Yoel Martínez and Israel Rojas, the members of the Buena Fe duo. (Screen capture)
14ymedio, Havana, 14 May 14, 2023 — The concert of the duo Buena Fe, scheduled for this Sunday in Barcelona, was canceled as confirmed on the official website of the group, which has ties to the Cuban regime. In their last presentation, on May 11 in the Galileo Galilei room in Madrid, several attacks occurred against exiles from the Island by alleged government agents from Havana.
Buena Fe planned to perform at the Sidecar Room, Barcelona, as part of its tour of several cities in Spain. So far, the duo has not explained why they suspended the concert, but on their promotion page it appears as “cancelled.”
Their tour also includes a presentation at Ávalon Café de Zamora on May 18, and at Búho Club de San Cristóbal de La Laguna on the 20th. They have two concerts scheduled in the Galileo Galilei hall in Madrid, one on the 19th and the other on the 21st of this month.
In their presentation in Madrid, exiled doctors and activists Lucio Enríquez Nodarse and Emilio Arteaga Pérez reported that they were assaulted by alleged agents of the Cuban political police, who were there as security guards. continue reading
On his Facebook account, Nodarse transmitted the moment in which, at the end of one of the songs, the cry “Homeland and life!” is heard and “Freedom for political prisoners!” Immediately there is a struggle and the transmission is cut off.
Arteaga Pérez later explained in a Facebook broadcast that they entered the concert considering that “it was an opportunity for us to exercise our right to freedom of expression” to vindicate the struggle for the freedom of the Regime’s political prisoners.
“We didn’t interrupt the concert,” he says. According to his account, when the duo finished the second song, Nodarse got up and shouted “Israel Rojas.” In a matter of seconds, some men who were in the room ran towards them, surrounded them and began to beat them.
Arteaga Pérez reported that the agents punched and kicked them in various parts of their bodies and also snatched the cell phones with which they were transmitting. Spanish security walled them in and asked them to leave the room to continue the concert.
“But we said that without our phones we weren’t going to leave. One, because this is not Cuba, two because it is a crime and three because all our private information is there,” explains the doctor, who recalls that the agents committed a crime by trying to confiscate mobile phones in Europe.
“Miraculously people in the audience passed cell phones from hand to hand and they arrived at our table,” he said. At that time they decided to leave the room and called the Spanish police, who received the complaint, which is now under investigation.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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14ymedio, Havana, 12 May 2023 — In the last 72 hours, the departures from Cuba of players Edelvis Pérez, Ernesto Santi and Roberto Peña were recorded. According to journalist Francys Romero, the three boarded flights to the Dominican Republic. “The current political and economic situation continues to push young talents and their families to look for new paths outside the Island,” the journalist published in Béisbol FR!
The sport, declared as part of Cuba’s cultural heritage in 2021, is receiving a “beating” due to the desertions and the various requests for dismissal of Cuban team athletes. “The National Series is feeling very closely the fateful result of this migration,” Romero stressed.
The image of the mythical Latin American Stadium, in Havana, almost empty, is the most representative of this crisis. It was shared on Facebook on Wednesday by Granma reporter Aliet Arzola Lima.
Magdiel Gómez asked for his dismissal and is preparing to leave the Island. (Facebook/Dairon Perez Urbano)
“There are barely 100 people counting guards, peanut sellers, press, commissioners, baseball players unable to play today and policemen.” That day Industriales and Granma played, but the match between “the flagship team of Cuban baseball and the national champion” did not attract fans. “The picture of a sport considered a Patrimony of the Nation is regrettable,” he concluded. continue reading
Journalist Mario Luis Reyes, based in Madrid (Spain), commented in Arzola’s publication that “the Cuban political and economic system, extremely rigid and centralized, is a failure” and that everything else is its consequence. “Handling baseball players and other athletes on the Island wouldn’t have to be unsustainable. There, the only unsustainable thing is the system, and each of the last 30 years has demonstrated it.”
Francys Romero said that Cuban baseball is the protagonist of “an uneven competition, old and without an audience” and lamented that “what used to be a competition full of brilliance now seems to be an old Development League in comparison to world talent.”
The lack of expectations on the Island pushed right-handed pitcher Edelvis Pérez to travel to the Dominican Republic. The athlete participated in seven games of the National Under-18 Youth Championship with Sancti Spíritus. He has a powerful arm and throws on average at 90 mph.
Left-handed outfielder Ernesto Santi had an acceptable performance in the last National Series with Granma. In 137 innings he made one error. With these two athletes, “there are already more than 150 players who have left in the last two years,” according to data collected by Romero.
Before these young people, Roberto Peña left Cuba. He was one of the members of the U-15 team in 2022 during the Pre-World Cup in Venezuela, then in the World Cup of the category that took place in Mexico, where they won second place.
With the departure of Peña, there are 11 players in the U-15 category who have emigrated from the Island in less than a year. Before Peña, there were Alejandro Prieto, Segian Pérez, Ernest Machado, Dulieski Ferrán, Alex Acosta, Jonathan Valle, Christian de Jésus Zamora, Ronald Terrero, Danel Reyes and Yosniel Menéndez.
Alexander Valiente made public his request to leave baseball. (Image Captura/Newspaper Venceremos)
Others are packing their suitcases to emigrate. Last Wednesday, commentator Dairon Perez Urbano confirmed that the baseball player of the Villa Clara team, Magdiel Gómez, requested his dismissal from baseball.
Pitcher Alexander Valiente also requested his discharge and made it public on his social networks. “I have decided not to play anymore for now; please don’t ask me for explanations.”
“This young man has very good speed, and according to the specialists, great talent that he will have to mold if he decides to continue his career in other leagues or at another level,” Por la Goma published. “The truth of all this is that the casualties of athletes are happening almost daily and more in baseball, where the relationship of quality to pay and inflation is undoubtedly the biggest trigger.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Cubans’ wages grew insignificantly compared to the increase in inflation and even lost a lot of value at the exchange rate with the dollar. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Madrid, 12 May 2023 — In 2022, wages in Cuba rose an average of 9.4% compared to the previous year, while the cost of living increased by 39% according to the official data and around 140% if we look at the informal market. The result is a brutal deterioration of the purchasing power of Cubans, with an average monthly salary of 4,219 pesos [$175] when a pound of rice is 150 pesos [$6.25] in the “liberated” [i.e. unrationed] market.
The National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei) has made public the annual salary data for 2022. In the document you can see the brutal rise that occurred with the so-called Ordering Task* in 2021, when the average Cuban went on to earn 3,854 pesos [$160] compared to 1,194 [$50] in 2020, while the prices of goods and services also multiplied. Very soon, in addition, it was found that the forecasts fell short and the cost of the ’basic basket’ even tripled.
