Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 3

Cuba Extends Tariff-Free Imports for Food and Medication Until January 31, 2025

With the exemption, the regime is convinced that emigrants will continue to provide for the needs of their relatives on the Island

The regime has renewed the measure on several occasions since its implementation in 2021 / 14ymedio

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 28 September 2024 — The Ministry of Finance and Prices extended, until January 31, 2025, the tariff exemption for food, medications and other products that travelers can bring to the Island for non-commercial purposes, according to the latest Official Gazette. The regulations adopted in 2021 have been extended on several occasions and so far maintain the limit of the customs value – from 200 to 500 US dollars – for imports made by natural persons through shipments.

The ministry’s resolution puts the value limit for imported items at 500 dollars and up to 50 kilograms, in the value-weight ratio established by the General Customs of the Republic. Likewise, it specifies that the benefit of the exceptional tariff exemption is maintained for the first 30 dollars of the value or its equivalent weight of 3 kilograms, and the rate of 30% will be applied to the excess.

Food, hygiene products, medications and supplies, are authorized up to a limit of 200 dollars or 20 kg

In the cases of food, hygiene products, medications and supplies that are imported by natural persons through air, sea and postal shipments, a limit of 200 dollars or a weight of 20 kilograms is authorized, according to the resolution. continue reading

The current legislation in Cuba on the import of luggage consists of a complex system of weight points and limits that establishes tariffs on excess items brought by travelers. The import of food and medications without tariff limits was a measure adopted after the Island-wide anti-government protests of 11 July 2021 (11J), which had among the main causes the scarcity and shortage of basic products.

With the extension, the regime is convinced that emigrants will continue to provide for the needs – not only financial but also health and food – of their relatives on the Island.

Cuba has been suffering from a severe economic crisis for more than three years, which is reflected in the scarcity of basic products, the partial dollarization of the economy, the depreciation of the peso, the prolonged and frequent blackouts and the sharp increase in prices.

The effects of the pandemic, the tightening of the U.S. economic embargo and failures in economic management are the main reasons for the deterioration, which is stimulating migration – mainly to the U.S. – and social discontent.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The United States Excludes Cuba From the 2026 Visa Lottery for Exceeding the Migrant Limit

In 2024, 3,081 Cubans benefited from a total of 50,000 visas for citizens of more than 50 countries

A group of Cubans lines up to enter the U.S. Embassy in Havana / EFE / Ernesto Mastrascusa

14ymedio, Havana, 28 September 2024 — The United States Government decided to exclude Cubans from the Diversity Visas (DV) migration program for the 2026 fiscal year, due to the increase in the flow of migrants from the Island in recent years. No Cuban will be able to participate in the call that will open between October 2 and November 5 for the well-known “bombo.”

“For the DV-2026 visa, natives of the following countries and areas are not eligible to apply, because more than 50,000 natives of these countries emigrated to the United States in the previous five years,” the State Department explained in the call for the program before listing Cuba along with Mexico, China, Haiti and Venezuela, among others.

Washington also stressed that, “with the exception of Cuba,” which is not eligible for the DV-2026, “there were no changes” in the list of eligible countries with respect to the call for the previous fiscal year.

With this decision Cuba joins countries such as Mexico, China, Haiti and Venezuela, which are banned from the program

The Visa Lottery is a mechanism used by thousands of Cubans to emigrate legally and permanently to the United States, at least since 1995 when it was launched after the Immigration Act of 1990. It offers just over 50,000 visas continue reading

annually, which are awarded at random among all applicants from more than 50 countries.

Cubans had participated in the program uninterruptedly. In 2015, rumors circulated of a possible decrease or cancellation of the program for migrants from the Island, due to the re-establishment of relations between Washington and Havana.

With the exception of Cuba, “there were no changes” in the list of eligible countries with respect to the call of the previous fiscal year, Washington explained

In the 2024 Visa Lottery, a total of 3,081 Cubans were selected in the draw, a number that represents more than double those who were selected in 2022, when the United States granted the benefit to 1,358 Cubans. On that occasion, the Island became the country that contributed the most winners in Latin America.

The results of the 2025 Diversity Visa program, which included Cubans, have been published online since May 4. Cubans who registered between October 4 and November 7, 2023 are hoping to be selected for one of the 55,000 visas offered.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Arrested on Sunday, the Leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, is Released

The activist left the Aguilera station in Havana without charges or fines

Berta Soler was arrested while leaving the headquarters of the Ladies in White in the Havana neighborhood of Lawton / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 24 September 2024 — Almost three days passed before the police released Berta Soler on Tuesday morning. The leader of the Ladies in White was arrested on Sunday by State Security and her husband, former political prisoner Ángel Moya, repeatedly reported that her whereabouts were unknown and that the authorities said they did not know her whereabouts.

It was Moya himself who reported that at 7:45 am on Tuesday, Soler was released at the Aguilera police station in Havana. After her arrest in the Havana neighborhood of Lawton, the activist was transferred to the Aguilera station, then to Cotorro, and finally back to Aguilera. “During her detention, she was confined in semi-dark cells, without water and without possession of her Bible,” said Moya.

She was released from prison without charges or a fine, and this time – unlike other times – the officers did not threaten her. In a post on Monday, Moya reported that his wife “did not appear in the police registry of detainees.” He explained that he called 106 – the police number for filing complaints – and uploaded the audio of the conversation, in which a receptionist at the Ministry of the Interior told him that they did not have the arrest report. In addition, she asked him to go to the “closest” police station and even suggested that Moya was lying about Soler’s arrest.

As happens every week for her activism against the Ladies in White, Soler was arrested last Sunday in the same place. She was taken to the police unit of the Havana municipality of Cotorro and was released two days later. The activist then denounced, in a video on Facebook, that during the lockdown she was threatened by a State Security agent with a “detention of no return.” continue reading

As happens every week because of her activism against the Ladies in White, Soler was arrested last Sunday in the same place

During that time “she was threatened by the repressor Felo, of the State Security, with imprisonment, for not accepting an agreement to end her activism in exchange for going with her husband to the United States” to visit her relatives, Moya said. Regarding the warning, Berta Soler herself said on Sunday morning on Facebook: “I will be on the street and only God knows what can happen. There is no pact with the repressor.”

