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Cuba: The Governor of Las Tunas Who Described His Province As ‘Ungovernable’ is Dismissed From His Position

’Cubadebate’ mentions without further details the “mistakes made” by Jaime Ernesto Chiang

In the center, Chiang Vega, and on the right, Cruz Reyes, in a photo with Manuel Pérez Gallego, member of the Central Committee / Trabajadores

14ymedio, Havana, October 19, 2024 — Jaime Ernesto Chiang Vega, the man who told Parliament in 2023 that Las Tunas – the province under his command – was “ungovernable,” was dismissed this Saturday by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, in the middle of the energy debacle. With him went his deputy governor, Ernesto Cruz, who sent the president a “resignation request” after “incurring violations in the exercise of his responsibilities.”

While the whole country suffers a second day without electricity, Cubadebate reserved a place on its front page to report that Díaz-Canel, “making use of the powers conferred on him,” dismissed both politicians and informed the Provincial Council.

The statement alludes to the “mistakes made” by Chiang that caused his removal, but Cubadebate does not say a word about the failures attributed to him. In the case of his deputy governor, the “process of revocation of office” came “from above.” Chiang is replaced by Eduardo Walter Cuelí, current coordinator of Programs and Objectives of the provincial government, the next on the promotion ladder in Las Tunas.

The lack of transparency and the strange circumstances in which both dismissals occurred have been noticed by users on Cubadebate’s Facebook page – not just on its website. “Why did they replace him? Where’s the Communication Law that says you have to tell the truth about everything and not censor?” complained user Rogelio Loyola. continue reading

“We are still waiting to hear about the mistakes of the Minister of Economy”

Another, knowing that the Government rarely gives information about the “mistakes” of its officials, said: “We are still waiting to hear about the mistakes of the Minister of Economy,” referring to Alejandro Gil, whose whereabouts are still unknown.

Last April, the governor of Cienfuegos, Alexandre Corona, also “resigned” from his position after “recognizing mistakes” committed during his four years of administration. These exits are added to the unusual number of changes of political figures in Cuba, both at the regional level within the Communist Party and in several ministries of the country.

A year ago, all the governors were voted in for five-year terms, but for various reasons these provinces have had to seek replacements in advance. In these cases, the delegates vote on the governors proposed made by the country’s president, and so far there have only been majority ratifications. Thus, the so-called “movements of the cadres” accumulate on the Island, ranging from the dismissal of the first provincial secretaries of the Party to ministers.

In December 2023, Chiang appeared before the National Assembly to account for the situation in Las Tunas, one of the provinces that had done the worst that year. His speech, which he delivered with a serious face and a thick report in his hand, ended up summarizing the “situation of ungovernability and disobedience in the population,” which he attributed to the “enemies of the Revolution.”

Chiang intended to exonerate his administration from the alarming figures that he himself provided: 34 entities that did not comply with their plans due to “lack of demand, rigor and responsibility on the part of some cadres”; 1,481 million pesos missing from his total net sales plan; “deficient collection management”; “chains of nonpayments”; “insufficient economic and financial administration”; and, in short, an expenditure of 185 million pesos more than the state budget allowed, 3.511 billion.

“Between El Chino and El Gallego they went from bad to worse for the working people”

Their solution to obtain money was to use force. Their “confronting crime” campaign, which resulted in some 8,488 “control actions” to collect overdue fines and detect irregularities, gave the State 15,531 million pesos. Judging by this Saturday’s announcement, it was not enough.

Among the people of Las Tunas, neither Chiang nor his deputy governor – nicknamed El Gallego (the Spaniard) and El Millonario (the Millionaire) – had a good reputation. A resident of the provincial capital tells this newspaper that both politicians ignored government management and concentrated on protecting several owners of private businesses that had “monopolized the sale of food.” “Chiang is just a scapegoat,” he adds, “but it’s true that between El Chino and El Gallego they went from bad to worse for the working people.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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María Corina Machado Denies Maduro’s Statement and Declares ‘I’m Here With the Venezuelans’

The opponent thus denied the statement of the Government of Nicolás Maduro, who had said shortly before that the former deputy “fled the country to Spain”

Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado / Facebook

EFE (14ymedio), Caracas, 17 October 2024 — María Corina Machado denied the statements of the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who said on Wednesday that the opposition leader had fled the country to Spain. “Venezuelans know that I’m here in Venezuela. The people know it and Nicolás Maduro also knows it. Maduro’s government is desperate to know where I am, and I’m not going to give them that pleasure,” the opponent said in an interview with the EVTV channel.

The Venezuelan government had said that Machado “fled the country to Spain,” where the standard-bearer of the opposition coalition, Edmundo González Urrutia, considered the winner of the last presidential elections on July 28 by the Spanish Congress of Deputies, is exiled.

In a televised event, Maduro – proclaimed re-elected by the Venezuelan National Electoral Council – said that “la sayona” – as he usually refers in a derogatory way to Machado – “also left” the country and “fled” to “a very good bar in Spain.”

“I’m here with the Venezuelans, here, obviously protecting myself and taking care of myself because I’m not going to give them the pleasure of knowing where I am,” Machado told EVTV without specifying if she was guarded in a diplomatic headquarters within the country. continue reading

Although Nicolás Maduro did not mention the name of the opponent in his statements, the Minister of Communication, Freddy Ñáñez, said on Telegram that, according to the president, “María Corina Machado fled the country to Spain.”

Specifically, Maduro said: “I have a secret for you, but I don’t know, do you know how to keep a secret? (…) Who likes gossip? (…) It turns out that the old man [in reference to González Urrutia] left a month ago, (…) and the “La Sayona” also left, fled, fled, (…) finally left, to a very good bar there in Spain, (…) she went there. Please don’t tell this to anyone.”

“I’m here with the Venezuelans, here, obviously protecting myself and taking care of myself because I’m not going to give them the pleasure of knowing where I am”

La Sayona is a woman who, according to Venezuelan legend, appears in the form of a ghost and punishes unfaithful men.

Last Monday, Maduro, without giving names or direct references, said that “she” had left the country, despite the fact that she has been banned from leaving the national territory since June 2014.

“Don’t tell anyone, she left the country, my sources tell me that she fled (…) they are cowards, they are good at sending messages of hatred and intolerance, but she left, she took her Gucci suitcases and left,” he said again, without pronouncing her name.

González Urrutia, leader of the main opposition coalition, the Democratic United Platform, arrived in Madrid on September 8, after requesting asylum due to the political and judicial “persecution” that he suffered in his country after the elections.

After the opponent’s departure, Machado, who claims to be in “hiding” for fear of her “life” and “freedom,” reiterated that she will continue to fight from Venezuela, while González Urrutia will do so “from outside.”

Also, on September 30, the former deputy, in her speech of thanks by videoconference after having won the Václav Havel Human Rights Award, reiterated that she will “continue to fight alongside the Venezuelan people.”

The vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, called Machado a “fraud” and a “whore” for requesting sanctions from Venezuela’s enemies and at the same time speaking in favor of wage increases for workers, who have been, according to Rodríguez, “severely affected” by foreign sanctions.