The official change is another factor that reduces the apparent salary increase of the last year to a minimum. Since the rate became 1 dollar for 120 pesos, the average salary is reduced to only 35 dollars or, even worse, to about 20 dollars in the foreign exchange black market.
Although the differences by provinces are not very significant, Havana is the territory where workers are best paid, with 4,689 pesos [$195] on average. The second on the list, with 4,239 pesos [$177] is neighboring Artemisa, and in third position is Holguín, where the average is 4,159 pesos [$173]. That data could be related to the sector. Mining — abundant in that province, where the Canadian Sherritt exploits nickel and cobalt — is the best paid, with 7,061 Cuban pesos [$294] on average. And, in the case of Artemisa, the salaries paid in the Mariel Special Development Zone would explain the position of that province at the top of the classification. continue reading
Electricity, water and gas are the second best paid sector, with 5,509 pesos [$230] per month, ahead of science and innovation, apparently more specialized and where about 5,246 pesos [$219] per month are received. The list of salaries by activity shows the loss of value of two sectors that until recently were considered priorities, Health (4,127 pesos) [$172] and Education (4,109 pesos) [$171].
Both are far below the workers in the business services sector, real estate activities and rentals, who earn an average of 5,069 pesos [$211] per month. It is the third in order of best paid, and the one to which the Cuban Government allocates the largest amounts of investment, much higher proportionally in relation to the salary.
It is also striking that trade and repair workers are the worst paid, with 3,497 pesos [$146] on average. The third in line — the second is that of Communal Services workers — is one of the sectors that is becoming increasingly necessary in the country, that of food production, although in this case a very international pattern is repeated. The farmers earn an average of 3,686 pesos [$154], a very poor incentive to have the food security of the Island in their hands.
As for the geographical location of those who earn the least, Santiago de Cuba, the eastern capital, is the province with the worst salaries: 3,824 pesos [$159] per month.
The official data, especially if a comparison is measured with the cost of living and the exchange rate of the country’s hard currency (the dollar), confirm not only the perception of national and foreign citizens. They also agree with the report made that same year – 2022 – by the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH), based in Madrid, which placed the number of Cubans living below the poverty line at 72%.
In addition, the figures reveal dependence on the outside, creating a radical division among citizens based on whether or not they have access to remittances.
*Translator’s note: The Ordering Task is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The application “still has many flaws that have not been resolved, and the Cadeca (currency exchange) workers know this but don’t care.” (Cuba 360)
14ymedio, Mercedes García, Havana, 11 May 2023 – The App ’Ticket’, launched in Cuba in December 2022 to facilitate the electronic processing of appointments in both public institutions and private businesses, increasingly displeases customers and even one of its creators, Jesús Daniel Saura Díaz.
A few days ago, the latter expressed one of the harshest criticisms, describing the tool, developed by the state-owned Xetid (Information Technology Company for Defense), as “the monster I helped create.”
The young man confesses that today he no longer feels “the same level of satisfaction and pride” that he had when he helped create the tool. In a post on social networks, he explains that the platform “was conceived as a fresh and innovative tool that contributed to society and that fulfilled the motto ’It has never been so easy’,” with the aim of allowing entry anywhere, whether it was a restaurant, a play, a paperwork office or a business. However, this became distorted.
“It was not created in order to become the new digital ration book, nor to distribute resources or sell combos of food items, much less to sell dollars or fuel, who would think that?” lashes out the computer scientist, who continues: “Many will say that it was adapting to the situation of the country, but I say that if we always adapt to the situation we’re never going to get out of the situation because we’re not going to have the tools to get us out.”
In his opinion, the app poorly serves “the Cuban living in poverty and scarcity who also never escapes politicization.”
One of the examples he gives is that Ticket “should be free for the end user and only charge providers for the service, infrastructure and maintenance,” something that does not happen today. In fact, the most requested services are sold.
This is the case with Aurelio, a young man from Sancti Spíritus, who paid 50 pesos [$2] for a three-month license to be in the “virtual store” managed by the application. This allows him to get much cheaper products, like a can of cooking oil at 50 pesos[$2], water at 12 pesos [$.50], a kilogram [2.2 pounds] of detergent at 230 pesos [$9.58], “prices from before,” in his words — unimaginable in the informal market, where inflation prevails – -and without having to spend the night in front of the state warehouses, waiting in line for them to put the supplies out on the shelves. continue reading
“For me it is quite useful and has solved certain problems and obstacles” the young man concedes. “I have many things to do; I don’t have time to be watching the virtual stores, when the supplies come out. The application has a functionality that puts you in line, and the day they give you to buy in the virtual store is your day, and you can buy without any problem.”
The average waiting time for that is more than a month. Aurelio also uses it for the purchase of a cylinder of liquefied gas — “it helps a lot, you don’t have to spend weeks and weeks in line” — and for the Cadeca (currency exchange), something that is, he says, “a good business”: “You go, you buy the euros at 120 pesos and sell them outside at 180, and you earn 5,000 or 6,000 pesos, depending on how the currency is doing.”
All in all, he also has criticism: “As an application it is poorly designed. All services are scattered, one under the other, scrambled, hundreds of services. It supposedly has a search engine but it doesn’t search anything.”
Another problem is that once Ticket gives you a turn and you enter the Waiting Room, it only notifies you with a bell icon, and only if you access the app. “If you were busy that day and didn’t look at the application, it’s easy to lose your turn because it doesn’t let you know if you don’t sign in,” he says.
Ricardo, a 76-year-old Havana retiree, believes that despite Ticket, the same corruption and “sociolismo” [’friendship-ism’*] that the tool sought to eradicate still proliferates. “I went to a notary’s office in El Vedado to do a procedure and they told me that they are only attending to customers who have logged a turn through that application. But it was obvious that there were people coming in before others, which they did by “making a payment directly to the guard,” he narrates.
And he continues his complaint: “If you can’t verify that the one who lined up since the early hours of the morning is the one who is going to enter the notary’s office, and anyone can appear saying that he got a turn on the Ticket app, how can you verify that it is true? The rest of the people who arrive can’t know if it’s true or a trick to get in after you pay the employees.”
Not even the Cuban News Agency (ACN), in a note that aimed to extol the virtues of the app, hid its drawbacks. “Although customers recognize the value of Ticket for the purchase of MLC [freely convertible currency], many on social networks question the transparency of the virtual process and the time it takes to get the long-awaited Ticket for a turn at the Cadeca (curency exchange).
