Natalia López Moya – Page 4

‘Even Tourists Are Stranded on the Road Because There Is No Fuel in Cuba’

Traffic jam at Santa Ana and Boyeros of taxis waiting to get gasoline. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 10 April 2023 — Marta and Manuel, two Spaniards who arrived in Havana this Good Friday on the Air Europa flight, pass through the door of the José Martí international airport and come across a dark esplanade full of people holding signs with the name of a tourist. The taxi stand is empty. The lack of fuel has hit the strategic tourism sector, and the Madrid couple spends two hours waiting for a vehicle to take them to Old Havana.

“This is not how tourism can be recovered,” says the employee who manages the taxi stand. The man calls again and again on his mobile phone to the possible taxi drivers who relieve the long line that has been formed after the arrival of the European flight. But the answer he receives is almost the same: “I don’t have fuel.” After half an hour, a yellow Citröen arrives in front of the line of desperate travelers. “This is my last trip because what I have left of gasoline is not enough for another,” he says.

Several tourists hurry to get on the buses that will take them to Varadero and other resorts. “We are making the trips to leave the customers in the hotels but we have had to cut the excursions,” explains a driver who begins to read a list of British surnames to confirm the travelers he will take in his vehicle. “For almost a month we have only had fuel for transfers to and from the airport,” he emphasizes.

On the other side of the street, in the shadows, the drivers of several private vehicles load luggage into trunks and shout among themselves the coordinates to find fuel. “The Santa Catalina gas station has none; neither does Boyeros and Ayestarán although they told me that they saw a tank unloading an hour ago at the one on G and 25.” continue reading

The information, more valuable for filling the tank of the vehicle than the money itself, has created networks of solidarity among drivers who, in addition to spreading the word about where the supply has arrived, help each other in the lines in front of the gas station, which can last for days. “We are four taxi drivers and we take turns in line. The station that had fuel last week doesn’t have it anymore. We wouldn’t have a life if we had to be in line all the time,” explains a young man who rents a cab from the Taxi-Cuba Company.

“The tourists who arrive don’t know this, and some rent a car to go to the provinces; then they get stranded on the road because they can’t fill the tank,” the driver tells 14ymedio. “At first, passenger cars had priority, but if there is no gasoline, it doesn’t matter if you have priority. If there isn’t any there isn’t, and they can’t invent it.”

Marta and Manuel managed, after a long wait, to get into a vehicle on the way to a private rental house in the historic center of Havana. “Can we meet tomorrow for an excursion to the Zapata Swamp?” they inquired of the taxi driver. The payment proposal, an interesting amount of euros, would have been absolutely irresistible a few months ago, but the driver declines. “I can’t, this is the last gasoline I have left. Tomorrow I have to take care of getting more, and that will take me all day or all week.”

Rumors are circulating among taxi drivers that fuel problems will be solved on the 18th. In March, the British agency Reuters announced the shipment of oil from Venezuela that was going to be the largest in memory in a long time. The Nolan oil tanker, Panamanian-flagged and sanctioned by the United States, was in the Venezuelan port of San José loading 1.53 million barrels (400,000 barrels of oil and 1.13 of diesel), destined for Cuba.

Although the ship was supposed to arrive at the end of March, the shortage, visible at the Island’s gas stations, suggests that it arrived late or that the unloading has been slow. Radar positioned the Nolan for the last time off the coast of western Africa, but that was 111 days ago, and the sanctioned tankers travel with the transponder turned off to hide their location. The Venezuelan government opponent María Corina Machado said last week that the oil tanker was in the port of Antilla, in Holguín, according to a satellite application.

But the effects of the lack of fuel are not only noticed by tourists and Cubans who want to fill their tank. The blackouts are already back, and national television announced that a “complex” day is expected this Monday. Yesterday, Sunday, the deficit reached 368 megawatts (MW) at around 20:20, coinciding with peak time. Although the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba (UNE) assures that “this weekend it managed to meet the demand,” many Cubans have complained about more than three hours without power in different parts of the Island.

“Last night there was a blackout here from 10:27 pm until a little more than 1 am. I couldn’t rest well, and today we face the day to day to see how to survive,” lamented a woman from Cienfuegos. “I have just seen the list, and during the day there should be no problem, but in Remedios there is a deficit from 9 to 3 in the afternoon,” added another.

For today, UNE predicts a deficit of 200 MW, but 550 MW is expected to be missing at the peak. In its statement, the electricity monopoly speaks of a shortage in the distribution because of “failures and lack of maintenance,” correcting the information provided on television, which said that the lack of availability is due to “problems” in the distribution of fuel, which has not yet arrived.

“They don’t have oil because they don’t buy it, and they don’t pay for what they buy. Period.” says a user when reading the forecast for the day.

Meanwhile, the recovery work of the Antonio Guiteras de Matanzas thermoelectric plant continues after the accident that cost the lives of two people this Friday and injured two more when they were trapped by the collapse of a 23-foot high wall while cleaning the soot in the chimney of the plant. La Guiteras is the largest thermoelectric plant in the country, but last year it was out of service for more days than it produced energy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Between the Ballot and the Ticket To Leave the Island, Cubans Prefer To Emigrate

On Infanta Street this Wednesday, a young man in a ration store looked at one of the many official posters which, in these last weeks, promote a united vote for the parliamentary candidates.(14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 23 March 2023 — To vote or not to vote in the elections for Cuba’s Parliament, on March 26, is a dilemma in the face of which many Cubans have already taken sides. The economic crisis, lack of hope and little confidence in state institutions favor abstention in a country where not attending the polls is considered a political statement and can involve reprisals.

Among those who are overcoming fear and say that they will not vote are retirees whose pensions don’t go far enough, young people who have not known anything but scarcity since they were born and potential migrants who set their sights outside the Island. The dissatisfaction and mistrust that lay beneath the surface of Cuban society could materialize in an increase in abstentions this coming Sunday.

On Infanta Street this Wednesday, a young man in a ration store looked at one of the many official posters that in recent weeks promote a united vote for the parliamentary candidates. The colorful advertising stands out in the store, which has only a couple of products on display. On the counter, a small blackboard announces that allocation of cigarettes and cigars for the month of January are now being sold.

