TRANSLATORS – Page 198 – Translating Cuba

Cuban Doctor "Deserters" Disillusioned by Bolsonaro Ask for Help from the United States

The Cuban doctors who decided to stay in Brazil are disillusioned with the Bolsonaro government. (O Tempo)

14ymedio, Havana, 8 February 2019 — More than 2,000 doctors who defied the orders of the authorities in Havana and stayed in Brazil after the end of Cuba’s participation in the Mais Medicos (More Doctors) program have sent a letter to Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menéndez after learning that the Government of Jair Bolsonaro will suspend the health care program and will not offer them work.

In the letter, which El Nuevo Herald had access to, the professionals asked that both politicians continue to support the efforts to reinstate the Cuban Medical Professional Parole program, repealed by former President Barack Obama in 2017, which grants US visas to health professionals who abandon the Cuban international missions.

The physicians claim that they stopped honoring their commitment to the Cuban government after having relied on Bolsonaro’s promise of offering them political asylum and employment, but nearly three months later most have not been able to find work as doctors. continue reading

“The situation of the doctors who decided to stay in Brazil has been darkened by reality, most of us have been abandoned and left in precarious situations surviving with the help offered by friends and many of those who were our patients and who once again have shown their gratitude towards us,” they explained.

The professionals ask in their letter to the senators that, if they are unable to reactivate the aid program, “they dialogue” with the authorities to help them find jobs.

Mayra Pinheiro, the Brazilian Secretary of Labor Management and Health Education, told the press on Thursday that the current government would terminate the Mais Médicos program and replace it with a new project, so there will be no further requests to fill the 8,300 positions left behind by the Cubans. “All vacancies were filled by registered Brazilians,”she affirmed.

With the closure of Mais Médicos, more than 2,000 Cuban professionals who hoped to obtain work in the state program will not be able to fill positions as health workers in Brazil. In addition, the Cuban government prevents recognizing legally the degrees of these doctors, whom it considers deserters.

Pinheiro, who had talked some time ago about the possibility of performing special revalidation exams for the Cuban professionals to speed up their incorporation into the system, now delegates that responsibility to Cuba and, when asked in an interview about the future of those doctors, responded that it was Havana that abandoned the program.

The first secretary of the Federal Council of Medicine, Hermann Von Tniesehause, said, for his part that, “there is great concern in the government in relation to the Cuban doctors who asked for asylum in the country.” Von Tniesehause denied that the physicians can practice without having taken the revalidation examination.

Last November, Bolsonaro, at the time the president-elect of Brazil, said that the Cuban doctors of Mais Médicos were “slaves” of a “dictatorship” and asked for the modification of the conditions of the program. Havana reacted by abandoning the agreement and facilitating the departure of thousands of its professionals, who had been working in complex areas of Brazil for years.

More than 2,000 of these workers decided to stay in the South American country encouraged by the president’s promises, but now they survive without jobs and see their expectations shattered.

Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria

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Chad will Pay Cuba the Nearly 18 Million Dollars it Owes for the Training of its Doctors

Signing of the memorandum under which Chad agrees to make their delayed payments to the Island. (Apanews)

14ymedio, Havana, 4 February 2019 — Chad pledged to reimburse Cuba before the end of the first half of this year the almost 18 million dollars that it owes for the training of its students in the health field on the island.

Last Friday, the Minister of Finance and Budget of Chad, Allali Mahamat Abakar and Marcia Cobas Ruiz, Deputy Minister of Health and in charge of medical cooperation in third countries signed a memorandum by which N’Djamena promises to pay 50% of the total of the backlog, about 10,200 million FCFA (African Francs).

They will then pay the remaining 50% balance in two equal installment — the first on March 15th and the other prior to June 15, 2019.

The arrears are due to “failures in the Chadian economy,” explained Mahamat Allali Abakar before recalling that “Chad has more than 300 students in Cuban universities.”

For her part, Marcia Cobas Ruiz said that “the Chadian students are very studious, very disciplined and will be very good doctors”.

44 Cuban doctors are currently working in Chad.

In mid-2018, the Cuban government protested the lack of payment for medical services in Ghana and pointed out, as an example, precisely the compliance of poorer countries such as Chad.

Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria

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The Plastic Bottle is Invading Us

14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, February 7, 2019 — Together with her kitchenware, Dagmary has several plastic containers that once held soft drinks. “We use these bottles to hold water or save milk,” this Matanzas native living in Havana explains to 14ymedio. The so-called “cucumbers” make up part of the domestic scenery but have also invaded public roads, the coasts, and the countryside.

Clogged drains, fish eating the plastic, and dirty rivers are some of the country’s problems caused by bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Although forceful campaigns have arisen in other countries to reduce their presence, in Cuba the strategy to reduce them has not quite taken off.

“Every morning when I arrive to set up my rod, it’s a mess of plastic bottles,” laments César, a 48-year-old fisherman who arrives very early in the morning at the entrance of Havana Bay. “A few years ago having a plastic bottle was almost a luxury and families kept them to do a ton of things, but now they throw them out everywhere,” he points out. continue reading

“I’ve found little fish trapped inside these bottles and once I caught one that had eaten a piece of a cap,” remembers César.

A 2016 report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) confirms that the presence of microplastics has been found in 800 species of mollusks, crustaceans, and fish.

A study carried out in Cienfuegos by the biologist Arianna García Chamero confirmed the presence of these microplastics in Jagua Bay. “It hit me that the levels there are sometimes similar to, even greater than, the ranges found by studies in ecosystems of very industrialized places on the planet,” explained the scientist to the local press.

Currently, Cuba Law No. 1,288 obligates all state-owned bodies to deliver waste, especially plastics, to the Raw Materials Recovery Companies, but the majority of these waste products end up in garbage dumps. The same occurs in the residential sector, due to the lack of a mechanism to separate trash and the absence of recycling education.

Individual pickers dig through trash containers on public streets in search of these products in order to bring them to the more than 310 state-owned raw material collection centers in the country. In tourist areas they can also be seen gathering water bottles left by visitors and soft drink and beer cans.