The article highlighted that on the Island there were 40 Cadeca branches that organized turns through the application, which manage an average of 764 daily requests but also collect “non-conformities.” Specifically, there are “statements on social networks” that report “failures to access the platform or edit user data, criticize the lack of response to their concerns, and some have even complained about not having received the notice to buy and then were automatically left out of the line.”
The waiting time to carry out the operation, the note says, “varies depending on the number of people in the Waiting Room [the area where the turn is recorded] and the availability of currency to carry out the transaction.” Thus, in the Santa Clara Cadeca, which has the largest number of registered customers, the average waiting time between one exchange and another is 273 days, while in the one in San Antonio de los Baños it is 74 days.
In Tribuna de La Habana, where the note was reprinted, users’ comments were mostly negative. “I have a friend who doesn’t have a cell phone. So, who gets his turn?” asked Jorge Luis. “They must speed up sales; waiting up to four months or more is too long,” Rey Mo wrote.
For Ibis Araujo, the application “still has many flaws that have not been resolved, and the Cadeca workers know this but don’t care. I think that there should be protection for the customer, who, after several months of waiting, loses his turn due to difficulties with the application.” Vladimir González Pupo complains that “before it was free, supposedly to help, and now you have to pay to be on hold. I think it’s disrespectful.”
Days later, a report in Invasor took stock of the implementation of the tool in Ciego de Ávila and highlighted “the convoluted lines,” which don’t work. “We cannot tell the story with a tone of total satisfaction, because the reality is, if we’re talking about computerization and integration between institutions, everything still does not come out like it’s requested,” reads the provincial newspaper.
The article lists how the jumble of services managed by Ticket began to expand, for example to notarial appointments or the sale of liquefied gas at Cupet points of sale.
It also criticizes the “weak point” of payment, through EnZona, with three possible subscription plans: 12 pesos for 14 days, 20 for 28 days or 50 for three months [24 pesos = $1]. “The mere fact of having a single payment option is, clearly, a limitation that should be well evaluated in the face of future transformations,” says Invasor.
Although the official report praises Ticket’s work in ending the lines, it does not mention the application it replaced, Portero [Doorman] one of the tools of the so-called “struggle against the coleros,” [people paid by others to stand in line for them] launched in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. This app was used to record what day a customer accessed a store and, thus, if he behaved like a reseller. However, neither Portero nor Ticket have been effective so far in avoiding the diversion of merchandise [i.e. theft by employees] in various state stores.
*Translator’s note: Source Wiki: “Sociolismo” (“partner-ism”), also known as “amiguismo” (“friend-ism”), is the informal term used in Cuba to describe the reciprocal exchange of favors by individuals, usually relating to circumventing bureaucratic restrictions or obtaining hard-to-find goods.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Artemisa pharmacies have not had condoms since the first quarter of 2021. (El Artimiseño)
14ymedio, Havana, 12 May 2023 — The last batch of condoms destined for commerce and for Artemisa’s medical offices was received two years ago. Since then, the Directorate of Pharmacies and Opticians of the province recognizes in the local press that the supply has been limited only to the informal market, where Cubans can get the product at prohibitive prices.
Sarah Varona Monzón, spokesperson for the Directorate, confirmed to the newspaper that since the first quarter of 2021 they have not received a single package of condoms, unlike contraceptive tablets, which do arrive at the offices and are delivered every 15 days to the municipalities.
“Before, when condoms came in, they were evenly distributed among all pharmacy units. That would be the same strategy if they came back,” the official says.
In the article entitled “Condoms in Cuba: Taking Care of Yourself or Not Taking Care of Yourself, That’s the Problem,” El Artemiseño recognizes the failure in the supply of contraceptive methods and says the informal market is the only alternative to avoid both sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and unwanted pregnancies.
The cycle of contraceptive injections for a year usually costs 3,600 pesos [$150], while each condom is worth between 35 and 50 pesos [$1.45-2.00]. “Even if they’re more expensive, they’re worth paying for,” admits Mario Rodríguez, a 24-year-old man interviewed by the newspaper. continue reading
According to the newspaper, only the international pharmacy of Mariel, in Artemisa, has condoms at $2.40 in MLC (freely convertible currency) for a box of three, equivalent to 288 pesos [$12] in national currency at the official exchange rate or about 440 pesos [$18] in the informal market. Cubans “have no choice but to succumb to Facebook and WhatsApp groups that, these days, meet so many needs of everyday life,” he adds.
But not all Cubans can afford to pay the exorbitant prices of the informal market, and the media recognizes that the data on sexual diseases are not “good.” A report by the Artemis Public Health Directorate revealed that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has grown significantly since its inception in 1986. There was only a decrease in 2022 in diagnoses compared to the previous year, attributable to the fact that the search for cases was focused on the municipalities of Guanajay, Güira de Melena and Candelaria.
Young people between the ages of 20 and 24 are the “most affected” and represent 28.3% of the total number of patients diagnosed. Then there is the group from 25 to 29 years old, with 15.1%. The same percentage represents the confirmed cases of Cubans between the ages of 30 and 34. “The male sex continues to predominate in the epidemic, especially men who have sex with men (HSH), although, there are also cases of the female sex,” cites El Artemiseño.
The most contagious diseases are syphilis and gonorrhea. The report indicates that syphilis increased in all the municipalities of the province, although the highest incidence is recorded in the municipalities of Bahía Honda, San Cristóbal, Bauta and Artemisa. In this case, clinical pictures predominate among young people from 19 to 24 years old.
On the other hand, the infection rate of gonorrhea — also known as blennorrhagia — is 46.1 per 100,000 inhabitants. As with syphilis, the age groups with the most confirmed diagnoses are young people aged 19 to 24. In this case, the municipalities with the highest infections are Artemisa, Güira de Melena, Bahía Honda and San Cristóbal.
Contraceptive methods have become popular among the products that Cubans living abroad bring on their visits to the Island. The morning-after pill and intrauterine devices arrive many times with travelers, for their relatives or to resell them. A single morning-after pill costs between 700 and 900 pesos [$29-37.50] in the informal market.
Cuba also receives donations, but Lester Rojas Lay, provincial coordinator of the HSH Network, affirms that they are not enough for the needs of the population. They recently received a shipment of prophylactics aimed at the gay population from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
“We are clear: we only give a sample because our mission is to educate in the use of protected sex. Everything would be easier if they were in the pharmacy,” said the coordinator, who explained that they only offer 21 condoms and 10 lubricants a year.
