Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 127

Three Coyotes Who Demanded $15,000 From Relatives of Cuban Rafters Are Arrested In Order To Free Them

Last Tuesday, the Coast Guard intercepted a boat with Cubans who were allegedly being transferred to Florida by coyotes. (Twitter/@USCGSoutheast)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 19 September 2022 — Didier Pérez Pérez, Lester Leyniel Soca Díaz and Yoandy Alonso, arrested last Thursday, are accused of belonging to a human trafficking network that was transporting Cubans by sea to Monroe County, Florida (USA), where they were kept kidnapped in a house in Hialeah, until their relatives paid $15,000.

A grand jury in the Southern District of Florida has charged them with “conspiracy to transport and hold foreigners for profit; transportation of foreigners for profit; conspiracy to commit hostage-taking; and hostage-taking.”

According to details of the indictment, to which the Spanish agency EFE had access, the facts of which they are accused happened from August to the beginning of September of this year, and “other people, both known and unknown participated in them.”

The indictment also mentions the existence of two affected, identified only as victim 1 and victim 2, who were held and whom their captors threatened to “injure” or “kill.” According to information from the working group on the control of drugs against organized crime, in charge of the investigation, “migrants were even told that they would be left in the middle of the ocean if they didn’t pay their smuggling debts.” continue reading

According to the U.S. authorities, with the capture of Pérez, Soca and Alonso, the network of coyotes was dismantled and the Cubans could be rescued thanks to a “friend of one of the kidnapped, who served as a hook and agreed to pay the 15,000 dollars. They summoned him to a spot for the exchange of the hostage.”

The coyotes, who will have to stand trial, if found guilty could be sentenced to a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum of three years of probation, as well as fines of $250,000.

The indictment provides for the confiscation of boats, vehicles and planes that may have been used to commit the crimes charged.

Properties that are acquired, directly or indirectly, from the commission of the crimes and those used to commit them will also be confiscated.

The existence of these coyote networks has been exposed in some cases. Boxer Andy Cruz saw his escape frustrated due to the denunciation made by Rolando Céspedes, The Prosecutor, a man who has been in the business of the departure of athletes for more than 10 years and has contacts in immigration in Cuba. This individual had warned the athlete that his departure should be managed with him in exchange for a large sum; since the athlete didn’t agree, he was denounced.

Last Wednesday, Víctor Manuel Ríos Castillo, 29, a resident of West Palm Beach, and Jorge Luis Fernández Rodríguez, 53, a resident of Tampa, were arrested. The first was accused of attempted smuggling of people and the second of illegally transporting fuel.

Ríos admitted that he had planned to go to Cuba to transfer migrants. Since October 2021, when the current fiscal year began, more than 177,000 Cubans have arrived by land in the U.S. and more than 5,000 by sea, a migration crisis that surpasses those of 1980 and 1994 together.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

The United States Will Resume All Its Services to Issue Immigrant Visas in Cuba

These efforts are “a key step” to fulfill the commitment made by the United States under the Migration Agreements with Cuba. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, September 21, 2022 — The United States Government announced on Wednesday that at the beginning of 2023 its embassy in Cuba will resume all its services to issue immigrant visas, for the first time since 2017.

According to a statement, with this measure, the United States “announces the expansion of the usual ways available to Cubans who want to come to the United States and an increase in the staff of the U.S. embassy” on the Island.

Washington explained that immigrant visas provide people who are eligible to apply for them with a “safe and orderly” migration route.

“This change will also eliminate the need for Cubans applying for immigrant visas in categories of family preference to travel outside Cuba to Georgetown, Guyana, for their interviews,” the U.S. government said.

At the same time, the U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS) are increasing their staff in Havana to “effectively and efficiently” process cases and conduct interviews.

On September 1, the United States embassy in Cuba began processing pending applications for the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program (CFRP), suspended since 2017. continue reading

The program was initially launched in 2007 under the mandate of President George W. Bush (2001-2009) and provides a legal way for Americans and legal residents in the United States to claim their family member within Cuban territory.

The program was suspended ten years later by the Donald Trump Administration (2017-2021).

In its statement on Wednesday, the U.S. Government explained that these efforts are “a key step” to comply with the commitment made by the United States under the Migration Agreements with Cuba to ensure that the total legal migration from the island to U.S. territory is a minimum of 20,000 Cubans each year, not including direct relatives of U.S. citizens.

And it pointed out that the State Department continues to consider further expanding its visa services in Havana if conditions permit.

Since the arrival of Democrat Joe Biden to the U.S. Presidency, the U.S. embassy resumed issuing visas for migrants last May after a four-year break.

In addition, his government suspended the limit of $1,000 quarterly on remittances and authorized the travel of groups destined to make contacts with the Cuban people, known in English as people-to-people travel.

Last June, the embassy extended the visa process for immediate family members.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Cuban Writer Carlos Alberto Montaner Will Be Honored for His Defense of Democracy

Carlos Alberto Montaner will move to Spain in October. (Cubanet)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, September 20, 2022 — The Cuban writer, essayist and journalist Carlos Alberto Montaner, one of the most relevant critical voices of exile, will receive recognition this Tuesday in Miami for his defense of democracy and freedom, a tribute that the author himself described to EFE with humor as an “uproar.”

