The ‘International Legion’ of the Russian Army Continues To Recruit Cubans To Fight in Ukraine

The number of Cubans in Tula continues to increase, according to the documentation revealed by Ukrainian hackers. (Alain Paparazzi)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 23 October 2023 — The hackers who revealed the identities of 200 Cuban mercenaries fighting with the Russian Army in Ukraine have again leaked data. According to the available information, 59 more Cubans have signed a contract to join the Russian Armed Forces in the city of Tula. Of these, at least 11 did so after the Cuban authorities announced, on September 8, the arrest of 17 people linked to a network of human trafficking and mercenarism.

The arrival of the new recruits to sign contracts took place between August 25 and September 29. Despite this, hackers have been able to confirm that not all the Cubans came from the Island. Some already resided abroad and entered with another passport or even lived in Russia since before the invasion of Ukraine.

Cubans serve in the 106th Airborne Division of the Russian Armed Forces, which, according to the hackers, is becoming, de facto, the “international legion” of the Moscow Army

In some cases, on the contrary, there are recruits who traveled directly from the Island, attracted by promises of nationality, salaries above $2,000 and all kinds of advantages for the soldiers and their families. Cubans serve in the 106th Airborne Division of the Russian Armed Forces, which, according to the hackers, is becoming, de facto, the “international legion” of the Moscow Army. There are also Serbs who have traveled from their country to support their neighbors.

According to the new information, disseminated on the InformNapalm website, there are already at least three Cubans fighting from the last group of recruits, while the rest are still in the process of formalizing contracts. continue reading

The reports that there were Cubans fighting in the Russian Army began as a rumor at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, but it was not confirmed until some of them, apparently deceived, began to report it to independent Cuban media located in Miami. On September 6, Cyber Resistance leaked the passports of 199 Cubans who were in Tula after having signed a contract to fight with the Russian Armed Forces, immediately forcing the recognition of the authorities that there were people detained in connection with this matter.

The Government stated that it was working to prosecute mercenarism according to its international commitments, but suspicions continue about Cuba’s possible collusion in sending Cuban combatants, especially since relations between the two countries have become increasingly strengthened.

Different organizations have described it as highly unlikely that a State like Cuba with control over its citizens has escaped the fact that there were operations underway to recruit nationals and take them to fight abroad, a crime that on the Island is punishable even by death.

InformNapalm wonders why it seems that the Cuban government has done nothing, after the announcement of the arrests, to stop this situation.

The obligation of Cuba, as a signatory country of the Hague agreement, is to “prevent the formation of mercenary groups in its territory in order to intervene in an armed conflict before which they have decided to remain neutral.” But this same international regulation does not consider States to be responsible “when individuals cross the border of their own free will to offer their services to the belligerents.”

We have nothing against Cubans who only want to sign a contract and legally participate in this operation with the Russian Army, but we oppose illegality

The Cuban authorities played with this approach in mid-September, when, since the scandal, the ambassador to Russia, Julio Antonio Garmendia Peña, told the state agency RIA Nóvosti: “We have nothing against Cubans who only want to sign a contract and legally participate in this operation with the Russian Army, but we oppose illegality and those operations that have nothing to do with the legal sphere.”

A few hours later, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez reaffirmed “the unequivocal and invariable position of the Government,” which, “in accordance with national legislation, is against the participation of Cuban citizens in any conflict, against mercenarism and against human trafficking.”

For the moment, and in the heat of other international events that have overshadowed the issue of Cuban mercenaries, nothing is known about the detainees and whether their trials have been initiated or the investigation continues.

Translated by Regina Anavy 

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

The Mexico Summit Points Out That the Measures for Cubans and Others Stimulate Irregular Migration

Díaz-Canel, the Honduran Xiomara Castro, the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Haitian Ariel Henry, the Colombian Gustavo Petro and the Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro, at the immigration summit in Palenque (Mexico). (Granma)

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Palenque/Tapachula (Mexico)/Madrid | October 23, 2023 — The migration summit of Mexico and other Latin American countries concluded this Sunday with a joint statement that rejected “coercive measures,” promised to respect the human right to migrate and requested more legal alternatives for migration.

“[We agree] to urge the countries of origin, transit and destination to implement comprehensive migration policies that respect the human right to migrate, safeguard the life and dignity of migrants and their families, and include the promotion of permanent regularization options,” said Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena, when reading the consensual pronouncement.

The joint declaration, with 14 points of agreement, was signed by the heads of state of Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela, the vice president of El Salvador and the deputy prime minister of Belize, as well as ministers of Costa Rica and Panama, who met in Palenque with the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Although Mexico initially reported the attendance of officials from Guatemala and Ecuador, these two countries do not appear among the signatories in the final statement that the Government later shared. continue reading

Although Mexico initially reported the attendance of officials from Guatemala and Ecuador, these two countries do not appear among the signatories in the final statement

Latin American governments argued that “external factors, such as unilateral coercive measures of an indiscriminate nature, negatively affect entire populations and to a greater extent the most vulnerable people and communities,” according to the position read by Bárcena.

In this sense, they agreed to “request from the destination countries the expansion of regular, orderly and safe migration routes with special emphasis on labor mobility, and to promote the reintegration and return of temporary workers.”

They also alleged that the “selective” measures stimulate irregular migration, in reference to the policies of the United States that provide for asylum for certain applicants from countries such as Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, but they contemplate the immediate deportation of the rest.

“[We agree] to call on the destination countries to adopt immigration policies and practices in accordance with the current reality of our region and abandon those that are inconsistent and selective, to avoid arbitrarily producing so-called deterrent effects, such as the regularization of certain nationalities,” Bárcena said.

The migration summit takes place while Mexico and Central America face an “unprecedented” migratory flow, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), with up to 16,000 migrants arriving at the Mexican borders every day, according to López Obrador.

The Mexican president convened the meeting with the promise of bringing a common regional position to the president of the United States, Joe Biden, in November.

The Government of Mexico offered to cooperate with its social programs Sembrando Vida, for farm workers, and Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro, for youth work

As a first point, the countries agreed to “develop an action plan,” which has as its axes food self-sufficiency, environmental protection, energy security, trade, investment and the fight against organized crime.

The Government of Mexico offered to cooperate with its social programs Sembrando Vida, for farm workers, and Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro, for youth work, as well as in gas and renewable energies.

The governments also promised to promote trade, and they urge the lifting of sanctions and “coercive measures” in the region, a reference to Cuba and Venezuela.

They will also support the Republic of Haiti to “restore an environment of human security” and the “normalization” of the country after the political crisis, and efforts to rethink the international financial architecture of sovereign debt in Latin America.

Nations will deepen “south-south” cooperation relations, promote bilateral dialogues between countries of origin, transit and destination of migrants, and strengthen coordinated work with international organizations to serve people with special protection needs.

As a follow-up, they will create a “dialogue at the highest level” with a new working group in charge of the foreign ministries. And they will link these agreements with the high-level meeting on migration and development in Latin America and the Caribbean that Colombia and Mexico proposed for the first quarter of 2024.

In addition, the countries agreed to favor a dialogue between the governments of Cuba and the United States.

The summit brings more of the same, nothing more than the corruption of countries that want to profit from migration, pain and blood

Meanwhile, migrants stranded on Mexico’s southern border burned piñatas with the figures of the presidents of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela in a protest against the immigration summit.

