Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 189

Dozens of Cuban Medical Students Leave Their Careers to Emigrate

The pandemic has taken away the desire of many students for a medical degree, poorly paid and with poor working conditions. (Granma)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 14 October 2022 — A few weeks ago she got married, in a white, short suit, with flowers and many photos. But the celebration for Kirenia, 22 years old, was in the simple formal procedure for her to reside in Madrid with her husband, a young Cuban who is also a nationalized-Spaniard. Behind her will be her medical career, almost about to conclude, which she abandons for fear that Cuba’s social services will hinder her exit.

“It’s been the most difficult decision of my life because I love my career,” says Kirenia, an outstanding student not only in her course but also throughout the University of Medical Sciences of Ciego de Ávila. Her parents supported her from the first moment and encouraged her to leave before obtaining her degree. “I have several classmates who are doing the same thing.”

Kirenia doesn’t know if she will one day be able to graduate as a doctor in Spain, but she will not do so in Cuba. “My grandfather and grandmother are retired doctors and have to work, because their pensions are not enough,” she tells 14ymedio. “Washing dishes in a café in Madrid I can probably live better than them.” continue reading

The winner of many school contests in her teenage days, Kirenia now no longer has a “head for books and studies” because she only thinks about the moment when the plane takes off and she can look from the window at how the lights of the Island move away.

“Since I made the decision, I can’t even sleep. I have the feeling that something is going to happen that is going to stop me from leaving, but my family tells me that I have to calm down and that everything is going to be fine.” Kirenia already announced at the Faculty her decision to leave her career but attributed her departure to a pregnancy and the need to spend more time with her husband and future baby.

However, the truth is that she can’t imagine “working more than twelve hours a day in a hospital where there are no medicines, the toilets are so dirty that many doctors spend their entire day without even urinating, and they earn a little more than 4,000 pesos that don’t serve for much.”

Together with other colleagues they have created a WhatsApp group where they exchange any scholarship opportunity to leave Cuba. “There are more than twenty, most of them are third, fourth and fifth year medical students. If they are given a scholarship, they are willing to leave medical school” and join the almost 200,000 Cubans who have arrived in the United States since last October, or, unspecified, those who have left for other countries.

The Faculty of Medicine has been one of the jewels in the educational crown in Cuba for the last 60 years. The mass graduation of health workers is part of the official policy and is displayed as one of the great achievements of the revolutionary process, in addition to providing doctors to medical missions abroad, one of the main sources for hard currency on the Island.

In six decades, between 1959 and 2019, Cuba graduated 376,608 people in different branches of the Medical Sciences, of which 171,362 were doctors. The number of those who have left their profession to exercise other economically more rewarding professions and those who have emigrated is handled with secrecy, but in hospitals there is often a shortage of qualified staff and specialists.

Artemisa province is a dramatic case: more than 20 medical students from the same year abandoned their studies, all together. “It’s not just to take advantage of Nicaragua’s no-visa policy,” Inés, the friend of one of these deserters, explains to this newspaper. “It’s also because the rumor that they will be ’regulated’ [that is denied permission to leave the country] once they earn the degree is getting stronger, and they are afraid,” she adds in reference to the ban on leaving the country that the Government applies to students who finish strategic careers, such as Medicine.

On the other hand, in the provincial hospital, “several health workers have requested exit permits and, once granted, have emigrated permanently,” says the same source. “Some ask to be discharged; others leave without doing so because they [the authorities] can delay it, and others have taken advantage of gaps in the system; for example, that they’re in their last year of specialty and have not been ’regulated’.”

In the case of Yander, age 24, the reasons for requesting dismissal from the Victoria de Girón Faculty of Medical Sciences, in Havana, were different. He entered the first year of the program a few months before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. All students were, in one way or another, sent to support hospitals in the face of the large avalanche of people infected with the virus.

“I had hardly any experience and I had to face situations that I don’t want to live through again,” he tells 14ymedio. “The main problem for me was not the fear of getting sick; I got infected twice. I also didn’t make this decision from seeing so many people die without being able to do much to help them, because even oxygen was scarce.”

Yander got tired of the health authorities using students and recent graduates “as if they were furniture… Nobody was asking us anything. They moved us back and forth to support here and there, but the conditions in which we worked were terrible. There was a week that I could only eat bread with something and a juice that I don’t even know what it was because it only tasted like water with sugar.”

“The situation of doctors is something that you have to experience to see.” The young man decided to end his career as a doctor on the day that “a companion was upset because his mother with cancer was dying, and we didn’t even have a painkiller to give her. The man assaulted me and a nurse with a chair.” That night, when he returned home, Yander hung up his white coat for good.

He now has a business selling birds in Cerro. “What I learned at the Faculty I use a lot in the care of these animals, and I also sell hamsters, turtles and rabbits, in addition to the food they need.” The days when business goes badly, Yander still earns what a doctor achieves in a week. “I don’t miss it at all; rather I feel that I was saved from disaster.”

Economic problems also tipped the balance for Nelson Sánchez Ramos’ daughter. “We decided that the best thing for our daughter is to abandon her studies,” this man wrote on his Facebook account. “The disparity between what a professional earns who must study six years to save lives and what the frontmen of the regime receive, makes you reflect on your future and the future of this country.”

Sánchez’s wife, a graduate of Medicine, ” was forced to stop practicing the profession because it’s very difficult for her to get used to living on a salary” that doesn’t even guarantee a regular breakfast. “My girl lost motivation for her studies and now she has to make a huge effort as many university students in this country do, to graduate from a profession that they may abandon in the future to be able to fulfill their dreams, or for something as basic as guaranteeing an adequate diet for her and her children.”

Wage contrasts are obvious between what a doctor earns and what the members of the Ministry of the Interior earn. “Cubans interested in training as prison officials will receive 6,690 pesos of monthly salary, after a course of five and a half months, while a newly graduated doctor earns 4,610 pesos; a resident studying his specialty receives 5,060; and in the case of doctors with finished specialties, the salary ranges between 5,560 and 5,810,” concludes Sánchez.