“I don’t even plan to go out that day, and I’m going to close the windows so they don’t bother me to go vote,” clarified another young woman who arrived at the bodega (ration store) to ask about the arrival of salt. “Two years ago I turned 16 and am on the electoral roll, but I’m not interested. I didn’t go to vote for the Family Code [in September 2022], and I’m not going to go this time either,” she says bluntly. continue reading

The reason borders more on indifference than on rebellion. “It’s not going to change anything if I go or not,” she tells 14ymedio. “My mother has been attending all those processes for 40 years and what does she have now? Nothing. A half-collapsed house, four old rags to wear and some children who only think about leaving this country as soon as they can.”

While she is speaking, an old woman arrives but doesn’t join the conversation. She makes a gesture of denial when she hears the young woman’s words. It is in the elderly where the official propaganda of the united vote and the attendance at the polls as a sign of support for the system penetrates with greater depth. They are the ones who are most afraid of change or have spent more years of their lives supporting the Government.

Maurín, 21, lives in the Havana neighborhood of San Pedro in the municipality of El Cotorro. In front of the door of his house extends a street that years ago lost some of its asphalt. Garbage accumulates on the nearby corner, while the line for the only kiosk that sells food in the area almost reaches his window. “How am I going to go to vote if they haven’t even fixed the basics?” the young man asks, indignant.

With an engineer father and a nurse mother, Maurín questions the role of the delegates of the National Assembly of People’s Power in his neighborhood and the ability of parliamentarians to improve the lives of citizens. “In San Pedro we have been demanding [from the delegates] for years and years in the Accountability meetings that they fix our streets, improve the quality of the bread and open new stores to buy food, but none of that has been resolved.”

Disbelief has taken over many of the residents in the area, a phenomenon that is repeated throughout the country. To try to arouse enthusiasm in recent weeks, the Cuban ruling party has launched a campaign that includes meetings with voters, an avalanche of advertising in the national media, the reduction of annoying blackouts, and agricultural fairs to sell food at prices a little cheaper than in private markets.

However, the ideological offensive does not seem to be bearing fruit among a population that is tired of so many daily difficulties. For Maritza, 64, until recently employed by a branch of the Ministry of Culture, it is striking how people in the streets no longer hide that they will not vote on Sunday.

The Government of Miguel Díaz-Canel seems to fear a growth in abstention, which for decades remained below 10% but has experienced a significant increase in recent years. In last November’s municipal elections it reached an all-time high with 30% of voters absent. For the ruling party, attendance is measured as a sign of support for the system and the Communist Party.

“In the line at the bank I heard two employees who were talking and saying that they were not going to vote on Sunday. For me it is unprecedented that in a state work center people talk so openly in frank defiance of the system,” she tells this newspaper. “Before, that was unthinkable, and it shows that between fear and defiance, many are choosing defiance.”

Cuban dissidents have also raised the tone in the calls for abstention as the electoral date approaches and, for the first time in a long time, they have agreed on the “I don’t vote” premise, which has been joined by activists of various political stripes.

In Santa Clara, Ignacio, 47 years old and self-employed, has also decided to abstain. “The deputies will not solve any problem because they are the gears of this machine but not its essence. They are mostly a group of puppets without voice or vote because everything in Cuba has always been planned in that manual of ’continuity’,” he says.

Ignacio recognizes that others will go to the polls but says their attendance is not exactly because of a belief that the National Assembly will help improve life on the Island. “One of the saddest things is the political apathy of these people and the hopelessness that leads them to vote or take any decision dictated by the Government, such as voting for everyone,” he emphasizes.

Others, such as Jorge, a 23-year-old university student and resident of Camajuaní, Villa Clara, recognizes that he will go to vote on March 26 because he feels that attendance is “practically mandatory.” He does not want to stand out publicly and prefers to avoid teacher retaliation that could result from not going.

However, he recognizes that no candidate for parliament represents him “because the politics they defend has nothing to do” with his way of thinking. “The election process will solve absolutely nothing. All leaders follow the same ideology and do not change anything once they are elected,” he concludes with skepticism.

There are also those who seem impervious to the official campaign for the March 26 elections and say they are not even aware that voting will take place. “I don’t care about that; I just want to survive every day and wait for my sister to find me a sponsor to go to the United States,” acknowledges 19-year-old Jean Marcos. “The only place I’m going to go is to the airport when I have my flight.”

Jean Marcos’ friends share his position. Given the choice between the ballot or the ticket, they all seem to opt for something that gets them out of Cuba as soon as possible.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Banco Central de Cuba Made in China

Along with the name, the Central Bank of Cuba, the notices say: “Made in China.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 9 March 2023 — One day there appeared a significant number of ATMs around Tulipán Street, in the Havana neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado. The nearby market of the Youth Labor Army, which attracts not only local residents but also buyers from other municipalities due to its lower prices and the availability of wholesale purchases, made them necessary.

In addition to Tulipán Street itself, there were more ATMs on the ground floor of the Ministry of Transport and in the Metropolitan Bank on Conill Street, and still more at a Cadeca, an exchange house, which in its time changed the now non-existent Cuban convertible pesos.

All these machines were deteriorating, broken down and, therefore, disappearing, without the authorities doing anything to replace them. To such an extent that the neighbors of Nuevo Vedado have to travel to other neighborhoods such as El Vedado, Centro Habana or even Old Havana to withdraw cash.

These days, people have been surprised to see signs announcing the reinstallation of ATMs on Tulipán Street. Along with the name, the Central Bank of Cuba, the papers say: “Made in China.” People do not know, because the end of the work has not been announced, when these machines will be ready, but, for the moment, they smile suspiciously at the paper sign.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Infanta Street in Havana, Where all the Miseries of Cuba Come Together

“There is no other option, to fill the tank you have to get cooked over slow heat,” complains a driver who, at the stroke of noon, had already been in line for two hours.

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 4 March 2023 — The sun itches, although the Lenten winds blow over Havana and ruffle the hair of passers-by. Inside a vehicle, in the long line to buy fuel at the corner of Infanta and San Rafael this Friday, the temperature is similar to what is experienced in the purgatory of May, or even a high that’s reached in the hell of August. “There is no other option, in order to fill the tank you have to get cooked over low heat,” laments a driver who at the stroke of noon had already been in line for two hours .