Machado expressed her “deep admiration and affection” for the educators, who, despite “hunger wages,” have “remained at the forefront of this struggle, with an infinite dedication

“Who has asked for the blockade against Venezuela? Leopoldo López, Julio Borges, Juan Guaidó and María Corina Machado, who causes tremendous damage to Venezuela and asks for still more sanctions … She then, every day, makes videos (saying): ’Dear workers, I am with you, and now we are going to fight for Venezuela and improve your working conditions,’” Rodríguez said.

She insisted that Machado, “whoring for the United States Government, calls for sanctions and a blockade against Venezuela.” The also Minister of Oil called the former deputy and other opponents “tremendous fakes.”

Rodríguez also said that the workers have been in the “vanguard” of the “active resistance against the criminal blockade imposed by Washington with the support of Western countries” and “the call made by the extremists and fascists in Venezuela,” referring to anti-Chavista leaders.

The vice president charged against Machado a few days after the opponent expressed her “deep admiration and affection” for the educators, who, despite “hunger wages,” have “remained at the forefront of this struggle, with an infinite dedication,” according to the former deputy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Colombian President Gustavo Petro and His Officials Have Traveled More Than 70 Times to Venezuela and Cuba in Two Years

The data was released by Congressman Hernán Cadavid in a report denouncing the “toxic leadership” of the president

The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro / Europa Press

14ymedio, Madrid, October 16, 2024 — The Colombian Government of Gustavo Petro has made more than 70 trips to Cuba and Venezuela in two years without revealing, in many of those cases, the reasons. The data was released by congressman Hernán Cadavid, of the Democratic Center opposition party, in a report on his social networks, in which he denounces the president’s “toxic leadership.”

In his report, Cadavid points out the “governability crisis” and “instability” within the Executive, through which “more than 124 deputy ministers have passed since August 7.” This is one of the causes of “the very low budget execution and the very high inefficiency” of the current Administration in Colombia.

Cadavid also states that the highest officials of the Executive have traveled abroad more than 855 times, including 50 trips to Venezuela and 21 to Cuba. “What is their purpose with those dictatorships?” the politician wonders in a video on X. He also says that he made 123 formal requests in order access the information; even so, the reasons for many of those trips are unknown.

Cadavid points out the “governability crisis” and the “instability” within the Executive, through which “more than 124 deputy ministers have passed since August 7”

Most of them have been carried out by the Colombian president himself, by the vice president, Francia Márquez, by members of the Ministry of Commerce and the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace. continue reading

Petro’s trips to Cuba have been known because of the peace talks with the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN), in which Havana acts as a mediator. This is also one of the reasons, according to Blu Radio, why the Colombian president has traveled to Venezuela; for example, in January and November of last year.

Recently, in addition, Colombia reached an agreement with Cuba to provide eggs, one of the most expensive and scarce foods on the Island.

On the other hand, Petro has tried to mediate in the crisis in Venezuela after the presidential elections, in which Nicolás Maduro proclaimed himself a winner and which have been denounced as fraud by the opposition and much of the international community. Last month, the Colombian president said that neither his country nor Brazil would recognize Maduro’s victory if the detailed polling place results of the July 28 elections are not presented.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The IAPA Denounces the Increased ‘Offensive’ Against Independent Journalism in Cuba

The report points to the case of Mayelín Rodríguez, who was sentenced in May to 15 years in prison for “interviewing and broadcasting videos about two girls beaten by agents of the Ministry of the Interior.”

The document points out that “the dictatorship tries to manipulate civil society, especially the limited and battered independent journalism” / 14ymedio

EFE (via 14ymedio), Córdoba (Argentina), 18 October 2024 — A report presented at the 80th General Assembly of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), still pending approval, denounces the recent increase in the “offensive” against unofficial journalism in Cuba through “psychological harassment,” arrests of journalists and summons from State Security.

“The umpteenth offensive against independent journalism (in Cuba) has been unleashed in September in the form of summons, preceded by different measures of psychological harassment by the authorities,” says the report presented at the meeting that is taking place these days in Córdoba (Argentina).

The document points out that “as before every new election in the United States, the dictatorship tries to hobble civil society, especially the limited and battered independent journalism.”

It denounces the case of Mayelín Rodríguez, who was sentenced in May to 15 years in prison for “interviewing and transmitting videos about two girls beaten by agents of the Ministry of the Interior” during a protest against the blackouts in Nuevitas. continue reading

The IAPA, founded in 1943, also mentions in its report that the Cuban digital media El Toque, based in Florida, was the subject of a “discredit campaign by the government propaganda apparatus” that blames it for being behind the depreciation of the Cuban peso against the dollar and the euro in the informal market.

El Toque reports daily on the value of the Cuban currency based on the buying and selling offers published on social networks.

“The umpteenth offensive against independent journalism has been unleashed in September in the form of summons, preceded by different measures of psychological harassment by the authorities”

While the dollar is currently listed at 325 Cuban pesos according to this media, which has become a benchmark for the street and economists, the official exchange rate is still fixed at one dollar for 24 pesos (for legal entities) and one dollar for 120 pesos (for individuals).

The document also denounces the arrests, assaults and interrogations of unofficial journalists such as Camila Acosta, José Luis Tan and Julio Aleaga, as well as the closure of the digital music magazine Magazine Am/Pm due to “harassment by State Security.”

The IAPA report on Cuba also criticizes the Social Communication Law, which came into force in early October, because it “strengthens the repression of press freedom.”

The aforementioned regulation, the first of its kind in Cuba in 70 years, ignores the unofficial press, allows commercial advertising for the first time since the triumph of the revolution, sanctions the political alignment of authorized media and regulates digital phenomena (including influencers), among other issues.

The law has been harshly criticized by NGOs and media outside the State orbit, who argue that it censors content contrary to the official narrative and leaves independent digital newspapers adrift.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Private Sector in Cuba Up Against the Wall / Iván García

A private business in Havana. Taken from El Toque.

Iván García, 26 August 2024 — Three years ago, in the summer of 2021, just a month after thousands of Cubans took to the streets to shout for freedom, the grey-haired ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel, handpicked by dictator Raúl Castro to run the country, authorised the opening of small and medium-sized businesses on the island. It was a measure that had been “studied” for ten years with the typical eagerness of communist regimes, where urgency is an unknown concept.

Yoel, 56, was not taken by surprise by the ’new regulations for economic actors’ announced on 19 August and due to come into force a month later, on 19 September. He always knew that a private entrepreneur is a presumed criminal in the eyes of the government. “Those of us who live in Cuba learned to negotiate to survive in the midst of scarcity,” he says, driving a second-hand Toyota Corola.

“From when I was a child in my house, people used to buy food and clothes on the black market. It was the most normal thing in the world. Hands up anyone who didn’t buy a cheap pair of jeans, a litre of oil or five pounds of beef “under the counter”. When there wasn’t a shortage of bread, there was a shortage of butter. People learned to live by their wits’. Nobody asks where what they are buying came from. They guess. And from a State Security officer to the neighbourhood informer, they are forced to resort to illegalities in order to survive. There are thousands of laws to prohibit and control offences. But nobody takes any notice of them. It’s an unwritten understanding between government and society. They let you do it until they think you’ve crossed the line. Then media campaigns are unleashed against illegalities and police raids and summary prosecutions of those operating in the private sector begin.

