Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 124

The New York Times Publishes a Deceitful Ad in Favor of the Cuban Regime

A paid ad last Sunday in *The New York Times* in favor of the Cuban regime. (*Cubadebate*)

14ymedio, Frank Calzón, 5 October 2022 — The New York Times has published an ad asking President Joe Biden to respond affirmatively to the Cuban government’s call for the lifting of economic sanctions for six months “so that Cuba can reconstruct after the hurricane.”

The text contains a catalogue of fallacies and half-truths.

It’s not true, as it says, that the US embargo impedes the purchase of construction material. Cuba buys everything it wants from countries around the world. The problem is that the countries that previously forgave the regime’s millions of dollars of debt now refuse to extend credit to Havana, since the debt won’t be paid.

One of the consequences of the U.S. embargo is that Cuba has to pay cash for what it buys from the U.S., like the tons of frozen chicken it imports from New Orleans. Otherwise, the U.S., like the Spanish, French, Argentinian and other governments, would stop subsidizing the regime.

As for the blackouts and the disaster of the thermoelectric plants in Cuba, to pretend that it’s because of Hurricane Ian, speaking diplomatically, lacks truth. For more than thirty years, the readers of the official newspaper Granma have been informed in which neighborhoods, on which days and at what times the power would be shut off. continue reading

For Cubans familiar with the craziness of Fidel Castro, like the Ten Million Ton Harvest and the closing of most of the sugar mills, which made the spectacular development of the country possible for two centuries, the regime can’t tell them that the blackouts are the fault of the hurricane or the Yankee embargo.

Many years ago, Fidel ordered the removal of stovetop cookers that used kerosene and charcoal and obliged the population to buy electric cookers to replace them. This increased the price of electricity. Fidel gave classes on television to Cuban housewives about the advantages of electric pressure cookers.

Ignoring the analysis of the experts, they used the national oil, which unfortunately has a high sulphur content, in the thermoelectric plants. The result, as in the case of the almost-disappeared sugar industry, is the energy crisis, with or without a hurricane.

The ad alleges that President Trump put Cuba back on the list of countries that facilitate international terror because Cuba was the seat of the peace negotiations for Colombia. But it doesn’t say that the F.B.I., for years, has offered thousands of dollars for information that might lead to the capture of U.S. terrorists who have sought refuge on the Island. Among them is Joanne Chesimard (alias Assata Shakur), an African-American extremist [member of the Black Liberation Army] who received a life sentence in 1977 after killing a New Jersey state patrol officer in cold blood when she was stopped for speeding in 1973. She escaped from prison in 1979 and was granted political asylum in Cuba. Her case isn’t the only one.

And what about the suggestion that Washington should stop basing its policy towards Cuba on the paradigm of the Cold War? Suffice it to point out that, even for Havana’s friends in Washington, it’s impossible to ignore the role of the regime’s propaganda in favor of President Vladimir Putin’s criminal war in Ukraine. Havana was one of the handful of dictatorships that voted against suspending Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council and tried not to allow the recorded appearance before the General Assembly of the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who could not attend for obvious reasons.

The Biden Administration has denounced all of the above, while the Plaza de la Revolución is preparing to send “volunteers” to Ukraine under the orders of Russian officers.

There’s more, but even so, President Biden shouldn’t ignore the regime’s request, according to the The New York Times ad. If the president wants to help the Cuban people, he must offer to establish a humanitarian channel with the following conditions:

1. That the aid is clearly marked “Free gift from the people of the United States to the Cuban people. FORBIDDEN TO SELL.”

2. That the aid be distributed in Cuba by staff of the American Red Cross and the Agency for International Development, and that both be allowed to monitor the impact of the aid on the population on the ground.

If not, it’s possible that the same thing would happen as years ago, when a shipment of medicines and food that the Catholic Church wanted to distribute on the Island was sent to Haiti, because some Cuban mothers in Florida had written on the boxes “With the love of your brothers exiled in Miami.” Something similar to the Cuba Decide shipment of humanitarian aid, confiscated in the Port of Mariel in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic.

It’s not true that the sanctions hinder the reconstruction of Cuba after Hurricane Ian, because the blackouts and lack of electricity across the Island precede Hurricane Ian by years. Homelessness, although it has been worsened by the hurricane, is basically the result of more than 60 years of lack of maintenance of the buildings where Cubans live. According to the regime’s priorities, millions of dollars are spent on the construction of luxury hotels for foreigners, while the country’s homes, aqueducts, sewage systems and infrastructure in general have deteriorated disastrously.

The ad regrets the destruction of the tobacco production, pointing out that 5,000 farms have been destroyed. But it doesn’t say that these farmers, if they dare to sell their tobacco to Cubans and not to the state monopoly, are sentenced to prison, like others who dare to sell their chickens, rice or the milk of their cows.

President Biden should order the Administration to implement its promises to provide free Internet service for the Cuban people. And if Havana rejects Biden’s offer, Washington should lead an international United Nations coalition to suspend Cuba from the Human Rights Council, as was done with Vladimir Putin’s regime.

The true friends of the Cuban people in the United States Congress, who are a majority, should immediately address Biden to make sure that the president doesn’t turn a deaf ear to the claim of thousands of protesters throughout Cuba, who don’t shout against the U.S. embargo, but in favor of their own freedom. For doing so, peacefully, there are a thousand young people in prison after the social explosion of Sunday, July 11, 2021.

The sponsors of the ad, as well as the editors of The New York Times, are complicit in omitting these details. Once again, they make the victims of repression on the Island invisible, while they whitewash the face of the human rights violator.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Silvio Rodriguez is Saddened that ‘The Humble’ for Whom the Cuban Revolution Was Made are Protesting

Demonstration in Havana, guarded by uniformed and civilian agents, on Saturday night. (EFE/ Yander Zamora)

14ymedio, Madrid, 4 October 2022 — Singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez sees “something positive” in last Friday’s mass demonstration on 31st Avenue in the Havana municipality of Playa: it “was guarded by law enforcement but not repressed.”