“It will be an emotional and multitudinous farewell of very close friends before my trip in October with my wife to Spain,” where Montaner (b. Havana, 1943) will settle permanently and plans to conclude the writing of his next book.

Montaner was very grateful to the Inter-American Institute for Democracy, its executive director, Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, and Beatrice Rangel, the people who “plotted” this tribute and award, even if they didn’t request his agreement, he said ironically.

Several guests will join in the tribute, which will be opened by the former mayor of Miami, Tomás Regalado, to the intellectual stature and human dimension of Montaner, who also has Spanish and American nationality.

The Argentine Gerardo Bongivanni, president of the Libertad Foundation, will address the ethical and political commitment of the Cuban in his presentation entitled “Carlos Alberto: The Freedom Fighter,” and Iliana Lavastida, director of the Diario Las Américas, will speak about the “Cubanness” of Carlos Alberto. continue reading

Gina Montaner, daughter of the novelist and politician, will bring the public closer to the figure of Carlos Alberto, the father, and Rosa María Payá, daughter of the Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá (1952-2012), who died in an accident in Cuba that, according to the family, was “an attack caused by officials of the Castro regime,” will talk about Carlos Alberto, the mentor.

“It’s a tribute to Montaner’s career, which earns him the most important award of this institution to which the writer has been linked for years,” Berzaín told EFE, about the Francisco de Miranda prize for the defense of freedom and democracy that will be given to Montaner on Tuesday at the Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, in Miami.

Once in Spain, the Cuban intellectual will conclude the writing of a story that delves into the lives of one of Karl Marx’s three daughters, Laura, and her husband, Paul Lafargue, who, injected her and then himself with hydrocyanic acid [considered a “suicide pact”].

“I’m going to finish this book about Lafargue, who was really Cuban, since he lived until he was 11 years old in Cuba and then went to France. My theory is that he killed Laura before committing suicide in 1911,” said Montaner, the 2010 Juan de Mariana Prize winner in defense of freedom.

Montaner’s first vocation, that of a storyteller, has been successfully shown in novels such as Perromundo (1972) and La mujer del coronel [The Colonel’s Wife], the latter a story of a failed love, loaded with strong eroticism and with the Cuban totalitarian regime of macho traits as a backdrop.

Among his important essay work, described in his bibliography, is the Manual of the Perfect Latin American Idiot (1996), the bestseller he published together with Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza and Álvaro Vargas Llosa, in which he caustically portrays the collectivist ideologies of the Latin American left and its elites.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Cuba Will Seek to Attract More International Visitors Through Ecotourism

The authorities inaugurated the XIII International Nature Tourism Event on Tuesday in Havana. (EFE)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 21 September 2022 — This Tuesday, in Havana, the Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero inaugurated the XIII International Nature Tourism Event, which will aim to diversify offers for tourists on the Island.

The event, suspended for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be attended by personalities from 19 countries, as well as different tour operators, according to the organizers. The purpose, they pointed out, will be to promote ecological and adventure destinations in the country.

In that sense, Marrero pointed out that Cuba must leave behind the image of being only a “sun and beach” destination and that, to achieve this, it will have to “continue to promote” other formats, such as ecological tourism. “We still have to improve in many things,” he admitted.

The Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, pointed out that the country is concentrating “all its energy to recover” the levels of pre-pandemic international visitors and that ecotourism is a “global trend” that will help reach that goal.

The Government has set itself the goal of reaching 2.5 million visitors this year, and although Marrero himself questioned the possibility of achieving it this May, he has finally ended up joining the official discourse and believes it is feasible to reach the projection.

According to the latest available figures, the number of foreign travelers reached 834,891 visitors as of July, leaving 1,665,000 to be achieved for the last five months of the year. continue reading

Looking at the first half of the year, the comparison with respect to 2021 is a growth of almost 500%, but the number translated into 682,297 travelers. In 2019, by that date, 2.6 million people had already arrived in Cuba to spend their holidays.

During his speech, Marrero denounced the “media campaigns” against tourism on the Island, alluding to the constant criticism of the Cuban diaspora against the opening of the sector.

“Why is it that campaigns against Cuban tourism are unleashed every now and then? (…) Isn’t that what the development of tourism in this country promises to break precisely with the blockade and this crisis?” he asked.

However, from the very pages of the official media, the readers and sympathizers of the Communist Party themselves are reproaching the Government for continuing to invest strongly in the same sector — which also isn’t experiencing its best moments in terms of visitors — while the population lacks light and food.

“Currently, the occupancy rate of our tourist facilities is around 14%. Meanwhile, we continue to build new hotels, instead of investing in energy, road and agricultural infrastructure,” lamented a commentator last week in Cubadebate.

According to data published by the National Bureau of Statistics and Information, a third of the State’s investments during the first semester went to business services, real estate and rental activities, which include hotels and tourism, totaling 31.7 billion pesos.

