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Mexico Invested 133 Million Dollars To Contain Migration in Several Countries, Including Cuba

The money has been transferred, says Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena, through the programs Sembrando Vida and Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro

Image of the start of the program Sembrando Vida en Cuba in 2023 / / X/@mesaredondacuba

14ymedio, Mexico City, 8 May 2024 — Mexico has invested 133 million dollars to address the causes of emigration in Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras and Salvador, Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena said on Tuesday in the Ministerial Meeting of the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, which is taking place in Guatemala.

Bárcena boasted of the use of resources to “address structural causes” such as “poverty, inequality, climate change, violence,” in addition to “eliminating unilateral coercive measures that are affecting the livelihoods of our peoples at the expense, by the way, of their development.”

The money that Bárcena mentioned has already been channeled by Mexico to Cuba, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Haiti and Honduras through the social programs Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) and Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro (Youth Building the Future). continue reading

Bárcena proclaimed the use of resources to “attend to structural causes” such as “poverty, inequality, climate change, violence”

The Sembrando Vida program has been questioned for its lack of transparency and the opacity of its money management, and is seen by the opposition parties as a form of political clientelism. The Connectas information platform revealed that this program, to which 63.5 million dollars were at first allocated, “has received criticism for the expulsion of beneficiaries in a discretionary manner, the opacity in the management of the farmers’ savings and the delay in investigations that denounce their mismanagement.”

The Government of Mexico allocated 6,000,000 dollars to the Sembrando Vida program that started on the Island in July 2023, by delivering hoes, metal files, pruning shears and boots to a group of farmers. The beneficiaries were 5,000 producers with 25 cultivable acres that are grouped into cooperatives.

The Government of Mexico allocated $6,000,000 to the Sembrando Vida program that started on the Island in July 2023

Last December, the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (Amexcid), in charge of the program, inaugurated two nurseries of fruit trees and trees for timber in the municipalities of Artemisa and Mayabeque, in addition to donating half a dozen tractors. However, it is still unclear how much of the 150 dollars that Cuba receives for each beneficiary is given to the farmers.

Mexico, Bárcena said, also made a commitment to provide employment in its territory to asylum seekers. “We committed to employing 20,000 migrants in three years, and, in less than two years since the signing of the Los Angeles Declaration, we have employed more than 17,000 refugees, just from the local integration program that the UNHCR implements in Mexico, together with the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance.”

The official did not detail the nationality of the employees or the companies with which they are working.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Aniete Gonzalez, Imprisoned for Wrapping Herself in the Cuban Flag, Was Granted Precautionary Measures by Human Rights Commission

One of the photographs for which Aniette González was accused/Facebook/AnietteGonzález

14ymedio, Madrid, 7 May 2024 — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has issued precautionary measures in favor of activist Aniette González García, sentenced last February to three years in prison for photographing herself wrapped in the Cuban flag. In addition, the Cuban Human Rights Observatory (OCDH), requesting the measures, reported this Monday on the “worrying conditions” that the activist endures in the Kilo 5 prison, in Camagüey.

“After analyzing the allegations of fact and law made by the applicant, the Commission considers that the proposed beneficiary is in a serious and urgent situation, since her rights to life, personal integrity, and health face a risk of irreparable harm,” the IACHR states in a document cited by the Observatory.

González also denounces the abuse to which she has been subjected by the prison authorities and State Security

Last March, González was denied an appeal of her conviction. On March 22, 2023, the activist published several photos in which she appears wrapped in the Cuban flag. The images were her support for the campaign “The flag belongs to all”, in support of the release of artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, leader of the San Isidro Movement, condemned in turn for “an affront to national symbols”.

The next day, the woman was arrested by nine agents who searched her home and seized a flag and three mobile phones. In February of this year, she was sentenced to three years in prison, a conviction denounced by international organizations such as Amnesty International. continue reading

In its resolution, the IACHR considers it “especially serious” that Aniette González “lacks access to medical care to get the right diagnosis for the bleeding she suffers.”

It also denounces the abuse to which she has been subjected by the prison authorities and State Security, such as insults, being confined in a cell “flooded with water, with humidity, poor light and ventilation”, preventing her from resting by taking away “the necessary elements for it”, controlling her clothes, giving her little and spoiled food, interrogating her in rooms “with low temperatures, at any time of the day”.

The Commission calls on the Cuban regime to”take the necessary measures to protect Aniette’s rights to life, health and personal integrity”

Likewise, the organization warns that the activist, who is locked in a maximum security prison, is monitored by agents of the political police and not by prison officials, which shows that “she has been subjected to biased treatment because she is considered ‘counterrevolutionary’ and because she has demonstrated through the internet.”

Thus, the Commission asks the Cuban regime to “adopt the necessary measures to protect Aniette González García’s rights to life, health and personal integrity, with a gender perspective, in accordance with applicable international standards and obligations.”

According to another statement made public on Monday by the OCDH, in April there were on the island “at least 314 repressive actions against the civilian population” – 75 arbitrary detentions and 239 abuses – bringing the total so far this year to 1,287.

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The Garbage Crisis in Las Tunas Forces the Authorities To Deliver More Fuel to Communal Services

So far, the company has received only 528 gallons of fuel per month, 50% of what it needs

According to official reports, Communal Services has only two tractors to load garbage in the municipality / Periódico 26

14ymedio, Havana, 7 May 2024 — The government of Las Tunas developed a “strategy” to mitigate the crisis of garbage dumps that have been out of control for months in the city. The plan is to deliver to Servicio Comunales (Communal Services) about 793 gallons of diesel, 75% of what they should have monthly, with which the state managed to collect about 14,126 cubic feet of garbage this Saturday.

The rest of the solution consisted of getting “mechanical shovels and trucks from different companies with workers from the popular councils themselves and other entities,” said Periódico 26, which celebrated the garbage collection as a great milestone, despite the fact that the company did not receive all the necessary resources. Until now, the media said, Comunales obtained only 50% of the fuel it requires; its infrastructure is scarce, and its vehicles are, for the most part, in poor condition.

