out the propane tanks to stock up before the effects of Oscar are felt in the province. “The lines are miles-long, with hundreds of customers waiting to buy. There are people who got in line at two or three in the morning, and after 12 hours they are still there,” he says.

A visit with his sick mother in the Lucía Iñiguez Surgical Clinical Hospital allowed him to see a side of the crisis that he would never have imagined. “Everywhere they say that electricity has been prioritized to hospitals, but when I entered all the doctors were giving consultations in the dark,” he recalls.

The tension, he explains, could be felt in the corridors, where even the doctors and nurses openly expressed their discontent. “I passed by a consultation and listened to a doctor, very frustrated because there is no staff even to perform operations. At the moment they are only attending to emergencies, but the situation worsens as the cases accumulate,” says Manuel, who heard the health worker complain about the lack of resources. “He said that he recently had to give a patient a list of everything he had to get to have an operation, from syringes and catheters to antibiotics and topical anesthesia,” he adds.

I also heard two nurses complain that Public Health does not give them time off because many people have left. There is a lack of staff in the internal pharmacy, in the operating rooms, in the specialist consultations,” he lists, saying that, at first glance, you can see that “the hospital is almost empty.”

The situation has escaped the hands of the authorities, who do not even efficiently reach the population to explain the collapse of the SEN or the arrival of Hurricane Oscar. And the confluence of the two worries Cubans. “Since they reported this disaster at the national level, people are very upset,” reflects Olimpia, who soon abandons the theme and returns to reality: “What are we going to do? Where are we going to go?”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Fifteen Years Waiting For A Food Store In Cayo de Mayabe

This July 26th the residents of the ceramicists’ community of Holguín didn’t have their dream fulfilled

Weeds and scrub have begun to grow around the structure / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 27 July 2024 – The residents of Cayo de Mayabe, a village in the district of Holguín, have spent more than 20 years asking for the construction of a food store that would allow them to get their groceries locally without having to traipse to the main town four kilometres away. This year, with the characteristic slowness of all state projects, the first bricks were finally laid, but at this point the residents are already expecting that the whole thing will be of no use to them at all.

“We’ve been begging for a long time for a food shop and when they do finally get round to it there’s no food to sell”, complains one woman from the village. With the walls now built and temporary zinc roofing in place, the structure, however, seems to be taking one step forward and two steps back. “They had put in some aluminium doors and doorframes but after a short while they got stolen. They haven’t been back to start the joinery”, she says.

According to the residents of Cayo de Mayabe, they had expected that the building would include not only space for the market but also for a pharmacy. The project would be a big help for the hundreds of locals who have to travel frequently to the Pueblo Nuevo district of Holguín where they are registered for food rations. continue reading

They had expected that the building would include not only space for the market but also for a pharmacy

However, the slow pace of construction of the mixed premises is driving the neighbours to despair, having seen five months pass without anything more than the foundations and the walls being built.

The skeleton of the building has now even become filled with weeds, shrub and cacti, which wouldn’t survive if the cement or lime work were carried out at a proper, constant pace.

The residents of Cayo Mayabe – a community made up principally of ceramicists, who make bricks and tiles – were hoping that by this 26th of July (the date when the regime insists on renovating towns to simulate a festive atmosphere) the shop would already be selling vegetables and other foodstuffs.

However, the construction continues to be stalled, running the risk that, if the authorities keep letting time pass, the building will become weakened or will collapse and will need to be restarted from scratch. Many have even given up hope of having a functional food store: “If they didn’t open it 15 years ago when things were going better, then I don’t believe they’ll finish it now, when there’s nothing to build it with nor anything with which to stock it”.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Tourist Packages for Travelers with Autism Are An Insult for Cuban Patients

In the event of any health incident that a child with autism may suffer, “our work teams are professionals with extensive training and great empathy” / Medical Services Marketing Company

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 27 June 2024 — During Pedrín’s most recent visit to the dentist, three people were needed to hold him down, in addition to the stomatologist. With an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), any medical treatment that the 15-year-old teenager, who lives in the city of Holguín, needs becomes an ordeal for his parents due to the lack of protocols and resources for these cases in Cuban hospitals.

“We spent days waiting to get an appointment with the only dentist in the entire province who treats children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders,” Gabriel, age 44 and the father of the child, told 14ymedio. “The consulting room is in a very narrow space in the Pediatric Hospital and from the moment my son entered he became very upset, because he doesn’t like closed spaces,” he explains.