“This ultimatum that the Cuban regime is giving us,” Soler added in an interview with CubaNet, “this possibility of temporarily leaving the country by removing our ’regulations’ [a prohibition on travel outside the country], is being done to remove Berta Soler and Ángel Moya from above, and also to liquidate or silence the Ladies in White, but that card was played very badly because I am not a person who enters into arrangements with the State Security.”

“Repression has escalated” in recent times against the Ladies in White, the activist said last June, during an interview with the EFE agency.

The members of the Ladies in White in the provinces of Matanzas, Holguín, Villa Clara and Havana have been arrested almost every Sunday since, in January 2022, they decided to go out again to attend mass, after a pause due to the pandemic, in protest to ask for the release of political prisoners, including those of the massive demonstrations of 11 July 2021.

The movement was created by a group of women, relatives of 75 dissidents and independent journalists arrested and sentenced in March 2003 to high prison sentences after the wave of government repression known as the Black Spring. The mobilizations began with a series of Sunday marches to demand their release and became a symbol of dissent, which led to the fact that, in 2005, they were awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Conscience of the European Parliament.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Ten Years in Prison for a Ration Store Administrator in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, for Embezzling 200,000 Pesos

The official appropriated 24 beverage and food products, in addition to 6,000 liters of kerosene

It is not the first case published of a lower-ranking official convicted of corruption / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, 27 September 2024 –The newspaper Escambray has again reported a conviction for embezzlement of a low-ranking official. The administrator of the La Riviera ration store in Sancti Spíritus was sentenced to 10 years in prison for appropriating of 24 products and 6,000 liters of kerosene worth more than 200,000 pesos.

The convicted, about whom only his age is known (35 years old), was found with rice from the rationed family basket, raw and processed sugar, black beans, salt, powdered milk, toiletries and the aforementioned fuel. In addition, he appropriated drinks with and without alcohol, including beer and soft drinks, and cigarettes from the rationed market.

The total amount of what was stolen is 174,882 pesos, corresponding to the wholesale price. However, for the retail price, the loss is 200,127 pesos, which must be repaid to the Municipal Trade Company of Sancti Spíritus as part of the sentence. continue reading

The total amount of what was stolen is 174,882 pesos, corresponding to the wholesale price. However, for the retail price the loss is 200,127 pesos

The case, tried in the First Criminal Chamber of the Popular Provincial Court of Sancti Spíritus, is dated 2023, which shows that it has taken a year to clarify the responsibilities, although there are no details about the dates on which the events occurred or how the administrator was able to store the products.

The sentence can be appealed, and although it is unlikely that he would win, there could be some variation in a sentence that is even greater than the one announced last May for Alexis Fuentes de La Cruz. Fuentes de La Cruz was the director of the provincial Municipal Trade Company between May 2022 and July 2023, and was sentenced to eight years in prison for a corruption case that included irregularities in hiring and document falsification to prevent the crime from being detected.

The case was, like this one, reported in the official newspaper of the province, and, although the penalty was less, the moral reproach was extensive. Escambray delved into the hypocrisy of the cadres and officials of the Regime who “have sunk up to their necks in the mud of corruption.” The report also made direct mention of the former Minister of Economy and Planning himself, Alejandro Gil Fernández, dismissed for “serious mistakes” committed under his mandate. Nothing has been known about him since he was allegedly arrested in March of this year.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Havana’s Accountability Assemblies, the Blackouts Arrive on Time

Most of the residents are over 60 years old, and apathy reigns

The energy debacle has been the worst enemy of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution / Trabajadores

14ymedio, Havana, 27 September 2024 — While the notes of an untuned violin mistreated the Bayamo anthem, a dirty lightbulb illuminated the flag, some papers and a desk in the middle of the street. It was the first accountability assembly in a neighborhood of Cojímar and the premiere of a nervous Francisco Rodríguez Cruz – a journalist in the personal circle of President Miguel Díaz-Canel and First Lady Lis Cuesta – as the delegate. What was intended to be a manifestation of revolutionary stoicism ended up having pathetic overtones.

Known as Paquito de Cuba, the gay activist who defines himself as “troubled but happy” was the laughing stock of his own neighbors, who recorded and published a scene that has been repeated dozens of times this week: that of the leader who, in the midst of a dense blackout, tries to “comply” with the “orientation” of holding the assembly.

The energy debacle has been the worst enemy of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), determined to demonstrate their usefulness by organizing accountability assemblies in each neighborhood of the Island. The other has been the shortages. In a country where “donating a head of garlic is now like giving part of your liver” – in the words of a resident of Luyanó – the future will be black for the traditional stews, every year more meager and watered-down, for the celebration of CDR day, September 28.

“Yesterday we peeked out in the middle of the blackout and saw a group of people gathered under a lightbulb,” a woman tells 14ymedio. “We hadn’t even heard about the assembly. There was a flag on the door of a house, and people say that they will be collecting money in the neighborhood. But here no one is going to pay anything, and the person who comes asking will be made to feel like a fool.” continue reading

“Yesterday we peeked out in the middle of the blackout and saw a group of people gathered under a lightbulb,” says a woman

Things have changed, she adds, and apathy is widespread. “There is no movement of anything anywhere. Before, every September 27th, people started from 6:00 pm to prepare the firewood for the stew, if only for the food and the party. That’s over.”

The official press has been projecting a panorama of enthusiasm and kindness in the neighborhoods for days. They allude to the CDR as an institution that “comforts and commits,” and describe the environment of the neighborhoods – increasingly violent, hit by the increase in drugs and police inaction – as a place where “your best brother is the closest neighbor.”

In Nuevo Vedado, Havana, the accountability assemblies have also taken place with little attendance and many complaints. In one of the tall buildings that characterize the neighborhood, on Wednesday night a handful of neighbors, mostly over 60 years old, met to listen to the long report of the constituency’s delegate, who read a litany of complaints and problems suffered by the neighborhood.