The cars almost touch. There’s a garish red Lada that a few years ago would have targeted its owner as a vice-minister or colonel; a tricycle to transport goods; several modern Citroëns that seem older than any almendrón* from the last century and even a taxi that demands 30 dollars to shuttle travelers who have recently arrived at the José Martí airport to the city. It doesn’t matter the year of manufacture, the state of the body, or the pedigree of the driver. They are all scorching equally under the sun.

“I no longer go around in circles. I come directly to gas stations on the main avenues, which are the best supplied ones,” the driver of a Russian-made Moskvitch with nickel-plated wheels, interior air conditioning and other amenities, though manufactured, as he admits, “in times of the CAME [Council for Mutual Economic Assistance], so it was not designed for savings,” he laments. The owner perceives the fuel supply in the city as a “see saw”: “One day they tell you that there is no problem and you can fill the tank, and the next you can only add a certain number of liters.” continue reading

It’s common for people to come to blows when the line slows down or when an employee yells that they’re out of diesel or hot dogs

In addition, several lines converge at the gas station at the popular corner of Centro Habana. The place has a small store that sells frozen products, across from it there is a property belonging to the Rápido chain, an attempt by the Cuban regime to emulate the reviled, by official discourse, McDonald’s and Subway, but it ended up capsizing due to the lack of raw materials and inflation and joined the network of regulated trade. When the day begins, in this nodal point of Centro Habana it is difficult to know who is there for a package of frozen chicken, a bag of detergent or a liter of gasoline.

The avenue, named in honor of Princess María Luisa Fernanda, youngest daughter of King Ferdinand VII and sister of Isabel II of Spain, is lacking in monarchy and has a surplus of misery. It’s common for people to come to blows when the line slows down or when an employee yells that they’re out of diesel or hot dogs. That’s when, in one of the most “royal” of Havana streets, people take off their flip-flops, shout obscenities and seem to be ready for anything. Then the March winds blow and everyone goes home.

*Translator’s note: Almendrón, from the ‘almond shape’ of the vehicles, is a term that refers to mid-20th century American cars, still plying the streets of Cuba, primarily as shared taxis for Cuban customers, and as ‘nostalgic’ tours for foreigners.

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A Pound of Sugar Approaches 200 pesos ($8.30) on the Informal Cuban Market

Sign in window: “We buy sugar.” A private business buys sugar from customers to make their chocolates. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 26 February 2023 — Rice and sugar seem to have launched a competition in Cuba to see which increases the most in price on the informal market. While rice already exceeds 200 pesos ($8.30) a pound in several areas of the Island, sugar, once the national emblem, is on its heels and also sells for around that number and, in some provinces, even exceeds it.

“I sell 17 pounds of sugar at 180 pesos if you buy them all; if you only want a part then it’s 190,” reads an ad published in a sales group on Facebook that in a few hours accumulated dozens of comments. “It’s in Central Havana and I don’t have home service,” said the informal merchant, who shortly after updated the information with a brief message: “Sold, and I don’t have any more.”

In the previous harvest, the production of Cuban sugar mills barely reached 480,000 tons of sugar out of the 911,000 that were planned, a failure to meet the target that caused a deficit of 60,000 tons for national consumption and seriously affected exports.

Given the disastrous numbers, the product has been even more restricted in the ration stores in recent months. “They only sold me one pound, and they say that this month it’s not my turn anymore,” a lamented a retiree this Friday, noting that she buys her basic normal basket in a place on Conill Street, in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución. continue reading

“During the Special Period (the crisis of the 90s) at least there was no shortage of sugar,” said the woman. “Many people survived those years thanks to sugar water, so now the situation is worse because we don’t even have that.” Comparisons between the current economic difficulties that the Island is going through and those suffered after the collapse of the Soviet Union are frequent.

“In my house we permanently had a bowl with sugar on the table so that everyone who came to visit us could eat a few tablespoons to be able to continue on their way,” recalls Evaristo, a resident of the neighborhood of El Cerro who this week bought “ten pounds of sugar at 170 pesos” and considers himself “lucky” because “you can’t find it now at that price.”

Recently, the Ministry of Internal Trade recognized that the delivery of sugar from the rationed market will depend on the existing availability in the country. The first results of the 2022-2023 harvest indicate that production will again be down in the dumps and far from the goal of 455,198 tons.

There is also no shortage of those who see in the product deficit a possibility of doing business by importing substitutes. “I sell 500 grams of aspartame, a sweetener that sweetens more than sugar. It is ideal for businesses that prepare sweets. The bag costs 60 dollars. I only accept this currency,” reads a very popular classifieds portal.

Others, given the price similarities between some foods, propose a barter. “I will trade five pounds of rice for three pounds of white sugar,” suggests someone in another Facebook group where the exchange of goods has gained space. The galloping loss of value of the Cuban peso makes many prefer to offer their merchandise in exchange for other foods rather than receive the national currency.

Inside people’s homes consumption is cut, coffee is taken more bitter, and fruit desserts in syrup are scarce. “Now I can’t even think of offering you anything sweet when you visit. The little sugar we have left is for the family’s consumption. There is not one more spoonful for anyone,” says Evaristo, who was born in 1959, when Cuban sugar mills achieved more than 5 million tons of sugar.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Gang Assaults Bus in Ciego de Avila and Steals Luggage

14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 2 February 2023 — Their modus operandi is always the same. After hiding in the bushes, the thieves wait for the bus to stop at the train tracks, jump out, open the baggage compartment and make off with some of the luggage. The railway crossing in the town of Quesada, in Ciego de Avila province, is a dangerous place for travelers and the problem is not a new one.

At about 7:10 Wednesday night, a Transtur bus was en route from Camaguey to Havana when assailants pounced on the bus after the driver had stopped at a railroad crossing. “There were about six of them. They were like ninjas,” read a Facebook post from Ridier Leyva Tamayo, one of the passengers whose luggage was stolen.

After watching what was happening from the window, Leyva got off the bus but was unable to recover his belongings. “I fell behind and they threw rocks at me. I had to go back,” he says. The police were called but officers refused to take action, arguing that they could not leave the vehicle unprotected.

The incident is almost a carbon copy of one that Claudia, a 23-year old resident of Camaguey, and her boyfriend experienced in July after they decided to visit family in Havana. “It was at night and the whole area was very dark,” she tells 14ymedio. “I remember I was in a window seat right above the baggage compartment when the bus stopped.”