“Everything that we don’t see in time to take out of the dumpster ends up in the garbage dumps,” explains José Carlos, a retiree who after working four decades at the gas company spends his days trash-diving in search of something that could be useful. “I prefer to look for cans and pieces of metal because Raw Materials pays us by the weight of the merchandise and plastic weighs much less,” he says.

“Sometimes I pick up plastic bottles that have no damage, that aren’t smashed or dirty, to sell them to yogurt producers who pay well for them,” he comments. “But if they’re not like that I don’t pick up bottles, although when there’s some outdoor concert and they sell little bottles of soft drinks…” he says with a smile.

On the island there is no restriction on the sale of plastic containers in public places, not even near nature parks like they have implemented in several European and Latin American countries. For the majority of Cubans, a plastic bottle is still a symbol of status or of economic solvency instead of an environmental problem.

“We’re passing from being a country where the only thing people had to save something in was glass bottles — sometimes they lasted years in a kitchen — to one where parents want to send their child to school with a new plastic water bottle each week,” believes César, the fisherman. “Then, all that ends up here,” he points out the trash in the water of Havana bay.

In 2017 an experimental trap was installed in the Almendares river, to the west of the Cuban capital, to trap the animals, logs, plastic bottles, and remains of containers that were floating in the water. The obstacle blocks them from reaching the mouth but the trash collection has to be done manually, so it’s not a system that can be applied on a large scale.

“A change can only come from education, from all people getting involved, not only cleaning and collecting the plastic but also using fewer disposable bottles,” explains Oliver González, a young biochemist who with a group of friends is promoting a campaign for “a coast free of plastic.” “We have to start at home because if people don’t help from their homes, little can be done.”

“We’ve gone to several private businesses to speak with the owners and tell them to buy less bottled water for their clients and offer more treated water in the same businesses,” he says. “But many respond that tourists want safe water, and so the cycle continues.”

Two years ago a study was carried out to apply in Cuba some of the recycling technologies that have been tested successfully in other countries, according to what Estela Domínguez, vice director general of businesses of the Union of Raw Materials Recovery Companies (UERMP), told the official press. The project should start in Havana and with the sorting of waste in people’s own homes, but the complex economic situation of the island has slowed its implementation.

“We had everything prepared, even a broadcast campaign in the national media to create a greater awareness and for people to start separating trash in their homes and to use less disposable plastic,” a UERMP official who preferred to remain anonymous explains to this newspaper. “But the task is titanic and requires resources that we currently don’t have, like selling domestic containers to categorize waste at a subsidized price and changing packaging concepts.”

“In the case of plastic containers we have a problem because this type of trash has grown with the increase in tourism, because they use them a lot for bottled water and soft drinks.”

“We have to take the plastic bottle down from the altar we have placed it on,” he says, “and make Cubans see that it brings more problems than benefits.”

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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A Cellphone, Social Media, and the Repair of a Bathroom

New sinks at the José Luis Arruñada school. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Marcelo Hernández, Havana, February 7, 2019 — A mobile phone, and social media as an amplifier, has been a sufficiently powerful weapon to change things at a primary school in Havana. For decades, deterioration has been advancing in the bathrooms of the José Luis Arruñada school, in the municipality of Plaza of the Revolution, until this January a mother, tired of waiting, brought about a change in the situation.

Almost three weeks ago, the photos taken in the bathroom of La Arruñada, as the school is popularly known, sparked a heated debate on the internet. The toilets with broken flushing mechanisms, the stalls without doors, and a plastic tank filled with water instead of a sink reflected the deplorable situation that the students had to face every day. Many of them preferred to pass the eight hours they spent at school without going to the bathroom in order to avoid the bad smells and filth.

The bathroom’s flushing mechanism now functions. (14ymedio)

A few days after the photos were published on social media and were republished on the pages of 14ymedio, a committee from the Ministry of Education visited the school and began the process of repairing the bathrooms. Now there are sinks where water flows, each toilet can flush, and privacy has returned to each stall. The students and their parents haven’t stopped marveling.

“The next thing will be to photograph the lunch they give them in the cafeteria, to see if it improves,” joked a student. Perhaps she is right.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Dealing With the Ruins, The Task of Many Victims of the Tornado

The house of María Elena López was fragile long before the fury of the tornado struck the island’s most populous city. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 5 February 2019 — María Elena López has spent more than a week with her “nerves on edge.” Entrenched in the back part of her home in Luyanó, Havana, she saw on January 27 how the walls were cracked and the rain came through the roof in torrents when the tornado hit. Five days later, an architect determined that her house should be demolished because of the damages it suffered that fateful night.

López lives at 169 Quiroga Street and last Friday told 14ymedio about the causes for a sadness that started long before the blowing of those 300 km/h winds that twisted the lives of thousands of Havanans that last Sunday of January.

López spent years asking for a home, between paperwork and postponements. Finally she managed to get a state-owned place that she could put in her name, commission the plans for a complete renovation, and request a subsidy to begin the work. However, the gusts of the storm destroyed her plans.

“All this cost me years of work and I’ve lost it in a few minutes,” María Elena López reflected this Monday. (14ymedio)

The help for the reconstruction that she requested took so long that this willful Havanan planted herself in front of the office of the Institute of Housing of her municipality. She didn’t move until she obtained the wood and the workers to brace the facade of the deteriorated place. “They finished the work on Wednesday and the tornado came on Sunday,” she remembers.

That coincidence saved her life. “If I hadn’t made demands as I did, the house would have come down that night with all of us inside,” she reckons. continue reading

According to official data, in the Cuban capital some 3,780 houses were damaged by the weather event and 372 of them totally collapsed. López’s house was fragile long before the fury of the tornado struck the island’s most populous city.

Now, the fight is to preserve the space. The majority of the owners affected prefer not to move from the place. Vandalism and the fear of “losing out because they aren’t there” mean that they remain among the ruins, as they wait for authorities to evaluate the damage. It is a task of patience and of nerves, where whoever gets tired will have the worst lot.