“In these 65 years we have been humiliated with various labels: outlaws, hucksters, or leaches on the backs of poor people. Some of these traders have been imprisoned, others have emigrated or have taken a step back until the dust settles. It’s a merry-go-round that repeats itself over and over again”. In his opinion, there is a revolving door on the island where people move from legality to the underground with astonishing ease. He gives an example. “When I was 17, I used to buy dollars, which was illegal and if you were caught you could be sentenced to four years in prison. With those ’illegal dollars’, an Angolan partner bought me clothes in shops for continue reading

foreign technicians, which I then resold on the street.

“I have collected money for the bolita (illegal lottery) and sold beer and bread and steak. Like many Cubans, I have done everything, trying to live as well as possible. When in 1993 they authorised self-employment, I had some money saved up thanks to those little tricks. There is a myth that most of the businesses that emerged in the country were opened with dollars sent by family members living in the United States. In some cases this was true, in others it was not. Many ’bisnes’ in the depths of rural Cuba have been financed with money earned from the sale of food, clothes or construction materials on the black market.

According to Yoel, “these attacks on MSMEs and the self-employed were to be expected. You would have to be very naïve to believe that a government that is anti-capitalist is going to let private businesses prosper. They allow them because the system has broken down. Private business is an umbrella under which these scoundrels protect themselves. They accept us, but with the boot on our backs, a lot of regulations, very high taxes, an army of inspectors who inspect you and when they feel like it, they put you in jail”.

“Opening a business allows you to earn money and live without the crumbs from the state. Most of us are double bookkeepers and under-declare when paying taxes. It’s a war. They screw you with decrees, threats and lies. And we pretend to comply, but then we do whatever we want. When they order businesses to stop, people know what to do. Either they get out of Cuba or they continue to do the same thing informally. Since the emergence of self-employment in 1993, everything has been a government bluff. The private sector is designed for survival, not to make lots of money. These openings serve as international propaganda to sell themselves as reformers.

“We are labelled as entrepreneurs out there. But almost none of us have studied business administration or marketing techniques. In my case, I was a go-getter who worked my way up to owning several businesses. If I see that things are getting hot, I will know that it is time to get on the plane. But behind me, other ’entrepreneurs’ will emerge. Until the system, which is incapable of generating wealth, changes, that will be the the way it goes,” says Yoel.

The owner of two small stores in the old part of Havana, a guy who knows his way around the sewers of the corrupt local bureaucracy, thinks that “it is likely that the government will try to clamp down on MSMEs. This campaign is aimed primarily at autonomous private businesses, which compete against MSMEs run by front men for high-ranking government officials or retired military officers. The reason is simple: they are more efficient and have developed a network of suppliers that works.

“The state, used to receiving dollars from exports, tourism, sales in foreign currency shops and the banking system, thought that we would not be a problem, not least because we could not access foreign currency. But we have been creative. The sales cycles are faster. We have accounts in foreign banks. And to replenish our supplies, we buy dollars on the street at the informal market price. The state-owned companies can’t compete with us even on a tilted playing field” says the entrepreneur.

Dunia, a hairdresser, agrees that “the new regulations are a declaration of war on the private sector. Some will leave the country or shut up shop. Others will start working under the counter. Every Cuban knows that to live in any comfort we have to fend for ourselves. The state can’t even guarantee the seven pounds of rice it provides through the ration card. The government should concern itself with dealing with poverty, not fighting the people who create wealth.

An official of the ONAT, the institution that governs private labour, revealed to Diario Las Américas that the regime’s intention “in addition to more rigorous supervision of the non-state sector, is to recover the two billion that the banking system has stopped receiving. From now on, priority will be given to the opening of state-owned MSMEs. (Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises). Especially in the commerce sector and in companies that are at a standstill or generate losses for the state. There is the intention that political and mass organisations, such as CDR (Committees for the Defense of the Revolution) and FMC (Federation of Cuban Women), can open MIPYMES that allow them to finance themselves with small shops in the neighbourhood, as well as private stores, where they can sell food and confectionery at lower prices.

Gustavo, an economist, considers that “these new measures show that the government is living in a surreal world. This interference in private property, the idea that MSMEs should be chained to bankrupt state-owned companies and the earmarking of a voluntary reserve to finance vulnerable sectors is a crazy project. And it will fail. No entrepreneur is going to allow the authorities to use his or her capital to finance Cuba’s failed economic model. For entrepreneurs to use the inefficient national banking system for their purchases abroad is nonsense. For the state to implement MSMEs is absurd. It doesn’t exist anywhere in the world.

The government is well aware of this. Its strategy is to supplant autonomous MSMEs with entities under the control of relatives and government officials. It was already happening. Now the mask has definitely come off.

Translated by GH

The Galiano Pine Tree, a Symbol of the Christmas that Awaits the Cubans

The tree doesn’t even have any pine needles left, and its emaciated trunk is underpinned and is all patched up

It bears little resemblance to the tree full of lights which was intended to cheer up the capital’s citizens during the 2022 Christmas period. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 14 October 2024 – The pine tree installed for Christmas 2022 on Calle Galiano in central Havana remains in its place. It bears little resemblance, however, to the tree full of lights which was intended to cheer up the capital’s citizens during that Christmas period.

Never very bushy even when it was a young tree, it didn’t even live for very long either. Tree months after being installed, the pine, the first public Christmas decoration that Cubans had seen in six decades, already had branches that were turning brown due to its being a perennial variety. Now it doesn’t even have any needles left at all, and its emaciated trunk is underpinned and all patched up.

The tree formed part – they said at the time – of an “encompassing initiative” of the Avenida Italia project in which the European country intended to show its gratitude for the presence of Cuban doctors in a number of their cities during the pandemic. continue reading

“Look at it, you can barely see it at all, it’s as skinny as we are”, commented an elderly lady sarcastically

It wasn’t, then, a Christmas symbol after all, but a very socialist “Tree of Friendship”, as it was rechristened in the Cuban press.

Just like in the lyrics of the Spanish song La Puerta de Alcalá, which was popular in Cuba, the tree sees the time pass, but, unlike the Victor Manuel and Ana Belén version, it does so all for the worse.

“Look at it, you can barely see it at all, it’s as skinny as we are”, an elderly lady commented with sarcasm on Monday as she sat in the Fe del Valle park. “I don’t know why they don’t remove it. I look at it and I think about the Christmas that awaits us all. The earth here is poisoned”.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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A US Report Illustrates the Magnitude of the Economic and Social Crisis in Cuba

Hunger is not only due to the country’s inability to buy food, but also to its own productive inefficiency / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, October 18, 2024 — The origin of the current economic crisis in Cuba has its roots in 2016, and the country received a mortar blow in 2019, the prelude to the pandemic. This year it has bottomed out. The Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture has written a report that expresses, with numbers and data from the last decade, the accelerated deterioration of the Island in production, import capacity, tourism, quality of life and food security.