Others abandon their studies to use all their energies to leave the country. “My son left Medicine in his fifth year and sold everything he had to pay for the ticket to Nicaragua. He has already been in the United States for three months and works in a brigade of builders. His friends at the Faculty see him as a hero,” says Frank Vilaú, father of a 26-year-old boy. “Now he is earning enough to help his girlfriend, who also left medical school, to get out of Cuba.”

But the exodus is not only happening in university education and, specifically, in the faculties of Medicine but also at all educational levels. René, a 45-year-old father from Havana and about to leave for the United States with his children through the family reunification program, visited the youngest’s high school to communicate to the teacher that the child would no longer continue attending classes because of the imminent departure.

“The teacher almost burst into tears and told me: ’No one is going to be left here. I have several students who are in the same situation, and other teachers have also told me that the same thing is happening in their classrooms.’”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Violent Incidents with Cuban Migrants Increase in Mexico

This Wednesday 145 Cubans traveling in two buses were arrested by Migration. (INM)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 October 2022 — The Cuban Marylín Almaguer Hidalgo was injured by the police in Córdoba, Veracruz, this Wednesday, when the coyote who was transporting her along with 25 other Cuban nationals tried to flee from the agents.

They arrested the migrants after the driver lost control of the van in which they were travelling and hit four parked vehicles.

According to local media, the driver was pursued by National Guard soldiers after he passed through a toll booth located in the Cuitláhuac area. The PMC-12 patrol joined the soldiers for support, and a policeman shot several times at the van.

A bullet hit Almaguer Hidalgo, 37, in the left buttocks, and she was hospitalized at the General Hospital of Córdoba, where she was reported out of danger.

The rest of the Cubans were handed over to Migration, which transferred them to the Acayucan migration station, where 50 Cubans refused to be taken this Wednesday for fear of being deported. continue reading

Also on Wednesday, 14 other Cubans were arrested in the common land of Tampaya (San Luis Potosí). There, while the agents of the State Civil Guard were on a routine tour, they detected several vans with polarized glass and armed civilians. They shot at the officers, who repelled the aggression.

One of the vans served as a shield so that the rest of the convoy could escape. From the van metal spikes were thrown to stop the police vehicles. A little later, the coyotes abandoned 14 Cubans, two women and 12 men, who tried unsuccessfully to evade the military by hiding in the undergrowth.

Criminal groups linked to the Gulf Cartel transport Cubans in vans with polarized glass. (State Civil Guard)

The military seized, in addition to the truck, two firearms, three magazines, 19 cartridges, 39 bags of drugs and 24 explosives. The Cubans were handed over to Migration to determine their situation.

Similarly, on the same day, Migration reported the detention of 165 migrants, including 145 Cubans, in the town of San Francisco Kobén Campeche, who were traveling on board two buses.

Asked about all these arrests, a ministerial agent who identifies himself as Guillermo told 14ymedio that, in their attempt to reach the United States, Cubans are increasingly turning to coyotes and groups linked to organized crime to transit through Mexico.

“These criminals are taking the central and Gulf routes for transfers in vans,” says the agent, who adds: “What happened in Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosí is linked to criminal cells that work for the Gulf Cartel; they are in charge of transporting the illegals and bringing them closer to Matamoros, Reynosa or Nuevo Laredo to cross the Río Bravo.

Each Cuban is charged between 4,000 and 6,800 dollars for the transfer, “depending on the passage through the river and the means of transport, which goes from one van to several vehicles,” says Guillermo. “We have found that they are charged for alleged temporary permits, protections and even legal advice, but everything is false.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Protests Extend to the Zapata Swamp, Showcase of the Cuban Revolution

On Wednesday night there were demonstrations in Matanzas, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba, among other places. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 October 2022 — La Ciénaga de Zapata [the Zapata Swamp] in Matanzas, considered one of the showcases of the Cuban regime, which considers the place an example of its achievements, starred in one of the noisiest protests on Wednesday night.

“Put on the light, dickhead, put on the light, fuckers!” they shouted in Playa Larga to the rhythm of banging on pots and pans in the middle of the streets, illuminated only by the flashlights of the phones.

In the videos shared on social networks, women and children are seen participating in the demonstration, in which the most projected cry was “freedom.” In several places they chanted “the people united will never be defeated,” while banging on pots and pans with sticks and spoons.

Residents in the Altamira neighborhood, in Santiago de Cuba, also went out to protest. There, people “are throwing themselves into the street, making noise and shouting at the Government to turn on the current,” a resident of the place told this newspaper. The man explained that the caceralozo [banging on pots and pans] began minutes after the electricity service was cut off, and that State Security agents and special troops arrived at the scene. continue reading

User Echezabal JD shared on Facebook several videos of protesters in the neighborhood, one of the poorest areas of Santiago de Cuba and the most besieged by the police. The headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) is located there, whose leader, José Daniel Ferrer, in prison without trial since July 11, 2021, announced on Tuesday a new hunger strike “until the final consequences.”

Also, the inhabitants of Velasco, in the province of Holguín, went out to demonstrate “strongly against the regime,” Eduardo Cardet, a resident of that town and coordinator of the opposition Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) reported to Radio Martí. “The protest grew by travelling along the main avenue, congregating in the park, and then continued advancing along the avenue to the Casa de la Cultura [House of Culture]. Then the reverse route was taken,” he said.

For Cardet, the demonstration in Velasco was “to demand the changes we need” because, he continued, “it’s time for this totalitarian regime to end.”

Users on social networks said that they also took to the streets in Colón (Matanzas).

Project Inventory reported that in San Andrés, Holguín, the inhabitants took to the streets and shouted “yes we can” and “freedom.”

The organization, which is compiling the places where there have been protests in response to the long power outages, registered, on Wednesday alone, seven of them.

