The Cuban dissident Nelson Molinet Espino during a discussion. (ICLEP/Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana, 11 August 2023 — Former Cuban political prisoner Nelson Molinet Espino, 59, was found dead in Florida, where he had lived for years, after disappearing for several days, according to his good friend Normando Hernández, general director of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and Press and announced on Facebook this Friday.
“Cuba is in mourning. Unfortunately, I inform you that the prisoner of conscience Nelson Molinet Espino, who had been missing since Monday the 7th, was found dead inside a car in Hallandale (Broward County, Florida),” Hernández wrote along with two photographs of the dissident. “Our deepest condolences to your family. May God welcome him in his glory,” he added.
The opponent Ángel Moya also expressed regret for the departure of Molinet Espino. “The patriot, a member of the group of 75, has died.” “Dismayed by tragic news,” he added, “the brothers of cause… who reside in Cuba, express our heartfelt condolences to the relatives of the former Cuban political prisoner and exile in the United States.”
Molinet Espino, an independent union activist sentenced to 20 years in prison during the 2003 Black Spring, went into exile in 2010 after seven years in prison. He was one of the 52 dissidents who accepted, under pressure from the Cuban regime, to go into exile in Spain. continue reading
The release of the dissidents in 2010 were the result of a dialogue initiated by the Archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, and the mediation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain at the time, Miguel Ángel Moratinos.
Nelson Molinet Espino, who on the Island was the president of the Conference of Democratic Workers of Cuba, was sanctioned in a summary trial full of irregularities. He lived in Miami for more than 10 years.
The dissident’s daughter, Karen Molinet, in statements to América TeVé this week, said that her father, for the years he was imprisoned and after leaving Cuba, “began to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder,” in addition to “loss of memory and inability to communicate well.” The last time he was seen before being reported missing had been last Monday near Hialeah.
CUBA IS IN MOURNING. Unfortunately, I inform you that the Prisoner of Conscience of the Group of 75, Nelson Molinet Espino, who had been missing since Monday the 7th, was found dead inside a car in Hallandale. Our deepest condolences to his family. MAY GOD WELCOME HIM IN HIS MOST HOLY GLORY
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Daniela Rojo, in the image she disseminated on her social networks after hearing the news of the granting of her asylum in Germany. (Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana,11 August 2023 — Activist Daniela Rojo, who left the Island with her two children a little more than a year ago after receiving pressure and threats from State Security, could not contain her emotion this Thursday, when she was granted asylum by Germany.
During this time, she told 14ymedio by phone, they were in four different shelters for migrants. The first was in Frankfurt, where they arrived on May 15, 2022. From there they were transferred to Bavaria, where they were in two centers. In one of them, Rojo was able to work on the cleaning team. After six months in that shelter, they were moved to where they are now, in Nuremberg, in a larger and better maintained center.
It has not been easy, she tells this newspaper, while confessing to having spent months “with a lot of depression and loneliness”: “The process was very hard, especially because of the culture shock, to see how people live in this country and to be so limited by not knowing the language, for not understanding the culture and how things are here.”
The best thing was that “many Cubans arrived, and with them I found support, a family to turn to.” One of them was the rapper Denis Solís, whose arrest and summary trial triggered the strike of the San Isidro Movement in November 2020. Others were relatives of Andy García Lorenzo, one of those sentenced to prison for demonstrating on July 11, 2021 in Santa Clara.
All of them, like Rojo, applied for asylum in Germany. Now, with this news, says the young woman, “they have been very excited and happy, because it sets a legal precedent for the granting of asylum to them as well.” continue reading
Upon arriving in Nuremberg, Rojo’s children have been able to start going to school, and she herself has already taken German classes, although not official courses, which she will be able to access from now on. “With this change of status I already have many more possibilities, state aid, access to work and integration courses,” she says, excited.
The young woman was a moderator of the Archipelago platform and an architect in Guanabacoa of the initiative for the march called for November 15, 2021 throughout Cuba. Since then, she was one of the members who suffered the most harassment and threats from State Security.
Rojo was kidnapped by the political police and spent five days in a house of the Ministry of the Interior in the custody of several agents shortly before the peaceful protests called for November.
In addition, for participating in the 11 July 2021 (11J) demonstration, she spent 23 days in prison. The young mother was accused of public disorder and contempt, both common crimes, for which the Prosecutor’s Office requested five years in prison. She was released after paying 2,000 pesos for bail.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The procedure can be done through an email, in the different channels of the Ministry of Labor. (mtss.gob.cu)
14ymedio, Madrid, 10 August 2023 — The countdown to the increase in the contribution of self-employed and cooperative members has begun and adapts to the new prices that arrived as a result of the Ordering Task.* Between October and December, all such workers must participate in the special social security regime that was approved in 2021 for entrepreneurs who own micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and to which they must contribute beginning in September.
Those affected consulted by 14ymedio will see what they must pay increased by approximately eight times compared to the present terms, with the contribution increasing to a minimum of 20% of the selected base, from the current 2000 pesos to a maximum of 9,500, depending on the benefits chosen.
Decree law 48, of August 6, 2021, included a single transitional provision that left a two-year moratorium on self-employed workers and members of cooperatives that were previously constituted and taxed in accordance with the scale established in the 2010 and 2012 rules. These workers could make the change before, if they wished, but as of this September, the modification will become mandatory.
Beginning next month, workers have the entire last quarter to request the procedure, and it can be done through an email, modificarbc@inass.gob.cu, which can be found on social media accounts of the Ministry of Labor. The form with the necessary information must be attached to that email address. continue reading
It will not longer be necessary for workers to go to the offices to complete the procedure. In fact, they don’t even need to do it if they want to contribute at the minimum basis. The Ministry explains that the change will be made ex officio for the minimum amount, 2,000 pesos, if the interested party does not request it.