Meanwhile, only 830 million pesos were dedicated to agriculture, livestock and forestry, and 225 million to fishing.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

In Plaza Carlos III, an Identity Card is Required to Buy a Quarter of Fried Chicken

Some of the first forty customers this Wednesday, sitting and eating their quarter chicken. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 14 September 2022 — Forty people and forty identity cards, not one more. The crisis in the markets has made the leap to state cafeterias, and even in the cafeteria of the popular Plaza Carlos III, in Central Havana, it’s already impossible to sit normally and eat a quarter of fried chicken. The restaurant has decided to limit the sale, and, as if it were just another ration store, customers are obliged to identify themselves so as not to “monopolize” the 350 grams of chicken that the place sells for 37 pesos.

The line to buy fried chicken in the central place was a hive of people this Wednesday when a man, dressed in a T-shirt that identified him as “security,” went out to organize the line and ask customers to present one identity card per person, because he was only going to allow forty to enter.

Immediately the pushing and fighting began, epic for a reward as scarce as a piece of chicken. Or two, if the one you get is small. “No way you’re going here,” one said. “I’ve been here for hours,” shouted another. “You’re not going ahead of me,” a third party argued. Meanwhile, the guard continued to stop the tumult with his hand up.

Carlos III Plaza is known as the great palace of consumption in Havana and is the largest shopping center after Cuatro Caminos. Its location, in Central Havana, and its aesthetics, with a characteristic circular ramp winding through the structure, has made it since the ’90s one of the most prosperous and crowded shopping centers in the Cuban capital. continue reading

Dollarization had turned the old market that sold meat, each time more withered, into a place with establishments of all kinds, from shoe stores and perfumeries to hardware stores or clothing stores. The ground floor, with restaurants, was so busy that the neighbors complained about the sale of alcoholic beverages and fast food, which was crowded with people wanting to have fun and eat something different.

Now, fallen from grace, it barely has two stores in national currency and a supermarket in pesos where only the residents of Central Havana and part of El Cerro can buy as a result of the municipalization of commerce that the Government imposed in April of this year. The rest are shops that take payment only in MLC (hard currency) and a few restaurants with minimal offerings. The only fuss occurs when the cafeteria, called El Patio, begins to sell its famous fried chicken, the only food that can now be eaten on site.

Luckily, this Wednesday the first forty were not the only fortunate ones. The cafeteria again accepted another quota of forty when the first group had finished. Until the chicken ran out.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Picheo Coach Ciro Silvino Licea and Three Other Players Leave Cuba

As a player, Ciro Silvino Licea was a leader in pitching in 23 National Series. (ZONA DE STRIKE)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 September 2022 — Former Granma pitcher and pitching coach Ciro Silvino Licea has left Cuba. Last Thursday, the player took a flight at Havana José Martí International Airport bound for Nicaragua, from where, according to journalist Francys Romero, he undertook the journey to the U.S.

The departure of this athlete from the Bayamo municipality was surprising, because he was part of the squad of coaches of the Agricultores team, which in October will play in the Elite League of Cuban baseball. Licea’s absence from Friday’s training made it clear that something was wrong with the team led by Carlos Marti.

The report indicated that the player, who participated in several Cuban teams for more than 10 years, hopes to meet again soon with his wife, “who had also left the Island two months ago.” A relative of the athlete confirmed the crossing, in addition to specifying that his “family, his wife and brother-in-law are in Houston,” Texas.

Licea was a leader among the pitchers in 23 National Series with 208 games won in 3067.1 innings, where he had 1,887 strikeouts with an average of 3.69. He pitches “a difficult slider to hit and a straight of more than 90 miles with a repertoire that over the years was improving,” he recounted on Facebook in Deportes por Modesto Agüero [Sports by Modesto Agüero].

continue reading

Licea’s departure is in addition to that of Adriel Labrada. The former captain of the Avispas team surrendered to the U.S. authorities in Texas after crossing the Rio Bravo through the state of Coahuila, as reported in Swing Completo.

Before Labrada, on Saturday, September 10, Matanzas’ natural right pitcher, Alain López, arrived in the U.S. This young man was able to achieve his dream thanks to “the family claim way” and settled in Florida, said Francys Romero.

López was a “an effective leader in the 2019-2020 National Youth Championship with Matanzas. He participated in nine victories of his Matanzas team in the last National Youth Championship,” published the portal, Béisbol FR!

A day before López set foot on U.S. territory, it was confirmed that the Cuban Juan Carlos Hernández had arrived in Miami. The former Mayabeque player left the Island and took the route of Nicaragua from where he began his journey until he reached the Mexican city of Piedras Negras, in Coahuila. After 25 days, he was able to cross the Rio Grande.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

The Massive Migrations of Castroism

One of the boats intercepted by U.S. authorities. (Twitter/@USBPChiefMIP)

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 17 September 2022 — El Instituto de la Memoria Histórica Cuba contra el Totalitarismo y Plantados hasta la Libertad y la Democracia en Cuba [The Cuban Institute of Historic Memory Against Totalitarianism and plantados (political prisoners) for Freedom and Democracy in Cuba] recently organized a conference on the different migratory waves driven by Castroism, which was coordinated by businesswoman Carmen Gómez de Toro, with the participation of several people who told their dramatic experiences.

