Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 146

A Letter Addressed to President Diaz-Canel Demands ‘Freedom Without Banishment’ for Cuba’s Political Prisoners

Several uniformed personnel during a repressive operation of the Cuban regime in the demonstrations of July 11, 2021. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 5 July 2023 – — More than 300 opponents, activists and family members have called for “freedom without banishment” for Cuban political prisoners in a letter addressed to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. With the subject “Voices for the freedom of our Cuban political prisoners” and dated July 3, 2023, the letter insists that “economic, civil and political freedoms” are not recognized in the country and that “regulations are created that legalize the violation and punishment of citizens’ rights and duties.”

“The past has been controlled, manipulated and erased; the present is controlled and distorted, and the future has an uncertain design where human rights are not essential in a democratic culture,” the document adds. For the signatories, among whom are more than 40 relatives of political prisoners, the government doesn’t allow “every person to express their ideas freely and to be respected in their entirety in any circumstance, without fear of being persecuted, mistreated or condemned for their opinions.”

The text voices complaints to the Communist Party, the Parliament and the Prosecutor’s Office about the conditions in which they keep the opponent José Daniel Ferrer García, confined in a prison in Santiago de Cuba “under constant physical, verbal and psychological aggression.” It also holds the authorities responsible for the “hundreds of men, many of them over 60 years old and even women who are mothers of minor children and others who are adolescents and young people, all of them confined under unjust sentences”

The signatories point out that in Cuban prisons “the human rights of those inmates are violated, including those with any disability, and that because they are political prisoners, mistreatment, beatings and the punishment of isolation cells are applied to them more sternly.” In addition, there is “a lack of attention to the health” of the prisoners and “a lack of medicines for the control of their diseases and the precarious diet to which they are subjected.” continue reading

“Ignoring this situation is cruel and inhuman,” the statement insists before concluding with a call to all Cubans to “visualize the situation of people imprisoned for their ideas, who have been sentenced to long years in prison.” “Let’s remember that the popular demonstration of July 11, 2021 was a reaction of the people and angry youth who loudly demanded Freedom, Freedom, Freedom.”

This Tuesday, Nelva Ortega, wife of José Daniel Ferrer and one of the signatories of the letter, was unable to talk with her husband — the leader of the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU) — in the Mar Verde prison, where they had scheduled a conjugal visit. According to the dissident’s sister, Ana Belkis Ferrer, the authorities only allowed the woman to glimpse her husband, after taking her down the corridor that leads to his isolation cell.

Ferrer’s sister reported that the opponent, imprisoned since August 2021, remains in “cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions” and constantly suffers “physical and psychological tortures.”

Ferrer continues to refuse, according to his relatives, to wear the uniform of an ordinary prisoner and does not accept any negotiation about his exile. In addition, he persists in condemning any relief of US sanctions on the Island and expresses his support for Ukraine in the face of the invasion of Russia.

They also recalled the deplorable state of health of the prisoner, who does not receive medical attention despite “strong pain in his hands, arms, legs, back, head and teeth.” The medicines, arbitrarily administered by his jailers, the family reports, have to be delivered from outside the prison.

After numerous requests to obtain proof of Ferrer’s life, the authorities agreed to have his family visit him on June 22, after three months without being able to see him. His wife and his two children found that the leader of the UNPACU is in a terrible state of health, half-naked and confined in the isolation cell.

“It is totally confirmed that my brother is being murdered in the slowest, most perverse and cruel way that can exist, and in the midst of such a difficult and worrying situation, he sends his message of gratitude to all supportive people, friends, brothers of struggle and ideas, media, institutions and justice-loving governments,” his sister said. “He states that he does not lose hope of getting out of such a hell alive, but that if he does not succeed, remember that he was always willing to give his life for the freedom of his people”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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For the First Time in History, Three Cubans Will Be in the Major League Home Run Derby

Randy Arozarena, Luis Robert Jr. and Adolis García are the Cubans in the the Major League Home Run Derby. (Collage/Instagram)

14ymedio, Havana, 6 July 2023 — Cuban baseball players continue to make history in the Major Leagues. Athletes Randy Arozarena, Luis Robert Jr. and Adolis García will compete in the Home Run Derby that will be held on July 10 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. It’s the “first time” that three athletes born on the Island will participate in this event, which began in 1985, journalist Francys Romero reported on his social networks.

This year, outfielder Randy Arozarena, a naturalized Mexican who plays for the Tampa Bay Rays, will show why he is a key player on the American team. In the first half of the 2023 season, he achieved 16 home runs.

This home run contest is joined by Luis Robert Jr., hired for $50 million by the Chicago White Sox in 2020, who has connected 25 home runs in the current season. His personal best is surpassed by Shohei Ohtani in the American League.

At first, Robert Jr. had no interest in participating in the Derby, he told MLB magazine, stating that “he was not a born homer and did not know if his game could be successful in the event.”

The Texas Rangers baseball player, Adolis García, was enthusiastic about his participation in the Home Run Derby. He was placed in fourth position and said he was prepared for a first-round confrontation with none other than his friend Randy Arozarena (fifth pre-qualified). continue reading

The Home Run Derby will be held one day before the Star Game, where Nolan Arenado will participate. This athlete, the son of Cubans, ruled out participating in representation of the Island in an international tournament. “My father is from Guantánamo,” he told MLB. “Although I don’t speak the language, I am proud of my heritage. Cubans are strong people.”

Upon learning that with the elimination of the repatriation rule for Cubans residing abroad it could be the opening to integrate some selection within the Island, he ruled out that possibility. “I’ll have to talk to my parents and my family about it and see what they say. But from now on, I assume that they would say no until things change there (in Cuba),” he replied to Pelota Cuban journalist Yordan Carmona.