Up to 153 demonstrations have been registered by Project Inventory throughout the Island since last July 14. However, they have become more numerous, and almost daily, since Hurricane Ian hit western Cuba and, for reasons not yet fully clarified, the National Electricity System collapsed.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba is Trying to Capture More Resources by Relaunching Medical Tourism

The CSM intends to launch an offensive to the international market by grouping the two most lucrative economic sectors of the Island: tourism and medical services. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 October 2022 — “A well-oiled infrastructure,” is how Prensa Latina describes the work of the Marketing of Cuban Medical Services (CSM), protagonist of the First Medical Tourism and Welfare Fair that will be held at the Pabexpo venue, from October 17 to 21, in Havana.

The company is a health conglomerate that offers all kinds of services: assistance to foreigners (operations, treatments, therapies), training of students from other countries, and export of medical contingents.

In a post-pandemic global scenario, the CSM intends to launch an offensive to the international market by grouping the two most lucrative economic sectors of the Island: tourism and medical services. The goal is to offer an attractive “product portfolio” for tourists.

The First Medical Tourism and Welfare Fair will be part of the IV International Cuba-Health Convention 2022, which the Government will take advantage of to seduce the 1,500 foreign delegates with the CSM proposals. continue reading

Dr. Armando Garrido, director of Medicuba, explained that it was an expected moment “in which a group of actions will be realized: signing a significant number of contracts with international suppliers and letters of intent for new businesses.”

Since the last International Tourism Fair in May of this year, the CSM has achieved several contracts with the hotel companies that operate on the Island, so that vacationers could access dialysis services in Havana and Varadero and have “long-stay” plans in the Ciénaga de Zapata.

In this plan, the “immunization strategy” against COVID-19 through Cuban vaccines plays a fundamental role, “among many other benefits of this type,” says Prensa Latina. The official agency doesn’t clarify, however, that most countries have already vaccinated the population free of charge, so traveling to Cuba to immunize is, at the very least, unnecessary.

The official agency interviewed economist Miguel Alejandro Figueras, who stated that “many tourists in the world wonder where they should go for a future vacation. Where will I find personal safety, health and humane treatment?” The answer, he said, “is Cuba.”

To support his opinion, Figueras added that health tourism is “a fast road to growth,” which contributed $2 billion to several countries. It’s the only way to achieve “the economic recovery of the nation.”

The tourist who intends to access Cuban medical services must fill out a form and present it upon entry into the country, along with his medical visa. One can also purchase a Tourist Card if the treatment will be carried out in less than thirty days.

The agency doesn’t accept payments in cash or dollars, but online or by bank transfer. The company itself processes the admission to hospitals and clinics, and if the treatment allows it, in the “hotel of your choice.”

If the patient wants a surgical intervention, he must remain for an indeterminate period of time in the country even if he is discharged. Also in that case, the CSM will be able to go to the hotel and care for the patient there, who will have options for the accommodation of relatives thanks to the company’s alliances with the hotel chains.

Those who wish to opt for a “comprehensive cancer treatment” can do so at the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology, which will include the use of the Cuban drug Heberferon, indicated for those who suffer from “basocellular carcinomas, in lesions of any size and location, including areas of high risk, the H area of the face, or in locally advanced areas that are difficult to treat due to proximity to the eyes or the brain.”

The CSM reminds its potential customers that the country is “a very safe destination” and recommends being treated in Havana, where “most of the medical tourism offer is located,” but customers can go to its premises in any province.

The so-called Wellness and Health Centers — for which the agency intends to attract foreign investment during the Fair — are located throughout the national territory. The San Vicente Thermal Centre, Pinar del Río, for example, is part of an old therapeutic bath inaugurated in 1901, with medicinal mineral waters that the CMS presents as “chosen by celebrities such as the novelist Ernest Hemingway” for relaxation.

Another thermal bath, located in Corralillo, Villa Clara, provides the same service of medicinal mud and “hyperthermal waters between 36 and 48 degrees Celsius.” It also mentions that the centre “has gained fame for achieving the healing of multiple circulatory, rheumatic, somatic, neurological and respiratory conditions, which don’t find a solution with other conventional treatments.”

In addition, in the hotel facilities that have signed contracts with the company, “bioenergetic, naturist, therapeutic-rehabilitating and aesthetic medicine will also be available.”

The countries that frequent Cuba as a tourist destination, such as Canada, have been the most enthusiastic investors in medical projects. The Canadian embassy in Havana notified on its Twitter account that $1.12 million in medical supplies would be delivered “to support the people of Cuba.” Other nations, such as Mexico, Japan and several members of the European Union have sent similar donations to the Island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Economy is Not Growing… and is Getting Worse and Worse

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 13 October 2022 — Along with the inflation of the CPI in Cuba last August, the other data that have come to cast dark shadows on the nation’s economic landscape is the growth in GDP recorded in the second quarter of the year.

Economists must be attentive to these intense changes that occur in the Island’s economy, and in particular, the GDP deserves special attention.

Specifically, the GDP of the second quarter of 2022 has grown by only 1.7%, a rate that reflects two things: the economy remains weak this year, and it’s struggling to overcome the shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, without growth, underlying problems such as inflation, lack of control of public accounts, and peso exchange rates tend to worsen, so that once again, the authorities show their inability to lead the economy to a more balanced scenario, which introduces numerous questions for the coming months.

Of the 19 branches of activity that the ONEI breaks down for the GDP component, it should be noted that in the second quarter, a total of 13 have registered negative signs in their evolution compared to the same period of the previous year, while 6 have registered positive signs. continue reading

Among the first, the intense decreases in the sugar Industry stand out, -43.8% (a real national disaster, after the very intense decreases in previous years), Fisheries -33.2% (which means less export income), and a decrease of -15% in the Manufacturing Industry or the Electricity Sector (there is the origin of the blackouts). The GDP of agricultural production fell by -7.4%, and, more seriously, every quarter since 2021 it has been decreasing. This means that since the beginning of 2021, food production in Cuba has decreased by -67%, pointing to the failure of the 63 agricultural measures decreed by the regime.