In a post published on Saturday on his blog Segunda Cita (Second Date) the troubadour confesses that the protest, which took place after almost 100 hours without electricity due to a widespread blackout on the Island after Hurricane Ian, made him “sad.” The reason, he says, is that “they didn’t seem to be of the privileged classes who rebuke a inheritor government of a Revolution that was made in blood and fire for the humble.”

“How is it possible that such a distortion has been reached? Is it a mirage for the intensification of a six-decade blockade, or because of how difficult it has become to get food after the pandemic, or because of the havoc that the hurricane caused us?” Rodríguez asks, suggesting again and in his own way a slight criticism of the system that he doesn’t reject.

Taking, as on other occasions, both a hard and soft line, the musician concedes on one hand that “it’s worth asking how much responsibility belongs to those of us who have bet, more than our lives, our history, on an emancipatory project,” but, on the other, affirms that “essentially, I’m sure we weren’t wrong — and I’m not enumerating the virtues, the resounding benefits for the Cuban people that the revolutionary process meant.” continue reading

Rodríguez’s text was published on precisely the same day that, for the first time since the demonstrations began after the hurricane, the regime unleashed the usual repression.

Police officers, but above all State Security agents and military service recruits dressed in civilian clothes and armed with sticks responded on Saturday night to a spontaneous protest that took place in the middle of Vedado in Havana, on Línea and F. There, the neighbors had blocked the street with barricades made from overturned garbage containers, branches of fallen trees and other objects.

In addition, as shown in videos released by the Spanish agency EFE, the demonstrators faced the authorities and the official civilian brigade — which shouted revolutionary slogans such as “Fidel, Fidel” or “Viva Díaz-Canel” — demanding not only “light” but “freedom” and chanting “down with the dictatorship” and “Díaz-Canel motherfucker.”

Although the regime has wanted to sell the idea that in no case was there repression and that the agents responded to “provocations” of violent demonstrators, images disseminated by international media, such as Reuters and The Associated Press, show that those who were armed were the government agents.

On Tuesday, the Justice 11J platform updated the number of detainees since September 30, which has now reached 26. The last arrests registered by the organization are Rafael Zamora Mederos, José Adalberto Fernández Cañizares ( both 38 years old), Alejandro Guilleuma Ibáñez (29), Hillary Gutiérrez (26 ) and Frank Artola (18).

According to Justice 11J, Zamora Mederos, a member of the Movement of Opponents for a New Republic, was arrested on Saturday and is in the Vivac prison of Havana accused of public disorder “just for walking through the streets on a day of protest.” The platform reports that his relatives have tried to raise 16,000 pesos for his bail, but it’s been impossible, and Mederos is “on a hunger and thirst strike.”

About Fernández Cañizares, nicknamed Pepitín, acquaintances of his family confirmed to this newspaper that he was hit in the head and was transferred to the Calixto García hospital to be given 37 stitches, according to the doctor who attended him, his own mother. In addition, they fractured his nasal septum. The young man is accused of public disorder and resistance.

Alejandro Guilleuma Ibáñez, Hillary Gutiérrez and Frank Artola are locked up in the DTI 100 detention center and Aldabó, also in the capital, for the same crimes.

Witnesses also claim that this last group was mistreated. Frank “is an exemplary teenager who attends the parish church on Línea in El Vedado. He suffered a fracture of the septum; his lips were split and one of his eyes was swollen because of the blows he received,” wrote Adrián Martínez Cádiz, who added: “His sister, Hillary Gutiérrez, is a good girl. She has a little girl who cries because of her mother’s absence.”

Justice 11J emphasized that “the reports of people injured, brutally beaten and currently in detention for protesting are alarming.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Senior Migration Official in Mexico Demands $70,000 from 14 Cubans to Avoid Deportation

In recent months, several Cubans have been arrested during their journey through Campeche. (Captura)

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico,30 September 2022 — “You have 72 hours or you’ll be deported.” In this way, an agent of the National Migration Institute threatened a group of 14 Cubans in Mexico City. The alternative is blackmail: “They’re asking for $5,000 for each, $70,000 for the group,” a close friend of the detainees who wants to remain anonymous tells 14ymedio.

The group formed part the 103 Cubans detained in the Mexican state of Campeche, who were forced to remain on a bus without food for 24 hours. A Migration officer recommended to the source interviewed by this newspaper to “get moving” with the money.

In an audio to which this newspaper had access, the telephone warning of the agent, identified as the deputy director of the Las Agujas migration station in the Mexican capital, is heard. “I want to know if they’re going to get their hands on it,” asks the official, who warns that “the amount will be considerable” if the group wants to be freed.

The voice also proposes the alternative of allowing their deportation and then negotiating a new entry. Although, it clarifies, now this was going to “stain their passports.” “It’s going to be a little more complicated, I think,” says the man, who recommends that the Cubans act quickly.

“The group had been divided,” explains the same source. “Some of them were taken to the Escárcega migration station, in Campeche, but others were transported to the prosecutor’s office, after spending more than a day without eating, until they were moved to Cancun, then to Chetumal and now they are in Las Agujas,” he says. continue reading

Those who moved to Cancun offered money to the agents and achieved their release in Chetumal. A minor, Jimmy Jorge Céspedes Sánchez, who presented health problems derived from the asthma he suffered during the retention, and also Yaimet Sánchez Selles, Yaimet Selles Velázquez and Jorge Luis Sánchez Proenza, are part of this group.

It’s not the first time that Cubans have reported abuses by Las Agujas Migration agents.

In the last week of July, Angélica María Rodríguez Varela, Isael Meléndez Castro, Junier Blanco Hernández and two other Cubans were arrested despite having legal protection to pass, during their transfer to the border with the United States.

Rodríguez, Meléndez, Blanco and other nationals of the Island were robbed of the little cash they had. Their passports were taken away, the chips from their mobile phones removed and they were kept incommunicado for several days. The agents demanded the payment of $2,000 from each one to be released and have their documents returned. Thanks to the intervention of an activist, they were allowed to leave and are currently in El Paso, Texas.

The journey of Cubans through Mexico has increased significantly in recent months. In the last 45 days, immigration authorities reported the arrest of 220 people who entered the country illegally.

What they don’t say is that there are hundreds of prisoners in Migration prisons. “That’s a crime,” says the 14ymedio source, who warns Cubans not to rely on money to avoid deportation. “It’s crazy, they want $70,000.”