El Artemiseño adds that the “misfortune” of the shortage of condoms goes beyond diseases, since it is also the most effective method in the prevention of pregnancies. Similarly, he points out that Artemisa has very young pregnancy rates: 31% of women between 20 and 24 years old, followed by 16.6% of young people between 15 and 19 years old.
Finally, the newspaper doubts whether the high rate of pregnancies should be attributed only to the lack of condoms, since there is also a great “ignorance and unconsciousness of the act at such a young age” among artemiseños.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Headquarters of the Embassy of Spain in Havana, Cuba. (14ymedio)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 12 May 2023 — Spain announced this Friday that it will support private Cuban micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) interested in doing business on the Island and will facilitate the pathways for potential investors.
The three pilot sectors will be food, technology and cultural industries, said the economic and commercial advisor of Spain in Cuba, Manuel Casuso, during a meeting with 50 private entrepreneurs in Havana.
The initiative, which starts this May, includes information services through the Economic and Commercial Office of Spain and the establishment of a fast track for the issuance of business visas, Casuso said.
The goal is that “they can buy and sell in Spain and invest with Spanish companies,” Casuso told EFE at the end of the meeting.
“Our expectation is that these measures will improve and strengthen the new business sector that begins on this path,” he added, emphasizing the “potential” of Cuban entrepreneurs, especially in sectors such as technology. continue reading
He also recalled the traditional presence of Spanish companies in Cuba, which support the Iberian country as Europe’s first commercial partner on the Island, and the third in the world, behind only China and Venezuela.
Meanwhile, Spain’s ambassador to Cuba, Ángel Martín, stressed at this meeting the importance of the MSMEs in the economy and showed his “support” for the initiative.
The Cuban government authorized the creation of MSMEs in 2021 after banning them in 1968, under the ’Revolutionary Offensive.’ These businesses currently exceed 7,000, according to official figures, and work in activities related to food, accommodation, beauty services and local development projects, among others.
These companies do not have access to areas considered strategic by the Cuban State such as health, telecommunications, energy, defense and the media.
The MSMEs can be state, private or mixed, and are recognized as an economic unit with legal personality with their own characteristics.
This type of economic actor coexists with the socialist state company — the main one for the State in the Cuban system — non-agricultural cooperatives, and self-employment.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Several families, mostly Cuban, at the Miami airport waiting for the arrival of loved ones who are beneficiaries of the “humanitarian parole.” (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, 13 May 2023 — In an attempt to expedite the procedures of Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians who opt for humanitarian parole, the US Government announced a modification in the selection process of beneficiaries. Starting in the next few days, the program will begin the processing of about 1,000 candidates a day, as reported at a telephone press conference this Thursday.
The United States announced in early 2023 that it would accept more than 30,000 migrants a month from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti, thus expanding a program that has granted humanitarian permits for Venezuelans since October 2022. However, it also warned that it will immediately expel to Mexico undocumented immigrants from those countries who try to cross the southern border irregularly. For their part, the Mexican authorities agreed to admit up to 30,000 migrants a month who are expelled from the United States.
The new modification of the program says that of the 1,000 places that are available each day, about 500 will be “randomly processed in a lottery, and anyone who is waiting can be chosen,” explained Blas Núñez-Neto, Undersecretary of Border Policy and Immigration of the Department of Homeland Security.
The other half of the appointments will be processed “in the order in which the applications were received to also guarantee that the people who have been waiting will eventually have their applications confirmed,” Núñez-Neto added.
The announcement is included among the measures that the Government of Joe Biden implemented after the elimination of Title 42, which became null and void on Thursday. continue reading
In the face of these changes, hope flourishes again for many Cubans who began the process in January and have not yet been approved. However, the future of the program may be in doubt. A trial is scheduled for the middle of next month in the face of a lawsuit brought by several prosecutors and representatives of 20 states over the inappropriate nature of the parole.
Berta, a Cuban who was stranded in Mexico last January when the United States closed the border to the Island’s nationals, was sponsored by some friends on May 9, and on the 11th she received the confirmation of approval emails from the Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). However, the 38-year-old woman has not been able to finish the process.
“I did all the steps that USCIS asks for without problems before sending me to the CBP [Customs and Border Protection] One application to apply for the travel permit,” the Cuban tells 14ymedio. “But after I managed to create my session in CBP One, on May 11 at night, I have not been able to move forward.”
“The application sends me the confirmation code and when I manage to enter it, it drops me from the system, or if it lets me do the steps it asks for, among them, take a selfie and scan my passport, I send the information, but the application itself tells me that the information is incorrect.”
Like Berta, some beneficiaries of the parole have expressed in the last week the malfunction of the application in the Facebook groups created by Cubans to be informed about the parole. Everyone agrees that they entered the data correctly and followed the required steps. It is not the first time that this type of CBP One error has been reported by sponsors and beneficiaries.
Up to the end of April, more than 120,000 immigrants arrived in the United States as beneficiaries of the humanitarian permit, according to the most recent statistics from the Department of Homeland Security.
By nationality, more than 24,000 Cubans have received a travel permit, and of that figure about 22,000 have entered the United States. More than 46,000 Venezuelans, 39,000 Haitians and 19,000 Nicaraguans have also been approved.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Unloading frozen chicken from a truck coming from the United States, in Central Havana, this Tuesday. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, May 10, 2023 — “The missing chicken and rice have arrived for the population. Pending coffee and detergent, blessings.” The message from a neighbor of Central Havana this Wednesday set off a crowd that ran in search of the chicken that had been lost for months. Two hours later there was no more chicken nor trace of a line.
Last Friday, the Ministry of Internal Trade asked the population for calm, assuring that chicken would arrive in all corners of the Island. A week earlier, the authorities revealed that, due to the lack of availability, only medical diets and children up to 13 years old would be entitled to the meat of the bird through the ration book, while those older than that age would receive picadillo and mortadella as a substitute.
Finally, and despite the collapse of chicken imports, the Government rectified the measure and began distribution in Camagüey last Friday, at the rate of one and a half pounds of meat for those under 14 and one pound for those over that age.
It is suspected that the shipment of chicken that arrived on May 5, aboard the refrigerated ship Orange Spirit from New Orleans, was destined for sale in Freely Convertible Currency (MLC), and that the authorities made the decision to distribute it through the ration book in national currency when they realized the growing unrest in the country, expressed on social networks and in the Caimanera protest, last Saturday. continue reading
Just unloaded from the Orange Spirit, the frozen poultry meat, which has become an object of desire for all Cubans since they stopped hoping for pork, was quickly distributed in Havana and dispatched to other cities in the center of the Island, as 14ymedio correspondents were able to verify.