“I almost had to lie down on top of my child to immobilize him. My wife held his arms and my brother-in-law held his legs. There was no mechanism in place to keep him from getting up from the chair and Pedrín is strong because he weighs about 130 pounds.” Gabriel laments that “the place does not seem at all prepared to treat this type of case. More space and better conditions are needed.” continue reading

“There are practically no clinics in any speciality that are prepared to care for autistic children in this area”

“There is no amalgam for fillings in Holguín, so they had to put in a resin that is not very long-lasting.” The ephemeral nature of the material forces the family to go through the same ordeal again or accept the doctor’s advice: “Next time we’ll take him up to the room and give him general anesthesia,” a difficult decision for his parents to make, who fear that the sedative will aggravate the teenager’s health problems.

“There are practically no clinics in any speciality that are prepared to care for autistic children in this area when they have a health problem. I have to go and speak to the doctors beforehand and explain to them that he cannot be in a cramped space, that he cannot sit and wait for hours in a corridor for the doctor to call him. There is a great lack of understanding on the part of the staff at these centers.”

As Gabriel sees it, the island’s health system “is not prepared to manage the health situations that autistic children and their families face.” Most of the time, doctors “who have training in this type of patient are very scarce and in Holguín they are only in the provincial capital, so you have to travel long distances sometimes to do simple things like a dental check-up or to treat a small wound.”

Since my daughter began to show the first signs of autism, my husband and I have not been able to go on vacation anywhere

The testimony of Pedrín’s father contrasts with the recent announcement made by the Cuban Medical Services Marketing Company (CSMC) that it will offer foreign visitors arriving on the island a program for the care of children with autism spectrum disorders in the hotels of the northern keys in Ciego de Ávila.

Dr. Agnerys Cruz, director of the CSMC in that province, told Prensa Latina that the project will focus on the tourist destination Jardines del Rey. There, clients will be able to opt for “animal therapies in the dolphinariums of Cayos Coco and Cayos Guillermo,” in addition to specialized medical care to improve the well-being and quality of life of these children.

The initiative is the result of a collaboration between CSMC and the Canadian hotel chain Blue Diamond Resorts and also includes health tourism packages aimed at adults with social problems. “Interaction with aquatic mammals will be directed by specialized medical personnel and highly qualified trainers,” reads the announcement, which has not left a good impression on many Cuban families.

“It shows a lack of respect, because that’s what we, the parents of autistic children here in Holguín, have been asking for for years, that there be recreational options for our families who live with a lot of burden on their shoulders every day,” says Gabriel after learning the details of the new offerings for travelers. “I find it insulting that they offer those who don’t live here what they don’t offer us.” His discomfort is shared by other parents in a similar situation.

“Since my daughter began to show the first signs of autism, my husband and I have not been able to go on vacation anywhere,” laments Yaquelín, 32, mother of Rosslyn, 12. “When we have wanted to stay in one of those summer packages they sell to Cubans and we ask if the accommodation has some kind of protocol and comfort for children with this type of condition, they only give us evasive answers.”

“I can’t go and spend a couple of nights in a place where they don’t even offer the minimum for these cases”

“I can’t go and spend a couple of nights in a place where they don’t even offer the minimum for these cases: bathrooms for people with reduced mobility, as is the case with Rosslyn, who is in a wheelchair, or safety equipment around the pool. Some of these hotels don’t even have a first aid kit.”

For Yaquelín, a burning issue is food. “My daughter has become fixated on certain foods and doesn’t want to eat anything else. I have to give her fruit compote, beans or chicken every day, but she doesn’t accept eggs or rice, for example. She also refuses milk and some fruits.” Complying with this narrow eating pattern is a headache for the entire family with little income, given that the mother does not have a job and the father works in a department of the Ministry of Agriculture with a salary of around 5,000 pesos.

“In August of last year, the allocation of chicken for autistic children in the province of Holguín, which is three kilograms per month, was interrupted and was not reestablished until this May.” Achieving the return of the subsidized sale of the longed-for protein was not an easy task either: “Parents of autistic children had to complain to all the authorities, write on Facebook, send messages to [President] Miguel Díaz-Canel and to the National Assembly.”