At the demonstration in Tapachula, on the border of Mexico with Guatemala, about 200 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, Central America and Haiti, set fire to piñatas of the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, the Cuban Miguel Díaz-Canel and the Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega.

The foreigners, gathered in the Bicentennial Park, carried the three figures, walked around with them and staged a public trial to accuse the rulers of not supporting the migrants.

The director of Pueblos Sin Fronteras, Irineo Mujica, pointed out that this “counter- summit” is a protest to denounce the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, for not having a solution.

“The summit brings more of the same, nothing more than the corruption of countries that want to profit from migration, pain and blood,” said the renowned migrant defender.

At the march, the Venezuelan migrant Leonerge Acero said he did not agree with the meeting of López Obrador and Maduro, pointing out that the conditions created by the president of Venezuela force them to leave the country.” You have nothing to do here, because you don’t know what it is to migrate. If it’s your fault we are here in this suffering, it’s your fault we are migrating, and I don’t understand your meeting with that president, to be honest,” Acero said in reference to Maduro.

Ysguel Jean, from Haiti, participated in this demonstration to highlight that he left his country because, according to his perception, most of the politicians are corrupt.

Like other migrants, he demanded that the summit, which will conclude with a common proposal from the region for López Obrador to present to the United States, result in humanitarian and non-punitive policies. “We ask the Government of Mexico to treat us well, to give us papers,” Jean said.

“Many Venezuelans and Haitians are in great need, sleeping in the streets and parks. Let (Mexico) help us and give us shelter,” he concluded.

At the same time, this weekend 65 migrants from Mexico and the Bahamas were deported to Cuba by air, as part of the migration agreements with those countries and according to Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior.

Of these, 37 Cubans (32 men and five women) arrived from Mexico on Saturday at José Martí International Airport, and another 28 did so on Friday from the Bahamas, on a commercial flight.

“One of the migrants returned in Friday’s operation was on probation at the time of leaving the Island and will be placed at the disposal of the courts, for the revocation of that benefit,” reported  the official press, stating that there have already been 114 returns made from different countries in the region so far in 2023.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Havana Club Will Produce in Cuba 2,500 Bottles of Tributo Rum at 500 Euros a Bottle

In 1993, the French company Pernod Ricard reached an agreement with Havana to market and own 50% of the rights to Havana Club. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 24 October 2023 — With 2,500 “exclusive” bottles of Tributo rum, which will be sold at a price of 500 euros each, Havana Club International will celebrate its thirty years of creation this November at the Expocuba fairgrounds. The new edition of the drink celebrates the “rescue” of the brand, in the middle of the Special Period, by the French company Pernod Ricard and its partner on the Island, Cuba Ron.

The general director of the French company, Christian Barré, explained to Prensa Latina that, after the coronavirus pandemic and a “complex year,” his company is focused on relaunching several of the brands that did not have enough public attention and with which he now intends to recover their “export markets.”

The director also said that Havana Club has signed more than 50 contracts with micro, small and medium-sized Cuban companies (MSMEs) this year. Although he did not clarify what the company’s plan is when partnering with the Island’s private companies, he did include them – along with tourism and shops in freely convertible currency (MLC) – among those “who buy the product through different traditional channels,” without giving details.

The company wants to offer its rums so that private entrepreneurs can “grow rapidly” and market them

He said that the company wants to offer its rums so that private entrepreneurs can “grow rapidly” and market them. However, the largest market for Havana Club, Barré insisted, is still in Europe, in countries such as Germany, Spain and France, and for other large consumers in Canada and China. continue reading

On the Island, the popular consumption of Cuban rum has been partly displaced by drinks that are marketed at cheaper prices, such as vodka and some imported whiskeys that are sold both in foreign exchange stores and in the informal market.

Havana Club had already announced this September its participation in the XIII Varadero Gourmet International Festival to present three new drinks: the Havana Club Smoky, a dark rum with a smoky flavor that is marketed for about 50 euros; the Havana Club Profundo, a clear drink with the same price; and the Havana Club Spiced, with tropical tones and sold for about 30 euros.

In Europe, the different Havana Club lines are among the most expensive drinks available. A drink of the most common of their rums in a bar can cost up to eight euros, a high price when compared to other imported rums. In Cuba, however, the lowest-end rums are barely marketed among the population, such as the Añejo 7 years or the 3 years version, which don’t have the “honeys” that the brand reserves for its exclusive buyers.

Only in hotels, and for a considerable price, is it possible to access a selection of Maestros or a Special. Other editions, such as the Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo – which is marketed for more than 1,000 euros – are not even displayed in the Island’s shops.

The celebration of the thirty-year agreement between Cuba Ron and Pernod Ricard coincides with the launch in Spain of the book Arechabala, Azúcar y Ron 1878-1959 (Archebala, Sugar and Rum 1878-1959), written by Antonio Santamaría and María Victoria Arechabala.

Nationalized by Fidel Castro in 1960, the original Havana Club brand belonged to the La Vizcaya distillery, founded in Cárdenas (Matanzas) in 1878 by José Arechabala Aldama, a Basque immigrant who grew his industry to become the José Arechabala S.A. group, one of the largest in Republican Cuba, which also managed various businesses in sugar and shipyards.

The Havana Club line, however, did not emerge until the 1930s, when the company was already the reference for Cuban rum of excellence. The new product quickly found its market in the United States, whose population had just come out of Prohibition, a period when the the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages was illegal.

Arechabala was one of the first companies to suffer the plundering of its properties

A few decades later, with the coming to power of the Revolution and the beginning of nationalizations, Arechabala was one of the first companies to suffer the plundering of its properties, which went from being an irreplaceable symbol of Cárdenas and the Island to becoming ruins neglected by the new revolutionary order.

The Arechabala family fled to the United States, where they sold the original recipe to the Bacardí company in 1994, another of the emblematic rum families of the Island, also exiled after the triumph of Castro.

In 1993 the French Pernod Ricard reached an agreement with Havana to market and own 50% of the rights to the rum, which began to be sold in the world under the same name that the Arechabala originally gave to the drink.

The Bacardí brand also began to produce its own Havana Club in Puerto Rico and to market it in the United States. Since then, companies have been in constant dispute about who owns the real Havana Club, whether it is those who keep the original recipe or those who manufacture it in Cuba.

Pernod Ricard has faced several international lawsuits backed by the Helms-Burton Act for marketing “stolen” property, which includes other products in addition to Havana Club rum. The lawsuits, however, are always dismissed for “lack of jurisdiction” or other causes that prevent judges from imposing sanctions on the French company and its business with the regime.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Mexican President Lopez Obrador Defends the Vaccines of Cuba and Russia After Supposedly Being Injected With Abdala

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during his press conference at the National Palace of Mexico City. (EFE/Presidency of Mexico)

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Mexico, 24 October 2023 — The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, defended on Tuesday his Government’s use of the anti-covid vaccines of Russia and Cuba for the free-booster campaign after himself receiving the Cuban drug Abdala.

“Out of interest in some cases, some say that the vaccines that our health sector is applying are not effective. They have said things that I don’t even dare to repeat here, because they are gigantic absurdities, but all vaccines are now guaranteed for the people,” he said in his daily press conference.