This Tuesday, the trucks distributed the chicken to the butchers of the capital with such unusual efficiency that by the next day it was already available in every shop, as this newspaper could see in a tour of different neighborhoods of the center.
The chicken, from the American brand Tyson, is not one of the most appreciated by the population, because of the dark color it acquires with cooking. But the mere fact of finally being able to buy the expected half pound – at 20 pesos [$.80] – was already a cause for joy for the habaneros.
“You can’t complain, now you have chicken,” joked one neighbor to another who came out with his long-awaited package.
Despite the announcement of the arrival of the shipment of chicken, broadcast with great fanfare in Tribuna de La Habana this Tuesday, some neighbors were not expecting the happy news. “It took people by surprise,” said a retiree from Nuevo Vedado who found out, hours later, that they had supplied his butchery with the long-awaited chicken quarters.
The general director of the Copmar Food Marketing Company, Enrique Plaza Maldestein, said in Tuesday’s Noticerio Estelar that 51 containers of chicken were being unloaded in the port of Havana. The average number of tons of chicken needed to supply the capital’s family basket is 5,300, imported in its entirety.
For the third consecutive month, chicken purchases from the United States, which must be paid in cash due to the embargo restrictions, fell in March due to the lack of foreign exchange in the Central Bank. Imports from Brazil also decreased, another of the most stable suppliers on the Island and for whom there are no such limitations.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 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.
So far this year, independent records count 27 women murdered in Cuba by sexist violence. (Alas Tensas)
14ymedio, Madrid, 10 May 2023 — The Supreme People’s Court confirmed on Tuesday the life imprisonment of two Cubans sentenced in 2022 for sexist murders against their wife and ex-partner respectively. The two convicts, Yadier Delvá Simón and Alexander Nápoles Téllez, had appealed their sentences, but the high court rejected both appeals.
“Both individuals were sanctioned to perpetual deprivation of liberty, as perpetrators of two crimes of murder, by depriving the lives, using bladed weapons and blunt instruments, of the one who had been his wife and mother of his only son, in the case of the first accused and, the second, previously a couple, once she decided to separate from him,” explains the press release by official media.
The high court “held that these events irremediably mark the future of the minor children of the victims and arouse total revulsion and absolute rejection by society, which defends inclusion, equality and non-violence,” the text adds.
The trials were held in the past days — without specifying — in Havana and Ciego de Ávila. Delvá Simón asked to be exonerated alleging a “deep state of psychological alteration,” but the court considers that the witness, documentary and expert evidence disprove this and demonstrate his responsibility. In his case, the penalty is joined by the withdrawal of guardianship over the son he had in common with the victim.
Nápoles Téllez, for his part, claimed repentance, but the judges attribute falsehood to him and argue that the crime was amply proven. continue reading
The Supreme Court adds in its note that article 345 of the new Criminal Code, in force since December 1, provides for the crime of murder “sanctions of 20 to 30 years, perpetual deprivation of liberty or death” for those who “kill a woman as a result of gender violence,” which “evidences the will of the Cuban State to guarantee protection and legal attention to them, severely punishing those who are declared responsible for these events.”
The addition comes shortly after President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that there will be “zero tolerance” for sexist violence, which he described as an “unacceptable act.” The statements took place in April as part of a meeting called Voices of Women for Gender Non-Violence, held in Santa Clara.
“A single woman violated is not only a blow to the feminist tradition of the Revolution, it is an unacceptable act for our socialist society,” Díaz-Canel stressed in a year in which at least 27 women have already been murdered, counted thanks to the Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo platforms, with the help of local networks, since the ruling party does not have an official and public record of these (and other) crimes.
The known figure of femincides is three times that of last year, when as of May there were nine murders, although it cannot be ruled out that the ability to make an accurate account is improving as the associations are consolidated. In 2022, these platforms were able to verify 36 femicides.
Their role has been decisive in now targeting an evil scourge that blatantly affects the Island, which, with independent data alone, is double the number of sexist murders in Spain, whose population is almost five times that of Cuba. In this country, one of the worst in the official record of femicides, 14 women murdered by their partners or ex-partners have died so far this year.
The most recent official Cuban statistics on domestic violence appeared in the 2016 National Gender Equality Survey, in which 10,698 women participated.
Of these, 26.7% of women between the ages of 15 and 74 said they had suffered some type of violence in their relationship in the 12 months prior to the study. Of these, only 3.7% of those assaulted asked for institutional help.
Cuban feminist platforms continue to demand a Comprehensive Law against Gender Violence, which at the moment is not contemplated on the Island, where a reflection on the matter has been announced for 2026. This type of rule goes beyond the criminalization of the crime of murder and tries to put the emphasis on prevention through education and awareness, as well as in the training of judges, doctors, police and other workers involved in this type of violence, previously considered as a domestic issue.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Lines to withdraw money from ATMs at the Metropolitan Bank of 23 and J. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, 11 May 2023 — For six days Roberto has been trying to withdraw cash from an ATM in Havana, the last one this Thursday. In vain. One by one, he verified what all the inhabitants of the capital say this week: you can barely extract money.
The announcer Yunior Morales posted this Wednesday with humor on his social networks. “You go to any ATM and there is no money. And tremendous cristóbal colón,” he joked, referring to the immense lines [colas in Spanish]. At the time of making his transmission, an acquaintance greeted him: “What’s wrong, Yunior?” He replied: “Here with hunger, boy, I’m hungry.” “Why don’t you eat something then?” to which he replied: “I have to withdraw money first and no ATM works.” And he ends his video jokingly exaggerating: “I have a CDR [Committees for the Defense of the Revolution] meeting about my hunger in my stomach. CDR because, you know, the CDR is hunger, gossip and conflict.”
The situation seems to spread to many other cities in the country. In Holguín, a teacher tells 14ymedio that Education workers now have their salaries divided in two: “one payment on the 5th and another on the 28th,” because “there is almost no money.” In addition, she says that “not even the employees of a bank know when there will be cash at the ATMs.”
A doctor from Sancti Spíritus says that in Public Health they are only paid by electronic transfer: “They deposit on the card, but for those who pay cash for things there is no money.” continue reading
More serious is what a state worker points out. “With payrolls made and everything, the bank does not accept payment through the cards because they don’t have money; the railroad is not an isolated situation,” he says referring to the unusual spontaneous strike organized on Tuesday by Artemis railway workers, in protest against the non-payment of their salaries in the last two months.