Among the activities that grew their GDP, Hotels and Restaurants stand out, at 42.1%, which still doesn’t reach the GDP levels prior to the crisis. It is followed by Education, a social expenditure encouraged by the return to normality in schools. However, in Public Health, GDP has decreased by -13.9%, possibly to adjust the accounts of the state budget and avoid their lack of control.

The data cited for the second quarter of GDP, 1.7%, should be seen in relation to that for the same period of the previous year, when there was an increase of 8.9%, but it’s more significant to do so with the GDP of the first quarter of 2021, which grew by 10.9%. The contrast between the two indicates a real slowdown in the growth of the economy reflected by the accounts, in which the components linked to public spending, except for Education, have entered into negative territory. For example, Public Administration, falls by -0.3%; Science and Innovation, -1.4%; Health, the -13.8% cited above, and Other Social and Communal Services, -2.9%.

The behavior of the Cuban economy indicates that the regime hasn’t been able, perhaps because it has no plans, to modify the “engines” of the economy by making them pass from the state to the non-state, productive sector (in a way, an extension of the state). Hence, the economy slows its growth when these state activities do and increases otherwise. It’s more of the same, in a failed economic and political model that ranks the Cuban economy as one of the most backward in overcoming the COVID-19 crisis.

The intense change of situation in the second quarter of 2022 is not good news for the coming months. If the patterns of previous years are maintained, the third quarter, which has now ended, will not mean an improvement compared to the second, which will contribute to lower economic growth.

Only the last quarter of the year remains, which entails doubts about an eventual recovery of tourism in the high season. The evolution in the form of the cachumbambé [see-saw] of the Cuban economy since the first quarter of 2021 is a good example of the regime’s failure to achieve more stability and ensure a certain credibility of national accounts. The poor relationship between the productive, state, and non-state sectors, the reduced flexibility of economic activity and the obstacles of the communist model take care of the rest. Cubans will not experience an improvement in the economic situation in 2022.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Former Cuban Deputy and LGBTI Activist Arrives in the United States

In his message he thanked several people, including his mother, his boyfriend “and everyone who somehow helped me, encouraged and gave me his blessing in such an important decision.” (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 October 2022 — The former Cuban deputy to the National Assembly of People’s Power, Luis Ángel Adán Roble, emigrated to the United States, as confirmed by the young man himself on his social networks. “Meta completed in 72 hours,” he wrote on Facebook on Wednesday along with several symbols that suggest he flew from Cuba to Mexico and crossed the US border

In his message he thanked several people, including his mother, his boyfriend “and everyone who somehow helped me, encouraged me and gave me their blessing in such an important decision.” He also said he was “happy not only to have arrived, but to so many displays of affection. Now, let’s go forward.”

Roble, who was the first openly gay Cuban deputy and LGBTI+ rights activist, left his profession as a doctor at the beginning of 2022, after claiming that his job didn’t provide him with “a decent salary.”

A year earlier he revealed that State Security tried to recruit him and that he had also “been regulated*” by the Ministry of the Interior because they considered him a “person of public interest,” which is why he couldn’t travel outside the country. continue reading

In November 2019, Roble posted on his Facebook profile: “At the Extraordinary Meeting of the Municipal Assembly of Centro Habana, Havana, I was granted the release from the position of Municipal Delegate and in turn of Deputy of the National Assembly.”

The text was published a few weeks after the deputy denounced that he couldn’t travel to an international conference in Colombia because the National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX), led by Raul Castro’s daughter Mariela Castro Espín, denied him its support.

“It’s a little more of the same thing, delayed procedures, playing around or ’I just don’t have the go-ahead’,” he wrote then in a post in which he included several photos with Mariela.

The International Association of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Trans and Intersex for Latin America and the Caribbean (ILGALAC) was then holding its eighth conference in Colombia, and Roble waited for the authorization of the dean of his faculty but also needed a letter issued by CENESEX, a member of ILGALAC.

“When talking to the Deputy Director of this Institution [CENESEX] I received the answer that they cannot accredit me as an activist to any community social network (although on my previous trip to Colombia in May, they did issue a letter),” Roble said.

The friction with CENESEX began when Roble said that the LGBTI march of May 2019 had not been organized from outside the Island, as Mariela Castro claimed. “It’s a mistake to politicize it and say that it was orchestrated from abroad, nothing farther from the truth, because they are young workers, students, revolutionaries, many of them acquaintances and friends, who made the call,” he stressed.

Shortly after, he amended his statement and ventured that some activists participating in the march received “payments to hold this type of event.”

*Translator’s note: ’Regulated’ is the term applied to individuals by the Cuban government meaning that they are not allowed to leave the country.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The UN Presents a 42 Million Dollar Plan to Help Thousands of Cubans After Hurricane Ian

A house in Pinar del Río affected by the passage of Hurricane Ian. (Tele Pinar)

EFE/14ymedio, United Nations, Havana, 12 October 2022 — On Tuesday, the United Nations presented an action plan of 42 million dollars with which it hopes to support almost 800,000 people in Cuba affected by Hurricane Ian, both in the short term with emergency aid, and in the medium term to repair damage.

According to spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, with this initiative the United Nations seeks to support the work of the Cuban authorities to respond to the needs of citizens after the passage of Ian, which devastated the western end of the Island at the end of September.

The UN explained that the plan will support the response in areas such as housing, health, education, food security and access to drinking water and electricity.

In total, the UN expects about 798,000 people to benefit, mainly in the provinces of Pinar del Río and Artemisa, the areas most affected by the hurricane.

To finance the plan, the United Nations has already allocated $7.8 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund and $3.7 million from the budget allocated to its team in Cuba. continue reading

Last week it was known that the European Union will contribute 1 million euros to help those affected by Hurricane Ian on the Island, according to the diplomatic representation of Brussels in Havana.

“Hurricane Ian has had a devastating impact on Cuba, and it’s estimated that 100,000 households have been affected,” the community bloc delegation on the Island added on Twitter.