The Government of Mexico has the goal this flu season of giving 35.2 million vaccines against influenza and 19.4 million against COVID-19, using the biologic drug Abdala, made in Cuba, and the drug Sputnik, from Russia.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has not endorsed the use of either of these drugs as a booster against coronavirus, but López Obrador supported their effectiveness after being vaccinated live on television with the Abdala vaccine.

“Don’t be confused, all the vaccines that are applied go through quality testing, and public health should not be used for political purposes; they are different things,” the president said. “Health has to do with human rights; it is a fundamental human right – no politics, no ideologies.” continue reading

Medical sources have reported that the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris), in charge of the control of medicines, is authorizing the application of expired vaccines

However, medical sources have reported that the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris), in charge of the control of medicines, is authorizing the application of expired vaccines. Last August, this newspaper learned of the 70,000 expired doses that would be given in the state of Coahuila, a situation similar to the one highlighted a few days ago by health workers from the state of Morelos, who were forced to put the drug in health centers “in a discreet way,” published El Universal.

The immunization campaign, which began last week, is aimed at specific groups, such as those who are 60 and over, pregnant women and people with comorbidities from the age of five.

The vaccines will be free, but López Obrador promised that people will be able to buy other vaccines, such as those from Pfizer and Moderna, after their expected approval by Cofepris in November.

“Since we also live in a free country, it is decided that vaccines can be marketed, that whoever wants to pay, to buy a vaccine, can do so,” he said.

Mexico is the country with the fifth most confirmed deaths from COVID-19, with more than 334,000 officially recognized.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Due to Lack of Teachers, Several Subjects Are Not Being Taught Two Months After the School Year Began in Cuba

The lack of teachers has increased since the beginning of the school year. (Telesur)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 23 October 2023 — It has been almost two months since the official start of the school year in Cuba, and in some schools the first class in some subjects has not yet been given due to the lack of teachers. The situation is not new in a country that has been suffering a plummeting number of teachers for years, but the deficit is clearly gaining strength and in just one month has increased by at least 7,000.

At the end of August, days before the beginning of the course, the Minister of Education, Ena Elsa Velázquez, acknowledged that 10,000 teachers were missing, but at the end of September the real figure was 17,278, according to the general director of Basic Education, Marlén Triana Mederos. With that number, the deficit is 3,200 in secondary schools alone, says the official, who specifies the national coverage at 88%. The provinces with the most problems are, persistently, Havana, Mayabeque, Artemisa, Matanzas and Sancti Spíritus.

The provinces with the most problems are, persistently, Havana, Mayabeque, Artemisa, Matanzas and Sancti Spíritus

The data come from a brief report on the Cuban Television news that analyzes with concern the “complex” situation of what it calls “one of the pillars of Cuban society” and which, in its opinion, does not escape the “impact” of the economic situation. The resource of students from pedagogical schools is insufficient, as is the fact that some teachers are doubling their classes and teaching subjects that they barely know.

In 2014 – which gives an idea of how far back the origin of the “complex” scenario goes – the Educating with Love program emerged, in which student assistants reinforce the lack of teaching coverage in classrooms throughout the country. But this bandaid cannot contain the hemorrhage of teaching professionals, and the Government has no way to solve it economically. continue reading

According to the report, the authorities are “on the verge of” implementing measures to help the teachers, but they recognize that, although a higher salary could contribute to retaining staff, each territory, municipality and institution must look for their own  tools, which the Ministry of Education itself says is “a quite complex problem. Today in the country there are 1,163 high schools with more than 32,000 teachers.”

In the video, several teachers intervene to explain the difficulties they face and how the quality of teaching has deteriorated, in addition to claiming that classes are delayed to ensure that the students have learned the material. “We are not talking about an even cut for all institutions,” they clarify, and the measures have to be considered in each educational center.

Among the causes identified by the national television report for the loss of teachers are the usual ones, from low wages to emigration. An important number go to another job and not to another school, the report highlights, a case very similar to that of doctors, who assume that they will earn more in any self-employed business and have fewer personal problems than in vocations that impose the difficulty of working properly, with repercussions on the lives of people, students or patients, in each case.

Talía González, the journalist who prepared the report, says on her social networks that it’s a situation “that cannot be ignored” and that the Ministry is trying to take measures. “All education workers need to be stimulated, recognized and congratulated, because exhausted and overwhelmed we continue to contribute the best we can,” a teacher responds. More belligerent, another user replies that in Higher Education the situation is identical.

An important number go to another job and not to another school, the report highlights, a case very similar to that of doctors

“Deans, vice deans, researchers, scientists often have  a lower salary than a prison guard, just to give an example,” she says. “Without discrediting anyone’s work (…) right now you can find a private business where a significant number of its workers are PhDs, have master’s degrees, are full and assistant professors … serving you a soft drink or baking pizzas. They have not left the sector for lack of vocation but for salary improvements,” she concludes.

The report has motivated a large number of comments, including that of a user who insists that such transcendental complaints should be published on weekdays and not on a Sunday. Other comments say that this problem, extending to many state jobs, has been allowed to grow and is now entrenched as if nothing were happening, with an aggravating factor: the work is borne by the few who sacrifice and decide to go forward despite the difficulties.

“What really bothers me is that until things reach that extreme, no one says anything. It’s been going on for a while, but nothing happens; everything is fine. Let no one come and say that they are discussing the problem over breakfast,” reproaches one user.

Despite this, Cuba continues with the agreements that require it to send teachers to some countries, including Honduras, Mexico and, recently, Jamaica. Havana also has missions of this type in Africa, one of them in Equatorial Guinea, of which Ena Elsa Velázquez Cobiella, Minister of Education until last April, was the head.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

The Balance Sheet Is Not Going To Solve Inflation in the Cuban Economy

Margarita Acosta, Director of Price Policy for Cuba’s Ministry of Finance and Prices . “When one talks about Price we are referring to one of the most complex and controversial economic categories.”

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 21 October 2023 — Does updating the balance sheets really help to achieve more rational prices? Perhaps in communist Marxist logic, yes, but for a long time economists have known that the laws of the market are far superior to any instrument of central planning. The Cuban economy is a good example of this.

Apparently Margarita Acosta, director of Price Policy for the Ministry of Finance and Prices, believes that yes, it is possible to face the drama of inflation that the country is currently experiencing by publishing legal rules, which aim to “make costs and expenses transparent, seek efficient reserves and from there promote price decreases.”

It should not be only Ms. Acosta who believes in the superiority of planning. Her action must also be supported by President Díaz -Canel, Prime Minister Marrero, and up and down the ladder. The communist hierarchy is hard to determine in some cases.

What does this curious action of the Ministry consist of?

First of all, it is mandatory to prepare the so-called “cost sheet” for all economic actors. Both non-state and state producers and providers of technical-productive services must submit to this instrument of the regime’s economic control. The measure is considered key among those undertaken in the country to achieve more rational prices and face the abusive ones, a claim of the population. A claim that, in this way, goes nowhere. continue reading

Secondly, the rule will be published when only two and a half months have passed since Resolution 148 of 2023 was issued, published in Official Gazette No. 64 of July 6, in which the Ministry “conducts a process of preparation and training with its territorial directorates, local governments, universities and the National Association of Economists and Accountants of Cuba.”

In statements to the Cuban News Agency, Margarita Acosta Rodríguez, director of Price Policy of the Ministry of Finance and Prices (MFP), clarified that the main objective of the legal norm is to make costs and expenses transparent, look for efficiency reserves and go from there to price decreases, as long as it does not imply deterioration of the results or that the products are sold at a loss.

Thirdly, what is striking is that the authorities recognize that the established methodology and the cost sheet themselves do not solve inflation problems. Of course not. Inflation is not only a supply phenomenon but is also based on the imbalance with demand. No matter how many balance sheets are concocted, the price that the consumer is willing to pay has a much greater influence on inflation. They’re wasting time. Or they don’t do what needs to be done. And that’s how it goes.

This is why the authorities defend the cost sheet, because they point out that “it constitutes the starting point for the evaluation of price agreements, which lead to more effective and favorable regulatory measures for the population in products and services with the greatest impact, and in social consumption.” Price adjustments. Yes, you have heard correctly, it is a twisted way of trying to avoid market adjustment via supply and demand. The regulation and price intervention of the communists do nothing but distort the free adjustment of the markets and create conditions for harmful shortages.

Fourth, the leaders say that a “training process is underway at all levels given the complex context in which the regulations must be implemented.” Unbelievable. In all the economies of the world, millions of transactions between sellers and buyers occur every second, and you don’t have to train for anything.

Those who interact in the markets know their objectives, products and needs well, so there is no need for other agents outside the processes to interpret in their own way “concepts, purposes and how much can become a decisive tool in the negotiations between the parties and in the price agreements of local governments with the economic actors.” Precisely, that negotiation of the local powers with the economic actors should be liberalized and not subject to any control, and that could be an important path to improvement.

The Ministry’s director of price policy said that representatives of more than 3,500 entities of the business system, including budgeted units and more than 12,000 non-state economic actors, have been trained on Resolution 148/23. Figures, in any case, absolutely insufficient if compared to the dimensions of the Cuban economy. In the seminars it has been explained “that the cost sheet can be made with a criterion of flexibility, according to the characteristics and complexities of each activity, but this does not mean that prices are formed by spending methods and that this procedure replaces the Cost System of the entity.”

In short, they want to prepare the cost sheet anyway but at the same time point out that “prices must indicate what national productions and services cost and the real cost of imports, which will gradually allow the elimination of subsidies to business activity, promote greater negotiation between the parties, stimulate the search for reserves of efficiency in costs and expenses, and make real social spending transparent.”

It is a serious mistake. Prices  come from supply, as in this case, but also from demand. A product can be released on the market with a high or low price. Marketing strategists know this and set up different mechanisms in each case. You can’t walk blindly like they do in Cuba, or with only one eye, when you need both. That’s what the communists are unable to recognize.

And here come the different methods. For the formation of prices by correlation, “that is, by comparison, [they use] the references of import and export of goods and services, similar to the external and also domestic market, provided that their origin and the general bases for their determination in reasonable ranges are demonstrated.”

For setting prices in the non-state sector, the regulations are based on the agreements of local governments with economic actors in the commercialization of products and services with the greatest impact on the population and entities, which is established in resolutions 329/20, 84/21 and 263/22, all from the Ministry of Finance and Prices. In this negotiation, the local powers impose conditions on economic agents, almost always unfavorable, which takes away their interest in negotiating.

The authorities insist that in order to conduct business, “it is essential to know the cost sheet of each producer, an essential tool in the negotiations between the parties, and therefore it is planned to close the year with progress in this task.” From this point, “a gradual effect is expected on the decrease in wholesale prices in some productions and services, so that they contribute to lowering the retail prices of those products in high-impact activities, such as in the fast-food economy.” They make it clear.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Faced With the Deplorable Transport Situation in Cuba, the Government Looks to the Private Sector

Buses are scarce in the midst of fuel shortages, but there are many passengers. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 20 October 2023 — The Cuban Government does not yet know how to integrate the private sector into passenger transport to make it attractive but is studying it, according to the Minister of Transport, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, speaking Thursday on State TV’s Roundtable program, as part of a discussion in which he offered the deplorable data of his sector, saying that the participation of MSMEs (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) is essential.

This is not new, he said, since self-employed businesses and cooperatives are already present in the activity, and now there are more than 350 MSMEs dedicated to passenger transportation, cargo, workshops, road repair, component production and spare parts. All of them can contribute to improving the depressed sector.

So, how to make the incorporation of the private sector attractive? The Government doesn’t yet know. Rodríguez Dávila detailed the problem well. When the company has losses, in order to maintain the rates, vehicles in operation and fuel, the State budget supports it. This doesn’t happen with other forms of management, which invest in leasing and improvements or in the purchase of a vehicle and then have no way to cover the investment, since trip prices are regulated, although he admitted that there is a lack of control for that requirement to be met. continue reading

“Really with state-owned companies we have been accustomed to working in one way, but with non-state management forms we have to work in a different way”

Really with state-owned companies we have been accustomed to working in one way, but with non-state forms of management we have to work in a different way. The purpose is the same, the provision of a service according to the standards that our population expects, but the way to approach it is not the same. We have to learn how to do it well; it is a negotiation system in which there are several actors setting the rules of the game,” he said. The minister is working in a group together with the United Nations “for the improvement of public-private relations, using the world’s experiences.”

Rodríguez Dávila also encouraged state entities to rent vehicles to the paralyzed MSMEs, since, he said, they sometimes refuse to do so out of fear or ignorance. Despite this, more than 1,000 means of transport have been rented to private and other public companies. “We have many variants, and our vision is to try to ensure that both the state and non-state companies can carry out their activities efficiently, because that definitely leads to better service for the people,” he said.

“How can the State not fix a vehicle and the private one can? You have to visualize the dimensions. One car is not the same as 500, but there are also concerns related to prices and the control of transport activities,” he said.

Before reaching that point, Rodríguez Dávila depressed viewers with a cascade of data about the state of the sector, by land, sea and air. The cause, once again, is a lack of foreign currency. A new bus costs $200,000 and a locomotive $3 million, while a ship or plane cost much more. Spare parts or materials to manufacture them are also purchased outside the Island, and that limits the options, said the minister, who did not mention the donations or Chinese and Russian cooperation, which alleviate the situation in some way.

Other numbers: provincial transport companies moved 902 million passengers in 2017, compared to 274 planned for 2023

In figures, Rodríguez Dávila said that 1,500 means of transport that were out of service have been restored. “What happens [is] that you restore them and then have fuel limitations, or they are damaged again by the same level of activity,” he admitted.

The graphs show bleak data. In 1986, thanks to years of Soviet subsidy, there was a peak of passenger trips on the Island of 2.236 billion, but in 1998 the collapse reduced that to fewer than 500 million. Venezuelan intervention, reforms and the thaw made it possible to recover, and in 2017 there were 2.275 billion passenger trips, but last year the sector closed with just 1.008 billion.*

But we don’t have to go that far back. In other numbers: provincial transport companies moved 902 million passengers in 2017, compared to 274 million planned for 2023**. In Havana, where the situation has had the least effects, only 37% of the travelers relative to the numbers from five years ago are expected, while Cienfuegos (11%) and Holguín (12%) have the worst projections.

“Fewer than 300 buses are working in Havana, a city that in the 1980s had 2,500 buses and just four years ago had 600,” Rodríguez Dávila said.

The air transport situation is not much better. Domestic flights to Santiago de Cuba and Holguín have been restored, but there are none to Camagüey and Gerona because the plane is broken down. All this despite the fact that Russia has contributed. “Recently, we received a Russian-made TU-204 that was modernized and will soon be put into operation, and we have an IL-96 and some ATRs that can help internally in the country.” An attempt is also being made to acquire a plane with foreign investment to renew the fleet, he added.

As for the catamaran and the ferry, they take turns. Rodríguez Dávila recalled that the latter was stopped due to lack of fuel, but now it will work again. Of course, the ferry has to be suspended for maintenance. And finally, the railroad: despite delays, maintains stability and meets the planned travel times. “There is a level of general satisfaction,” he said.

Fifty percent of freight trains don’t function, and although work is being done to restore them – thanks to the workshops, cars and locomotives from international cooperation – the process is slow

The case of cargo transport is different. Fifty percent of freight trains don’t function, and although work is being done to restore them – thanks to the workshops, and cars and locomotives acquired through international cooperation – the process is slow. “To the same extent that you restore, other things that were working stop due to new difficulties,” he complained. All this despite the fact that the load has decreased due to the reduction in purchase volume. “We are more or less transporting half of what we did four or five years ago (…) according to the economy’s possibilities,” he explained.

In addition, Rodríguez Dávila devoted several minutes to the conditions of roads, which cause a large number of crashes, as he had warned on many occasions. This time, the minister admitted it without excuses. “There has been a deterioration of the roads that we are unable to contain, and no timely solution to the potholes and cracks.”

The reason, again, was attributed to the shortage of foreign currency, especially for the acquisition of materials and also for  machinery parts. “Many times the limitation of fuel means that we are not able to produce the aggregate or place an order for it later,” he added. That is why it is foreseen that, in addition to other municipal, provincial administrations and ministries that administer roads, the MSMEs will contribute; in fact, there is already one State business that works in the manufacture of asphalt material.

“We are also going in a more active way to non-state management in road repair. Together with the Ministry of Finance and Prices we will review the sources that can be used for financing, because many times we have the asphalt but there is no budget to pay for repairs,” he said.

Finally, as for the old fleet of vehicles, the minister said that the policy is being reviewed to advance “in the reorganization of the commercialization of vehicles in Cuba.” Since Decree 83, which allows the purchase at wholesale prices was approved in March, 1,000 vehicles have been sold. That rule eliminated the restrictions on electric motorcycles, an improvement that, for the minister, “somehow compensates for the decrease in buses working in the capital.”

“Behind every bus, train and other vehicles that circulate is the effort of many people who make it possible every day; and taking care of the little we have is one of the premises to get ahead,” Rodríguez Dávila said in the usual motivational final plea.

Translator’s notes:

*In very rough numbers this translates to about 218 annual trips per person (all ages)in 1986, dropping to 45 in 1998, rising to 200 in 2017, and then dropping back to 90 annual trips in 2022.

**Trips per person cannot be calculated for this set of numbers because the population served by the transport companies is unknown.

Translated by Regina Anavy 
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

The Havana Refinery Is Turned On and Off in an Attempt To Produce Fuel

As could be seen from the Newsroom of this newspaper on Friday, the flame of the Ñico López was more powerful than usual. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, October 21, 2023 — The intense flames that came out, on Friday night, from the tower of the Ñico López refinery on Havana Bay, gave the impression that fuel production had been restarted. The joy of the thousands of Cubans in line at gas station was short-lived: in the early hours of this Saturday, the plant’s torch went out again.

From the Newsroom of 14ymedio, on Friday evening, a flame that was more powerful than usual could be seen in the Ñico López refinery, which suggested that the facilities were processing the crude oil that arrived in several tankers from Mexico and Venezuela. A short distance from the refinery, the Emilia LPG, which was built to transport liquefied gas, remained anchored.

Another sign that a supply of fuel arrived in Havana in recent days is the smoke, more intense since Friday, emitted by the chimneys of the patana, the floating power plant contracted from the Turkish company Karpowership. Habaneros have become resigned to the harmful column of smoke emitted from the patana, because it means that the blackouts will have a truce. The environmental impact of the activity of those floating plants, however, will affect the Bay’s ecosystem, as several forecasts have already warned. continue reading

It would be logical that, although intermittent, the refining of crude oil in the Ñico López alleviates, even temporarily, the shortage of fuel in the capital’s gas stations

It would be logical that, although intermittent, the refining of crude oil in the Ñico López alleviates, even temporarily, the shortage of fuel in the capital’s gas stations. Just one day ago, the crisis showed signs of having reached a stalemate: the closure of important cultural institutions “for energy savings,” the streets without a single car and the bus stops full of people, waiting for a bus that does not arrive or passes by full.

University of Texas specialist Jorge Piñón told this newspaper that the Havana plant should be processing at least 22,000 barrels of crude oil per day, an amount that – judging by the number of oil tankers in the Island’s ports – would not be impossible to meet under the current conditions. However, last Thursday, as a 14ymedio reporter noted, the refinery torch was turned off.

At the beginning of September, Ñico López processed crude oil again, after a year of non-functioning. The start was disastrous: an unbearable smell of gas emitted by the facilities was denounced by thousands of habaneros on their social networks. The complaints forced the authorities to give an explanation, and the state-owned Cuba-Petróleo (Cupet) had to admit that the plague emanated from the refinery.

“The operation of the refinery, together with the calm air that has existed in recent days (especially at dawn and in the morning hours), has caused the gases, the product of the combustion in the torch, to generate the odors detected in some neighborhoods of Havana,” the company said.

The failure was unjustified, since Cupet had assured that its technicians “reviewed the handling systems of non-condensable waste gases, verifying that they were directed to the torch or flare for their burning, which is the technological destination that should receive them”

However, the promise to “minimize these unpleasant effects” did not satisfy habaneros, who continued to publish complaints about the impossibility of stopping the bad smell, even after closing doors and windows.

A primeras horas de este sábado, la antorcha de la refinería de La Habana se apagó de nuevo. (14ymedio)
In the early hours of Saturday the Havana refinery’s flame is off again. (14ymedio)

At the moment, Cupet has not commented on the productive intermittency of Ñico López, although Havana’s energy allies, such as Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, have stated that they will continue to help the Island “with everything possible,” including oil shipments.

Meanwhile, the speech of Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel continues to be that of someone under siege. In a long interview broadcast on Televisión Cubana, he said that the country lacks foreign currency and uses the little money it has to buy “a little” amount of fuel. Regarding transport – the sector with the largest impact – he said that the companies were “almost bankrupt.” Of course, despite the continuous arrival of oil tankers, which the Government doesn’t acknowledge, Cuba is experiencing, in the president’s opinion, a fierce “energy persecution” with the “evil objective” of depriving the country of fuel.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

In Ten Months, 52,000 Cubans Have Benefited From the US Humanitarian Parole

A Cuban family that benefited from the humanitarian parole program arriving in the United States. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 22 October 2023 — During the month of September, the number of Cubans benefiting from the humanitarian parole program established by the United States increased, from 3,500 in August to 5,053 last month. According to figures from the Department of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the number is below that for Venezuelans with 5,092 beneficiaries, Nicaraguans with 5,298, and Haitians with 12,245, who have benefited the most.

According to Univision journalist Daniel Benitez, more than 52,000 Cubans were approved to enter the United States under humanitarian parole between January and the end of September. Of these, 50,185 have already entered, and the rest are expected to do so shortly.

In total, 265,888 migrants of the four nationalities have benefited from the program established by Joe Biden’s government.

However, with regard to entries through CBP One, journalist Mario J. Pentón from América TeVé warned that of the 43,000 people processed in September, according to US authorities, the main nationalities that “have scheduled appointments” are Haitian, Mexican and Venezuelan.

With the arrival of 341,392 migrants at the southern border of the United States in September, the pressure on the Biden administration has increased in recent months, although it insists that migration has been reduced.

The CBP indicates that, in total, 200,287 Cubans arrived at the borders of the United States in fiscal year 2023 (October 2022-September 2023). continue reading

Congressional Republicans must stop playing political games with border security

In addition, the figures indicate a record in the last 11 months with the crossing of 3,201,144 people to the United States. Meanwhile, the Border Patrol reported that last month it arrested 210,000 immigrants who crossed illegally.

CBP’s interim commissioner, Troy Miller, stressed in a statement that his agency “increased its resources and personnel” in September in response to the “high arrest rates along the southwest border.”

The Biden government also asked the US Congress for $13.6 billion to strengthen the border with Mexico, to manage irregular migration, and to fight against fentanyl trafficking, manufactured mainly by Mexican drug cartels.

“The Republicans in Congress must stop playing political games with border security,” says the document sent to Congress.

Biden said that, among the advances that have been made in the matter, the humanitarian permits for family reunification, CBP One and the immigration management offices in Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and soon in Ecuador, stand out. However, “more funds” are required.

Part of the requested money will be used to send another 1,300 Border Patrol agents to work together with the 20,200 already financed in the budget for fiscal year 2024.

“The accelerated expulsion” of migrants who do not meet the requirements to stay “is not possible if asylum officials” cannot conduct interviews to evaluate whether there is a possibility that they will be persecuted or tortured if they return to their country, the Department of Homeland Security said this Friday in a statement.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

In Cuba, Official Culture Loses Ground in the Face of Dynamic Private Offerings

The budget dedicated to the restoration of heritage properties is insufficient, which has accelerated their deterioration. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 20 October 2023 — Cuba’s officialdom celebrates the Day of Cuban Culture by declaring the existence of a new enemy: the “cultural colonization” promoted by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The oxygen that the “new economic actors” have given to the sector contrasts with the situation that – not without reluctance – the local leaders describe this Friday: unpayable debts, millions of pesos lost, the impossibility of restoring heritage buildings and the stampede of intellectuals and artists.

Taking advantage of the anniversary – established by the regime in 1980, following the myth that the national anthem was written on October 20, 1868, by Perucho Figueredo – the official press reviewed the state of culture in several provinces. With varying degrees of sincerity, the officials agreed on one point: the situation is, at the very least, “complex.”

Jorge Félix Lazo, director of the Cultural Sector of Sancti Spíritus, said that for his office it is a “challenge,” despite the fact that the province has about 500 registered musicians and 92 writers, to offer something attractive to young people, victims par excellence, he insisted, of “cultural colonization, which goes unnoticed before our very eyes.”

The problem, he conjectured, is that people are not capable of “changing their thinking,” despite the fact that the province has a university and 24 cultural projects. “It’s a shame that they haven’t taken advantage of them,” he said sadly. continue reading

The few advances made have been by the small private businesses, which make up for the work that the state sector is unable to assume, he admitted

The few advances made have been by the small private businesses, which make up for the work that the state sector is unable to assume, he admitted. But “loosening the reins” – as Lazo eloquently describes government control – has been taken advantage of by businesses that have succeeded in “managing artistic talent and even have sponsored activities and events.”

“But our mission is to lead them, not to leave them alone, to prevent the violation of cultural policy, of which there is only one,” warns the leader, who sees a top-up review of the private businesses to be necessary. “We have had stumbling blocks, because we cannot allow our spaces to lose their essence and be just for dancing and consuming drinks. The role of our institutional system is unchanged.”

Despite his inflexibility, Lazo recognizes that alliances with the private sector are the “road to salvation.” His example is the municipal library of Fomento, which digitized its catalog thanks to a MSME. It was a simple operation, the official said, not like the urgent restoration of the now-closed Museum of Colonial Art, at the moment impossible because it requires “a million-dollar figure” to be carried out.

The most notable failure – which Lazo describes as “unexpected” – is that of the Music and Entertainment Marketing Company, which closed in 2022 with more than 364,000 pesos in losses. Lazo’s justification is that the institution failed not only at the provincial level but also at the national level. The leader predicts that the same thing will not happen this year and that “the dissatisfaction of the artists” can be alleviated, since “the direction has changed and measures have been adopted.”

In opinion columns published in official magazines and provincial institutional meetings, intellectuals and artists affiliated with he National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) have recorded that the economic aspect of their work is – and has been for a long time – more than alarming. The request for a “scheme” that allows the profits of the sector, no matter how small, to be reinvested in it, has been a constant in the assemblies of the organization.

The intellectuals and artists affiliated with UNEAC have recorded that the economic aspect of their work is – and has been for a long time – more than alarming

The writer and cultural commissioner Ricardo Riverón, of Villa Clara, explained in the magazine La Jiribilla that the financial ups and downs of the Island have caused a “litany of disagreements” between officials and artists. “The most recent of all, very bitter, is over cinema,” he stressed, alluding to the claims of the independent Assembly of Filmmakers of Cuba, which arose as a result of the unauthorized broadcast by its director, on Televisión Cubana, of the documentary La Habana de Fito, by Juan Pin Vilar.

For Riverón, Cuba is moving towards a process of cultural crisis  similar to the one that the Soviet Union went through, which could have, he warns, similar results. “At the end of the last century, glasnost [openness] did more damage than perestroika [restructuring]: the economy in Russia and other countries recovered, but the socialist ideology had to face the long devaluation of its moral capital, which today is rowing against the tide. The persistent loss of its political attractiveness and mobilizing capacity is still with us,” he insists.

Returning to the solutions of the Special Period – in particular the “decentralization of decisions” of the sector, which Riverón aspires to return to local leaders – could be the light at the end of the tunnel, the official theorizes. However, there is a great danger: the Internet, whose access “has been for us almost the equivalent of a glasnost,” and which generates more “cultural colonization,” he regrets.

Riverón agrees with Lazo in the same fear: for the State, it is intolerable that there be a “discredit” and a “dismantling of institutionality,” because with it, “the socialist conception of society will go away; there is no doubt about that.”

Translated by Regina Anavy 

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

The Cotorro Team Is Expelled From the Havana Provincial Baseball Series for Not Showing Up for Two Games

Image from a game of the 63rd Provincial Series, from which the Cotorro team was removed. (Facebook/Boris Luis Cabrera Acosta)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 20 October 2023 — The Havana Baseball Commission removed the Cotorro municipality team from the 63rd Provincial Series. The squad received the disciplinary measure, announced this Thursday, “for not showing up for their last two games,” according to journalist Boris Luis Cabrera Acosta. The sports authorities did not accept the justification that the absences were caused by the lack of transport due to the fuel shortage that affects Cuba.

A member of the team told the official media Tribuna de La Habana that “they waited in vain for the bus, which no one in the municipality could manage” to take them to the Ciro Frías sports center in Arroyo Naranjo.

Cotorro also lost a second game days later after not showing up to face the Plaza de la Revolución team, so the authorities decided to remove them from the competition that serves as a prelude to the National Series.

“Another desert of disbelief multiplied in the eyes of the protagonists, who visualized how they were given a sovereign knockout from the field,” Swing Completo published. The blow also spread to the fans, who, despite the escapes of baseball players, go to the stadiums to spend moments of distraction. continue reading

Another desert of disbelief multiplied in the eyes of the protagonists, who visualized how they were given a sovereign knockout from the field

Cabrera Acosta recalled that the Boyeros team also faced the lack of transport prior to their match against 10 de Octubre. However, the team paid for the bus with its own money. “The good development of these challenges must be a maxim,” says Swing Completo. “Unfortunately, another stone on the road appeared to hinder the sacrifice of the players, who are the main ones affected in this whole history of turmoil and bureaucracies.”

Pitcher Pablo Luis Guillén, who left Cuba legally in 2021 and currently plays in the Italian League, said when he was interviewed last September by Pelota Cubana, that on the Island “the game is played only out of love and you can’t eat love.”

“When you play baseball and are not paid a dignified salary, where players earn only 14 dollars a month, you can’t be responsible right now for how the world and life itself is in Cuba,” he added.

Image of some of the members of the Cotorro team. (Facebook/Omar Martínez)

It’s not the first time that the fuel shortage has hit Cuban baseball. In August last year, the first match of the Under-23 championship of the National Baseball Series between Villa Clara and Cienfuegos was suspended for this reason.

The Villa Clara Leopards, who were staying at the Pasacaballos hotel, received the notification that they could not be taken to the September 5 stadium, where the host team and local fans were waiting for them.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Diaz-Canel Will Be at the Summit in Mexico To Talk About the Cuban Migrants in Tapachula

In addition to the Cuban president, the leaders of Colombia, Honduras, Haiti and Venezuela will be present. (EFE)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Mexico City, October 18, 2023 — The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, confirmed on Wednesday the attendance of the leaders of Cuba, Colombia, Honduras, Haiti, Venezuela, Ecuador and Guatemala at the summit on migration next Sunday in Chiapas, a state on the southern border of Mexico.

“Attending will be the presidents of Central America, the Caribbean, president (Miguel) Díaz-Canel of Cuba, president (Gustavo) Petro (of Colombia), president Xiomara (Castro) of Honduras, the prime minister of Haiti (Ariel Henry), and president (Nicolás) Maduro (of Venezuela),” he revealed in his morning conference.

“The president of Ecuador (Guillermo Lasso) and the president of Guatemala (Alejandro Giammattei) are also coming; so far nothing more; I don’t know of others. They will be represented, in the event that a president can’t come, by a vice president or a chancellor. We are going to meet on Sunday,” he added.

According to what was stated by the president last week, the presidents of El Salvador, Belize, Costa Rica and Panama have yet to be confirmed. At the meeting in Palenque, López Obrador will look for a common proposal from the region on migration and then present it in November to the President of the United States, Joe Biden. continue reading

“We can do a lot if we help each other. The meeting is called “For a Fraternal Neighborhood and in Search of Well-being,” so let’s see what we can do together, how we can help each other,” he said.

The meeting will take place while Mexico and Central America face an “unprecedented” migratory flow, as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned last month, with up to 16,000 migrants arriving at the Mexican borders every day, according to López Obrador.

“(The meeting) is very important because it’s a problem that can get worse. It is already worrying, because the number of migrants is growing and we have to attend to it,” said the Mexican president. López Obrador will insist on “attending to the causes, going to the bottom of things, not just holding back or thinking about militarizing the borders or building walls, which don’t solve the problem.”

Questioned about whether he will ask Latin American countries to detain migrants before arriving in Mexico, the president said that all governments should do everything possible to address migration. “In all cases there is interest in helping migrants, in all cases, but many countries are going through difficult economic situations. They don’t have a budget or there are conflicts, either due to political confrontations or due to the blockade in the case of Cuba, which is inhumane,” he said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

‘We Give Priority to the Basic Basket,’ Says a Cuban Minister With Black Humor

The minister said that powdered milk had to be prioritized for the engines of fishing boats. (Escambray)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, October 18, 2023 — Everything is bad in Cuba, but it could be worse. This is basically what Manuel Sobrino Martínez, Minister of Food Industry, said this Tuesday in a brilliant appearance on State TV’s Roundtable program, where he reviewed in detail the systematic sinking of the forecasts for this year and ended up encouraging those who listened. “We would have to take into account how we were if the Government had not taken the number of actions it has been undertaking in recent years,” he said.

Sobrino Martínez has uttered some of the most memorable phrases so far this year, now accumulating in October. The most meritorious was the one that attributed the fall in tourism to the priority given to Cubans at lunchtime. “Today there is an important group of resources that, if tourism had them, would provide a better service and have more tourists; and the Government’s decision has been to give priority to the basic basket and social consumption.”

Presumably fearing the impact of his words, he rushed to clarify that this does not mean that there is “total satisfaction,” but that prioritizing is prioritized. And that only what is left over, if it is left over, goes to other sectors. “Virtually all the food that arrives in the country goes to the basic basket,” he said.

Presumably fearing the impact of his words, he rushed to clarify that that does not mean that there is “total satisfaction

The data show a series of catastrophic misdeeds. Much less food is processed now than in 2021 and 2022, he said, just before attributing it to the “flare-up of blockade measures,” although the sanctions come mostly from previous years. For products, only 67% of the planned wheat has been purchased, because its price went from $280 per ton in 2019 to $410 in 2023. continue reading

Milk, which four years ago cost $3,150 a ton, now costs $4,508. Only 21% of what was scheduled has been purchased. Oil doubled its price in that same period, from $880 to $1,606, which means 55% of the projection has been acquired. He didn’t even mention soy and corn; he only talked about their rise in price to $226 and $163, respectively.

So the triumphant data with which he began his presentation, all of it about the enormous food processing capacity that the country has, remained worthless in the face of the absolute impossibility of importing and, much less, producing.

The jackpot was won by fishing – “we are not doing well in 2023, we are not complying, with only 58% of what was planned and with 23% less than what was achieved in 2022” – a living example of the resounding failure of the 63 measures to boost the agricultural sector that, precisely, he came to defend.

The minister, who had initially explained that there are more than 60 boats without an engine because it can cost between $25,000 and $40,000, and those who have them don’t want to sell or demand an advance payment that cannot be made – “we have had to decide whether to buy powdered milk, wheat, or engines” – ended up explaining that the approval of Resolution 52, with which fishing was made more flexible, has led to an increase in the licenses of non-state boats by 4,302, almost double that of the previous year. Did that translate into more fish? The answer is no.

Sobrimo touched on the situation of other staple foods, with a scarce attachment to reality. “In Cuba, more than a million children receive milk every day,” he surprised everyone by saying. Of these, 645,000 have the fluid, produced on the Island, and 365,000 have the powder, imported. If they were charged at a “neoliberal” price, he added, the liter would be sold at 125 pesos. Then he explained the poor hiring, the non-compliance, the drought, the lack of inputs… and it was understood that, as the population reports, milk arrives half the time.

Sobrino continued the task undertaken this Tuesday by his boss to convince the population of the benefits of the ’MSMEs’

The same situation occurs with meat, to which he also dedicated a section, saying that of the 110,000 producers visited, only 36,000 have contracted with the industry, certifying the resounding success of the measures.

Thus, Sobrino continued the task undertaken on Tuesday by his boss to convince the population – disenchanted – of the benefits of the MSMEs — small and medium private businesses. “Not all those companies are giving what was aspired to; there are some that have taken a distorted path, and they are being reviewed. But it would also be necessary to know if those 844 were not impacting industrial food production, what the situation would be.” Again, poor but grateful.

The minister insisted that the private sector is expected to work together with the State to lower costs and contribute to shortages on a small scale, something that, he explained, is already being done with the bakeries. “The State has to buy 700 tons of wheat per day for the rationed bread, while a form of non-state management buys a container that is 25 tons and organizes the production for a month; they are volumes at different scales.”

In that way, working with the many bakeries that have been approved, the product has been delivered, he said. “The vast majority today are linked with non-state forms of management. The bakeries are not being privatized; they are linked. Prices are discussed and negotiated.” Of the 844 MSMEs that are dedicated to food production, 195 focus on bread and pastries; 195 on meat; 188 on fruits and vegetables; 93 on dairy; 30 on soft drinks and beverages, and 24 on fishing.

Near the end of the program, Sobrino still had time to leave one more amazing statement. “We have a favorable situation with coffee,” he said, the same day it was known that the small amount and poor coffee that remains in Cuba increased its price by more than 10% in September, and neither tastes nor smells as it should. But let’s not let the mood decline. “The best answer is in the history of the country and in the spirit of resistance and confidence of the people,” he concluded.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Diaz-Canel Again Receives Titov To ‘Deepen’ Cuba’s Relations With Russia

Russian adviser Boris Titov with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, this Thursday. (X/@DiazCanelB)

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Havana, 19 October 2023 — Kremlin business consultant Boris Titov is back in Havana, five months after his last visit. President Miguel Díaz-Canel met this Thursday with the official, who holds the position of president of the Cuba-Russia Business Council.

“It’s the will of both governments to deepen our economic and commercial relations,” Díaz-Canel wrote on his account on the social network X (formerly Twitter). The Cuban president did not offer more details of the meeting with the Russian politician and businessman, who was in Cuba last May to attend a bilateral business forum attended by more than 150 representatives of companies from Russia and Cuba.

On that occasion, they offered the Russians the right to hold land in usufruct for a period of 30 years, a concession unprecedented in the history of the revolutionary regime.

The Cubans expect capital to arrive from Moscow in the areas of transport, logistics, agriculture, sugar, tourism, construction and industry, according to the Cuban government.

In response, Havana will provide Russia with “facilities to encourage” its “presence.” Among them, according to Titov himself, is the import of tax-free products from the Eurasian country, the presence of Russian banks and financial facilities for exchange with their respective currencies (the ruble and the peso). continue reading

The Cuban president did not offer more details of the meeting with the Russian politician and businessman

So far in 2023, the Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov; the president of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin; the economic adviser of the Presidency, Maksim Oreshkin, and other important political figures of Vladimir Putin’s government have traveled to the Island.

Despite their political ties, in 2022 the bilateral trade exchange was only 451 million dollars, a figure that the Russian representation hoped to improve.

A few days ago, the meeting at the Meliá Cohiba hotel of 100 professors and students from the Moscow State University Rosbiotech showed that the alliance between the two countries involved the teaching of Russian.

Similarly, last September, Russia and Cuba addressed the construction of new generating capacities for power plants on the Island, but without further details. Russia is still, in any case, one of the main fuel suppliers to Cuba, behind Venezuela and Mexico.

Relations between Havana and Moscow, which have been going at full speed since May, have advanced more cautiously since several international media reported the presence of Cuban soldiers in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Titov’s visit, however, shows that the projects are not stopping.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

More Oil Arrives in Cuba, but the Refinery Is Shut Down and Gas Stations Lack Fuel

The LPG tanker Emilia was anchored this Thursday at the Ñico López refinery of Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 19 October 2023 — On 23rd Avenue, the most fast-paced in Havana, no vehicle was circulating on Thursday morning. In several corners, a crowd of Cubans wait for the arrival of the bus, which doesn’t come. Concerts are even canceled “for energy savings.” Signs of the crisis are everywhere.

In the port, the Turkish patana [floating power plant] emits a sparse fog, instead of its formidable – and harmful – column of smoke. On the other side of the bay, the refinery is shut down. However, oil tankers continue to arrive on the coasts of the Island, and in a higher number than usual. Of course, they disconnect their radar when entering territorial waters, but maritime tracking applications and the observations of experts do not lie: Cuba continues to receive oil, and in significant quantities, from Venezuela, Mexico, Russia and other allies. What does the regime do with that fuel, and why is the country immersed in the energy debacle? No authority so far has explained this contradiction.

Attentive to the flow of oil tankers, the University of Texas expert Jorge Piñón points out to 14ymedio the coordinates of the ships heading to the Island. “From the Mexican port of Pajaritos – which has been in the spotlight after the controversy about a millionaire credit that the state-owned Pemex negotiated with the U.S. Import and Export Bank – the Delsa left at 11:00 pm this Wednesday, carrying approximately 385,000 barrels of crude oil,” says Piñón. In October alone, the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has sent 800,000 barrels to the Island.

In the port of Matanzas there are four tankers: the Marianna V.V. (flag of Liberia), the Sandino (Cuba), the Aquila (Panama) and the Primula (), while in Mariel there is the Caribbean Alliance, with a Panamanian flag. In Moa, Holguín, the Prairie Tulip, registered in Madeira, is anchored. continue reading

In October alone, the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has sent 800,000 barrels to the Island

For its part, the Alicia – with a Cuban flag – left the Venezuelan port of José with an estimated 290,000 barrels of crude oil, while the Lourdes, also Cuban, is waiting to receive a shipment to return to the Island. The Petion ship is anchored, with the same objective, in the port of La Cruz, also in Venezuela, where the Sandino was, one of the ships with a Cuban flag that most often travels to the terminal of José.

With these data, it is inconceivable that the Havana refinery is not processing the 22,000 barrels per day (bpd) that it would under normal conditions, says Piñón. A reporter from 14ymedio found that Ñico López’s torch light was off this Thursday, although it has a tanker anchored next to it, the LPG Emilia, with a Cuban flag.

“Venezuela will have a respite in its oil production thanks to the elimination, for six months, of the sanctions imposed by the United States,” the expert adds. “It is possible that by the end of the year it will reach a production of one million barrels a day. At the moment, its level is 800,000 bpd,” which will guarantee – and even be able to increase – Venezuela’s shipments to Cuba, which are on average 57,000 bpd.

Regarding Venezuela, the expert also estimates that it will take advantage of the increase in production to increase sales and oxygenate its income. The price of a barrel of crude oil currently reaches $90.

Meanwhile, Cubans continue to suffer one of the worst moments of the supply crisis in which the government estimates the causes of the paralysis of the country. In the few gas stations that provide services, a few state vehicles line up to fill their tanks with the meager amount that is given to them. For the others, they have to walk to their work centers or push themselves – as a crowd of passengers did this Thursday – on the red buses of Transmetro, the last lifeline for those who want to go anywhere in Havana.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.