The text arrives at an appropriate time if it is about understanding the multiplicity of factors that have led Cuba to the “bottomless pit” that the Government denies, despite the paralysis of schools, cultural activities and much of the services decreed this Thursday. The collapse was seen coming and is felt more intensely – in addition to the energy situation – at the level of food. The drastic reduction in imports in 2023 led, according to the report, to 1.4 million Cubans lacking the 2,100 daily calories essential for a correct diet.

Development of Cuba’s Gross Domestic Product in recent decades / Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture

The number – which represents 12.8% of the Cuban population – is trivial if compared to the number of Cubans who suffer from food insecurity. The document, despite the difficulties in collecting data and making estimates, says that there are 4.2 million, 37.8% of Cubans, who are going hungry. Hunger is due not only to the country’s inability to buy food, but also to its own productive inefficiency. The balance between imports and production has been broken for years, and the consequences for the state coffers have been disastrous.

The report takes into account Washington’s embargo on the regime but keeps a detailed record of the increase in Cuba’s dependence, since it has received more and more inputs from the United States for three consecutive years. However, it warns, Havana has concentrated its purchases on a single product: chicken, the protein that – after the almost total extinction of pork and beef – has become an emblem of the crisis. continue reading

Export of various US products (chicken, soy, corn, wheat and others) to Cuba since 2001 / Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture

The fall in crops, of which the independent press has been warning for years – 14ymedio is, in fact, one of the sources cited by the report – also presents alarming numbers. Hit by hurricanes and floods, corn production decreased from 404,000 metric tons in 2016 to 250,000 last year. Wheat fell from 335,000 metric tons to 140,000 in those years, and sugar – former coat of arms of the Cuban economy – fell to 110,000 metric tons from the 1.1 million that were exported in the past.

With no products to export, the country ran out of money to import. The price has been paid by Cuban households, whose purchasing power has diminished considerably, due to inflation and the increase in the cost of living.

On the international stage, the loss of financial prestige by Cuba, a country accustomed to debts and non-payments, has also skyrocketed. Between 2017 and 2022, the Island frantically imported what it needed from the European Union, the United States and Brazil, while exporting a modest amount of products to Europe, China and Switzerland. In 2023, Russia – which gave its Caribbean partner about 25,000 metric tons of wheat – rose to the top of the list. The rapprochement was not without political overtones, but business with Moscow has not been running smoothly either.

Countries which have exported agricultural products to Cuba since 2001 / Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture

The United States, a key partner for the country’s survival, in 2020 sent products to Cuba worth $157 million. From that year on, the amount increased: 299 million in 2021, 319 million in 2022 and 337 million in 2023. Of these shipments, 89% were chicken, which the report considered a “moderate” increase.

The United Nations World Food Program has also sent food to the Island, and in 2022 provided 3,142 tons of food to Cuban schools, benefiting 510,000 people. The aid came after Hurricane Ian, which wreaked havoc that the Government continues to invoke to justify food shortages. Last February, in addition, Havana asked for unprecedented help from the UN to guarantee the consumption of powdered milk to children under seven years of age.

The Department of Agriculture insists that in order to comprehensively calibrate the Cuban “multidimensional” debacle, it would be necessary to have data from important allies of the Island – Russia, Venezuela and Vietnam – traditionally hermetic when it comes to providing them. Cuba is not the only communist economy monopolized by the oldest state in the region, but its central planning has led to numerous “distortions” that the regime intends to correct, with strategies hitherto ineffective.

Countries that have exported products to Cuba since 2002 / Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture

Havana’s administrative inability – obsessed with a tourism sector that has not taken off and with the export of medical services – has also led to the waste of key resources such as nickel and zinc, whose mines have been overexploited by companies such as the Canadian Sherritt International and the Australian Antilles Gold, to whom Cuba also owes millions of dollars.

The document also makes a kind of “history of rationing” on the Island, from the appearance of the “libretas” (ration books) in 1962 to the successive cuts during the mandate of Miguel Díaz-Canel. While in 2010 these “subsidized” products cost the State – according to official figures – about 14.1 billion pesos, in 2020 that figure had dropped to 8.9 billion, almost half. Since then, the report regrets, the official discourse does not stop talking about “late deliveries” or “delays in imports.”

There is ample evidence that tourism, another sector in which the Government quantifies its chances of acquiring foreign currency, does not contribute enough to stabilize the country’s pocketbook. In 2019, US restrictions affected – discreetly, because tourism continued to represent 10.4% of Gross Domestic Product – the flow of visitors. But it was during the pandemic that the debacle reached its critical point, falling from the 4.3 million visitors reported in 2019 to the 1.1 million received in 2020, and only 356,000 the following year. The recovery has been slow: last year only 2.4 million tourists were received.

The Cuban tourism industry since 2001, when the decrease in visitors after the pandemic was remarkable / Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture

The use of “mules” and the tendency to personally bring foreign currency to the country in cash, says the report, complicate the study of remittance behavior. As of 2019, according to researcher Emilio Morales, the figure experienced a radical drop of 45%. Only 9.18 billion dollars arrived in the country that year, which is interpreted as a change of the diaspora’s intention: if before emigrants tried to help their relatives on the Island, now their main objective is to get them out of the country.

Indeed, according to the report, 1.3 million Cubans live in the United States, and the number, since 2020, has increased dramatically. If we add the Cubans who entered the country between 2022 and 2023 – about 435,000 – and those who have requested asylum in Mexico between January 2022 and November 2023 – about 36,000 – there are arguments to affirm that Cuba has lost approximately 4% of its population, although independent studies suggest that the percentage is even higher.

Although the relationship – at the migratory, family and economic level – between Cuba and the United States has continued to get closer after the vicissitudes of recent years, there has been no total rapprochement between the two countries. Complicated neighbors throughout history, a greater link would seem “logical,” the report concludes. However, the stagnation of a regime that seems to enter its final phase every day distances the country from wellbeing and precipitates it towards almost irreparable levels of misery.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Dengue Patients Die in Cuba While Honduras Now Has a Vaccine

A woman with dengue died in La Benéfica in Havana “for lack of medical care”

Miguel Enríquez Surgical Clinical Hospital, known as La Benéfica, in the Havana neighborhood of Luyanó, where Days María Jiménez died / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, 18 October 2024 — The case of Days María Jiménez, who died last Monday at the Miguel Enríquez Surgical Clinical Hospital, known as La Benéfica, in the Havana neighborhood of Luyanó, gives the measure of the dengue situation on the Island. The woman, her son Yasmanis said on social networks, “was not treated by a doctor or a nurse” since the time she arrived at 10:30 pm on Sunday at La Benéfica, by ambulance from a polyclinic in Guanabacoa, until she died the next day, at 5:30 am.

As Raysa Juan Delgado, a friend of the victim, emphasized on Facebook, Jiménez died “for lack of medical attention”: “She was taken twice by the neighbors to the nearest polyclinic. Even vomiting blood, with fever, without tasting food and with many headaches, they return her to the house, because they told her there is no medication. Upon arrival she lost her balance and fell to the ground, hitting her head. When they took her [to La Benéfica hospital] there were no nurses or doctors to take care of her, and by the time her neighbor arrived, she was already dead.”