The attendees’ participation focused mainly on inflation and the loss of purchasing power that families have suffered. “With my pension I can barely get by; if it weren’t for the fact that my children are still here, I don’t know what would become of me,” lamented a 90-year-old, who had participated in the construction of the building through the system of microbrigades.

Others complained that on the outskirts of the premises managed by the Youth Labor Army (EJT) on nearby Tulipán Street, a “Carthaginian market” has been created where everything is sold, but “it is not controlled and does not sell at the capped prices,” argued a resident. “There are now more goods being sold from the door outside the EJT than on the shelves inside.”

Outside the well-known market, for years there has been a network of informal merchants, who offer everything from cigarettes to strings of onion. “They are not the problem, but the result of the problem, because if you want to buy garlic, detergent, toothpaste or a bag to carry the food they sell inside, you have to end up going to those sellers,” explained another of the participants in the assembly.

One of the residents questioned the State investments that have been made nearby

One of the residents questioned the State investments that have been made nearby, which have not borne fruit or begun operating despite all the resources used. The man pointed to a new bank office, with two ATMs, which was going to be located on Estancia and Conill streets and which, after weeks of work by the builders, has been paralyzed.

In a similar situation, the attendee argued, “there is the Cadeca (Exchange House) that they started building on Tulipán Street, even with a bathroom for the employees. Today the ATMs work when they have money, but nothing else. The Youth Club at Estancia and Santa Ana received special mention, subject to a remodeling a few years ago and converted into a place that barely provides service due to the deterioration of its computers. A woman added that the Youth Club was in the process of “becoming a market for a private enterprise.”

The meeting was finalized by the sector chief of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) of the area who was categorical: “I’m the only police officer working in this neighborhood where there should be eight of us.” The uniformed man said that “most of the crimes of robbery and theft committed in this area are carried out by people who reside in Cerro,” a poorer neighborhood barely separated from Nuevo Vedado by Rancho Boyeros Avenue.

A little later, under a a burned-out light bulb, the delegate said his final words, and the participants returned to their apartments. Most had not even opened their mouths during the minutes that the accountability assembly lasted.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Borrell, Latin America and the European Union

Members of civil society in Cuba have requested that the EU subsidy to the Havana regime be eliminated

Borrell was a senior official in the Administration of one of Fidel’s strongest allies, former Spanish president Felipe González / EFE

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, September 22, 2024 — The conclusion is not edifying, but it agrees with reality.

Everything seems to indicate that many institutions act more in accordance with the opinions of their officials than according to the values on which they claim to sustain themselves, as is the case of the European Union, an entity institutionally committed to democracy and the enjoyment of citizens’ rights, which incurs incomprehensible contradictions.

The Assembly of Cuban Resistance, an organization linked to the overthrow of the dictatorship of the largest island of the Antilles, which, in addition, shows great concern about the dangers to democracy in the hemisphere, has been denouncing, practically since its constitution, the indulgence of the European Union toward the totalitarian Cuban regime.

These accusations, despite their constancy, have not been successful, because one of the most important officials of that entity, Joseph Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, apparently feels sympathy for Castroism and its heirs.

Which leads me once again to agree with the writers Jose Antonio Albertini and Alexis Ortiz, who claim that many personalities born or trained under the management of the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro have not been able to get rid of those influences. Borrell was trained and was a senior official in the Administration of one of Fidel’s strongest allies, Felipe continue reading

González, the former head of the Spanish Government, today very rightly opposing the autocracy of Nicolas Maduro.

However, González has never admitted that what Venezuela is currently suffering is a metastasis conceived by his former ally Fidel Castro.

Members of civil society in Cuba and the Assembly of Cuban Resistance have addressed Borrell requesting that the EU subsidy to the Havana regime be eliminated, and they have demanded compliance with a resolution approved by a large majority of the members of the European Parliament demanding the end of support for the Cuban tyranny.

The request states that “human rights abuses and violations have increased”

The request states that “human rights abuses and violations systematically perpetrated by the Cuban regime against demonstrators, political dissidents, religious leaders, human rights activists and independent artists, among other people, have increased,” while demanding “the activation of the human rights clause of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with Cuba.”

While Borrell and other officials grimace about Cuban totalitarianism, the number of political prisoners has grown considerably, and their living conditions have seriously deteriorated, as have those of the rest of the citizens.

The call emphasizes that the “number of political prisoners has multiplied by more than eight since 2018, which makes Cuba the largest prison of political activists and dissidents in Latin America,” a shameful position it has occupied since 1959.

On the other hand, I must write with extreme satisfaction that this same Borrell said that the Government of Nicolás Maduro “is a dictatorial and authoritarian regime,” a statement which should encompass the regimes of Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia, four Governments that deny their citizens the enjoyment of the most elementary rights.

The failures of Cuban totalitarianism are repeated in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia, countries that are experiencing precarious conditions on all fronts. Their leaders intend only to perpetuate themselves in power, and, to achieve that goal, they sacrifice the integral well-being of their people.

Castrochavism has turned out to be a tremendous fiasco in each and every one of the countries where it imposes itself and is a certain threat to other nations, among which Colombia and Mexico stand out, where historical supporters of the statements of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez govern.

Latin America has never ceased to be a volcano on the verge of eruption, but right now the danger is much greater than in the past. The enemies of democracy are many, and they have more resources and experience. One doesn’t have to be a prophet to realize this.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Family of Reporter Yeris Curbelo Says That His Trial Was “Rigged” by Cuban State Security

The journalist was sentenced this Tuesday to two years in prison for the crime of “minor injuries”

Yeris Curbelo collaborates with the Palenque Visión agency / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 25 September 2024 — This Tuesday the Municipal Court of Niceto Pérez, in Guantánamo, sentenced the independent reporter Yeris Curbelo Aguilera to two years in prison for the crime of “minor injuries.” According to the Center for a Free Cuba, which reported the sentence, the case was orchestrated by State Security in retaliation for his political activism.