During the event, the solidarity of the Cuban exile was highlighted through the work carried out by the Miami Medical Team, el Hogar Cubano de Caracas [the Cuban Home of Caracas] and the la Casa de los Balseros de Cayo Hueso [the House of the Rafters Key West]. They emphasized that the regime has resorted to all possible ways to expatriate its citizens.

The dictatorship has used emigration as a political and economic instrument since it took power in January 1959, causing, due to the insecurity that was established in the country, the first massive migratory wave in the history of Cuba and, later, by the systematic repression associated with an abhorrent material and moral poverty.

That first wave of exiles ended in 1962. It was mainly composed of a significant number of government officials of the overthrown Fulgencio Batista regime and the majority of the ruling class, businessmen and professional sectors, who never trusted the revolutionary proposals. In addition, there was the peculiar “Operation Peter Pan,” a contingent of 14,000 young people and children taken out of the Island in a large humanitarian operation with the assistance of different charitable organizations in the U.S. and pro-democracy activists, some of the latter of whom ended up in prison. continue reading

The second exodus, in 1965, was made from Camarioca, near Varadero. Closing that boarding point, Washington and the dictator negotiated the departure of Cubans through an airlift. Between 1965 and 1973, the so-called Freedom Flights transported about 300,000 people, with two daily flights for five days a week, all paid for by the U.S. at a cost of 12 million dollars. It was “the largest air operation to transport refugees in the history of this great nation.”

Before being allowed to leave Cuba, many of the participants in this group had to work in the Johnson and Jacqueline Brigades*, a punishment imposed on those who wanted to leave Castro’s paradise. These people, regardless of their qualifications, had to work in the fields and cemeteries until they received their exit permits.

A particularly cruel migratory current was the Mariel Boatlift. This scandal placed the Castro regime in the place it deserved, because people kept voting with their feet. The emigrants were humble people, some educated under totalitarian power.

Some scholars attribute the motivation for a large part of the population to leave the country to the visits of Cubans returning the Island in 1979, banned by the regime for almost two decades. The fact is that the income forced from foreign diplomatic headquarters in Havana increased, the most scandalous of all being that of the Embassy of Peru, an event that led to the Mariel exodus.

The events of Mariel moved the country and further split society. The most orthodox henchmen of the dictatorship, following orders, organized massive rallies of repudiation, humiliating numerous people and injuring many, who, when they visited hospitals to be helped, saw more than one doctor deny them assistance. The repudiation rallies, known since 1959, became more cruel and popular than in the Castro past.

At the end of the 1980s, the inexhaustible exodus created a new tide known as the Rafter Crisis that reached its climax in 1994. Thousands of people left the country on rustic and fragile rafts that, curiously, the authorities watched being built without preventing it, when in the recent past they had sunk boats with refugees, throwing sandbags at them from helicopters. The number of missing on these journeys is incalculable, and the late Arturo Cobo made a wall of mourning to remember them in the Home of Key West.

In the 21st century, the cravings for freedom paired with material needs continue to motivate Cubans to leave their island, with the U.S., for the majority, the final goal. In 2022 alone, more than 140,000 Cubans have entered this country, overcoming infinite hardships.

*Translator’s note: See more here. Partial auto translation: “They were forced to work in jobs outside of their usual duties, mostly in agricultural work for shifts that averaged 14 or 16 hours a day. These individuals were compulsorily housed in barracks that were in terrible sanitary conditions. Surveillance and control in exchange for recognition of the right to leave the country, they served a sentence that fluctuated between three and five years.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

A Russian Oil Tanker, the Third Since July, is Heading for Cuba with 700,000 Barrels of Crude

The Kazan loaded 700,000 barrels in the Baltic port of Primorsk, bound for a refinery in Havana. (Vessel Finder)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 September 2022 — Shipments of crude oil from Russia to Cuba are becoming more frequent. The Transsib Bridge had barely arrived in Matanzas when an oil tanker of the same company, the Kazan, loaded 700,000 barrels in the Baltic port of Primorsk, bound for a refinery in Havana, according to data from Refinitiv Eikon, released this Thursday by Reuters.

The ship is expected to arrive at the end of this month. It travels with the flag of Liberia and belongs to Sun Ship Management, a unit of the Russian company Sovcomflot, which has been sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, and has lost the insurance of Western companies for its fleet.

The owner is the same as that of the Transsib Bridge, which arrived last Wednesday in Matanzas to unload an undetermined amount of diesel. The tanker left the port of Nakhodka (Russia) with 300,000 barrels and, after passing through the Panama Canal, docked in Cartagena (Colombia). Although it didn’t unload anything in that port, it could be carrying some cargo to another ship, so how much arrived on the Island is unknown.

In July, another Russian tanker, also from Sovcomflot and with the flag of Liberia, arrived at the port of Matanzas with 700,000 barrels of fuel, coming from Ust-Luga. continue reading

Russian fuel is fundamentally contributing to alleviating the energy distress that the Island is currently experiencing, although it’s still insufficient for the needs of Cuba, which this Friday again announced a 42% electricity deficit.