In Santiago de Cuba, complaints proliferate that “there is no money in the ATMs,” while groups in which human ATMs operate have multiplied on social networks. “Will exchange money in transfer for cash. I have the cash,” some say; “Will exchange CUP [pesos] transfer for cash,” say others. Some include the precise amount, such as 17,000 pesos, something unthinkable to extract in a bank.
Roberto from Havana tells this newspaper that he has verified in ATMs of “at least three municipalities” that, where before up to 10,000 pesos could be withdrawn in an operation, “and then there were 500 or 1,000 bills in the ATM, now they only allow 5,000 to be extracted,” and only in 20-peso bills.
This newspaper was able to verify this in the branch of the Metropolitan Bank (Banmet) on 23rd and J, in El Vedado, with such a central location that until recently it guaranteed any withdrawal, but the situation was chaos this Thursday. To begin with, you had to endure a gigantic line, divided into two: one to enter and another, the longest, for the ATMs. Of the six ATMs only two worked.
Inside the branch, for those who chose to extract money at the counter, the uncomfortable atmosphere was widespread and contagious. The employees were rude to people and arguing with each other; the customers were tremendously disgusted. Two elderly ladies were about to come to blows when one of them lost her place in line to go visit her sick daughter in the hospital and the other refused to let her back in: “Right now we are here,” said the latter, who lowered her voice when the threatened woman called the police.
A cashier rolled her eyes when an old man asked her what denominations she had, because he didn’t want the “little ones.” The man intended to get 40,000 pesos [$1,667] and he couldn’t. “That can happen because there are very few large bills,” the employee told him.
“Every day the same thing,” said another lady in line. “They let people pass in front who are going to deposit pesos, and if you are going to extract them, no matter the amount, they give you bills of 20 pesos.”
“They are giving priority to those who are going to deposit national currency, but almost no one comes to do that. “Do they let someone who comes to deposit pesos go first because there are none?” asked another woman who had just arrived from another cashier, from which she had tried to withdraw cash unsuccessfully. “Let them tell the truth: there is no money.”
However, the authorities are silent these days. Last month, in the face of the citizen rumor that state workers would not be paid, the Sancti Spíritus government was in a hurry to deny it. On those days, however, 14ymedio verified that cash could not be extracted at the city’s 11 ATMs.
The problems were repeated in Havana, where the provincial government reported that 150 of the 521 Banmet ATMs in the capital (30%) were broken. Then, they also said that from April 8 to 14, cash withdrawals exceeded 200 million pesos per day.
No one knows what is happening in May, but citizens are increasingly desperate. “We are going to have to pay with cocoa seeds, because paper cash is an illusion,” says Roberto, who fears that “the entire country could be paralyzed at any time.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 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 authorities have made no mention of the Calida, an oil tanker 817 feet long and 144 feet wide, anchored in Matanzas. (Vesselfinder)
14ymedio, Havana, 11 May 2023 — As happened with the OrangeSpirit, which brought American chicken last week, and with several tankers in recent months, the official Cuban press again omitted the name and origin of an oil tanker that docked at the port of Matanzas this Wednesday to unload 40,000 tons of diesel. Nor did it give information about the origin of the fuel, for which it paid 29 million dollars.
The record suggests that the cargo comes from Russia and was “laundered” in Turkey to circumvent the embargo by the NATO countries, in response to the invasion of Ukraine by Moscow’s troops. This measure does not apply to Cuba but to certain countries such as the United States, where the ship stopped before reaching Matanzas.
Of this, not a word in the report of Cuban Television, which goes to the extreme of disseminating a report with images of another oil tanker, the Cheetah-II, that entered that same port on April 27 from the Russian port of Tuapsé in the Black Sea and made a stopover in Istanbul but did not pass through the United States. However, according to ship geolocation pages consulted by 14ymedio, the Cheetah-II has been in Santiago de Cuba since May 2.
On the other hand, the official journalist Bernardo Espinosa, author of the report, illustrated the arrival of the tanker at the port of Matanzas this Thursday with the photographs of the Cheetah-II used in a previous work on April 27.
According to satellite monitoring by Vesselfinder and Marine Traffic, the only oil tanker that docked this Wednesday at the Matanzas Deepwater Pier was the Calida, a ship that sails with the flag of Malta, coming from Istanbul, Turkey, after having made a stopover in the Netherlands and on April 30 at the port of Corpus Christi, in Texas, United States. continue reading
The Cuban authorities have not made any mention of Calida, an oil tanker with 817 feet of length and 144 feat of width. In addition to two small tugboats with the Cuban flag, the only ship that is currently in the Matancera terminal, since April 30, is the MariannaV.V., an oil tanker with the Liberian flag.
According to Televisión Cubana, the ship docked at the Matanzas Deepwater Pier and, after “certifying the quality of the product,” the unloading to another ship began, an operation that is expected to be completed in 48 hours. “This allows us to quickly reach other ports that are also in need of fuel,” said Lidia Rodríguez, director of the Commercial Company of the Cuban Oil Union (Cupet).
“The cargo of this ship will not mean increases in the volumes to be marketed,” warned the officials interviewed by national television, who described the cargo as “insufficient,” although it helped to “not reach zero” in terms of electricity generation. Twenty thousand tons of unloaded diesel will be dedicated, according to officials, to electricity generation, and the same amount to “basic services.”
“We know the conditions that there are with the fuel,” said Ower Luis Grau, head of Áreas at the Mantanzas pier, who added that “most of the fuel that enters this country” is discharged through that terminal and is expected to “arrive quickly” to the other provinces.
Cuban Television added that the Island is eager to “receive new imports,” some already “in business phases” and others en route to Cuba. Before the end of May, the officials assured, other shipments of fuel will arrive.
On April 27, when the Cheetah-II arrived in Matanzas, the authorities were also secretive with the information about the ship. At that time, the official press guaranteed that diesel would also be used in electricity generation and in “sectors of the economy and the social area.”
The shipment also did not mean an improvement in the sale of hydrocarbons to private drivers on the Island. The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, insisted on the idea of “not touching zero with fuels,” but the situation remains in the most complete precariousness.
What the Cuban government does not report is where the fuel comes from and through which negotiations it enters Cuba. The Reuters agency recently revealed that Mexico increased its crude oil exports to the Island, and that has not meant a relief for the fuel crisis in the country either.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 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.
Prisoners Defenders says that there are 256 new political prisoners in Cuba in the last 12 months. (EFE)
14ymedio, Havana, 11 May 2023 — Prisoners Defenders (PD) denounced this Thursday that at the end of April in Cuban prisons there were 1,048 political prisoners. Although there were 18 fewer than in March, the organization, based in Madrid, points out in its latest monthly report that “more cases of minors have emerged,” and that there has been an exacerbation in the poor conditions for trans women.