More than 177,000 Cubans have arrived by land in the United States and more than 5,000 by sea since October 2021.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Angel Pena and Yadier Batista Join the Long List of Escaped Cuban Baseball Players

The prominent former baseball player Ángel Peña left the Island to embark on the crossing like thousands of Cubans through Central America in order to reach the United States. (Cubadebate)wewew

14ymedio, Havana, 3 October 2022 — The list of expatriate Cuban baseball players already forms a sports catastrophe. So far in October, the abandonments of retired pitcher Ángel Peña and left-handed pitcher Yadier Batista have been confirmed. These athletes join David Mena, Jefferson Delgado, Ciro Silvino Licea, Adriel Labrada, Juan Carlos Hernández, Sergio Pérez, Dismany Ortiz and Yunior Charadan, who left the Island in September.

Peña, according to journalist Francys Romero, left Cuba “in the late hours” for the United States going through “the Central American route,” the same one taken by Mena, Delgado, Licea and Labrada a few days ago.

People remember that the “Falcon of March 13,” as they call Peña, earned more than 1,027 strikeouts in the National Series. In 2013 this baseball player became the fourth pitcher in Sancti Spíritus to reach that mark in the category, beneath only Yovani Aragón (1,926), Roberto Ramos (1,151) and Maels Rodríguez (1,148), as published in Escambray.

In his career he won 132 games. In the beginning, he stood out as a U-15 and U-18 World Cup player in the 1990s, but little was known about this athlete until he decided to emigrate with his family, according to a comment on Facebook. continue reading

“Cuban society continues to emigrate massively, including active players, retirees, coaches and athletes from other disciplines,” Romero said on his social networks. He anticipated that given the possibility of flights to Nicaragua, there would be several departures before the First Elite League, which will begin on October 8.

El pelotero Yadier Batista puede lanzar entre 88-91 millas. (Collage)

Meanwhile, he has left for the Dominican Republic. This 18-year-old hopes to continue his career with a U.S. Major League team. “In the recently finished National U-23 Championship he made news by pitching a game without a hit or any runs,” posted Baseball FR!

“Now he’ll go through new processes. In the first he will seek to perfect his tools and polish his entire command,” Francys Romero said. “The second part is to apply for free agency and receive permission from the MLB to be able to sign with a professional team.” This athlete, originally from Ciego de Ávila, 6’3 tall and 180 pounds in weight, can throw between 88-91 miles per hour.

Batista can pitch at a speed between 94-95 miles per hour, and according to the specialized journalist, “he has a profile of opener, command and sufficient repertoire. His body still has much more space for the development of those tools.”

Batista is preceded by his performance in 2019, when he left a statistic of 5-0 in 46 innings, and 52 strikeouts in the Nacional 2015-16. At that time he was one of the 13 pitchers who averaged fewer than three clean runs per game.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Tobacco ‘Has Suffered the Largest Blow in its History’

A tobacco curing house completely collapsed in San Juan y Martínez. (*Cubadebate*)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 4 October 2022 — Hurricane Ian has been a “demolishing blow” for Cuba’s most select tobacco cultivation, the official press reported, with major material damage and the loss of thousands of tons of raw material.

Hurricane Ian — a category three storm with heavy rains and winds of up to 125 miles per hour — caused massive damage, “both in tons and in the quality of a crop that contributes hundreds of millions of dollars for export every year,” according to the official newspaper Granma.

The digital media Cubadebate also reported on the destruction of much of the infrastructure of the tobacco sector in Pinar del Río, the province where a large part of Cuban tobacco is grown and where the raw material of the most sought-after cigars comes from.

The Pinar del Río Agriculture delegate, Víctor Fidel Hernández, told Granma that “it’s the biggest blow that the tobacco infrastructure has suffered in its history.” continue reading

In the country’s main tobacco-producing region, 90% of the approximately 12,000 natural curing houses, where tobacco leaves are stored for drying, have been damaged.

The storm also dampened “around 11,000 tons of tobacco” that was in the process of drying, and much of it will have to be discarded.

The curing sheds and other facilities should be repaired for the next harvest, which was scheduled to begin on October 20. For that they estimate that about 6,003493 cubic feet of wood and 600 tons of nails will be needed.

This blow to the sector comes at an already delicate time for the Cuban tobacco sector. The Cuban state tobacco company produced less than half of what was planned from January to June, due to lack of basic inputs, logistical problems and breakdowns, among other problems.

The situation, a continuation of the one experienced in 2021, has caused “instability” in the “distribution in the retail sales network” of tobacco within Cuba, Granma acknowledged this August.

Tobacco, which employs about 200,000 workers — 250,000 at the peak of the harvest — is one of the largest sources of income for Cuba.

Production decreased from 32,000 tons in 2017 to 25,800 in 2020, according to official data; 2021 was one of the worst years for the Cuban countryside in the last decade, as the Minister of Agriculture, Ydael Pérez Brito, recently said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Confirms Contact with the U.S. for Help with the Damage of Hurricane Ian

Aircraft landed in Havana from Mexico this Monday. (Granma)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana,3 October 2022 — The Cuban Government confirmed on Monday that it has maintained contacts with the United States regarding the material damage suffered by Hurricane Ian last week.

Havana thus confirms a report recently released by The Wall Street Journal in which it was claimed that the Island had contacted the United States Government.

“Governments of Cuba and the United States have exchanged information about the substantial damage and unfortunate losses caused by Hurricane Ian in both countries,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry said on the social network Twitter.

The brief message added that the Government of Cuba also maintains communication “with other governments interested in the devastation and requirements for the recovery in Cuba.” continue reading

The Wall Street Journal published this Friday an exclusive entitled “Cuba makes an unusual request for American help after the devastation by Hurricane Ian,” in which it explained that the Cuban government had requested “emergency assistance” from Washington, and the Biden Administration was in contact with the authorities on the Island to understand how much help was needed.

In recent days, assistance of various types has arrived in Cuba from Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina, as well as from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its regional subsidiary in the Americas.