Jiménez’s son, who was on Isla de la Juventud and immediately purchased a ticket to go to Havana, says that his mother’s neighbor informed him of the death and that no doctor would answer his call. “I wanted to die on the boat. I arrived at the terminal at almost three in the afternoon and from there I went to the hospital, and they didn’t let me see her until the forensic examiner arrived. At eight o’clock at night I was finally able to see her on a bare iron stretcher, without sheets or anything.” continue reading

“My mom has been dead for 38 hours, and these sons of bitches want money to process my mom because they say there are no cars

From there, they sent him to a precarious funeral home in Guanabacoa. Despite the fact that at six in the morning he was told that she was cremated at 12 noon, at seven in the evening they had not yet picked up the body. “My mom has been dead for 38 hours, and these sons of bitches want money to process my mom because they say there are no cars [hearses],” he said angrily, begging for help and asking for justice.

Although on Wednesday the Government declared, through the national director of Epidemiology, Francisco Durán, that 17,000 admissions for dengue had been registered on the Island, including 3,400 hospitalized and a number (not mentioned) in intensive care, experts estimate a considerably higher figure.

This is confirmed by several Cuban doctors cited by Martí Noticias. “There are hundreds of thousands of cases, and the health infrastructure is extremely disadvantaged, to say the least,” Eduardo Cardet said from Velasco, in Holguín. “They advise people to isolate at home, and conditions at home are even more difficult, and the lack of medication is critical.” For this doctor, both the dengue and Oropouche viruses are “out of control,” and “the authorities and the health system do not have a contingency plan to reduce such a terrible impact.”

Roberto Serrano, a doctor in Santiago de Cuba, also thinks that the official figures fall short: “There are countless numbers of people who do not even take the trouble to go to hospitals, and for those who do go there is nothing; nor are there reagents to do a test, so they simply send them home.

Miguel Ángel López Herrera, from Guantánamo, told Martí Noticias that “only the most serious cases are being admitted, with danger to life.”

TAK-003 vaccines, developed in Japan, will begin being applied in Honduras next week

Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey are precisely the provinces most affected by the disease, according to Francisco Durán. The epidemiologist insisted on the importance of going to the doctor when you think you have the disease, although he implicitly admitted that it may not be determined with an analysis. “It’s not that they do an analysis and tell you it’s this or that [but] it’s good to go and have them do a clinical assessment, especially for children,” he urged.

Asked about the reasons that make the assessment for minors more necessary, the doctor said that it is an arbovirus that worsens at great speed at those ages. “We all have to go, but children, generally, need to be admitted even if they are not serious, because their cases get complicated much faster. Dengue has the particularity that, at a certain moment you are well, the warning signs begin and, if at that moment you are not hydrated – which is the medicine, the hydration – unfortunately you die,” he said.

This is what happened, for example, in the case of journalist Magda Iris Chirolde López, editor-in-chief of Canal Caribe, who died at only 33 years of age from dengue complications, while waiting to be treated in a hospital in Havana.

In contrast, and in the meantime, Honduras, governed by Xiomara Castro, an ally of Havana, received this Thursday a batch of 52,000 vaccines that will allow it to mitigate the onslaught of the same arbovirus, which has left at least 194 dead in that Central American country so far this year.

The TAK-003 vaccines, developed in Japan, will begin to be administered in Honduras starting next week in educational centers with higher rates of dengue incidence. Health authorities reported in a meeting with journalists that they plan to immunize at least 25,000 minors between the ages of 5 and 16 years old.

Honduras’s Deputy Minister of Health, Nerza Paz, explained that her agency has invested around 25 million lempiras (one million dollars) in the purchase of these vaccines, about which there is no news, for the moment, in Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Two Detained in a Demonstration in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, Over Blackouts

Protest in Holguin town gets power restored. Electricity deficit continues to set records with demand forecast at 50% on Wednesday

“It was all because the power was cut off at five o’clock in the afternoon, three hours ahead of schedule,” explains a Sancti Spíritus resident. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 16 October 2024 — About thirty people demonstrated on Tuesday in Sancti Spíritus because of the endless power outages in the city. “They took to the streets because of the blackout problem at about 8:30 pm,” an eyewitness told this newspaper. It happened in the Pina neighborhood, on Soviet Avenue.
“It was all because the power was turned off at five o’clock in the afternoon, three hours ahead of schedule,” explains the same source. The protest resulted in the arrest of two people, who remain in custody on Wednesday.

More fortunate were those who took to the streets on Tuesday afternoon in Báguanos, Holguín, to protest for the same reason. They were not many, but they were forceful. “We want electricity, we want electricity!” shouted about 40 or 50 people, accompanied by clapping hands, gathered in the town’s central park, a little over 30 kilometers from the provincial capital.

According to a local resident who told 14ymedio, they got what they were asking for half an hour after the protest began, and the authorities returned the electricity to the municipality. “At least I did not see anyone who went to talk to them”, he answers when asked if any official spoke to the crowd. Nor, he assures, did any police officers show up, nor were there any detainees. “That surprised me because people have been beaten up in other places right away”.

As can be seen in images shared on social networks, among the demonstrators, which included the elderly and children, a man shouted: “Come on, gentlemen, let someone come here, let someone give an explanation to these people who are here in the street, someone with power continue reading

to explain to these people, because every day they take it [the electricity] away”.

Let’s go, gentlemen, let someone come here, let them explain to the people who are here in the street.

Although someone can be heard behind the camera expressing suspicion about “that guy who comes around with a stick in his hand,” no one is seen attacking the group. “As soon as the power was back on, everyone began to disperse.”

The province of Holguin is one of those that suffers most severely from power outages. Its inhabitants are getting used to having up to 15-hour blackouts, that is, only nine hours a day with electricity. “And they take it away at uncomfortable hours, for example from 12 to 3 in the morning, when you go to bed,” laments a Holguin mother. “Then you wake up, or at least I don’t sleep, because I have to get up to remove the battery chargers from the tricycle and other devices, and three hours later, when the electricity comes back on, you have to get up again to plug everything in. It’s a total nuisance.

Due to this energy crisis, food shortages are compounded by the extreme difficulty of cooking food. On Monday, says the same neighbor, they began to sell liquefied gas at the distribution points, “and people are catching their breath a little bit”, this Wednesday the propane cylinder virtual store was expected to be available.

Screenshot of one of the videos posted on social networks of the protest this Tuesday in Báguanos, Holguín. / Facebook/ Capture

On top of that, says her husband, given that Holguín is a densely populated territory, the “blocks” in which the Electrical Union (UNE) divides the zones to ration energy “are huge”: “If they remove block 1 and block 2 and leave block 3 and 4, half of the province is without power”.
Those who are most affected, he says, are the small municipalities: “Even though they are close to the city, they seem to be far away”.