Las Tunas has been crying out for months for the government to take care of the city’s hygiene. The first alternative, conceived months ago, was to hire the horse-cart drivers to collect the garbage, but the disagreements with the drivers over the payments and the hard work left the municipality without collectors. In the province, 252 cart drivers work with Comunales, when, in the provincial capital alone, 659 are needed “to achieve a systematic collection.” continue reading

Las Tunas has been crying out for months for the government to take care of the city’s hygiene

Periódico 26, which explained that “this mission will take place until the city is completely clean,” is aware that “such an effort requires the systematic collection of solid waste.” However, it was not clarified where that fuel comes from – a resource that the State cannot deliver easily due to the shortage – and whether the deliveries to Comunales will be made regularly.

Part of the responsibility was also attributed to the inhabitants of the municipality, who were asked for “discipline” to “comply with what is established and ensure the cleanliness of the environment… The new strategy already shows that it may be possible to keep the city clean with institutional support and the population’s behavior,” the newspaper said, despite the fact that the obvious solution is to give Comunales what they need and not exhaust the resources of other companies.

The latest media report on the garbage situation, at the end of April, complained that few cart drivers “have stepped forward to do the work.” Each one is paid 40 pesos per cubic meter of garbage, which means that an average days earning — on the black market, where ordinary people exchange their money — is the equivalent of about $5 US a day. “But they don’t even want to do that work,” the provincial deputy director of Comunales, Eiser Prieto, told Periódico 26.

According to the official newspaper, the population of Las Tunas generates about 33,200 cubic feet of waste per month, most of which should be picked up by Servicio Comunales with two collection trucks and eight tractors, but there are only 2 tractors available. That saturation of garbage, along with the lack of equipment and the risks to both the drivers and the animals of contracting diseases, have overwhelmed the cart drivers.

At the beginning of April, Periódico 26 described Las Tunas as a capital city “full of trash dumps,” with municipalities in full “deterioration” and with leaders who “lack sensitivity” and act only “when they’re told to by the higher authorities.”

It also mentioned “social indisciplines,” such as throwing garbage in any corner, but recognized that “many neighbors have no choice but to throw garbage in the bins even when they are overflowing. What else can they do if there is no fuel and no horse carts?” The newspaper then asked for a salary increase for the cart drivers – “there is no other way” – a measure that should have been taken “many months ago,” it said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Rafters Rescued by Fishermen Want To Stay in Mexico

The United States has deported 13 Cubans and 520 migrants from other countries in 2024

One of the Cuban rafters with Migration agents at the General Hospital of San Fernando / INM

14ymedio, Mexico City, 7 May 2024 — The Cuban rafters Mario Sergio Márquez Ventura, 30 years old, Rogelio Loaces Fuentes (50), Yuriesky Romero Hernández (33) and Diosan (26) asked the Migration authorities in Mexico to start procedures for their immigration regularization so they can stay in the country. The migrants, who were rescued last Saturday by fishermen from Laguna Madre, in Tamaulipas (Mexico), made the request on the same day the Cuban Embassy in Mexico offered them consular support. The consul general of Cuba told the local media, El Mañana, that it will be their decision if they want to return to the Island, stay in Mexico or continue on their way.

Migration lawyer José Luis Pérez says that article 69 of the Migration Law clearly states that they must be informed about the requirements to “regularize their stay.” In addition, these people “have the right to be legally assisted during the administrative procedure.”

Identification presented by Rogelio Loaces Fuentes to the Migration authorities / Facebook/Julio César

However, the lawyer did not rule out that under pressure they may be deported to Cuba. Mexico continues to deport Cubans, despite the fact that last October it announced that the process of “assisted calls” – as the expulsions are called – was paused until further notice. Last January, nine people from the Island were returned on a commercial flight. Last year, the departure of 774 migrants was completed. Staff at the General Hospital of San Fernando confirmed to 14ymedio that the rafters responded to treatment, and two were discharged to Migration on Monday. The other two remain under observation and could be discharged Tuesday, a day earlier than expected. continue reading

The Cubans remain in security at Migration headquarters in Matamoros, the Undersecretary of the Government of Tamaulipas, Tomás Gloria Requena, told the media on Monday.

The official said the story about the deaths of four other Cuban migrants is just a “rumor.” We don’t really know if they came together or in another boat; the National Institute of Migration will find out and let us know.”

These irregular migrants – 10 men and three women – had left Cuba illegally on April 23 from Cienfuegos province for Mexico

Also, a group of 13 Cuban rafters was returned to the Island on Tuesday by the United States Coast Guard Service (USCG), making a total of 520 irregular migrants from several countries in the region deported so far in 2024, official media reported.

These irregular migrants – 10 men and three women – had left Cuba illegally on April 23 from Cienfuegos province and were rescued on the high seas by a ship from Mexico that delivered them to the US Coast Guard, according to a note from Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior.

One of the returnees was on parole for compliance with criminal sanctions at the time of leaving the Island and “will be placed at the disposal of the corresponding courts for the revocation of that benefit,” he added.

This is the 14th operation to deport rafters carried out this year by the USCG through the port of Orozco, in the province of Artemisa.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Batista, a Tropical Messiah

Six decades of indoctrination can somewhat distort our view of the past.

Fulgencio Batista was born on January 16, 1901, the feast of Saint Fulgentius / Archive

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 5 May 2024 — Fulgencio Batista landed a major role in the soap opera that is Cuba on September 4, 1933, during the Sergeants’ Revolt. He went on to become its biggest star, earning the grandiose nickname The Man. How could an unknown sergeant go from bit player to leading man? How did a short peasant with a ruddy complexion manage to dominate the front pages during several chapters of our nation’s history?

His father, Belisario, fought in the Cuban War of Independence. In spite of being illiterate, he managed to educate his son while regaling him with stories of battlefield exploits. Little Beno’s first teacher was a girl from the village. Though not actually a trained educator, she did teach children to read. He would later enroll in a run-down Quaker school. After a day of cutting sugar cane and doing household chores, the boy would study at night. There are photos of him working as a tailor or carpenter, before he had any hint of a mustache.

His mother Carmela, by contrast, was a deeply religious woman. Batista would recall, however, how level-headed she could be, taking him in 1910 to watch the path of Halley’s Comet rather than succumbing to the fear and superstition which led the town’s other residents to hide under the covers at the time. He would lose her five years later when he was just fourteen years old.