The Electricity Union expects a generation capacity of 2,100 MW and a maximum demand of 2,980 MW for today, but in the afternoon-night it will reach its peak, when 950 MW are missing.

It’s expected, therefore, that the blackouts and power outages will continue unresolved, since thermoelectric power plants continue to suffer constant exits from the National Electricity System, and the energy obtained through generators is also limited due to technical reasons and lack of fuel to power them.

Venezuela continues to send oil to its traditional ally and last August reached 81,000 barrels per day, an amount that hasn’t been recorded in years, motivated mainly by the increase in the production of the state oil company Pdvsa.

Despite international sanctions, Russia is increasing sales to Cuba exponentially, although it’s unknown how the Island pays for this crude oil that, in principle and the opposite of Venezuela, reaches market prices.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

About Revolutions and an Unburied Corpse

The peaceful demonstrations of July 11, 2021 were crushed by brutal repression. (Image Captura)

14ymedio, Ariel Hidalgo, Miami, 18 September 2022 — That Unburied Corpse that they call “Revolution”* is the title of a small book by the author of this article, ready to be published, about Cuba and its destiny at a transcendental moment of its becoming, that of the turbulent transition to a new Cuba that begins on July 11, 2021, when peaceful demonstrations in cities in all the provinces were crushed by brutal repression. And their motivations have been embodied in an appendix to that book: the Manifesto of Cuban Civil Society, a text that is being signed by hundreds of Cubans.

The demonstrations represented what is generally known as the beginning of a “revolutionary process,” such as those that begin under a regime in terminal crisis, and conclude long after the triumph of the opposition, when radical transformations are made in the structures of society. This stage of transformation is what is generally known as revolution, defined by the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language as “a deep, generally violent, change in the political and socioeconomic structures of a national community.”

A revolution can be a positive transformation for the progress and improvement of a country, but it can also bring greater misfortunes than those that led to the beginning of the revolutionary process. So it can be said that not all revolutions are bad and not all are good, according to everyone’s perspective.

The revolutionary process begins before the collapse of the old regime and also covers the revolution itself, which begins with the triumph of the opposition and ends when the new economic model has finally been established with all the institutions of that new social system. In Cuba, that process ended more than half a century ago, in the 1960s, so it makes no sense to continue talking about that “revolution” in the present time.

But a new revolutionary process is what has begun in Cuba at the dawn of the ’20s of the 21st century. A process always begins when all the conditions are in place for change, not only the objective ones; that is, a deep crisis in every way, but also the subjective ones, when the population has become fully aware of the vital need for change, and that’s what happened on July 11, 2021. continue reading

Generally, the process begins with a shocking event like the one that occurred on that date, which was not only the result of the beginning of that awakening, something that could already be noticed months earlier with the events of San Isidro and the sitting in front of the Ministry of Culture, but is, at the same time, the cause of a large part of the population also awakening, so, although almost always at first glance those initial facts of the revolutionary processes are seen as a failure, deep down they have important consequences for the final victory.

If we analyze the revolutionary process of the fifties, for example, we see that something similar happened with the assault on the Moncada barracks that was a disastrous defeat from the military point of view, but that gave popularity to its leader and inspired many others who created similar movements, such as that of Frank País in the eastern zone, the Student Revolutionary Directory of Havana and others. Also in Venezuela, chavismo began with a failed coup attempt. In all the aforementioned cases, that first attempt sent many of the participants to prison, but then they emerged as key figures in the transformations that were carried out in the country.

We could even mention the rise of Nazism in Germany, since at the beginning of the 1920s there was great unrest among the population, both because of the economic situation and because of the humiliation imposed by the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. Hitler tried to carry out in 1923, in the name of a supposed “national revolution,” what became known as the Munich putsch, which failed and sent him to prison. What happened next is well known.

It will not go unnoticed that all these examples mentioned from the past culminated tragically for their respective populations. If we analyze all these cases, we will realize that they all had one thing in common: they came to power through violence, something that contrasts with other cases. In the definition cited by the Royal Spanish Academy, revolution is “generally violent,” which means that it doesn’t always have to be so. Neither the struggle of the Solidarity Movement in Poland, nor the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia made use of violence, and we see that they didn’t lead to dictatorships.

Why? A prominent human rights defender in Cuba who was a prominent leader of the Student Revolutionary Directory and who later spent more than twenty years in Castro prisons, Jorge Vals, drew this conclusion in his memoirs: “I came to convince myself that violence necessarily involves tyranny; through armed struggle, the revolutionary becomes a puppet of a series of interests that may have nothing to do with the revolution or can even conspire against it.”

In 17th century England there were two revolutions, one violent (1642-1648) that led to a long period of instability, dictatorships and wars; and another peaceful one, the so-called Glorious Revolution, begun in 1688, which gave rise to the Declaration of Rights, the antecedent of other historical declarations such as that of the U.S., that of France and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the UN, and the constitutional monarchy, a model so stable that it has lasted to this day.

The Cuban dissident movement never made use of violence. The demonstrations on July 11 were peaceful, and they have continued to be peaceful. Violence, in today’s Cuba, has always been started by the repressive forces, not the opposition. And that’s one more reason for hope.

