Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 148

Victims of Crimes Prefer Not To Call the Police, Three Officers Lament on Cuban Television

Raúl Cano, head of the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation, Manuel Valdés, head of the “confrontation body” of the Department of Investigations and Hugo Morales, national head of Patrols. (Captura)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 June 2023 — The Police appeared this Monday on Cuban Television to lick their wounds from the wave of violence, robberies and murders suffered by the country and to denounce its coverage by the independent press. It is, insisted the agents in the Hacemos Cuba TV program, incidents of “isolated criminal behavior” that “the usual enemies” magnify to make the Ministry of the Interior look bad and argue that Cuba is a “failed State.”

The program, moderated by the presenter and spokesman of the regime, Humberto López, is the extension of a recent editorial on crime published in Granma, where it was admitted that the Police solve only 60% of the crimes on the Island that do not involve firearms.

Hugo Morales, national head of Patrols, and Raúl Cano, head of the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation, provided another fact: 2% of the total crimes in which a person has lost his life remain unresolved, despite the fact that they are given “superior attention.”

The unclosed files “remain on the table,” apologized Cano, who assured that the “continuity of investigation is permanent” in each of the cases – he did not specify how many – “until it is possible to give an answer to the relatives of the victims.” In addition, they added the data that Granma had provided days before: 10% of crimes involving a firearm also remain unsolved.

None of these numbers worries the officials too much, whose real concern, they said, is that Cuba’s reputation in terms of citizen security is maintained. According to the State media, the independent press intends to “sow panic” in the population and establish a “parallel world.” To exemplify the “manipulation” of reality, they cited three alleged crimes disseminated on social networks: the assault “at gunpoint” of a bus on route 436 in Havana, the theft of cell phones and clothes in the pediatric ward of Güines (Mayabeque) and the kidnapping of a child in Havana.

“None of these facts are true,” said Morales, who did not allude, however, to the dozens of crimes reported by the independent media with abundant documentation and testimonies. continue reading

The Police are “the first to arrive on the scene” where a crime is committed, the agent guaranteed, and after “verifying the real existence of the facts, they guide the victims on how to preserve the site.” Then, he says, the “rest of the systems” are contacted, such as forensics, Public Health and State Security.

Morales explained that the Ministry of the Interior is working on the “neutralization of the criminal potential” of the Island and that it intends to strengthen surveillance on the roads. In addition, it will not fail to promote “alliance” with the informers assigned by the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution to ensure “the control of people who are prone to commit criminal acts.”

For his part, Cano regretted the reluctance of the population to contact the Police. “If someone is robbed and doesn’t report it because he thinks that there will be no response, he is depriving law enforcement agencies of knowing the perpetrators of those crimes better.”

He stated that if what prevents the making of complaints is fear, the Police have “ways” to maintain the protection of “collaborators” who help dismantle “criminal chains.” “It is an ethical principle to preserve the identity of people and protect them, even with guarantees before the law, when they provide information that is useful in the investigative processes,” Manuel Valdés, head of the “Confrontation Body” of the Technical Department of Investigations, said in his speech.

Valdés was alarmed by the “new ways of operating of criminals” and the increase in judicial processes – almost twice as much now as in past years, he said without specifying the data – to which Cano replied by noting that the Police had “scientific knowledge, preparation, dedication and the incentive of creativity in the investigation.” The key, he said, is to develop criminology and “avoid concentrations of criminal acts.”

Even so, he warned, “it is possible that results are not always achieved.” For the rest of the program, the officers spoke about citizen security on the Island, where there is no need to wear, they celebrated, “bulletproof vests or protective backpacks.” “You can’t talk about insecurity in a country where a boy can play in a park without fear of being kidnapped or where you don’t have to hide a child to protect him from a shooting in the middle of a residential area,” they said, in a veiled allusion to the United States.

We must not forget the vocation of the Cuban Police, the agents emphasized, to which Fidel Castro attributed the condition of being “the best in the world, the most organized, the most prepared and also the most human.”

According to the official press, the agents have carried out 11,500 actions to prevent and confront crime so far this year, and their work has resulted in the arrest of more than 12,000 people. Although Hacemos Cuba dodged the obvious conclusion throughout the program and none of the agents dared to rattle the cage, the data – even incomplete – do not lie: as long as the crisis lasts, the escalation of violence is unstoppable.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: In Search of the Lost Tourist

Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, June 27, 2023 — Nobody understands how it is still possible that some leaders of the Ministry of Tourism of Cuba, at this point in history, continue to believe that the recovery of the sector on the Island will happen “through their efforts.” It is a way, like any other, of denying reality and imposing political ideology on rationality and economic efficiency. Tourism will only come out of the hole it is in if a solid and powerful private sector directs it at the national level.
If this is not understood and the arguments are not convincing, the necessary recovery of tourism will not occur in the short or medium term, no matter how much the communist leaders believe what the “experts” say.

Specifically, 70 journalists from 10 countries specialized in tourism, spent a week in Havana “with all expenses paid by the government.” What are these guests going to say, entertained in luxury by those who want to hear their opinion? Their assessment leaves much to be desired. Maybe we should ask the tourists who come to the Island and don’t return. That information is, without a doubt, much more useful for making decisions.

The data is eloquent. So far in 2023, Cuban tourism is still 40% below the level reached in 2019, the last normal year before the COVID-19 pandemic. Other destinations in the Caribbean have already far exceeded the records of that year, but tourism in Cuba has slowed down and does not stand out. There is something that prevents the sector from prospering. The claw of the communist state has a lot to do with it, but attention must also be paid to other issues.

For example, the Regime’s plan for tourism, which has been reported ad nauseam, hopes to close this year with 3.5 million foreign visitors, which could bring the figure closer to the level of 2019 but without reaching it. In reality, no one believes at this point in the year that the plan will be fulfilled, so all the establishments that depend on it are cutting back to avoid major losses.

And what about the state’s tourism promotion policy? It’s not enough to stop in Varadero, as the island’s main vacation hub, and in Havana, for the international tourist demand that arrives on the Island. This model worked in the 1950s. It’s true that it was interrupted between 1959 and 1990, when international tourism was reopened, but there is now a repetition of tourist destinations and centers of interest. Shouldn’t we start thinking about other kinds of attractions? continue reading

And what about hotel construction by the communist state? According to official data, Cuba already has more than 300 hotels, some with four and five stars, and 70,000 rooms distributed throughout the archipelago. But the leaders think that this is insufficient to make a real impact on the entry of travelers, so the state continues to build hotels and then transfers their management to foreign tourism companies. As all the money comes from the same place, what is invested in tourism has to be deducted from other social and infrastructure needs, and then hotel occupancy doesn’t increase beyond 16%. The disaster is total and absolute.