There are photos of him working as a tailor or carpenter, before he had any hint of a mustache

A fan of the railroad, the young Batista managed to become a conductor though his true vocation was putting on a military uniform. Six decades of indoctrination might somewhat distort our view of the past. It is difficult for us to understand what impact the sight of the Rural Guard might have on a peasant of that time. However, there are stories that claim every Cuban peasant would look up from the fields or out the door of his hut whenever a pair of them rode by on horseback. It was a mixture of fascination and fear. And that was what Batista wanted until he achieved it in 1921. continue reading

He did not particularly distinguish himself as a soldier but he did use his free time to take a correspondence course in shorthand. The habit of walking around all day long with books under his arm earned him the nickname The Man of Letters, something he certainly did not mind. The most distinctive thing about that period of his life was that he became part of President Zayas’ security detail at a farm in Wajay. It was there that he met his first wife, Elisa Godínez, whom he would marry in 1926.

A year later he would be promoted to corporal, hardly an extraordinary accomplishment. He would have to wait another year before being promoted to sergeant-major and given a job as stenographer at the Cabaña fortress. Dreaming of becoming a captain was perhaps too lofty a goal for a soldier from such humble beginnings, someone without money, family connections or notoriety.

Batista gave a speech in which he employed all of his father’s working-class eloquence and all his mother’s wonder at seeing Halley’s Comet pass overhead

After the fall of President Gerardo Machado, civilian and military officials were unhappy with Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. A rumor, a mere rumor, was the trigger that sparked the mutiny. There was talk that the government was going to reduce the Army’s staff and cut salaries. That was how the Gang of Eight, led by a certain Pablo Rodríguez, came to be. One of the reasons Batista got involved was because of his skills as a typist. And he had an old Ford which allowed the conspirators to get around.

But Batista had another trick up his sleeve. He knew how to speak in public. Pablo Rodríguez never imagined he would have to step aside for a stenographer, who would end up sidelining him in the history books. Batista gave a speech in which he employed all Belisario’s working-class eloquence and all Carmela’s wonder at seeing Halley’s Comet pass overhead. He spoke of the “soldier-man” and emphasized with a peasant’s rage the word “dignity.”

At the conclusion, he said just one thing: Viva Batista! A week later he was a colonel and would go on to become the the Cuban Strongman, a nickname he had for a quarter of a century.

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Colombian Airline Avianca Resumes Its Flights to Cuba After Four Years of Absence

The company will offer six weekly flights between Bogotá and Havana and 2,100 weekly tickets

Avianca will operate six direct flights on Airbus A320 aircraft with capacity for 180 passengers between Bogotá and Havana / EFE

14ymedio, Havana, 3 May 2024 — The Colombian airline Avianca, whose aircraft had not flown to Cuba for four years, announced that beginning July 2, it will operate six direct weekly flights on Airbus A320 aircraft with capacity for 180 passengers, between El Dorado International Airport, in Bogotá, and José Martí, in Havana. According to a statement, it will sell 2,100 tickets a week. “We are happy to return to Cuba to provide our customers with an additional destination in the Caribbean and also to connect Cubans with 25 countries and 75 destinations that are part of our network,” said David Alemán, Avianca’s Sales Director for Colombia and Latin America.

Alemán highlighted that the airline has more than 70 flights and 10 routes that connect a network of destinations that include Aruba, Curaçao, Punta Cana, Santo Domingo, San Juan and now Havana. In addition, he specified that flights to the Island will be made on Tuesdays and Sundays.

With the increase in Avianca’s connections, another escape door is opened for Cubans who want to reach Managua to make the crossing to the United States

With the increase in Avianca connections, another escape door is opened for Cubans who want to reach Managua with the aim of making the crossing to the United States. The airline was widely used when there were fewer flights to Nicaragua during the COVID-19 pandemic. continue reading

Nationals of the Island would leave for Bogotá on a flight from Wingo, where they made a connection with Avianca to El Salvador with a final destination in Managua. The route, however, was impractical, since Colombia requires a transit visa for Cubans, and the procedure at that country’s consulate in Havana is slow.

The Colombian airline suspended its flights to Cuba on January 15, 2020. Avianca Holdings made the determination after, in October of the previous year, it had established a limited liability company in the United States to obtain a credit, making it subject to the regulations of that country.

The company suspended the sale of tickets to Cuba after the United States Government warned that it could sanction the airline for its operations on the Island, since initially the company did not request the corresponding permits.

The company suspended the sale of tickets to Cuba in 2020 after the U.S. Government warned that it could sanction the airline for its operations on the Island

Avianca admitted that its flights to and from Cuban territory could have “involuntarily” violated the regulations of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury Department.

The return of Avianca comes a few days after the Venezuelan airline Conviasa announced the increase in flights, from May 5, with departures from Caracas (Venezuela) to Managua (Nicaragua), with a stopover in Havana. The transfers will take place on Tuesday and Sunday, and “the checked baggage allowance is 23 kilos [51 pounds].”

The connections, whose costs were not disclosed, are in addition to those that the Venezuelan airline already had marked on its calendar. There were transfers from Havana to Managua on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

The Avianca and Conviasa flights take place at a time when the state airline Cubana de Aviación confirmed the suspension of its regular flights to Argentina under the argument of the “refusal” of the oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) to supply fuel to its aircraft because of the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Blackouts in Holguin, Cuba, Predict a Dark Future for the New Electric Tricycles

Holguín residents complain that the vehicles cover an unpopular route, instead of serving more central stops

Electric tricycles parked in a staging area in front of the Vocational school, in the city of Holguín / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 4 May 2024 — Shining under the May sun, the 20 new electric tricycles that travel the streets of Holguín will began to provide service this Thursday. However, poor planning has already hindered the beginning of their journey in a city where public transport barely satisfies a tiny part of the demand for mobility.

With a capacity of six people and a price of ten pesos per customers, the vehicles right now only serve the route between Las Baleares terminal and the Vocational School. At the staging area, Edmundo, a Holguín resident of 62, climbed aboard one of the tricycles on May 2nd in front of the Vocational School, on its inaugural trip.