So, taking refuge in the shade cast by the only wall that remains standing in a house, underneath some tree on the sidewalk, or protected in the entryway of a neighbor, the tornado’s victims wait for a government inspection to put into numbers the damage they suffered and facilitate the purchase of construction materials at preferential prices.

Although electrical service is practically recovered in the most affected areas, the inventory of the destruction has barely begun. Especially that which details the damages suffered in domestic infrastructure, very difficult to calculate because they include not only the architectural impacts but also the lost of appliances, household items, and personal belongings.

Monday afternoon many people came to the processing office in Luyanó to obtain the documents that would permit them to access a loan. (14ymedio)

“They can help me to buy cement, but who’s going to help me buy a refrigerator, the mattress I lost, and the clothing that ended up I don’t know where,” lamented a mother of two children this Monday in Luyanó. “All this cost me years of work and I’ve lost it in a few minutes,” she reflected.

The government has noted that it will implement a discount for purchasing construction materials equivalent to 50% of the price, but official conduct on other occasions awakens mistrust. The traditional shortage of steel, sand, and bricks leads the tornado’s victims to fear that the solution could be delayed for months or decades.

At age 64 and with the tiredness of one who has traveled a difficult path, María Elena López says that five days after the tornado “nobody [from the government] has come” to her house. An architect who was inspecting a nearby house agreed to assess the damage. “He came and explained everything to me.” The verdict was like a bucket of cold water: “It has to be demolished.”

“Friday night a soldier came here, he put his hand on my shoulder and he said, don’t worry, we’re going to do your house, but I don’t even know what his name was,” she laments.

“After it’s demolished, where will I go?” López asks in a small voice. She fears that she will have to start from scratch on that bureaucratic path that she knows so well. “I have to repair the whole house but they tell me that the paperwork for the subsidy they once awarded me but they never gave me are overdue,” she says.

Abundant in the place are long faces, nervous gestures, and gazes that don’t miss a single gesture of the state employees who fill out the forms. (14ymedio)

Near her house, the government set up the Processing Office for the victims from that area of Luyanó. Monday afternoon many people came to obtain the documents that would permit them to access a loan. Some leave satisfied, some complain of the bureaucracy, because if “a paper isn’t missing, a stamp is.”

Abundant in the place are long faces, nervous gestures, and gazes that don’t miss a single gesture of the state employees who fill out the forms. Added to the atmosphere charged with impatience are the questions that are left without answers and that no one knows how to clear up. “When will they begin to rebuild the houses?” “With this subsidy will we be able to access construction materials that are sold in stores in convertible pesos?” “All the materials that are on the list, are they actually available?”

In the improvised office on Monday, a retiree approached the table of the officials who note the information of the most affected. “I have children abroad but I don’t want to call them for this,” says the woman. “We’ve spent days in which we cannot cook or do anything, luckily people from the church bring us food each day.”

In a pocket of her bathrobe, the only garment she saved from the tornado, the woman carries a fork and a spoon, the little she is left with from what was once her kitchen, her house, and her home.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Meteorite that Fell in Vinales May Shed Light on the Origin of the Universe

Some witnesses claimed to have seen “a ball of fire” in the sky. (Guerrillero)

14ymedio, Havana, 6 February 2019 – The meteorite that plunged over the Valley of Viñales, in Pinar del Río, may shed light on the origin of the universe, Cuban experts told the state press.

Astrophysicist Oscar Álvarez said that so far not enough carbon has been found in the fragments of the meteorite, which is necessary in order for further study on the origin of life on earth. However, being a chondrite rock, it will help to expand the knowledge about the origin of the Solar System.

Efrén Jaimez Salgado, head of the Department of Environmental Geology of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of the Island added that so far between 40 and 50 pieces of the meteorite were found scattered in the areas of Dos Hermanas, El Palmarito, Los Jazmines, El Cuajaní and in the vicinity of the town of Viñales. continue reading

The researchers believe that the meteorite could have weighed about three tons but when it hit the Earth’s atmosphere it disintegrated into dozens of fragments. According to preliminary investigations, experts have found metallic crystals on the rock, presumably of iron and nickel.

The meteorite that fell in Viñales released some 1,400 tons of TNT of energy when it entered Earth’s atmosphere, according to estimates published by NASA and corroborated by Cuban experts. The celestial body was seen from Key West, where a radar detected the meteorite at an altitude of more than 7,920 meters (26,000 feet) near Viñales at 1:21pm.

When it fell, the meteorite produced an explosion that was felt in a good part of the province of Pinar del Río, alarming the local population, who took to the streets after the loud noise. In the areas closest to the event broken glass was reported, a result of the shock wave and the shingles of a house were damaged. There were no deaths or injuries to lament from the impact.

Even though scientists are asking for caution with the rocks (to avoid contaminating them) some neighbors picked up pieces of the meteorite and, according to reports from the local press, have even “sampled it” to determine its flavor. Such was the case of Rainel Rivero, a Pinar del Rio resident who had hopes of being cured of his “hypertension.”

In 2013, a meteorite fell in Chelyabinsk, Russia, causing a huge explosion that left hundreds injured and damaged buildings and infrastructure.

Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria

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The Government Will Set Up 195 Special Polling Places For The Constitutional Referendum

A polling place in Cuba during a previous election. School children “guard” the ballot boxes and salute each voter as they cast their ballot.. (14ymedio)

EFE, via 14ymedio, Havana, February 5, 2019 — Cuba will set up 195 special polling places in transport facilities, hotels, and other spaces for voting in the referendum on the new constitution that will be held on February 24, official media reported this Monday.

The special polling places will be set up in bus and train terminals, airports, student residences, hospitals, and hotels with the aim of facilitating the voting of citizens.

The secretary of the National Electoral Commission (CEN), María Esther Bacallao, explained that those who cannot go to their assigned polling places for justified reasons will have the option to go “to a special one or some other one,” as reported by the state-owned Cuban News Agency. continue reading

Likewise, it indicated that people affected by the tornado that last week devastated several municipalities of Havana will have guaranteed participation in the constitutional referendum.

The CEN secretary specified that the installation of 25,348 polling places is anticipated, 7.6% of them located in private houses, and that districts will increase to 12,635 in the entire country.

