Dying in Cuba is No Longer Free

The “basic” coffins that the Cuban State will continue to cover in Sancti Spíritus. (Escambray)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 27 June 2023 — Funeral services that have been largely free in Cuba since the 1959 Revolution are beginning to be charged, and others that were already charged will increase in price.

In Sancti Spíritus, according to an article published on Tuesday in Escambray, “the structure of Comunales [community services]” is reordered, the agency  dedicated so far to these tasks, and a unit of obituary services has been created to “improve the funeral homes and chapels of the province.”

The provincial newspaper offers an interview with the new director of that unit, Yoel Aquiles Martínez, who explains with the usual official jargon, “We have already begun with the monetary reimbursement for the payment of certain activities associated with deaths” due to “the need to free the State from some expenses and to increase the efficiency of certain services.”

So far, the article continues, it has charged for the cremation of corpses and the transfer of the deceased to other provinces, but from now on the transfer of the deceased from one municipality to another within the same province will also be paid, as well as the “vigil at home.” continue reading

In this case, “the funeral home provides the services related to the wake, and the family would pay on the basis of the approved price rate.” It is a variant, says Escambray, which “is already applied in the capital of the country” but in Sancti Spíritus “is in the process of approval.”

They will continue at no cost “the delivery of a coffin, the transfer from the house or the hospital to the funeral home or chapel with the provision of the funeral car, the fuel for that activity and the arrangement of the corpse, and within these benefits, those that are related to the wake in the premises enabled as such,” clarifies the newspaper, “but if the family wants another type of service, such as carrying out the burial in another place, outside the municipality or province, then they would be charged for that.”

From the Escambray’s interview, it appears that the State will offer citizens who can afford them “extra” services, such as amphorae for ashes, “other types of coffins of a better design” or “fine flowers.”

“Our purpose is that the obituary services are gradually self-financing, and with that income we can improve those that remain free of charge, including the constructive improvements of the funeral homes and chapels, as well as the technical status of the cars, something that has been worked on, but, due to the degree of deterioration they presented and the long time of usage, it has been impossible to carry out this activity efficiently,” the official acknowledges.

Yoel Aquiles Martínez also says that they have just received two hearses “of Chinese origin,” valued at 1,800,000 pesos each, “and another delivery of this type of transport to the province is expected.”

Faced with the question, which reflects the discomfort of the population due to the frequent delay of the funeral cars, the manager excuses himself by saying that they have “up to two hours to carry out the transfers, but the car can’t arrive until the legal documentation procedure is completed.”

“This is a province with a high degree of population aging,” he continues, “and the number of deaths has increased, to the point that, in recent times, with an average of 200 and more deaths a month, today we are above 400, and usually 50 percent of these happen between Friday and Sunday, which makes the obituary activity in the territory more complex.”

The announcement comes at a time when funeral services have hit rock bottom. The funeral homes have been deteriorating and lack sufficient staff for cleaning. Many times they have a single glass to use during the wake to see the face of the deceased in the coffin, so families must wait for other mourners to finish using it to get one.

The traditional cup of coffee, inherent in Cuban wakes, has also disappeared due to the lack of the product in state funeral homes. Flower wreaths sold to relatives have more tree leaves than flowers and have been smaller and more expensive every year. The amphorae for ashes are crude and fragile.

However, the worst criticisms fall on the coffins or “boxes of the dead,” as they are popularly called. Made of flimsy wood, these coffins lost the metal trim years ago, and the slats have been replaced by strips of wood and cardboard. As a result, it is common to hear that the body of the deceased falls out in the middle of the funeral or during the transfer to the cemetery.

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.

Four Cuban Soccer Players Escape in Miami After the Defeat in the Gold Cup Against Guatemala

Cuba debuted with a defeat against Guatemala by 1-0. (Jit)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 28 June 2023 — Footballers Roberney Caballero, Denilson Milanés, Neisser Sandó and Jassael Herrera left the Cuban national team after the 1-0 defeat in the Gold Cup against Guatemala. According to journalist Francys Romero, the escape took place in Miami before the team traveled to Houston, where it will face the Guadalupe national team next Saturday.

He pointed out that this brings the total to 33 desertions by Cuban athletes in 2023. “According to soccer agents, they have the potential to play professionally.”

The strategy announced by the Cuban Football Federation to prevent these escapes didn’t work. The Cuban sports authorities take away the passports of the athletes before they travel, and their use of cell phones in the hotel is controlled.