In a summary of Curbelo’s version published by the organization, the reporter says that on April 14 four individuals – all 21 years old, whom he identifies as Miguel Mosqueda, Douglas Ismark Mazar Góngora and Mariano Reyes – assaulted his 16-year-old son Jessy. According to Curbelo, the authorities only fined the aggressors, despite the fact that the teenager ended up in the Guantánamo pediatric hospital with several injuries.

Months later, on June 16, the four attackers, plus another identified as Adrián Fuentes, assaulted Curbelo himself in the same place where the beating of his son had occurred. Fuentes, 41 years old, even gripped a machete, which, the reporter says, caused injuries to his right hand.

Curbelo sees in both episodes the hand of State Security, because when the police arrived at the scene and stopped the fight, they led him alone to the Guantánamo station, from where he left on bail two days later, accused of causing “minor injuries” to the others. continue reading

Curbelo believes that they want to fabricate a common crime to punish his work of activism and for having spread the protests in the Guantánamo town of Caimanera

The Center for a Free Cuba also interviewed Curbelo’s wife, Odalis Legrá, who says that this Tuesday’s trial was “rigged.” For two hours, she said, the journalist’s lawyer claimed that it was Curbelo who had suffered injuries and that the sentence was a contradiction. “In the trial there was no talk of any of that,” explained Legrá, who also narrated how in the middle of the deliberation a State Security agent entered the premises where the sentence was discussed.

Upon returning, Curbelo was convicted according to the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, but Fuentes – judged in the same process – was acquitted. The other aggressors were taken away as witnesses.

The hypothesis that the attack was orchestrated by the political police has been repeated on several occasions by Curbelo, who believes that they want to fabricate “a common crime” to punish his work of activism and for having denounced, after the protests in the town of Caimanera in 2023, the situation of several prisoners.

The journalist was intimidated by State Security while trying to report the protests

When the demonstrators were tried last May, in the same court where Curbelo was sentenced on Tuesday, the journalist was intimidated by State Security while trying to report the protests. The agents asked him to withdraw immediately, but he had time to spread – through an audio – a brief chronicle of the trial. At that time, according to his complaint, he was also assaulted by the police.

“It is a really immoral and arbitrary condemnation as is the situation suffered by Yeris and his family. It is good to remember that Yeris Curbelo Aguilera has carried out outstanding activism and has a remarkable leadership in his community, the town of Caimanera, a place complicated by the presence of the Guantánamo Naval Base,” said Legrá on Tuesday. She says her husband “has suffered political imprisonment several times, and their son has been psychologically affected and has had to receive psychological treatment from professionals.”

Curbelo collaborates with Palenque Visión, an “independent audiovisual agency” founded in 2012 in the eastern provinces of the Island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Expensive and Exotic, the Quimbombó No Longer Features on Cuban Tables

The food that once produced a catchy chorus of traditional music is hardly consumed among young Cubans

Not only has the product gone up in price, but the rest of the ingredients that accompany it also cost a fortune / 14ymedio]

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 22 September 2024 — Preparing a dish of quimbombó (okra) is one of those popular pieces of wisdom that has been lost with decades of mass migrations, State agricultural plans and a very limited basket for the rationed market. Younger Cubans barely know how to cook this fiber-rich food, which also has little favor among children and that one day slipped forever into a catchy chorus of traditional music.

“Quimbombó que resbala pá la yuca seca” [“okra that slides together with dry yucca”] is the song that, among others, was popularized by the Chappottín Ensemble and that has become an inescapable theme with the wiggling of hips and a lot of alcohol. But beyond the festivities, the fruit, which is used in kitchens as a vegetable, has not escaped the Island’s inflation that raised traditional recipes to the level of gourmet food, suitable for very few pockets.

In September of last year, a pound of okra cost 100 pesos in the market at 19th and B, in El Vedado. Twelve months later the food is quoted there at 150 after experiencing an increase at the beginning of 2024 that took it to 200. But those oscillations do not give the measure of how unattainable it has become for many families, because the other ingredients needed for cooking it have skyrocketed even more: meat, spices, garlic, onion and tomato, among others.

In September of last year the pound of okra cost 100 pesos, and twelve months later it is quoted at 150 / 14ymedio

“The first thing you have to do is get rid of the slime,” explains Zenaida, a retiree from Central Havana who declares herself “frustrated” because she continue reading

can only enjoy it by herself at home. “My grandchildren don’t like it. My daughter says it disgusts her, and everyone prefers to eat the picadillo that the butcher sells, even though no one knows what’s in it,” she complains.

Zenaida, a mulata who for decades has been a Santería godmother for dozens of residents in her neighborhood of Pueblo Nuevo, inherited the taste for quimbombó from her mother, the granddaughter of slaves, who ended up marrying a blue-eyed man from the Canary Islands who arrived in Cuba in the 1920s. Of their three children, only the old woman remains on the Island: “My older brother went to a better life and is in the Colón cemetery, and my younger sister also went to a better life and is in Miami.”

In the family, the recipe to make the quimbombó was one of the first that was taught to girls as soon as they began to get into the pots and pans: “First, you soak the quimbombó in water with a little vinegar or lemon to remove the slime,” she explains to this newspaper, in reference to the substance that is seen when eaten boiled, which is slightly reminiscent of gelatin.

“Then you boil it until it softens and in the meantime prepare a good sauce,” she explains. “I like it with meat, preferably beef, but pork also goes very well with it. My mother also threw in chicharrones,” Zenaida recalls. The quimbombó, also know as okra, is highly valued in the kitchens of many African countries and the Caribbean.

“These days they are a little small,” warned a cart peddler who this Saturday offered quimbombó on Carlos III Avenue. “But there are people who prefer it that way because they say it softens more easily.” In the small El Vedado grocery store, a pound of the fruit was offered at 80 pesos, but the presentation was far from the clean bag with larger specimens on offer at 19th and B.

“These days they are a little small,” warned a cart peddler who this Saturday offered quimbombó on Carlos III Avenue

“Most of those who buy quimbombó from me are older people, because the younger ones don’t even know how to cook it,” the merchant explained to this newspaper. “A lot of pizza, a lot of croquettes, a lot of hot dogs: young people here no longer eat real food,” he lamented. “The problem is that quimbombó doesn’t taste good without meat, and meat is harder to find than electricity,” he joked.