This Tuesday, the 1,378 megawatts (MW)shortage that UNE (National Electricity Company) predicted for the peak times on the island, which already represented a record since September, ended up being 1,641 MW. It was precisely at the time of highest demand that the residents of Báguanos gathered.

The “planned maintenance” of the Cienfuegos power plant, together with several units of other thermoelectric plants that have broken down, is making the situation more difficult than ever. The scenario does not improve this Wednesday when a maximum deficit of 1,375 MW and a real impact of 1,445 MW is foreseen.

Translated by LAR

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Cuban Baseball Player Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Is Nominated for the Golden Glove of the US Major Leagues

Although he has been selected on several occasions for the award, this year could be historic for the player from Sancti Spíritus

Lourdes Gurriel Jr., jugador de Arizona Diamondbacks / Facebook

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 15 October 2024 — Despite the fact that he suffered an injury that took him away from the field for almost a month, and that his team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, failed to get into the final phase, the Cuban baseball player Lourdes Gurriel Jr. has been nominated for the Golden Glove 2024, for best left fielder in the National League. The announcement was made this Tuesday by the MLB.

Gurriel Jr. is the only Cuban to be on that list, in a campaign in which 33 players from the Island were active and where other compatriots such as Yordan Álvarez, Raisel Iglesias and Andy Pagés also stood out.

Standing out in the best baseball in the world has led to sacrifices for Gurriel. To develop the talent he showed since he was 16 years old, when he debuted in the National Baseball Series with the Sancti Spíritus team, in 2010, Yunito, as the 31-year-old athlete is known, had to flee the Island.

Gurriel Jr. represented the Cuban national team during the 58th edition of the Caribbean Series, held in the Dominican Republic

In February 2016, the year he left Cuba, Gurriel Jr. represented the Cuban national team during the 58th edition of the Caribbean Series, held in the Dominican Republic. His brother Yulieski was also on that team and was considered its best player in the tournament. Both were coveted by teams from the United States and, after their participation in the competition, they decided to flee to try to reach the Major Leagues. The regime considered it “a frank attitude of surrender to the merchants of rented and professional baseball,” according to the State newspaper Granma at the time.

Yunito’s first Major League contract was as a rookie. The Toronto Blue Jays paid him a base salary of one million dollars a year. continue reading

His father, a Cuban baseball legend, recalled in an interview with the Mexican newspaper Excelsior last year that it is not easy to make the decision. “The path is not easy. If it were, everyone would be leaving Cuba and becoming a star. But no, there is a lot of sacrifice and a very long process of adaptation,” he said.

Before escaping , the brothers, then 31 (Yulieski) and 22 (Lourdes) were the greatest prospects among the first beneficiaries of a pact between the Major Leagues and the sports authorities of the Island that would facilitate a safe and legal passage for the players. The agreement was finally signed in 2018, but a year later Donald Trump, then president of the United States, eliminated it. The reason: the payment for the hiring of the players could contribute to the financing of the Cuban Government and, therefore, violated the US trade embargo on the Island.

Yunito’s first Major League contract was as a rookie. The Toronto Blue Jays paid him a base salary of one million dollars a year

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is now in his seventh season in the big tent, where so far he has met expectations. He first wore the Toronto Blue Jays uniform, from 2016 to 2022, and then arrived in Arizona, on the team where he currently plays with a fielding percentage of .980; on offense of .279, with 18 home runs, 75 assists and seven stolen bases. The Diamondbacks finished in third place in the western division of the National League, with 89 wins and 73 losses.

Although he has been nominated on several occasions for the Golden Glove, this year could be historic for the player from Sancti Spíritus. “He has a good chance of taking the award home for the first time in his seven-year career in the best baseball in the world, a period where he was once included in the All-Stars,” said Swing Completo.

The Gurriel family is famous in Cuban baseball. In addition to his brother and father, another one who has joined the list is Luis Enrique Gurriel, a cousin of both players, who, at just 12 years old, fled Cuba in January of this year to try to reach the MLB.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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One of Cuba’s Most Promising Basketball Players Arrives in the United States

Bexy Yelena Claro Viset, from Holguín, broke off relations with Cuban sports in 2023. /Instagram/@negrasambay

14ymedio, Havana, 15 October 2024 — The Holguinera Bexy Yelena Claro Viset, who disassociated herself from the Cuban Basketball Federation last year, arrived this Monday in the United States. She did not return to the Island after ending her contract with the Salvadoreñas B.C.team from El Salvador, the runner-up in the Apertura tournament.

Claro Viset moved to Mexico after finishing the Salvadoran tournament. On Aztec soil with the support of the Basketball Association of Mexican Clubs, she joined the Musas Jalisco club for the 2024 season. Last Friday, her team was defeated by the Aztks of the State of Mexico, earning them the runner-up position.

The athlete, who turned 23 on October 6, shared images of her arrival in the United States. “I am resilient and can overcome life’s challenges. My well-being is a priority, and I am committed to taking care of it,” she wrote on her Facebook page a day before her birthday. She already knew that she would fulfill her American dream.

As recalled by the Sports CHAGO page on Facebook, the athlete had played several seasons with the Mambisas de Santiago de Cuba. During her stay on the Island, she was pointed out by the official media ¡Ahora! as one of the continue reading

key players of the team.

Indeed, the center player was fundamental to the national team during the 2022 Caribbean Championship, which took place in Havana. In addition to her participation in the XXIII Women’s Centrobasket of 2022, held in Chihuahua (Mexico), she also excelled in the 2023 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup in León (Mexico), the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games (El Salvador) and the 2023 Pan American Games (Chile).

Photo of Bexy Yelena Claro, in Mexico with the runner-up Musas Jalisco team/ Instagram/@negrasambay

Her case adds to the unstoppable exodus of athletes in search of a better future. In February of this year, Sergio Machado took advantage of the early morning to leave the hotel where he was staying in Orlando, Florida.

Basketball is one of the sports most affected by the unstoppable migratory exodus from the Island, according to Yunier Valdivia Rodríguez, provincial deputy director of sports in Ciego de Ávila. The crisis has worsened due to the lack of coaches. Of eight that the School of Sports Initiation had to count on, at that time there were only six, one of them “hired by the hour.” The casualties are, he said, because they “migrated” or “looked for a source of employment that pays more.”

In October 2023, the Most Valuable Player of the last Superior Basketball League, Joan Carlos Gutiérrez, told Play-Off Magazine that the lack of “a decent court, better training equipment and the absence of international competitions” are some of the obstacles faced by the players.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Much Despised Split Pea Has Become a Prized and Expensive Legume in Cuba

A pound of split peas cost 100 pesos a year ago and today it costs 320

A lunch served up to primary school children in Cuba, with watered down split peas, rice and sweet potato / Yusnaby / X

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 15 September 2024 – It formed part of a much rejected menu in the 1970’s and 80’s. Along with rice and egg, the split pea was one of the vilified “three musketeers” that were so often served up in the canteens of schools and work places. There were Cubans who swore never to eat them again, and yet today they long for a plate of their thick yellow broth; but now they’re difficult to afford.