*Translator’s note: The published title of the book appears to be “El Libro Prohibido: La realidad oculta tras eso que llaman ‘Revolución Cubana'” (The Forbidden Book: The hidden reality behind what they call the ‘Cuban Revolution’). A laudatory review of the book (in Spanish) can be found here. A click of your browser should suffice to translate the review to English.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Cuba’s New Family Code: Affective Domestic Partnerships: Neither Married Nor Spouses

The code establishes prohibitions, and none of them alludes to the fact that it’s forbidden to marry people of the same sex. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar (Desde Aquí), Havana, 18 September 2022 — Although the term “spouse” etymologically only means to be attached to the same yoke, the Family Code, about to be submitted to a referendum, is reluctant to call those who are affective de facto “couples.” Those who drafted the law seem to believe that by saying “spouses,” they are now talking about men and women.

That’s why the first definition of the term “marriage” is “the voluntarily concerted union of two people with legal aptitude for it, in order to live together, on the basis of mutual affection, love and respect” and specifies: “it is based on free consent and on the equality of rights, duties and legal capacity of the spouses.”

The code doesn’t establish requirements for celebrating a marriage, but prohibitions, and none of them allude to the fact that it’s forbidden to marry people of the same sex. However, nothing has changed, and those Cuban citizens of the same sex who want to formalize their relationship have to resort to the other concept that precedes the spouse: “an affective domestic partner.”

It’s enough to consult Article 305, which says that “by reason of marriage” conjugal states are defined as single, married, divorced and widowed, but when “single” is mentioned, it specifies “those who have not formalized marriage, even if they are in an affective de facto union, instrumentalized or not.” In case there are any doubts, Article 318 makes it clear that neither the instrumentalization nor the registration of a de facto union creates a new marital status. continue reading

Another difference between the two processes (marriage and the instrumentalization of de facto union) is that married people are not required to have spent a previous time of courtship or to have been married for a while to exercise the rights set forth in the Code; however, for the affective de facto union to have the expected legal effect, its members must, among other requirements, “maintain a permanent common affective life project for at least two years.” (Article 308).

There are sufficient reasons to point out that the “rights won” in this Code by people who choose to live with those of the same sex are inferior to those enjoyed by heterosexual couples.

Although their marital status is defined with the category of singles, when they want to appeal to marriage, then they are no longer so single, because they cannot do so if they do not first dissolve their affective de facto union in the corresponding registry. The Code does not include a provision that allows those who have formed this type of union to receive “marital visits” in prisons, nor is this link considered as an element that makes it easier for a foreigner to obtain the right to reside in the country.

If finally the referendum considers the Family Code valid, it’s possible that we will witness notary ceremonies where those who come to instrumentalize their de facto union dress themselves as in a wedding. It’s not ruled out that after having signed the rigorous documents, the friends who accompany them demand that they kiss, that there be photos, the exchange of rings and even a convertible that whisks them off to enjoy a long-awaited honeymoon. But there was no marriage; they will not be married; they will not be spouses, at least under the law.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

A Cruise Ship Rescues Eight Cubans in a Raft Made with Barrels and Air Chambers

Cuban rafters are rescued in their attempt to leave the Island, which is experiencing one of its worst economic crises. (Instagram/USCG)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 September 2022 — A group of eight Cubans were rescued last Wednesday night by the cruise ship Scarlet Lady, when they were trying to cross the Florida Straits in a small, makeshift raft.

A couple on board the cruise ship, coming from Cozumel and bound for the Bahamas, spotted a raft built with water barrels and air chambers, moved by a blue plastic canvas sail.

My partner and I were among the first to see them say hello. If you look closely, the youngest woman, possibly about 20 years old, is lying on the deck, and a man next to her holds a homemade intravenous bottle. She was injured and was wearing a cast,” one person wrote in a post accompanied by the video where Cubans are seen adrift.

Three hours after the rescue, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) was in charge of the transfer of the migrants. The couple said they didn’t know what happened to them, but “fortunately they received food and treatments.”

The Border Patrol in the South Florida sector also rescued 26 Cuban migrants stranded last Friday in Marquesas Keys, an uninhabited U.S. island west of Key West, Officer Walter Slosar reported. In another operation carried out that day, several people jumped into the water in an attempt not to be arrested, but were finally rescued. continue reading

The U.S. Coast Guard records that between October 2021 and September 2022, 5,689 rafters were intercepted, but this week alone more than 230 were repatriated in different operations.

For the Cuban virologist based in Brazil, Amílcar Pérez-Riverol, the huge upsurge of rafters trying to leave the Island is a “migration catastrophe.” At this rate, 2022 will be the year with the most migrants detained by the authorities since 2016, when 5,396 were intercepted.