#Ian, the first hurricane that has reached Cuba in the current hurricane season in the Atlantic, left five dead and much material damage; for example, damaging almost half of the homes in the province of Pinar del Río and forcing thousands of people to evacuate.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Wave of Protests Against Blackouts and for Freedom Continues to Grow in Cuba

“People started banging on pots from their houses with the blackout; then more people joined, and we all met in front of the Party.” (Captura)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 11 October 2022 — The leaders of the Communist Party in Bejucal had to endure the shouts of “Freedom in Bejucal,” “The people united will never be defeated” and “Let them leave,” which served as the rallying cry for the protests this Monday night in that municipality of Mayabeque.

“They’ve done too much to us,” said Magalys, who took to the streets with her small son. “People started banging on pots from their houses with the blackout; then more people joined, and we all met in front of the Party,” she says.

The women marched in house coats; the men, without a shirt or with a sweater used as a mask, to avoid identification. All caution is taken when it comes to protecting faces: several videos show police agents, cell phones in hand, recording protesters from afar.

“They didn’t attack us last night because today they will review the videos and go looking for the people they recognize,” explains Magalys. “It’s the new strategy.”

The woman explains that the town is divided into two electrical circuits and that the blackouts, in turns, are nine hours. “They turned off the current at nine in the morning and put it on around six,” she says, a situation to which the population, although dissatisfied, has become accustomed. However, two hours later they suspended electrical service again.

“The justification is that the Electric Company received instructions from the Government to schedule another power outage, after two or three hours, because the current deficit is too large in the country,” she says. continue reading

“The shouts were not only ’turn on the current!’ but also ’freedom, freedom, freedom!’ and ’Let them go!’ says Magalys. “In our area, where the Party is, they turned on the current right away.”

“They immediately cut off the Internet connection, of course,” she adds. The most disappointing thing, Magalys explains, is that half of Bejucal — which already had electricity — stared at the protest as if it had nothing to do with them. “There would have been hundreds of people, but I expected more massiveness. A lot of people were standing in their doorways.”

It all ended around 10:00 p.m., without repression, but with a thorough record of the events by the Ministry of the Interior.

At that same time, in Caibarién, Villa Clara, a man shouted “the day of freedom can be today!” while recording, with difficulty the demonstration with his cell phone. Women, parents with children on their shoulders, elderly people, bike-taxi drivers and electric motorcycles advanced through the streets of this municipality of Villa Clara.

“Come on, join us, Caibarién!” and “Cuba, get out here!” were the shouts of the protest, which extended to La Libertad park, where the headquarters of the municipal government is located. “Yes, we can!” shouted the residents as they reached the most central point in town.

The person who filmed the demonstration clarified again and again that it was a peaceful march. “The violence is from them,” he said, referring to the beatings of the police and the “rapid response brigades” to repress those who take to the streets.

Several protests like these took place on October 10, a significant date because it’s the day that marks the start, in the 1800s, of the wars of independence on the Island, throughout the national territory. Although there are reports of demonstrations and cacerolazos* in other municipalities of Mayabeque such as San José de las Lajas, Güines, Nueva Paz and Jaruco, as well as in Camagüey, Las Tunas, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba, the information available is very fragmentary.

*Translator’s note: Cacerolazos [from ’cacerola’ – saucepan — and the source of ’casserole’ in English] is the word for beating on pots and pans in a protest demonstration.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Prisoners Defenders Registers 36 New Political Detentions in Cuba in September

Rapid Response Brigades activated by the regime to suppress the protests in Havana between September 29 and October 2, 2022. (Collage)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 11 October 2022 — The Spanish organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) registered 36 new political arrests in Cuba in September, according to its latest report released on Monday.

The list prepared by the NGO — as of September 30 — states that in Cuba there are “a total of 1,026 political and prisoners of conscience suffering judicial convictions or provisions of limitation of liberty by prosecutors without any judicial supervision.”

It also considers that those 1,026 prisoners are related to “an activism or evident public expression of opposition to government policies and in defense of the fundamental rights of human beings.”

In its most recent count, PD reports that among the last 36 cases there are more than 20 people who were arrested during the protests linked to the prolonged power cuts in recent days, exacerbated after the passage of Hurricane Ian through the western end of the country.

The statement says that there were 442 prisoners at the beginning of October 2021, and in the last twelve months another 819 have been added: a total of 1,261. continue reading

It adds that 234 prisoners have been released from prison in this same period, 26 of them during this month, mostly after full completion of the sanction imposed.

The organization specifies that 181 protesters are included in its list who have been convicted of sedition, and that at least 171 have been sentenced to an average of 10 years and two months of imprisonment.

It also reports that among the 1,026 there are 34 minors, 24 serving sentences and ten being prosecuted.

According to their classification, there are currently 766 prisoners of conscience deprived of liberty, 231 with limited freedom and 29 cases of other political prisoners in Cuban prisons.

The report also details that 739 prisoners of conscience have been sentenced with sentences of up to 30 years, 17 have sentences of 30 years in prison or life imprisonment, and at least 117 women (including transgender women) still remain with political and conscience orders and convictions.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Baseball Leaders Punish Four Official Journalists

Sports journalists who were critics of the Elite League were not invited to the press conference this Monday. (*Cubadebate*)

14ymedio, Madrid, 11 October 2022 — Whether it was appropriate, in the midst of Cuba’s economic crisis, to spend money on 5,400 uniforms for a new baseball tournament, is a matter for a long debate; but that the creation of the Elite League will take its toll on the authorities seems beyond doubt. On this occasion, it was the sports leaders who applied information censorship… to their own press.

The sports journalists Boris Luis Cabrera Acosta, Joel García, Norland Rosendo González and Jhonah Díaz González weren’t invited this Monday to the press conference of the National Baseball Commission, in which the president of the firm Teammate, based in San Marino, gave explanations personally — after flying from Italy — for the delay in the arrival of the uniforms that caused the postponement of the competition.