“At school they gave us split peas every day, watery, unseasoned, and with nothing else added. I got to hate them so much I couldn’t even look at them”, remembers Lisandro, 47, who spent three terms at one of those pre-university establishments in the countryside where one went to be trained as a “New Man” – a place from which he came out, he says, “with only giardiasis, twenty pounds less in weight and a conjunctivitis that nothing could rid me of”.

Of those times he particularly remembers the split peas which were served up in a metal tray, “gungy at the bottom because they never washed them properly”. The dinner ladies gave us basically nothing – not a potato nor a scrap of meat, and one’s heart sank”. Most of the time whenever they served them they stayed on the plate – very few people ate them”.

There were Cubans who swore never to eat them again, and yet today they long for a plate of them

However, this week Lisandro asked his sister who lives in Sancti Spíritus to bring him a few pounds of split peas because “they’re cheaper over there” and his two children want to eat a nice stew made from these little peas, sometimes green, sometimes yellow, which have tripled in price in less than a year in Cuban markets. continue reading

Where a pound of split peas cost 100 pesos at the La Plaza Boulevard market in Sancti Spíritus in August 2023, today you have to pay 320 pesos for the same quantity. “Even so, they’re cheaper than in Havana, where last week the price rose to 380 pesos”, the habanero tells 14ymedio.

Price per pound of split peas since August 2023 / 14ymedio

An imported product, which is barely grown in Cuba, the split pea was for decades associated with the poorest of dinner tables, including those in prisons and military quarters. But its increase in price, along with the decrease in production of other foodstuffs such as black and red beans, has revalued its image in Cuban kitchens. The arrival of better presented varieties has also helped to provide the old ’musketeer’ with a new royal cloak.

The split pea has also, for almost half a century, provided a way of stretching out the scarce commodity of coffee. After toasting and milling, the peas join the mixture which ends up in the coffee pots of Cuban homes. The widespread use of this blend has reached such a point on the island that there are now people who can’t enjoy a good cup of coffee if it doesn’t have the corresponding portion of ground peas in the mix.

The split pea was for decades associated with the poorest of dinner tables, including those in prisons and military quarters

“We have green, yellow, split and shelled peas in half or one kilogram jars”, the attentive employee of a mipyme (independent) shop in central Havana tells us. On the shelves, sacks bearing the recognisable logo of American brand Goya contain peas which are cleaned, and without the skin which many people say causes them digestive problems.

“They’re broken down and made into a San Germán puré as soon as they’re softened, and they taste really good”, says the woman to a customer who’s yet undecided whether to put her hand in her pocket and take out the 500 pesos needed to buy the half kilo packet. “These aren’t like the old ones, these are real quality”, says the seller.

Once taken home, the little peas end up in a pressure cooker with other ingredients to hand – which could be basic onions and garlic, some meat and eddoe herbs, all of which finally end up on the kids’ – and the older family members’ – plates. And while they taste this thick broth, a certain nostalgia will be triggered in some of them.

“I never thought that this would bring back so many memories of my younger days”, says Lisandro. “My mates and I used to make catapaults to fire split peas with, and in the school canteen the game was to fire them at the girls, and at the teachers when they weren’t looking”.

“In those days I reared pigeons and the split peas we got from the store all went to them as no one in our house wanted to eat them – it was enough that we had to eat them in school and our parents in the works canteen”, he recalls. Now, in that old “All for one and one for all” style of pact, the egg, the rice and their eternal companion the split pea have climbed up the class ladder: the three inseparables have now joined the royal table, close to those very exclusive dishes – the chickpea or the pork dish.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Medalist Javier Sotomayor Doubts the Future of Cuban Athletics

El campeón olímpico cubano en Barcelona 1992 y plata en Sídney 2000, Javier Sotomayor. Instagram/@245sotomayor

14ymedio, Swing Completo, Havana, 14 October 2024 — “The facilities are in poor condition; there is a lack of equipment, specialized shoes, shortage of gyms and no competitions.” The Cuban Olympic champion in Barcelona 1992 and silver in Sydney 2000, Javier Sotomayor, expressed himself forcefully this Saturday in the WhatsApp group Athletics Without Borders about the current crisis of athletics on the Island.

“The future of Cuban athletics for me is in doubt,” said the athlete, who lives between Guadalajara, Spain, where his son trains, and Havana, where he runs a bar, the 2.45, named after the world record he set in 1993 in high jump. “We have established athletes and young people with a lot of talent, as well as trained coaches, but the infrastructure is not adequate, most of all at the base,” he stressed.

Sotomayor also regretted that there is no infrastructure on the Island for the discipline in which he excelled. “For the practice of technique, it is necessary from an early age to make corrections. That’s why they reach the national pre-selection with almost incorrigible defects.”

In the past Olympic Games in Paris, Luis Enrique Zayas could not overcome the high jump score of 2.27 meters established as a requirement by the organizers for the qualifying phase. At the end of his participation, he continue reading

confessed that he had only had “ten weeks of training, the first even without being one hundred percent.”

Sotomayor also regretted that the Island does not have infrastructure for the discipline in which he excelled / Instagram / @245sotomayor

The exodus is another of the problems that afflict Cuban sport, and athletics is no exception. The crisis was revealed last year by the national athletics commissioner Rolando Charroo, after the failure at the XIX World Championship in Budapest.

On that occasion, the official regretted the lack of “runners capable of sustaining themselves in the elite tests such as the 400 and 800 meters and the 100, 110 and 400 with fences, in which we have had proven success.”

The terrible conditions for the preparation of athletes has forced several to emigrate. One of those was Roger Valentín Iribarne, who in 2021 asked for leave for “lack of motivation.” He found in the Benfica club of Portugal the conditions for his sports development, and last July he won the gold medal in the 110 meter hurdles in the Diamond League held in Silesia, Poland.

Reynier Mena, like Valentín Iribarne, took refuge in the Benfica club. In one year in Portugal he improved his numbers. In July 2022, in La Chaux de Fonds, this sprinter went down from the 10-second barrier in the 100 flat meters with a score of 9.99 seconds, and in the 200 meters he recorded 19.63 seconds.

In Paris, the podium in the long jump event was dominated by Cubans in exile. Jordan Díaz, who represents Spain, took the gold. The silver and bronze went to Pedro Pablo Pichardo (Portugal), with 17.84, and to Andy Díaz (Italy), with 17.64.

In the absence of figures, the Cuban authorities had to “reinsert” the jumper Juan Miguel Echevarría with a view to the Olympics in the French capital. However, the Olympic runner-up in Tokyo 2020 was left out of Paris for not having appeared in any competition that allowed him to achieve the minimum score required to attend the event.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Activists Tell the UN That the Number of Femicides in Cuba Could Be Double

The organization Prisoners Defenders submitted a report to the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

The document was created by PD and the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory / Alas Tensas / Archive

14ymedio, Havana, October 15, 2024 — The organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) has once again brought the human rights situation in Cuba before the UN. In the 89th session of the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) this Monday, they presented two reports: one on femicides on the Island and the other on the conditions suffered by women political prisoners.

From Geneva, where other civil society organizations and some affiliated with the regime also met, Javier Larrondo, president of the PD, said that there is a “dark figure” in the number of femicides on the Island, which doubles the official count.