Although the prices for the tourist package for families with autistic children have not yet been published on the Cuban Medical Services Marketing Agency’s website, an employee responded via social media with some details about the offer. “We want families to feel safe, comfortable and to enjoy themselves with their children without worries. Our staff is highly qualified and the facilities are comfortable and safe.”

“We want families to feel safe, comfortable and to enjoy themselves with their children without worries.”

In the event of any health incident that a child may suffer, “our work teams are professionals with extensive training and great empathy,” concluded the employee, who invited families to “come to Cuba to regain their smile, their peace of mind and to leave the care of the most precious thing in life, children, in the hands of first-class personnel.” Along with the luxury of the accommodations, the program promises to help these children develop skills and alleviate their isolation “caused by communication difficulties.”

Just over 300 kilometers from the northern keys of Ciego de Ávila, Pedrín’s family is preparing for the next visit to the dentist and is considering whether, on this occasion, they will have to rely on more arms to immobilize the teenager in the dental chair or, instead, accept the application of general anesthesia with the risks that it entails.

In Gabriel’s daydreams, he defines himself as “a lion” when it comes to fighting for his son’s quality of life, when that day comes he hopes to find a bright and spacious room, decorated with children’s motifs, a dentist, several smiling assistants and a professional and respectful protocol with the patient. In those dreams, there is all the necessary amalgam to close the gap in his little boy’s tooth, without having to buy a tourist package or pretend to be a foreigner.

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‘Acute Fever Syndrome’ Is What Dengue Is Now Called In Cuba So As Not To Raise Alarm

Two medical sources confirm to 14ymedio that they have received this instruction for their diagnoses

In hospitals, doctors do not have the reagents to diagnose dengue / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 2 August 2024 — After two weeks of barely being able to get out of bed and an early morning receiving hydration serum in the Vladimir Ilich Lenin General University Hospital in Holguín, Isabel, 64, seems to have gotten rid of dengue, though all her medical papers indicate that she had “acute fever syndrome,” the euphemism imposed by Public Health to avoid leaving a record of the current incidence of the virus on the Island.

“My son-in-law is a doctor, and when he saw that I had bruising in the abdominal area, a high fever and an inflamed liver, he diagnosed me at home,” Isabel explains to 14ymedio. With the clinical diagnosis from a direct relative, she also followed the clinic’s recommendations: rest, a lot of liquid and stay under a mosquito net to avoid bites that would infect others.

“I didn’t go to the hospital the first few days because they were going to tell me the same thing my son-in-law had already told me. Everyone knows how deteriorated the hospitals are, and there are many people filling up the emergency rooms with symptoms like mine.” But, when she was already on her seventh day with a high fever, “I began to feel very weak and had a very swollen abdomen, so I decided to go.” continue reading

Isabel went to the Lenin hospital and found the entire emergency room “full of people with the same symptoms”

Isabel went to the Lenin hospital and found the entire emergency room “full of people with the same symptoms.” She waited for her turn despite the discomfort that prevented her from sitting or lying down. “My liver and spleen were so inflamed that I could only stand, because if I sat down it hurt a lot, but standing made me quite tired; these were very difficult hours.”

“The first thing they told me was that there were no reagents to test for dengue, so I was never going to know exactly what I had,” she recalls. “The situation was very distressing, because if something happened to me, I wanted my family to at least know why. But every time I said the word ’dengue’ the doctors and nurses spoke to me quietly and changed the conversation. It gave me the feeling that they are forbidden to say the name of that virus.”

The waiting time was lengthened because “there were few medical staff; the stretchers were all occupied, and they had to pass one of the patients over the others in line because he fainted,” she says. “The scene reminded me of what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Finally, Isabel managed to be treated by a foreign student who was doing his internship in the hospital. “He was very kind but had nothing to give me. He just told me that I was dehydrated and my situation was delicate, although not as serious as other patients he had seen. He recommended that I get a saline serum as soon as possible.”

Isabel’s family found the serum themselves and were able to hook up a drip for her through a catheter. “Between one thing and another, my daughter spent more than 5,000 Cuban pesos that night.” Before the early hours of the morning, Isabel was lying down with the serum passing through a vein in her left arm. “That saved my life.”