Last January, the president of the state Football Association of Cuba (AFC), Oliet Rodríguez, announced the formation of a register of Cuban soccer players in an automated system governed by the International Amateur Football Federation (FIFA).

“This new initiative would limit the access of Cuban players to other countries illegally, either in national teams or in clubs,” the federation representative warned. Caballero, Milanés, Herrera and Sandó cared little about complying with the regulations. continue reading

The pro-government media Jit limited itself to analyzing the defeat of the Cuban team. “The emotional blow was overwhelming,” it acknowledged. “The defeat (by Guatemala) was inevitable as the minutes passed, and the Caribbean team tried more with pride than with order, an insufficient effort given the circumstances,” it said.

According to figures offered by Play-Off Magazine, the Gold Cup has been the springboard for the escape of 19 soccer players from the Island. In the 2022 edition, Rey Ángel Martínez, 20, and Alberto Delgado, 22, broke off their relationships with Cuban sport.

In 2005, during a stay in Seattle, soccer players Yaykel Pérez and Maykel Galindo separated from the group. Pérez’s physical qualities led him to appear on the Chivas USA team, being recognized as the first Cuban in the military in a squad with Mexican roots. He also excelled with the Los Angeles Blues of the United Soccer League.

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.

Clean Up Needed at La Candonga de Santa Clara, Cuba, After a Fire Destroyed Several Kiosks

Between seven and ten kiosks were destroyed by the fire, according to the first report. (Yunier Javier Sifonte Diaz)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 29 June 2023 — A fire devastated the commercial area of Santa Clara known as La Candonga on Wednesday. The fire destroyed between seven and ten sales kiosks, according to the first official report, and the cause of the fire is being investigated.

The event became known a few hours after the death of seven people in Havana in a fire caused by the explosion of two electric motorcycles. In the Santa Clara incident, however, there were no  injuries, but the losses are valued at millions of pesos for the self-employed who sell in the kiosks.

They were, precisely, the first to arrive to try to contain the fire and prevent its spread. Subsequently, the firefighters, the president of the municipal government, some cadres of the Communist Party and authorities of the territory arrived.

The people of Santa Clara reacted to the news, released by the official journalist Yunier Javier Sifonte Díaz on his Facebook page, with regret for the losses of the merchants and a place where “one can find everything or almost everything he needs.” There was widespread relief that the event left no injuries or deaths. continue reading

“The situation is very difficult, but that place has no conditions for anything, it looks like a shop in a favela,” one user highlighted. Another agreed with his opinion and denounced the potential insecurity of the area. “It’s time for them to make La Candonga a place for selling, but with kiosks made by the State, with electrical and health safety, all done aesthetically.”

Another commentator pointed out that the unfortunate event provided an opportunity to renovate the space “in areas with the same conditions, for example, the underutilized Los Pilongos.”

La Candonga Las Flores is located in front of the Arnaldo Milián Castro hospital in Santa Clara. In that commercial space, hundreds of self-employed are grouped with the tacit consent of the authorities, although the activity is not legal, since its sellers offer  products imported through mules.

The authorities have on numerous occasions accused the candongueros of inflating prices, selling in high quantities and originally in CUC [Cuban convertible currency pegged to the US dollar and no longer in use]. During the pandemic, the place was closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, which led to a successful displacement to social networks.

The trade group on Telegram exceeds 4,000 members, and that of Facebook has more than 11,400 followers, although one of the rules, to avoid having problems with the authorities, is the prohibition of publishing messages of a political nature or that go “against morality.” Those who incur such prohibitions are eliminated immediately.

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.

Cuban Police Ask Drivers To Pay ‘Due Attention’ To Reduce Road Deaths by 25 Percent

Cuban authorities say that 90% of accidents are due to distractions. (Radio Rebelde)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 28 June 2023 — As of June 1st 290 people had lost their lives in traffic accidents in Cuba. This is 12 fewer than last year in the same period, but there is no loophole for complacency. In the same period of time, 412 Spaniards died for the same reason in a country that is five times the population of the Island.

“There is still a lack of perception in the population of the risks that can lead to a traffic accident,” said Roberto Rodríguez Fernández, head of the Specialized Traffic Body of the General Directorate of the Police, who this time quantified the accidents that could be avoided.