“They say they are still testing but they have chosen the route with the least problems, they should have started with the most congested routes,” the passenger told 14ymedio after concluding his journey. “People haven’t found out yet, that’s why I was able to feel comfortable without so much pressure because it wasn’t crowded.”

“They should have put these tricycles on the route between the three hospitals, the Surgical Clinic, the Pediatric Hospital and the Lenin Hospital,” says Edmundo. “Those are the sections where people need to move more and where right now the transportation situation is more complicated and the prices for horse-drawn carriages are higher. continue reading

“They should have put these tricycles on the route between the three hospitals, the Surgical Clinic, the Pediatric Hospital and the Lenin Hospital”

One of the drivers dressed in a yellow sweater with the Taxis Holguín logo responded to other passengers with similar questions. “Don’t worry, these are the first 20, another 30 will arrive in the next few days,” said the employee of Agency No. 2 belonging to that state company.

“These tricycles have a 60-volt, 200-ampere battery,” explained the driver to an audience more interested in knowing if the service will be maintained over time and if will increase its fleet of vehicles, than in the technical details. “That means it can travel up to 200 kilometers,” the man continued to explain.

Another Taxis Holguín worker explained to this newspaper that after completing their journey, of about 15 daily trips, the tricycles are stored in Agency No. 2 located on Peralta Street between 20 de Mayo and Independencia, in the Santiesteban District. “There they are also charged connected to the electrical grid,” he points out.

The electric tricycles that have arrived in the city of Holguín are not yet using solar energy to recharge their batteries. “With the blackouts that we are suffering in this city, we will see just two or three tricycles in the parking area because the others will not have been able to charge the batteries,” predicted another rider who made the trip to the Balearic Islands.

Electric tricycle traveling the Las Baleares-Vocacional route, in Holguín / 14ymedio

However, the director of the agency, Julio César Coré Garcel, assured the official press that the new means of transportation are part of a program of the Ministry of Transportation to move “progressively toward changing the energy matrix.”

“They can’t cope because they are small and for the volume of passengers that moves in this city they look like toys,” adds a woman. “I pay up to 100 pesos for a horse-drawn carriage when I have an emergency, but most of the time I don’t move in this part of the city.”

According to the woman, the driver of her vehicle assured her that they were only measuring demand and that possibly the vehicles that will arrive in the coming months will cover the so-called route of the three hospitals. But, distrustful, the people of Holguín prefer a bird in hand rather than the promise of several dozen in flight.

“We need 200 or 300 of these tricycles for this city to move again and for getting around to not be as agonizing as it is now,” the customer calculates. “But we also need large buses that transport more passengers at once because this, one little sip at a time, isn’t going to fix it,” the woman considers.

The same night, this Thursday, Holguín residents suffered a long blackout that lasted until dawn in numerous neighborhoods. Surely, as soon as the power supply was cut off, some of the first customers of the tricycles thought about the vehicles, connected, at the taxi agency, to a power outlet without power.

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The Cuban Government Promotes a ‘Tricycle Revolution’ in the Midst of the Energy Crisis

There are 200 vehicles in the assembly phase and another 300 “that should be received this year,” according to the Minister of Transportation

Opening an electric taxi base in Matanzas in January was one of the last public acts of the former secretary of the Communist Party Susely Morfa, aboard the tricycle / Girón

14ymedio, Havana, 24 April 2024 — The Cuban Government has made the circulation of electric tricycles on the Island a matter of State. Assembled in Cuba with imported parts, 183 vehicles of that class circulate in the country, according to the Minister of Transportation. However, in the many articles that it has dedicated to the subject, the official press avoids saying where they are brought from and who pays the 7,000 dollars that each one costs: the Chinese company Minghong and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The association of both institutions with the Narciso López Roselló Equipment and Applications company – a branch of the Sidero Mecánica Industry group – has been active since 2018 and its results have been modest, but this year, its directors insist, manufacturing its own tricycles is a priority, although the conditions do not seem to have changed.

The State newspaper Granma, which interviewed the director of the company, Luis Madrigal, did not want to put its hands in the fire for Narciso López Roselló and titled its article with a hint of doubt: Electric tricycles, made in Cuba? The negative answer was given by the Minister of Transportation, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, who in Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s program assured that there were 200 vehicles in the assembly phase and another 300 “that should be received this year.”

Those 500 tricycles in the project, which Transportation intends to “distribute” throughout the provinces, will continue to be a product assembled in the country with foreign parts. Madrigal, however, assures that there is a “commitment” from the Government to the in-house manufacturing of “chassis, cabins and metal structures.” continue reading

However, the most important things are missing: the batteries, the electrical system and the motors

However, the most important things are missing: the batteries, the electrical system, and the motors, which will continue to depend on Minghong and the UNDP. The company is not even at its maximum capacity, admitted Madrigal, who said that in its good times Narciso López was able to assemble up to 1,000 vehicles. However, they do not have workers and it is affected by “the current conditions,” he lamented.

According to the manager, there are four models of electric tricycles that are assembled in Cuba, and which are covered in the factory plan: the Aries Power, which has been circulating on Cuban streets for five years; the Aries XL, cargo; the C1, smaller; and the vans, whose “box” – the space for passengers – is manufactured on the Island.

During the recent Transportation and Logistics Fair, the company “signed an extension of the contract with the supplier” to continue sending tricycles from China, says Granma. These are the 300 vehicles that the minister spoke about. The problem, the Communist Party newspaper clarifies, is that the provinces will receive them only “to the extent that financing is available for their assembly.”

In his conversation with Díaz-Canel, the Minister of Transportation also alluded to the possibility of circulating three electric buses. The “invention,” however, has not taken off for months, despite the fact that its design and management are under the Armed Forces in Sancti Spíritus.

The “dream” of electric buses and tricycles has an obvious defect that Díaz-Canel, Rodríguez Dávila and Madrigal did not allude to: the energy crisis

The “dream” of electric buses and tricycles has an obvious defect that Díaz-Canel, Rodríguez Dávila and Madrigal did not allude to: the energy crisis that Cuba has been experiencing for years, and whose worsening is becoming more and more frequent. For the difficulties when charging and maintaining vehicles in the midst of long blackouts, managers do not seem to have an answer. The situation is comparable to that of the “energy revolution” that Fidel Castro decreed in 2006, and which led to the frenetic importation of rice cookers, stoves, heaters and other electrical equipment that were then useless during the blackouts.