Arenado has won ten gold gloves, six platinum gloves, five silver batters and has been selected for the All-Star Game eight times.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Spanish Melia Opens a Luxury Hotel in the Building of the Extinct Petroleum Union in Havana

The hotel, one block from the Plaza de la Catedral, occupies number 113 of Empedrado Street, where the National Bank was located for more than 60 years. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 6 July 2023 — A room costs between 295 and 383 euros a night this month at the new INNSiDE Habana Catedral hotel, inaugurated last Saturday by the Spanish group Meliá in Old Havana. If the traveler prefers the “Townhouse Suite,” with 560 square feet, king size bed and view of the bay, the price goes up to the stratosphere: 1,825 euros per night.

The prices of the restaurant, according to 14ymedio, follow the same trend. The dishes range from the 700 pesos for a “vegan salad in the style of the chef” to the 2,600 for a beef fillet with potatoes and red wine sauce, through a ceviche at 1,300 pesos, a honeyed rice with seafood at 1,800 or a fish at 2,000 pesos. As for desserts, you can order a brownie or French toast for 450 pesos, or fruit salad for 400 pesos.

On the menu, which has the prices in Cuban pesos (CUP) and in foreign currency, they apply an exchange rate of 120 pesos for freely convertible currency (MLC).

This Thursday, the place was empty. “Four employees for a single customer,” said a young woman from Havana who told about the experience of having a coffee. “There is not even a fly there, and they look at you as if you were an extraterrestrial.”

She paid 264 pesos for the coffee. “A small amount of coffee, I kept it simple,” she says. It was not enough for a bottle of water, which costs, small, 264 pesos, and large, more than 300. “Fortunately they put a glass of water next to the coffee. It was the size for a three-year-old boy, but better than nothing.” continue reading

As happens in establishments of this type in the capital, the INNSiDE Habana Catedral does not accept cash, and customers must pay by card. To accept payments, there is have an electronic reader for CUP and another for MLC.

The hotel, one block from the Plaza de la Catedral, occupies number 113 of Empedrado Street, where an office building was located for more than 60 years.

The emblematic and modern building was erected in the early 1950s, not without controversy, as the chronicles of the time testify, on the site of an 18th-century colonial house that had to be demolished. “Instead, and completely out of place in that area, there will be a seven-story ultra Miami skyscraper,” reads the newspaper library of the Diario de la Marina. The property, intended for office use, ultimately had five floors, some of them belonging to the extinct Petroleum Union.

Before being reopened by Meliá, it had been under construction for almost seven years. On its website, the hotel says that it was “conceived to give the most curious travelers an impressive urban experience,” and they invite the foreigner who can afford it: “You will find infinite peace in our pool with unparalleled views of the lighthouse and the sea. Are you ready for the adventure?”

Although luxury hotels are still being opened on the Island, the tourism data do not justify it. The sector, the country’s third largest source of foreign exchange – behind the sale of medical services and remittances – has not managed to recover even half of the international visits recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the latest official figures, between January and August of this year, Cuba received 1,390,000 tourists, barely 44.5% of the total registered in the same period of 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Third of Those Enrolled in Mais Medicos De Brasil Come From Bolivia, Paraguay and Cuba

In the last call of the program, 58% of the slightly more than 34,000 registered were nationals trained in Brazil. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Sao Paulo, July 5, 2023 — Some 36% of those enrolled in the Mais Medicos (More Doctors) program, one of the hallmarks of the Brazilian Government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, are professionals trained in Bolivia, Paraguay and Cuba, according to data sent by the Ministry of Health to EFE. In the last call of the program, 58% of the just over 34,000 enrolled were nationals trained in Brazil, with priority in access, while the rest, 42%, were foreigners or Brazilians educated outside the country.

Of those trained outside, 14% of the total number of registrants (4,846 professionals) trained in Bolivia; 13% (4,294), in Paraguay; and 9.5% (3,235), in Cuba, followed by Argentina and Venezuela, with much lower numbers.

Lula’s Government, aware of the criticisms made of the program in the past, has tried to increase the representation of Brazilians with a variety of incentives, such as salary supplements and educational opportunities.

The high percentage of doctors trained abroad has been one of the most controversial points of the program since it was launched in 2013 during Dilma Rousseff’s mandate (2011-2016) to solve the deficit of health personnel in remote regions such as the Amazon.

According to the current law, approved by Congress at the end of June, doctors who practice abroad and sign up for the program can work in Brazil without having to undergo a knowledge test for the first four years. continue reading

The Federal Council of Medicine, which regulates the profession, said in June about those trained outside that it is “against their right to exercise the profession in the country without first proving their preparation.”

In addition, the Brazilian right has denounced for years that part of the salary paid to Cuban doctors, who until 2018 formed a majority of those enrolled in the program, was diverted to the Government of the Island.

In fact, former President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) threatened to expel them, which led the Cuban government to end its official participation in the program and caused vast areas of the country to be left without medical attention.

Many Cuban doctors, however, decided to stay in Brazil, even without being able to dedicate themselves to the profession, and now they have the possibility of signing up for the program again.

The number of people enrolled in the latest edition of Más Médicos has broken records, according to the Government, and is well above the open vacancies, almost 6,000, a sixth of them destined for the Amazon region.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With the Murder of Saray Moya in Ciego De Ávila, Cuba Registers 48 Femicides This Year

Saray Moya Moreno died at the hands of her partner on Monday, according to several independent observatories. (Facebook/María Caridad Grau)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, July 6, 2023 — The independent feminist platform Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba (YSTCC)[I Do Believe You] documented this Wednesday a new sexist murder that occurred in the town of Chambas, in the province of Ciego de Ávila. With the death of Saray Moya Moreno, this Monday, at the hands of her partner, the number of femicides registered on the Island so far this year rises to 48.