Claudia observed four individuals with covered faces emerge from the bushes at the same railroad crossing in Quesada. “They moved quickly, like they had done it many times before. In a few seconds they opened the hatch and took out two large suitcases and a carrying case.” continue reading

“That was six months ago. If it’s still happening, it’s because [the police] haven’t assigned anyone to guard the area in spite of complaints,” she says. Though she was not among those who lost their belongings, she recalls that on the same Transtur bus there was a couple who were going to Havana to catch an overseas flight. “They lost all the luggage they were carrying for that trip,” she adds.

According to Claudia, the driver said this happens frequently. He tried keep the stop as short as possible but described how once he stopped very briefly only to later be pulled over by police and fined for it.

She believes the thieves are still operating the same way at the same location because, she says, “There are no repurcussions. The police are there for other reasons. They’re there to make sure that the driver is not selling milk on the black market, or that some farmer is not earning a little money selling his products on the side of the road, not to catch these criminals.”

Numerous individuals have left comments under Leyva Tamayo’s social media post, complaining about police misconduct. “I think inaction by the police is the reason crime keeps increasing. They’re not under any real pressure. I called them about a robbery and they showed up an hour later, after it was all over,” complains Onaldo Paján.

“What it is is robbery and no one is doing anything about. Every day it gets worse,” writes Maidelyn Cruz, who suggests avoiding travel at night. Not only do you have to be an artist to avoid all the potholes in Central Highway, she claims, but “the ’ninjas’ have gotten stronger.”

She refers to the thieves as ninjas because of their stealth and speed. They also frequently rob trains, stealing merchandise and passengers’ belongings from freight cars. “They have keys to everything. A locked door is no problem for them,” warns an employee of Ferrocarriles de Cuba, a man who has worked in the rail transportation sector for a quarter of a century.

“They look for interprovincial buses to attack at railroad crossings. They also watch us when we stop to switch train tracks or when we’re waiting for another train to go by. We have no life. They’re just as willing to steal cement as sugar. On passenger trains, people sleep with their briefcases strapped to their feet or arms.”

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San Lazaro, a Havana Street that Wears Rouge and Has Cracked Balconies

Like every year around this time, it is a matter of dressing up the street so that the high-ranking figures of the government who walk through it get a different impression. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 25 January 2023 — “They are applying rouge to San Lázaro street again,” lamented a neighbor from Centro Habana this Tuesday morning. The facades of the long avenue are being painted so that, on the night of January 27, it will house the official March of the Torches, with the presence of Miguel Díaz-Canel.

In the face of what will happen on Friday, brigades of builders have erected scaffolding, hauled paint and begun to brush on a wall without cracks or on a balcony about to collapse. As every year around this time, it is a matter of dressing up the street so that the high-ranking figures of the government who walk through it on the eve of José Martí’s birth get an impression that is very different from reality.

“I came to eat at this little tavern but it is difficult to go in because they have erected scaffolding on the door, the drops of paint fall on the clothes of the passersby,” a young woman who has seen several of “these retouching processes” explained to 14ymedio that it won’t last long “because they use poor quality paint and they don’t do it very carefully either.” The colors are also very limited, so far, a poor palette of blues and pinks. continue reading

“I came to eat at this little tavern, but it is difficult to enter because they have put a scaffolding on the door, the drops of paint fall on the clothes of the passersby”

“It is outrageous how they are plastering the corners of the balconies that have partially detached from the buildings and then they paint them, everything is a coverup of reality, where it can be seen, but, of course, not a coat of paint or a spoonful of cement inside.”

The painting of the facades is only an advance. Before Friday, the street will be filled with a strong security operation that traditionally begins up to two days before the March at El Vedado and Centro Habana, neighborhoods where the University of Havana is located, the venue for the event that will begin around 8:30 p.m.

In recent years, the country has mourned various tragedies in the days leading up to this celebration. A tornado caused great destruction in areas of the capital in 2019, leaving eight dead, 200 injured, and more than a thousand homes destroyed. In 2020, the collapse of a balcony caused the death of three girls in Old Havana, although the government did not suspend the official act despite requests from citizens.

Looking ahead to what will happen on Friday, brigades of builders have erected scaffolding, hauled paint and begun to paint. (14ymedio)

In 2021 it was suspended due to the pandemic, and last year it became a display of the regime’s political muscle after the popular protests of July 11, 2021.

The first March of the Torches was organized on January 27, 1953 as a tribute to José Martí on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Although Fulgencio Batista’s government did not grant permission to carry it out, the students marched without the police intervening.

After 1959, the pilgrimage became a governmental act in which the ruling party participated, with the presence of the greatest leaders of the Communist Party, the University Student Federation and representatives of other political organizations of the regime.

Many young university students attend due more to pressure than conviction, although it is very common for them to make an appearance for a few minutes and then end up escaping through the streets where the caravan goes through.

Translated by Norma Whiting
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Alquizar, Cuba, Feels Abandoned Since the End of the Year, With No Coffee, Sugar or Oil at the Ration Store

A ‘Bodega’ (Ration Store) in Alquízar, in the Cuban province of Artemisa. (The Artemisian)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 1 February 2023 — “Before, here people could use lard to cook, but there is almost no one who raises animals and to make matters worse, since last year they have not sold oil through the bodega [ration store],” complains Liubis Torriente, 32, a resident of the municipality of Alquízar, in the province of Artemisa. “Nor has sugar or rationed coffee arrived, we are about to have to eat red earth.”

In the Liubis bodega, nestled in the center of the small city to the southwest of the Cuban capital, the employee spends her days sitting idly by waiting for the products that do not arrive. “I’m tired of everyone coming and venting their discomfort on me because no merchandise has arrived, but it’s not my fault,” the woman told 14ymedio, on condition of anonymity.

“Here they have forgotten us, we do not have the importance of Havana and nor do we have the emergencies of those affected by hurricane [Ian] in Pinar del Río, so we are in no man’s land, we do not matter,” says Liubis. “My sister lives in Havana, in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality, near the Council of State, and they did sell sugar there,” she says.

The shortage situation fundamentally affects those who live in the urban areas of Alquízar. “At least the farmer who has a piece of land can solve some food with his crops, his laying hens or his cows, but those of us who have a house here in the town don’t even have that,” says this mother of two children at primary school. continue reading

And the three missing products can hardly be produced for self-consumption. “We stocked up on the fat we needed for day-to-day life with the pigs we had, but more than three years ago I stopped farming because we couldn’t get food for the animals anymore,” explains Arturo, a farmer who lives in the town of Pulido, on the outskirts of the urban center.