*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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Diosdado Cabello with Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Communist Party of Cuba. (@aylinalvarezG/Twitter)
14ymedio, Havana, 9 August 2023 — Both the official Cuban and Venezuelan press have been secretive about the visit to the Island of Diosdado Cabello, the second man in the regime of Nicolás Maduro and the United Socialist Party of that country (PSUV). However, his tour this Wednesday through the port area of Mariel, where Venezuela will build a facility to store fuel, and his conversation, on Tuesday, with senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, show that his trip is not limited to a meeting “between parties.”
Also meeting with the senior staff of the Cuban Communist Party – with the notable absence of its first secretary, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel – the vice president of the PSUV went on Tuesday to the Cubanacán protocol hall, located in the luxurious El Laguito complex in Havana, to sign an agreement with his counterpart, Roberto Morales Ojeda.
However, Televisión Cubana did not offer details about the content of the document, and Cabello limited himself to saying that his objective is to “institutionalize a willingness to approach prior to issues related to the preparation of political cadres and joint work.”
The cameras also did not capture the conversation, also in the protocol room, between Cabello and Ricardo Cabrisas, head of Foreign Trade on the Island and one of the architects of the regime’s economic policy. Only through a video of the Venezuelan politician Ángelo Rivas, retweeted by Cabello, can it be verified that both senior officials spoke – accompanied by two delegations – although it is not known what issues they discussed.
A brief text of the official program Con el mazo dando*, directed by the vice president of the PSUV, revealed that on Wednesday Cabello was in the Mariel Special Development Zone, to “exchange experiences in economic matters.” There he met with Ana Teresa Igarza, director of the complex, and discussed several “possibilities of business and economic agreements.” continue reading
Among the joint projects of Havana and Caracas in Mariel is, according to the program, an “area for the production, storage and distribution of fuel,” which will be dedicated to “agricultural development and food production.” On the tour of Mariel, Cabello was accompanied by Morales Ojeda.
Venezuela also pledged a year ago to rebuild the Matanzas Supertanker Base, which suffered the largest industrial disaster in the history of the Island in August 2022. “Cuba knows that it has our scientific, technical and engineering workers’ support,” Maduro said in statements reported by Prensa Latina. “Contact the oil and energy authorities of Cuba to begin the reconstruction design of the Supertanker yard in Matanzas,” he ordered.
Despite the fact that, in the political field, Havana and Caracas maintain an unquestionable attachment, oil shipments to Cuba – the most coveted asset for Havana since 2000, when Caracas became its main supplier – have been tending to decrease for a few months. However, and as the plans for the future storage of oil in Mariel testify, the exchange remains an essential component of the alliance.
The Venezuelan senior official landed on Monday in Santiago de Cuba with a delegation that includes several vice presidents. The surprising trip provoked suspicions among the opposition to the Maduro regime, which is increasingly trying to shield itself on the eve of the 2024 elections.
Several opponents denounced that Cabello was on the Island to receive “guidelines” and instructions to liquidate anti-Chavista politicians such as María Corina Machado, one of the most critical voices within the current government.
Former political prisoner and exile Jorge Vergara said that Cabello – whom he accuses of organizing “constant threats” against Machado – “went to plan with his Cuban leaders some kind of atrocious act to stop María Corina and everything she is doing at the national level.” He also asked Venezuelans to “take care” of the former deputy, so that the same thing did not happen to her as did to the Cuban Oswaldo Payá, for whose death, according to a recent report by the Organization of American States, the Cuban State is responsible.
Cabello visited several historic places, such as the cemetery of Santa Ifigenia – where Fidel Castro is buried – and the Moncada barracks, assaulted 70 years ago. During his speech at the cemetery he made it clear that the alliance between Caracas and Havana remains: “Cuba and Venezuela continue to have the same flag,” he summarized.
*Translator’s note: A shortened version of “a Dios rogando y con el mazo dando” — roughly: Pray to God but keep rowing, or God helps those who help themselves.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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14ymedio, Havana, 9 August 2023 — Yoana Echenique, known as Mirry, was stabbed last Monday in the city of Pinar del Río, allegedly by her partner Luis Daviel Palacio García, El GuiGua, as reported on Facebook by several acquaintances of the victim. Profiles linked to the Cuban regime were later confirmed on the same social network.
“Everything went very fast, and despite being a few meters from the Pedro Borrás Polyclinic, she died quickly,” said the Facebook page De Canallas y sus Canalladas attributed by the Cuban ruling party, which also specified that Palacio García was arrested on the spot, very close to Colón park in the capital.
“Those present did not hesitate to call the police, and they arrived quickly. With the people’s help, the murderer was arrested a few minutes after the incident,” they added.
People close to the victim also specified that the femicide, the 55th recorded by this newspaper so far this year, occurred in Echenique, in a bookstore where she worked as a cleaner, and the murder was witnessed by co-workers. continue reading
The independent platform Yo Sí Te Creo. which registers this type of sexist violence, announced at the end of July that it was stopping its work until September 1, “as part of self-care for its members.” Since then, it has not reported on any other femicide occurring on the Island.
The last one confirmed by the activists was in the middle of last month, when Ruselay Castillo Matos was murdered on July 18 in Cárdenas, Matanzas. According to the observatory, the 31-year-old woman, a resident of the town of Humberto Álvarez, was murdered by her partner. Castillo, a housewife and a native of the town of Santa Marta, was the mother of two teenagers.