According to the information disseminated in the official press, the colonel offered the accident data by tiptoeing around the authorities. Just a day before, the Minister of Transport himself, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, placed the roads that present “an unfavorable technical state” at 40%, but Rodríguez Fernández preferred to quantify citizen responsibility.

“We lack signs; the technical states of the road and vehicles are not adequate, but if you drive with caution and pay due attention, we could avoid 35% of traffic accidents, 25% of the deceased and 28% of the injured in the country,” said the colonel.

Rodríguez offered the data for the first five months of the year at a press conference. There were 3,620 traffic accidents and 2,807 people were injured, which means 448 accidents and 198 fewer injuries. “As long as a human being loses his life or is injured, we have to be dissatisfied with what has been done,” he said. continue reading

Next, he attributed to the “human factor” the cause of 90% of accidents, of which up to 75% are due to distractions. “When we talk about not attending to the control of the vehicle, we refer to any act or maneuver that prevents the correct concentration in driving. Reading a document, answering a call or sending messages,” he said.

Twenty-nine percent of accidents occurred due to “violations of the road,” which include skipping the signals and invading the opposite lane. Nineteen percent of the deaths and 29% of the injuries occurred for this reason, and, in addition, in 82% of the accidents due to this cause, at least one person died.

Rodríguez also referred to the accidents that occurred due to speeding, and although he did not give a percentage – now exceeding 100% – he said that they have decreased, but that the average number of deaths in these cases is one person for every seven accidents. Although speeding accidents decreased during the period, the number of deaths from this cause has increased.

Six out of ten accidents on the Island leave fatalities, the colonel said, especially in one of the most fatal cases: the crash of vehicles. Disregard of pedestrians also has a high mortality rate. For every five of these, one person dies, usually the pedestrian.

As for the ages, the most affected are in the range from 21 to 35, while the majority of deaths belong to the 46 to 55. The most dangerous time slot is the one that takes place between 3 and 6 in the afternoon, with a regular increase on weekends.

“Seventy percent of accidents in the country occur in urban areas. Among these, 81% are in residential areas,” added the official, who warned that the only provinces in which the three indicators (accidents, deaths and injuries) increased were Pinar del Río and, above all, Villa Clara.

The data indicate that almost two Cubans die a day on the roads. The most serious accident that occurred this June (a month not counted in the data offered on Tuesday) occurred in Puerto Escondido, between Mayabeque and Matanzas. A tanker truck and a passenger truck collided near the Bacunayagua bridge, leaving four dead and eight injured. Among the fatalities was a ten-year-old girl, Nayeis González Villamil, who could not overcome the serious injuries with which she was admitted to the Elíseo Noel Caamaño pediatric hospital, in Matanzas and died 48 hours later.

Cuba’s aging motor fleet and the shortage of public transport is one of the causes for many private vehicles to adapt for collective passenger transport without safety conditions, favoring accidents with fatal results.

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 Regime Persecutes Religious Cubans for Their ‘Civic Position’, According to Human Rights Group / 14yMedio

Some 63% of interviewees said they knew that religious processions were denied or conditioned. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 22 June 2023 — The most recent report of the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) on religious freedom alleges that the Island’s religious are more vulnerable to the harassment of the regime because of their “civic position.” Sixty-eight percent of the 1,394 people surveyed by the organization said they knew of cases in which a religious group has been repressed or threatened for its criticism of the Government.

The publication of the study, which coincides with the visit of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to Pope Francis in the Vatican, does not define, however, whether the persecution has to do with the beliefs themselves or whether, on the contrary, it can be attributed to the critical role the religious have played in the Cuban public sphere.

Those interviewed by OCDH reside in 83 municipalities in the 15 provinces of the Island and were surveyed during February of this year. The general conclusion is that the country remains an inhospitable territory in terms of religious freedom. All participants – 45% of them women – are over 18 years old, and the figures have a margin of error of +/- 2.62 points.

Sustaining a critical political stance based on faith is, for 58% of the interviewees, the first cause of harassment by the regime, while 45% believe that “talking publicly about their faith” – including on social networks – can motivate discriminatory treatment. continue reading

The report also denounces “concrete actions” against religious institutions and leaders. Sixty-four percent of respondents know of cases in which they have been denied “permits for events in public spaces,” while 63% mentioned the denial or conditioning of permits “to build or repair temples,” and the same percentage, claimed to know of episodes in which the departure of processions was denied or conditioned.