The statistics indicate that the migratory exodus already surpasses the 1980 Mariel Boatlift (125,000) and that of the 1994 Rafter Crisis (35,000) together. Pérez-Riverol believes that those who consider that this situation is not serious are “wrong” when they see it as “thousands of more remittances” for the Island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Cuba Ratifies Its ‘Will’ to Continue the Political Agreement with the European Union

At the center, the diplomatic representative of the European Union in Cuba, Isabel Brilhante, and the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez. (Twitter/@BrunoRguezP)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 16 September 2022 — The Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, ratified this Friday the “will” to continue with the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (ADPC) with the European Union (EU) by receiving the ambassador of the community bloc in Havana.

Rodríguez published the images of the meeting at the headquarters of the Chancellery with the diplomatic representative of the European Union in Cuba, Isabel Brilhante, and added, via Twitter, as he usually does, without further details: “We confirm the importance we attach to Cuba-EU relations and the potential that exist in various areas.”

Cuba and the Twenty-seven relaunched their relations in 2016 with the signing of the ADPC that put an end to 20 years of the so-called “common position,” which was much tougher against the Havana regime. In any case, the pact is conditioned by the EU on the situation of human rights and democracy on the Island.

The negotiations between the Cuban government and the EU were tense last March, after the representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, reiterated the call “to respect human rights and freedoms,” to which the agreement is subject, in theory. Nor was it a good sign that the European Chancellor demanded that “all political prisoners” be released on the Island.

“The EU is following with great concern the sentences in Cuba against people involved in the events of July 11 and 12 [2021],” Borrell said on behalf of the Twenty-seven. continue reading

In response, the Cuban foreign minister “strongly” rejected Borrell’s statements and affirmed that the European bloc lacks “moral authority to make value judgments about the Cuban reality.”

Rodríguez said at the time that the EU “should deal with its own problems and the frequent human rights violations in its member states.”

The EU has defended the right to demonstrate and asked Havana to listen to the demands of its citizens who say that the trials don’t comply with international standards and ask the Cuban regime to allow European diplomats to attend them.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Cuban Exiles Will Not Be Able to Vote on the Referendum on the New Family Code

There is a structure to vote outside Cuba, but only members of diplomatic and state missions can exercise their rights. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 September 2022 — Cuban emigrants will not be able to participate in the referendum on the new Family Code, despite the fact that the Government has disguised this exclusion by stating that it has 1,000 polling stations and 124 constituencies abroad.

In the official TV program Mesa Redonda [Roundtable] airing this Thursday, the president of the National Electoral Council, Alina Balseiro Gutiérrez, explained that there is a structure to vote outside Cuba, where members of “diplomatic and state missions” can exercise their rights, but she avoided mentioning whether Cuban exiles could go to the Cuban consulates.

The president of the Special Electoral Commission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gustavo Machín, was also ambiguous in speaking to the Prensa Latina agency about preparations for the “embassies and missions abroad.” According to Machín, diplomats will not be the only ones able to participate, all those who fulfill “official” assignments, such as doctors, teachers and others will also be able to vote.

Like Balseiro, Machín ignored a chance to speak about the possibility of exiles going to the polls, although he did have time to point out that there are 640 polling stations in Venezuela alone, which, according to the figures offered by Balseiro, represents more than half of the 1,000 available in the rest of the world. continue reading

The Island’s consulates and embassies have spread official propaganda about the new Family Code, but they don’t offer practical information on whether Cubans living abroad can vote.

Characterized again and again by the Government as “a broad, democratic and contributory process,” the referendum repeats the electoral strategy of 2019, when emigrants were also prevented from deciding whether or not to accept the new Constitution of the Republic.

That year, several Cuban diplomatic delegations circulated the same message: only members of the missions could vote in the embassies; Cubans who resided abroad and wanted to contribute their vote should present themselves “directly” to their electoral district on the Island.

The impossibility of exercising an inalienable right over Cuban law has led to the creation of several electoral initiatives outside the country that, although they aren’t binding, will constitute, according to their promoters, a first step in the right to vote.

With this purpose, the organizations DemoAmlat and Transparencia Electoral have organized an electronic voting platform. The objective, according to the official website of DemoAmlat, is to be “an exercise in citizen participation” that allows exiles to express an opinion.

The vote is scheduled for September 25, between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., at the same time as the Cuban referendum. Likewise, with the voter registration, they propose to establish “a register of Cubans residing abroad.”

This final record of voters in exile has led to controversy between those who allege the usefulness of the inventory and those who believe that it could become an instrument for espionage by State Security.

Cuban activist Félix Llerena was one of those who defended DemoAmlat’s initiative on Twitter, characterizing it as “a first step in organizing ourselves as a diaspora.” However, other users have described the registry as “something very dangerous,” because it’s a compilation of names whose vote the Government will not consider valid, but which will be useful for the profiling of opponents in exile.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

A Poisoned Referendum on Cuba’s New Family Code

“The only propaganda on public billboards, television spots and the front pages of newspapers is directed at a Yes vote of approval.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 15 September 2022 — There are about ten days left before the third referendum promoted by those who have been governing in Cuba for more than 62 years. The first occurred in 1976, to approve the first Constitution of the Republic drafted by the Communist Party; the second, in 2019, when the Constitution that governs today was submitted to the consideration of the electorate; and the third, which will be held on September 25 of this year, for the Family Code.