“Also, it seems that the farmers have realized that it doesn’t sell very well in the market, so they don’t harvest it as much as before,” the man added. “When I was young there was plenty; you could go to any small shop, and next to the malangas and the squash was the quimbombó, but today people don’t even know how to select it. They cannot distinguish between one that is good quality and one that stays hard.”

A few feet from the wheelbarrow, a retiree, with his empty bag hanging from his shoulder, complained about the price of the product. “I like it but can no longer pay that price, and also in my family, no one eats it but me,” he said. “Just for the tomato and the garlic cloves you need for the seasoning, half of my pension is gone.”

Today, the rise in the cost of living and the loss of culinary traditions have had one of its most notorious victims in the quimbombó. The lyrics of that contagious song are indecipherable for most Cubans born with the ration book and the five-year agricultural plans.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Four Major League Players Resign From the Official Cuban Team

Julio Robaina, Omar Estévez, Narbe Cruz and Erisbel Arruebarrena were among the 11 participants who emigrated
The Cuban representation in the Little League World Series was left out of the competition

The integration of Cuban players with experience in the Major Leagues is in doubt for the Premier 12 tournament / Jit

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 21 August 2024 — Of the 11 exiled players who had agreed to play for the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) in the international Premier 12 competition, four recently “declined” despite the fact that they had committed to the Island team. The refusal of Julio Robaina, Omar Estévez, Narbe Cruz and Erisbel Arruebarrena complicates the plan of the Federation, which last January announced that it would form a competitive squad with Cuban members from teams of the United States Major Leagues.

Initially, the institution contacted emigrated players who compete in 40 teams but barely convinced a dozen, among them the habanero Narbe Yadán Cruz. The athlete left the Island in 2019 and a year later got a contract with the Houston Astros for 218,000 dollars. He is currently part of the Asheville Minor Leagues team, and, despite committing to the Cuban national team, his interest is focused on returning to the major league circuit rather than representing the Island.

Estévez, for his part, faces a bad streak in the sport. His performance has been declining since his contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers ended in 2022. The matancero [player from Matanzas Cuba] barely added seven games since then – five of them with the Mexican team of the Tomateros de Culiacán and two with the Puerto Rican club Leones de Ponce. continue reading

The Santa Clara U-12 team was eliminated from the Little League World Series / Jit

Robaina is also going through a difficult time after suffering an injury that has kept him away from the game, in addition to the fact that this year his contract with the Houston team ends, which will allow him to re-sign or look for another team to play with. This could be the reason why he gave up defending Cuba in the Premier 12, an event that brings together a dozen of the best national teams of the World Baseball and Softball Confederation, said Pelota Cubana. His future could be in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, but nothing has been finalized yet, the same media added.

Finally, Arruebarrena is in full recovery from an obligatory surgery due to a knee injury, so he was taken out. This athlete from Cienfuegos played for the FCB as part of Team Asere in the 2023 World Classic, where the Cubans lost.

The obstacles to forming a national team do not end there. The national baseball commissioner Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo admitted on Tuesday that the participation of the Major League players “is not entirely safe” and will depend on “the authorization of the clubs, if they declare them in extreme fatigue due to the number of games played during the season. It will also depend on the medical insurance that is not covered on this occasion by the World Confederation of Baseball and Softball,” according to Juventud Rebelde.

Also among the dubious participants is the baseball player Elián Leyva, who may not attend the contest due to his contract with the Leones del Escogido (Dominican Republic) for the winter. “It’s most likely that he won’t be able to participate,” Pelota Cubana said.

On September 10 Cuba must deliver a list of 60 players from among whom it will choose those who make up the national team to present themselves in the Premier 12. The emigrated players, however, seem insufficient. The FCB’s list also includes Alexei Ramírez, Yoan López, Yadir Drake, Roberto Baldoquín, Lázaro Armenteros, and Darién Núñez. According to the sports authorities, the name of Yusnier Padrón is also mentioned.

In other international competitions, the Island has not managed to achieve a good status either. Represented by the Santa Clara team, Cuba was eliminated this Monday by Mexico 6 to 4 in the Little League World Series, held in the American city of Williamsport (Pennsylvania) . “The relay pitching could not hold out,” said the official media Jit.

The Cuban team was invited by the organizers to play the tournament this year; however, next year it will have to compete with other representatives to be able to participate in the event.

This Tuesday the World Baseball and Softball Confederation announced the qualifying groups for the upcoming World Classic of 2026, which will take place in the United States, Japan and Puerto Rico. Cuba is part of Group A, where Puerto Rico – the venue for this group – Canada, Panama and another team to be defined are also included.

Group B was left with the United States, Mexico, Italy, Great Britain and another team to be defined. They will play at the Minute Maid Park stadium in Houston, Texas. Group C, for its part, is made up of Japan, Australia, Korea, Czech Republic and another country, while D is made up of Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Israel, the Netherlands and one last participant.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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August Rumors in Cuba: ‘Black Berets’ in Venezuela, President Díaz-Canel’s Broken Arm

A strange helicopter incident with the president’s grandchildren

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel last week at the renewable energy fair / Presidency of Cuba

YucaByte/14ymedio, Havana, September 23, 2024 — What Havana orders is fulfilled in Caracas. In all the rumors collected in August by 14ymedio and YucaByte, the suspicion is repeated that the Cuban regime designed the strategy to keep Nicolás Maduro in power, manipulate the election results and dismantle the opposition. It is a logical deduction from the fact that both governments have given numerous indications of what is at stake in Venezuela and its growing interdependence.

The approach has been, above all, several users speculate, in the military and counterintelligence sphere. The massive presence of agents from the Island in the electoral process, their advice to the Venezuelan police and the sending of detachments of Cuban special troops – the so-called “black berets” – appear in a large part of the complaints on social networks, although both regimes have denied any type of interference. The Cuban Foreign Ministry insisted that it “maintained the normal and planned flow of movements of the members of Cuban cooperation in Venezuela.”