On February 10 a dynamic test will be conducted at the polling places located abroad, prior to the votes scheduled for February 16 and 17.

A similar test will be applied at the polling places on the island on Sunday the 17th, one week before the referendum.

The final draft of the new constitution is made up of 229 articles, 11 headings, 2 special provisions, 13 transitory, and 2 final, after which were incorporated 760 amendments, which means that 60% of the first draft was modified.

Although political campaigns are not permitted, on social media the government and the pro-government organizations are carrying out an active promotion in favor of Yes, facing a sector of the citizenry that shows itself openly against it under the slogan #YoVotoNo (I’m voting no) or #YoNoVoto (I’m not voting).

In Cuba, with a population of 11.2 million inhabitants, more than eight million citizens are eligible to vote on the text of the new constitution that was submitted to a popular debate and in December was approved by the National Assembly.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Twenty Reasons to Vote No

The text that will be subject to the plebiscite was not the result of a consensual labor among the diverse currents of opinion of the citizenship. Billboard: “My will, my Constitution. I am participating in the drafting of my Constitution.” (EFE)

14ymedio, Ariel Hidalgo, Miami, 5 February 2019 — Why should we vote “No” in the February 24 referendum on a new constitutional project? Of the many reasons, these twenty seem the most important.

1. Because the text that will be submitted to plebiscite was not the result of consensual labor among the different currents of opinion of the citizenship, as it would be in a democratically elected constituent assembly, but rather it was written by a team handpicked by the elite of a single party. Party is derived from “part”, so that said text is only the work of the interests of a sole line of thinking.

2. Because that constitution would institutionalize in perpetuity a one-party dictatorial regime implicit in Article 5, as well as the concentration of the three branches of the State, legislative executive and judicial, in the hands of that same elite. continue reading

3. Because this project aims to reaffirm the institutionalization of systematic violations of fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and of association, when in reality the opposite should be sought, the rule of law.

4. Because voting “Yes” would mean giving carte blanche to the same group that in 60 years has not been able to solve vital problems of the population such as the crisis in transportation, in housing and in shortages and that continues to offer the same failed remedies over and over.

5. Because Article 22 seeks to institutionalize the principle of equality in misery for the vast majority of citizens regarding the limit on properties that they may possess, even if they are acquired honestly by their own efforts or by their talent, which blocks the stimulus of creativity and productivity.

6. Because we need a Constitution that offers a legal framework for the protection of workers and retirees and, in particular, self-employed workers, artisans and artists to be free in their creativity and free in economic initiative for their prosperity, which allows freedom of unionization, right to strike and public demonstration.

7. Because the current project does not guarantee ending the policy of excessive restrictions and obstacles to self-employment, as well as the elimination of discrimination against Cubans living abroad in investing in their own country.

8. Because the new Constitution continues to perpetuate a politicized education under the exclusive control of the State, which implies generating culturally one-dimensional citizens, while at the same time, by excluding private education, parents are deprived of the right to choose for their children the type of education they prefer.

9. Because the deletion of Article 68 that defined marriage as “voluntarily arranged union between two people” leaves a gap in the constitutional text regarding the possibility of members of the LGTB community for cohabitation contracts that ensure basic rights such as that of inheritance.

10. Because the text leaves undefined a topic as vital as the death penalty, suspended but still officially in existence, which, because of the dramatic connotation in our history, must be abolished constitutionally. The life of any human being, regardless of his criminal responsibility, must be considered sacred.

11. Because if we can demonstrate that a considerable percentage of the population supports the No vote, even if it is not a majority, it would allow to demand, before international organizations, that the Cuban government be required to respect the rights of that significant part of the population in disagreement with the official policy.

12. Because a high number of No votes would help to create a civic conscience of resistance in the population before the arbitrary impositions of the current power — or any other power — against their rights and begin undermining the mentality of indolence or blind fanaticism.

13. The belief that voting Yes or No is irrelevant because there will be fraud does not take into account that many of the thousands or tens of thousands responsible for the fraud being carried out will not be able to negate their relatives and friends if there is a really significant number in favor of the No vote, and this would be important in raising the consciousness and willingness for change in the citizenry, the first step towards open expression in favor of a better Cuba.

14. The government’s thesis that voting No signifies opposing the supposed achievements in education and medical care by the regime does not hold, because those benefits whose iterations already existed before 1959 such as emergency medical care and public schools are seen as increasingly diminished by an unviable economic model, as the new Constitution does not propose any alternative model but a continuity of what has already failed; so voting No would mean, on the contrary, opting for a different form of ensuring these universal rights.

15. The thesis that going to the polls, even if voting No, would mean legitimizing a fraudulent election, does not take into account that in many cases in which a dictatorship agreed to popular consultation in the belief that it would win, not even the potential frauds were enough to circumvent the popular decision, as was the case in the famous plebiscite in which Pinochet was defeated, or in the case of the electoral failure of the Sandinistas against Violeta Chamorro.

16. Because the option of abstaining is indirectly a Yes vote, since generally in no country is it interpreted as a rejection but more as a careless attitude of someone likely to vote Yes who doesn’t due to indifference. Silence gives consent. The No vote, on the other hand, leaves no room for doubt.

17. Nevertheless, due to harassment by pro-government elements to go to the polls, the vast majority of citizens who disagree with this proposal are more likely to attend and vote No, since they fear that their refusal to vote will mark them as malcontents by the regime.

18. Every annulled or absent vote subtracts power from the opposition against an adversary that never splits their vote, because it would be as if the opposition presented three separate candidates against the sole candidate of the authorities. They have only one slogan: Vote Yes. The opposition must not act differently with respect to the No vote, but keep the unique slogan: Everyone Vote No!

19. Because this continent lives a historical moment in which the dictatorships of the so-called “socialism of the 21st century” are in retreat thanks to the decisions and courage of the citizens of those countries, and taking into account the role played by our country in that process, we should do no less but instead go to the source of the evil to eradicate it, and this is justly the first step: vote No!