The activists sent their condolences “to the affected families and especially to the sons and daughters” of the murdered woman. “In the faces of delinquency and impunity, we urge family members and children of legal age to pressure and demand justice from the corresponding institutions,” they stressed, in a message disseminated on social networks.

In addition, they ask for “citizen collaboration” to verify two other alleged femicides that occurred in the province of Santiago de Cuba. This group points out that since 2019, when it began to count sexist crimes on the Island, they have counted 166 that have been verified.

YSTCC and the Observatorio de Género de Alas Tensas (OGAT) [Tense Wings Gender Observatory] also confirmed on Wednesday another sexist crime, the twelfth recorded last June, the month with the most deaths of women at the hands of their partners or ex-partners so far this year. continue reading

According to the statements that her relatives offered to CubaNet, on June 19, the young Yunisleve Fernández reported at the Torrientes Police Station, in the Matancero municipality of Jagüey Grande, that her aggressor had brutally beaten her. Upon learning that Fernández had gone to the authorities, her ex-partner, who is not named by the media but apparently lived under the same roof as the victim, threatened to kill her. Four days later, on June 23, Fernández was murdered with a knife in front of her four-year-old son and her mother.

The Island exceeds, in just six months, the total number of feminicides verified throughout 2022 (36), according to the records of the activists and collated by 14ymedio, in the absence of official public statistics.

These groups insist on their calls to the authorities of the Island to declare a “state of emergency for gender violence,” and regret that the Cuban Government has not taken measures in this regard.

The work of independent feminists and their dissemination in the unofficial media has contributed to putting the focus on the cases of sexist murders and disappearances of Cubans in recent years.

YSTCC has highlighted that “nothing would have been possible without all those people who share content, verify data and are support networks for survivors.”

These groups, which have social networks and victim help phones, advocate for a comprehensive law against sexist violence and the implementation of protocols to prevent these events, as well as the creation of shelters and rescue systems for women in danger and their children.

Last April, President Miguel Díaz-Canel assured that there would be “zero tolerance” for this type of violence. In June, the official Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) created the Cuba Observatory on Gender Equality, which includes statistics on “women who have been victims of intentional homicide as a result of gender violence in the last 12 months.”

The Supreme People’s Court of the Island reported in mid-May that in 2022 there were 18 convictions for sexist murders, all with penalties of more than 25 years in prison. It did not give more details, and it is still not known to which cases those sentences correspond.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Cuba People Go Hungry but Communist Experiments Continue

Cuban farmers have been hit hard by lack of inputs, fuel shortages and drought. (Flickr / Kuhnmi)

Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 6 July 2023 — The steps that Cuban communist leaders say they are taking to “strengthen local food systems in all municipalities of the country” can give much worse results. This blog has previously warned that transferring production, which should be attended to at the national level, to the territories is a loss of efficiency, because resources are not used properly. If the authorities persist in the effort, let them be warned. This is not the way to achieve sovereignty or food and nutritional security.

The effort to transform local food systems has been one of the latest ideas of communist leaders for a little more than a year, as part of the actions to deal with the serious economic situation in which the economy finds itself, because of the Ordering Task.* The leaders’ slogan is that “there should be no patio, plot or piece of land unplanted.” But the State continues to maintain thousands of idle acres, which do not produce and do not become profitable. Behind this initiative is Prime Minister Marrero, who will end up reaping one more failure in his long political career.

It seems unbelievable that the communist leaders believe that there are strategies to strengthen local food systems in all the municipalities of the country. Apparently no one has explained to them what economic geography is and the remarkable disparity that exists between some areas and others for a productive dedication to agricultural tasks. That disparity favors the specialization and the search for economies of scale to produce at minimum unit costs.

Therefore, in Cuba before 1959, there was one head of beef cattle per inhabitant on the plains of Camagüey and the best sweet potato obtained in the fields near the capital. No one would think of raising cattle in the latter area or planting sweet potato on the Camagüey plains. The Spaniards had already realized these circumstances since colonial times. If it is now intended that the same thing will occur in each municipality and province, not even those commissions created to implement the measures will be successful. continue reading

Why have the communists come to these measures to take advantage of local systems? According to Marrero, because of the “financial restrictions faced by the country, the impacts of climate change, the global food crisis and the origin of food in imports.” And once again the question is, what do local systems have to do with these problems that belong to the agenda of governments? Isn’t there a covert intention of the regime to transfer its problems and responsibilities to others? Is there no one in local and provincial governments who doesn’t realize the trap they are setting for them? Well, it doesn’t seem so. And so, if no one or nothing says otherwise, this transfer of power will soon take place and will create first and second class Cubans at the same time.

The point is that with these measures it will not be possible to reduce the importations of food and, at the same time, increase the sources of national production. Quite the contrary. The dependence of imports on the financial resources that can be obtained once again poses the problem of the payment of debts, which the communists never talk about. But in reality, if Cuba does not have access to the international financial markets it is because it does not comply with payment of its debts, and, logically, no one wants to lend. So tell me what this has to do with local and provincial governments.

In addition, what no one understands is that 2 billion dollars are allocated to food imports, and at the same time, national productions of rice, beans, corn and pork continue to have low yields, very low production levels and very high financial costs. Something happens in the structure of the land that prevents Cuban agriculture from prospering.