They are not just any reporters. These are the journalists of Juventud Rebelde, Cubadebate, Trabajadores and Prensa Latina: the main media of the ruling party at the state level. They all had something in common: they had criticized the Elite League from the pages of their newspapers, which is probably why they were excluded from the press conference.

“This morning an exchange took place in the Adolfo Luque Hall of the Latin American stadium among the directors of the company Teammate and several ’chosen’ journalists, to explain the reason for the delay in uniforms and other sports equipment, which has made it impossible to begin the so-called Elite League,” Boris Luis Cabrera Acosta wrote. continue reading

The Cubadebate journalist is the only one who has explicitly alluded to his exclusion, although, in a much more cryptic way, so did Jhonah Díaz González, who, quoting his other colleagues on his Facebook account, published an image that reads: “Great idea: divide and you will conquer.” Although he refuses to explain himself further, there are those who understand it well, such as the former Granma photojournalist Ricardo López Hevia, who answers him: “The method is historic… If you criticize, you don’t ride.” To which the editor of Prensa Latina responds: “The ironic thing — at least in my case — is that right now I’m set up. They may notify me and make me the subject of a trend: ’you’re not going’.”

The users who have commented on Boris Luis Cabrera’s publication are much more numerous: more than 500 people are surprised, outraged or reproachful for what the sports columnist explains as a “bread and circus show. The hand-picked journalists take care of their trips by tooth and nail. Every day they move further away from the truth,” writes a commentator. Another, with a firmly revolutionary speech, doesn’t hesitate to turn to Castro to show the exit door to the sports authorities if they don’t want to expose themselves to a lack of confidence from “above.”

“If I stand by Fidel’s words, this official is now superfluous in his position: ’Revolution is never to lie or violate ethical principles; it’s a deep conviction that there is no force in the world capable of crushing the force of truth and ideas.’ Someone from “above” has to read this and take action on the matter or you lose all faith in…,” he says, leaving the end of the sentence for someone who gets it to fill in.

The date of the first Elite League is still up in the air, because, with or without the press, what the authorities weren’t able to offer was a new date. Alessandro Tommasi, the director of Teammate, who was able to arrive in time to face the charge against his company, considered it “very important” with his trip to Cuba “to talk about the delay of the League.” Rafael Llames said that Lantia Marítima was committed to transporting the cargo, with September 28 as the arrival date.

“We thought that everything was coming; the Federation couldn’t really check what we had there because of the hurricane. The warehouses were closed, and this couldn’t be verified until several days later. Then came the clothes for the referees and other items such as pants, backpacks, briefcases, etc.” It wasn’t very clear what is missing, apparently a package, but it’s true that Llames said: “We don’t want to predict when the League could start until everything is reviewed. We can assure you that we’re working intensively on this matter.”

Then came the speeches and how happy Teammate is to work with Cuba, the country that makes them happiest, they said. But the controversy hasn’t stopped, and there are still many who don’t quite understand the reason for ordering such a quantity of garments from a foreign company, rather than being able to manufacture the uniforms on the Island, favouring its fabric production and saving on imports. “Let them do a review, and if they didn’t make an offer within our country, let them throw it all away,” proposed a follower when the postponement of the tournament was announced last Thursday due to the absence of the imported clothes.

The four castigated journalists had been very critical of the championship for different reasons, although ultimately they all ended up at the same point. Neither the background nor the shape of the Elite League convinced them, nor did they like the names of the teams. The fans aren’t filling stadiums, and the Cuban sport can’t manage to keep its best athletes on the Island to stimulate a public, which in turn is unmotivated.

Now to the chain of events is added not only the uncertainty about when the uniforms will arrive and what the calendar of the competition will be, but whether the authorities are lying. “I only want to remember that on September 22, six days before the arrival of that first shipment and seven days before his appearance on the Roundtable show, national commissioner Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo had assured me that everything was in the country, as I published that day on my Facebook profile,” says Cabrera Acosta.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Digital Archive in the Diaspora Will Preserve Cuban Cinema

Frame of *Plantados* [*Planted*], by Lilo Vilaplana. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 11 October 2022 — Classics of Cuban exile cinema such as Conducta impropio [Improper Conduct] (1983), La ciudad perdida [The Lost City] (2005) and Plantados [Planted] (2021) will be collected on October 20 in the Archive of Cuban Diáspora Cinema, a project co-directed by academic Santiago Juan-Navarro and filmmaker Eliécer Jiménez-Almeida.

This initiative seeks to organize in the public repository the formidable creative collection of the filmmakers who left the Island in recent decades, and whose work addresses the issues of alienation, politics, resistance and Cuban history from 1959.

A press release from the organizers announces the launch of the project at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, in Miami,at 7:00 p.m on October 20, the day in which Cuban culture is celebrated.

During the ceremony, the Cuban Diaspora Film Archive prize will be awarded to filmmaker Orlando Jiménez Leal, known, among other things, for having filmed together with Sabá Cabrera the short documentary PM, whose censorship initiated the cultural policy controversies of the Revolution. That same night, the film Improper Conduct will also be shown, by the director himself.

“By collecting and archiving materials related to these filmmakers, the project seeks to lay the foundations for a new history of Cuban cinema that includes the extensive audiovisual production done outside Cuba,” says the statement, which presents the character of the Archive as a “research project.” continue reading

The Archive will integrate five projects. The first, Filmmaker, groups the data of Cuban filmmakers in exile and, for the moment, has names such as Néstor Almendros, Nicolás Guillén Landrián, Gustavo Pérez and Lilo Vilaplana.

With Forum, a biennial symposium, and FESTin, a traveling exhibition, the Archive will enrich its film collection. Cubafile will take care of the cinema that takes place on the Island, and the total progress of the initiative will be recorded by CDfAReview, a magazine specialized in Cuban cinema.

In addition, awards and diplomas will be awarded on an annual basis, which will motivate new creation and establish the trajectory of notable filmmakers.