In its latest report, the organization details that in April, 24 new political prisoners were admitted and 42 were released. Most of those who regained their freedom did so after the “complete fulfillment” of their sentences. As for those who came out before, it was because the defense managed to demonstrate wrongdoing and irregularities in the criminal proceedings.
PD emphasizes an increase in the number of imprisoned minors, who in April totaled 35 (two more than in March). Of these, four are girls, who are serving sentences or are in criminal proceedings. The organization points out that “a good part” are in penitentiary centers that the Government euphemistically calls “Integral Training Schools.”
At least 18 children were accused or convicted of the charge of sedition, one of the most severe charges in the Criminal Code, which the regime has used to punish the participants of the massive protests of July 11, 2021. “The average sentence for these convicted minors is five years of deprivation of liberty, a punishment on average higher than that suffered, before 11J [the nationwide protests of 11 July 2021], by adults in political prison,” says PD. continue reading
In the list of the 28 new prisoners in April, the report adds, there are three women, reaching a total of 118 inmates in the country, including several transgender prisoners. The best-known case is that of Brenda Díaz, sentenced by the regime to 14 years and seven months in prison on charges of public disorder, sabotage and contempt after her participation in 11J.
In a new clash, Díaz responded this week to the statements of Mariela Castro, director of the National Center for Sexual Education of Cuba (Cenesex), who described her situation as “exaggerated and full of fantasies.” Díaz invited the leader to visit the prisons without prior notice to verify the real conditions of the detainees.
“All trans women prisoners have been and are imprisoned among men, which also happens with ordinary trans prisoners, suffering indescribable situations for their sexual condition,” the NGO says in its report.
Similarly, the organization denounces that the Cuban authorities intimidate detainees with “taking away their children for the exercise of their freedom of expression,” alluding to the new provisions in the Family Code that allow the suspension of parental responsibility when “vicious, corrupt or criminal behavior is observed.”
PD says Lizandra Góngora Espinosa is in this position, and the Government has threatened to take custody of the five children from her and her husband if they continue with human rights activism. Góngora was transferred to a prison on the Isla de la Juventud, with “the cruel purpose of preventing her children from visiting her,” the report says.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 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 migrants crossed the Rio Grande in front of the Mexican border authorities. (Captura/ImpactVision)
14ymedio / Jorge Fuentelsaz, Mexico, 10 May 2023 — This Tuesday, 48 hours before the end of Title 42 which has allowed the United States to immediately expel migrants for health reasons, a hundred people broke through the control of Mexican border agents in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and began to cross the Rio Grande in broad daylight. The ImpactVision cameras captured the moment when the campers on the bank decided to cross the river, calm at that moment, before the impassive gaze of members of the National Institute of Migration (INM).
“I ask the United States authorities to help us,” a woman told the reporter. “Let them open a channel that is more accessible, more humane, because we’ve gone through everything. People insult us, mistreat us, rob us, there are women raped,” lamented the migrant. Most refused to speak to the camera, and their attention was completely focused on making sure that those who were already crossing reached the other side, while preparing to be next.
In recent days, says the reporter, thousands of people have tried to reach the United States. The changes that are coming keep the migrants confused, and rumors are circulating more than ever.
On Tuesday, agents of the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) distributed brochures without official seals inviting migrants to surrender to the authorities.” It is better for you to turn yourself in at the nearest station of the border patrol,” the note said. “In this place you will be processed by CBP officers and put on the correct immigration path.” Rumors of a raid encouraged migrants to take this route. continue reading
“Allegedly here they are providing us with the documentation,” said Giomar, a 39-year-old former Venezuelan policeman interviewed by EFE. On Tuesday in El Paso, hundreds of people were being delivered, in an orderly manner, under the premise that they will be given the permits they need.
“We want to have the American papers to be able to transit here in the United States, we want to be legalized,” said Franco Zambrano, 20 years old and Venezuelan as well, like most of those who waited in the North Pass yesterday. “They told us to give ourselves up, to come here, that they are helping us with the papers to be able to reach our destination,” added one of his travel companions, Yonaiqui González.
The activists who watch over migrants denounced the “intimidating” attitude of the agents, who yesterday arrived near a church where dozens of people were camping to ask for their papers.
“They are violating what is called the policy of sensitive places, where they should not be doing such activities because they are going to dissuade people from seeking refuge,” the director of the NGO Border Network for Human Rights, Fernando García, told EFE. As he explained, “there is a very clear policy that neither churches nor clinics nor schools are subject to this type of action, and what we are seeing is a massive presence of them. They are preparing for what is coming, and what is coming is going to be a tougher raid policy.”
García is critical of President Joe Biden, who “promised a humane policy towards the border, an immigration reform policy to strengthen the asylum system. And what we are seeing is a harsh policy very similar to that of former President Trump, sending troops instead of humanitarian assistance to the border,” he says.
In recent months, the United States has launched new programs in search of a more “orderly” migration, including the humanitarian parole for Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Haitians, through which up to 30,000 monthly visas are delivered to those who get a sponsor to endorse their stay in the country.
Between its entry into force, on January 9 of this year, and March, 15,000 Cubans, 18,000 Haitians, 7,500 Nicaraguans and 32,000 Venezuelans have arrived in the United States.
However, those who try to enter without the document will be deported to Mexico and will not be able to request this type of access. Despite this warning, hundreds of people of these nationalities try to circumvent border controls.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The migrant camp in Matamoros is mostly occupied by Venezuelans and is located across the border from Brownsville (Texas). (Screen capture)
14ymedio, Havana, 9 May 2023 — Among tents improvised with blankets and tree branches, five Cubans are waiting for a response to their CBP One [US Customs and Border Patrol] appointment at the migrant camp in Matamoros. “I’m not going to risk crossing the Rio Grande and being deported,” says this Island national who has the name “Idalmis” tattooed on his chest.
Idalmis fled Cuba almost four years ago. In an interview with ImpactoVision journalist John Ritchie, he says that “the police were after me,” that he owes “a very large amount for the clothes he was selling” and that if he is returned to Cuba, he will go to jail.
He left his children and his mother in search of a better future because “the situation in Cuba is very bad, terrible like nowhere else,” he emphasizes, while describing the Government’s attitude as “lack of respect.” “If you have money, there is no food or medicine, and when you want something, you don’t have dollars.”