Several social media profiles of aeronautics fans detected alleged irregular flights between both capitals in planes of the state-owned Conviasa and Cubana de Aviación. They contained soldiers and diplomats from the Island, alleged many users. The truth is that Havana had already planted, months before the elections, numerous agents, such as the journalist Pedro Jorge Velázquez, known as El Necio, who now lives in Caracas.

Several social media profiles of aeronautics fans detected alleged irregular flights between both capitals in planes of the state-owned Conviasa and Cubana de Aviación

In addition, a photo published by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla – and deleted shortly after – attested to the presence of agents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other entities of the Island in Caracas. Maduro himself was educated in Havana in 1987, as a student at Ñico López, the Communist Party School, a fact that many dusted off to show how long Venezuela has been in the sights of the Cuban regime.

Faced with the victory of the opposition – which Maduro did not recognize, unleashing a political crisis in the country – it was also a rumor that Havana considered Venezuela lost and that it had begun to withdraw its troops. Another hypothesis announced that Cuban troops were ready to act against the Venezuelan military if they decided to give their support to the continue reading

opposition and turn their backs on Chavismo. Finally, the rumors reached the extreme of saying that Cuba had one last trick up its sleeve: to capture Maduro and hand him over to the U.S. Department of Justice, which offers a reward of 15 million dollars for him.

On the other side of the Caribbean Sea, rumors continue to circulate about the corruption of leaders and their rush to leave the island to live out their “retirement” in the United States or Europe. Those who stay – say the rumors – have found a new source of corruption in the private enterprises. Through deals under the table, the inspectors take a slice of the profits of these businesses.

The families of the upper elite have also offered something to talk about this month, after the report of a forced landing in Holguín of a helicopter from the State-owned Gaviota was reported. According to rumors, two of Raúl Castro’s grandchildren were on board.

On the other hand, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as El Cangrejo — The Crab — and also Castro’s grandson, is rumored to have assaulted Miguel Díaz-Canel and dislocated his right arm. At least this was the explanation that many gave to the sling that the president has been wearing for several weeks and which he did not explain.

Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as El Cangrejo — The Crab — and also Castro’s grandson, is rumored to have assaulted Miguel Díaz-Canel and dislocated his right arm

A fired former high-ranking official, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, appeared in a photo that circulated for several days. Dismissed in 2009 along with then Vice President Carlos Lage, and absent from public life, Pérez Roque continues to pull strings within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to the rumor, and has contacts with important private entrepreneurs. The photo, however, showed him on foot and in humble clothes in a corner of Havana.

The terrible state of Public Health continues to be the subject of multiple rumors. This month there was talk of the sale in pharmacies of expired medicines, which are also used in hospitals. Some users report that many of these drugs were available in the warehouses at least since 2021, judging by the expiration dates.

Rumors about the burning of garbage dumps – a new sign of protest against the inaction of the Communal Services – are also recurrent; the acts of violence, such as the discovery of the mutilated body of a 20-year-old; and the beatings, silenced by the regime, that its agents give to members of their relatives and acquaintances. It was the case of the Havana judge Josué Mayo, of whom photos circulated with the information that he had assaulted his secretary. For few users it was a surprise that his own court acquitted him.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Boar Hunting Giant African Snails Passes Through Havana

The boar has managed to break the shell and already chews on the foot, mucosa and tentacles / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 28 August 2024 — The boar moves freely through the streets of Luyanó, in Havana. As if he knew that this December 31 his life has been spared – he still has many pigs to fertilize and piglets to see grow – he calmly sniffs the grass on the sidewalks and ignores his owner, who takes him for a walk as if he were a pet.

The scene is almost bucolic – the little terrier runs next to him, the owner greets those he meets – if it weren’t for the pig’s appetite: if he finds a bug he eats it. The problem is when its teeth find a hard shell and a gelatinous mass: it is the Giant African Snail, which has met the most unlikely predator.

The owner doesn’t seem to care. The boar has managed to break the shell and already chews the foot, mucosa and tentacles. On the palate of the strange hunter, the prey is a delicacy and in a few minutes there is no trace of the dangerous mollusk or its beautiful spiral shell. continue reading

What the boar has just had for breakfast is a highly toxic animal, capable of devouring – if its victim does not move, of course – anything / 14ymedio

The dog, perhaps with a sixth sense that tells him what is good for the stomach and what is not, does not interfere. What the boar has just had for breakfast is a highly toxic animal, capable of devouring – if its victim does not move, of course – anything. Its slow invasion of Cuban streets began a decade ago and has only increased. Once circumscribed to rural spaces, they are now the owners of the street.

It is a plague. Cubans dodge them and sometimes destroy their shell, when they are rushing and don’t observe the sidewalk well. However, it is rare that they find a nemesis, as happened this Wednesday with the unfortunate Luyanó snail. In his life, which can reach six years, he collects bacteria, parasites and excrement. The trail left by his slime is far from being harmless.

Without the slightest hint of concern, exhibiting its testicles to the slight Havana breeze, the pig continues on its way. He does not suspect – although his owner should know – that what he has just ingested is practically poison, and that his work as a male to guarantee the continuity of the domestic pigsty is in danger. Maybe, in fact, he doesn’t even face December 31st alive. And not for the usual reasons.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Students Spent Three Weeks in a ‘School in the Countryside’ Without Leaving the City and Without Books

“They made them clean and do other jobs where they don’t have people to do them”

The teachers threatened the students whose parents didn’t want them to work despite the fact that they had informed them that it was “voluntary” / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 23 September 2024 — The educational authorities of Cuba had announced that the new “school in the countryside,” with which several grades began the 2024-2025 school year on September 2, would last only 15 days, but a week before the end of September, there are still many students who are obliged to participate in the project, sold by the regime as a “link between study and work.” This is the case of Lucía, who is in eighth grade at a school in Luyanó (Havana) and who, after spending several weeks employed in different tasks, has to prepare a report in writing and present it orally, explaining everything that they did.

One of the questions she has to answer is “what is a school garden and why is it important?” despite the fact that they weren’t sent to any garden at any time. “I don’t know what there is to explain, if all they did was go to a childcare center to entertain the little kids with their cell phones,” explains Marian, Lucía’s mother. At first, she says, they made them go get lunch and snacks for the children, “but an inspector came and told them that they couldn’t do that.”

“What I think is that they rotated them where they don’t have people, to make them work,” Marian says. “That’s a way to exploit young people.” In the end, she says, “what are they going to put in the report? Lies, nothing more.” continue reading

“What are they going to put in the report? Lies, nothing else”

Micaela, a resident of the Havana neighborhood of Ayestarán, also in eighth grade, was not taken out of school “because there was no transportation or position,” says her father, Luis. Instead, she spent last week, along with her classmates, going to school at regular hours to do “cleaning and beautification work.”

Other reports collected by 14ymedio said that some students were sent to wash bottles in a private company.

Although they presented it with fanfare in the official press, the authorities did not really fully explain why they resurrected a project of such infamous memory for the Cubans who grew up in the 70s and 80s, a project whose eradication was one of the most applauded measures when Raúl Castro came to power.

The families’ presumption was the lack of school supplies. Children forced to do these “alternative” tasks have not received the books they need, three weeks after the start of the school year. On the other hand, teachers have threatened students whose parents have refused to subject them to what they consider a “vexation” and something “inappropriate for their age,” despite the fact that they had been informed that it was “voluntary.” “They tell them that it will have an impact on their grades, that they won’t look good in the ranking, and why? They themselves are the ones who have not fulfilled their obligation and have not given the children school materials.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Tabacuba Is Committed to a Harvest of 25,500 Tons and Income of 300 Million Dollars

The joint venture Habanos S.A., 50% owned by Spain, earned 721 million dollars in 2023

In Pinar del Río, the mecca of Cuban tobacco, planting seems to be recovering due to the amount of resources that are set aside / Habanos SA

14ymedio, Havana, 23 September 2024 — The authorities estimate 300 million dollars to be the amount received each year by the Cuban State thanks to tobacco, according to a note published this Monday in the State newspaper Granma. It reports on the start of the campaign in Pinar del Río, where the irrigation of seedbeds is beginning with the aspiration of sowing 12,000 hectares, more than half of the 20,000 that will be planted throughout the country.

Marino Murillo Jorge, president of the Tabacuba Business Group, after contributing to the shipwreck of the country’s economy as the author of the Ordering Task, announced that the tobacco sector’s bad luck after the passage of Hurricane Ian – just two years ago – has passed, and the harvest is expected to reach the 25,500 tons of leaves required by the industry.

It will be necessary, the official warned, “to increase production, in order to have the raw material that is needed for the export of braided cigars.” For this, the State has guaranteed something unusual in the midst of scarcity: secure fuel until March and the availability of all fertilizer formulations. “The hirings and arrivals are behaving as we expected. In terms of resources, we have exceptional conditions,” he exulted. continue reading

For this, the State has guaranteed something unusual in the midst of scarcity: secure fuel until March and the availability of all fertilizer formulations

Everything is apparently ready for profits to continue to rise, something confirmed by information published this Sunday in Cubadebate, according to which Habanos S.A. has obtained a record income in 2024 of 721 million dollars. In reality, it is about the turnover achieved in 2023 that the sector expects to equal or exceed this year. Net profits, after deducting production and marketing expenses, are not public, and only half correspond to Cuba, since it is a joint venture equally owned by Cubatabaco and the Spanish ITI Cigars.

Habanos S.A. celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and boasts of being “a global reference in the promotion and marketing of the famous Habanos, considered by many as the best cigars of the world,” with a presence in 130 countries and different lines, among which Behike of the Cohíbo brand stands out, considered one of the best premium tobacco creations.

There are reasons for satisfaction, since it is one of the few products that work in the Cuban economy. The company closed 2023 with 721 million, which was 31% more than the previous year in which it achieved 545 million dollars, which at the exchange rate change was 578 million, ten million more than in 2021, the year in which revenues had already grown by 15% compared to 2020.

“The news is very encouraging, but those millions of dollars are not seen on the Cuban’s table,” says a reader of the news published this Sunday. “Divide it between the cost of rice, petroleum and cooking oil and tell me the result. It will take ten exportable products just like this one to see,” replied another, knowing that tobacco is an exception in the national industry, only comparable to rum, charcoal, lobster and honey, which, however, record much more modest benefits.

Murillo Jorge commented that the main challenges of the sector are to achieve greater efficiency and raise agricultural yields to the 1.4 tons per hectare to which the Group aspires.

The need to protect tobacco also involves “reducing dependence on fossil fuels and the National Electricity System”

The need to protect tobacco also involves “reducing dependence on fossil fuels and the National Electric System,” says Murillo. That is why he announced as a priority the transformation of energy consumption to photovoltaics, which begins to accumulate expectations before it is even installed.

As a result of the passage of Hurricane Ian in September, 90% of the tobacco houses in Pinar del Río were razed. Tobacco producers told the foreign press at that time that it would possibly take “between eight and ten years” for the province to recover, but the attention and resources that the Cuban authorities have put into the sector have facilitated an unusually rapid rehabilitation.

Despite the fact that the plantings have been smaller these last two years, the revenues from the export of the product are outstanding. However, Murillo asks for more efficiency, especially when it comes to “improvising agricultural yields, organization and discipline in the correct use of the hard currency we have to materialize imports.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The United States Joins the International Call for the Freedom of José Daniel Ferrer

The White House shows “increasing concern for the health” of the opponent

José Daniel Ferrer suffers from health problems in prison / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 20 September 2024 — The United States Government demanded this Friday that the Cuban authorities release the political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer, as well as the more than 1,000 Cubans “unjustly detained.” Through the Undersecretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Brian Nichols, the White House also pointed out the “rising international concern for the health” of the opponent and leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), which has been diminished by prison conditions and his recent hunger strike.

