Cuban boxer Yoenlis Hernández left the Domadores de Cuba in Panama. (Cubadebate/IBA)
14ymedio, Havana, 16 May 2023 — Yoenlis Hernández’s escape was a one-two punch for Miguel Díaz-Canel, who the day before congratulated him for having been the only gold medalist and two-time champion in the 165-pound category in the Boxing World Cup that was held in the capital of Uzbekistan. According to journalist Yordano Carmona, the native of Camagüey “abandoned the Cuban delegation returning from Tashkent.”
The reporter shared an image of Hernández with the champion belt and a poster with the $200,000 he earned as part of the Domadores de Cuba team. “No one wants to stay on the Island, not even when you win a prize of 200,000 dollars,” he stressed.
The escape of this pugilist took place in “Panama, during a technical stopover to Havana,” Ernesto La Flecha said on Facebook. “The torches are lit, another one that is looking for a professional future.” Swing Completo published that this Cuban took the opportunity to “board a flight to Spain.”
Hernández’s departure is “a serious casualty for the Cuban squad, in which he had become one of the main figures and the hope for medals in the various international events,” published Play-Off Magazine.
Hernández said goodbye on Saturday from the mixed area of the Humo Arena stadium with a dedication after being proclaimed champion. “What is promised is a debt, here is the gold medal, which is for Cuba.” This athlete, whom the official media Jit praised for having won five fights in the event and staying “averse to the shocks (decisions)” of the judges, said that “he had grown a lot as an athlete.” continue reading
Hernández’s words seemed to announce his escape, as did those of Kevin Brown Bazain, youth world champion in Yerevan, Armenia, in 2012, who fled in March last year prior to his participation in the Continental Boxing Championship in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Billy Rodríguez took advantage of his stay in Mexico in August 2022 to hit another blow to the Domadores of Cuba. Osvel Caballero, winner of a gold medal at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima and bronze at the 2021 World Boxing Championship in Belgrade, escaped in November.
He was followed by Albert González and Carlos Castillo who left the team in Germany, where Cuba had won its first three bronze medals in the World Boxing Cup.
Cuban boxing is going through an alarming crisis. In the last Boxing World Cup, Olympic medalists Julio César La Cruz, Arlen López, Lázaro Álvarez and Roniel Iglesias could not even access the medals. The ruling party media Jit blamed the judges for the missteps of the Domadores of Cuba in Tashkent, transforming journalism in Cuba.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Havana, chaired by Ricardo Cabrisas and Boris Titov. (EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa)
14ymedio, Madrid, 18 May 2023 — “They are giving us preferential treatment, the road is paved.” The words of Boris Titov, president of the Cuba-Russia Business Council, at the inauguration of the bilateral business economic forum this Wednesday at the Hotel Nacional in Havana, eloquently illustrate the state of the relationship between the two countries.
According to the Reuters agency, the Kremlin’s adviser said that the Island has offered Russian businessmen the right to land in usufruct for a period of 30 years, an unprecedented concession by the revolutionary regime.
Those conditions affect, he explained, “both the long-term lease of land and the tax-free importation of agricultural machinery, the granting of the right to transfer foreign exchange profits and much more. Of course, we are also waiting for the reduction of bureaucratic barriers,” he added.
Titov, who has been advising the Cuban authorities on economic matters for months, has also stated, according to Sputnik, that the Díaz-Canel Government is willing “to provide more favorable conditions for Russian investors.”
“Cuba is being transformed, mastering new rules for the interaction between the State and the companies,” he said at the opening of the meeting. continue reading
Thus, for example, they will exempt Russian companies from tariffs to import technology and allow them to repatriate their benefits to Russia, a privilege that no other foreign entrepreneurs in Cuba enjoy.
In addition, Putin’s adviser said he was considering speeding up transport between the two countries. “In Soviet times there was a direct port and maritime connection,” he said, and they are “analyzing this possibility with the owners of Cuban ships” (i.e., the State).