Idalmis affirms that on the Island if you have money there is no food or medicine. (Captura)
Only the Rio Grande separates this Cuban and his wife from Brownsville, one of the Texas cities that together with El Paso and Laredo have declared a state of emergency before the end of Title 42 on May 11. The measure, activated by then-President Donald Trump under the argument of preventing the entry into the country of people with COVID-19 — but which served in practice to expel migrants without having to accept their asylum applications — will be replaced by other measures established by the current administration. The U.S. government is increasing the ways of legally applying for an entry permit but promises to toughen the penalties for those who enter irregularly. continue reading
Idalmis says that the journey has taken him through 11 countries. “I went through Suriname, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, the Darién jungle, Costa Rica and Honduras, until I arrived in Mexico. The section between Tapachula and Mexico City has been a greater obstacle than crossing the Darién jungle” due to extortions, kidnappings and threats along the way.
Idalmis has a brother in Nebraska, and he says excitedly: “At least we already have a job. The delay for us is to be able to legally enter the United States and arrive.”
Next to this couple is a woman who preferred not to give her name. She left the Island four months ago by way of Nicaragua. “The flight was $2,300, although others have paid $3,000 and up to $6,000,” she says. “You’re not going to return but you still have to buy a round-trip ticket.”
These people are waiting for information about migration. They perceived movement on the Brownsville side last Sunday, just on the day that Joe Biden’s U.S. government ordered the deployment of another 1,500 soldiers in support of 2,500 National Guard agents that will be distributed along 1,926 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.
“None of us is going to cross, because it means risking deportation,” says the Cuban, who traveled alone “because the money was not enough for my husband’s flight.” Since Monday, none of the migrants, mostly Venezuelans, have tried to cross the Rio Grande.
Among the Cubans is a woman who says she is not planning to return to the Island and hopes to cross legally to the United States. (Screen capture)
Gladis Cañas, representative of the association Ayudenles a Triunfar [Help Them Succeed] tells 14ymedio that before the end of Title 42 many people tried to swim across the Rio Grande, and, unfortunately, two people died in the attempt. “Aspiring to the American dream should not be synonymous with death,” she says, adding that the CBP One application “has had many deficiencies and errors and has caused migrants to take wrong decisions that can truncate their process.”
The Cubans know that as of this Thursday, May 10, CBP One will have approximately 1,000 appointments available for 23 hours every day, instead of at a designated time. According to the Customs and Border Protection Office, this measure “will allow greater flexibility, prioritizing non-citizens who have waited longer.”
On the American side, the mayor of El Paso, Oscar Leeser, warned that his officers are preparing for the arrival of thousands of migrants on Friday. “On the street we estimated (that there were) between 8,000 and 10,000 people,” he said during a visit to the border with Ciudad Juárez. “There is a caravan that will probably be here around May 11, so I believe that the real number we will be dealing with will be between 12,000 and 15,000.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 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 Granmax company began its exports of charcoal to Europe. (Granma)
14ymedio, Havana, 8 May 2023 — Cuba has managed to position itself as one of the suppliers of charcoal to Europe, which, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saw its main supplier seriously affected. The official press Granma announced with great fanfare over the weekend the first shipment from the state company Granmax to the European market, while the company Horquita, from Cienfuegos, fulfills its plan with the shipment of four containers.
Granmax, a subsidiary of the business unit of Agroindustrial de Granos Fernando Echenique, located in the community of Coboa, in the Granma municipality of Yara, is ready to transfer a shipment of 300 tons of charcoal to the port. It is fabricated from marabou, an invasive weed, with 200 tons of first quality and 100 of second category.
Odisnel Traba Ferrales, Fernando Echenique’s agricultural director, said that the state company has the “conditions” to export 100 tons of charcoal in the rest of the year, in addition to other agricultural products such as lemon, pear lime, habanero chile, hot pepper and banana.
The company thus specifies its first shipment six months after having received the concession as an exporter last November, during the 38th edition of the International Fair of Havana (Fihav 2022), said its director of Exports and Imports, Adrián Rodríguez Galán. During this time, the official added, Granmax was dedicated to obtaining the certification of the work teams to meet the demand and technical requirements of the international market. continue reading
The managers pointed out that Granmax can be an intermediary between individual producers to provide their export services. Foreign exchange revenues, Rodríguez Galán added, will be used for the purchase of technological equipment and agricultural inputs, “in order to grow and be competitive in the international market.”
In Cienfuegos, the Horquita Agricultural Company, in the municipality of Abreus, has also closed the export of four containers of its star product Carbomad, destined for the European Union. The issue was news in the local newspaper 5 de Septiembre, which last Friday highlighted that with these results the production plan is 100% fulfilled.
In May, the newspaper says, production “flows satisfactorily” with the storage of three additional containers that will be exported to different countries through the Victoria de Girón Agroindustrial Company, from Matanzas.
Reiner Vázquez, state administrator, said that 40 employees dedicate “the greatest efforts” to the marabou charcoal industry in Juraguá. “There is an enthusiastic collective in love with the task. It’s a difficult job, but the producers come with tremendous energy and a spirit of work,” he said.
To date, they have fulfilled the production and export quota of 80 tons and have another 80 in storage ready to ship at the beginning of next month. Throughout the year, according to the work plan, they expect to obtain 240 tons of charcoal.
At the end of 2022, Cuba managed to improve its export balance to Europe of wood, charcoal and cork. The European Commission reports that it received assets valued at 39 million euros and grew by 39.2% compared to 28 million in 2021. The Island covered 10.7% of the total demand. Before the Russian attack in February 2022, Ukraine headed the list of suppliers of charcoal to Europe, with Germany as the main importer.
Cuba produces marabou charcoal, which has great acceptance in international markets due to its high caloric power, the flavor it brings to food and the lower environmental impact it entails, since the maribou tree is an invasive species.
For decades, the marabou has been a plague that has spread through the Cuban fields, making them useless for other crops. With a woody trunk, large thorns and a great ability to reproduce quickly, the plant has become a symbol of state laziness and centralism that has hit the Island’s agriculture.
In 2018, the country exported between 40,000 and 80,000 tons of this product. In addition, in January 2016, it made his first export to the United States after fifty years of pause, when it sold about 40 tons of artisanal charcoal for $420 a ton.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 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.
14ymedio, Havana, 14 May 14, 2023 — The concert of the duo Buena Fe, scheduled for this Sunday in Barcelona, was canceled as confirmed on the official website of the group, which has ties to the Cuban regime. In their last presentation, on May 11 in the Galileo Galilei room in Madrid, several attacks occurred against exiles from the Island by alleged government agents from Havana.