“Without the pork fat, we are completely dependent on the oil from the bodega or the one we buy off the shelf [in the informal market].” Arturo’s family has been eating “plantain fufú” — fried mashed plaintain — for weeks, he says. “There isn’t even enough fat to fry a little onion and what my wife has done is put the chicken skin in the pan so she can cook with it.”

The vegetable oil that is sold by as a part of the ‘standard basket’ in the ration store is mostly imported or soybean oil, which is refined and bottled on the Island. The rationed coffee and sugar come from national production, which is mostly state-owned, and the marketing of both products constitutes an official monopoly.

“When there is a lack of sugar or coffee, you have to deal one way or another with the black market or with the stores [that only take payment] in MLC [freely convertible currency]”, emphasizes Arturo. “You can use some honey to sweeten, and stretch the coffee by adding roasted peas, but sooner or later you have to end up buying them in hard currency.”

“Before, any house you entered here they would offer you a little cup of Hola coffee, the kind that comes from the bodega. If you were lucky, you would have a Cubita or Arriero colada bought in the mall, but now when people manage to have coffee it’s Bustelo or La Llave that their Miami family sent themor they bought it from a mule, very expensive, by the way.”

The lack of sugar especially outrages the residents of Alquízar, a region that in the past also made cash with typical sweets such as guava bars that were sold on the side of the roads. Now, in the absence of the ingredient, all the private production of sweets, fruit smoothies and preserves has come to a standstill.

According to Leticia Ojeda, commercial director of the Food Group of the Ministry of Internal Commerce, at the end of last year, with the plummeting of the harvest, it was decided to protect the “regulated [rationed] family basket” and social consumption destined for the Education and Health sectors, but the Alquizareñas wineries do not seem to be included among those prioritized.

In mid-January, Ojeda pointed out that four provinces had not been able to finish the distribution in some of their municipalities. He mentioned Artemisa, Matanzas, Pinar del Río and Havana, whose sugar deliveries in February were only 60% guaranteed, up until then. An announcement that makes the residents of Alquízar fear that it will be weeks before the empty bodegas have those products again.

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San Antonio de los Banos, Where the Spark of Cuba’s July 2021 Protests Was Lit, Continues to be Punished

The reasons for the residents of San Antonio de los Baños to “take to the streets” are still intact: lack of freedoms, inflation, blackouts and garbage accumulated on every corner. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 26 January 2023 — Odalys remembers that day very well. “People began to come out from everywhere, headed for the park,” she evokes a year and a half after the July 11, 2021 popular protest in San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa, ignited the spark for the historic demonstrations that shook Cuba. Since that time, the reasons for the residents of the municipality to “take to the streets” remain intact: lack of liberties, inflation, blackouts and garbage accumulated on every corner.

“Look at that park for children, it’s pure rust,” the woman describes to 14ymedio. The destroyed sidewalk, the ravaged grass and three rickety swings make up the desolate panorama. Around the merry-go-round, bags of waste accumulate and a little further on, a mountain of rubbish borders the bridge over one of the tributaries of the Ariguanabo River. “Here you cannot live, we continue in the same situation.”

“The blackouts have already started again and they last up to six hours,” stresses the woman, who remembers going out “banging on a can with a spoon,” on that 11th of July to show her discomfort at the poor conditions of the small city. A city that was once an important agricultural center, a transport node between Havana and the southwest, as well as a frequent venue for humor festivals and cultural events. The International Film School, also undermined in resources and importance, continues to operate in the area.

Unlike that Sunday in July, now the streets are only used by those who are on their way to work or school, those who are anxiously looking for some food and those who are heading towards an office to request a passport that allows them to travel outside Island. The cries of “Freedom!” have been replaced by the demands of a neighbor who urges another to arrive on time and line up for soap or frozen chicken. The trials against the protesters of that day have spread fear, just as waste of all kinds is spread throughout the city, without the Community Services trucks picking it up.

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Nobody Understands the ‘Algorithms’ of the Cuban Peso Stores

She slides her hand along until she finds her designated shopping date, but then looks further to find that all she can buy is two packets of picadillo [ground meat]. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 18 January 2023 – She traces along the notice board with her finger. “This one’s my store”, she whispers as her forefinger reaches the sales schedule of a shop in the outskirts, in Calle Galiano, Havana. She slides her hand along until she finds her shopping date and then looks further to find that she can only buy two packets of picadillo [ground meat]. After having figured out the complicated method being used, Nancy has ended up frustrated and without hope once again.

“You need to have a degree to be able to understand these Cuban peso stores*”, the woman complained on Wednesday morning after deciphering the convoluted process of getting basic supplies like frozen chicken, detergent or sausages. As the months have gone by, the mechanism for buying products and paying for them in the national currency has become more and more complex. “If a foreigner came up and read this he’d think we’d all gone mad, completely mad”, the lady moaned.

Five years ago it was convertible pesos that opened the doors to the best selection of goods, but today, as well as the money, you need also to pay with high levels of stress and time in order to get hold of whatever food ingredients you need. In the inexact science of the state market, very often there’s a lack of logic and too many corrupt employees, too many re-sellers, and too often the phrase “we don’t have any”. The rationing algorithm ends more often with hunger than with satisfaction.

With doctorates in absurd business practice and degrees in poverty, the Cuban people have studied an infinite number of courses at the university of misery. The qualification awarded brings them more shame than pride. There are days when, after hours of waiting and a hard mental effort to unscramble all the bureaucratic speak, one is limited to getting hold of maybe just a pack of sanitary napkins, or a litre of vegetable oil.

*Translator’s note: A “peso store” is a store that accepts payment in Cuban pesos — the currency in which Cubans are paid their wages. An “MLC” — also called a “dollar store” — is a store that accepts payment only in moneda libremente convertible (freely convertible currency) such as dollars or euros, which Cubans acquire be receiving remittances from family or friends abroad.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Cuba: ‘What Use is an App to Track Buses if There are No Buses’

The app offered to provide real-time location information for buses on routes in Havana, but there is a big gap between what was announced and what has been achieved.