A few days earlier, the platform verified the murders of Leidy Mariam Durruty García in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque; Rosmery Ponce Peña, 23, in the municipality of Güines, Mayabeque; and the death of Adela Verdecia, 30, who was murdered in Jovellanos, Matanzas, on June 26.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The Mario Muñoz sugar mill is located in Los Arabos, Matanzas, and is one of the most important in the country. (Girón)
14ymedio, Havana, 11 August 2023 — The Matanzas Court sentenced a security guard of the Mario Muñoz sugar mill to four years in prison for being involved in the theft of three sacks of sugar, the official press reported on Friday. Since April, another 12 factory workers have been sanctioned, most of them for complicity and conspiracy in the robberies.
According to the provincial newspaper Girón, the 23-year-old security guard received a payment of 3,000 pesos for giving access to the mill to a group of criminals who stole 150 kilograms of refined sugar with a value of 1,88.90 Cuban pesos, at the official price. The name of the guard and the thieves, as well as the date of the event, were not revealed.
One of the directors of the mill who was walking through discovered the misdeed and alerted the authorities.
Thanks to the ” lack of criminal record, collaboration and good behavior,” the guard was sentenced to the minimum penalty for the crime (four years), which he will have to serve in a center of the Ministry of the Interior. continue reading
The court warned that the penalty is not yet final, since the accused can appeal to the Supreme Court for disagreement. The sentences of the rest were not appealed.
Another dozen cases of theft (61%), robbery with force and illegal appropriation of state media and products have occurred throughout 2023 in the same mill, considered by the media as one of the most important on the Island. Seven cases involved industry workers who stole sugar, sometimes with external help, during their shifts.
The provincial media said that five were sentenced to prison, and the remaining seven were given a combined penalty of jail, home confinement, correctional work without imprisonment and fines for the value of the stolen product.
The Matanzas authorities consider that the crimes committed at the plant are serious, so they acted “with the necessary severity.” However, they guaranteed that all the stolen product was recovered.
Both the media and the officials affirm that the recent thefts have significantly affected the productivity of the factory and the presence of sugar in the ration system’s basic basket, and that, they explain, constitutes a violation of the rights of citizens. “The crime must be identified in time and punished with the necessary rigor, because, when it comes to protecting the property of the people, any measure is too little,” says Girón, which recognizes that not all cases of this type come to justice.
The authorities, however, do not mention the disastrous figures for the latest sugar harvests. In 2022, production barely reached 350,000 tons of sugar of the 400,000 planned, and in 2023 significant delays have already been reported. By this June, Sancti Spíritus had barely planted 30% of the planned sugar cane, and Artemisa, which started the campaign a month late, managed to produce only 44% of the sugar estimated for the year.
With the food crisis that the country is going through, crimes of theft in food factories and warehouses have skyrocketed. On August 1, 14ymedio reported the theft of products from the basic basket of at least 10 Sancti Spíritus ration stores.
The products most often stolen were rice, beans, sugar, coffee, oil, meat and other supplies that depend on the production from each municipality. On more than one occasion, the authorities in charge of supervising the establishments identified their own workers as the perpetrators of the misdeeds.
During one of the sessions of Parliament, held this July, Camagüey deputy Lurdelis Cárdenas Jiménez warned of failures in the control of internal corruption that allow these criminal acts to be carried out with the help of the employees themselves.
When these are discovered, they are usually sanctioned by moving the employees to another position, which creates dissatisfaction in the population and the perception that the problem is only being moved elsewhere.
The Prosecutor’s Office, for its part, explained that it lacks the necessary personnel to alleviate the increase in crime on the Island and described the current situation as “one of great complexity.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Archive image of a group of migrants waiting for their turn to request information at an Immigration office in Madrid. (EFE/Juanjo Martín)
14ymedio, Madrid, 11 August 2023 — Cubans occupy eighth place on the list of irregular migrants who have been granted residence after arriving in Spain in the last twelve months. Since June 2022, when the country relaxed its immigration regulations, the number of people who obtained their papers increased by 98.5%.
The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration told the EFE agency that, on average, irregular migrants on Spanish territory take two years and eight months to obtain legal status. However, the institution clarified, the time range varies according to the nationality of the applicants.
“According to the figures, as of June 30, Bolivians require an average of three and a half years to obtain residence, while Cubans manage to obtain it in less than two years,” he says.
María Goñi, a lawyer specializing in immigration cases, explained to EFE that the reform of Spanish immigration laws has benefited many foreigners, since it has softened the requirements imposed by the country to grant residence. continue reading
There are currently four ways to gain residence: social, which requires three years of residence and economic solvency; labor, which can be applied for after two years of residence if it is proven that in that period the applicant worked six months; training, for those who decide to study after two years of stay in the country; and family, for those who have direct relatives who are Spanish citizens.
This last way is the most common among migrants from Cuba, as well as those from Brazil and Argentina. In the last year, the category modified its requirements so that applicants are not required to demonstrate economic solvency. After the update, applications increased by 190% compared to the same period in 2022.
In addition, by this way, the Spanish State authorizes migrants to reside and work legally in the country for five years.
The number of Spanish nationalities granted has also experienced an increase that could be reflected, according to Goñi, in the “number of people who can potentially nationalize a foreign relative.”
Another way that has undergone changes is the social one, which previously required the presentation of a one-year full-time employment contract, which it is now possible to request if you have an employment contract of 20 hours a week (if you are in charge of a minor) or 30 hours if you receive the interprofessional minimum wage (1,080 euros).
Nor is it a requirement – as it was before – to report to the employer if the working time was fulfilled when the applicant didn’t have a work permit. According to the ministry, this measure was updated to encourage migrants to obtain their papers.