I exclude from this list the collection of signatures to approve the amendment of the Constitution in the summer of 2002, where the concept of the irrevocability of the socialist system was introduced. That, a maneuver by Fidel Castro to counteract the Varela Project, was not a referendum because there was no option of marking NO on a secretly-filled ballot that was deposited in an urn.

None of the aforementioned consultations has been preceded by a debate where dissimilar opinions emerge. Voters have only relied on the arguments of those who have prepared these texts. Everything different that citizens have been able to hear or read has been restricted to some religious temples and access to social networks and independent media which are the victims of permanent censorship. The only propaganda on the public billboards, the television spots and the front pages of the newspapers is directed at a Yes vote of approval.

This constitutes an act of ideological violence comparable to that suffered by those enrolled in a sect, on whom the opinion of a leader is imposed. It doesn’t matter if the imposed postulates are noble or evil. What’s perverse is the abolition of options. continue reading

Rights, no matter how long they have been violated, shouldn’t be submitted to a referendum. Neither the abolition of slavery, women’s right to vote, or the use of public services without racial discrimination, to give just three examples, had to wait to be approved at the polls. The inclination that human beings have to relate intimately and live as a couple with another human being should have as a restriction only that the will of the other is not violated and that both are in a position to exercise it. It’s a right.

The inclusion in the Code of what has been called an “affective de facto union instrumented in notarial proceedings” and which is interpreted as the legal acceptance of “equal marriage” not only finds followers among the LGBT community, but in all those who recognize themselves as free thinkers. The other points that have been most disputed are the replacement of the concept of “parental authority” by “parental co-responsibility,” the legalization of surrogate pregnancy and the granting to minors of a progressive autonomy that has been seen as a threat to parental authority.

The Family Code partially satisfies some sectors of the population and at the same time alarms others. There are even those who are content with some aspects and frightened by others. People with disabilities, grandparents or women who want to defend the right to have an abortion will be motivated to approve the Code to receive its benefits, but they will have to pay the price of accepting the other articles even if they contradict their religious beliefs, customs or prejudices.

In order not to lose the custom, in case the Yes obtains the majority, it will be exposed as “a victory of socialism, a confirmation of the people’s support for the Revolution and Fidel’s legacy.” That is also ideological violence.

It’s a pleasure that many dissatisfied Cubans, even those who agree with most of the articles of the Code, won’t want to concede to the regime. The curious thing is that those who are on the other side, where the unconditional militate and the macho, authoritarian and homophobic abound, will have to be disciplined, swallow the liberal concessions and mark a cross on the yes grid.

I dare to predict that this exercise at the polls will leave a record of abstentions and that, if imposed, will be processed in the official media as proof of “our democracy,” never as a defeat of the dictatorship.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Cubans Will Be Able to Import Raw Meat and Other Vacuum-packed Foods

The meat must be properly vacuum packed, otherwise it will be confiscated and incinerated. (CC)

14ymedio, Havana, 14 September 2022 — Cubans will now be able to import fresh meat, sausages, seafood and other foods, as long as they are vacuum-packed for travelers and individuals, according to a resolution released on Tuesday by the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Center for Animal Health. This document relaxes a previous provision, published in August, that prohibited the import of several products whose entry will be allowed from now on.

According to the text, “facilities” will be provided to anyone who brings to the Island any meat in a fresh, frozen, dehydrated and semi-finished state, such as hamburgers and picadillo, on the sole condition that they arrive correctly sealed and identified.

Sausages such as ham, chorizos and salami may be imported, but temporarily, if they are in the same packaging conditions.

Authorization will be maintained for the entry of preserves of any kind, including those of marine products, milk powder, UHT fluid milk (processed at high temperatures) and dairy desserts, as well as pasteurized mature cheeses. continue reading

The entry of unpasteurized milk and dairy products, as well as meat “from wildlife” in any form of conservation, is still “absolutely” prohibited. The purpose of maintaining this restriction is to “avoid the introduction of biological agents that cause diseases harmful to domestic animals, wildlife and man in the case of animal transmission.”

The Ministry of Agriculture also provides a list of “eligible countries” from which these items can be imported, which “could be modified in relation to changes in the animal health situation” of the places of origin of the food.

The countries, whose name must appear clearly on the product label, are Spain, the United States, Portugal, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.

If a traveler brings products “whose packaging suffers some breakage or deterioration,” the text provides for their immediate confiscation and incineration.

The new regulation seeks to alleviate the food shortage in Cuba, which is now immersed in a crisis of large-scale agricultural production. The scarcity and difficulty in finding food, rising inflation and the need to resort to the foreign exchange market, both state and informal, make the food issue one of the most delicate for the population.

This measure is taken weeks after the Government issued a Food Sovereignty Law. The legislation then promised to “produce food in a sustainable way and give the entire population access to sufficient, diverse, balanced, nutritious, harmless and healthy food, reducing dependence on external means and inputs with respect for cultural diversity and environmental responsibility.”

The regulations implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture not only contradict the text on food sovereignty, but also continue to seek abroad the solution to the food problem of Cuba, a country that imports about 80% of the food it consumes.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: