Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 149

Cuba Negotiates With Russia for the Delivery of 32,000 Barrels of Oil per Day for a Year

Deposits of the Russian state company Rosneft. (Energy Newspaper)

EFE/14medio, Moscow/Madrid, 13 June 2023 — Russia and Cuba are preparing an intergovernmental agreement for Russia’s Rosneft to supply 1.64 million tons of oil and hydrocarbons annually to the Island, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said on Tuesday during a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Mishustin.

The Prime Minister, who is on an official visit to Russia, commented that on Tuesday he spoke with directors of Rosneft, who informed him about the progress of the working group created to prepare the agreement between Havana and Moscow.

According to Marrero, this agreement seeks to guarantee the “stable supply” of oil to Cuba.

Marrero stressed the validity and importance of this agreement for his country and acknowledged that Cuba is experiencing difficulties with the supply of fuels.

Researcher Jorge Piñón, from the University of Texas, informed 14ymedio that the amount of oil that Havana is negotiating with Moscow (1,640,000 tons) is equivalent to 32,000 barrels per day.

“This will cover Cuba’s deficit of 90,000 barrels per day, assuming that Venezuela continues to deliver 57,000 barrels per day. At today’s prices, approximately $58 a barrel for Urals crude oil, the total value is about $676 million per year. How is this debt going to be paid?” continue reading

For his part, Mishustin, who meets for the second time with Marrero as part of his visit, stressed that Russia “considers the strengthening of friendship and partnership with Cuba as an unquestionable priority.”

The head of the Russian Government added that the cooperation between Moscow and Havana “has passed the test of time and repeatedly demonstrated its stability in the face of external challenges,” among which he cited the economic sanctions of the “unfriendly countries.”

Mishustin reported that both countries are working on the creation of a bilateral financial system of payments and have begun to trade based on national currencies, the ruble and the Cuban peso.

On Tuesday, the Cuban Prime Minister met with the former Russian president and vice president of the Russian Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev, to discuss bilateral cooperation, including the technical-military, transport, industry and investment spheres.

In particular, they talked about cultural and humanitarian cooperation and the scholarship program for Cuban students, as well as the creation of a special school for the teaching of the Russian language in Cuba.

Marrero, who has already participated in the intergovernmental council of the post-Soviet Eurasian Economic Union and has held meetings with senior Russian officials, plans to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum this week.

In the midst of an unprecedented rapprochement, Havana bets on the “generosity” of Moscow, which has already sent several loads of hydrocarbons. The Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, had already promised Manuel Marrero “the execution of large joint projects” in the oil field.

In this regard, Piñón stated in an interview with Radio Televisión Martí, last Wednesday, that Cuba lost one million barrels of storage during the fire in Matanzas and that, given the need to make space to store the 800,000 barrels of high-quality crude oil that arrived on the Island from Russia, it is likely that the loads of two of the oil tankers from Venezuela have been resold.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Official Press Does Not Report It, but Cuba and South Korea Are Exploring How To ‘Strengthen Trade’

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin in a file image. (EFE)

14ymedio, Madrid, 13 June 2023 — Cuba and South Korea, which do not have diplomatic relations, held talks last month “to discuss the strengthening of trade,” as reported on Tuesday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Asian country and picked up by the Yonhap agency.

The meeting took place between the South Korean Foreign Minister, Park Jin, and the Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister, Josefina Vidal, according to the agency of diplomatic sources, when Park attended the meeting of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), held in Antigua, Guatemala, last May.

In a press conference, the spokesman of the South Korean Foreign Ministry, Lim Soo-suk, said that “both parties exchanged views on mutual interests, including cooperation at the ACS level.”

Yonhap’s note highlights that the meeting, “not announced,” is the first high-level contact between the two countries since the one that occurred in May 2018, between the then South Korean Chancellor, Kang Kyung-wha, and her Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodríguez.

The Island is the only Latin American state with which South Korea does not have diplomatic relations, and, in addition, Cuba has never hid its closeness to North Korea. However, the agency says that’s Seoul “continues with behind-the-scene efforts to engage with the Latin American country.”

As an example, they report that the South Korean country “provided humanitarian assistance worth $200,000” after the partial destruction, in an unprecedented fire, of the Matanzas Supertank Base, in August last year.

None of this has been publicized by the official press of the Island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Gaviota and the Chinese Bases: Distracting Attention From the Serious Economic Situation? No, Thanks

Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 13 June 2023 — The Castro regime has been quick to deny two pieces of information circulating in the media and on social networks. This is unusual. The hierarchy that directs the country rarely finds reasons to lower itself to the level of media confrontation, since it exercises absolute control over the state press, propaganda and manipulation. But this time, that hegemonic position has not helped at all.

We refer to the accusation by the Secretary of State of the United States about the presence of a Chinese espionage base in Cuba, which was immediately dismissed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez, and also to the announcement made by Gaviota that rumors that Cuban citizens are not allowed to enter the group’s hotel facilities are unfounded.

The two issues, of different relevance, have forced the regime to enter into the “battle of information,” one of the axes of the discourse of the leaders that, apparently, has come to stay. This gives an idea of the level of precariousness, wear and tear and lack of contact with reality of those who hold political power in Cuba at the moment. Does anyone really believe that Fidel Castro would have engaged in a discussion at this level? In the time of the old dictator, it is most likely that none of this would have been really known, because at that time censorship worked 100% and with it the fear of being discovered. The screws have been loosened; there is erosion and a lack of criteria – the ingredients for the end of a political cycle that is already, in some way, happening.

Bruno Rodríguez, in an undiplomatic and strident tone, attacked his Yankee counterpart Blinken, saying that Blinken’s statement was “a falsehood,” and he added that Cuba is not a threat to the United States or any country. Castrista diplomacy had proven that efforts to improve its international image, by bringing to Havana the leader of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, to seal, for the umpteenth time, peace with the guerrillas, have collapsed with the controversy of the Chinese espionage base. continue reading

It’s not usual, among foreign ministers and career diplomats, that Bruno Rodríguez would use such contemptuous words, but the positions of the regime against the United States are known, and whenever they can, they attack mercilessly. Havana also said that the statements of the Secretary of State “lack support,” indicating that the issue of the embargo/blockade was going to appear immediately.

And it did. Rodríguez said that “it is a pretext to maintain the economic blockade against Cuba and the measures of maximum pressure that have reinforced it in recent years. They are the subject of growing international rejection as well as in the United States, including the demand to remove Cuba from the arbitrary list of States Sponsors of Terrorism.” Under such conditions, wouldn’t it have been easier to convene a press conference to offer all the available information and confirm that there is no base or any project to build one?

No. For the diplomacy of the regime, the Chinese base or anything else, no matter how innocent, is used to emphasize that Cuba is not a threat to the United States, or to any country. Well then, let them prove it.

It is not enough to say that “the United States applies a policy that daily threatens and punishes the Cuban population as a whole. The United States has imposed and has dozens of military bases in our region, and also maintains, against the will of the Cuban people, a military base in the territory it illegally occupies in the province of Guantánamo.” In a way, with this argument, the Cuban communist minister approves of a Chinese base against the United States, which someone could interpret as a serious recklessness of Rodríguez, a leap forward in the conflict between the two countries that can have a very problematic end.

The issue of the Chinese base in Cuba spread to the media on June 8, when The Wall Street Journal reported that between China and Cuba there was allegedly an agreement on military matters for the installation of an espionage base. At that time, the Cuban regime came forward and described these statements as false and unfounded, and the person in charge of doing so was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, who said that “slanders of this type have often been fabricated by United States officials, apparently familiar with intelligence information.”

China joined the denial when Wang Wenbin, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asked Washington to ” stop interfering in the internal affairs” of the Island and accused the administration of spreading false information. Wang Wenbin went further and accused the United States of “spreading rumors and slander,” a common tactic that “is the country’s trademark, deliberately interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.”

Later, the spokesman of the National Security Council in Washington, John Kirby, also questioned the report released by The Wall Street Journal, and said that it didn’t reflect reality. Then Secretary of State Blinken came out with his statement that there are sufficient indications of the existence of the Chinese base in Cuba.

The Cuban communists must be amused with all the back and forth, and it’s strange that their allies, Venezuela and Nicaragua, have not entered the dance. They will, of course.

The other news that has provoked official denial is the one that began with rumors and circulated on social media, confirming that the Gaviota Business Group had decided to prohibit the entry of Cubans to their hotels. The news was supported by a Gaviota corporate statement signed by a high-level official.

Gaviota denied the rumors, and in a syrupy statement on it’s website defended “healthy and quality recreation as a right for all customers and a premise for this group.” It stressed that all its customers, regardless of nationality, have the right to enjoy the services and facilities… We are committed to providing an inclusive and enriching tourist experience for all our guests, without exception.”

Finally, the statement pointed out that “at Gaviota we work to ensure that our guests have a unique experience and our facilities offer a wide variety of services and activities designed to meet the needs and preferences of each client.”

Gaviota’s statement did not have the same media pull as Rodríguez’s statements about the Chinese base. They are not issues of the same depth, but the two are united by a common denominator, which the regime pursues to impose its explanations.

In essence, let there be talk of anything, no matter how absurd, except the economic situation. It is no longer just that statistical data are not published on the ONEI website to evaluate the situation, it is that they try by all means to divert attention, launching issues that engage Tyre and Trojans in a debate that distances us from the serious economic situation in which Cubans live and the lack of effective solutions to get out of the vicious circle caused by the Ordering Task.*

In this blog we are not going to do it, because we are clear about the objective: Cubans must know that another economic and political system is possible, and that they have it closer than ever. This bickering say very little about who is at the head of the nation.

*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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With an Exchange Rate of 200 CUP per Dollar, the Peso Reaches a New All-Time Low

The dollar is scarce and there is a lot of demand. (EFE/File/Sebastiao Moreira)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 13 June 2023 — The dollar once again reaches 200 Cuban pesos (CUP), a situation that the Island had already experienced in October 2022. This time, according to analysts, it has different characteristics.

If the previous time the dizzying rise was the result of speculation, this time it’s because of the “incomplete recovery after the pandemic, especially of tourism and macroeconomic imbalances, such as the fiscal deficit,” according to Cuban economist Pavel Vidal, a professor at the Javeriana University of Cali (Colombia).

The specialist, in addition, does not see an encouraging future and indicates that most likely the exchange rate “will continue to be above 200” in the future.

Mauricio de Miranda, full professor and researcher at the same university, adds another factor: immigration. “There is a shortage of dollars and a very high demand for them,” he told EFE, which has reported on the phenomenon. continue reading

At the beginning of 2021, with the start of the Ordering Task,* the authorities announced an exchange rate of 1 dollar for 24 CUP. That was always considered by economists as totally far from reality, and it was not long before it was proven that they were right.

On the street, the dollar took little time to reach rates close to 80 or 90 pesos, and a year later, in August 2022, the Central Bank announced a modification, going up to 120 pesos per dollar for individuals and the retail sector.

But today’s situation is different from that of last October, when the 200-peso barrier was broken for the first time, according to Vidal.

In those days, Vidal recalls, there was an “overreaction to the exchange rate.”

In a new attempt to retain foreign currency in the financial sector, the Government announced last April that, after two years, Cuban banks would again accept dollar deposits in cash.

Experts saw in that announcement a contradiction to the spirit of monetary reform that sought, precisely, the opposite: to stop dollarization.

One of those critics was de Miranda, who reminds EFE that in “the national market, the dollar continues to be the currency that solves many things.”

“As long as the Cuban national market continues to offer important goods in foreign currency, the Cuban peso will not recover,” he says.

*Translator’s note: 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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Caritas Warns About the Situation of Thousands of Families After the Rains in Eastern Cuba

Street flooded by the rains in Camagüey. (Escambray)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 June 2023 — The loss of six human lives and innumerable resources during the heavy rains that eastern Cuba has suffered in recent days have set off alarms for several humanitarian organizations both inside and outside Cuba. This is the case of Caritas, managed by the Catholic Church, whose subsidiary in Cuba made a request for help that was published on Monday by Vatican News.

The damage caused by the rainfall, it says, “worsens the difficulties that the Cuban nation is already suffering,” from the “pre-existing economic crisis.”

The Caritas alert is aimed at those who want to help the dioceses – ecclesiastical provinces – of Camagüey, Bayamo-Manzanillo, Holguín-Las Tunas and Santiago de Cuba, the most affected by the bad weather. Drawing attention to the seriousness of the situation and the precariousness in which many families find themselves, the organization explained that, especially in Bayamo-Manzanillo, the panorama was uncertain: 10,000 homes damaged, crops ruined and 470 communities flooded, plus another 25 isolated from land.

Vatican News interviewed several Caritas officials in Cuba, who confirmed the extreme need for material aid in the eastern region of the country. “Streets such as Rosario, República, Palma, Avenida de la Caridad up to the funeral home, also the main artery, Candelario and the Casino Campestre present a worrying panorama due to the flooding,” María Rosa Rodríguez, director of Caritas in Camagüey, explained to the Vatican newspaper. continue reading

Rodríguez said that the scenario faced by the evacuees, who had to put their material goods under protection, is unfortunate. The damage to buildings of more distant villages, such as Vertientes, Amancio and Jimaguayú, have been “innumerable,” and “the oldest houses were destroyed by the excess of water,” he summarized. He added that the groups of volunteers who have come to those places have found “water up to and above the gutters.”

In Holguín, where Vatican News interviewed the local director of Caritas, Mariela Vázquez, the organization reported “great damage,” and announced that “the risks and losses are increasing due to the overflowing rivers.” The most affected towns, he said, are Mayarí, Sagua, Gibara, San Germán and Puerto Padre.

The scene in Santiago de Cuba, from where the official Ana María Piñole reports, is not very optimistic: “Rivers and streams flood everything. In some areas, the fields that were already recovering have been lost. We maintain communication with priests and pastoral teams located in more damaged areas, but the climatic instability still does not allow the expansion of data on the damage, although they say that the situation is unfortunate.”

After reacting slowly to the crisis, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on Monday that the United Nations agencies operating in Cuba, in addition to his ally Venezuela, have offered their help. The official press deferred coverage of the rains, which did not occupy the front page of the newspapers until several days after the damage began. The information offered by the state media alludes to the “benefit” of the rainfall: it filled the country’s dams and reservoirs.

Some newspapers have echoed Díaz-Canel’s request, such as Tribuna de La Habana, which announced, as of this Monday, a “collection of donations in the municipal governments of each territory.” “Spaces will be enabled in the headquarters of the 15 Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power of the province for the collection of donations,” the newspaper reported.

On June 7, the Institute of Meteorology of Cuba issued a special warning to explain that the cause of the heavy downpours was the combination of a trough in the middle and high levels of the troposphere, over the Gulf of Mexico.

However, the Civil Defense did not issue its usual informative stages of alert and alarm to warn citizens and institutions to take preventive measures.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba’s Captain in the World Baseball Classic Signs a Contract With a Japanese Team

Alfredo Despaigne will play the remainder of the season with the SoftBank Falcons of the Japanese League. (Capture/Facebook: Guillermo Rodriguez Hidalgo) — Alfredo Despaigne will play the remainder of the season with the SoftBank Falcons of the Japanese League. (Screen capture/Facebook: Guillermo Rodriguez Hidalgo)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 June 2023 — The captain of the Cuban team in the last World Baseball Classic, Alfredo Despaigne, formalized his contract with the SoftBank Falcons of the Japanese League (NPB) on Monday. According to the Swing Completo portal, the pre-agreement “was around the figure of 1.5 million dollars,” although the final amount was not disclosed.

In November 2021, the treasurer of the Cuban Federation, Luis Daniel Del Risco, reported that the teams that hire Cuban players must pay 20% of the salary that the athlete receives. Also, according to data from the Gaceta Oficial of 2021, every athlete hired abroad must pay a tax of 4% on what he receives.

Despaigne had said that “he had not planned to return to Japan,” where he spent six years defending the team that has finally hired him again. The agreement is for the rest of the season, the baseball player stressed. “In the years that I was there, we were four consecutive champions, and let’s hope that the fifth crown will be repeated this year,” he told journalist Guillermo Rodriguez Hidalgo.

The signing of the player from Granma, who has 184 home runs in the Japanese Baseball League, took place in the Adolfo Luque Hall of the Latin American stadium and was attended by the president of the Cuban Baseball Federation, Juan Reinaldo Pérez. continue reading

This player has a batting average p of .263, with 184 home runs and 545 RBIs. His average of bases obtained among the total number of batting opportunities yields .842, in addition to 786 hits.

Alfredo Despaigne’s best season in the NPB was recorded in 2017, with an average of .262, by connecting with 35 long balls and 103 trailers.

On Monday, the contract of Cuban outfielder Alexey Lumpuy with the American team Chicago Cubs was also made official. A native of Camagüey, age 18, he left the Island a year ago. He is an “explosive” athlete, possessing power in his arm and good throwing speed, said journalist Francys Romero. “He is the 23rd player to sign in the current international period,” the reporter said on his social networks.

The Chicago Cubs also hosted the 19-year-old ambidextrous batter, Eriandys Ramón. This Cuban athlete is part of the wave of abandonment of the country in 2022. He was on the team for the U-15 World Cup in 2018 and was currently part of Ray Castillo’s Academy in the Dominican Republic.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Government Acknowledges Having Used Diesel From the State Industry To Generate Electricity

Since April, Cuba has suffered a crisis due to a fuel deficit that has resulted mainly in shortages of service centers. (14ymedio)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 13 June 2023 — The Cuban Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil, acknowledged that the diversion of diesel from industry to electricity generation has negatively affected the country’s productive activity.

Gil made these statements in his inaugural speech at the “Three Days of Productive Economics of Cuba,” a meeting of state and non-state economists and businessmen that takes place until Friday at the Chamber of Commerce in Havana.

“In recent months we have had to consume fuel for the generation of electricity, diesel mainly, due to the breakdowns we have had in the thermal plants. And that overconsumption of diesel affects the economy, because it leaves less fuel for use in productive activity,” he explained.

Since April, Cuba has been suffering from a fuel deficit crisis that has mainly resulted in shortages in gas stations and long lines of vehicles waiting to refuel, sometimes for several days.

The Cuban government initially indicated that it was from non-compliance by the fuel supplying countries and that the effects would last at least through April and May. The situation has not improved, and the government has not given any indication of when the situation could normalize.

Gil added in his speech that this situation has led his ministry to make difficult decisions in the face of fuel shortages. continue reading

“From time to time we call an industry and tell it to shut down. We have to stop the production of steel, the production of cement. Why? To try to help the population. And we always say when we pick up the phone that we are also affecting the population. We are less affected by the blackouts, but we are ceasing to produce,” he said.

The minister stressed that the country continues to consume “a lot of fossil fuel for the generation of electricity,” something that is “limiting economic growth.”

“That’s not how the economy can function. The economy depends on the basis of a stability of fuel and electricity generation,” he said.

Gil said that Cuba would not have enough foreign currency to support an economic growth of 4%. However, last December, the minister said that the Government expected the national economy to grow by 3% in 2023, compared to this year’s 2% and the 1.3% growth of 2022, so it would not yet be possible to recover the levels of 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The official announced these figures when presenting the 2023 Economic Plan to the National Assembly of People’s Power.

The Minister of Economy focused his speech on Tuesday on the substitution of imports and the export of goods and services in order to generate foreign currency and to attract foreign investment, which he called a “strategic ally.”

He assured that Cuba is in a “productive recovery process” after “three years of a very complex economic situation.”

The Island is suffering its worst crisis in decades, with shortages of basic products (food, medicines and fuel), frequent blackouts, depreciation of the national currency, partial dollarization of the economy and strong inflation.

The minister said that the country is suffering from “very complicated inflation in recent years” and that this price increase is “one of the most visible problems that the economy has to face and solve.”

In his opinion, part of the price increase is due to Cuba’s strong dependence on the foreign market.

“We import more than 20 cents of the dollar to produce one peso of gross domestic product (GDP). We have a very high imported component. We put a lot of effort in the plans in 2016 and 2017, but we never fulfilled them. We ended up with a tendency to continue importing more to generate GDP, and that is one of the main limitations for economic growth,” he explained.

One dollar is exchanged for 24 Cuban pesos in the formal market (for state companies and legal entities), but in the informal one it has depreciated up to 200 pesos per US dollar.

Currently, he added, national supply is “very restricted” and imports do not meet demand, which has a certain consumption capacity.

“Today, a very high percent, I could say more than 90% of the products sold in our store network [that accepts payment only] in MLC (freely convertible currency) are imported. And in the national currency network, very little is sold, and a good part is imported,” he said.

To reactivate the economy, he advocated replacing imports of intermediate and final goods with “efficient” investment in national production – especially in industries with “idle capacities” – and thus generate added value and employment.

In this way, supply could be expanded, inflation could be addressed, and imports could be reduced. “All that can be done perfectly. We have the opportunity to solve it,” Gil said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Economy and Geopolitics in the New Attempt To Relaunch Relations Between Cuba and Russia

Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, in Sochi this Friday, where he met with Putin. Today, Monday, begins his visit in Moscow. (Government of Cuba)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Juan Palop, Havana, 12 June 2023 — Cuba and Russia have announced plans to strengthen their economic and trade relations, but experts doubt that they can achieve a new bilateral golden age, and they glimpse geopolitical interests in difficult times for both countries.

This week the Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, is in Russia for the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, while the opposition warns of a new “Russification.”

The visit, the last after those of several ministers and President Miguel Díaz-Canel himself last November, comes shortly after Havana announced preferential treatment for Russian investors, from transfers of agricultural land in usufruct for 30 years to tax exemptions.

These measures complete a flood of announcements – including the entry of three Russian ruble banks on the Island – and the presentation of a package of reforms of the Stolypin Institute to liberalize the Cuban economy.

Experts consulted by EFE believe that this movement can be understood to some extent by necessity, due to the serious economic crisis that Cuba has been facing for more than two years.

“After the pandemic, the tightening of sanctions and the failure of reforms, Cuba has been economically and financially isolated. Russia can be an alternative to achieve some kind of international reintegration,” says Cuban economist Pavel Vidal, a professor at the Javeriana University of Cali (Colombia).

Cuban economist Tamarys Bahamonde, a PhD candidate in Public Policy and Public Administration at the University of Delaware, also alludes to the “preferential treatment” of the past and the lack of indications that Washington will change its policy towards the Island: “Cuba has no alternative but to look at Russia and Asian partners.”

However, Vidal emphasizes that, for this approach to prosper, “it is necessary to find mutually beneficial economic interests,” something that “is not yet clear.” The great Cuban bet is tourism, he adds, although the sector has not taken off after COVID-19, and Russia is far away.

“For greater integration between the two economies, it is necessary to look for something that is of value to the market and to Russian entrepreneurs,” explains Vidal, who recalls that Russian capitalists seek to “maximize their profits and minimize risk” and must “perceive” that they can achieve this.

It’s not easy. Due in part to negative experiences in “the recent past,” the Cuban government now has “to do much more to convince investors” that “they’re going to find a market with opportunities, institutions and a regulatory framework that guarantees and allows capital to be profitable.”

Regarding the specific announcements, Bahamonde indicates that the use of the ruble on the Island could have some impact if this currency were used “massively” in international transactions, but it is not. Vidal believes that its application in Cuba will not go beyond being something “marginal.”

“It is left to see if the Russians can convince the Cuban government to give more space to the private sector and move forward in a deeper transition from the Soviet-style economic model. The Russians know the shortcomings of this model and have experience in a transition that did not go well and from which they also had to learn things. If they succeed, even coming from the Russians, it would be an important contribution,” says Vidal.

Bahamonde believes that Russia is the “wrong” partner as a model of economic transformation and says that Cuba does not need economic policy recommendations from foreign experts, because its own national experts have already made them decades ago. The problem, he says, is that in the Cuban government there is a lot of “resistance to change.”

“What is needed are not new recommendations, but the political will to do what has to be done” to “implement the transformations that have been recommended for many years,” says this economist, who emphasizes that the transformations have to include “political institutions.”