From Mexico, a plane with more than 10 tons of electrical insulation landed in Havana on Monday, according to the official press, as part of the “more than 100 tons of solidarity aid” transported in “four planes of the Mexican Air Force, which made 16 flights, working uninterruptedly for 96 hours,” after the hurricane.

U.S. civil society collectives close to Cuba asked this Saturday, in an announcement in The New York Times, for the U.S. Government to temporarily lift sanctions on the Island to facilitate reconstruction after Ian’s passage.

Hurricane Ian crossed the western tip of Cuba from south to north on Tuesday, with heavy rains and winds of up to 125 miles per hour, leaving five deaths and heavy material damage.

For reasons not fully clarified, the passage of the hurricane generated a complete blackout on the Island, damage to about 200,000 homes and serious effects on crops and infrastructure.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Repression Breaks Out in Cuba in the Face of the Increasing Protests on the Fifth Day of the Post-Hurricane Blackout

Neighbors of Línea Street, in Havana’s El Vedado district, closed the central avenue on Saturday night to demand the restoration of electricity. (*14ymedio*)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 2 October 2022 — With the mobilization of police officers, State Security agents dressed in civilian clothes and military service recruits armed with sticks, the authorities responded on Saturday night to the popular protests on the fifth day without electricity in several municipalities of Havana. The cacerolazos [banging on pots and pans to demonstrate] and the barricades closing the streets and avenues marked the day.

On Línea Street, in El Vedado, the neighbors closed the central avenue at the intersection with F Street where vehicles pass to join the Malecón. Traffic was blocked by turned-over garbage cans and tree branches that fell in the winds of Hurricane Ian, which hit the Island last Tuesday.

A human cordon also stood blocking the road, which was illuminated with public lighting although the surrounding houses were still without electrical service. They chanted slogans such as “Put on the current!” And “Put on the light!”, a demand that was answered a while later with the arrival of buses and trucks full of shock troops dressed in civilian clothes to counter the demonstrators, as confirmed by a reporter from 14ymedio at the scene.

“They arrived in microbuses, trucks and buses, and you could tell they were security forces because of their tough talk,” a resident from the area told this newspaper. The people who were blocking the passage of the vehicles withdrew to their homes with the arrival of the official troops, who began to deploy throughout the street and the surrounding roads with a threatening attitude. continue reading

“It seems that they’re waiting for Forensics to find the fingerprints that people might have left in the garbage cans they put on the street, but that’s just to intimidate us,” another neighbor said. “But now people here have lost their fear; they’ve learned that if they don’t protest they won’t get respect.”

The place was completely taken over by State Security, and the operation was even larger than that deployed in the same area after the popular protests of July 11, 2021. “The most interesting thing is that the only ones who are in uniform are the bosses; there are even some with three stars on their uniforms, sitting in their typical locked cars, all parked at the corners,” said the woman.

Two blocks away there were also two buses full of repressors dressed in civilian clothes. “When the people who were on the street saw them arrive, they went running away in the middle of the darkness, and they couldn’t catch them. State security arrived with two “cage” trucks. What the repressors brought was disproportionate, because among those who protested were many old people and minors.”

This newspaper found that several of the bosses dressed in uniform were looking at the videos of the protest on Línea Street on their mobile phones to locate the places where it had been strongest and try to identify the participants. Several of them were reviewing on Facebook the transmissions of the demonstration and the closure of the avenue, and guiding themselves by those images to deploy the operation of agents dressed in civilian clothes.

Protests also took place on 31st Avenue, in the municipality of Plaza, for the second consecutive night. In a video posted on social networks, you can see dozens of people advancing along the road and pushing back the vehicles that are trying to cross through the crowd. From the neighboring houses, entire families are heard banging on pots and pans and shouting their support of the demonstrators.

41st Avenue, also in the municipality of Playa — one of the most affected in Havana by power outages — was the scene this Saturday of another popular protest very similar to the one led by its residents last Friday. The protesters made a chorus shouting “Freedom!” and filled the avenue between the corners of 42nd and 44th streets.

Several of the neighbors confirmed to this newspaper that they again saw young military-service recruits deployed, dressed in civilian clothes and holding sticks, as a group for confronting the protests. The same thing was also reported the night before and confirmed by the family and friends of these soldiers, who were taken in trucks and buses from their military units.

In Nuevo Vedado, a cacerolazo echoed in the vicinity of the Ministries of Agriculture and Transport, where several tall buildings remained without electricity on Saturday night, five days after the passage of the hurricane. Just after the night’s nine o’clock cannon shot* sounded, the cacerolazos began to be heard and lasted for more than two hours.

The residents of the area, which is made up mostly of buildings with more than ten floors, suffered not only from the lack of power but also from the difficulties in carrying water up the stairs to the upper floors. During the cacerolazo, there were also shouts demanding the return of power and addressing the dismal economic situation.

“I don’t have money to buy food!” a woman of a twelve-floor building on Santa Ana Street, between Estancia and Factor, shouted at full volume. “I have just had surgery; my daughter has dengue fever, and we have nothing to eat!” she added. The woman complained that no state entity had helped her in that situation and concluded her speech by emphasizing: “I’m through with the Revolution!”

“The child who doesn’t cry doesn’t get the breast,” another neighbor of the building known by its acronym ICRT (a building built in the 1980s by a microbrigade of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television) told 14ymedio. “We’ve been without power for five days because in this neighborhood people haven’t gone out to protest like in others. It’s about time for us to wake up because all of Havana is going to have light except us.”

“This is a neighborhood where there are many government supporters, many officials and many opportunists,” the same man explained to this newspaper. “People are afraid to point it out but the cacerolazo has the advantage that it can be done from inside the house and stay more anonymous. That’s something to start with.”

#URGENTE #SOSCuba Salen a la luz imágenes de la #represión al pueblo durante las protestas en #Cuba. ¡Comparta! Manténgase informado con https://t.co/i96XEerLyS pic.twitter.com/o3KEJmFjzC

— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) October 2, 2022

The cacerolazo in Nuevo Vedado extended to other nearby areas that also remained in the dark, as part of the municipality of Cerro and the vicinity of Puentes Grandes. Around four in the morning this Sunday, electricity service was restored in the area around the Ministries of Agriculture and Transport.