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 17 January 2023 — The looks of those that wait go from the mobile phone screen to the avenue. After a while, a bus stops at Porvenir Street, in Havana, although it hadn’t previously been seen on the mobile phone app ’MovilWeb Urbanos’. Between vehicles that disappear from the map and others that appear out of nowhere, the tool generates more distrust than certainty.

The beta version of MovilWeb Urbanos, exclusively for Android, threatens to become a failure, as did the Donde hay app, which attempted to inform clients of which products were in stock at the state-run stores. Instead of avoiding long walks and hours in line, that mobile app became a target for mockery and complaints, just as is happening now with its first cousin dedicated to public transportation.

“You see the application and there are no buses nearby, and suddenly one appears which hadn’t been there,” complained a user who unleashed his discontent in an article published by the official press Cubadebate where they recognized the precipitous fall from grace of MovilWeb Urbanos. It was that very outlet which, with much fanfare, announced the launch of that tool in October last year.

The app offered to provide real-time location information for buses on routes in Havana, but there is a big gap between what was announced and what has been achieved. Sixteen-year-old high school student Richard recalls the enthusiasm when he heard the news of that launch. “I thought it would save time and stress getting to school but in the end it failed me so often that I deleted the app from my mobile phone.”

“The problem is fundamental, because they assume that all buses have a GPS installed and that it is activated at all times,” questioned the adolescent. “But if you are following the bus route it’s possible that halfway through it disappears from the map and then you don’t know at what time it will arrive at the bus stop where you are,” he adds. A disaster which causes frustration and distrust among users. continue reading

Developed by GeoMIX, an agency of the Geocuba business group in collaboration with several entities of the Ministry of Transportation, the app doesn’t cover the routes of all Havana terminals and when you search for buses that travel high demand routes such as the P2 along Rancho Boyeros Avenue, a short message warns that “there is still no information.”

Of 135 bus routes included in the Beta version, including primary routes, feeder routes and complementary routes, only half offer information to monitor its vehicles. Some details which have changed since the launch of the tool, such as a change in the point of departure, have not been updated and in those cases the changes have not been reflected at all the bus stops.

The constant internet interruptions and areas of low data coverage which characterize the internet connection provided by the telecommunications monopoly, Etecsa, add another layer of insecurity to MovilWeb’s use. Congestion on the network, a cloudy day that slows down navigation or an area without 4G can all render the app inoperable.

But the human factor seems to be the cause of the biggest problems. According to Rafael Barrios Garriga, the Deputy Director for Development at the Provincial Transport Business of Havana (EPTH), in those areas, each dispatcher must manually enter the vehicle departure and arrival data for the app to update but “on occasion the person responsible for updates does not do it.”

“Add to this the drivers who irresponsibly disconnect the devices. MovilWeb also allows us to identify those who do that. With those drivers we conduct an analysis and we recently issued guidance to prevent this,” the official tells Cubadebate, though without referring to the reasons the drivers choose to turn off the buses’ geolocation.

“It is big business to use urban transport vehicles as if they were private, that is, drive a route they create, decide on the number of passengers to be transported and even the price they charge privately,” reported to 14ymedio an EPTH driver who a few months ago decided to leave his post “on the bus” and opted for a position “at the terminal, with more peace and less surveillance.”

“What Use is an App to Track Buses if There are No Buses?” adds a state employee. “That makes no sense and since they announced that that thing for mobile phones would begin working we knew it was not possible to maintain all of that information because, simply, we don’t even know when a car will be able to leave the terminal nor what day it will be in or out of service.”

In May of last year, the Governor of Havana, Reinaldo García Zapata acknowledged during a meeting that in Havana, only 30% of bus fleet was operable for public transportation, “which is why the situation is dire.” The problem has been exacerbated in the last several months and, although the data have not been updated, one only needs to visit the bus stops in Havana to sense the decline.

Along with its errors, MovilWeb Urbanos has reached a low point for mobility in the city. Faced with its constant blunders, many riders have learned to lower the credibility of the tool though they continue to use it. “I use it, but I accept the risk that the information is not real. I’ve seen it all: buses that appear as if they are going in one direction and it is the opposite, buses that appear as if they are on another bus’s route, etc.” complained another user.

On Tuesday, an old Giron bus painted with images of giraffes and lions — that at one time covered routes serving Cuba’s National Zoo — stopped at the corner of Boyeros and Calzada del Cerro. “Come on, we’ve reached Carlos III,” yelled the driver and a dozen older passengers headed toward the open door. The vehicle never showed up on the MovilWeb Urbanos app, where the wide avenue appeared completely empty on the map.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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With Sellers but No Buyers, Prices Plummet in Cuba’s Housing Market

In the current real estate climate, prices are falling and homes remain on the market longer. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 11 January 2023 — “Business has dried up,” 52-year old Victor Manuel Soto says categorically. Soto closed his real estate office in Cuba, packed his bags, left for Nicaragua and then headed to the southern U.S. border, which he recently crossed. “Almost no one is buying houses. Out of every ten properties I sold, nine belonged to owners desperate to sell.”

After prohibiting individuals from buying or selling their homes for decades, the government finally legalized such sales in late 2011. In a country where 85% of homes are privately owned, Soto and his wife suddenly saw that managing real estate transactions could be a gold mine. “My wife left her job as an accountant at a state-owned company, I left my position at the Ministry of Tourism and we began setting up our own business.”

At first they only posted houses for sale on classified ad sites dedicated to buyers’ specific interests, assuring sellers they would post their listings only on the most important digital platforms. “Later we put together a web of contacts and were able to offer a more comprehensive service, such as taking care of the required paperwork, following all the legal procedures but doing it much more quickly.

But four years ago Soto noticed that his income had started to decline dramatically. “We had fewer and fewer people who wanted to buy. Most of our clients were coming to us because they wanted to sell and wanted to do it quickly,” he says. “Currently, supply exceeds demand. Or to put it more simply, there are many houses for sale but few interested buyers.” continue reading

In the current real estate climate, prices are falling and homes remain on the market longer, with successive price reductions and sellers offering to include appliances and furniture at no extra cost. “Most of the people I knew who were in the real estate business have closed up shop and have gone into other lines of work.”

Falling prices have forced many real estate agents to quit. “A few years ago the average price per room in Havana was between 10,000 and 12,000 dollars. A three-bedroom apartment, for example, could go for $30,000 to $36,000 depending on location and building condition,” says Nicia, a self-employed real estate agent who is still active in the business.