Training, however, has not been a popular way among migrants, who often leave their country of origin in the hope of getting a job but without the funds to invest in their education.
In the case of asylum seekers, if they are rejected as refugees and have worked, can opt for the job path to residence.
Statistics offered by the Spanish Government reveal that 46% of migrants discharged from Social Security are women – mostly Latin Americans – who work as domestics.
The ministry said that it does not have precise numbers for those who reside in Spain without papers, since it is more difficult to know the number of people who enter by air and decide not to return at the end of their visa than those who arrive by sea and land, where there is greater border control.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The tanker with the Cuban flag ’Vilma,’ which since July has made two trips between Mexico and Cuba. (Vesselfinder)
14ymedio, Madrid, 10 August 2023 — The coming and going of Cuban ships between Mexico and the Island, noticed since May by specialists and verified by this newspaper through maritime monitoring pages, now has an approximate figure for the oil donated to Havana. According to Reuters’ estimates, published on Thursday, up to two million barrels have been delivered by the Administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the last four months.
With this, the North American country has been, as of the second quarter of 2023, the second largest supplier of crude oil to Cuba, ahead of Russia and behind Venezuela.
In total, Mexico has supplied Cuba since April with about 13,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Olmec light crude oil, says the British agency, a variety that “adapts better to the old refineries of Cuba than the heavy oil of Venezuela.”
Faced with this amount, Russia supplied Cuba with about 12,000 bpd of oil, mostly crude, between February and July, according to data from Refinitiv Eikon. continue reading
The British agency points out that to move the cargo from Mexico, Cuba has begun to use its own oil tankers, such as the Vilma and the Delsa, which are not sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of Treasury.
Since July, according to Reuters, the Vilma, previously used to transport Venezuelan crude oil to the Island, has made two trips from the Mexican terminal of Pajaritos, in Veracruz, to the refineries of Cienfuegos and Havana. From the same port of Veracruz and also to Cienfuegos, the Delsa arrived with oil in June, before continuing the trip to Venezuela, where, according to the British agency, it also loaded crude oil.
The report mentions that other Cuban ships have been repaired or inspected in recent years at a shipyard in Veracruz, including the Esperanza, which is currently there and is included in Unted States’ blacklist. In summary, as the Reuters text headlines, the Island’s oil tankers are “regular visitors” to Mexican ports.
Also, the Bicentennial oil tanker, of the State monopoly Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), has made at least four trips from Mexico to Cuba this year.
Last June, journalist Gerardo Aburto announced that the Delsa left the Mexican port of Coatzacoalcos for the Island with a load of 350,000 barrels of crude oil, and he accused Pemex and President López Obrador of diverting resources from the nation to “give crude oil to the oppressive government of Cuba.”
“The shipment order was signed by Alfredo Vargas Luna, manager of Hydrocarbon Marketing (GCH), who in turn received instructions from his boss, Carlos Pérez Téllez, commercial manager of the Subdirectorate of Marketing and Operations belonging to Pemex-Exploración y Producción (PEP). Engineer Angel Cid, who is the Manager of the Subsidiary, was in charge,” said Aburto showing the invoice for the transaction, which revealed that Pemex sold to Gasolineras del Bienestar – a government program to support state institutions and private initiative in Mexico – the 350,000 barrels of Isthmus oil (a variant of crude used to manufacture gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and kerosene) to be sent to the Island.
No other official body, such as Customs or other departments of Pemex, was notified of the transaction through the required documentation. The journalist estimates that, judging by the price of the Isthmus crude oil, the value of the load could be set at between 18 and 20 million dollars.
In the midst of the unstoppable fuel crisis, which still creates long lines at gas stations, Mexico’s help to Cuba is essential. Venezuela, the main source of oil supply to the Island since the beginning of this century, has been decreasing its deliveries. Last July, it sent 53,000 bpd, 22,000 less than the previous month, when it sent 75,000, although this last shipment was much larger than the monthly average of the previous year.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Yunisleydis Rillos Pao, mother of Leadi Katalaya Naranjo Rillos. (Captura)
14ymedio, Havana, 9 August 2023 — The name of Yunisleydis Rillos Pao became popular on Tuesday after her complaint on social networks against Cuban State Security for having summoned her daughter, Leadi Katalaya Naranjo Rillos, three years old, to the police station of El Capri, in Havana. The situation was, according to the agent who finally attended her, “a mistake,” since the summons was for her.
“He explained to me that it was a mistake. ’Apologies, apologies, apologies,’ that’s all he said,” Rillos Pao recounted in a video shared on X (formerly Twitter) to relate her exchange with the State Security agent, identified as Robert. She is the wife of Idael Naranjo and the sister of Yerandis Rillos, who were convicted for their participation in the 11 July 2021 [11J] protests in Cuba.
“The officer delivered the summons to my mother-in-law’s house, and she told him that Leadi was a three-year-old girl and he should reconsider and return to his unit,” says Rillos Pao, who maintains that the agent himself should have pointed out to his superiors that there was an error. She posted an image of the document on social networks the previous day, and the name of the minor appeared unequivocally, but in the space for specifying the reason for the summons, only the indicated time appeared.
Rillos Pao went at 2:30 in the afternoon, as indicated on the summons, on behalf of her daughter, and there, she says, the agent corrected himself and told her that the summons was actually for her, in order to offer her “help” as a relative of the two people in prison. “If you have problems with your prisoners, you call us and then we can help you,” he said.