The reporters of this newspaper have also received reports of protests in Bauta, a municipality in the province of Artemisa, in Santiago de Las Vegas and in Guanabacoa, both in the province of Havana. In the latter, the popular demonstrations included the burning of garbage and other objects in the middle of the public road, scenes very similar to those with hundreds of residents in the area, also last Saturday.

Some Twitter users report the arrest of at least four young protesters on Línea, when it seemed that the protest had ended.

*The tradition of shooting off a cannon at 9:00 p.m. every night at the El Morro fortress in Havana goes back to colonial times, when it signaled the closing of the gates in the wall to protect the city from pirates.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Padilla case, or the ‘Generous’ Terror of the Cuban Revolution

A frame from The Padilla Case by Pavel Giroud

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 28 September 2022 — I was finally able to see The Padilla Case, Pavel Giroud’s film that brings to light a disconcerting, devastating historical archive. The original material remained hidden in the vaults of the Castro regime for half a century, until now. And it’s urgent that we look back at that unburied corpse, because it’s not about ancient history, but about an urgent topical issue.

Many already knew the details of that meeting at the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) in April 1971, where Heberto Padilla revealed the Stalinist character of the Cuban Revolution. But seeing the images, observing the gestures, listening to the tone of self-criticism, contemplating the panic in the eyes of those present and feeling the sweat on the poet’s shirt, is an extremely shocking experience.

They say that Mario Vargas Llosa himself, after seeing it, confessed that he regrets not having seen the material when Padilla was still alive, because he would have embraced him and told him: “Now I believe you.” Others have stated that, with materials like this exposed to light, history will not be able to absolve Fidel Castro in any way.

I was in shock for several seconds at the end of the film. Pavel is a renowned Cuban filmmaker who had already triumphed with titles such as Tres veces dos, [Three Times Two] La edad de la peseta [The Age of the Peseta], Omertá or El acompañante [The Accompanist]. And in this last installment he turns the documentary genre into something different. It’s as if we were dealing with a thriller, a spy movie, a horror drama, an archaeological adventure. His talent for editing allows him to transform an archive filmed in an elementary way into something absorbing, fast-paced, disturbing. Beyond the testimony, Pavel gives us a work with a high cinematic aesthetic and a screen setting of something alive and current. continue reading

What happened in that room of the UNEAC was much more than a warning: it was a collective suicide. The Cuban union of writers, artists and intellectuals emasculated itself, put on its own gags , let itself be violated by a system that spilled all its authoritarian semen into the creative belly of a generation, to force it to give birth to the New Man.

Seeing the faces of those who attended that meeting is quite a spectacle. Recognizing Reinaldo Arenas among the crowd, contemplating a Virgilio Piñera who refuses to applaud, noticing the indifferent yawn of Nancy Morejón… How many of those attendees were paralyzed by fear for lives? How many started suffering from Stockholm syndrome? How much poetry died suddenly that night?

Even today, a part of the intelligentsia still has that absurd romance with a stagnant and dying Revolution. Some still believe, as García Márquez did at the time, that Cuba is a battering ram for which everything must be forgiven, in pursuit of I don’t know what utopia, like the submissive wife who endures the blows of her husband in the name of a sick love. Until when?

The protagonist of the film is neither a traitor nor a martyr. He’s a chip in a game that he cannot win or lose, a game that would leave him out, irremediably, as in the title of his book. Was Padilla sending messages to the future? Was his performance useful? Was it ethical to stab himself in front of everyone and stick a knife into the back of his friends, even if they were forewarned? Did he know how to read the world’s signs? Did he act out of cowardice, sarcasm or the ego of transcending when he was grateful for the “generosity” of the Revolution?

The Chilean writer and diplomat Jorge Edwards said that Padilla felt untouchable, because the Revolution had an image to show to the European left. But State Security would be in charge of showing him that no one escapes revolutionary terror. The poet was arrested, taken to Villa Marista, locked up, threatened, humiliated, forced to publicly self-flagellate, and what? García Márquez admitted that Padilla’s indictment did even more damage to the Revolution than his own confinement, so? The regime’s hand does not tremble when it decides that it’s time for heads to roll. No one is safe; no one is considered untouchable; no one will have clemency.

How important it is that this material is exhibited right now! How urgent it is to definitively tear the veil off those who continue to defend a mafia that hides behind the word “Revolution”! Thanks to Pavel Giroud and his team for this work, which is already essential for Cuban cinema and for Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Havana Blames Airlines for the Cancellation of Flights Between the United States and Cuba

“Most of the planned flights were carried out,” ECASA said in a statement.

14ymedio, Havana, 2 October 2022 — After the cancellations, on Saturday, of most of the flights between the United States and the Island, the situation has normalized, and all the airports in the national territory are operating, according to the Cuban Company of Airports and Airport Services S.A. (ECASA). “Recovery actions are being carried out in the facilities after the passage of Hurricane Ian,” reported the official newspaper Granma.

The same publication assures that an “effect on the technological systems that support the check-in service for passengers,” caused delays the previous day; although, it adds, “most of the planned flights were carried out.” The operations canceled were due to “the decisions of the airlines,” which provided information to passengers.

These cancellations generated discomfort among travelers and their relatives, who expressed their dissatisfaction through social networks and didn’t seem convinced by ECASA’s explanations. For his part, one of the regime’s spokespersons on Cuban Television, Humberto López, denounced an alleged “fake news campaign from Miami, that airports in Cuba were closed, when in reality all operations were working — slowly but working.”

Arturo Mesa, a friend of one of those affected by these cancellations, for which Havana is responsible, commented that the airlines didn’t provide any support to travelers who arrived at Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports to travel to Cuba. On Facebook he detailed that his acquaintance, who “came with 140 pounds of gifts, animal medicines and some donations for Viñales,” had to return home with all his luggage. The companies “didn’t pay him for a hotel or transportation” even though he lives far from Miami. continue reading

Mesa told Humberto López: “The lack of information is forgiven. The lie is despicable and has very short legs.”

Many users of Cuban airports pointed out that the power generation plants in the terminals were insufficient: “They give power for 20 or 30 minutes and then it goes away.”