And what about the communist state’s reaction to technological challenges? This is even better. The leaders have discovered that “information technologies and their relationship with tourism must be strengthened.” This conclusion was reached during the XVI international seminar on journalism and tourism by the “experts” of the José Martí International Institute of Journalism in Havana. They proposed some “tourist recipes” that should give results in a relatively short period.

The conclusion was that electronic communication networks have to be extended to all hotels in the nation and other establishments that require it. The seminar talked about “tourism 4.0” in the fourth industrial revolution and about digitization. This is an academic topic, undoubtedly interesting for those countries that have experienced the previous stages of tourism 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, which in Cuba have neither been transited nor expected.

So wanting to skip those phases and go directly to tourism 4.0, where there is supposed to be “a digital traveler who uses these tools before, during and after his vacation (…) who is always connected, informed and requires fast services, along with personalized treatment,” is an absolute nonsense that can end up giving a much worse result than the current one. It can’t be rushed. When the state directs and controls an economic sector – in this case tourism – these things happen that no one can understand.

It is the same as speculating about the future of Caribbean tourism as a global tourism product, which must be prepared for a new era. The Caribbean has been successfully functioning since the 1950s and has been earned prestige on its own merit, but if you want to make a realistic diagnosis you have to forget about the Caribbean as a homogeneous space and verify that there are many Caribbeans, and in that variety is the success of the destination that other areas of the world do not have. The problem, in particular, is how to place Cuba in the context of the successful tourism of the Caribbean, and the conclusion is that it’s not easy.

For example, the real estate sector, which is absent in Cuba, has been one of the strengths of the Caribbean destination that attracts loyal tourists and stable residents, who generate a very solid and effective demand. In fact, the sun and beach as a basic element of the offer is more than surpassed, and no country in the area bets only on that combination. Those who come late, as happens in Cuba, should think of other more sustainable and lasting proposals. But this is what happens when the state directs and controls a sector. Its priority is not profitability and business continuity but to fill the coffers with foreign currency and then allocate it later to unproductive and inefficient activities. And that vicious circle has to be broken so that tourism means something real for Cuba.

State leaders of tourism policy always have the possibility to evade their responsibilities, which are many, and they use the easy argument that the problems of the sector on the Island are due to eternal difficulties: inflation, international trade situations and of course, naturally, the pressures of the United States against Cuba, precisely in economic matters. But in reality, all that affects other countries that have had great success in the recovery of the tourism sector. By the way, in all these countries, the state has no participation, nor does it direct or control tourism.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Tragic Week in Cuba, With the Third Feminist Murder in Five Days Confirmed

Nelbys Leyva, 37 years old, had a daughter. (Facebook)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 23 June 2023 — This Thursday, the Cuban independent feminist platforms Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo raised to 45 the total number of femicides verified so far this year in the country, with the confirmation of a new sexist murder.

The victim was Nelbys Leyva, 37, with a daughter, who allegedly died at the hands of her ex-partner on June 16 in Guanabacoa (west).

The formal complaint comes just one day after both groups confirmed two other victims of sexist violence in Cuba and four days after they registered two other femicides, in one of the most tragic weeks of the year.

So far in 2023, the total number of femicides verified in 2022 (34) has already been exceeded in Cuba, according to the records of the activists and collated by 14ymedio and EFE (in the absence of official public statistics).

In addition, the collectives have counted 163 sexist murders in Cuba since mid-2019, when they began to register them.

The activists called on the Cuban government to declare a “state of emergency” for “gender violence.”

The work of independent feminist collectives and its dissemination in the unofficial media has contributed to putting the focus on the cases of sexist murders and the disappearances of Cubans in recent years. continue reading

These groups also advocate a comprehensive law against gender violence and the implementation of protocols to prevent these events, as well as the creation of shelters and rescue systems for women and their children who are in danger.

Last April, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel assured that there would be “zero tolerance” of sexist violence.

The official Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) gave a presentation at the beginning of June to the Cuban Observatory on Gender Equality, which includes statistics of “women who have been victims of intentional homicide as a result of gender violence in the last 12 months.” However, the data are not clear, based on convictions corresponding to the year.

The Supreme People’s Court reported in mid-May that in 2022 there were 18 convictions for sexist murders, all with penalties above 25 years in prison. However, it did not indicate when they occurred or detail the number of cases investigated that year.

The announcement was published after the court itself confirmed the sentence of life imprisonment for two men previously convicted of sexist violence.

These are the first sentences against perpetrators of femicides for the crime of murder, given that the crime of gender violence does not exist on the Island. They were made public in 2023 and correspond to cases filed in 2022.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Government’s Pace To Rebuild the Houses Destroyed by Hurricane Ian: 13 Percent in Six Months

The Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, on the left, during this Thursday’s meeting at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Madrid, 23 June 2023 — Nine months after the passage of Hurricane Ian through Cuba, 70% of the homes destroyed in Pinar del Río are still not built. That was the central theme of this Thursday’s meeting at the Palace of the Revolution led by the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz. They also discussed the effects on the houses in Camagüey, Las Tunas, Granma, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba after the intense rains of two weeks ago.

If you take into account that in December of last year, 83% of families were affected in Pinar del Río, it means that in six months only 13% of the cases have been solved.

“It is inconceivable that we have a material resource and it is not in place,” said the official press, referring to the “constant dissatisfaction of the people with the limited advance of the pace of the recovery of the housing fund.”

Although the article published jointly by Granma and Cubadebate describe a “deep analysis” that “left no gaps for self-indulgent expressions” at the government meeting, the title accounts for the impotence of the State to solve the problem: “We have to find the solutions together.”

Marrero expressed himself again in voluntarist terms, saying that it is necessary to “trace a different strategy to accelerate the recovery, which isn’t going at the pace demanded by the population.” continue reading

Without detailing what that different strategy would be, the prime minister continued in the same tone: “We cannot leave it to spontaneity; we have to control; we have to conduct this process and the search for solutions until we finish.”

Marrero did not specify whether or not the theft of material had occurred but declared: “In all these affected provinces, we must apply the established laws to whoever is caught diverting resources.”

He also acknowledged that “there is a lack of attention, of visiting people, getting inside their homes,” because “it is demonstrated on the ground that things can be done, despite this cruel blockade we are experiencing,” referring, as usual, to the United States embargo.