In this sense, the Catholic priest José Luis Pueyo, of the Diocese of Santa Clara, affirms that a distinction must be made between “freedom of worship” and “religious freedom.” In the first case, it is one of the dimensions of religious life, but it does not exhaust it: “There are dimensions such as educational activity, presence in school and university, care for the elderly, sick and needy, communicative activity – press, radio and television – as well as a multitude of civil and associative activities (what is called ’civil society’) that are totally restricted and are monopolized, no longer by the State, but by the Communist Party,” he explains to 14ymedio.

According to Pueyo, it is “curious” that the religious must negotiate with the Party and not with the Government itself. In fact, 68% of those surveyed by the OCDH point to the Office of Religious Affairs, led by Caridad Diego – who was part of the government delegation that visited the Vatican this week – as the agency that promotes the violation of religious freedom. More than half of those consulted know a leader “who has been prevented or hindered from performing his work.”

A section of the study analyzes the “confidence” of Cubans in “national institutions,” concluding that 42% trust religious associations more than official ones. Human rights groups (19%) and independent media (13%) have the same reliability, while the Government enjoys only 13%.

Official institutions such as the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), the Police, the Armed Forces and the courts comprise a devastating 2%. In general, 73% of respondents report that the country “is going in the wrong direction.” The CDRs are, according to 65% of the Cubans consulted, the body through which the Government exercises supervision over the religious.

The OCDH also states that the regime promotes “surveillance and control” over the religious for sustaining a “civic commitment in accordance with the values of their faith.” In addition, the Government limits the “action and social influence of religious entities and congregations, especially those that demand a greater presence in public space and in the communities.”

The United States included Cuba in 2022 on the blacklist of countries that violate religious freedom, along with Nicaragua, China, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Burma, Eritrea, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The Government of the Island responded with a campaign that involved like-minded religious leaders, such as members of the ruling Council of Churches, the Yoruba Cultural Association, the Islamic League of Cuba and the Cabildo Quisicuaba cultural project. Enrique Alemán, director of Quisicuaba, defended the Cuban State, saying that it “recognizes, respects and guarantees” all religions, but he avoided alluding to the critical stance of many of its leaders.

During the summer of that same year, a report by Prisoners Defenders, based in Madrid, showed that since 1959 the regime has organized an espionage network to infiltrate numerous agents in churches and also in fraternities such as Freemasonry.

In the case of the latter association, its national Grand Master, Francisco Alonso Vidal, had to escape from the Island after the sustained harassment of State Security. The Freemason then denounced the systematic infiltration of Cuban counterintelligence, with the aim of monitoring and influencing the decisions of all fraternal and religious institutions on the Island.

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.

Cuba Is Without Water for the Poor of Mayari and the Rich of Miramar, Including the Embassies

The residents in the Cuban town of Guatemala, municipality of Mayarí (Holguín), took to the streets to demand the restoration of water service. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 27 June 2023 — The lack of water drives Cubans mad, from one side of the Island to the other. In the Guatemala neighborhood, in Mayarí, Holguín, dozens of residents took to the streets early morning on Tuesday after being without service for three months, and in Havana, even diplomats and foreigners residing in the exclusive neighborhood of Miramar suffer from the problem.

Illuminated only by the light of their cell phones, the Mayarí protesters repeated a single cry: “Water!” and demanded the attention of the authorities. Shortly after the rally began, some provincial leaders arrived to “converse,” and they promised solutions for the same week.

In the videos published on Facebook, Geovanis Martín Gutiérrez, president of the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power in Mayarí, is seen trying to reassure the crowd, who listened with disbelief to the official’s promise to install three pumps.

Martín Gutiérrez said that he had already spoken to Havana, where a hydraulic pump was being “prepared” and was “on its way.”

They said the equipment would be ready between Wednesday and Thursday, he said, and he asked that they “speed it up so that it would arrive sooner.” In the face of citizen protests, the official admitted that the motor cables are being rewound in Matanzas and then will go to the Cuban capital.

The families in the town had run out of water after the pumping engines broke. On his Facebook profile, official journalist Emilio Rodríguez Pupo said last Saturday that “the search continues” for solutions to the installation of a motor. continue reading

On Saturday, a pump was installed, but the official channels recognize that it is not enough to meet the demand, given the small flow of 7 gallons per second. The water deficit has been alleviated with watertrucks, which also do not manage to meet the needs of families.