According to Granma, this Sunday “the check-in system has already been restored, providing totally normal service. There has been no impact on the rest of the systems,” the official report concludes.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Family Steals a Boat From Cuba’s Port of Mariel to Try to Get to the United States

In the picture, a pilot boat in the port of Mariel. (Facebook/Naivi DRguez)

14ymedio, Havana, 26 September 2022 — Last Friday, a family of Cubans stole a boat belonging to the Cuban government from the port of Mariel, with the aim of leaving the country and heading to the United States. According to Daniel Calvo, a resident of Miami, he has no details of how they stole the boat; the only thing he knows is that his brother Evelio left with family members and that “there are many minors.”

Calvo told journalist Mario J. Pentón his worry about the lack of information about his brother, who stole the boat. “I don’t know what happened. Nothing is known so far. The Government of Cuba says nothing, and neither does the United States Coast Guard.”

State Security agents, Calvo said, are creating rumors about the event. Among the accusations that the Cuban political police are spreading are that the Island’s coast guard chased the boat, then returned it to the place where they usually maintain it, and that the crew members were taken to the Villa Marista prison.

However, relatives haven’t been able to confirm any rumors. “What I believe is that they were rescued by the American Coast Guard, who themselves returned the boat,” Calvo confided. “In any case, we fear for my brother’s life. This is not the first time this has happened in Cuba.” continue reading

Calvo expressed his fear that his brother and the people who went with him will be punished by the Cuban government, and as has happened on previous occasions, “they use violence to punish those who try to leave the country in this way.”

People remember that fateful April 11, 2003, when Lorenzo Copello, Bárbaro Sevilla and Jorge Martínez were found guilty and sentenced to death for the crime of terrorism, while seven other detainees were sentenced for participating in the attempted hijacking of the Baraguá ferryboat, which was making the journey between Regla and Old Havana, in order to reach the United States.

Cuban lawyer Laritza Diversent detailed that in the legal process that was followed against Copello, Sevilla and Martínez “there was a complete violation” of their rights. “The judges who signed the sentence, and the intellectuals who expressed their approval in a document that was made public at the time, managed a tremendous injustice,” she told Radio and Television Martí.

Copello, Sevilla and Martínez were shot nine days after their arrest. Ramona Copello, mother of one of the defendants, revealed to the same media that the families of the young people were never notified of the sentence. “A colonel told me on Thursday that we had to wait for the papers to come down from the Council of State; however, the next day, Friday, they woke up dead,” she said.

The flight of Cubans by sea has not decreased despite the hurricane season. According to figures for the fiscal year that began in October 2021, the number of 6,052 rafters intercepted in their attempt to reach the United States already exceeds the total of the previous five years. In 2017, they arrested 1,468; in 2018 there were 259; in 2019, 313; in 2020, 49; and in 2021, 838, according to official figures.

On Monday, the Border Patrol reported that last weekend, 50 Cubans were placed in custody after making landfall in Key West. The three improvised boats in which they arrived in Florida endangered their lives, Officer Walter Slosar warned.

The data are even more alarming if one considers that in the year since last October, 180,000 Cubans have entered the United States by land, and that record does not into account those who have emigrated to Europe and Latin America.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban baseball player David Mena, Traveling to the United States From Nicaragua

Cuban pitcher David Mena is heading to the United States, where he plans to settle in Miami. (Twitter/@daniel_malas)

14ymedio, Havana, 26 September 2022 — David Mena Justiz is the fifth Cuban baseball player to leave the Island in order to reach the United States on the Nicaragua route since September 8. The specialized media Swing Completo published this Sunday that Mena, along with 40 other people, is at a border crossing point between Mexico and the United States.

The player plans to settle outside Miami, although his intention is to stay in baseball. He still doesn’t know if he will be able to make the step to professional in the Major Leagues or will look to develop some other role, the publication says.

The intentions of the 29-year-old from Yimurí to make a career in a major league team are not new. Two years after his debut in the National Series with the Industriales (2011-12), he left the Island for the Dominican Republic, but that long-awaited contract didn’t arrive, and he had to return to Cuba.

With a strong temperament and a forceful straight, Mena was good enough to stay in baseball. Industriales allowed him to return to the field, and after two seasons he joined the Matanzas team. “His arrival at the Crocodiles couldn’t have been more timely. He alternated as a starter and closer in the squad that under the direction of Armando Ferrer won the title,” said journalist Yasel Porto.

During his stay in Matanzas, the name of David Mena Justiz appeared on the roster of European teams. He even had the possibility of joining the ATMA, one of the five teams that at that time were playing in Division A, the name of the Ukrainian baseball league, but due to issues related to the flights, the hiring didn’t materialize, according to Cubalite. continue reading

After his stay with Matanzas, he returned to Industriales where he achieved a no-hit no-run game. In eight National Series, his record was 21-25 with 16 games saved.

Last Friday it was the third baseman of Matanzas, Jefferson Delgado, who arrived in the United States. With experience in 15 National Series, in 3,179 turns at bat, he connected for 1,038 hits. Outstanding among these connections were 43 home runs, 134 doubles and 17 triples. He also drove home 477 runs and scored 500, maintaining an offensive line .327/.402/.420.

The native of Villa Clara was received by his cousin, Liana Martínez, as published by “La Familia Cubana” on Instagram.

Before Mena and Delgado, Granma’s pitching coach, Ciro Silvino Licea, left Cuba to get to Houston and reunite with his family. He is joined by the captain of Avispas, Adriel Labrada, and the Mayabeque player, Juan Carlos Hernández.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The IACHR Asks to Visit Cuba to Review the Situation of the Ladies in White

Berta Soler, leader of the opposition women’s movement Ladies in White. (EFE/Giorgio Viera)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Washington, 1 October 2022 — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) requested this Friday that Cuba approve a visit to the country to review the situation of the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), to which the agency granted precautionary measures almost ten years ago.

The Cuban government, the IACHR alleges in a resolution, has not delivered to the organization a response that “indicates that it has been taking measures to protect the rights” of the members of the group. This is the first time that the IACHR has asked Cuba for a visit in person within the framework of precautionary measures.