In 2013, two years after home sales were legalized, the emerging real estate market saw 80,000 transactions according to data from the Mercantile Property and Heritage Registry, an agency of the Ministry of Justice. All indications were that the number of sales would continue to grow, or would at least remain stable.

“Now we’re seeing three and four-bedroom homes going for less than $25,000 because the owners are eager to sell to get the money they need to emigrate. And for agents or brokers, when prices get this low, we lose the ability to make money ,” she laments.

“At the peak, around 2015 or 2016, when prices were high because it had become legal to buy and sell homes in Cuba, real estate agents were making good money. But that bubble burst. Now you have to work ten times as hard to earn a buck and even then it’s not easy,” she says. “A few years ago we had a lot of foreign clients buying homes through friends or loved ones in Cuba. Now that’s happening less and less.

Nicia recalls that in March 2016, when Barack Obama visited the island, she managed to close six sales in just one month, two of them involving Cuban-American or European buyers. “There was this idea that the country would be opening up and that it was time to buy property here. But that enthusiasm has been waning. Right now, I have two houses for sale: a pair of houses that I sold just last year.”

“To sell a home, you have to find ways to entice buyers. A low price is one way but so is a house in move-in condition, or one that’s already furnished,” she points out. “The few clients I have now are looking to buy because they managed to downsize and want a place that doesn’t need any work.”

Nicia herself believes her days as a real estate agent are numbered. “I’m trying to get together the money I need to move to Spain with my two children. All three of us have Spanish citizenship but we still need a bit of money so we can start a new life there.” She is turning her business over to a cousin but, as she says, “it’s not worth very much now because the market has tanked.”

’It’s also a headache because it’s a complicated business. Many of the first licensed real estate agents were forced to shut down. I have colleagues who ended up in court for charging the client a commission.” Though the practice is illegal, buyers typically pay realtors between 10% and 25% of the total sale price.

“The tax increase on home sales was also a big blow to us,” Nicia acknowledges.” Initially, the tax rate was set at 4% for buyers’ asset or inheritance transfers and the same for sellers’ personal income. But in 2017 it went up. Now it’s determined by the house’s characteristics, such as its location and size.”

“With higher taxes, the collapse of the market itself, too few buyers and sellers who want to be paid in dollars, which they then send overseas, we’re earning less and less. Though they won’t admit it publicly, the only realtors who are surviving are those with connections to people in government or to foreigners who can afford to wait for the market to improve.

Some of these real estate startups have come up with strategies to attract buyers such as an “auction” in which the house is listed at price that can change in an online bid. Among them is Lucas Inmobiliarias, which has a large portfolio of single-family homes, mansions and farms with prices that, in most cases, exceed $100,000. So far, however, no buyer has submitted a bid on any of the four properties currently being auctioned on the company’s website.

There is no shortage of listings on the company’s website. Page after page contains photos of spacious buildings, gardens with leafy trees and even swimming pools inviting viewers to take a dip. But every month the listings reappear, accompanied each time with a price reduction. A house in upscale Miramar, which won an architectural design prize in the 1950s, was posted on the site two years ago and is still for sale.

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Cuba: State Employees in Holgun Don’t Receive Their Salaries Due to a Lack of Money in the Banks

Among the most affected are the employees of Education and Public Health. (Municipal Directorate of Education of Holguín)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 13 January 2023 — State workers in the province of Holguín are experiencing delays in the collection of their monthly salaries. Among the most affected are the employees of Education and Public Health who have not been able to receive their salaries due to lack of cash in the banks, according to testimonies collected by 14ymedio.

“Several state companies have not been able to get the money,” laments an employee linked to the Ministry of Internal Commerce in the city of Holguín. “When my company’s economics officer contacted the bank, they told him that at the moment the payment cannot be made because they do not have enough cash.”

“This is a very sensitive time of the year because we have just come out of all the Christmas celebrations and people are short,” acknowledges the employee. “People spent what they had and what they did not have to try to guarantee dinner on December 31 and now the news comes that the payments are going to take time. How are we going to hold out until the money arrives?”

Some workers have suggested that their salary be put on their magnetic card, associated with a bank account where the salary is deposited, in order to be able to carry out at least electronic operations such as paying for electricity or others for which it is not necessary to withdraw cash, but the proposal has not received a positive response.

“You cannot pay in cash or with a deposit on the card because in any case if they go to the bank they will not be able to extract that money. We have to wait for the Banco de Crédito y Comercio (Bandec) to notify us that we already have the deposit to start pay the payroll,” emphasizes the accountant of a Credit and Service Cooperative in Holguin, also affected by the lack of money. continue reading

According to her account, up to now the civilian workers of the Armed Forces and also of other official dependencies have been able to be paid, but the most serious problems are the personnel of Education and other ministries that have a large volume of workers and who pay them at the same time. “In those sectors, there are those who should have been paid at the end of last year and still haven’t been able to,” she asserts.

Some state workers have had better luck, such as those from Telecristal, the local telecentre, who managed to collect their salaries, but “it was almost a stroke of luck,” admits an employee of the institution who preferred anonymity. “I was able to be paid, but my husband, who works in another company of the Ministry of Agriculture, has been put off for days.”

Some state agencies in the province have been able to access the salaries of their workers, as is the case of Tabacuba, whose payments were made around January 4. The payment dates vary between entities and especially if they are permanent workers, by contract or by agreement.

The lack of cash is not a something new and the Banco de Crédito y Comercio itself was forced to report, half a year ago, that it had run out of Cuban pesos to load into ATMs in some cities in eastern Cuba.

At that time, the Bandec authorities attributed the problem to the lack of high denomination bills and excused themselves, among other reasons, for the “coincidence of salary payments” in almost all the companies in the eastern part of the country.

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Garbage Collection in Cuba: From Creative Resistance to Desperate Patch

“Many containers have lost their hitch and we had to get working to solve it because otherwise it would be more work for us.” (14 and a half)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 3 January 2022 — The rattle of the Community Services trucks has people climbing sidewalks to make way for the giant. Two men get out and push a garbage container cracked on its sides. Among flies and shouts, customers waiting to shop at the Plaza de Carlos III see the garbage bin rise, embraced by an improvised cloth band and drop the waste inside the truck. “Tremendous invention!” ironically exclaims one. “That is the creative resistance that [Cuban president] Díaz-Canel is talking about,” another mocks.