The Archive has the support of the International University of Florida (FIU), the Provost Office, the Wolfsonian Laboratory for Public Humanities, the Department of Modern Languages of the FIU, the Cuban Research Institute (CRI), the Kimberly Green Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACC) and the CasaCuba cultural space.

“For years there’s been a complaint that the universities don’t do enough to publicize Cuban reality,” say Juan-Navarro and Jiménez-Almeida. “The Cuban Diaspora Film Archive is committed to changing that situation.”

In addition to an extraordinary conservation project, the Archive of Cuban Diaphanous Cinema becomes the only academic initiative, inside and outside the Island, that challenges the unilateral discourse of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).

This organization systematically censured and cancelled the films of several filmmakers, who today make up the staff of the Archive. From its origin, ICAIC was one of the most severe ideological bastions of the Revolution, under the command of its president, Alfredo Guevara.

Juan-Navarro and Jiménez-Almeida are reacting against that ideological and archival monopoly by focusing on their project to rescue and systematize the Cuban visual legacy in exile.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Omara Ruiz Urquiola Asks That It Be Known ‘Whether the United States and Cuba are Negotiating and If So, About What’

Omara Ruiz Urquiola at Miami airport. (EFE)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 10 October 2022 — Cuban dissident Omara Ruiz Urquiola, who for the third time since arriving in the United States with a tourist visa in January 2021 couldn’t board a plane to Cuba, demanded that the U.S. government be “transparent” about its policy towards the Island, in statements to EFE in Miami.

“Not only do Cubans know nothing, the American people don’t either,” Ruiz Urquiola said on the phone.

The art historian and former university professor said she had informed an official of the U.S. State Department in advance of her travel plans and reported that he informed her that her superiors were going to “intercede” for her with the Cuban authorities.

The U.S. Embassy in Havana sent a tweet about her case, but the activist complained that her discussion with the official was of no use, and this time, once again, she wasn’t able to get on the plane.

“Today, the regime again prevented Omara Ruiz Urquiola from returning to Cuba to assist her mother, whose house was severely damaged by Hurricane Ian. We urge the regime to allow all Cuban citizens to return freely to their homeland,” the diplomatic headquarters stated. continue reading

The activist accuses the U.S. government of being an accomplice of the Cuban government and Southwest Airlines for supporting the regime’s orders. However, neither airlines nor countries of origin can transport a person who is rejected by the country of destination.

Ruiz Urquiola said that she needs to travel to Cuba urgently because the family farm in Pinar del Río was “devastated” by Hurricane Ian at the end of September, and her 75-year-old mother, who lives there, is alone to take care of everything.

Omara, who is an oncology patient and has received treatment in the U.S., is the sister of Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, a human rights activist who is in Europe. He has held several protests before the UN office in Geneva and other organizations to denounce the Cuban government.

According to Omara, in January 2021, she travelled from Cuba to Miami to visit her oncologist and receive an award from the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, based in this city.

It was her fourth trip to the United States, and like the previous ones, she did it with a tourist visa that was renewed while in Miami, due to the impossibility of returning to Cuba. That visa expires in December.

Omara Ruiz Urquiola was very critical both of the Government of Cuba, for denying her the right to enter her own country, and with that of the United States, which she accuses of allowing it.

“It’s very painful to know that the great democracy of the world makes fun of us, leaves us helpless,” she said this Saturday in a video recorded in front of the Southwest counter at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, about 40 kilometres north of Miami, after being rejected as a passenger.

“I don’t have an immigration plan, I don’t have the nationality of another country nor am I an asylum seeker,” the activist stressed this Sunday to EFE, emphasizing that her house and her family are in Cuba.

Even so, she was “hopeful” that her situation can be resolved, since the United States is “a free country” and she has not violated the laws. “This is an arbitrary act,” she stressed, after demanding that it be made known whether the United States and Cuba are negotiating and, if so, about what.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Two Men from Manzanillo Get Married, Applying the New Family Code

Alberto and José are the first gay couple to marry in Granma province.

14ymedio, Havana, 6 October 2022 — On Tuesday, seven days after the entry into force of the Family Code, what may be the first wedding between two people of the same sex in Cuba was celebrated. Alberto and José, two young people from Manzanillo, Granma, got married on Tuesday after 18 years of civil union.

The news was disseminated on Facebook by the EntreDiversidades page, which shared the report of Roberto Mesa Martos, a journalist for the provincial newspaper La Demajagua.

According to the reporter, one of the spouses, José, expressed his “happiness at realizing a dream I’ve cherished for years.” “I never thought they were going to approve it here but we always wanted it,” said the other spouse, Alberto.

The ceremony was held at the couple’s home with family and friends of the newlyweds. continue reading

“They seal in this way a process that now offers them responsibilities in the face of any situation of the spouses, the legal support of common acquired property and the rights of food and care,” Mesa said.

The Family Code, which authorizes same-sex marriages, was approved in a referendum on September 25 and entered into force two days later, after the provisional results were announced on Monday.

This Tuesday, a week later, the National Electoral Council (CEN) of Cuba disseminated “the final results,” very similar to those already known.

Final results showed “Yes” slightly lower, going from 68.87% to 66.85%. “No” did not grow to the same extent, from 33.13% to 33.15%. Meanwhile, abstentions rose from 25.01% to 25.88%. The consolidated data delve into the number of those who didn’t go to the polls, the highest since 1959.

The president of CEN, Alina Balseiro, communicated the figures at a press conference in which she alluded to the “total transparency” of the process and the “total attachment to the truth” of the organization, although in her comments she added surprising statements in a State without separation of powers.

The official said that the CEN is “an electoral” and “non-political” body of an “independent” nature that “organizes, supervises and controls” the electoral process, but she had to defend herself before the international press for having published on Twitter a message from Cuba President Miguel Díaz-Canel, in which he asked voters to vote “Yes.” Balseiro argued that this didn’t affect the credibility of the organization.