“The only thing I want is the freedom of my political prisoners, I don’t want anything else,” she says in her message. “It’s the only thing I need, because in two years you haven’t given help of any kind. On the contrary, what you have done is repress us, that is the only thing you have done,” reproaches Rillos Pao. continue reading
In the images, the woman thanks those who sympathized with the situation and helped by sharing the news. “The only thing I want to communicate to the whole world and to mothers is that we must fight and not shut up, because they look at the result. It’s a battle we’ve overcome because we haven’t kept quiet. We can’t be afraid. Now we can’t be complacent and must and always be alert, because with them [State Security] you never know.”
According to MartíNoticias, Yunisleydis’ mother, Ania Pao Marín, was also cited, although no details have been revealed.
After the protests of July 11, 2021, numerous relatives of those convicted for demonstrating have denounced the persecution, harassment, police sieges and arrests, sometimes just for demanding freedom for their loved ones.
As of mid-June, the organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) counted 1,037 political prisoners in Cuba. In its report, the NGO, based in Madrid, highlighted 35 from the list who are under 18 years old, and 22 who have completed their sentences.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Sancti Spíritus faces a growing demand for workers, but industrialists are forced to cease hiring due to a lack of production caused by shortages. (Captura)
14ymedio, Madrid, 9 August 2023 — “The low availability of work in the companies that hire us caused our workforce to be reduced,” says Fernando, who works in a state industry in Sancti Spíritus. According to his experience, all companies are applying the workforce reduction mechanism to increase efficiency. “In my case, they first eliminated all the advantages, and once they stopped paying us, they began laying off people,” he said.
It’s one of the many faces of the crazed reality of employment in Cuba, where unfilled positions coexist with a lack of work to be done, along with tiny numbers of unemployed and high numbers of those who do not want to work and desperate attempts to rehire retirees to reduce spending on pensions and have more taxpayers while hundreds of thousands of young people leave. All this against a background of informal employment impossible to quantify.
The issue was addressed on Tuesday in an article published in the official newspaper of Sancti Spíritus, Escambray, which took as a reference point the data from the most recent National Employment Survey to analyze the complex issue. To work or not to work, that is the question, headlines the newspaper, resorting to Shakespeare. With regard to the data from May, there is hardly any novelty, but the numbers are no less important. According to the newspaper, the unemployment rate in the province has tripled in recent years, going from 0.5% to 1.6% (1.7% in fact, if the source is consulted).
The amount represents only 3,400 people, a figure that the media does not consider alarming, although it supposes the consolidation of a growth trend caused by the constant layoffs in State companies that are ruined by the lack of raw materials. Temporary closures and reconversions contribute to this panorama that has left, in one year, around 2,300 people in the “process of availability,” as the authorities called it last year when announcing the wave of layoffs that was coming. continue reading
All in all, the numbers of unemployed people in Cuba are a speck of dust. The authorities count in this group the people who have lost their jobs, but the drama is in the inactive people who are not looking for work. That number represents a total of 54,028 people in Sancti Spíritus, among whom are those engaged in “housework,” study or simply have no interest in working. The figure could also include those who are in the informal market and simply do not declare their employment status.
To these are added the more than 16,000 who do want to find a job and, finally, the so-called “disheartened,” a total of 2,731 people in the province who “abandoned the search for a job because they think they won’t find one.” In total, that comes to 70,200 economically non-active people in Sancti Spíritus.
So far this year, 2,230 people have applied for work through placement offices, but Escambray recognizes that a “significant number” of Cubans end up joining the informal sector. The newspaper reports that 459,000 people reside in the province, of which 198,600 (43.2%) are considered the economically active population.
The text mentions that the high cost of living has forced people to redouble their efforts to find work. Given this scenario, State companies are the least attractive for the unemployed, not only because private companies pay better salaries, but because of the high risk of dismissal posed by working with the State, which is forced to reduce its staff due to the critical shortage of inputs.
According to statistics cited by Escambray, 50% of the unemployment rate in the province is made up of Cubans under 45 years of age, who, according to the newspaper, are those with the highest work performance. In contrast, 3% of those over 65 are active in the labor market, and this provides an “incentive” to take advantage of their experience.
Escambray suggests more actively promoting measures to increase productivity, such as reinstating already retired people and allowing an employee to have up to two jobs, which clashes with the reality of the existence of jobs in many sectors. The industries with the most labor adjustments correspond to the transport, construction, trade, food and dairy and meat production sectors, where the shortage of raw materials is more recurrent.
The provincial newspaper recognizes that employment in the State sector decreased this year not so much because of the closure of industries, but because there are more private companies “with more attractive proposals by their considerable salaries.”
The lack of personnel to fill jobs is a recurring theme in the official press. Last May, the National Bureau of Statistics and Information reported that in the last two years, 231,000 jobs have been lost, of which the private sector accounted for 194,689 (a 13% drop) and the State sector, 36,675 (a contraction of just 1%).
The Government recognizes that the flight of human capital from State companies is due to low wages that often fail to cover the basic needs of families. It also says that there are companies with openings, such as for engineers, but they cannot be filled because there is no availability in the market due to migration.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Between non-compliances and deaths, the most critical municipalities are Manicaragua, Placetas, Santa Clara, Camajuaní and Ranchuelo. (Vanguardia)
14ymedio, Havana, 9 August 2023 — New data show the magnitude of the crisis due to the lack of food in Cuba: about 13,690 head of cattle have died in Villa Clara so far this year. Nineteen percent of the animals died from malnutrition and another 15% from digestive disorders, according to the official press on Tuesday.
If the numbers of cattle killed by deficient food and other unspecified causes are added to those that were victims of illegal ’sacrifice’ [slaughter], the figure rises to 18,413, in a province that began the year with 121,112 animals.