Among so much vagueness, he gave some discouraging data on the “compliance” of the housing plan for the month of May: only 13% of the subsidy program has been completed and 9% of the eradication of dirt floors.

What is affecting the completion of the homes, says the prime minister, is “the lack of electric cable and carpentry.”

Hurricane Ian, which passed through western Cuba at the end of last September, left the province of Pinar del Río as a “disaster zone.” The tobacco industry, the main one in the province, suffered, in the words of the Government itself, “the biggest blow in its history,” and more than one hundred thousand homes suffered significant damage.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Filmmakers Meet To Express Their Disagreements With the Cultural Authorities

The meeting took place at the Chaplin cinema in the Cuban capital. (Assembly of Cuban Filmmakers)

14ymedio, Havana, 24 June 2023 — More than a hundred Cuban filmmakers expressed their disagreement with the authorities about the decisions made with a documentary about the Argentine singer Fito Páez and his relationship with the Island. The creators, grouped in the Assembly of Cuban Filmmakers — which includes the prestigious director Fernando Pérez and the actor Jorge Perugorría — held a meeting this Friday with leaders of the Ministry of Culture and the Communist Party to face the controversy unleashed in mid-June.

The controversy gained strength when a state television program broadcast the documentary Fito’s Havana, directed by Juan Pin Vilar, without his permission. Faced with that fact, an initial group of 58 creators criticized the cultural authorities for violating “ethical principles again and again.” The list has been increased to 600 signatories of the manifesto.

“This meeting was not as extensive as the one that took place on November 27, 2020, where there were exponents of all artistic disciplines. It was something more like a guild of filmmakers,” director Manuel Alejandro Rodríguez Yong, one of the participants in the discussion, explained to 14ymedio. “I think that even so, the possibility of working together with many of the problems that affect us was raised.”

The meeting was moderated by Ramón Samada, president of the official Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC). Present, on behalf of the Government, were Deputy Prime Minister Inés María Chapman; the head of the Ideological Department of the Party, Rogelio Polanco; the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso; the president of the Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC), Luis Morlote, and the leader of the Hermanos Saíz Association, Yasel Toledo.

According to Rodríguez, logistical problems that depend on the administration of the State were discussed, but also ideological and political issues. “Everything will depend, too, on us (the filmmakers) managing to organize ourselves,” he said. continue reading

“The meeting was first supposed to take place on the ninth floor of the ICAIC, but then the Assembly of Filmmakers asked that it be held in a more open place. That’s why the Chaplin was chosen.”

According to Rodríguez, several creators didn’t attend because they didn’t find out and others because they “don’t trust that type of meeting.” Exiled filmmakers such as Carlos Lechuga and Pavel Giroud were asked to “find a way to attend through digital channels,” says the filmmaker.

“Among the names mentioned was that of Lechuga. What happened to the movie Vicenta B, more than a censorship of the work, was a punishment to the director. There was also talk of other filmmakers who are making movies outside of Cuba, but who are part of Cuban cinema. They have to be part of the discussions,” he said.

According to the EFE agency, Chapman said during the conversation that “there is a willingness to dialogue and work as a team to achieve concrete results in the face of all the demands expressed.”

For its part, a statement from the Ministry of Culture pointed out that “the approaches of the artists deserved the greatest attention of the leaders of the institutions. The artists listened carefully to the arguments of the representatives of the institutions and expressed their opinions in total freedom,” according to the text.

It is not the first time that there has been a confrontation between the artistic sector and the Cuban government in recent years. On November 27, 2020, hundreds of people staged a sit-in before the Ministry of Culture to protest the arrest of the members of the San Isidro Movement, including the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who remains in prison.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Roundtable TV Program Gives Cubans an Accelerated Course on Basic Capitalism

Archive image of a worker at the Empresa Azucarera de Ciego de Ávila. (Invasor)

14ymedio, Madrid, 22 June 2023 — The Cubans who tuned in to state television last night to watch the Roundtable program were able to listen to a revision of all the socialist economic policies that Cuba has followed in the last 65 years. The discussion was not so surprising, since citizens are seeing for themselves the reconversion of the Island’s system towards a capitalism of oligarchies, as well as the public recognition that what has been done for decades does not work.

Professor Ileana Díaz Fernández, invited this Wednesday to the program to talk about state companies, put on the table concepts until recently almost entirely prohibited: the generation of wealth, layoffs, free wages, bankruptcy, debureaucratization and even the harmful effects of capped prices.

“The mechanism that exists in the country is that when there’s a problem you have to handle it. And when you have to be handling every problem until it’s resolved, another one comes along,” she began. She went on to explain that the economy is distorted, especially the micro enterprises, and she blamed their problems on price controls.

“When you begin administratively to say you can’t raise salaries here and you have to lower them there, and you begin to establish a set of elements, salary scales or whatever, you begin to interrupt the logical and normal process that must be maintained to have a virtuous circle for the company,” she argued. The specialist, who believes that it is the businessman who should make the decisions, enunciated what until now was anathema.

“We don’t have to be afraid of the market (…) You have to access the market, and the market begins to see signs: if you have the money to access the market, you will be able to buy into the market; if you don’t have the money, you will not be able to enter. If a company is more efficient, it will have better conditions for that access,” she added. continue reading

Without departing from the path she had taken, she continued to talk about the relative freedom of wages. “What if I want to increase the salary of my workers? If we’re afraid of that, what will happen?” she said, acknowledging, however, that this situation has limits, due to the resulting increase in prices. Díaz Fernández then continued with another topic that has been such a taboo in Cuba that there are special concepts for workers who are dismissed, calling them “interrupted,” or in the “process of availabiliy.”

“The businessman also has to make decisions about whether he has enough staff, and of course he has to protect that staff, no one can deny that,” she argued. “He has to get the company to create wealth, with a higher percentage of profitability. Why? Because to the extent that he creates wealth, he not only meets the needs of the population but also those of the State, since he will pay more taxes and make greater contributions to the State budget,” she said.

According to this same logic, she considered that it is perfectly admissible for a company to disappear. “Can you go bankrupt? Yes, because some companies are born and others die. In human life it happens and in companies the same,” she concluded.

In the midst of all this ideological introduction to capitalism, the professor finally explained a practical measure that the future Law of Businesses — the reason for the issue to be addressed in the program — will introduce, which is the classification of them into three types.

The regulation will provide for a first group, composed of about a thousand companies with autonomy. “The Constitution of the Republic says that the State company is autonomous and in reality it is not completely autonomous, because many times it has to wait for countless authorizations for the management and search for markets, although it will have to yield results,” she added.