“We condemn the horrendous conditions that he and other unjustly detained political prisoners suffer. We call on the Cuban government to release Ferrer,” the official said. The complaint is added to that of the European Parliament this Thursday, which, as in 2019, again demanded that the regime release Ferrer “immediately and unconditionally,” as well as all the people “arrested arbitrarily for political reasons and for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.”

The non-binding resolution was approved with 380 votes in favor, 182 against and 51 abstentions. In the call, European deputies condemned “the torture and inhuman and degrading mistreatment inflicted against José Daniel Ferrer and the other political prisoners.” They demanded that “the families of the victims of the Regime’s persecution be immediately allowed access to them, and that the victims receive medical attention.” continue reading

The complaint is added to that of the European Parliament this Thursday, which, as in 2019, again demanded that the Regime release Ferrer immediately and unconditionally

“The repression must end,” said the members of Parliament, who asked the European Union to sanction “those responsible for the persistent violations of human rights” on the Island.

On September 7, the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Dionisio García Ibáñez, and the priest Camilo de la Paz, in charge of the Penitentiary Pastoral of the diocese, visited Ferrer in prison. The meeting was announced by Nelva Ortega Tamayo, wife of the political prisoner, in statements to Martí Noticias.

Although the opponent is mentally and physically “stable,” the archbishop and his companion were worried about his health, she reported. “To be precise, his health is not good,” Ortega told the media, and she clarified that Ferrer told García Ibáñez and De la Paz that he suffered from heartburn, stomach pain and “a practically paralyzed” arm.

Similarly, on September 12, Amnesty International, in a message on X, expressed concern about Ferrer’s life

Similarly, on September 12, Amnesty International, in a message on X, expressed concern about Ferrer’s life, since “his family could not visit him for months and found that his health has seriously deteriorated under the prison’s inhumane conditions.”

Ferrer García was one of the prisoners of the so-called Black Spring of 2003, when he was sentenced to death. Then, his sentence was commuted to 25 years in prison thanks to the efforts of the Vatican and the mediation of Spain.

During his current conviction – for trying to join the ’11J’ protests of 11 July 2021 – his family, especially his wife, has denounced the Regime’s constant refusal to let him receive family and conjugal visits. On numerous occasions, due to his forced isolation, Ferrer’s family and some independent institutions have requested a proof of life for the political prisoner.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Doctors Waiting for Certification To Practice in Spain Ask for Solutions

A health worker attends to a patient in a health center in Madrid, Spain, in a file image / EFE / Mariscal

14ymedio, Madrid, 23 September 2024 — Cuban doctors living in Spain have declared war on the bureaucratic jam of the Ministry of Universities, which prevents the certification of their degrees within a reasonable time. The doctors complain that it takes an average of two or three years to carry out this validation, when the law establishes a period of six months. Therefore, the Movement for Cuban Certification in Spain and the Association of Cuban Doctors in Spain have intensified their demands in the last year, and this Wednesday they will protest before the Congress of Deputies demanding solutions.

The work has been accumulating for too many years, which is why the Government approved in 2022 the obligation to process certification electronically, thinking that this would speed up the process. Although, according to the Fair Certification Now! platform, there was a significant reduction (from 50,677 applications in 2022 to 34,221 in 2023), the ease of submitting the documentation has also increased the number of files, so that at the end of that year, 45,000 had already accumulated, creating too many cases with the same number of officials in charge of managing them.

Although the General Secretariat of Universities issued, in February, a recommendation to order the processing of files for Spanish and European legal residents “through a specific way that allows rapid integration into the labor market,” the agony continues. According to the Fair Certification Now platform, among all the professions, there were more than 100,000 files backlogged. continue reading

From the Movement for Cuban Certification in Spain there is talk of an arbitrary paralysis of the applications for a year

Cuban doctors need to provide four documents to have their degrees certified in Spain: their degree, a certification of their grades, their work career and a certificate that guarantees that they are qualified to continue practicing their profession, all legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, health workers complain that the Cuban government systematically denies them the reference for their professional career, which extends the deadlines. In the Facebook group Cuban Doctors in Spain, the members advise starting to process the approval before living in the European country and “looking for a lawyer,” because the State is obliged to deliver everything that is asked of them.

Among them circulates the rumor – supposedly based on the officials of the Ministry of Universities – that Spain is considering no longer demanding the document in light of the Regime’s deliberate delays, but officially nothing has been said. From the Cuban Certification Movement in Spain, on the contrary, there is talk of an arbitrary shutdown on applications for Cuban doctors for a year, alluding to “a background check” by the Ministry.

“This selective and systematic discrimination not only harms the professional rights of these doctors, but seriously affects the Spanish health system, which currently faces challenges in the coverage of medical personnel and long waiting lists, which directly impacts patients and their families,” they denounce in a statement.

Cubans, like other non-EU workers, can join the national health system in two ways, either by taking the Medical Resident Intern entrance exam or through temporary contracts if the country’s different autonomous communities – which have health competitions – allow it. However, in both cases it is strictly necessary to have their degree certified.

According to the Community of Madrid, in that region alone there are more than 7,100 foreign doctors

According to the Community of Madrid, in that region alone there are more than 7,100 foreign doctors, most of whom are Cubans, Venezuelans and Argentinians, so the Minister of Health Fátima Matute has urged the Government of the nation to shorten the procedure. “Likewise, we ask you to help solve the situation of Cuban doctors residing in Spain who have an approved degree but who cannot practice because they lack the qualification certificate that the Cuban government denies them,” she wrote in a letter addressed to Mónica García, the Minister of Health.

The Ministry of Health approved this year an extraordinary call to approve non-EU specialists through specific exams that were held in the first quarter of the year, although they still had to have their degrees in general medicine validated.

In 2020, the worst year of the covid-19 pandemic in Spain, the Ministry of Universities certified the degrees of 134 Cubans – one of the nations with the most complete files, after Venezuela and Colombia – 82 of them during the state of alarm that was in force between March 15 and May 9 of that year, according to the department’s statistics provided to 14ymedio. A year later, in 2021, 564 doctors and 39 nurses of Cuban origin joined the Spanish health system after obtaining the relevant certifications, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Translated by Regina Anavy

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