The enthusiasm with the “tricycle revolution” is not only similar to that of 2006, but also occurs in a crisis of the National Electrical System very similar to the one that, then, led to the wholesale import of electrical devices.

The proof is offered, this Wednesday, by the Electrical Union, whose part lists an inventory of difficulties and breakdowns. Five units out of action due to breaks in several thermoelectric plants, three in maintenance, and a season of blackouts that, according to the technical director of the state company, Lázaro Guerra, will see some relief in July.

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The Communist Party of Chile Is Annoyed With Boric for Requesting the Democratization of Cuba

Last week, the organization signed an agreement on the Island with the Cuban Communist Party (PCC)

Boric has been critical of the authoritarian governments of Latin America, which brought him insults from Ortega and Maduro // Gabrielboric

14ymedio, Madrid, 6 May 2024 — “I don’t know what the president is referring to; I don’t know what he sees that needs to be democratized in Cuba.” The phrase is from Boris Barrera, a deputy of the Communist Party (PC) of Chile, referring to President Gabriel Boric. Within the Government there are no tensions with the PC, says Minister Camila Vallejo, a member of that same party, but the leaders of the organization have not taken well to the president’s statements and have not hesitated to let him know.

The controversy broke out on May 3, World Press Freedom Day, when the Chilean president, meeting with the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, spoke about the Island. “The situation is serious in Cuba, where today there is hunger and where it is necessary once and for all to lift the unilateral blockade*, in addition to moving towards democratization within the same country.” Boric’s words would be considered lukewarm by a large part of the international community, but they have been enough to anger one of the parties of his government’s coalition.

“Each country has the political system that it wants and that it imposes on itself (…). Cubans have given themselves in a democratic and sovereign way the political system they have,” Barrero told the president. His opinion was joined by Luis Cuello, head of the caucus of the communist deputies, who added: “The people of Cuba have the right to determine their own political system.” continue reading

“Cubans have given themselves in a democratic and sovereign way the political system they have,” Barrero told the president

On the same Friday, in the Círculo de Periodistas de Santiago de Chile, Lautaro Carmona and Bárbara Figueroa, president and secretary general of the PC, respectively, told the party’s militants about their recent trip to Cuba during an event in which funds were collected “to support Cuba.” Carmona said that during his time on the Island he learned “first hand, the effects of the criminal blockade* imposed by the United States.”

But his trip had another purpose, the signing of an agreement of “exchange and cooperation” between the communist parties of both countries, signed on the Island by Roberto Morales, current secretary of the organization and policy of cadres of the central committee of the PCC. Carmona provided some details of its content, among which stands out the “bilateral cooperation in the field of digital political communication, especially the work on social networks with the purpose of disseminating objective and truthful information opposed to the adverse media campaigns developed by the media of imperialism and its allies.”

The exchange on “issues of common interest” is also planned to reinforce “friendship, cooperation, dialogue, mutual learning and political trust between both parties,” which includes youth, feminist and trade union groups as priorities.

In addition, the objective is to “tighten the consultation and coordination mechanism for mutual support for international events, where it is necessary to establish a position of common principles, especially the São Paulo forum**” and also “promoting bilateral cooperation in terms of political formation and cadres,” including the creation of “economic cooperation platforms.”

Thus, the parties pledged to respect “the specific realities of Chile and Cuba” and “non-interference in internal affairs”

Thus, the parties pledged to respect “the specific realities of Chile and Cuba” and “non-interference in internal affairs,” he added, given the opportunity to complain about Boric’s words. “We want our government to have a closer look. We were with the ambassador of Chile there. Of course, it’s not the same thing we would have said, without speaking ill of him, from a professional point of view. But let’s make this urgent, let’s persevere, let’s not falter. This is a political, revolutionary mission,” added the leader of the PC.

“If we do it, we will feel the healthy satisfaction not only of having fulfilled, but also of being involved in a greater cause. We have a lot of closeness (with Cuba), but we have to make this a mass movement,” he said.

Despite the fact that Boric, who has been harder in the past with both the president of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega and the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro – who has called him a “cowardly leftist” for his opinions – was reserved in his observations, his statements generated reactions from the entire parliamentary spectrum.

Among the opposition, the intervention of Guillermo Ramírez, of the right-wing Independent Democratic Union party, stands out, who said: “I am glad that the president talks about dictatorship when he talks about Cuba. In general, the left may have harsh words against Nicaragua and also against Venezuela, but it is very difficult for them to talk about Cuba; there is something romantic there that the left has not given up.”

“In general, the left can have harsh words against Nicaragua and also against Venezuela, but it is very difficult for them to talk about Cuba; there is something romantic there that the left has not given up”

Agustín Romero, of the opposition Republican Party, considered for his part that Boric “instead of looking outward, should worry about what is happening in Chile. Today, Chileans are being killed.”

The president’s position was generally supported by the government coalition, as the deputy of Social Convergence, Gonzalo Winter, made clear: “The situation of the embargo* is unacceptable, and the Cuban political model also moves completely away from what I understand by democracy.”

Maite Orsini, of the ruling Democratic Revolution, remarked that Cubans “are damaged both by their own government that prevents them from their civil and political rights and also by the blockade* that the United States has sustained for too many years.”

Vallejo herself, representative of the PC in the Government, said that the situation could go further and confirmed that the Executive supports Boric. “It is not something new, it is not something unknown to any ruling party, and it has been that conviction and that commitment to democracies, to human rights and to the integration of countries to be able to maintain that line and accept the consequence. Therefore, if it wasn’t a problem before, it wouldn’t have to be,” she said.

*Translator’s note: There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in the same year in February, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Opposition Candidate Xochitl Galvez Promises Not to Hire Cuban Doctors if She Wins the Presidency of Mexico

The opposition candidate accused the Cuban regime of keeping the profits of the health workers sent to Mexico

Gálvez leads a coalition of parties against the Government of López Obrador / 14ymedio/Courtesy

14ymedio, Adyr Corral, Mexico, 6 May 2024 — The main candidate of the opposition for the presidency of Mexico, Xóchitl Gálvez, said that if she wins, she will not hire more Cuban doctors, as the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been doing.