Another type will be the subsidized businesses, fundamentally those that are linked to the ’basic consumer basket’ [rationed goods]. Finally there are the monopolies, strategic sectors that are especially dedicated to supplies such as water, electricity, gas and fuels, among others.

Díaz Fernández wanted to make it clear that the changes will be gradual and that necessary markets will first have to be created, including inputs, labor, and especially foreign exchange. This lowered the expectations of the viewers, but the discursive change was noteworthy. “Changing the rules of the game is imminent, because a macroeconomic stabilization program won’t work if we don’t have a program of structural transformation of the economy,” she emphasized.

Her speech was preceded by that of Johana Odriozola Guitart, Deputy Minister of Economy and Planning, who spoke of the steps that preceded the future law, such as the creation of the SMEs and the transition to a less administrative and more financial economy, and she presented some data about the State sector, the protagonist of the night.

Currently, there are 2,417 State enterprises, of which 1,872 are “traditional” and the rest are newly created: State SMEs (116) and subsidiary companies (159). The deputy minister said that State companies contribute 92% of sales, 75% of exports and 87% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in addition to employing 1,431,000 workers (compared to the 200,000 of private ones).

The disproportion, generated by decades of exclusivity, does not make them more important, defended Odriozola Guitart, but it does explain that it is urgent to make decisions, because of the weight they pose in the national economy.

Surprisingly, the situation in terms of losses has improved in the last two years, since there are 278 companies with losses, compared to 500 in 2021. In any case, she indicated that in 309 entities the profitability on net sales is less than 2 cents. “They are not at a loss but they really exist in a miraculous static state and are very susceptible to any increase in costs.”

The Round Table was also attended by the director of Aica Laboratories, belonging to BioCubaFarma, Antonio Vallín García, who spoke at length about the difficulties of working at the international level. He praised some of the measures taken to date and called for more progress, including the creation of professional regulatory entities, instead of ministerial ones. “I think the first thing we have to do is deregulate,” he said.

In this context, the ministry plans to launch the new law this year, and although the deputy minister pointed out that it will not be enough, yesterday’s session made it clear that the language, at least, is moving ahead.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Authorities Predict That Dengue Fever Will Enter an ‘Epidemic Phase’ in Guantanamo

Cases of dengue increase every year due to the lack of the Abate pesticide, insecticides and even fuel to fumigate. (Minsap)

14ymedio, Havana, 24 June 2023 — The dengue fever situation in Guantánamo is “in the prelude to the epidemic phase,” the authorities warn in the local press. With a 30% increase in outbreaks of contagion, the level of alarm in the Provincial Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology has now been raised. The director, Leonel Heredia, blames the upturn on the rainy season and foresees an even darker outlook when September arrives.

Guantánamo now registers, in 548 homes, 705 outbreaks of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the transmitting agent of dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever. The municipalities most affected so far are Manuel Tames, Guantánamo and Caimanera, while Maisí and Yateras show the lowest rates of infections, according to Heredia. The situation is analogous to that of Santiago de Cuba, where the authorities already describe the development of the disease as “worrying.”

The water tanks in the homes are still the “favorite” place for the proliferation of the vector, Heredia said, and his office has developed an “intensive” plan to control the reproduction of the mosquito, although he considered that families have to do their part with the cleaning of stagnant waters.

As soon as the rainy season began, Santiago de Cuba issued an alarm about the increase in medical care due to febrile syndrome and reactive cases. The provincial newspaper Sierra Maestra warned that the territory had “great possibilities” of moving towards epidemiological events of not controlling the viral infection.

“It is expected that in the coming weeks suspected cases of dengue will continue to appear,” the newspaper warned, also acknowledging that the control of the disease “has slowed” due to the economic difficulties of the Island, which limit “the size and scope of anti-vector and other actions aimed at eliminating environmental conditions favorable to the insect.” continue reading

Last February, BioCubaFarma announced that for this year it expects to have the first vaccine candidate against dengue, after almost a decade of research. Cuba began the studies in 2013, but Eduardo Martínez Díaz, president of the state pharmaceutical group, justifies the delay by claiming that “it is a complex process,” because dengue has four serotypes and each one must be immunized at the same time for the drug to be effective.

The Government publicizes that Cuba will have the first vaccine against the disease, but in reality in 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved a drug with the trade name of Dengvaxia, manufactured by the French Sanofi Pasteur. This serum has been validated in 20 countries but is not available on the Island.

The Guantánamo health authorities also warned of an uptick in COVID-19 infections, with 10 confirmed cases in the last two weeks in the municipalities of Guantánamo, El Salvador and Manuel Tames. Although they said that the patients were not in serious condition or at risk of death, the epidemiologist insisted on using masks at mandatory sites and continuing the vaccination schedule.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Critique of Cuban President Diaz-Canel’s Speech at the Paris Summit

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel speaking in Paris. (cubadebate.cu)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 23 June 2023 — We already know that Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel went to the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris with nothing to offer. At the expense of the meager Cuban budget, basically, he took some souvenir photographs, checked in with friends like Lula and Guterres and said things that could very well have remained unsaid. But of course, as president pro tempore of the G77+ China, he has several doors open to forums like this, and you know, you have to denounce the embargo/blockade wherever and however. Public spending in Cuba finances this kind of thing. There is no investment in housing or infrastructure, but not a penny is spared in propaganda.

After all, attending these conferences does not usually have any benefit other than the media coverage, and one should not expect anything else. The only one who wins from all this is Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, who is seen with a nervous smile behind his boss in all the photographs. He has managed to stick his nose into a conference that has been foreign to Cuba. Welcome!

The whole thing wasn’t much fun. Just a few minutes before it began, not far from the headquarters of the summit, a building had exploded with a gigantic column of smoke, and it was also raining, a typical Parisian day, gray and dark. The inauguration of the event was given by French President Macron who, sitting in shirt sleeves next to Díaz-Canel, did not look very comfortable in the day’s sessions.

And then, when his turn came, Díaz-Canel took advantage of his moment of glory and launched into a speech that can best be described as harsh, diffuse and critical of the central theme of the event, which was the definition of a new contract between the North and the South to face growing challenges related to climate change and development in this context of multiple crises. His advisers were not wise with the content or the statement. continue reading

According to the Cuban communist press, Díaz-Canel was grateful for the invitation to participate in the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact, which he described as “another starting point towards a broader intergovernmental process of discussion and decision-making within the framework of the United Nations.”

He presented himself as president of the Group of 77+China, which he described as “the most representative group of developing nations and the one that has historically been the flag and spokesperson for the claims that bring us together today.” Sheer propaganda.