Going to the 7,000 communities of the country to produce food, reaching the popular councils, constituencies, self-consumption, patios and plots, offers an idea of the current desperation of the leaders to produce food. A flight forward that will end up disrupting the productive structure, more or less the same thing that happened with the harvest of the 10 million. The leaders want everyone who has land to have to produce. Although they recognize that the level of self-sufficiency is insufficient for the demand, the official slogan is maintained: “We must sow and achieve compliance with what was designed in each municipality.”

Accompanied by this plan, the leaders want to perfect the process of contracting agricultural productions and at the same time, enhance the so-called urban, suburban and family agriculture program, with an agro-ecological approach based on the reserves and potential of each locality.

The actions proposed for this are hilarious, to classify them in some way. The communists propose “the transformation of urban farms, the use of the agricultural areas available in labor centers, the promotion of a popular productive movement, the consolidation of structures for obtaining organic fertilizers and bio-products, and the commercialization of productive surpluses, freely and directly, by families.” Except for the latter, which is conditioned by low yields, the other measures are absurd.

The regime insists that “we have to continue planting, because yields are limited due to objective conditions of the soils, substrates and irrigation systems.” However, no one assumes any responsibility for the idle lands that belong to the State and that cannot be obtained because of the obstruction of the local leaders who are responsible for applying the legal rules that have been published for this purpose.

And so, entertaining themselves with this nonsense, the population still does not find in the shops the food that it needs or must pay very high prices for the few items that are obtained in the informal markets. No matter how urgent Marrero says it is to apply these reforms, the truth is that a year has passed since the measures were implemented, and the results are even worse than before.

Once again, we warn that food sovereignty will not be achieved through this initiative to consolidate local food systems and even less so with the approach of the Law that is oriented to the elements of sustainability and resilience, when the priority should be yields and production. Communism, as an economic ideology, has no remedy.

*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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‘Traitors’ to the Regime, the Two Cubans Who Fled in a Hang Glider Get Asylum in the United States

López and Hernández left Tarará in an ultralight delta wing, of the Trike type, with registration number CU-U 1619, which was used for the recreation of tourists. (Twitter/Florida Keys Sheriff)

14ymedio, Havana, 6 July 6, 2023 — The United States granted political asylum to the two Cubans who landed at the Florida keys in a motored hang glider last March. David López Alfonso and Ismael Hernández Chirino will have to stay up to ten more days in the Krome migrant prison in Miami, waiting for the judge who granted them international protection to issue the order in writing.

According to Univision journalist Daniel Benítez, the pilots “won their cases,” and although there is a possibility that the US Prosecutor’s Office will challenge the sentence, it is likely that it will not make any appeal.

This newspaper had access to several testimonies offered to the asylum court by legal experts, including those of lawyer Siro del Castillo, who presented a contextualization of the case of López and Hernández before the court. The director of the Cubalex legal aid NGO, Laritza Diversent, also collaborated with the defense team, led by lawyer Wilfredo Allen.

In his testimony, Del Castillo reminded the court that the Cuban government would have no mercy on both pilots and that the regime’s press had launched a campaign to demand their return. López and Hernández left Tarará, in the municipality of Habana del Este, in an ultralight delta wing, of the Trike type, with registration number CU-U 1619, which was used for the recreation of foreign tourists.

The Cuba Aviation Club — an entity, said the lawyer, led by former spy René González, “who at the time traveled to the United States with a plane that was stolen from Cuba” – argued that the action of the pilots was a “desertion,” and it asked for “the corresponding sanctions for the seriousness of the case and the return of the stolen equipment.” continue reading

Del Castillo stressed that both the Aviation Club and the Civil Institute of Aeronautics – which regulates Cuban airspace – are institutions that respond directly to the Government of the Island. To demonstrate this, he quotes González himself when he says that the Club “recognizes the political orientation of the Cuban State and its Constitution.”

There is, therefore, a relationship of “dependence” between the regime and the aeronautical institutions, according to the expert, which has led them to sign statements, for example, of support for the invasion of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. This link, Del Castillo suggests, discredits the authority of the Aviation Club in terms of moral claims such as the one it intends in the case of López and Hernández.

Finally, and quoting the former spy again, Del Castillo argues the danger in which both pilots will find themselves if they return to a country where they are considered political “enemies”: “It is very difficult to make a revolution without having to guillotine someone. The important thing is that the guillotine is not the main instrument. Every revolution generates a counterrevolution and has to defend itself,” González said publicly in 2018, according to the lawyer.

Cuban pilots, Del Castillo concluded, will not have an opportunity for a fair defense in Cuba, where they have already been described as “traitors” by the highest authorities, and the Constitution of the Republic itself calls for “the most severe sanctions.” Both the fact that they stole a state air vehicle, and their relationship with the tourist sphere are, the lawyer considers, aggravating for their case and could lead to “major prison terms.”

Both pilots were part, during their Active Military Service, of the Cuban border guard corps, managing vehicles similar to the delta wing with which they escaped the country. “It is not surprising that the Cuban authorities, to give more weight to the accusation of ’traitors’ with a claim of a maximum penalty against López and Hernández, who are accused of having passed to the authorities of the United States, information about the air patrol system on the coasts of Cuba, would allow the government prosecutor’s office on the Island to accuse both of disclosure of secrets concerning the security of the State,” says the lawyer.

The judge was convinced, among other arguments, with the assertion that the action of López and Hernández “was motivated solely and exclusively by their desire to live in freedom,” as “hundreds of Cubans” have done in recent decades, “using boats and even planes owned by the Government.”