“We are not going to continue to bring Cuban doctors! In Mexico, we have enough capacity and talent!” she said on Monday during the presentation of her Health Plan 2024-2030, ahead of the elections on June 2

The standard-bearer of the Fuerza y Corazón [Strength and Heart] coalition for Mexico, which brings together the PAN, PRI and PRD parties, said that in recent years the hiring of doctors from the Island has been a screen to camouflage López Obrador’s support of the Cuban dictatorship.

On April 29, the Mexican Government confirmed the arrival of another 123 Cuban doctors, totaling just over 800 specialists, of the total of 1,200 that López Obrador promises to have before the end of his six-year term.

Gálvez complained that the Cuban doctors who have been imported are not well paid for their work in Mexico and that the Cuban regime itself receives most of the economic profit. continue reading

“Hiring the Cuban doctors has only served to finance an authoritarian regime, because they don’t pay them well; it’s the Cuban government that keeps the money,” she emphasized at an event held in Guanajuato, in the center of the country.

Instead of bringing more doctors of Cuban origin, the opposition candidate proposed the construction of a comprehensive health system in which public, social and private services are united.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The ‘Youngest Soldier in Cuba’ Recollects Her Family Trauma in the Documentary ‘Seguridad’

Tamara Segura presented in Canada the film in which she reveals how the regime ended up destroying the life of her father and his relatives

Tamara Segura, designated by the regime as the youngest militiawoman in Cuba, experienced the ’honor’ as a heavy burden / EFE

EFE (via 14ymedio), Toronto, 6 May 2024 — When she was born on December 2, the anniversary of the arrival in Cuba of the yacht “Granma” on which Fidel Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara and others traveled to initiate the Revolution, Tamara Segura was named by the Cuban authorities as a soldier of the Revolution, which made her the youngest soldier in the country. Segura, who defined herself in an interview with EFE as a girl who was always very shy and “who didn’t want that kind of attention,” experienced the “honor” as a heavy burden.

The filmmaker discovered a violent encounter with a police officer, which earned her father a two-year prison sentence and plunged him into the alcoholism that would end up destroying him

Now, turned into a filmmaker based in Canada, Segura presented in Hot Docs – the most important documentary festival in North America and among the most prominent in the world – “Seguridad” (“Security”), a film in which she tells the story of her family and reveals how the regime destroyed it.

Her father’s alcoholism and violence caused her parents to divorce, and Segura distanced herself from him. When she moved to Canada in 2010, the rupture was total.

Four years later, the filmmaker tried to reconnect with her father and went to Cuba However, her father passed away a few days after her arrival in 2014, exactly 10 years ago, without them being able to speak.

Among his belongings was a box with old family photographs that showed him as a young, cheerful man, with no trace of the alcoholism and violence that would mark his life.

In the film, Segura reveals a secret that she had not known until that moment. Through conversations with her mother and her paternal grandmother, as well as documents, she discovered a violent encounter with a police officer, which earned her father a two-year prison sentence and plunged him into the alcoholism that would end up destroying him. continue reading

“My first instinct to make the movie was right after my father’s death, when I discovered that heritage of photos. And in those photos there is clearly a family story that was a blow to the gut,” Segura explained.

“The process took a long time, and I finally realized that it was something I wanted to do because it was a story that was going to haunt me for life if I didn’t tell it,” she added.

Segura describes the moment when she discovered the police brutality that condemned her father, and the impunity of the regime that sent a man who until then had been a model citizen to jail, as “a punch in the face.”

“You look back and it explains absolutely everything. That was something I couldn’t ignore,” she said. It was at that moment that she decided she had to make a documentary.

“I had no intention of talking about the economy, politics, ideological or sociocultural reality. I really wanted to talk about internal life and what that violence does to you psychologically

“I had no intention of talking about the economy, politics, ideological or sociocultural reality. I really wanted to talk about internal life and what that violence does to you psychologically,” she explained.

The filmmaker adds that knowing the role that the regime played in the destruction of her father was “like a reaffirmation of something that is already intuitively abstract. But of course it is very different to see it in its own flesh.”

“I had a lot of emotions, a lot of anger, a lot of pain, a lot of regret of having ended the relationship with him, without an apology, without really understanding who he was and without being able to say the things I wanted to say. Making the film has been a way to correct those mistakes,” she concluded.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Matanzas, Cuba, the ATMs Are Like People: Without Money

In addition to the limited availability of cash, customers complain about the long hours of waiting, not understanding the working hours, fatigue and hunger

The ATM of the Banco Popular de Ahorro on Medio Street does not always have cash / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, May 5, 2024 — Getting up early in the morning, making a coffee and leaving for the Banco Popular de Ahorro on Calle Medio, in Matanzas, has become a routine that Magda repeats between three and four times a month. Before 5:00 am, the 47-year-old is already at the branch standing in line to withdraw money from the ATM. The entity, however, does not open its doors until three and a half hours later.

“When I have to come to withdraw money I always arrive very early, but it doesn’t matter when I get up, there are always people there: coleros* [people being paid to stand in line for someone else] or people who are willing to wait from earlier,” Magda tells 14ymedio. “I immediately sit on the stairs and wait.”

Magda lives near the bank, but customers from several miles away walk to that branch from, for example, Peñas Altas. As she explains, arriving early does not guarantee that she can withdraw what she wants. “When the bank opens, the coleros have already left and those who hired them arrive – sometimes more than one – and replace them. By the time you arrive, the number of people in front of you has doubled,” she says. “The other thing is that this bank doesn’t always have money and coming here is a game of chance.” continue reading

ATM located on Contreras Street, belonging to the Banco Popular de Ahorro. Sometimes, several days pass without it delivering cash / 14ymedio

At 8:30 am a branch worker opens the doors to the anxious crowd and repeats his speech of every morning: “Soon money will be put in the ATM; each customer will be able to extract only 10,000 pesos and insert a maximum of two cards. Keep the line organized,” he warns.