Having said the above, he went into the matter, noting, “I do not reveal any secret if I affirm that the most nefarious consequences of the current international economic and financial order — deeply unjust, undemocratic, speculative and exclusionary — have a stronger impact on developing nations.”

Of course, I would not expect much applause when saying this kind of thing, which no longer connects even with the most revolutionary France of all time. Messages of this caliber are not only part of an ideologized analysis of reality, but they no longer serve to define the current scenario of the world economy.

In the crazy and undiplomatic thesis of Díaz-Canel’s speech, he said that “it is our countries that have seen their external debt practically double in the last ten years, that have had to spend $379 billion of their reserves to defend their currencies in 2022, almost double the amount of new Special Drawing Rights allocated to them by the International Monetary Fund.”

But of course, at no time did he say that Cuba’s indebtedness is not mandatory or forced, that no one uses a shotgun to force it into debt. However, the countries that go to the financial markets, get loans and then spend without control, without rhyme or reason, so that the impact of the investment is zero, only get into more debt. As Fidel Castro said, indebtedness is not something bad. What’s bad is the country that receives the money and then wastes it.

And of course, Díaz-Canel said that “in such unfavorable conditions the South cannot generate and access the 4.3 billion dollars annually necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in the remaining decade of action.” Of course he can’t agree, because Cuba doesn’t pay its lenders, as was proven in the London trial.

But let’s not generalize. There are countries of the South that receive generous investments, loans and financing every year because they are up to date on payments, and thanks to that the South develops and becomes “North.” But Díaz-Canel doesn’t understand this scheme, nor does he share it, and he doesn’t want to and can’t see it. As a reactionary communist, he is anchored in ideological positions unrelated to the world in which we live.

That is why he further hardened his speech by saying, “our people cannot and should not continue to be laboratories of colonial recipes and renewed forms of domination that use debt, the current international financial architecture and unilateral coercive measures to perpetuate underdevelopment and increase the coffers of a few at the expense of the South. It is urgent, like the greatest of all emergencies, to have a new and fairer international order.” This argument is false, and, in addition, those laboratories and recipes are only present in a mind incapable of understanding reality and benefiting from it. That argument of the enrichment of a few at the cost of the South could have worked in the 60s of the last century, but not today.

Díaz-Canel’s recipe, to the misfortune of Cubans, is the same as the one of Fidel Castro, who evaded the current situation and said, “it will be essential to face, as has been discussed here today, a reform of international financial institutions, both in matters of governance and representation and access to financing that properly takes into account the legitimate interests of developing countries and expands their decision-making capacity in financial institutions.” And who is going to be in charge of the reform? Díaz-Canel and those who don’t pay, maybe? What does Díaz-Canel intend to do, perhaps control the lending banks and decide who receives the money?

But then, contradicting his previous allegation, he said that “in the 21st century it is unacceptable that most of the nations of the planet continue imposing on us obsolete institutions inherited from the Cold War and Bretton Woods, far from the current international configuration and designed to profit from the reserves of the South, perpetuate the imbalance and apply interim solutions to reproduce a scheme of modern colonialism.”

The Cold War, if I remember correctly, ended in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall and a year later with the collapse of the Soviet empire and the ideology that sustains the Cuban regime. It’s too bad he didn’t realize it. But the international order of Bretton Woods, which Díaz-Canel mentions, disappeared almost twenty years earlier, when the gold standard was abolished and the free flotation of the dollar was decreed. But it’s okay. Díaz-Canel believes that these institutions are still in force because his regime has been locked in a time capsule that was closed in 1959 and that has not been touched by reality since.

At this point, he devoted himself to saying things he does not know about, such as, “multilateral development banks must be recapitalized to improve their lending conditions and meet the financial needs of the South. This includes the call for countries with unused Special Drawing Rights to redirect them towards these banks and developing countries, taking into account their needs, special circumstances and vulnerabilities.”

Díaz-Canel wants to recapitalize banks with money of dubious origin. If indebted countries do not improve their balance of payments, the only way to increase money to meet financial needs is the international monetary expansion that generates more inflation. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Subsequently, he asked that “official loans be increased for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Our countries need additional resources that are supported by concrete actions in terms of market access, capacity building and technology transfers.”

Cuba barely produces 5% of its energy from renewable sources. But it should really invest in these projects and not waste money on unproductive current spending. In no case is any clue offered as to who is going to pay off the loans. This does not enter into Díaz-Canel’s perspective.

And then, to close, he asked for measures of progress in terms of sustainable development that go beyond the gross domestic product. Fortunately, he did not dare to cite the “human development index” of the United Nations that places Cuba in an astonishing 77th place out of almost 200 countries in the world. He also referred to climate change and described as “deeply disappointing the goal of mobilizing 100 billion dollars a year up to 2030 for climate financing.” He added non-compliances and the impact of inflation, undoubtedly thinking about the one that currently hits the Cuban economy, a 45.5% year-on-year rate in May, which rises to 66% in the case of food.

And he closed by going into harangues in defense of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals and of alleged North-South relations and coexistence on the planet. Plus he quoted Fidel Castro in a speech from 10 years ago: “Today it is possible to prolong the life, health and useful time of people; it is perfectly possible to plan the development of the population by virtue of increasing productivity, culture and the development of human values. What are you waiting for to do it?” I repeat, the hermetic time capsule with which Castroism has locked up Cubans since 1959 is impregnable.

Díaz-Canel said goodbye with something like “Let’s not ignore the warnings, let’s not underestimate the emergencies. Let’s act with a sense of being an endangered species. Let’s act with a sense of humanity.” He should take good note of his own harangues. The situation to which his policies have led the Cuban people are very similar to that agonizing description that is difficult to find in the world of the second decade of the 21st century. What Diaz-Canel can be sure of is that, with this type of speech, they are not going to give him money. The cupboard will still be empty. When will he learn?

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Alert in Cuba for Two More Femicides and an Assault on Six Trans Women

Miriam Isern Mompie and Yanet Mejías González, victims of sexist violence on the Island. (Collage/Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 June 2023 — The femicides of Miriam Isern Mompié in the municipality of Manzanillo (Granma) and of Yanet Mejías González in San Luis de Jagua (Santiago de Cuba), and the aggressions suffered by six trans women in Cárdenas (Matanzas) by a group of five men, raise the alert for the increase in sexist violence in Cuba.

Mompié’s body was found by her son last Sunday. The 59-year-old woman was “killed with a knife,” CubaNet published, along with a blow to the head. Her ex-partner, with a criminal record, was arrested the next day in the province of Camagüey.