However, Martín Gutiérrez clarified that getting the equipment wasn’t a problem, but the motors had collapsed due to a power outage during “the May rains.” Even so, he promised that the pump sent from Havana will be installed, one that the provincial government is managing and another that will be on “reserve.”

The official Realidades desde Holguín reported that after the conversation with the authorities, the “inhabitants went home to go about their daily business.” According to this source, families “already have the precious liquid at their fingertips. We told them that harmony would return, and so it did,” said the article, accompanied by photographs of the empty streets after the gathering.

Meanwhile, the capital itself also has a significant deficit in water service that affects more than 200,000 families, the equivalent of 10% of the population.

According to the official newspaper Tribuna de La Habana, the western region benefited “very little or not at all” from the torrential rains of recent weeks. Both Havana and Cienfuegos suffer a decline in their reservoirs and are in critical condition.

Engineer Rosaura Socarraz Ordaz, director of Operations of the Aguas de La Habana Company, explained that the most affected municipalities are Playa, Marianao and La Lisa. Families in these places receive the service on alternate days for eight hours on average, but due to system breakdowns caused by electric shocks, the schedule has been reduced.

In a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Inés María Chapman, it was reported that in July a batch of 12 pumping machines will arrive on the Island that will stabilize the supply system. At the moment, community water tanks and the use of  wells have been enabled.

User reactions were not long in coming, and it shows that the problem does not discriminate between residents with resources. The user Mario Hernández, who identified himself as a worker of a real estate agency that serves embassies and commercial offices, said in a comment to the Tribune article that in the Council of Miramar, in the municipality of Playa, there are not even watertrucks to supply the water in diplomatic headquarters.

In addition to reducing the hours of service, the pressure level has been lowered, so the cisterns don’t even fill up to half. “The complaints have already begun,” said Hernández, and he added that embassy officials plan to send an official complaint to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba.

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 Money for Maintenance, Only 50 Percent of Transport in Cuba Works

The minister put the cost of keeping the fleet ready at 40 to 50 million dollars a year, and since there is no money, the availability of transport is only 50%. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 27 June 2023 — With the holidays just around the corner, the overall situation in passenger transport is bleak on the Island. The most serious thing, due to its repercussions on mortality, is the insecurity of the roads. According to the Minister of Transport, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, 40% have an unfavorable technical condition.

The bad news from the sector did not take anyone by surprise, despite the fact that the minister made an effort to show some achievements last year. Among them, the increase in the bus fleet in Havana, something that would not have been possible without the donation of 104 additional vehicles. Ten minibuses were also added, in this case thanks to the fall in tourism, which they served before. Other advances in 2022 were the increase in routes in the capital with 75 electric tricycles, the reestablishment of rail services and the MóvilWeb Urbanos application for transport, among other things.

But the assessment doesn’t leave a good taste in the mouth, since Rodríguez Dávila began by admitting that there is a “decrease in passenger and cargo transport capacities” and attributed the situation to objective and subjective factors.

The minister put the cost of keeping the fleet ready at 40 or 50 million dollars a year and, since there is no money, the availability of transport is only 50%, “aggravated by the fuel situation on the island.” Although the traffic in the ports indicates that oil is arriving, the needs are many, and public transport does not exactly seem to be the priority. According to the minister, in some provinces only “opening and closing” trips are made due to a shortage that he attributed, among other reasons, to the “persecution” of the ships that transport it, alluding to the US embargo. continue reading

Rodríguez Dávila insisted that the sector needs to have access to “freely convertible currency to guarantee fuel, spare parts and other logistical elements,” raising the shadow of the possibility of  charging for transport in freely convertible currency (MLC).

At the moment, at least, it doesn’t seem to be the solution. The minister complained that the measure to ban cruises from the United States, taken by the Donald Trump Administration and not reversed by the Biden Administration, prevents a lot of foreign exchange from being captured in ports. Despite this, he explained that at the beginning of this year an MLC fund was created exclusively for the sector, which is formed “with income from abroad in the aviation and maritime-port systems.” With that money, he said, more than a thousand means of transport were recovered, since it was invested in buses.

The minister indicated that transport has “acceptable prices for the population,” although the data of the consumer price index (CPI) indicate that it is one of the sectors that has risen the most in the last year, more than 18% since last April. However, although for Cubans the cost is high, companies are in deficit or, in the words of Rodríguez Dávila, “they are below the threshold of the profitability of companies” and many of them “report losses.”