In this attempt to relaunch bilateral relations, Bahamonde perceives geopolitical interests beyond merely economic ones. “All empires have their interests” and Russia is no exception, he observes.

In this same sense, university professor Michael Bustamente, a specialist in Cuban and Cuban-American studies at the University of Miami, has said: “In the absence of other options, of other partners, and, above all, in the absence of a different policy on the part of the United States, Cuba is opting for a new intensification of its relations with Russia and is trying to obtain whatever benefit it can.

For Moscow, he continues, “Cuba is, as it has been since the 1960s, a chip on the geopolitical board.” He speculates that in the Kremlin, the relationship with Havana could be seen as a kind of “counterweight” to Washington’s “intrusion” into Eastern Europe in the middle of the war in Ukraine.

Havana, for its part, could be seeking to “indirectly put pressure” on the United States to change its policy towards the Island, says Bustamante, although henwarns that such a movement would be counterproductive.

“I know that Washington is worried,” says Bustamante, but he doubts that there will be a change of policy from the United States towards Cuba, because he senses in the Democratic administration a “lack of disposition.”

Bustamante is struck by the fact that these movements by Cuba have not had a response from the European Union, which in addition to being the Island’s first trading partner, is in one of its biggest political crises with Moscow due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“I’m surprised that Cuba isn’t taking care of its relationship with Europe a little more. It will be interesting to see to what extent Cuba can balance this new intensification of its relationship with Russia with a relationship with Europe that continues to be crucial and strategic for the Cuban economy. There is a lot of tension and contradiction, and there are risks for Cuba,” he says.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban State Is Responsible for the Death of Oswaldo Paya, Concludes an OAS Commission

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights says that there are “serious and sufficient indications” to doubt the official version.

14ymedio, Madrid/Havana, 12 June 2023 — More than ten years after the death of the Cuban opponent Oswaldo Payá, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published on Monday the results of its investigation into the case: “There are serious and sufficient indications to come to the conclusion that state agents had an involvement in the death of Mr. Payá and (Harold) Cepero.”

For the Cuban regime, the text argues, the elimination of both dissidents from the political scene had a strategic value: to cause a hard blow to the structure of the organization led by Payá, the Christian Liberation Movement, and to weaken the opposition.

A detailed report, which includes the data provided by the relatives and a direct witness of the “vehicle crash,” caused by a State Security car, in which the opponent lost his life on July 22, 2012, allows the Commission – an organ of the Organization of American States (OAS) – to contravene the official version disclosed by the Cuban authorities.

The IACHR concluded its investigation on December 19, 2022, but the document was retained until now for unknown reasons, although some pressure was expected to prevent publication or qualify the explosive conclusions of the report. Although it is not an active member of the IACHR, Cuba is a signatory of the OAS charter and, therefore, should comply with the recommendations of its human rights organization.

Last March, a bipartisan group of US senators including Democrats Dick Durbin and Bob Menéndez and Republican Marco Rubio, demanded that the IACHR “accelerate the progress of the investigation into the murder” of Payá and Cepero, arguing that they could do their “critical work” even if the Cuban government did not cooperate.

Faced with the constant refusals of the authorities of the Island to offer a complete and detailed explanation, the IACHR grants “evidential value” to the allegations of Payá’s family and other “multiple elements of evidence”: a State Security vehicle attacked the car in which Payá, Cepero and two foreign citizens were traveling, on a road in the province of Granma.

The authorities’ report blamed the driver, the young Spanish politician Ángel Carromero, of the Popular Party (conservative), for provoking the crash, and as such he was tried for involuntary manslaughter in an Island court. Carromero, forced to corroborate the regime’s hypothesis in front of the cameras of Televisión Cubana, explained, back in Spain, that he had given his declaration under duress.

There is also, says IACHR, an external eyewitness – whose identity is protected – who claimed that a State Security car hit the vehicle in which Payá was traveling, a technique with which the political police had previously tried to intimidate the opponent. In 2008, his family reported that the regime agents had loosened the nuts on the tires of his car and that, just a month and a half before his death, his car was hit by a state vehicle. In both cases, the Cuban authorities ignored the claims.

The crash occurred on July 22, 2012 on a remote road in Granma Province.

The report says that the events of July 2012 constitute, in the first place, a flagrant violation of the right to life, freedom, security and integrity of the person, but that they were not the only rights disrespected by the Cuban Government during the life of Payá and Cepero.

Systematically and to intimidate both opponents, the political police prevented them from free movement through the national territory, placed microphones in their homes in order to listen to their conversations and subjected them to discredit in front of public opinion. In addition, every time international organizations – including the IACHR – requested detailed information about the case, the Cuban State ignored the request, which, as it points out, had judicial consequences.

After Payá’s death, at the age of 60, his wife Ofelia Acevedo and his daughter Rosa María Payá were not given access to the autopsy report, a right that they have demanded on several occasions, and they were prevented from attending the trial of Ángel Carromero, which also constitutes a violation of the laws of judicial process.

Carromero was detained for three months until he was heard by a judge, which, the Commission points out, is a violation of Cuban law. The Spanish politician said that, during his arrest, he suffered beatings from the agents and that in prison he was subjected to unacceptable conditions, lack of food and lack of medical care.

The report also notes that Payá’s family can be considered “victims” of the State’s actions, since not only were their psychological and moral integrity affected, but, after the events, they were also harassed by the political police.

Ofelia Acevedo and her daughter reported that, several days after Payá’s death, they went by bus to visit Cepero’s family, in Ciego de Ávila, and that in the reserved seats there was a paper with their names. When the doors were closed, “without letting travelers board,” the vehicle began to circle around the terminal “at high speed, for no apparent reason.” Both in Havana and in Ciego de Ávila, they said, there were agents of State Security following them.

After its analysis, the Commission addresses the Cuban Government and demands reparation for the death of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero, which includes financial compensation for his family, transparency in their explanations and the generation of “conditions of return” to the Island of “all people who as a result of the events have been forced to rebuild their life projects in other places, whenever they wish.”