The latter was the case of Rubén Martínez Machado, a Cuban who managed to escape in a Russian-made Antonov plane on October 21 and land at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, located in the middle of the Everglades. The 29-year-old was a pilot of the Cuban Air Services Company, belonging to the Cuban Aviation Corporation, and he left the Island through Sancti Spíritus.

Customs agents interrogated the pilot as soon as he landed, and he was immediately put in the custody of the authorities. Martínez is currently free after a judge granted him political asylum.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Almost 1,500 Cuban Minors Crossed Honduras in Transit to the United States in the First Half of the Year

From January 1 of this year to June 25, there has been an irregular flow of 128,133 migrants, of whom 9,366 were nationals of the Island. (Twitter-Hunduras National Police)

EFE/14ymedio, Tegucigalpa/Havana, 5 July 2023 — More than 24,000 migrant minors in transit to the United States crossed Honduras in the first half of 2023, 181% more compared to the 8,555 who entered in the same period of 2022, according to data consulted this Wednesday by EFE.

Between January and June, about 24,030 irregular minors entered Honduras, of which 14,127 were boys and 9,903 girls, according to a report by the Honduran National Institute of Migration (INM).

Of the total migrant minors who entered the country 39.1% (9,410) were Venezuelans, the nationality that predominates in the migratory wave to the United States.

The second largest nationality of minors who entered Honduras were Ecuadorians, 5,147, followed by Cubans (1,481), Brazilians (1,082) and Chileans (1,036).

Of the total number of girls and boys intercepted in Honduras, 39.6% or 9,527 were age 10 or younger, and 14,503 (60.4%) were 11 or older, the INM explained.

In 2022, Honduras intercepted about 37,469 migrant minors, mostly from Cuba and Venezuela, according to official statistics. continue reading

In recent years, the Central American country has become a transit point for migrants who cross Central America in order to reach the United States.

According to the INM, from January 1 of this year to June 25, an irregular flow of 128,133 migrants has been recorded, of whom 9,366 were nationals of the Island.

Cubans have complained that during their time in Honduras they face the collection of fines by immigration authorities and extortion by the police, who demand 20 dollars at the checkpoints, says Rigoberto, a layman with the Jesús Está Vivo evangelization center of the Immaculate Conception church in Danlí, Honduras.

Many of the migrants who pass through this nation enter through “blind spots” known to the “coyotes,” human traffickers who do not always take them to the border with Guatemala, according to authorities and human rights organizations.

According to Doctors without Borders (MSF), the majority of migrants arrive in Honduras “with multiple medical and humanitarian needs.”

The migrants, according to their accounts, are victims of assaults, rapes, kidnappings and other risky situations during their trip.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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An Oil Tanker With 530,000 Barrels From Russia Arrived in Havana

The photographs captured this Tuesday by 14ymedio confirm that the tanker is anchored in front of the capital city’s refinery. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 5 July 5, 2023 — The oil tanker SCF Prime, with a Liberian flag and an approximate capacity of 530,000 barrels, arrived this Tuesday in the bay of Havana from the Russian port of Tuapse. It is the first tanker to arrive on the Island after the oil supply agreement between Russia and Cuba and, although it was scheduled to unload in Matanzas on July 2, it ended up arriving in the capital.

Through the maritime monitoring websites, this newspaper followed the trajectory of the ship from its departure from Tuapse, on June 3, until it reached the Cuban coast a month later, on July 4. The ship disappeared from radar and does not appear on the lists of ships anchored in any Cuban port.

However, the photographs captured this Tuesday by 14ymedio confirm that the tanker is anchored in front of the capital city’s refinery, although it is unknown if it will travel to other port terminals in the country.

The arrival of the SCF Prime had also been announced by the academic and specialist of the University of Texas, Jorge Piñón. A report on the movement of oil tankers traveling to the Island – with both a Cuban and a foreign flag – offered by Piñón to this newspaper, pointed out that the trafic of fuel to the Island continues to increase.

On Tuesday, the Caribbean Alliance tankers, with the Panamanian flag, anchored in Mariel, were also detected by Vesselfinder: in Cienfuegos are the Gloria C – which operates with a Cuban flag – and the Ocean Integrity, also with the flag of Panama. Meanwhile, in Matanzas, the arrival of the Nicos I.V. and the Vilma, a Cuban tanker that sailed from Havana this Tuesday, the same day that the SCF Prime arrived, is expected. continue reading

Countries allied with Cuba continue to send oil to the Island. On June 17, Mexican journalist Gerardo Aburto accused President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of “giving crude oil to the oppressive government of Cuba.” An invoice, published by Aburto himself, shows how the state monopoly Pemex sold to Gasolineras del Bienestar – a government program to support state institutions and private initiative in Mexico – 350,000 barrels of Isthmus oil (a variant of crude oil used to manufacture gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and kerosene) to be sent to the Island. The document also includes the name of the tanker Delsa and the entity to whom the fuel is delivered: Unión Cuba Petróleo (Cupet).

No other official body, such as Customs or other departments of Pemex, was notified of the transaction through the due documentation. The journalist estimates that the value of the load can be set between 18 and 20 million dollars.

The ship that transported the cargo was the Delsa, one of the six Cuban-flagged oil tankers – along with the Vilma, Alicia, Sandino, Pastorita and Gloria C – which usually transports crude oil from the Venezuelan port of José to the terminals of the Island.

Piñón explained to 14ymedio that the Vilma – which also disappears from radar as soon as it approaches the Cuban coast – arrived in Cienfuegos on June 1 with 390,000 barrels of crude oil from José; the same amount was transported by the Delsa, also from José, to the port of Antilla, on the 30th.