“More than the ’Yes’ vote, I was promoting the dissemination of the process we were developing. And we did it with all conviction, and we will continue to do it. That doesn’t imply that our work doesn’t fulfill our duty and independence,” she rescued herself.

The census was updated, according to Balseiro, including new voters and recent deaths, which left a growth of 8,447,467 to 8,457,978. The register includes thousands of Cubans who have left recently, whom the Government still considers residents since the two-year period after which they will be excluded has not yet passed. It’s not known what effect on abstention those absentees could have had — very numerous, judging by the migration figures for the countries that are transit areas or more frequent destinations.

The Family Code, which replaces that of 1975, prohibits child marriage, authorizes “solidarity marriage,” contemplates sexist violence (absent from the new Criminal Code, however) and replaces the concept of parental authority with that of parental responsibility.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘They Have Chosen to Support Repression. We Denounce It.’

Demonstration in Havana, watched over by uniformed and civilian agents, on Saturday night. (EFE/ Yander Zamora)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 October 2022 — Members of the independent Cuban intellectual and artistic community have signed a manifesto in which they accuse the Cuban Government of “lack of political will” to manage the “accumulated needs of the population” and “their human desire for freedom.”

The letter “From Cuban artists and intellectuals to Cuban citizens and international public opinion” is a direct response to the official one published last Wednesday and entitled “Message from Cuban educators, journalists, writers, artists and scientists to their colleagues from other countries,” in which the signatories offered full support to the authorities and denied the violence exercised against the protesters, who have demanded explanations in recent weeks for the lack of electricity. It claims that “repression only exists in the messages that incite violence and support the blockade, contrary to the interests and desires of the Homeland.”

The signers of the independent text review the main ills that afflict Cuba, from the lack of public rights and freedoms to the most basic and elementary services that have led to the recent massive exile of up to 200,000 compatriots “by any means and risking their lives,” while “the Government has chosen to invest in hotels.” continue reading

“The official data themselves,” the statement reads, “reveal the priorities of government investment and the negative impact of economic policy decisions on the living conditions of the population. Official and independent academics have criticized the Ordering Task*, suggesting it be corrected. Nothing happens. Those responsible for these decisions remain in their posts,” the text says.

The signers denounce the academics and intellectuals who subscribe to the official declaration “with an elitist language, which prioritizes a State agenda over the demands of ordinary people.” In addition, they consider that the official text denies humanistic values and is “intellectually mediocre, politically reactionary and socially insensitive.”

The statement also accuses the intellectuals who have defended the Government of being repressed and justifying repression, as well as abandoning the people and criminalizing their demands.

“Suffice to say that they had no other alternative. There always is one. It is always possible to choose. At least, don’t subscribe to the lie that protects abuse, and chooses, without heroism, silence. But those who have signed this have chosen to support the repression exercised against their people. We, on the other hand, denounce it,” the text concludes.

The letter has been signed to date by 125 people including artists, writers, film directors, architects and jurists, residing inside and outside Cuba. Among those who signed the letter, names such as the historian Rafael Rojas, the artists Tania Bruguera and Hamlet Lavastida, the jurist Eloy Viera Cañive and the journalist Mónica Baró stand out.

*Translator’s note: The “Ordering Task” [tarea ordenamiento] 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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In Ten Days, the US Border Patrol Took 117 Cubans into Custody

U.S. authorities have increased surveillance controls along the coast of Florida to prevent illegal immigration. (@USCGSoutheast/Twitter)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 October 2022 — The United States Border Patrol in coordination with Florida county officers arrested 10 balseros (rafters) who managed to reach Marathon this Monday. Cubans pointed out to the authorities that the boat in which they were traveling “sank near the coast, but they were able to swim to the shore,” according to the chief officer of the Miami sector, Walter Slosar.

In the first ten days of October, the Border Patrol has placed 117 rafters in custody. These Cubans have the option of applying for asylum, which implies demonstrating before an officer or judge that they are afraid of returning to their country. If they don’t manage to convince them with their arguments, they will be repatriated to the Island.

Last Friday, a group of 21 rafters reached land at the Fort Zachary state park in a rustic boat with an adapted vehicle engine. The migrants, four women and 17 men, were detained and taken to the Krome Detention Centre in Miami for processing. continue reading

Slosar said that the U.S. authorities have increased surveillance along the coast of Florida to prevent illegal immigration.

Flights of the Clearwater C-130 planes belonging to the Coast Guard air station, which located several rafts with Cubans on the high seas, have been added to the land routes. The information collected has allowed 232 rafters to be intercepted since October 1, the date on which the fiscal year began.

This Sunday 58 Cubans were returned to the Island aboard the ship Richard Snyder. These balseros were intercepted in Cayos Marquesas and in Tortugas Secas National Park. Lieutenant Caleigh Cobb warned migrants that they do surveillance in teams and urged them to “choose a safe and legal route.”

A day earlier, the Coast Guard had repatriated another group with 174 Cubans on the Raymond Evans ship. The authorities then warned of the danger of crossing on homemade boats.

At the end of September, seven Cuban balseros drowned in their attempt to reach Florida, 11 more disappeared on the high seas and nine managed to survive after the boat on which they left Matanzas was shipwrecked.

Carolina Bárbara Gutiérrez, 19, was traveling on that boat. The young woman’s body has not yet been identified by her grandmother, Noemí Alfonso; however, the image of a torso with a piercing and clothes have been the first indication that she is one of the deceased migrants.

Alfonso requested support to be able to return the remains of his granddaughter. His voice was heard by Dayana Sosa Reyes, owner of National Funeral Homes, who is waiting for confirmation that the remains are those of Gutiérrez.

“The family member has not yet presented himself to the Monroe County coroner, but it’s a process, and I suppose that on Monday they should already be contacting the grandmother to identify their loved one,” Sosa told Telemundo 51.

They took a sample from Carolina Bárbara Gutiérrez’s grandmother for a DNA test. As Sosa explained, the body will be cremated and returned to the Island. “For any other family that wants to do the same, we have the doors of the funeral home open to assist them.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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