The trick is more desperate than artifice. “Many containers have lost their coupling and we had to get up to do something because otherwise it would be more work for us,” laments one of the workers from the State company who carries one of these bands in case he needs them. “Without this, part of the garbage would fall on top of us when we lift the container or we would have to use shovels to throw it into the truck. Nobody wants to work in these conditions, but it is what it is.”

For decades, Cuban authorities have boasted of the achievements of the National Association of Innovators and Rationalizers (ANIR), an entity that seeks to inventively solve the problems of supplying spare parts. But behind the praise, when an employee replaces an imported gear with one made on a domestic lathe or repairs complex foreign machinery with wire and old tubes, there is more desperation than ingenuity. continue reading

“First we had to invent a soyuz (coupler) to be able to use the garbage trucks donated by Japan with these containers because they were not compatible”

“First we had to invent a Soyuz (coupler) to be able to use the garbage trucks donated by Japan with these containers because they were not compatible,” Walfrido, a former garbage collection truck driver, explained to 14ymedio. Last April, the state worker was blunt when he defined the “little blue ones”: “They are not just bad, they are very bad.” After a few months, the original Soyuz was useless because, in most cases, the latching mechanism of the tanks broke.

When the azulitos (little blue ones) began to appear on Havana street corners a few years ago, they had that air of novelty that had many believing that the garbage problem in the Cuban capital was going to be solved. But the poor quality of these waste bins soon began to be noticed and was fatally combined with the looting that their less colorful cousins have always been subject to but have also ended up torn to pieces or disappeared in the streets of the Island.

“The pay is low, the salary is not enough for hardly anything and the working conditions are very difficult, but if the daily norm is not met then they are paid much less,” Walfrido details. “Now these bands have been devised, tomorrow we will have to use something else, and the day will come when the garbage will be collected all over Havana with a bulldozer if things continue like this,” he laments. While the “creativity” is provided by the Communal Services employees, the challenge falls onto the residents of the city, who will have to live with more mountains of waste.

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State Security Fines and Blackmails Users of Social Media in Cuba

Decree 370, known as the “whip law,” monitors Cubans’ social media content. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 7 January 2023 — Yanara called her best friend and said to her in code: “My son’s unwell, could you bring me a thermometer?” This was just a strategy to get her old university friend to visit her so she could then tell her what was really on her mind. Two days earlier she had been called to a police station in El Vedado, Havana.

“At first, when they summoned me, I thought it had something to do with my business, because I’m self-employed and I sell various things from a street stall”, she told her friend. “But when they took me to a small room I realized it had something to do with State Security. There were three plain-clothes officers, all very young”.

Between those four walls, Yanara found out that that the secret police had been monitoring her Facebook account. “They had pages and pages of everything that I had shared or written on my time-line, at least over the last year”, she said. “They began by asking me why I was using this way of criticising the government when there were already existing mechanisms like the People’s Power and accountability meetings”.

After an hour of recriminations and threats over her postings, Yanara left the station with a fine of 3,000 pesos, which she says she’s going to pay. “I think it’s unjust but I’m really scared because I have a little boy, a business to run and a mother who has no one to look after her but me”, she told her friend.

The police justified the fine citing the law passed in July 2019 “concerning digitisation of Cuban society”, the Decree 370, known as the “whip law” — a ruling which claims to “elevate technological sovereignty for the benefit of society, the economy, security and national defence” and to “counter cyber-aggression”. continue reading

Amongst Yanara’s presumed ’crimes’ were those of “distributing, via public data networks, information contrary to social interests, morals, good behaviour and personal integrity”, which has been compared, as applied to the virtual world, with the crime of “pre-criminal dangerousness”, a legal term which has been used widely against opponents and dissidents.

The content of her posts, which cost her an interrogation and a fine of 3,000 pesos, included memes, some of which ridiculed Miguel Díaz-Canel, comments about the long queues/lines for food and criticism of the deterioration of Havana. “Nothing that you wouldn’t hear said on the street, but they said this type of thing shouldn’t be published on the internet”.

This Habanera, born in the middle of the eighties, likes to keep everything she does under the strictest secrecy. “If this happened to me, who only posts memes and other friendly stuff every now and then, then I imagine there must be lots of other people who’ve also had to pay this fine for saying next to nothing at all”. In the same police station where she was questioned “at least three other youths were waiting with a similar summons”.

There have been plenty of reports circulating since the start of Decree 370, about the imposition of fines for posting certain types of content on social media, but the majority of those reporting these reprisals have been activists, government opponents or independent journalists. It’s indeterminate the number of other people who have been punished in this way but prefer to keep silent.

“I set my Facebook to private and deleted some posts”, says Yanara. “I don’t want any problems and they made it clear that they were going to carry on monitoring everything I write, who I give ’likes’ to, or what I share on my time-line. It shouldn’t be like this on social media, it’s like walking down the street and having a police patrol following you”.

Cristian, a young man from Camagüey who is preparing for university entrance this year, went further. “I deleted my Twitter and Facebook accounts after I got a verbal summons, supposedly from the director of my pre-university course, but when I arrived at his office there were two State Security officers waiting for me.

The adolescent was questioned about the show of support he’d given on the internet for the 11 July 2021 demonstrators and for “sharing mercenary content”. The secret police threatened him with the whip law and warned him that university entrance was an honour that was only granted to revolutionaries! His Facebook account lasted until that day. Only his family knew about that encounter.

I don’t know whether any of my fellow students have had the same experience, and now when I’m walking down the street I ask myself if other people have also gone through anything similar and said nothing”, Cristian wonders. “I’ve seen friends suddenly disappear off social media and I thought that maybe they were wrapped up in some project or other but after that interrogation I’ve come to believe that they also must have got a summons for what they were posting”.

Decree 370 isn’t the only law to try and put the brakes on citizens’ criticisms on the internet. In August 2021 Decree 35 came into force which penalised anyone who gave voice to ’fake news’ in Cuba, or promoted it, or published offensive or defamatory messages that prejudiced the “prestige of the country”, or “social and ethical damage, or incidents of aggression”.

The law includes a long list of cybersecurity areas, from digital attacks or physical damage to telecommunications systems up to access to, and dissemination of child pornography content, all of which only merit a level of danger which is ’medium or high’. On the other hand, the category “social subversion”, described as actions which attempt to affect public order, is considered ’very high’ risk.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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