The Ladies in White collective, made up of relatives of dissidents imprisoned by the government, has been subjected to harassment, death threats, house searches and arrests by state agents since the protection mechanism was granted in 2013, according to the document.

The IACHR explains that it has requested information from the Cuban state about the situation of the group at least four times in the last ten years and has not received a response, so it asks to “assess the situation of the beneficiaries” with a visit in person. continue reading

The commission’s request is disclosed almost two weeks after the opposition group’s leader, Berta Soler, was arrested — and released hours later — by State Security agents during the fourteenth arrest on the Sunday marches held by the women so far this year.

The Ladies in White, who founded the group in 2003, decided to march again on Sundays, after the pause imposed by the pandemic, to demand the release of the detainees in the mass protests that the Island experienced in July last year.

An “in situ” visit by the IACHR must be approved by the Cuban government, which has not allowed the agency to enter the country so far. The last time the commission was in a country was in January 2020, in Chile, as a result of the social explosion in the nation. In the same year, the IACHR tried to visit Venezuela, an ally of Cuba, but the government of President Nicolás Maduro banned the commission from entering the country.

Cuba is not part of the Organization of American States, having been expelled from the organization in 1962.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Dollar Reaches 198 Pesos in the Informal Market, an Historic Record

Economists warn that the dollar will soon exceed the threshold of 200 Cuban pesos. (EFE)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 1 October 2022 — The exchange rate in the informal market in Cuba is about to break the psychological barrier of 200 Cuban pesos (CUP) per dollar, and without expectations that the national currency will stop depreciating, according to economists consulted by EFE.

This exchange rate is the highest in the Island’s recent past. Even in the so-called Special Period of the 1990s — after the fall of the Soviet bloc — this price was not reached.

The informal market, the most important on the Island, is where many people stock up on dollars before leaving in the current wave of migration. Since October 2021, more than 180,000 Cubans have arrived in the United States, a record number.

Two weeks ago, an official press release predicted that the dollar would exceed the level of 200 pesos and pointed out that “you don’t need to be a guru” to infer that the migratory stampede would further depreciate the national currency as the demand for dollars grows.

“It is a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Cuban Pavel Vidal Alejandro, associate professor at the Javeriana University of Cali (Colombia), in an interview with EFE. “There’s a total lack of credibility in the Cuban peso, and there are no monetary policies to reverse the situation,” he adds. continue reading

Although the depreciation was already evident since 2021 — the year in which the largest economic reform in recent years, known as the Ordering Task*, came into force — the plummeting of the peso actually originated this August.

Just a year ago, the dollar was at 65 pesos in the informal market. Ten months later, on August 1, at 115 pesos. Just two months later, on October 1, it depreciated almost 80 more, up to the 198 pesos marked this Saturday by the index published daily by the independent media El Toque.

This newspaper found on several excursions that the dollars were running out soon, and the hard currencies began to rise like foam on the black market. After the entry into force of the rule, Cubans made long lines to acquire the greenback at the exchange houses (Cadecas), where there was even a deployment of state security.

At the beginning of August, the Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil, announced that the State would buy foreign currency from natural persons, a measure designed to attract foreign currency in a scenario of crisis in tourism, which collapsed with the COVID pandemic.

Gil specified that the purchase would be based on an exchange rate five times higher than the official one — from 24 Cuban pesos (CUP) to the dollar, established in the Ordering Task — at levels similar to those of the informal market at the time (around 120 CUP).

Twenty days later, Gil made another announcement: the Government would also sell foreign currency, although with limitations. The objective, he explained, was to strengthen the peso and displace the buying and selling of dollars on the street.

The experts consulted agree in describing the measure as erroneous, which showed the fragility of the State in the face of the informal market. Since then, the peso has fallen dramatically.

“The State became one more applicant and a competitor (for hard currency)” that couldn’t win the game against bidders with better prices, economist Tamarys Lien Bahamonde tells EFE.

Also, Cuban economist Elías Amor shares the diagnosis and adds: “At the time they set the new rate, the agents (on the street) increased the value to maintain their customers, and that’s normal. It’s called competition.”

Amor considers that one of the root problems was to place the rate at 24 to 1 in the Ordering Task: “That rate was pulled out like the rabbit from the hat.”

“It was a miscalculation from the beginning, and one the Central Bank of Cuba couldn’t support with hard currency as high as had been established,” he says.

The implementation of the limited official foreign exchange market dragged down a currency that had been losing weight in the daily lives of Cubans, who have also seen a stable safe-haven value in the dollar, experts point out.

But above all, analysts warn of an increasingly normalized phenomenon in the country: the social division between those who have foreign currency and those who do not.

Bahamonde recalled that not all problems can be attributed to the foreign exchange market implemented by the Government. The economist stressed the role of the controversial stores that charge in foreign currency – known as stores in Freely Convertible Currency (MLC), which opened in 2019 and are occupying more and more space in the retail market every day.

“The Cuban peso must be left as the main currency of the country. There is a dilemma: to end or not with the MLC (and stop accessing foreign currency) to save the peso,” Bahamonde adds.

Another alarm signal is the amount of pesos in circulation, because the increase favors inflation, another of the current problems of the Cuban economy.

The increase in prices was officially 13.40% in the first half of the year, although independent analysts have placed it above 100%.

The three experts agreed that the dollar will continue to increase in the short term. “Surely (the rate will reach) 300, especially by the end of the year,” Amor said.

Vidal, on the other hand, did not give an exact figure but made it clear that “200 will not be the limit.” Bahamonde was more cautious and limited himself to pointing out that he sees “no possibility of containment of the rise in the exchange rate.”

*The “Ordering Task” is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Hurricane Ian Brought Down Almost All of Cuba’s Tobacco Warehouses in San Juan y Martinez

One of the many tobacco sheds that fell in San Juan and Martínez, Pinar del Río, after Ian’s passage. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 30 September 2022 — The tobacco disaster in the municipality of San Juan y Martínez, in Pinar del Río, leaves alarming figures. As of Wednesday, 151 of Tabacuba’s 155 tobacco storage sheds had totally collapsed. They store the leaf that is grown in the locality, considered the tobacco mecca of the world, and which serves as raw material for the production of cigars.