Next door to Isabel’s family’s house in Reparto Peralta, an 86-year-old man died after presenting very similar symptoms

In the medical certificate she had to present at work for her days of absence, and in the treatment that the doctor wrote detailing her symptoms, a phrase caught Isabel’s attention. Instead of dengue, the condition was described as “acute fever syndrome.” She asked the doctor about that and showed him the bruises on the skin of her abdomen, legs and arms. But the answer was more bureaucratic than scientific: “That’s what they have told us to put down; we can’t write ’dengue’ anywhere.”

Next door to Isabel’s family in the Reparto Peralta, an 86-year-old man died after presenting symptoms very similar to those of the 64-year-old woman. “The death certificate given to the family says that it was a cardiac arrest after an acute fever syndrome.” The inaccuracy of the diagnosis has left his family in suspense. “It could also be the Oropouche virus but they don’t tell us anything.”

A doctor who works at the Holguín Pediatric Hospital confirms the avalanche of patients with fever and symptoms associated with dengue and Oropouche. “We can’t tell parents what we think the child has. We are directed to put ’acute fever syndrome’ in all cases,” she tells this newspaper under the condition of anonymity.

The doctor believes that the order is due to two reasons: “to prevent the number of dengue cases in Cuba that are reported to international organizations from skyrocketing because that affects tourism. In addition, they [the authorities of the Ministry of Public Health] don’t want people thinking that we are in an epidemic. We can’t cause more alarm because ‘the country doesn’t want to create more anxiety in the people’ was what they told us at a meeting.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Capped Prices in the Private Shops in Holguín, Anarchy in Havana

Many stores do not have any of the six items for sale with established prices.

Pelican, a private business in Holguín, this Tuesday / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Miguel García/Juan Diego Rodríguez, Holguín/Havana, 9 July 2024 — Curiosity and need come together in the private shops of Holguin, which this Tuesday have had a greater influx of customers than on other days. At the entrance to the premises, a board showed the new prices, which have been capped for basic products since July 8.

In one of the many points of sale visited by 14ymedio, the employees had just learned about the new regulation and changed, in view of the buyers, the numbers written next to each item . Although the oil and pasta were below the new amounts, the powdered milk went above the 1,675 pesos per kilo established by the Official Gazette.

In the kiosk managed by the MSME Bodegón Holguín, the line filling the sidewalk in front of the premises did not respond, however, to any of the six products that have been exempted from taxes on imports and which have capped prices. The crowd, in fact, was waiting to acquire the newly discounted instant soft drink packages, which are mainly intended for the school snack.

The capped price “is not going down because if that’s what’s legally allowed why sell it cheaper?”

This Monday, vegetable oil at 990 pesos per liter was now in line with the new regulation. But the price, instead of satisfying consumers, raised criticism among those who believe that once set at that limit, “it will not go down because if that is what is legally allowed, why sell it cheaper?” asked an elderly woman who arrived at the Bodegón. continue reading

With a pension of 1,420 pesos per month, she can’t benefit from the new prices. “There is a lot of disorganization with this measure. At the Chinese Fair there were several kiosks that have not even heard about it and still have cooking oil at more than 1,000 pesos per liter,” the woman complained. “I found chopped chicken at 370 and 380 pesos per pound in several places; it seems that they have not realized that it’s at 340.

In Havana, the panorama has not been very different. Some central businesses have opted for caution, while several places in El Vedado and the neighborhood of Cayo Hueso did not even have for sale what popular humor has already baptized as “the magnificent six.” Others displayed the new prices on their boards.

The EJT market shelves of 17 and K, in El Vedado, returned to their usual appearance / 14ymedio

On Reina Street, in the municipality of Centro Habana, on Monday the line was extended in front of a private business that announced a pound of chicken at 310 pesos. What was saved in money was lost in time, because the line could take up to two hours between getting a number and accessing the counter. The main cause of the delay, according to an employee, was that “we have to wait for them to bring more supplies.” They were exhausted due to the multiplied demand.

In Havana, the shelves of the Youth Labor Army [EJT] market at 17 and K, which last week appeared surprisingly empty in the face of the confusion due to the entry into force of the capped prices, returned to their usual appearance. However, they didn’t sell chicken. “The chicken is still kidnapped,” an old woman said with a sneer.

The prices in the informal market, through home delivery applications on social media groups that market everything from spaghetti to beef, were the same as a few days ago, unrelated to the new official guidelines.