“The main transport bases throughout the country have been working practically without spare parts for the last three years,” he added.

The official also spoke about the railway, which is very deficient in terms of passenger transport, although it has been possible to move “prioritized” cargo as long as conditions have allowed it. With this, he refers to the almost 600,000 tons of fuel, sugar and products corresponding to the basic basket that move along the railways.

On the other hand, the transport of port cargo was reduced by 44% since 2018, but new means for its improvement have been incorporated, including small ships with 2,800 tons of capacity.

Among the positive points, valued by the minister, is the theoretical improvement of parcel shipping services, the legalization of new means of transport, such as electric tricycles that provide service on short routes between cities, and the creation of a public bicycle service.

“We are going to continue with that program,” he said, while threatening “more energetic measures with drivers and bosses who fail to comply with the support that state vehicles must give to passenger transport.”

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.

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

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

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 27 June 2023 — The Police appeared this Monday on Cuban Television to lick their wounds from the wave of violence, robberies and murders suffered by the country and to denounce its coverage by the independent press. It is, insisted the agents in the Hacemos Cuba TV program, incidents of “isolated criminal behavior” that “the usual enemies” magnify to make the Ministry of the Interior look bad and argue that Cuba is a “failed State.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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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.

Cuba: In Search of the Lost Tourist

14ymedio biggerElías Amor Bravo, Economist, June 27, 2023 — Nobody understands how it is still possible that some leaders of the Ministry of Tourism of Cuba, at this point in history, continue to believe that the recovery of the sector on the Island will happen “through their efforts.” It is a way, like any other, of denying reality and imposing political ideology on rationality and economic efficiency. Tourism will only come out of the hole it is in if a solid and powerful private sector directs it at the national level.
If this is not understood and the arguments are not convincing, the necessary recovery of tourism will not occur in the short or medium term, no matter how much the communist leaders believe what the “experts” say.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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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.

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

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

14ymedio bigger14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 23 June 2023 — This Thursday, the Cuban independent feminist platforms Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo raised to 45 the total number of femicides verified so far this year in the country, with the confirmation of a new sexist murder.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

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

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 23 June 2023 — Nine months after the passage of Hurricane Ian through Cuba, 70% of the homes destroyed in Pinar del Río are still not built. That was the central theme of this Thursday’s meeting at the Palace of the Revolution led by the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz. They also discussed the effects on the houses in Camagüey, Las Tunas, Granma, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba after the intense rains of two weeks ago.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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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.

Cuban Filmmakers Meet To Express Their Disagreements With the Cultural Authorities

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

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 24 June 2023 — More than a hundred Cuban filmmakers expressed their disagreement with the authorities about the decisions made with a documentary about the Argentine singer Fito Páez and his relationship with the Island. The creators, grouped in the Assembly of Cuban Filmmakers — which includes the prestigious director Fernando Pérez and the actor Jorge Perugorría — held a meeting this Friday with leaders of the Ministry of Culture and the Communist Party to face the controversy unleashed in mid-June.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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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.

Roundtable TV Program Gives Cubans an Accelerated Course on Basic Capitalism

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

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 22 June 2023 — The Cubans who  tuned in to state television last night to watch the Roundtable program were able to listen to a revision of all the socialist economic policies that Cuba has followed in the last 65 years. The discussion was not so surprising, since citizens are seeing for themselves the reconversion of the Island’s system towards a capitalism of oligarchies, as well as the public recognition that what has been done for decades does not work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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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.

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

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

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 24 June 2023 — The dengue fever situation in Guantánamo is “in the prelude to the epidemic phase,” the authorities warn in the local press. With a 30% increase in outbreaks of contagion, the level of alarm in the Provincial Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology has now been raised. The director, Leonel Heredia, blames the upturn on the rainy season and foresees an even darker outlook when September arrives.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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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.

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

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

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 23 June 2023 — We already know that Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel went to the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris with nothing to offer. At the expense of the meager Cuban budget, basically, he took some souvenir photographs, checked in with friends like Lula and Guterres and said things that could very well have remained unsaid. But of course, as president pro tempore of the G77+ China, he has several doors open to forums like this, and you know, you have to denounce the embargo/blockade wherever and however. Public spending in Cuba finances this kind of thing. There is no investment in housing or infrastructure, but not a penny is spared in propaganda.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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