Among the factors that contributed to the poor nutrition of the animals are, Vanguardia reports, the lack of nutritious pastures in the province — only Camagüey province has worse conditions on this factor — the absence of sources of drinking water, and the lack of grains to complement the diet.
Of the total number of dead animals, 7,740 are classified as cows, yearlings (approximately one-year old calves) and heifers (young cows). The loss of these young animals is a blow to the reproductive and food production chain. This number does not include calves, says Vanguardia, without explanation. continue reading
Between non-compliance and deaths, the most critical municipalities are Manicaragua, Placetas, Santa Clara, Camajuaní and Ranchuelo, said the official portal Soy Villa Clara. In the entire province, only three territories showed discreet increases in the livestock mass: Corralillo at the head (780 animals), Remedios and Caibarién (whose figures were not revealed).
With these numbers, the authorities fear that by the end of this year, statistics similar to those of 2010-2011 will be reached, when the loss was 23,000 head.
The provincial birth plan aimed to reach 60% this year, a figure that the authorities consider “not low.” However, the province already has a delay of 2,331 births compared to what was planned in this period. The cause: lack of “the necessary artificial insemination.”
The newspaper estimates that very few places in the territory use modern methods and technologies to increase reproduction. Artificial inseminatiom also “guarantees the genetic improvement of the animal mass.” With natural mating the chances of increased births are reduced, and soon “there will be fewer females for milk production and reproduction.”
Milk production, at critical levels on the Island, has also been reduced. Authorities estimate that about 1,394 breeders did not contribute milk in the last quarter. In the municipalities of Manicaragua, Cifuentes, Placetas, Ranchuelo and Camajuaní, the media reports, “specific cases of manifest non-compliance abound.”
Currently, only 64% of the annual production plan is satisfied, which this year already quantifies about 7,280,600 liters less than those that had been contracted in the province. Deficiencies in the territory forced producers to reduce, this August, the contracted amount to 5,991,100 liters per month.
This figure would mean a daily delivery of 193,300 liters. However, the forced reduction in the plan did not achieve the desired numbers. On the contrary, only 98,800 liters are being delivered per day.
In meat production, the statistics are not encouraging either. So far, only 78.2% of the demand for beef and 85% for horse meat have been met. The planting of food intended for animal consumption has suffered the same fate. “The plantations of grain are non-existent. What about soy? The crops are minimal, and when they are achieved, extraction of the oil costs more than the use of the waste for animal feed,” says Vanguardia. The silage (forage conservation process), he adds, “stands out by its absence.”
According to the media, despite the drought and other obstacles, at the end of July some producers delivered what was agreed and even exceeded the plan of liters of milk per cow. The solution it finds, however, does not lie in the protection of breeders from crime, or in the improvement of working conditions, much less in the delivery of food and machinery at affordable prices. A quote from Alberto López, governor of the province clarifies it: “There are producers who make fun of the managers,” he said, alluding to the high rates of livestock crime in the province.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The Government has not published updated data on deaths by drowning in Cuba. (Radio Baraguá)
14ymedio, Havana, 3 August 2023 — Two girls, one 13 and one 16, drowned this Tuesday in a river in the town of San Francisco, in the Dos Ríos popular council, Santiago de Cuba. The event was confirmed on social networks by Aris Arias Batalla, head of Red Cross Operations and Relief in the province, who said that the young women were in an area where swimming is prohibited, where there where no lifeguards at the time of the tragedy.
Arias Batalla identified the girls as Yuleidis Sánchez Escalante (13 years old) and Claudia Escalante Carmenate (16 years old), both residents of the municipality of Palma Soriano. The official explained that it is “impossible” to supervise some rivers and beaches with lifeguards, so he appealed to common sense.
“It is the responsibility and obligation of each family member to care for and protect swimmers and even more so for children,” Batalla wrote in his Facebook post, while adding that lifeguards constantly face tourists who “don’t respect” the signs or calls for attention to stay in the areas of coverage.
In another publication, Arias Batalla pointed out that on July 21 he visited the swimming areas on the beaches, where he was able to verify “the needs and lack of support with which these brave lifeguards systematically work,” as well as the “imprudence of families,” since there were unsupervised children playing on the shore and adolescents outside the area of coverage. A lifeguard from the coast of Juraguá told Batalla that same day that he had rescued a young man who was drowning. continue reading
Batalla, who promotes the work of the Red Cross in the province, indicated that it was also necessary to “lament the loss of human life.” Although he did not specify a number, he said that they were children and teenagers. “The highest incidence of these deaths has occurred in rural towns,” he insisted.
The Government has not published updated data on deaths by drowning in Cuba. The most recent information corresponds to 2019, when 262 people were registered, which meant a death rate of 2.2 per 100,000. The information is derived from a report prepared at that time by the World Health Organization (WHO) for an international congress aimed at addressing drowning as an important and preventable cause of mortality.
Although the figures are lower than countries such as Russia or Thailand, they are much higher than those of surrounding and western countries (1.5 in the United States, 0.9 in Spain). The lack of public swimming pools means that thousands of Cubans do not even know how to swim, and they risk their lives not only in moments of leisure, but in cases of need, such as floods.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Production of bricks in the Villa Clara Geomining Company, which produces construction materials for the housing program. (Cubadebate)
14ymedio, Havana, 8 August 2023 — Thirty-nine percent of the homes in Villa Clara are in poor condition, the official press admitted in a report on the living conditions of the province. The situation is going through a critical moment, since the territory’s capacity to build homes is at barely 45% of that planned, due to the shortage of materials, and the subsidies that the State offers to the sector are still the same as three years ago, when inflation and the price of materials had not yet skyrocketed.