Likewise, taking into account the seriousness of the allegations in the report, it requires a new and more rigorous investigation by the Cuban authorities, which adheres to the truth in its results, and the adoption of a series of “mechanisms” to stop the criminalization of dissent on the Island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With Delay, Civil Defense Reacts to the Heavy Rains in Eastern Cuba

The Air Force crew carries out a rescue of families trapped in Mateo Román, in Granma Province. (Facebook/Frank Fernández)

14ymedio, Havana, 11 June 2023 — It took several days for the National General Staff of Civil Defense to react to the heavy rains that have caused flooding in the east and center of the Island. The death by drowning of a 60-year-old man in Jiguaní (Granma), the precarious evacuation of thousands of those affected and the loss of buildings and resources did not occupy the front pages of the official press until this Saturday, after Miguel Díaz-Canel said goodbye to the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, in Havana and dedicated a tweet to the serious weather situation.

According to official figures, 7,259 people have been evacuated so far, while 10,000 houses have been affected, of which 65 have suffered total and 214 partial collapse. However, the first note from the Civil Defense limited itself to reporting that the rains “will persist” in the coming hours and referred readers to the report of the Institute of Meteorology on the rainfall.

In addition, the National General Staff reported that the soils were saturated and that “risk levels will be increased,” so “don’t commit imprudences” and follow the authorities’ instructions.

Cubadebate opened this Saturday with the horrifying images of the Camagüey stadium, almost completely submerged in water, and with Díaz-Canel’s statement that he had communicated with local leaders to study the situation. “The damage is considerable to housing, roads and agriculture,” he summarized.

The rain gauge network of the Institute of Meteorology and the Institute of Hydraulic Resources reported accumulations of more than 8 inches in 14 of the rain gauges, while 53 registered values greater than 4 inches. continue reading

The senior official that the Government appointed to supervise the progress of the floods from Granma is Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca, who chairs a “work commission” to mitigate the impact of the rains. His strategy has been the “constant monitoring of the condition of the reservoirs” and, to a lesser extent, the evacuation of those affected.

Nine peccaries – a species of mammal similar to a pig – and an antelope from the Camagüey Zoo died during the floods, from drowning and hypothermia, respectively. Faced with the concerns of the population, the director of the institution, Eddy Jorge Garay, said that there had been no escape of crocodiles, lions or any other dangerous animals.

However, the most affected area so far, according to the official press, is agriculture, with 1,730 acres flooded by the rain in Las Tunas, which is one of the most significant figures. Eight municipalities in Las Tunas have also been hit hard by rainfall. Civil Defense protected 5,000 head of cattle in the province and kept them under surveillance, along with other animals.

The damage caused by the flooding of the Jobabo, Tana and Seville rivers is remarkable, they stressed, although they qualified the severity of the panorama stating – as the national press has been doing for days – that the dams of the region were filled.

As a result of the floods, the Union of Railways of Cuba announced the suspension of the Havana-Bayamo-Manzanillo train, which was to leave this Saturday and return on Monday. In addition, the Omnibus Nacionales company also canceled the services scheduled for this weekend. In both cases, the agencies announced, they will reimburse the tickets of those who bought them.

This Friday, the Institute of Meteorology published a special notice – the third since the rains began – predicting that there would be affectations in the central area in addition to the eastern one. In addition, it warned that the situation in Camagüey would reach significant levels of precipitation, as well as “isolated locations” in Matanzas, Cienfuegos and Sancti Spíritus.

“This hydrometeorological situation continues to be related to the persistence of a trough in the middle and high levels of the troposphere over the Gulf of Mexico, which maintains a humid flow from the southwest throughout the country, in combination with atmospheric instability and local factors,” it indicated.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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UNHCR Points Out Abuses Against Venezuelan Refugees in Trinidad and Tobago Without Alluding to Cubans

A total of 16,523 Venezuelans received for the first time a permit from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in 2019 that authorized them to live and work in the Caribbean country. (UNHCR)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 11 June 2023 — The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated on Saturday that Venezuelan asylum seekers in Trinidad and Tobago continue to be vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and a multitude of problems.

Last week, the Anti-Trafficking Unit of Persons of the Ministry of National Security revealed that the police were investigating allegations of abuse presented by a Venezuelan woman who had been arrested at the Chaguaramas heliport, in the northeast of the island of Trinidad.

The authorities stated that after an investigation of the complaints there was no evidence of sexual abuse at the heliport. The UNHCR stated that refugees and asylum seekers in Trinidad and Tobago “cannot regularize their immigration status, enroll in official educational institutions, access medical care or work legally.”

It said that “when it is unavoidable, governments must guarantee access to legal assistance and advice.” Likewise, the High Commissioner said he was willing to help the Government “to establish reception mechanisms that offer alternatives to the detention of refugees and migrants.” continue reading

A total of 16,523 Venezuelans received for the first time a permit from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in 2019 that authorized them to live and work in the Caribbean country and that was extended, but without meeting expectations.

For their part, several Cuban refugees in the country have also denounced the difficulties in processing their asylum applications and the close surveillance to which the Cuban Embassy in Port of Spain subjects those who emigrated from the Island. This is the case of Carlos Jiménez Vasco and his Russian wife, Daria Jiménez.

The couple escaped to Havana from St. Petersburg (Russia) after the invasion of Ukraine, to avoid the possible recruitment of Carlos, and they also fled Cuba for Trinidad on April 18, after disagreements with his family — supporters of the regime — and pressure from State Security.

According to Jiménez, the problem of Cuban refugees begins with the UNHCR itself, which does not adequately manage cases. There has been little progress with the asylum process, even after the couple’s campaign to be noticed and attention from the independent media.

Interviewed by this newspaper on May 24, Jiménez noted the precarious conditions of refuge to which he has been subjected and said that “every day is a new battle for survival.” “Although the Government of Trinidad and Tobago signed the UN agreements on refugees, it did not ratify them, and that is why it isn’t complying with them,” he complained.

“Only words and no protection,” Jiménez summarized the situation in the Caribbean country. He and his wife also suffered “a scam” by those who hosted them. “We had to sleep with rats three nights in a row,” he said at the time. When denouncing the situation in the Living Water Community – “UNHCR’s right arm in Trinidad” – the officials seemed to suggest that the owners of the house were right. Carlos faced them and recalled that, as asylum seekers, they also had the right to be treated as human beings.