On the Island’s side, Ricardo Cabrisas, Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, told reporters that the economic ties between his country and Moscow will only grow. “Nothing and no one can stop it,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
Sergei Baldin, Russia’s trade representative in Cuba, told the British agency that bilateral trade between the two nations reached 450 million dollars in 2022, three times as much as in 2021. Ninety percent of this was purchases of petroleum products and soybean oil.
The distrust that Russia had towards Cuba in recent decades for the non-payment of its debts changed completely as a result of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. A few days earlier, Moscow announced an extension for the payments of the Russian credits granted to Havana until 2027.
Since the war began, there have been bilateral meetings that specified symbiotic needs: that of Russia for having allies on the planet, after the majority rejection of its actions in Ukraine, and that of Cuba for trying to breathe life into its devastated economy.
Last January, both agreed to create an Economic Transformation Center with the aim of modifying the Island’s economy based on “the development of private enterprise,” something that many NGOs have denounced as an attempt to transform a “state economy model” into the “Russian market mafia” scheme.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega. (EFE/Jorge Torres/Archive)
Europa Press/14ymedio, Madrid, 14 May 2023 — The government of Nicaragua, led by President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, dismissed Nicaragua’s ambassador to Cuba, Alejandro José Solís, on Wednesday, just one year after he was appointed to the position.
Solís, who was appointed Nicaragua’s ambassador to Cuba in May last year after four consecutive changes in about six months, is the longest serving diplomat in office after the departure of Luis Cabrera, who was dismissed in November 2021.
The latter, a Nicaraguan-nationalized Argentine journalist, was the ambassador in Havana since 2007, when the Sandinista leader Ortega returned to power and re-established diplomatic relations with the Island. He was replaced by the then advisory minister for policies and international affairs of the Presidency, Sidhartha Francisco Marín Aráuz, who only lasted 11 days.
Marín Aráuz was replaced by the retired colonel Reynaldo del Carmen Lacayo Centeno and he, in turn, by Wilfredo Jerónimo Jarquín Lang. continue reading
The 2018 protests against the government of Nicaragua lasted until September and resulted in a repressive escalation that resulted in the following years with more than 200 arrests of people opposed to the government. The UN estimates that, since December 2018, more than 3,100 organizations have been closed.
Nicaragua has withdrawn the legal personality of numerous NGOs and civil society organizations alleging administrative irregularities. This has been accompanied by other measures, such as the suspension of diplomatic relations with the Vatican, the deprivation of nationality of dissidents and the expulsion of ambassadors from the country.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Ernesto Soberón, on the left, along with another Foreign Affairs official, during his direct transmission this Wednesday. (Facebook/Captura)
14ymedio, Madrid, 17 May 2023 — So many doubts seem to have been raised by the new migratory measures announced yesterday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which this Wednesday will not only be devoted entirely to the issue of the official TV Roundtable program. Ernesto Soberón, director general of Consular Affairs and Cubans Residing Abroad, has also offered to respond to them in a direct transmission in the morning.
In an informal interview with another foreign official who was reading the questions to Soberón, he clarified that Cubans who have a passport with a validity of six years will have to keep that document, but that — like those who acquire the new document, from next July 1, with a validity of up to ten years — they will be exempt from the extension every two years.
“It would not be logical to tell Cubans that they have to do an additional procedure to put a sticker on the passport that says that the validity is extended,” said the director of Consular Affairs, who also said that anyone who wants to get a new passport for ten years can do it.
Regarding citizens who do not have an extended passport and have to travel before July 1, when all the measures come into force, Soberón warned that “the cases, which must be punctual, will be analyzed in detail to find a solution.”
Another of the issues raised with the official concerned the “equalization” of the time spent on the Island of Cubans living abroad and their foreign relatives. To this, Soberón recalled that until now, those relatives had a maximum stay of six months, and that from now on it will be one year. continue reading
As for the requirement of the use of the Cuban passport to enter the Island for “emigrants” from before January 1, 1971, the director of Consular Affairs denied that it was a penalty. “I have seen opinions on the networks that a privilege is eliminated; quite the contrary,” he said, arguing that “what we are looking for with this measure is to eliminate the need for a Cuban to ask for an entry permit every time he comes to Cuba.” To get their Cuban passport, he continued, “facility will be granted for a year” to all citizens, without detailing how that would work.
“We are also seeking to eliminate differences between categories of Cubans,” he insisted, and he repeated another message: “The will of our Government to continue developing a policy of strengthening ties with Cubans abroad remains unchanged.”
To demonstrate that President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s new measures show “continuity,” he explained that “Fidel initiated the dialogue of 1978,” which granted legal travel for Cuban exiles to the Island, and that Raúl Castro approved the “deeper update of the Cuban migration policy” for January 2013. He did not mention at any time the possibility maintained by the authorities of denying entry to any Cuban who has criticised the regime or the number of those who are “regulated*” and not allowed to leave the country.
*Translator’s note: “Regulated” is the term used by the Cuban government to classify Cubans who are forbidden to travel. Frequently, individuals have not found out they are ’regulated’ until they arrive at the airport with their ticket to leave.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Uruguay’s stability and economy have made it a preferred southern destination for Cubans. (Captura)
14ymedio, Madrid, 16 May 2023 — Nearly 10,000 Cubans living in Uruguay may lose their legal status if nothing happens. The Government of the South American country has become serious about an immigration requirement that has been in force for years. A few months ago Uruguay started requiring the accreditation of legal entry from Brazil, which thousands of people do not have.
According to the Uruguayan media El Observador on Tuesday, two years ago thousands of Cubans who could not be considered refugees arrived in the country and asked for this type of status, although they later renounced the application. Now, they are required to apply for a visa to reside in Uruguay, but for this they must show the entry and exit stamps from Brazil that accredit their regular transit. This puts them in a difficult situation without a resolution.
“Our most conservative calculation is that between 9,000 and 10,000 Cubans living in Uruguay could be left in the limbo of being irregular, due to the new demands,” Alberto Gianotti of the Migrant Support Network told the media.
Cubans began to arrive in Uruguay significantly six years ago, when US President Barack Obama put an end to the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, and migrants from the Island began to look for other destinations.
Uruguay, one of the richest countries in the region, attracted Cubans, who began to double the number of immigrants after arriving on a route that began in Guyana, visa-free for residents of the Island. From there, they crossed the enormous jungles of Brazil on a very complicated journey and circumvented border controls after paying coyotes, who took them to the South American country, where they asked for refuge. continue reading
During the time their application was processed, those affected received temporary residence, which provided them with access to education, health and employment, but when their requests were rejected — since the Government considered that they could not prove a danger to life — they had to process their stay in the country.
El Observador affirms that Cubans then resorted to a trick that consisted of making an appointment at the consulates bordering Brazil and simulating a new entry. The transit seal requirement in the neighboring country was already in force but was never required. Since 2023, the immigration authorities have been ordered to start demanding it.
Cuba, along with Haiti and the Dominican Republic, is one of the very few Latin American countries from which Uruguay requires a visa and does so in application of the principle of reciprocity, so the Government rejects the revocation of the permit, as requested by some organizations for the defense of the rights of migrants.
El Observador affirms that Uruguay has no intention “to deport undocumented immigrants, much less that irregular inhabitants accumulate,” with the consequent problems that would result from it, so Montevideo is rushing to find a solution, which is not expected to be easy.
“We are fighting to remove the visa requirement, not only to solve the underlying problem, but also to prevent migrants from relying on human trafficking networks and organized crime to get to Uruguay,” Gianotti told the media.
Rinche Roodenburg, another source from El Observador who works in a humanitarian organization, defends national policy in general terms but admits that it is normal for inconveniences to arise. “Uruguay has good intentions, regardless of the government of the day, and respects the right to migrate, but from time to time bureaucratic obstacles appear that end up curtailing rights and leaving thousands in limbo,” he said.