20. Finally, taking into account all the above reasons, it is necessary to vote No, also for our personal satisfaction, not only because it is our duty as citizens, but also because we must be true to ourselves and act accordingly to how we think. Every time we reject an arbitrary and unjust imposition, something very beautiful is reaffirmed within us.

Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria

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Ratifying the Constitution Will Institutionalize the Dictatorship of One Party

A majority of negative votes could not be hidden or falsified. (EFE)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, February 4, 2019 — If someone wanted to find a definition of what is most current and important from what is happening in Cuba, they could assert that today there is happening a transition of authority from symbol to force of law.

For almost half a century Cuba was basically driven by the personal decisions of Fidel Castro. There are at least two different lines of reasoning, but not opposing ones, to explain how it was possible that an entire nation could be submitted to the will of one individual. One is fear, the other, fascination that cancels all disobedience.

But as fascination can be interpreted in this case as a shift, a collective sublimation to not recognize the humiliating reality one gives into under the pressure of fear, then everything is reduced to the intimidating authority that was built around one person who tried to embody all the symbols: the homeland, the flag and the history, among others. continue reading

This authority distributed shares of power among those who made up what later came to be called ’the historic generation’ of the Revolution. All those who were chosen by him formed a reduced army of untouchable archangels whose superiority depended on their degree of concomitance with the supreme leader. On that personal closeness depended the fear or fascination that they provoked.

From the first of January of 1959 until the constitution of 1976 was proclaimed, the country was practically governed at whim by a pair of military boots. “We are not going to leave even a single trace of private property”; “We will build socialism and communism at the same time”; “We will produce 10 million tons of sugar”; “Here we are going to build a dam”; “We will surround Havana with a cordon of coffee plantations”; “We will have better cows than in Switzerland, the biggest zoo in the world, and hundreds of schools in the countryside to combine study with work.”

The ostensible failure provoked by such political will ended up leading the country to compromise its sovereignty to the dictates of the Soviet Union, the only provider of what was euphemistically called “a just trade between two peoples.” The leaders of the USSR demanded guarantees to continue maintaining “the pipeline” of the subsidy and to convince them it was necessary to carry out the First Congress of the Party in 1975 and, one year later, present a new constitution.

The head of the drafting commission of that constitution was Blas Roca, the last Communist leader from the republican era, as a guarantor that the Law of laws would be backed by the tenth five-year plan of the Soviet Union (1976-1980). As payment for the solidarity of the older brother, the Cuban constitution recognized in its text “the brotherly friendship and cooperation of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.”

With the formalities covered, the supreme leader continued behaving with his habitual political will. On one occasion in which a representative warned him that what had been planned could not be carried out because it contradicted a law, the commander-in-chief responded that if a law didn’t permit an aim of the Revolution, the solution was to change that law immediately.

Those were the times in which the representative Fidel Castro, embodiment of authority emanating from the symbol, inspiration of all fears and of all fascination, consumed at least half the time that the Parliament sessions lasted in front of the microphone. The last feats of his political will as a response to the desmerengamiento* (dismantling and collapse) of the socialist bloc of eastern Europe were to decree the Special Period, put the American dollar into circulation, drive the Battle of Ideas, and announce the Energy Revolution.

In the summer of 2006 an unexpected intestinal ailment forced the supreme leader to rest and transfer his legally recognized powers to his brother Raúl Castro. Knowing that he lacked the charisma of the comandante en jefe, the division general understood that the moment had arrived to work out compulsory norms to guarantee the continuity of the system.

It was then that reforming the constitution of the republic began to be discussed, more to adapt it to the reality of the new times, where there was no longer a socialist bloc, than to retract what had been proposed until that time.

The general president had ten years to accustom the governed to the idea that he was the successor. Although he never received public congratulations from his brother for his performance, not even a lukewarm approval of what he was doing, in November of 2016 it became evident that from that moment on Raúl Castro would make the decisions, among other reasons because there no longer remained anyone alive with the power to give him orders.

Once the main influence that emanated from the authority of the symbol had disappeared and calculating that biology would probably give the successor at most a five-year grace period, it could be concluded that from now it only remained to appeal to the pure and harsh force of the law to subdue the citizenry. That appears to have been the essential reason for formulating a new constitution.

This law of laws not only imposes that the socialist system is irrevocable, but also gives the system’s sympathizers the right to use arms against whomever would try to change it and confirms again that the only permitted party, the Communist Party, is “the superior ruling political force of society and the State.”

That constitution will be submitted on February 24 to the consideration of an electorate that is very distant from the one that in 1976 overwhelmingly approved a constitution that was practically mirrored those that ruled in the socialist countries.

This new constitution, if ratified, will institutionalize the dictatorship of one party and, as a consequence, will be the instrument of control of some inheritors, chosen for their loyalty, who will no longer need the merits of heroism nor the revolutionary mystique to govern.

The factor in favor of the government in this referendum, in addition to those who think that socialism still has reserves to solve the problems of the country, is the apathy of those who believe that the new constitution will change nothing and that even if the majority decided to vote No, nevertheless, they would implement it.

Others bet that a majority of negative votes could not be hidden or falsified and that, by performing the miracle of a massive civic rebellion at the ballot box, sooner or later it would be known and the government would have to recognize its defeat.

Not being able to implement the force of law and without any possibility to revive the authority of the symbol, they would only be left with two options, either resorting to plain force or packing their bags.

*Translator’s note: Fidel Castro coined the term “desmerengamiento,” which can be literally translated as “the collapse of the cake” to refer to the dismantling of the USSR and the collapse of the Eastern European Socialist Bloc.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Detentions of Activists Promoting No on the Constitutional Referendum Increase

The activist Hugo Damián Prieto Blanco was prosecuted for the crime of “pre-criminal dangerousness.” (Courtesy)

14ymedio, Havana, February 4, 2019 — The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), headquartered in Madrid, has denounced this Monday the “growing aggression of the police against activists demonstrating peacefully for the No vote on the [referendum on the] Constitution” coinciding with the presentation of the report of arbitrary detentions in January.

Their count of this type of arrests in the first month of the year is 179, a higher figure than that provided by the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN), which registered 144 in the same period of time.