“The big chicken thighs: I’m not lying. If you want quality, this is your option at 380 pesos per pound and we charge home delivery separately,” said an ad in a WhatsApp thread dedicated to food and cleaning products. In the photo that accompanied the ad you could see a package with the colors of the American flag and three letters: USA.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Snacks at Some Cuban Childcare Centers Have Been Reduced to a Piece of Boiled Sweet Potato and Water

The Food Monitor Program points to low food reserves in government warehouses.

Children spend about eight hours a day at the center and should be getting a balanced lunch and an afternoon snack / Little Volodya Childcare Center

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 8 June 2024 — The current economic crisis is having a serious impact on childcare centers in the city of Holguín. Children’s lunches have not included any source of protein for more than two weeks, only rice and dried peas. Afternoon snacks now only amount to a glass of water and a piece of bread, several parents told 14ymedio.

“We thought this was something would only last a day or two but the staff tells us there’s no indication things will get better, that their food supplies have basically run out,” says Daymara, whose daughter attends the Little Volodya Childcare Center. “Every day we have to send her off with a a sausage, a boiled egg or something else to round out her lunch.”

The children, who spend about eight hours a day, Monday through Friday, at the center, are supposed to receive a well-balanced lunch and an afternoon snack during that time. However, Cuba’s current economic crisis has been limiting the variety and quality of food they receive. “The rice is very low quality, the peas don’t taste like anything because they have almost no seasoning, and the afternoon bread is inedible because it’s so hard,” she adds.

A recent investigation by the Food Monitor Program, an independent observatory that researches food sovereignty and security, has been warning of the problem. After interviewing students and family members in four of the island’s provinces between January and March of 2023, the organization reported, “Low food reserves in government warehouses led to a shortage of protein in rations that were served at lunch while salads and fruits were completely absent.” continue reading

“I don’t know what I am going to do because I don’t have the money for a private daycare center”

“The other day my daughter told me that all they had given her was a piece of boiled sweet potato and some water,” explained Daymara. “I don’t know what I am going to do because I don’t have the money for a private daycare center and I can’t afford to keep sending her off with a hot dog or an egg every day. The last carton of eggs cost me almost 3,000 pesos. That’s 100 pesos apiece.”

In response to the meager rations, some families in Holguín have decided not to send their children to daycare centers for the time being. For many, however, that is not an option. “I live alone with my three-year-old grandson because my daughter left for Mexico to see if she could make it to the United States. I am physically impaired and it took a lot of effort on my part to get him into this daycare center,” says 72-year-old Raquel.

For the last few years, there has been a growing social divide in Cuba between those who can afford to put their children in private daycare centers, which have better sanitary conditions and fewer children, and those who depend on state-run facilities, which are marked by deteriorating infrastructure, the exodus of qualified staff and problems with food shortages.

When the boy goes to daycare, that’s when I do all my housework and go shopping for food,” explains the retiree. “But then he comes home very hungry. He tells me he didn’t want to eat lunch because it smelled bad, because it wasn’t good.” Raquel describes the moment when her grandson gets home: “He’s like a caged lion that is let loose. He runs to the refrigerator to see what he can find.”

“These days they’re very lethargic, like they’ve been anesthetized. Well, if they’re hungry, of course they’re not going to feel like playing or laughing much.”

The grandmother explains what it is like to pick up the boy from childcare every afternoon. “When you’re outside, you don’t hear the all the commotion like before. It used to be that, when you looked through the windows, they would be running and jumping. These days they’re very lethargic, like they’ve been anesthetized. Well, if they’re hungry, of course they’re not going to feel like playing or laughing much.”

The situation families in Holguín are experiencing is not an isolated case. Recently, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) included Cuba in its report on severe childhood poverty for the first time. It reported that 9% of the island’s children suffer from serious poverty and do not receive only two of the eight foods considered essential for good nutrition.

The UNICEF report, on which the official Cuban press has not yet commented, adds that 33% of minors (anyone aged five or younger) are living in moderate poverty. This means they have access to three and four of these foods. One does not need data from an international organization like UNICEF, however, to understand the scope of the problem. Just walking through the island’s streets is enough to notice that many children are suffering from significant weight loss and malnutrition.

Daymara does not believe the solution is for every family to send their children off with some sort of protein to round out their lunch. “There are households that can’t afford to do that,” she says. “One child might pull out a sausage but another child wouldn’t have any.” She believes it is a question of investment priorities. There is no doubt in her mind what should be at the top of any list. “Taking care of the children, giving them a good, balanced diet, because they are the future.”

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