Yanet Mejías González was killed by machete blows last Friday. Her former partner and perpetrator of the crime, Michael León, surrendered the same day.

Mirielis Garbán, cousin of the killer, told Radio and Television Martí that the subject “had already been imprisoned.” She also said that Mejías González, 24, worked at the Gustavo Machín Psychiatric Hospital and “had several family problems” after she separated from León.

With these two cases, there are now 44 femicides on the Island so far this year. continue reading

The platform Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba (YSTCC) reported last Monday on Twitter that they were working on the information received about two alerts of sexist violence in Santiago de Cuba, one in Trinidad, another in Melena del Sur, and one recently reported in Manzanillo.

Violence against women is one of the issues for which there is no official information in Cuba, said the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory (OGAT). “This prevents citizens, civil society and academics from evaluating the extent of this social phenomenon.”

“In a country with more than 40 femicides in just the first six months of the year, the few existing resources are used by the political police to repress, imprison and silence women who want to be an active part of the political life of the country,” OGAT said, alluding to the “short-term” forced disappearance of activist Eroisis González.

This Wednesday, trans actress Kiriam Gutiérrez Pérez said that on the corner of Tenería and Rubí, in the Matanzas city of Cárdenas — a meeting place of the LGBTIQA community — a group of men threw stones and bottles, causing injuries to six trans women. In the police unit at Linea and Velázquez, the complaint was not accepted; the agents argued that “gender-based hate crimes are not processed.”

Those affected presented certified documents of the injuries and were stationed outside the municipal prosecutor’s office. “Enough of hate crimes, impunity, discrimination,” Gutiérrez Pérez demanded. “Cuba is getting worse every day. Women of all ages, boys and girls are raped, and the competent authorities do not act, except to repress those who dissent.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Electric Minibus of Sancti Spíritus, an ‘Invention’ of the Cuban Military That Does Not Take Off

The vehicle does not have solar panels but a generic charger and a and a mess of cables whose design is a source of jokes for the locals. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spiritus, 21 June 2023 — Almost three months of testing have not been enough for the electric minibus designed by the Armed Forces in Sancti Spíritus to stop being an experiment. The prototype of the vehicle, announced with great fanfare by the official press in April, is about to enter a rough terrain for its operation: the blackout season.

Those who manage to ride the eleven-seater minibus now wonder how the authorities will be able to propel the vehicle in the hottest months, with an overwhelming deficit of electricity and the multitude of passengers waiting to be picked up on the busiest route in the city: from El Chambelón to the hospitals, by way of the Central Highway.

The vehicle does not have solar panels but rather a generic charger — it incorporates energy very slowly — and a mess of cables whose design is a source of jokes for the locals. “They’re more expense than benefit,” one of the drivers complained aloud on Wednesday, while commenting on the sign that the garish yellow minibus has on its chassis: “100% electric.”

It is not known if the military will take the step to mass production. Technically, the bus continues to circulate in test mode, although it does so on a fairly well-paved and straight road. On the Central Highway – which divides Sancti Spíritus into two halves – there are also several key points for the population, such as the bus terminals, the hospital area and the space of the agricultural fair. continue reading

In April, when the local press praised the “clear coherence” of the army and its Military Industrial Company, it predicted that it would not be long before the yellow vehicles filled the streets of the province. It was, they said, a step to alleviate “the depressed state of public transport.”

They asked the authorities, of course, for “financial support” to maximize the potential of the “invention,” whose technical name is VES002. “The project is in the process of technical evaluation in order to know how it functions and the operating parameters that allow defects and problems to be corrected in advance,” said Escambray.

It was planned that, if everything went well, the military would start the production, taking advantage of the import of “five electrical supports,” starting points for the assembly. Once the “small fleet” was built, the Armed Forces planned to delegate the operation of the vehicles to an allied private enterprise. As of now, the business continues without much success.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In the Midst of the ‘Desertion’ Crisis, Cuba Aspires to 70 Gold Medals in the El Salvador Games

Cuba busca llevarse 70 medallas de oro, afirmó José Antonio Miranda en una conferencia de prensa celebrada en el hotel Crowne Plaza. (JIT) — Cuba seeks to win 70 gold medals, stated José Antonio Miranda at a press conference held at the Crowne Plaza hotel. (HIT)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 June 2023 — Despite the unstoppable exodus of Cuban athletes at foreign events, the sports authorities have great ambitions for the next Central American and Caribbean Games, which will be inaugurated next Friday in El Salvador. The Island will compete with 503 athletes in 32 sports disciplines and calculates that it has a chance to get second place in the competition, after Mexico.

According to the Salvadoran newspaper El Mundo, Cuba is one of the big favorites of the competition. The statements of José Antonio Miranda, the official to whom the National Institute of Sports (INDER) assigned the leadership of the delegation that traveled to San Salvador, are equally optimistic: Cuba seeks to take 70 gold medals, he said at a press conference held at the Salvadoran Crowne Plaza hotel.

To achieve the mark, Miranda affirms that the Island — “a world power” when it comes to sports — has an arsenal of athletes who, in total, have won 84 world titles, 69 silver medals and 82 bronze medals. The manager does not resist the temptation to compare his own medal table, with 235 medals obtained in the region: “After the United States, Cuba has won the most medals in the history of the area.”

At the head of the delegation are the judoka Idalis Ortiz, two-time world champion, who won several medals at the Olympic games in London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, and the boxer Julio César La Cruz, winner, also on two occasions, of the Olympic belt, and five times of the World Cup. continue reading

Supporting these already historic athletes is a large number of athletes whose average age, Miranda said, is 23 years old. The official regretted that the Island saw its chances of winning more honors reduced due to the cancellation of several disciplines, such as women’s water polo, in which the Cuban delegation planned to stand out with 13 athletes.

About 380 members of the Cuban group — 75% — have experience in previous international events, while 123 make their debut in this competition. Miranda guaranteed that everyone had received excellent preparation to achieve “maximum performance” and that the contest will be the opportunity to “evaluate” the participation of a group of athletes in the 2024 Olympic Games, to be held in Paris.

Cuba’s strengths continue to be combat sports — boxing, wrestling, judo and fencing — but it has excellent possibilities in chess, canoeing, athletics, men’s volleyball, water polo and handball, and field hockey in both sexes.

On this last sport, Miranda avoided alluding to the escape of several of the members of the women’s and men’s delegations. In the case of the first team, three of its players managed to escape during the team’s training in Spain and now live as refugees in that country. Interviewed by this newspaper, they denounced the terrible living conditions to which they were subjected in their hostels on the Island.