“While the Cuban Government claims that they do not have a problem of femicide, civil society organizations verify almost 100 femicides a year, ten times the rate in Spain. Documents from the State itself lead to the conclusion that the real figure could be double,” Larrondo said during his speech at the CEDAW session.

A report made by PD in conjunction with the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory presented to CEDAW, entitled “The Reality of the Current Femicide Crisis in Cuba,” says that on average 195 women are killed annually because of “intra-family” or “passional extra-family” violence, euphemisms with which the regime tries to hide the real number of continue reading

femicides. This comes after an investigation based on deductive work that uses international official sources in addition to official data from the regime in its crusade to hide the truth.

“While the Government claims that they do not have a problem of femicide, civil society organizations verify almost 100 femicides a year, ten times the rate of Spain”

“Everything points not only to hiding the real number of femicides in Cuba, made evident by the work of independent NGOs, but also to the fact that we are facing a problem of critical magnitude, which has been going on for years in Cuba, at least since 2019,” reads the document.

If the situation of women on the Island is overshadowed by silence or insufficient data, that of women prisoners is deplorable, especially those who suffer from an illness. In addition to the usual harassment to which the regime subjects dissidents, Prisoners Defenders explains, they must endure a whole series of humiliations just because of their gender.

For prisoners of conscience in Cuba, the days go by very slowly, because in addition to the usual harassment to which the regime subjects its detractors, they also have to endure extra humiliations because of their gender, as documented by the Prisoners Defenders organization in a study. In addition, the physical and sanitary conditions for women in Cuban prisons are deplorable and unhealthy, especially for those who suffer from a chronic disease or are about to give birth.

According to Prisoners Defenders records, the provinces with the most women prisoners of conscience in Cuba are Havana (25.21%), Matanzas (15.97%) and Mayabeque (12.61%), followed by Artemisa (9.24%), Camagüey (7.56%) and Santiago de Cuba (7.56%). The current ages of the 119 political prisoners range from 20 to 67 years.

The figure of 119 political prisoners that PD has documented includes women who were arrested as minors and trans women. All trans women have been and are imprisoned among men, suffering horrible situations of abuse, including rapes by other inmates.

The NGO estimates that up to 70.59% of political prisoners suffer from systematic deprivation of medical care

Once locked up in an unhealthy cell, women are victims of physical, psychological and sexual abuse. If they require a doctor, they must get used to the idea that they will not receive adequate care, much less obtain the necessary medications to cure themselves or at least make their condition more bearable, says Prisoners Defenders in a report entitled “The Reality of Human Rights Violations for Women of Conscience in Prisons in Cuba.”

The NGO estimates that up to 70.59% of political prisoners suffer from systematic deprivation of medical care. Specifically, it has managed to document 31 prisoners of conscience who suffer from serious diseases such as pneumonia, epilepsy, asthma, diabetes, hypertension and some psychological disorders, mainly linked to depression and suicide attempts.

Among the mistreatment documented by PD for political prisoners, the deprivation of any type of communication with family, defense attorneys and relatives stands out at 94.12 percent. Other forms include verbal abuse (88.24%), torture (70.59%) and physical aggression (58.82%).

Translated by Regina Anavy

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China Points Out ‘The Unwillingness of Cuban Leaders To Adopt Market-Oriented Reforms’

Havana owes hundreds of millions of dollars to Huawei and Yutong

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Cuban counterpart, Miguel Díaz-Canel, during the latter’s official visit to Beijing in November 2022 / EFE

14ymedio, Madrid, 14 October 2024 — Cuba owes large Chinese companies, such as Huawei and Yutong, “hundreds of millions of dollars each,” says a foreign businessman who trades with the Island. The prestigious British economic newspaper Financial Times (FT) published this Monday a devastating article on the economic relations between the Asian giant and Cuba, which makes it clear that, beyond the rhetoric, Beijing is not willing to gamble money on such an unproductive partner.

“The shortage of raw materials and an unproductive economy leave the Island with little to export to China, while imports have decreased in recent years, as the tightening of US sanctions seriously aggravated Havana’s chronic default problems and exhausted credit lines,” says the Financial Times.

One of the unknown facts so far is that the sugar export contract from Cuba to China, through which the Island sent more than 400,000 tons, has been canceled due to lack of production. Apart from that, only nickel, zinc and luxury cigars remain to sell to China, in addition to doctors sent to numerous countries – “in exchange for hard currency,” the FT points out – and cooperation in biotechnology.

On the other hand, although Cuba continues to import from China, the data show that acquisitions have fallen. While in 2017 the amount was worth 1.7 billion dollars, in 2022 – with the latest available data – it was only 1.1 billion. Cuban economist Omar Everleny Pérez said that the amount that China invests in the island – despite being unknown – is an “absurdly low” amount when compared to the 160 billion dollars that Beijing has invested continue reading

in Latin America and the Caribbean since 2005. China’s main allies in the region are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, all of them important exporters of raw materials.

“China is not Cuba’s sugar daddy,” Fulton Armstrong, former US intelligence officer for Latin America, told the British newspaper

“China is not Cuba’s sugar daddy,” Fulton Armstrong, former US intelligence officer for Latin America, told the British newspaper. “It is mainly a relationship of declarations of solidarity, not a strategic partnership for either one of them.”

According to the article, although Beijing publicly spouts declarations of solidarity with Havana, in private it is appalled at the “lack of will of Cuban leaders to decisively implement a market-oriented reform program, despite the obvious dysfunction of the current situation.” Chinese officials have insisted many times to Cuban peers that the economy turn to a version close to that of the Asian country, with no result.

The article points out that China has contributed significantly to the “energy revolution” promoted by Fidel Castro at the end of the 20th century, as well as to the infrastructure reform in recent years, with special emphasis on cybersecurity, digital technologies and transport infrastructures and equipment. This was not in vain, the text points out, since Beijing is still Havana’s second largest trading partner, only behind Caracas.

“But Chinese imports have decreased a lot in general,” says a Western businessman in Havana. “Exporters are moving away from the credit lines between China and Cuba and are moving towards the private sector.”

William LeoGrande, an expert on Cuba and professor of Public Policy at American University, told the FT that China is a country that is not very inclined to give donations. “Cubans right now are in a position where they need charity and don’t have much to offer in return,” he says. Although Beijing promised to send 20,408 tons of rice to the Island throughout 2024, Cuba needs 36,000 tons every month, a fact that exposes the low importance of the crumbs thrown to Cuba by that agreement.

The Chinese president also gave 100 million dollars after the visit of Miguel Díaz-Canel on his 2023 tour through several friendly countries, but it is not significant in relation to what Beijing could contribute if it had Cuba as a relevant economic partner.

The article also refers to the possible rapprochement on intelligence issues and addresses the report about an expansion of Chinese espionage operations in Cuba. According to LeoGrande, this information is more a “story” than a real cause for concern. “It serves the interests of conservative Cuban Americans, who are always looking for reasons not to improve relations between the US and Cuba, and in the wider political community it serves the interests of those who think that China is a global threat.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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