For its part, the Sandino sailed from José with 440,000 barrels to the bay of Nipe, in Holguín, where it arrived on May 5. The Alicia brought to Havana 290,000 barrels from José on May 16 and another 295,000 from the Venezuelan terminal, Amuay, on the 28th.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Sharp Drop in Cargo Transport Reflects a Cuban Economy in Clear Recession

The import and export of cargo, mainly in ports, has decreased by 44% in recent years. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 5 July 2023– Among all the nefarious data of Cuba, those of cargo transport are not spared. According to a report published on Tuesday in the official press, of the 24.7 million total tons of products of all kinds that should have been transferred in the first quarter of the year, only 14.5 million have been transported.

The figures make the Ministry of Transport fear that by the end of the year less than 36 million tons will have been moved in the country.

By rail, for example, the data specifies that 162 fuel tanks were moved weekly, less than the 220 that were transported before 2022, which is reflected in the problem of gasoline shortages.

As for import and export cargo, “mainly in ports,” it was reduced by 44% in recent years, from the 4.5 million tons recorded in 2018 to 2.5 million in 2022. continue reading

The principal responsibility for the situation is the usual one for the Cuban authorities: “the intensification of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the US Government on our country,” in addition to the “effects” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report recognizes that “the population is dissatisfied” with the quality of international parcel distribution and delivery service, but the government assures that “work continues on its improvement.”

The objective, they say, is “to reduce the delivery time to seven days, with higher levels in the quality of service, and to have a computer system will allow people to track their packages from the origin.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubans Outraged by the Procedures To Be Spanish Call for a Protest in Havana

Line at the Consulate of Spain in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 4 July 2023 — A group of Cubans who want to take advantage of the new “law of grandchildren” of Spain to obtain that country’s nationality has called for a peaceful protest for this Wednesday, July 5 at 9:30 am in front of the population service office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on H Street between 5th and Calzada, in Havana’s El Vedado neighborhood.

The problem, they explain to this newspaper, is that the process of legalizing the documents, which previously took a month, now takes up to almost four months. “The appointments are through the Ticket application, and there are 2,000 people or more on the waiting list to get an appointment for legalization,” they complain.

According to details, each stage of the process now takes between 20 days and a month: “pending” one month; “accepted at reception” between 20 and 30 days; “legalization” 20 days; “signed” 5 days; and “delivered” between 20 and 30 days. continue reading

In order for the process to be shortened, they propose two measures to the ministry: to create “temporary offices for the legalization of documents in the capitals of the provinces,” so that “there is less volume of documents in Havana,” and hiring more staff. “We just want to have our documentation ready in the fastest possible time and be Spanish; it is our right,” they say in an email sent to the 14ymedio Editorial Office.

The group has also created a Telegram channel to disseminate the call, signed by the Ombudsman’s Office of the Community of Spanish Descendants.

Cuba is the country where the most people have obtained Spanish nationality under the new Law of Democratic Memory, which offers the option of obtaining it to a wide range of descendants of Spaniards.

As of January 31, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain, 24,729 applications had been submitted at the 179 consular offices around the world, most of them in Latin America. Cuba, Argentina and Mexico, in this order, totaled 14,610 applications received and 4,774 registered nationalities.

Of this total, half, 12,862, have already been approved while 6,653 have been registered in the Civil Registry.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Chinese Wholesale Website Offers To Supply Cuban ‘MSMEs’

Those in charge of the platform describe it as “an essential connection” between Cuban merchants and the international market. (Nihao 53)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 June 2023 — A labyrinth of obstacles, verifications and absences makes it difficult to buy on the Nihao 53 digital platform, with which the Chinese conglomerate Leke Holding Group hopes to consolidate its presence in Cuba. With the intention of supplying the wholesale market on the Island, the site offers food, furniture, construction materials and countless items to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), but the products are not always available for sale or cost crazy amounts of euros or dollars.

The obstacles also assault the buyer from abroad, leaving little room for doubt about who can receive the services of Nihao 53: Cuban “entrepreneurs” within the country, with accounts in foreign banks and the ability to store orders in a warehouse reserved by the Leke group.

Its clients, summarized the directors in a recent report by the Sputnik news agency, seek “access to raw materials that are almost impossible or very difficult to find” in the economic context of the Island.

The platform is described as “an indispensable connection” between Cuban merchants and the international market. Its general manager in Havana, Yeline Ramos, says that Nihao 53 works by sales categories, which range from “machinery and products of the automotive industry” to “construction products, raw materials, toiletries and gastronomy.”

She said they have everything to succeed: the support of the Cuban Government, its unbeatable relations with China and the fact that they began operating at a lucky time and date, 11:00 in the morning of November 11, 2022. As for the name, it responds to the “hello” greeting in Mandarin Chinese – ni hao – and the Cuban telephone code, 53.

Ramos explained that the company wants to improve its distribution “strategy” for the next quarter. In addition to picking up the products in the warehouse, the owners of micro-SMEs will be able to access Nihao 53 products in other provinces of the Island. It will be a way to alleviate the “very undersupplied market” in the interior of the country.

The director of Business Development for Nihao 53, Mario Ríos Vidal, criticized the sphere of possibilities for wholesale sales on the Island as “insufficiently exploited.” The coronavirus pandemic, he said, was an incentive for China to decide to promote that market modality in Cuba.

“We analyzed the competition, what we could offer to the Cuban market, and what its fundamental needs are,” Ríos explained, although he did not describe what “competition” he was talking about in an economic context like the Cuban one.

The most promising area so far, he said, has been what is known as “sublimation”: the personalization of objects and garments with the brand that the client wants. This is “a virgin sphere” on the Island, in which Nihao 53 is a pioneer, celebrated Ríos.