Several days ago, Jiménez again denounced the stagnation of the situation and the lack of attention by the officials, to which he added the surveillance of the agents of the Cuban Embassy. In contact with several refugees from the Island, they told him that they had the impression that Trinidad and Tobago – one of Cuba’s allied countries in the region – practices a “discriminatory policy” against Cubans, and the migration services make them wait several years before giving them a response about their process.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The New Prices of Private Taxis Complicate Passenger Transport in Havana

Until now it cost 150 pesos to travel from Fraternity Park to Guanabacoa, about 11 miles. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 10 June 2023 — Under the dilapidated balconies of Reina Street in Havana, dozens of travelers try to negotiate with the taxi drivers. Since the entry into effect, this Friday, of the new prices for private transport, a discreet protest has begun: at a standstill in the taxi rank, before the nervous eyes of the inspectors, the vehicles refuse to leave.

Until now, it cost 150 pesos to go from Fraternity Park to Guanabacoa, about 11 miles. However, the General Directorate of Provincial Transport imposed a reduction in tariffs that, in the midst of a panorama of shortages and inflation, the self-employed took as an affront.

“They don’t want to leave,” one of the passengers who returns to the taxi rank says, frustrated. “Until now, it cost 150 pesos to go from here to La Cuevita, but that’s relative: sometimes you had to spend 200 pesos if you wanted to move,” claims another of the travelers.

Dressed in warm blue, the inspectors attend the scene. There is very little they can do. (14ymedio)

Dressed in warm blue uniforms, the inspectors attend the scene. There is very little they can do. The new prices were stipulated “from above” and they – while receiving the angry looks of those who wait – have neither the authority nor the means to negotiate a viable way out of the conflict.

Among the drivers there is one who knows one of the inspectors and has been beckoning to him with his hands for a few minutes. “Get out of the car, please,” the official replies, who does not want to be seen conversing with the discreet rebels. They exchange a couple of sentences, but the tension is such that the driver invites his acquaintance to “drink something,” to get out of the visual field of the others. continue reading

“Look,” the inspector refuses, “better another day. See you.” And he vanishes into the group of uniformed men.

As noon approaches and the line does not move, the atmosphere begins to warm up. Most are calculating whether the number of miles to go is proportional to the meager breakfast they had – if there was any. The solution: start walking.

Rapidly, some young people on skateboards cross through the tumult and disappear down the street. Between despair and heat, someone jokes: “At least they’re not controlled by Transport.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

The Three Attackers of a Priest’s Parents Are Arrested in Santiago De Cuba

Elsy Hung and Nelson Naun are well, said Catholic priest Leandro Naun. (Facebook/Leandro NaunHung)

14ymedio, Havana, 11 June 2023 — Cuban authorities arrested three individuals in Santiago de Cuba who confessed to having assaulted and beaten the parents of the Cuban Catholic priest Leandro Naun. Two of those involved, according to the Facebook page “Santiago de Cuba al día,” which supports the regime, have been previously prosecuted for theft.

The page added that one of the detainees is 27 years old and the other two are 21, without giving more details about their identities. All of them, it emphasized, have “terrible social behavior.” Last Monday, three masked men broke into the priest’s parents’ house around midnight, located in the Santa María neighborhood (Santiago de Cuba). When they were discovered, they beat Elsy Hung, the priest’s mother, and hit his father, Nelson Naun, on the head with a machete.

This Saturday, the priest, who is visiting Italy, reported on his social networks that his father was able to get out of bed and take his first steps, after his admission to the provincial hospital. “He has already eaten and is talking very coherently,” he said.

The wounded man underwent surgery for the injury, according to the priest. “He continues to evolve satisfactorily and respond to treatment. The inflammation has decreased.” Last Tuesday he announced that the impact to his father’s head “does not seem to have affected him seriously, but he is under observation.”

About his mother Elsy, he said that “she suffered some blows, without major damage, according to the medical examination carried out.”

The last week of May, the rector of the church of San Francisco, in Santiago de Cuba, Eliosbel Pereira, was assaulted with a machete to steal his motorcycle. He had to undergo surgery to rebuild his hand. continue reading

The church of San Charbel and Santo Tomás de Villanueva, located in the Havana municipality of Playa, was looted on April 29. They took megaphones, lights and fans, as well as an Easter candle.

The Cuban Conflict Observatory stressed that crime and citizen insecurity have intensified in Cuba. According to official figures, in the first three months of the year there were 10 murders in the different provinces in attempts to steal a phone, a gold chain and a motorcycle.

The parish of the Sacred Heart and the chapel of Jesús Obrero, located in El Vedado, have also suffered robberies. Both precincts are under the care of a priest who is critical of the regime, Lester Zayas.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Police Dismantle a Clandestine Tobacco Factory in Placetas

The Ministry of the Interior confirmed the dismantling of a clandestine tobacco factory in Placetas. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 8 June 2023 — The Facebook page “Fuerza del Pueblo,” an account linked to the Ministry of the Interior, details a police operation in the factory known as Chinchal de Tabaco, in the town of Báez, where agents seized several bags of material, molds and tools for the preparation of cigarettes. In addition, large amounts of cattle meat allegedly from the theft of cattle from local farmers was seized.

The post stated that the events took place in the town of Placetas, and one person was arrested, who will be accused of the crimes of illicit economic activity and illegal possession of cattle meat.

With the increasingly acute shortage, illegal trade often becomes the only place where a person can find several products that are not available in shops, but at exorbitant prices.

In 2021, this newspaper reported how the cigarettes produced illegally in a factory in the neighborhood of San Leopoldo in Havana gained ground among consumers when the product disappeared from state stores and cafeterias.

Then, the shortage of raw materials was combined with an increase in the price of cigarettes at the beginning of the Ordering Task,* which led many businesses to save the product in the hope of later selling at a better price. But in the clandestine plant, the rotating shifts did not stop, said the industry administrator. continue reading

The population’s complaints about the increase in crime and violence have put pressure on the authorities, who have deployed more members of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution for routine surveillance. On one of these routes, the group noticed how in broad daylight beef was being transported to a house in Placetas.