Nor will the table-tennis player Thalia de Armas return to Cuba after her agreement with Club Jerez in Spain, where she traveled last May. According to sources of sports journalist Francys Romero, the habanera will seek to continue her career in Europe.

The decision, Romero said, is a break with INDER, which managed the contract with Spain. Cases such as De Armas are, along with the abandonment of official delegations, increasingly frequent. Despite the difficulty of restarting her career in another country, the tennis player has something in her favor, says the journalist: her youth.

Thalia de Armas jugó 15 partidos con el Club Jerez y sólo perdió tres encuentros. (Facebook/Thalia de Armas) — Thalia de Armas played 15 games with Club Jerez and only lost three games. (Facebook/Thalia de Armas)

According to the statistics of the 2022-2023 season, in 15 games with Club Jerez, De Armas won 12 games and lost the remaining three, with a productivity rate of 80%.

Between May and so far in June, six Cuban athletes have used Spain as an escape door. Last Sunday, sports-shooting athlete Mitchell Onel Orellana left his team during training in Granada, where he was preparing for the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador 2023. According to the official media Jit, this discipline faces numerous difficulties in achieving a successful training, due to the ” lack of bullets and electronic systems” of counting.

Orellana’s desertion was almost on a par with that of handball players Arisleydi Márquez, Yudisaday Rodríguez, Melisa Arias and Geidy Maceo, who took advantage of their stay in another European country, France, to escape.

Several weeks earlier, the discus thrower Denia Caballero left the Cuban team after winning the silver medal at the Meeting Diputación de Castellón (Spain) with a throw of 63.17 meters. According to Romero, since the beginning of this year the Cuban Athletics Federation “hindered” the athlete’s negotiations with Portugal, “breaching the management agreement with a club” and motivating her dissatisfaction.

Another Olympic medalist and world record champion, Yaimé Pérez, deserted after the Island’s sporting failure at the XVIII World Athletics Championship held in Eugene, Oregon.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘Green Banking’ in Cuba Will Wither Before it Begins

Lines at Cuban ATMs grow on weekends (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 12 June 2023 — Another surprise arrives from the Island. A report in the state press says that “green banking is being encouraged in Cuba, aimed at promoting products and services focused on biodiversity,” from the incorporation of regulated risk management for the development of green financing and banking eco-efficiency practices.

What do you think? In a banking system controlled and managed by the state, inefficient, unable to encourage the use of electronic instruments by a population that distrusts these entities, they now announce “green banking.” It reminds me of that phrase of distraction used by Fidel Castro, before taking over the means of production and the property rights of all Cubans: “This revolution is green like the palms.” Well, no, it ended up being red and bloody, and history is there to confirm it.

So don’t believe it. This report on “green banking” is not very relevant. To begin with, I have my doubts that it can be launched on the Island under current conditions. This is just one more of the many examples of the regime’s propaganda to distract people from talking about the country’s real problem: the lack of food, gasoline and electricity.

As has already been pointed out, green banking is represented by a series of financial institutions that offer financing for renewable energy projects to activate the fight against climate change. The main reasons for investing in this type of project are concern for the future of the planet, climate change and the growth prospects of these energies.

Therefore, there is an increasing number of banks that are betting on investing in “green” projects that allow renewable energies to be a main source of energy around the world. In Cuba, it is worth remembering, renewable energies barely represent 5% of the country’s electricity generation, and the investments that must be made are conspicuous by their absence while waiting for some foreigner to opt for the Island. continue reading

In any case, it should be remembered that green banking arose as a result of the limited aid that the governments of many countries offered to the development of renewable energies, so that financial institutions, betting on their corporate social responsibility, started programs to support clean energy.

From there, green banks began to offer very attractive loans, under more favorable terms than the market average, to private individuals and companies that, by investing in these energies, began to pay lower bills for the use of renewables and even, in some countries, to supply the surpluses to the network, for which they obtained income. So green banking, while betting on profitable investment projects, boosted the economy and employment and managed to curb climate change. In many cases, the costs of financing the investment were covered by the benefits derived from energy savings, especially for large consumers.

And here comes another aspect to take into account. As in many other areas of modernization, green banking originated in the United States as a result of the lack of attention of the government of that country to support green energies with public funds. So the first entity that opted for this business model was the Connecticut Green Bank. These are public institutions, controlled by state governments, that invest through loans in renewable energy projects at the same time that they are dedicated to attracting the savings of private investors to this type of investment.

Another problem. Savings in Cuba are scarce, and in addition, they are subject to the financial priorities of the mechanism with which the regime covers its public spending needs, placing government bonds in banks. Therefore, it will be difficult to mobilize resources for green banking initiatives in Cuba.

However, the state press says in its report that the regime offers, until 2025, a training and awareness-raising process to guarantee the success of the progressive application in the national territory of green banking, meaning that the issue is still incipient and that it can end up being filed in a drawer if the demand, as expected, is not activated.

In this regard, the authorities point out the commitment to “promote products and services focused on biodiversity, from the incorporation of environmental risk management governed by regulations to developing green finance and banking eco-efficiency practices. In addition, they plan to encourage the mobilization of resources for such purposes as the sustainable management of biodiversity, climate change, the rational use of natural resources and environmental quality.” Resources? From where?

What’s more, producers or economic actors who think of these projects as a profitable option will not be attracted by advantages in interest rates or by some type of guarantees, because these indicators in the Cuban financial system do not adjust to supply and demand but are the result of administrative decisions. Also, the level of the productive business sector in Cuba is not in a position to place this type of initiative in its business plans, even less so at the individual level.

Taking into account which type of project can be financed with green banking, there are only those “aimed at the conservation of biodiversity; the reduction of pollution; the use of natural resources such as water, land degradation and desertification; strengthening agricultural systems to contribute to food security and credits for renewable energy purposes.” It is not easy to identify private economic agents, like small enterprises or self-employed workers, who can be eligible for this type of initiative.

Little is known about the facilities provided by the regime for the importation of renewable equipment, basically nothing. It’s another unsuccessful measure. Cubans are worried about other things that are very different. Understandably.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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For the Cuban Foreign Minister, Chinese Espionage Is a ‘Disinformation Operation’

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez during a press conference for foreign media in Havana. (Screen capture)

EFE (via 14ymedio), 13 June 2023 – Cuba described this Monday as “false” and “a new disinformation operation” the statements of the U.S. Government about the presence of a Chinese espionage center on the Island.