“We not only place the merchandise on the website but we also follow up on the purchase. We intervene in the process and the after-sales because we want feedback. We want to know the users’ feelings, if they are satisfied or pleased, and we cover their expectations or any problem they have in order to reinvent ourselves and improve,” he added.

One of the Cuban MSMEs that systematically accesses the services of Nihao 53 is KeDetalles, a company that sells personalized gifts “through the sublimation technique.” “This alliance has been of vital importance,” its owners told Sputnik, since the Chinese portal “leads them by the hand” in the purchase process.

Another “pleased” company is Manualidades María, which also sells products with its “sublimated” brand. “Until now there was no company that gave us the possibility to buy here, without the need to import, a very cumbersome process for our small business.”

However, Nihao 53 cannot be congratulated for much more. Outside the category of small items and printing – the only things well-stocked – the offer is poor. Although they promise “new lines” of chicken, sausage and flour, the least attractive thing on the platform is, precisely, the gastronomy.

Mostly canned products, sweets and some foods are the only things for sale. In addition, you have to buy them in large quantities and at unreasonable prices: a pallet of small juice boxes costs $1,166.

The company offers the “star product” of the shops that sell to Cuba and the MSMEs: beer. For 52 cents a can, a very competitive price, it offers the Belgian product but, of course, you have to buy it by the pallet for more than $1,200.

The most striking prices are those of construction materials. A crate of transparent acrylic slabs is $3,700; 60 slabs of glass 4 millimeters thick cost more than $4,100, and the same amount, 6 millimeters thick, exceeds $5,500.

Other categories, such as machinery, textiles and furniture, are completely empty, while cleaning products are sold in excessive quantities if you’re not thinking about resale.

Despite the low supply and the poor viability of the platform, Nihao 53 receives the client with an optimistic voluntarism: “Cuba dreams, undertakes and grows.”

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Universities of Cuba and Spain Sign Collaboration Agreements in Havana

Staircase of the University of Havana. (14ymedio)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 4 July 2023 — Universities of Cuba and Spain signed more than 15 collaboration agreements during the meeting of rectors and higher education authorities initiated this Monday in Havana to strengthen bilateral academic and scientific cooperation.

The participating rectors presented the portfolio of activities, courses, scholarships and possibilities for collaboration between Cuban and Spanish institutions, with a tradition of academic exchange, as reported by the Ministry of Higher Education of Cuba on social networks.

The meeting is spearheaded by the Cuban Minister of Higher Education, Walter Baluja, and the president of the Ibero-American Postgraduate University Association and rector of the University of Seville, Miguel Ángel Castro Arroyo.

During the Cuba-Spain university meeting, the Ibero-American collaborative program of doctoral training in artificial intelligence will also be presented. “Invigorating the internationalization of higher education is a priority of the sector in Cuba,” the Ministry said.

He also indicated that the meeting of the Cuban and Spanish rectors “values new opportunities for bilateral collaboration” and is “a space conducive to agreements, agreements, mobility, joint projects, double degree programs and doctorates, among other expected results.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With 30 Percent of the Expected Cane Sown, Another Disastrous Sugar Harvest Is Coming in Cuba

View of the Agroindustrial Sugar Company [Azucuba] November 30, in Artemisa. (El Artemiseño)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 June 2023 — The sugar cane planting campaign in Cuba makes us fear the worst, again, for the next harvest. In Sancti Spíritus, only 30% of the harvest plan for the spring campaign – which runs from January to June – was fulfilled, said Aselio Sánchez Cadalso, director of Coordination and Supervision of Azcuba, the state sugar company.

In statements to the official press, the official said that work in the field was difficult due to the intense rains of recent months, mainly in March, when it is “decisive” to start planting.

Sánchez Cadalso recognizes that they can take advantage of soil moisture for seed germination, especially since 95% of the sugarcane areas of Sancti Spíritus depend on rain, not having irrigation systems. However, he insisted that due to the rainfall in June, it was impossible to make progress in the work.

He acknowledged that there are delays in “almost all areas of attention to the cane,” which is also obstructed by the lack of agricultural inputs due to the “difficult economic situation that Cuba faces,” which has hindered the import of fertilizers and herbicides. This has forced producers to look for alternatives in agro-ecological techniques, the official said.

The Sancti Spíritus sugarcane fields exceed 123,553 acres, including recovered areas that were previously covered by marabou weed. The director of Azcuba explained that in these areas today, varieties of Cuba 86/12, CP 52/43 and Barbado 80/250 seed are sown, genetically improved to have high sugar yield, adaptation to the climate and early maturity. continue reading

On the other hand, the production process has been disastrous in every way. In March it was reported that the Majibacoa mill, the main one in Cuba located in Las Tunas, had ground 56% of the cane planned for the harvest, and now the results from Artemisa have come to light. Pablo Valdés Amador, director of Informatics, Communications and Analysis of the November 30 Agroindustrial Sugar Company, detailed the poor results of the 121 days of the struggle: 58.4% of the planned raw material was ground, and only 44.9% of the planned sugar was produced, equivalent to 8,306 tons.

According to an article in the provincial newspaper El Artemiseño, the sugar mill started the grinding after 30 days of delay, which results in a lower yield and low use of the factories. Valdés Amador listed the string of problems they faced this year, including difficulties in harvesting and delays in the transportation of raw material to the plant due to the lack of fuel.

Wilfredo Moreno, the Azucuba director of harvest, said that the company must find a way to capture income to meet the payment obligations with the producers, since this also delays the harvests. For him, between July and August “we can’t waste time on equipment maintenance and repair,” prior to the start of the 2023-2024 season.

Although Azcuba has not yet given the final data of production for the 2022-2023 harvest, last May the Government warned that production had barely reached 350,000 tons, well below the 400,000 required for domestic consumption.

Two months earlier, Ángel Luis Ríos Riquenes, an engineer from the state sugar company, said that some sugar mills would finish the harvest in April and others in May, but warned that there was a risk that climatic conditions will affect the schedule again.

The 2022-2023 harvest started at the end of last November with a target of 455,198 tons after the meager results of the previous agricultural year, when production closed at its lowest level of the last century, and only 68% of the planned 1.2 million tons was met.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Diaz-Canel Resumes His Visits to the ‘Potemkin Villages’ To Learn About Cuba’s Successes

Díaz-Canel visited a successful farmer and the Rafael Freyre School Sports Initiation School. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 30 June 2023 — Early this Thursday, Cubadebate announced the visit of Miguel Díaz-Canel to Guantánamo, one of the most forgotten provinces on the Island but one that has recently been on the tips of everyone’s tongues. First for the resounding protests against the Government — followed by the corresponding arrests — last May, in the municipality of Caimanera. In recent days, a UN report has urged the United States to close its prison on the naval base, where prisoners continue to suffer “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” something that the regime has not wasted in order to reclaim that territory.

“They are going to take Díaz-Canel where things are a little better, because we don’t have anything,” said a commentator on the news. It wasn’t hard to predict. The president visited a successful farmer and then the Rafael Freire School of School-Sports Initiation, which the official press describes – accepting its slow construction – as a place “with teaching buildings, dormitories, sports facilities and other essential infrastructures for its operation in perfect condition, beautiful and very well maintained.”

The space had everything, including a little house for the children of workers and athletes, although its capacity is not anything to rave about, since of the 20 places available, only six children have been able to be accommodated. “At the time of the President’s visit, they were taking a nap, so they walked into the cozy space almost on tiptoe and spoke very quietly,” explains Cubadebate.

From there, Díaz-Canel went to the Manuel Simón Tames Guerra Polytechnic Agricultural Institute, built thanks to international collaboration (the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the United Nations Development Program). There, the president also had time to speak about the importance of these schools, “inspired by Marti’s teaching and Fidel’s idea of combining study and work.”

He also spoke with Jorge Fernández, the farmer at his first stop in Lajas de El Salvador. At 32 years of age, the young man abandoned his dentistry career and “turned to the land,” where he now manages 445 acres under cultivation. Cubadebate praises the attitude of the producer, who had already met with Díaz-Canel on a previous visit to ask for more land, “certain that he could use it to support the demand for food in his municipality and the provincial capital and also contribute to lowering prices.” continue reading

It is left to the reader’s imagination to know why he left a prestigious university career in the second year, but it does explain how he obtained 297 acres of bananas and fulfilled his commitments, being able to incorporate his production into the ’family basket’ [in the rationing system] of the inhabitants of El Salvador for three months. Soon he will plant this fruit again – with seeds from Villa Clara – and plans to grow corn, soy and sweet potato. The leader asked him if the intermediaries paid him on time, if he had supplies and if he adequately remunerated his workers.

“You are still young and it is very important to continue learning,” Díaz-Canel urged the producer, who “promised him that he would think about it, but ’after I manage the farm, which is large and needs a lot of time and effort.’” And with this dialogue the president left, happy to have found a farmer who is doing well and who can serve as an example for him “to encourage others.”

The result of the visit went as planned. Also, hours before, another reader described what was going to happen without missing a beat: “It’s a shame that these visits are ’guided’ because visitors don’t see the reality of ordinary Cubans. If visitors want to meet a farmer, they are taken to the best one who has all the resources to produce, who does not complain about anything. Many times these farmers are even reinforced with inputs, like cattle from other properties, so that visitors see what the leaders want them to see. If they go to a community, they take them to the improved, painted one. If they go to a market, they supply it one or two days before and do not sell the products until the day of the visit. So there are plenty of examples to show that this type of visit is not a faithful indicator of the reality at the base, because our problems are the same as always and are increasing.”

The Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, had a more cumbersome role on the Guantánamo tour. He visited the town of Cayamo, in the rebellious Caimanera, which suffers from drought, shortages and a housing supply with 40% of the homes in regular or bad condition. He also met a group of citizens who expressed their concerns and problems.

Marrero endured the barrage as if it were not his fault and asked that they look for help and “different solutions. The Government’s policies for that are approved,” he said. In addition, he asked the citizens for patience: “It will not be from one day to the next, but surely you have seen that agreements have been made with other countries that will give us new opportunities.”

From there, and after promising new homes thanks to the community’s brick-producing company – which allocates 24,000 units a month to subsidized construction – he went to the Frank País salt plant, where the workers told him about the problems of distributing the product. In the company there are 3,000 tons stopped due to lack of transport, and 700 more waiting to be delivered.

According to the director, Darlyn Elisástegui Columbié, the poor state of the railroad has complicated the situation, but there are already several containers on their way to the provinces “most affected” by the lack of distribution.

“I am worried about the abandonment of the company. No dry salt is produced, and there is a lack of quality in the manual packaging process,” Marrero said after seeing the workers who deal with this phase. But at the end of his visit, the recipe was the same as always: “The blockade is going to continue, let’s unblock ourselves, let’s open ourselves. Let’s not look for so many explanations for the problems and find more solutions,” he exhorted.

It was another one of the readers’ prophecies fulfilled. “So far I don’t see that the advisory and directed government visits have yielded any results. It’s the same thing over and over again, and things are getting worse every day.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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