With the wait for the money, the discomfort begins. “None of those people were here at 7:00 am, when I arrived,” a woman complains. “Oh, daughter, don’t you realize that that man made a line for them? Everything here is fixed,” another replies.

In addition to the low availability of cash, customers complain about the long hours of waiting, the working hours, fatigue and hunger. “I already warned them at work that I was going to be late. The boss will scold me again, but there is no remedy. If they want us to be early, then don’t pay us by card,” grumbles a young office worker.

With the difficulty of the task, Cubans have devised several “tricks” to extract the money or do it faster. “That man there came early with his wife, and she went to another ATM in case the cash runs out here,” says Magda. Others, she says, have contacts in several banks and call to find out if they will have cash. “I myself have a friend at the ATM of El Naranjal, who told me that today there would be no cash there, nor in the ATMs of the funeral home and Contreras Street,” she says.

ATM located on Medio Street, belonging to the Banco de Crédito y Comercio / 14ymedio

“The problem is that, with inflation, anything you buy costs 1,000 pesos, and therefore you need to take large amounts out of the bank. That’s what they charge, for example, the coleros, but I can’t give them that pleasure. Anyway, at 10,000 pesos per head, there are times when the first five people clean out the cash,” she says.

The hours pass slowly and the line doesn’t seem to move forward. “Who is the last of the disabled?” asks a woman without any visible disability. Immediately, suspicion in the line skyrockets. “Right now two people from a private business passed by and took out a lot of large bills. Now you appear with a physical disability. When we get to the front of the line, the money is gone, and those of us who have been here since early morning are left without anything,” a man growls at the indifferent gaze of a woman, who inserts her card into the ATM.

The same employee who hours before gave instructions to the customers now leaves, looks at the line and enters the branch again without saying a word. “Is the money going to run out?” The question makes everyone’s hair stand on end. “It not even ten,” says an old man.

ATM belonging to the Banco de Crédito y Comercio, located on Milanés Street. In general, it only has money available from Monday to Saturday in the early hours of the morning, although sometimes it also has cash for one or two hours in the afternoon / 14ymedio

“There’s a lot of banking and everything, but nowhere do they accept payment by transfer. The other day I needed to urgently buy some medication and I had to go to Varadero to get money,” complains a young man.

“Who is the last one?”** asks a man who arrives by bicycle, but there is no answer. The young office employee, whose turn had now arrived and who was extracting cash, gives the bad news: “There’s no more money. I could only get 2,500.” Many of the clients get annoyed and begin to protest, but most, for whom that situation is routine, pick up their things and leave. It’s 10:30 in the morning.

The employees of the branch don’t say a word. Only the custodian of the bank clarifies the doubt – otherwise well known – to an old woman: “They won’t put in one more peso until tomorrow.”

Translator’s notes:

*A line or queue in Cuba is called a ‘cola’ (literally ‘tail’) and ‘coleros’ are people who others pay to hold their place in lines that can be hours, or even days, long.

**Each person who joins the line asks “who is last” and then they themselves become the new “last person” until the next arrival. In this way Cubans don’t have to stand strictly one-behind-the-other, and can still maintain their positions in the line.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Migrant Women With Children Risk Rape and Robbery in the ‘Hell’ of the Darien Jungle

So far this year, 104,000 adults have crossed, of which 35% are women

A migrant with her child rests at a reception station after crossing the jungle / EFE

Moncho Torres/EFE, Bajo Chiquito (Panama), 4 May 2024 — Migration has long ceased to be something only for men. Women alone, with children or with their partners, leave their homes behind and cross through the “hell” of the Darién jungle, where they are victims of rape and robbery even while carrying their children. “¡Let’s go, we’re almost there!”

At the checkpoint of Bajo Chiquito, the first indigenous town that migrants come to after crossing the Darién, which is the jungle border between Panama and Colombia, the Panamanian authorities collect data from the hundreds of newcomers who, exhausted, are waiting patiently to take their turn. Behind the officials, apart, sits a girl. Suddenly, it seems that she has identified someone in the line.

“Do you know this girl?” the officer asks a woman. “Is she 12 years old?” she replies. They ask the girl and she nods. The officer then asks her if she knows where her mother is. “Yes, she’s coming further back.”

Venezuelan Karely Salazar, 31, travels with her 7-, 10- and 12-year-old daughters. They have gone to the village outpatient clinic. “The smallest one has a fever and a cold from spending two days in the river,” the woman explains to EFE, exhausted. “Their father is in Venezuela,” she adds. continue reading

“The smallest one has a fever and a cold from spending two days in the river”

“Thank God we crossed the jungle, but it really wasn’t easy, very difficult for the children,” she says. “Did your eldest daughter get lost?” “Yes,” the mother nods, and her face changes. She says that on the second day of walking her leg hurt and she couldn’t move, and the little girl walked into the crowd and “lost her way.”

“Last night I cried and cried because I didn’t know where she was,” says the mother. Hundreds of migrants, or thousands, pass through that jungle every day.

According to data from the Panamanian authorities, after the historic record of more than 520,000 migrants who crossed the Darién in 2023, so far this year more than 130,000 have crossed. Of the 104,000 adults, about 35% are women, and of the more than 28,600 minors, 47% are girls.

The Panamanian authorities generally issue strong warnings against migration, since the Colombian side is controlled by the Gulf Clan, a criminal organization that in 2023 received 68 million dollars for the passage of migrants, in addition to other gangs that steal from and attack those who pass by.

The director of Migration of Panama, Samira Gozaine, goes further: “There are stories that some mothers leave their children to drown in the river because they are too heavy to carry; they abandon them to their fate,” she told EFE a year ago.

“It’s a total hell,” says the young woman, but the crisis in Venezuela gave her no other option; working 12 hours a day in a supermarket gave her only 20 dollars a week

For the international lawyer and human rights activist Iván Chanis, these stories”dehumanize” the migrants and deny the reality, because, as he explains to EFE, “what mother wants to leave her daughter behind?”

Luisannys Mundaraín, 22 years old, carries her baby in her arms and breastfeeds him. She tells EFE that when she crossed one of the rough parts with the baby he slipped, but she was able to hold onto him at the last moment. To this were added the snakes, spiders, rivers, and “those thieves who rob and rape women.”