According to the Observatory, the police detained dozens of activists who were promoting a No vote on the Constitution or were carrying out peaceful acts to show their disapproval of the text. continue reading

“The government of Miguel Díaz-Canel has prohibited any reference to No in the media and uses the police to persecute the activists who try to ask for the negative vote and who are at an absolute disadvantage of means and resources,” says the body in a press release.

“The state is applying its powerful propaganda and police machinery to crush any dissidence regarding the new Constitution. Therefore, we reiterate that the February 24 referendum does not have the minimal democratic guarantees.

“We alert the international community of the imminence of new repressive episodes against independent civil society, as the referendum approaches and in light of the critical situation of the city of Havana, after the passing of the destructive tornado,” denounced Alejandro González Raga, executive director of the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights.

The network of observers that provides data to the organization from the island counted 94 repressive actions against women and 85 against men, with Havana, Matanzas, and Villa Clara being the most affected provinces.

The OCDH has also expressed its concern about the response of the government, hampering or impeding access of civil humanitarian aid to areas affected by the tornado of Sunday, January 27 in Havana.

The Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation also made public today its data from this January, and warns in its report of the continuation of harassment and physical assaults against Cuban activists, “orchestrated by the powerful and ubiquitous political secret police.”

This number of arrests and detentions, “generally of a short duration,” is lower than that reported in December, when the CCDHRN received reports of 244 arbitrary detentions. The report also includes “21 cases of harassment and 4 physical assaults,” which are attributed to the conduct of State Security, the “instrument of social control and intimidation widely used by the regime.”

The organization broadcast its concern for “the prolonged internment of the Christian Democrat political leader Eduardo Cardet, who should have been released from prison months ago.” The most visible face of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) is part of the more than “one hundred political prisoners subjected to subhuman conditions,” specifies the report.

In the text, the CCDHR also laments the sentence against Hugo Damián Prieto, who was imprisoned for a year for the crime of “pre-criminal dangerousness.” The organization warns that the opposition figure “suffers from several ailments of the digestive system, contracted in several prison internments” previously.

Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have denounced Cuban law for punishing citizens with sentences of one to four years in prison for a supposed crime that they have not yet committed, according to articles 73 to 84 of the Penal Code.

Throughout 2018 the CCDHRN counted 2,873 arbitrary arrests on the island, some 240 per month. The independent body also denounced the harassment of activists who only “tried to exercise basic civil and political rights.”

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Cuban Bishops Lament that the Constitution Excludes "The Right To Plurality"

Cuban bishops criticized “the absolute character of Marxist-Leninist ideology” in the constitution. (COCC)

14ymedio, Havana, February 4, 2019 — Cuban bishops published a message this Sunday in which they criticize the new constitution, considering it to “exclude the effective exercise of the right to plurality of thought.” The constitution, which will be submitted to referendum on February 24, only recognizes “a single ideology,” the text points out.

The members of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba (COCC) warn that in the preamble to the constitution it is said that “only in socialism and in communism does the human being achieve his full dignity.” A phrase which, they believe, excludes “other visions about man, society, and the universe that do not assume Marxist-Leninist ideology.” continue reading

The prelates recall that José Martí defined a constitution as “a living and practical law that cannot be built with ideological elements” and call for plurality to be “safeguarded” in the constitution that will replace the current one, in force since 1976.

The message of the Catholic prelates praises the fact that to Article 15, which states that “the Cuban state is secular,” has been written so that it respects “the right of each person to believe, live, and express the values that correspond to his faith.” However, they point out that that definition contradicts the preamble where “the absolute character of Marxist-Leninist ideology” is emphasized.

“The freedom to practice one’s religion is not the simple freedom to have religious beliefs but the freedom of each person to live according to their faith and to express it publicly, having as a limit the respect for the other,” the bishops note. For which, the Church must have access to education, and be able to “build buildings” and “acquire and own goods suitable for its activity.”

One of the first actions taken by the revolutionary government after the arrival to power of Fidel Castro, in January of 1959, was the expropriation of the institutions that were administrated by different religious orders. Well-known on the island among them were the schools of the Brothers of La Salle and those run by the Marist brothers.

For six decades, the state has maintained total control of primary, secondary, and university education, and officially Catholic schools and universities are not permitted. Cubans can only take courses for computer science, theology, graphic design, English, or business administration run by the island’s parishes.

After Pope John Paul II’s visit to the island in January of 1998, authorities changed the constitution to change Cuba from an atheist state to a secular one, a gesture that opened the door to a greater religious liberty, after long years of atheistic intolerance, persecution, and punishment for the faithful.

In the section of the message dedicated to marriage and the family, the bishops appreciate that the definition of “marriage as a union between two persons” has been eliminated, which the draft version of the constitution put forward in Article 68, but signal that in the current Articles 81 and 82 “the path is opened so that in the future the union of two persons of the same sex is recognized as marriage with all its prerogatives.”

“We lament that there has not been substantial change regarding marriage and the family,” they add and also criticize that the new constitution does not recognize that “the family has an original and irreplaceable function in the education of children” which includes the power “to choose the type of education” that they will receive.

To conclude, the prelates deal with the economic aspects detailed in the consitutional text and praise that the recognition of private property has been included, but they suggest that the reference “in relation to foreign investment must be extended to [give the right to invest in the country to] the Cuban citizen.”

The bishops exhort that “each citizen, with a responsible vote from his conscience, contribute to the building of a society in which all Cubans feel respected in our rights.” This exercise must be aimed at guaranteeing “a dignified and prosperous life with the participation of all without exception.”

This is the second message from the bishops about the constitution in fewer than four months. In the previous one, dated October 2018, they passed over several criticisms of the constitutional text that was still being drawn up. On that occasion the prelates emphasized that the constitution “must reflect the characteristics of society,” since it determines the life of citizens, their future, coexistence, and their “participation in the making of decisions” of the country.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Spain Recognizes Guaido as Acting President of Venezuela

Pedro Sánchez appeared on live television at 10 o’clock in the morning to announce the recognition of Juan Guaidó as acting president of Venezuela. (Captura)

14ymedio / EFE, Madrid, 4 February 2019 — The Spanish government has announced that it officially recognizes the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, as acting president of Venezuela, as explained by the president of Spain in an institutional statement made without taking questions and broadcast live on the major television networks.