According to María del Carmen González, provincial director of Housing, in 2019 the entity designed a ten-year plan to build 46,051 new houses and repair another 33,111. However, of the plan for the last four years – 13,353 homes – 3,287 remain to be completed, or 25%. Most of the properties were built between 2019 and 2020, just before the global coronavirus pandemic, which was followed by a period of stagnation that hasn’t ended.
In contrast, during the same period the number of houses built “by self-effort” – that is, financed by families themselves – tended to grow, far exceeding what was estimated in the Housing plan. The only exception to the private push was the year 2021, when due to the pandemic and then to the consequences of the so-called Ordering Task,* including the shortage of materials, the number of completed residences fell dramatically but then recovered in 2022.
On the other hand, the number of buildings by the “State path” (the properties erected by companies after investing their profits in the construction of homes for their workers or to be donated) and the subsidy plan has decreased. Of 1,188 subsidized houses in 2019, the Government has gone on to cover just 403 in 2022. That same year, of the 1,987 houses built, 1,198 were built by the owners’ own effort. continue reading
Since 2012, Villa Clara has granted 7,130 subsidies for the construction of homes. This May, 701 procedures were still pending, according to the Provincial Directorate of Housing. Specifically in Santa Clara, the municipality with the largest number of inhabitants, 876 subsidies were offered and 126 remain unresolved. The provincial capital is closely followed by the municipalities of Camajuaní, Santo Domingo and Ranchuelo in the approved aid statistics.
Obtaining State funds to build homes is not easy. In principle, the applicant must document that he or she belongs to a vulnerable family, with little income, or that he or she has no home. However, the lack of resources to complete the construction plans has forced the State to prioritize those affected by natural events with partial or total loss of housing – there are 1,557 applications left unaddressed – or “critical social cases,” such as those who live in buildings with plumbing problems or large families (with three or more minor children).
Of these, in particular, the province has detected 2,707 mothers of several children who suffer from “housing problems.” Of these, only 900 have been addressed, according to the Vanguardia newspaper.
Preference is also given to budget requests for properties that don’t require major repairs, a practice that is to the detriment of houses that need more work and, therefore, more money.
Other limitations are the need to buy essential materials – cement, steel, gravel and bricks – in the State “courtyards” for the sale of materials in each municipality and the delivery of credits according to the phase of the construction. For example, the State does not deliver steel to those who are now finishing the property or toilets to those who are just beginning to “raise walls.”
Most of those interviewed by the provincial newspaper had seen their situation stagnate for one reason or another and had even asked for the reassessment of their budget in order to finish building their home. “Prices have risen a lot and they have not increased one peso through the recalculation that Housing must do. However, I have encountered people who have done it three or four times,” Lisleidy Mesa, one of the people of Villa Clara affected by the delinquency of the process, acknowledged to the media.
In other cases, people resort to illegal channels. “When you give a subsidy to a person, you are turning them into an investor in your home, and not everyone has the necessary preparation to do so. There has been everything: mason scams, sale of resources and, above all, violation of the technical project,” said Daniel Pozo, deputy director general of Housing in Villa Clara.
In the case of those who build with their own money, the situation is even more difficult, given the prices of the informal market and the disappearance of the most basic resources such as screws, light bulbs or cables for electrical installations.
The housing situation, which is not exclusive to Villa Clara, is one of the worst areas of the Cuban economy. Even if after the triumph of the Revolution it was declared one of the priority sectors for the attention of the State, “it is still an unmet demand, a reflection of persistent inequalities in society,” the media admitted.
*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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The banks still do not have cash, although there are no restrictions on paper. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Madrid/Havana, 10 August 2023 — “Bankification will advance in places where conditions exist,” said Julio Antonio Pérez Álvarez, general director of Operations and Payment Systems of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) in a new edition of the Round Table program dedicated to the financial measures that have revolutionized the warm Cuban August. The official insisted on the gradual implementation of the program, a concept already reiterated on Televisión Cubana last Monday, although some economists have already seen in his speech the first signs of a brake on the plan.
“Yesterday I commented with several colleagues that it seemed the order to cool down the bankification was given,” says Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, upon consulting his colleague in Spain, Elías Amor, who goes much further and talks about the plan’s “burial.” “It was given at the highest level, and they use these straw men to hide from social unrest. Before long we will see something else,” the expert said, grateful for the reference.
In fact, few developments were noted this Wednesday in the program regarding what was already discussed two days ago. The only surprise was for the workers of the primary sector, undoubtedly frightened by the imminence of a process – which must be completed in six months – for which they are not prepared. The BCC made it clear that, for now, they can stop worrying. “This is a gradual process; there are sectors such as fishers or farmers where there is no infrastructure, so it would be irrational to undertake those actions,” argued Pérez Álvarez.
Alexis Trujillo Morejón, president of the Banco de Crédito y Comercio (BANDEC), which operates extensively with this sector, agreed. “We emphasize to the farmers that this process will not affect their operability, their work or the creation of wealth,” he said, calling for calm. He added that he understands the doubts and concerns that these workers have expressed, and that they will be addressed “little by little.” continue reading
Trujillo Morejón added that it is the same for the MSMEs (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) and local development projects. “There are many specifics in the relationships of natural persons with the banks, of the self-employed with the banks … so we are working on giving answers for each case,” he said.
Another piece of news in the speech was the specific creation of branches for “economic actors.” Pérez Álvarez admitted that operations and lines have increased, despite the fact that offices have been open longer. “We are designing it so that every bank operates with the speed and appropriate attention that they need. This leads to a process of reorganization of our offices, and we are not oblivious to organizational problems. We are designing offices that are going to perform the same banking services to customers as before.”