“As of the 20th of this month, 4,110 tons of tobacco had been collected. Another 157 were in the hands of 67 producers, and the current state of that harvest is not exactly known,” Yosvany López González, the manager of Tabacuba’s analysis department in San Juan y Martínez, told the official press.

The official explained that in the Tabacuba warehouses there was a total of 5,681 tons, including this year’s harvest, the last season’s, in the process of production, and one that is finished. In addition, the Empresa Rama has 152 tons.

Of the 27 warehouses that were reviewed, 15 are completely destroyed, seven have a damaged roof and there are two that have partially collapsed. In addition, the town’s 38 curing houses are on the ground, and, of the 28 curing sheds, half fell completely and the other half partially. There are also five fermentation chambers in San Juan and Martínez to improve the dry tobacco: all of them have a broken roof. continue reading

More numbers for the horror: Of the 1,792 curing sheds that belong to producers, 1,739 collapsed, and 8,400 parcels of land have been lost.

“You have to build thatch roofs as soon as possible and transfer the tobacco there,” said the official, who has prioritized the rescue of the product as soon as possible.

The tobacco disaster joins the general state of the province, whose damage was evaluated this Thursday at a meeting, which warned that 100% of the area is without electricity, with the exception of the homes that had generators. The Electric Union of Cuba already has at least 520 workers in Pinar del Río from different areas of the Island to support the reconstruction of the lines.

The linemen of Cienfuegos are working on the repair of two damaged circuits in a well near La Coloma, which is not working like many others due to the lack of electricity. Those who arrived from Sancti Spíritus, on the other hand, continue with the breakdowns of the Abel Santamaría Cuadrado and León Cuervo Rubio hospitals. In addition, other arrivals from Villa Clara work on the connection of Consolación del Sur with the Paso Real substation, in Los Palacios.

At the meeting it was also reported that generators would be used to supply polyclinics, hospitals, well pumps and bakeries, in addition to watertrucks, known as pipas, to distribute water among the population.

The list of damage is endless in the province, which was hit by Hurricane Ian this Tuesday at 3:30 in the morning with winds of more than 125 miles per hour. As of yesterday afternoon, almost 2,953 people were still evacuated, most of them in the homes of family and friends, with the exception of 778 who are in state centers.

Schools and health centers have also suffered their own damage. There are 425 educational facilities affected, of which 396 are schools. The official press says that the provincial Directorate of Education is among the most affected, along with nine municipal directorates, eight municipal warehouses, six “palaces” of pioneers and five camps.

Medical offices and polyclinics in all the municipalities have suffered damage, in addition to other losses in the Third Congress hospital and a nursing home.

Of businesses, 164 have total roof collapses, 136 have partial ones, 18 were completely destroyed, and there were 19 collapses of doors and windows. In addition, the wall of the Corojo swimming pool in San Luis fell down completely, and there is damage to seven funeral homes, two cigar factories, two canteens and three cemeteries.

Communications with Pinar del Río are almost impossible. From the editorial offices of 14ymedio, we have tried to contact, through mobile and fixed telephones, our collaborators in the province without managing to, to date. However, users on social networks warn that the images shown in the official press don’t reflect the extent of the disaster in the area.

Relatives of residents of La Coloma have been asking for more information about the real extent of the tragedy for days and say that there are few videos broadcast by Tele Pinar that really show the rubble and the flooded homes reported by their families.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Technicians are Trying to Restore Electricity in Cuba, at ‘Total Zero’ Since Last Night

In the middle of the blackout, the illuminated windows of the Habana Libre hotel and the wasted power in the construction of Tower K stand out, at dawn this Wednesday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 28 September 2022 — In the midst of absolute darkness on the Island, Cuban Television, in a special report at midnight this Wednesday, updated information about the general blackout, from which only citizens who had electric generators were spared. The technical director of the Electric Union, Lázaro Guerra, explained that the thermal power plants Lidio Ramón Pérez, in Felton, and 10 de Octubre, in Nuevitas now had started up, and he postponed a new report until 7:30 this morning, but the tone was not excessively optimistic.

The engineer explained again, in terms that were too technical for the population, the progress to solve the absence of electricity generation that was triggered last night, when the system was fractured “in the western, center and eastern links” and decompensated to the point of generating “total zero.”

Guerra explained that in order to recover the National Electrical System, each of the three systems must be restored separately to finally unite them. In this sense, the eastern area had already improved at midnight, but “every time it was integrated, the opposite happened in the western one.” The specialist explained that with the distributed generation (generators and other small sources of energy), there began to be enough voltage to start Felton 1 and Nuevitas, and he predicted that electricity could soon return to that region. continue reading

In the central area, the situation is also relatively encouraging, since the combined-cycle plant in Varadero managed to start. But the problem is in the west, the area most damaged by Hurricane Ian, where there are breakdowns due to the strong winds and rains left by the storm.

“The process is going to be more complex, because you have to recertify the circuits that were overloaded and restore the load in parallel,” Guerra explained. According to him, in the western region, work would be done all morning to try to get the Tallapiedra power plants, in Havana; Máximo Gómez, in Artemisa; and Santa Cruz, in Mayabeque, up and running as soon as possible.

“Mariel is complicated, because of the wind and water, and you have to heat the whole plant. It should be incorporated tomorrow at some point,” said the Minister of Energy and Mines, Liván Arronte, who also spoke and didn’t have good news for that region.

“We have tested some circuits and the engines have been fired. We haven’t had many results in Havana; every time we manage to have an engine in service and connect it with the load, the circuits shut down, so we have to check every now and then,” the minister said.

However, both agreed that on Wednesday all the power plants should be able to start, although it remains to be seen if the entire network can be stabilized.

“When we have a system in the three regions, we will be able to synchronize everything,” Guerra said. “The fundamental thing is to get to the large thermoelectric plants to begin the start-up process,” Arronte said.

The start-up process for the thermoelectric plants is being carried out with distributed generation, which, although scarce, speeds up the process, according to experts. That information allowed the journalist to make an invocation. “This was the idea of the unforgettable commander-in-chief Fidel Castro Ruz, put once again in this very complex situation,” he reflected aloud, passing the microphone to the engineer, who ignored the comment and continued with the technical details.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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