Pedro Sánchez explained that the scope of this recognition is clear, “the calling of elections in the shortest time possible: democratic, free and without exclusions.” The decision was made after the passing of the eight-day deadline given to Nicolás Maduro to hold elections without him having taken the requested steps. “Venezuela must be the owner of its own destiny,” he said. continue reading

Sánchez explained in his brief appearance of about seven minutes that Spain believes in defending multilateralism to solve conflicts and that is why it has led the common position of the European Union. Likewise, the Spanish Prime Minister added that the next step he will take will be to promote within the EU and the United Nations the delivery of humanitarian aid. “The Venezuelan people themselves are suffering the consequences,” he said.

I recognize @jguaido as acting president of Venezuela, with a clear scope: the call for free, democratic presidential elections, with guarantees and without exclusions. I will not take a step back. For freedom, democracy and harmony in #Venezuela

— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) February 4, 2019

Pedro Sanchez addressed the “many colonies of Spaniards” residing in Venezuela and the companies based in the country and stressed that he knows that they share with Venezuelans the desire to have a full democracy “which means that there are no political prisoners and that there are elections, free, transparent and with all the guarantees.”

“Venezuela is a beloved brother country and can count on Spain. We are and we will be by its side”, he said in closing.

The statement came minutes after France also recognized Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela.

“We consider today that the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, whose legitimacy is perfectly recognized, is authorized to call presidential elections,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, in an interview with the public broadcaster France Inter.

“It seems clear to everyone, including the Europeans, that we must get out of this crisis with an election that is completely legitimate” for the head of state, since Venezuela is a country with a presidential government, argued the head of French diplomacy.

He explained that there will be consultations today between France and its European partners to form a contact group with those who wish “to accompany the transition, not to be neutral.”

To the question of whether recognizing Guaidó as president is interference, Le Drian denied it, since Guaidó asked for help. In addition, he argued that “it is an attempt on our part to resolve the Venezuelan crisis calmly and avoid confrontations and violence,” as well as the intervention of the military.

He stressed that Venezuela is a “dead” country in which “there are many refugees, there is oppression, there is horrible inflation, the people are on the street, they want change and we believe that we must avoid” the risk of “civil war and confrontations.”

He also noted that the election of Maduro in May of last year “was very questionable,” unlike that of the National Assembly, which resulted in Guaidó’s mandate.

Shortly thereafter, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, made the decision public through Twitter.

Venezuelans have the right to express themselves freely and democratically. France recognizes @jguaido as “acting president” to implement an electoral process. We support the contact group, created with the EU, in this period of transition. https://t.co/7cgpdgz7TN

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) February 4, 2019

United Kingdom, Austria, Sweden, Latvia and Denmark were other countries that today joined in the decision of Spain and France.

The British Foreign Minister, Jeremy Hunt, revealed the decision on Twitter, after confirming that the current president, Nicolás Maduro, “has not called elections within eight days as we established.”

Hunt wished that the recognition of Guaidó will bring closer “to putting an end to the humanitarian crisis.”

Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria

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"The CDR Always Sends Help to the Same Houses," Protest the Residents of Regla

It’s a matter of going to the most affected areas to bring help to those who have lost the roof from their house and spent days sleeping in the elements. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, February 2, 2019 — In the living room of the singer Haydée Milanés a group of artists and independent journalists sorts the donations sent by friends and neighbors. Clothing, towels, sheets, toys, shoes, candles, as well as powdered milk, cans of meat, cookies, bread, and bottled water.

They have been mobilized via social media to return to the streets of the areas of Havana most affected by last Sunday’s tornado. The previous days they went to Luyanó. Now it’s time to help the people of Regla.

Among the artists one notes some well-known faces, like the musicians Jorgito Kamankola and Athanai or the film director Carlos Lechuga. At the stroke of one a caravan of eight cars filled with clothing and food goes out. continue reading

When they arrive in Regla the police block their access. The problem is resolved with a visit to the authorities by the local People’s Power, which designates a “representative of the government” to accompany the caravan.

It’s a matter of going to the most affected areas to bring help to those who have lost the roof from their house and spent days sleeping in the elements, like the residents of Calzada Vieja. They haven’t had electricity since the tornado went through that area last Sunday.

On that street utility linemen were working, assuring that “they were almost” finished. “We’re not from Havana but we’ve come to help fix this disaster,” says one of them as he accepts a bottle of water to relieve his thirst.

The “representative of the government” looks for the president of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) to see who are the most affected on those streets. She comes back with some addresses and begins to pass out the gathered articles. But very soon everyone realizes that, except for two little houses that were in very bad condition, all the homes on the street have a roof and aren’t very damaged.

Some people approach the cars asking for candles and water but the government representative yells at them: “Nobody can come here, we will go house by house.”

One of the volunteers from the caravan approaches the residents to ask where they can find houses with small children and houses without a roof. The young woman delivers water, milk, bread, candles, and cans of meat to those families.

Feelings run high and the residents begin to scream their dissent. “It’s always the same and here everybody needs help, the president of the CDR has a lot of nerve, they always send help for the same houses every time that someone comes with donations.”

Faced with that situation the representative of the government orders the caravan to withdraw and assures that she will guide the group to a new place called La Ciruela. It’s difficult to enter that area because the police have blocked off many streets.

In La Ciruela the same scene is repeated as in Calzada Vieja. There are hardly any houses without roofs, the poverty and bad living are the same as always, increased by lack of electricity. The president of the CDR also appears here, reporting on two critical cases. A young mother who lives in a house that has lost its roof and an older couple whose house half fell down. They leave them water, food, and some clothing.

“Thank you very much for coming here, my girl, I don’t like to ask for anything or make a fuss,” says Lourdes Alfonso Villegas, who lives on Gerardo Granda street in a house that has lost half its roof.

Again the group establishes that the most in need are not here. The caravan leaves the representative of the government and heads for Luyanó, which the artists know well because they passed out help in that area on two occasions this week.

In Luyanó everything is easier. Walking street by street, visiting house by house, they leave everything they have left. It’s already nighttime when they finish the deliveries. Before leaving, they take a photo at the foot of a church that has lost its belltower.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Under Dogma and Stubbornness / Fernando Damaso

José Martí statue in Havana. (The Straights Times)

Fernando Dámaso,29 January 2019 — On Sunday, January 27th, Havana was affected by a strong tornado that caused considerable destruction, mainly in the October 10, Luyanó, San Miguel del Padrón and Regla neighborhoods.

It is striking that the “March of the Torches”, scheduled for that evening and then moved to the 28th, nonetheless was held instead of using the resources and the young people from the march to help the many victims who, as is habitual, despite speeches and promises of opportunity, will swell the lists of those who wait for solutions to similar phenomena, which extend for more than two decades without visible results. continue reading

Recall that, according to official data, on June 7, 2018 there were 1,703,926 homes in poor condition and, of them, 61,051 in total collapse. The current victims, as is logical, will be placed at the end of the list.

Dogma and stubbornness are some of the actions of the partisan and governmental authorities, who always prioritize “idiotology” rather than the most elementary reasoning.

As a result, they have molded the history of this country in their image and likeness and as a function of their political interests, always prioritized, in spite of natural catastrophes.

January 1st is “the day of the triumph of the experiment”, the 8th is “the entrance to Havana of the” supreme maker” (Fidel Castro) and the evening of the 27th “the march of the torches” in honor of the 28th, the birthday of José Martí.

In February, the 24th is the day of the “Grito de Baire” (Proclamation of Baire in 1895 that began the War of Cuban Independence), usually poorly remembered, although this year it has been linked to the spawn of a Constitutional referendum, as if it the two were related.

March is adorned with the “Assault on the Presidential Palace” on the 13th (1957), the bravest action of the whole insurrection, and with the “Protest of Baraguá” (rejection in 1878 of Treaty with Spain ending Ten Years’ War) on the 15th that, although it was a powerful event, was actually an act of stubbornness that did not lead to anything, because it was impossible to continue the war for independence.

April is Girón (Bay of Pigs) and the supposed “first defeat of imperialism in America”.

May begins with the “Day of the Workers”, on the 1st, where they happily parade without making demands, giving thanks for the crumbs given to them, forgetting that Martí died on the 19th and that the Republic was founded on the 20th.

June is for Maceo (2nd in command of Cuban War for Independence) and Ché, artificially joined on the 13th by their birthdays, although in totally different eras.

July is the month of the “supreme maker”, with the “Day of Kings” and the Carnival of Havana, moved absurdly to this month (traditionally it was held in February), and the Assault on the Moncada Barracks, which they unsuccessfully try to make more important than the Proclamation of Baire.

August 13th is the day of the birth of the “supreme maker” with displays of banners and music.

September is the month of the CDR (Committees for the Defense of the Revolution), a government organization for monitoring and controlling its citizens.

November is for the medical students shot in the 19th century by Spanish forces and December is for the “Landing of Granma”, relegating Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, as inconsequential dates.

This imposed “shrine”, where not everything presented deserve honors, crushingly repeats itself annually, trying to dilute in time our true patriotic dates and commemorations, forgetting that history is not a blur and new account, but a chained continuity, where all the links are important.

Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria

The State is Obliged to Protect Before, During, and After a Natural Disaster / Cubalex

(Adalberto Roque / AFP)

Cubalex, 1 February 2019 — Social media have revealed the many dangerous situations which have had to be coped with by the victims of the tornado which battered the Cuban capital on the night of 27 January 2019. People have suffered devastating consequences, including loss of life, of their means of subsistence, as well as damaged infrastructure and economic costs.

It is worrying that the Cuban government holds back or obstructs the provision of relief to the most needy when the international community provides humanitarian assistance. In view of this situation, we have decided to respond to this question:

Does the state have a duty to protect its citizens before, during, and after a natural disaster? continue reading

By virtue of current international law, states are the principal agencies with human rights duties and obligations. International law and common law impose three obligations: the duty to respect, the duty to protect, and the duty to obey.

The duty to protect consists in three responsibilities: (1) prevent, (2) react, and (3) rebuild.

These three obligations have equal application and force in relation to dealing with natural disasters. Complying with them is the minimum that citizens expect at the time of confronting a natural disaster. We have the right to be protected before, during, and after a natural disaster.

The duty to prevent in the context of natural disasters translates as the responsibility to alert people that a natural disaster is imminent. That of reacting is the obligation to recognise when it is not possible to deal efficiently with a disaster and, as a result, the obligation to request assistance from other states.

The intervention of other states is essential to enable a state to recover from a catastrophe. Additionally, even when such intervention has not been requested, other states may proceed in order to bring humanitarian aid without being held responsible for any violation of sovereignty of the state which has been affected, solely as and when the intervention is for this purpose only and not as a pretext for the introduction of armed forces into the affected state.

The fact that a state is lacking sufficient resources does not justify violations of human rights, as there is always the opportunity to make use of international relations with other states to combat a humanitarian crisis resulting from natural disasters.

Lastly, the duty to rebuild refers to the responsibility on the part of the state to ensure sustainable reconstruction and restoration.

Following the disaster, the state has the obligation to seek assistance from the United Nations and from other countries to enable short term and long term reconstruction plans; to assure that the areas affected are once again rendered habitable and safe for people.

In earlier times, when human rights were still considered to be an internal matter for each country, the intervention of other states and the international community was resisted.

Nowadays, this attitude has in large part been replaced by a responsibility, in which states are considered to be responsible for the wellbeing of their people. That is to say, the state has the responsibility to protect the population, especially in the face of natural disasters.

The UN Charter obliges its member states to “take measures jointly and separately, in cooperation with the organisation, for the accomplishment of the objectives set out in Art. 55”, which promotes respect for the human rights and fundamental liberties of all persons subject to its jurisdiction, without any form of discrimination.

First published in Cubalex.

Translated by GH

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