“The statements of the Secretary of State of the United States (Antony Blinken) about the presence of a Chinese espionage base in Cuba constitute a falsehood,” said the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, in a statement released on his Twitter account and official media.

The head of Cuban diplomacy pointed out that “Cuba’s position on this issue is clear and categorical” and stated that Blinken’s statements “lack support.”

“Cuba is not a threat to the United States, nor to any country. The United States applies a policy that daily threatens and punishes the Cuban population as a whole,” stressed the Cuban foreign minister.

He also said that Washington’s accusations are intended to “serve as a pretext to maintain the economic blockade against Cuba and the maximum pressure measures that have reinforced it in recent years.” continue reading

Secretary of State Blinken said on Monday during a press conference that Joe Biden’s government has “a strategy” to counter Chinese espionage in Cuba and other countries that is yielding results.

On Saturday, the U.S. Government declassified information from its intelligence services that claim that since 2019, or even earlier, China has had some “intelligence collection facilities,” a term that can include anything from centers with dozens of spies to a simple listening station equipped with an antenna.

According to those reports, when Joe Biden arrived at the White House in January 2021, he received information that China was trying to expand its intelligence services around the world with the creation of espionage centers in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Blinken made those statements days after The Wall Street Journal published that China and Cuba had agreed to build a large espionage center on the Island, a report that the Government of Havana categorically denied and that the White House initially described as “inexact.”

The Deputy Foreign Minister of Cuba, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, said that what was published by the New York newspaper was “unfounded information,” “slander” and “fallacies” to justify the U.S. sanctions against Cuba and destabilize the Island.

For its part, the Chinese government accused the United States of “spreading rumors and slander.”

One of the spokespersons for the White House, John Kirby, responded this Monday at a press conference to questions from EFE that “we have made our concerns clear,” when questioned whether there had been any communication with the Cuban Executive on this issue.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Three Dead and a Girl Gravely Injured After an Accident in Mayabeque, Cuba

The accident occurred in the vicinity of the Bacunayagua bridge, in Puerto Escondido, on the border between Mayabeque and Matanzas. (Girón Newspaper)

14ymedio, Madrid, 13 June 2023 — At least three died and nine were injured — one seriously, a girl — after a collision between a tanker truck and a passenger truck near the Bacunayagua bridge, in Puerto Escondido, on the border between Mayabeque and Matanzas.

The victims were from Alquízar, Artemisa, and were on an excursion to Varadero, Cubadebate reported.

According to the official press, whose source was a doctor from the Comandante Faustino Pérez hospital, around 7:30 a.m. eight people injured from the accident, four of them “red coded,” were transferred there. Two of the deceased, whose names have not been reported, died in the emergency room. The first victim lost his life at the scene of the accident, official journalist José Miguel Solís reported on his social networks.

Of the rest, two are in “stable severe” condition in the intermediate care room, two are “with care” and two others are under observation.

Three minors were also admitted to the Elíseo Noel Caamaño pediatric hospital, also in the city of Matanzas. The most serious, Nayeis González Villamil, ten years old, is “in intensive care, with severe cranial trauma.” Estefany González Villamil, 13, and Harly Romero Cruz, seven, are hospitalized but not in danger of death. continue reading

According to data from the National Road Safety Commission, published last month, 243 Cubans died and about 2,300 were injured in the more than 3,000 traffic accidents recorded in Cuba between January and April of this year. In other words, on average, two Cubans died every day and 19 were injured on the roads.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Castro’s Tortures

Inmates in the Combinado del Este are subjected to discriminatory treatment, labor violations, and physical and mental torture. (EFE)

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 10 June 2023 — The NGO Prisoners Defenders, led by Javier Larrondo, has presented a report entitled “First Comprehensive Study on Torture in Cuba,” a well-prepared work that demonstrates how the Cuban totalitarian regime ruthlessly abuses its citizens regardless of age, sex or any other condition.

According to the document, the work began in 2022 based on 15 patterns of torture and 181 victims, who “served as a random and statistically representative sample of a group of 1,277 civilian political prisoners, all of them tortured in Cuban prisons in the last 12 months.”

“Eighty percent of those random cases suffered more than five types of torture, and children and young people are two of the most tortured groups. Gabriela was a protester on 11J who went to prison at the age of 17. According to written and oral testimony, the guards made her squat, put their fingers in her vagina and threatened to rape her. She still suffers emotionally from the many things they did to her, says the document.

This kind of research is fundamental for those who remain determined not to see the tragedy that the Castro regime has meant for Cuba and Cubans, a situation that undoubtedly repeats itself in Havana’s allies (Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia), as well as in other countries that are attracted by totalitarian temptation.

In 2012, under the direction of the filmmaker Luis Guardia and the pro-democracy activist Francisco Paco Lorenzo, we produced a documentary entitled Castro’s Tortures, a historic film that can be found on social networks, which shows how from the moment Fidel and Raúl Castro came to power, torture and the violation and abuse of human rights have not ceased on the Island. continue reading

The film begins with Castro saying that in Cuba there has never been repression, torture or murder, and it continues with former political prisoner Abel Nieves responding that even as a teenager he was tortured. They put him on his back, his arms at his sides, unable to move, with water running over his body. He concludes by saying that he spent seven days in that wet coffin, one of the gloomy drawers of the Atares Palace in Havana.

Abel, a 21-year-old prisoner, was a man of great moral integrity but very affected by the numerous abuses he suffered. His dedication to the Cuban democratic cause was absolute, and his commitment throughout imprisonment was extremely remarkable.

Orestes Pérez, a 28-year-old prisoner, like other prisoners in Topes de Collantes, was tied to a large stone and thrown into a pool to get him to denounce his companions. Evelio Ancheta was savagely tortured in the gloomy cabañitas with sudden and radical temperature changes. He was also thrown tied up into a swimming pool, and the family was misinformed about his condition. Aurelio Hernández, in the same place, was injected with sodium pentotal, received electric shocks and was subjected to simulated shootings , as was Rigoberto Hernández. Prisoner Annete Escandón did not suffer from mental problems but was given 20 electroshocks in the Mazorra hospital for three months, the same as other prisoners, including Raúl Salazar, who suffered severe consequences from the torture.

It would be painful to describe all the witness statements in the documentary. In addition to physical abuse, there are “violations of labor rights, the legislated violation of due criminal process, the violation of multiple fundamental rights and freedoms such as freedom of thought, expression, assembly, association, movement and religious freedom, among others. Other aspects are the legislated impunity for abuses by the authorities, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, provisional imprisonment and the lack of defense lawyers in Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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