The official said that “the training process at the level of banking structures” has already concluded, although users continue to encounter problems with the extraction of money. Pérez Álvarez repeated that there are no limits on the withdrawal for natural persons, but reality clashes with theory because, despite the rule, the truth is that there are no banknotes in the banks.
This same Wednesday, a woman living in Centro Habana told 14ymedio that, after lining up at the Conill and Marino branch, she was only able to withdraw half of her pension due to lack of cash. On Tuesday, this newspaper also learned of a neighbor of El Vedado who asked her acquaintances anxiously for any amount in bills to be able to buy food, but most rejected the transfer that the woman proposed in exchange. “What are we going to do with those 500 virtual pesos?” wondered a retiree who finally agreed to the exchange.
Daily life was exposed in the words of Pérez Álvarez – “It involves our money, in addition to the fact that the use of cash has not been eliminated in the world, although the trend is to increase the use of electronic payment channels” – as well as those of Ernesto Rodríguez Hernández, Deputy Minister of Communications, also present to talk about connectivity in Cuba.
According to his data, 83% of Cubans have mobile phone coverage, “50% of the spaces in Cuba have 4G coverage and 75%, 3G,” which puts payments with Transfermovil and EnZona at their fingertips. “It was as if I had never made an Internet connection in Cuba in my life or forgotten the frequency of blackouts,” Elías Amor objected on his blog Cubaeconomía.
The deputy minister reviewed the number of operations that are already carried out by electronic payment channels, in theory 29 per second only with Transfermovil (444 million in 2022, many more than with EnZona, 45 million), and insisted that there is no doubt that the efficiency of the service must be improved, but that there are already millions of transactions carried out by this route, especially in supplies.
Telephony (87%) leads the list of electronic payments, followed by taxes (60%) and electricity (40%). “These numbers illustrate trust and security, but also the well-being of citizens, when they can pay electronically for services. What we are trying to do now is to generalize these payments,” said the deputy minister, who also announced the availability of the Youth Clubs to alphabetize by technology a population that he defined as cultured and to which, consequently, he attributed part of the responsibility when it came to achieving the modernization, via banking, of the country.
The broadcast ended with the mandatory ideological and motivational message. “We will be able to aspire to have an increasingly modern country, with a digital transformation that exceeds conceptual issues, and the citizen will see it in practice, enjoying the advantages and benefits of this process.”
But to date, the main concern of Cubans around this issue has not been addressed, as reflected in the forum enabled by Cubadebate: how are private individuals, who solve most products on a day-to-day basis, going to import, if they buy in foreign currency and sell in pesos but lack an official foreign exchange market.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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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.
14ymedio, Madrid, 9 August 9, 2023 — The sudden increase in the price of a kilo of chicken in the U.S. makes an impact on the import expenses of the Cuban government, which in June paid 32.8 million dollars for the 27,631 tons it bought. Compared to the month of May, spending has increased by 44.7% for the acquisition of just 9.3% more meat, figures that reflect the 33.7% increase in unit value, according to the calculations of Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, who publishes these statistics on a monthly basis.
“Exports of chicken from the U.S. to Cuba oscillate,” he says, “but in the long term they show Cuba’s growing import dependency on the main meat consumed in Cuba.”
This June, the price of each kilo of chicken was $1.19, much higher than in May, when it was barely $0.89. That month, 22.69 million dollars were spent on the purchase.
Despite the high investment, Cuba continues to have its largest supplier in the U.S. market. Brazil, the second in importance, has been losing steam so far this year, which can be seen in the comparison of the first half of 2023, in which 44% less chicken was bought from that South American country, on average, than in the same period of the previous year.
Throughout 2023, Cuba has had difficulty importing the product from other markets that, although they were not the priority ones, contributed to increasing the availability of a meat that has become the most desired on the Island, in the absence of pork and, even more so, of beef. continue reading
Spain, Poland and the Netherlands have maintained an irregular flow in this type of trade, but in most of the months of the first half of the year they did not even report commercial activity with Havana.
Although Cuba is forced by the embargo to acquire U.S. food products under unusual conditions for international trade – cash payment in advance – the country continues to be one of its main sources.
Last July, the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council reported that during the last month with available data, May, there was a 3.7% increase in food exports from the U.S. to Cuba, worth $26,476,991. Among the products sent to the Island were coffee, waffles, wafers, cookies, powdered milk, beer, toilet paper, pork, preserves and chicken.
By product, chicken was the largest expense in the Island’s imports from the U.S., with an abysmal difference compared to the rest of the purchases. Compared to the $32.8 million Cuba spent on poultry meat, the second item in order of importance was dairy products, which cost $1.3 million.
Behind these are pork, with 774,000 dollars; cereals and pasta, 526,000; non-alcoholic beverages, 294,000; beef 193,000; and flour, 153,000. At the end of the list are fruit juices and chocolate products, worth 97,000 and 78,000 dollars respectively, and the list closes with a product that in Cuba is considered a basic necessity and which it is increasingly forced to bring from outside: rice.
After a disastrous harvest in 2022, which stood at 120,000 tons – when national consumption demands at least 700,000 – the Island is still forced to import rice or to get donations, most frequently from Vietnam. In the month of June, according to the available data, Cuba spent $64,000 to bring rice from the United States.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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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.
14ymedio, Havana, 11 August 2023 — Former Cuban political prisoner Nelson Molinet Espino, 59, was found dead in Florida, where he had lived for years, after disappearing for several days, according to his good friend Normando Hernández, general director of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and Press and announced on Facebook this Friday.