The same Facebook page reported on Monday the seizure of 133 pounds of illegally sold beef. In addition, Maykel Vega was arrested, who, upon noticing the presence of the police, tried to get rid of the product by throwing it out of the window of his house.

This week in the same municipality of Villa Clara the Ministry of the Interior seized 100 bags of cement that were being transported in a tractor to Cabaiguán, Sancti Spíritus. Sources associated with the institution said that two people were arrested at the scene, who are under investigation to determine the origin of the construction material.

On Tuesday in Ranchuelo, Villa Clara, the police also seized 12 bags of coffee from the mountainous municipality of Manicaragua, in addition to two trucks loaded with food that were trying to cross to Cienfuegos, where the merchandise would be sold in the informal market.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Rains Cause Floods in Cuba and One Death in Granma Province Due to Drowning

Imagen del reparto La Norma, donde el agua llega a la altura de las rodillas. (Facebook/José Luis Tan Estrada) — An image from the Norma neighborhood, in Camagüey, where the water was over people’s knees. (Facebook/José Luis Tan Estrada)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 June 2023 — A 60-year-old man from Jiguaní, Granma, who was not identified by the local press, is the first to die during the floods that have affected the Cuban east in recent days. The victim died “by drowning,” CNC TV said in a report about the damage caused by the rains.

Neither the official press nor the national leaders seem too alarmed by the floods. A different panorama shows the photographs that, from different towns, indicate the urgency of taking quick measures to contain the damage and prevent more human lives from being lost.

Only in the provincial newspapers is there concern for a reality to which, as has happened in other times of crisis, the authorities react too late. Inertia and clumsiness in management also seem to mark the road map in the face of this week’s rains.

The local newspaper of Granma, La Demajagua, pointed out “damage from the floods” that the local authorities were engaged in “evaluating.” Jiguaní presents, according to the newspaper, a “very tense” situation after the “overflow of the riverbed,” which caused a stampede of the inhabitants of the area at 3:00 in the morning.

The town also does not have electricity, “because the cables are down,” and the road that leads to the town of Dos Ríos is also flooded by the Contramaestre River. Throughout the province there is “severe damage to homes, bridges and other roads, as well as to agriculture.” continue reading

In the town of Contramaestre itself, the Sierra Maestra reported that “the rainfall has been strong and locally intense, with an accumulation at the end of the morning of 7 inches, the highest figure of the year.” The towns of Bartolomé Masó, with 14 inches, and Minas de Charco Redondo, with 11, “unprecedented figures” as the media pointed out, also broke records.

Jiguaní presents, says the newspaper, a “very tense” situation, after the “overflow of the banks” of the river, which caused the stampede of the inhabitants. (CNC TV Granma)

This Thursday, 14ymedio learned about the emergency due to the lack of supplies in the eastern territory. “No one can go out to look for food,” Walfrido Rojas, a resident of Dos Ríos, said by phone. “At least we had a little corn flour stored, but in our neighborhood there are people who no longer have anything to eat.”

“All the rivers of Camagüey are overflowing; water has reached parts of the city where no one remembers floods of this type,” Rosalía, a 68-year-old woman from Camagüey, tells 14ymedio by phone. “We are without electricity, and it hasn’t stopped raining since last night. Our house is made of wood, which gives us some calm, but in the neighborhood where we live, near the train terminal, numerous houses are having problems with their tile roofs.”

“People were taken by surprise because there was talk of rain but what has happened is worse than in some of the last hurricanes that we remember. Nobody was prepared for what was coming, so this has caught us totally without reserves.”

“You can’t go out; there are neighborhoods where the streets are rivers, and there are also problems communicating by phone,” Rosalía explains.

#LluviasEnElOrienteCubano "A la calle no se puede salir, hay repartos donde las calles son ríos", cuenta a '14ymedio', vía telefónica, Rosalía, una camagüeyana de 68 años | Video: ArqJulioHerrera/Twitter?? https://t.co/thLnDh156J pic.twitter.com/9FdjkIcGiR

— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) June 9, 2023

As reported on social networks by independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada, in Camagüey “the water reaches Pobre Street in the city. In addition, there are flood reports in several neighborhoods: Vista Hermosa, Piña, El Jardín, Saratoga, La Guernica, Salomé, La Mosca, Montecarlo, Jayamá, El Retiro and other lowlands.”

In addition, he complained about the existence of “dirty sewers and storm drains,” “houses in danger of collapse” and “several areas without electricity.” At 8:00 a.m. this Friday, he said, the level of rainfall in the province had reached 4 inches of water.

The accumulated rainfall in Las Tunas was 72 inches on Thursday night. The most affected communities have been those of Jesús Menéndez, Jobabo and Manatí, in addition to the provincial capital. “The rains continue! Stay alert,” the local press warned. Pessimistic, the article says not to rejoice too much over the “relief” of having filled the reservoirs, since the weather left “uncovered debts accumulated for years and effects on homes and infrastructure” throughout the territory.

Granma did not see too many reasons to worry, but emphasized, as one of its articles this Friday states, that “the waters have been good for the reservoirs.” The newspaper barely translates the damage into figures, which refer only and broadly to how many inhabitants were evacuated in each town.

Only when referring to Camagüey does the article acquire a realistic tone: “The largest amount of damage is reported in 64 homes, of which 41 partially lost the roof and 14 totally. Eight buildings completely collapsed and one partially collapsed. An elderly person was injured when the roof of his house, located in the historic center of the city, fell while he was trying to repair it, but his state of health is stable and his injuries are not life-threatening.”

This Wednesday, the Institute of Meteorology of Cuba issued a special notice, explaining that the cause of the heavy downpours is the combination of a trough in the middle and high levels of the troposphere over the Gulf of Mexico, along with a humid flow from the south in the low levels, to which is added the evening instability.

More accurate than the press, but with great discretion, the Cuban Meteorological Radars have shown the satellite diagrams that give the evolution of the rains: a compact mass, which resists leaving the Cuban east, occupies the center of the map.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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