Mundaraín then recounts how her group was intercepted on a hill by a group of armed men wearing hoods, who asked them for “100 dollars for each person. Those who did not give them money had to hand over their phones, or if it was a woman she had to stay for you know what.”

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported, before the Panamanian authorities banned them from continuing to provide medical care in the country, that they treated more than 1,300 people for sexual violence in the Darién between April 2021 and January 2024.

“It’s a total hell,” says the young woman, but the crisis in Venezuela gave her no other option, with 12-hours of work in a supermarket for 20 dollars a week, when “a package of diapers cost 5 dollars and food was even more expensive.”

Thus, when in the middle of the electoral campaign some Panamanian politicians say that they are going to close the 165 miles of border in the Darién, the young woman sighs. “It’s impossible to close it, because even if there are thousands of dangers, migrants will always try to cross because of the poverty they suffer in their countries.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Why Are Cuba’s Provincial Governors Being Fired?

Though replacing provincial leaders is something that happens fairly regularly, the sheer number of party cadres who have been removed from office recently suggests that top military officials are concerned about something.

Susely Morfa, a diehard supporter of the regime, was removed as first-secretary of the Communist Party in Matanzas province in March / Radio Rebelde

14ymedio, Miguel Alejandro Hayes, Miami, May 2, 2024 — Something is going on up there. Over a dozen senior officials have been removed from office so far this year. Prominent on the list are party officials and governors in Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Matanzas, Holguín, Las Tunas and Cienfuegos.

The reason could be an issue common to each case that was of concern to the military leadership running the country. And considering that this elite group is motivated by money as well as the power to make even more money, one can surmise what interests the officials who were sacked may have been hindering.

The most important economic change that occurred in Cuba recently was the legalization of small businesses. Though these can be either private or state-owned, it is the former that predominate.

This change in the domestic economy has reduced economic centralization. Since they were legalized in 2021, small and medium-sized private businesses (MSMEs) have contracted with state agencies to purchase materials and resources, lease real estate, deliver goods and provide services. These formal business alliances come under the heading of Local Development Projects (PDLs). All of this is happening in a cooperative fashion, as public-private partnerships in which the “public” consists, to a large degree, of provincial governments and party officials. continue reading

MSMEs have gained greater economic importance and now play a larger strategic role in local life

Wealth creation, business financing and even foreign reserve earnings have been enhanced by the monetary flow between the private and public sectors. And it has happened without them necessarily having to rely on the country’s top leadership, much less on the military business community. As a result, MSMEs have gained greater economic importance and now play a larger strategic role in local life

That is why the creation of these new businesses, operating in conjunction with local power brokers, has led to a decentralization of decision-making authority in terms of state resources, creating new centers of power at the local level. In other words, economic decentralization.

The leaders of these new provincial fiefdoms are not about to change the system, however. And the cases of corruption that have come to light — the ones in Havana stand out due to the large number of them — are not an issue in and of themselves for a regime that promotes such practices as a means of individual survival.

The problem for the military elite is that the system only makes sense if they alone are in charge and do not feel threatened. Just because the private sector might be made up of trusted people, of people under their control, does not mean they will be allowed to get rich faster than the military business community itself. Party cadres will still be party cadres but they must not be allowed to become too important.

When it comes to power in Cuba, the thinking is that any form of decentralization is evil because it suggests a shift in the power dynamic, a relinquishing of decision-making to others, of allowing them to act unhindered by the establishment. And authoritarians always see self-autonomy as a threat.

That is why these actions by local officials suggest the beginnings of an economic counter-reformation. And though it is not an exact correlation, it so happens that the officials who were dismissed were from provinces where private-sector MSMEs and PDLs have had the greatest impact.

Unlike previous counter-reformations and purges that were purportedly aimed at rooting out corruption, this time the nation’s top leaders cannot afford to destroy the thing that is threatening them

In spite of everything, the private sector operates efficiently and effectively. In the domestic economy, it serves as a source of goods and services for consumers and provides something of a stimulus to the declining quality of life on the island.

Instead, the military can set limits on private MSMEs using the powers of the state. It can control them so that they do not shift the center of gravity yet take advantage of their results. To do this, they need the most trusted local officials, the ones who keep a low profile and do not have too many projects of their own. Officials with their own ambitions always pose a danger. That is why they are removed if they have to be removed.

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A Cuban Receives 30 Years in Prison for Murder in a Case of Illegal Departure to the United States

The official press confirmed that two subjects accused of the crime of receiving stolen goods were sentenced to minor penalties

The case began with the investigation of the death of a man in the capital municipality of Boyeros /Televisión Cubana/Capture/Archive

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 5 May 2024 — A Cuban court sentenced a man to 30 years in prison for murdering a person in a case linked to an attempt at illegal exit to the United States by sea, official media reported on Saturday. In addition to the one convicted of murder, the Provincial Court of Havana punished four other people with sentences of between 10 and 13 years of deprivation of liberty for the crime of human trafficking, the Cuban state television reported.

The report confirmed that two subjects accused of the crime of receiving stolen goods were sentenced to minor penalties. The case began with the investigation of the death of a man in the capital municipality of Boyeros.

The investigation showed that he was killed with knives when he refused to hand over a car that would be used to transport four people to the point where they would illegally leave Cuba in a rustic boat. continue reading

In Cuba there are no public and periodic data on crime, especially with violence, although the state media publicly expose some cases

All those involved were arrested, even one who had fled by sea and was captured by the United States Coast Guard and handed over to the Cuban authorities. They all confessed to their participation in the events.

In Cuba there are no public and periodic data on crime, especially with violence, although the state media publicly expose some cases.

The independent media in Cuba, as well as social networks, have reported in recent months on different criminal acts such as robberies with violence. In the middle of last year, the newspaper Granma — the official organ of the Communist Party of Cuba — stressed that violent crimes in the country represent 8.5% of the total number of crimes recorded in the first six months of 2023.

However, the text did not specify the number of total crimes in 2023, did not contrast them with those of the same period in 2022 and did not specify whether the accusations ended in convictions.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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