Sources from the Foreign Ministry told El Observador that “the intention of the State is to find a substantive solution and to make immigration as regular as possible,” but visa exemption is impossible.
Obtaining refugee status in Uruguay has been difficult for Cubans. In the first six months of last year, only three people succeeded, and data from the Refugee Commission indicate that they are the most rejected national group, 85% of the total, while Venezuelans were approved at a rate of 100%.
The Foreign Ministry then pointed out that the majority of Cubans allege economic reasons in the process. “And economic reasons, when they say it in the interview, are not reasons that justify refuge.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Yoenlis Hernández won the gold medal in the Boxing World Cup for the Island. (Cuban News Agency)
14ymedio, Havana, 14 May 2023 — Cuba said goodbye to the Tashkent 2023 Boxing World Cup with a result far below expectations: one gold medal, three silver and two bronze. The pro-government media Jit downplayed the failure of the Cuban team in the competition and blamed the judges.
The hope of the Domadores de Cuba was centered on Saidel Horta (125 pounds), but this 21-year-old boxer could not beat the Uzbek Abdumalik Khalokov, who surpassed him 5-0. According to the official newspaper, this was a “gift from the officials who decided he was better” in the first round.
After the setback in Uzbekistan of Julio César La Cruz, Arlen López, Lázaro Álvarez and Roniel Iglesias, the sports site tried to make the defeats less chaotic. “The work of the judges affected Roniel and Julio as part of a phenomenon that was felt again in the Humo Arena,” the same official media published on Sunday, rejecting the idea that the rivals of the Cuban pugilists were superior.
Although Cubadebate acknowledged last Wednesday that with the defeats of its medalists, Cuban boxing “took a nose-dive in the quarterfinals,” for Jit “the negative thing” was that “the response of the leaders (medalists) left doubts.” continue reading
Saidel Horta regretted not being able to reach the gold medal and give the achievement as a gift to the mothers on the Island. “I worked hard to give the title to my mom and to all the mothers in Cuba, but I still dedicate this silver medal to them.”
Horta could not match the performances of Ángel Herrera (Belgrade 1978) and Adolfo Horta (Munich 1982), both with gold medals. Cuba’s performance leaves several questions for the Domadores team in a tournament organized since 1974, where it has won 81 gold, 38 silver and 30 bronze medals.
Yoenlis Hernández (165 pounds) regained the reign exercised in Belgrade 2021, while Erislandy Álvarez (132 pounds) and Fernando Arzola (203 pounds) took silver medals on Saturday. Yosbany Veitía (119 pounds) and Alejandro Claro (106 pounds) won bronze.
Someone else worth mentioning is Arlen López, since the Olympic medalist was surpassed by the Chinese Tanglatihan Tuohetaerbieke. Behind this Asian boxer is Cuban coach Maikro Romero, gold medalist at the Olympic Games in Atlanta (1996) and bronze medalist in Sydney (2000).
Translated by Regina Anavy
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“You have to scan the code and follow these instructions,” said one of the Haitech workers who distributed the soft drinks. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 13 May 2023 — A crowd of people were milling around, suddenly and at full speed, in front of number 665 Carlos III Street. There, two blocks from the market of the same name, where the Pepsi Cola Company of Cuba once was, informal sellers are usually found. This Friday they grumbled about the intruders who were taking their place.
On one step, there were several boxes of soft drinks, one of beer, and a promotional poster of the joint venture Haitech, formed by the Cuban state-owned company Copextel and a Chinese partner. With a brightly colored background, a soft drink was offered in exchange for joining a WhatsApp group and sharing the address of the store in two groups on any social network.
Although the instructions were clear, people kept asking: “What do we have to do?” On the other side, the crowd was attended by two young people, one with Chinese features and the other Cuban. The first, in precarious Spanish, tried to give explanations out loud but could not make himself understood. “I’m going with the Cuban guy because I don’t understand Chinese,” said one lady. “You have to scan the code and follow these instructions,” said the Cuban.
In its virtual store, Haitech offers different appliances and electronic devices (refrigerators, freezers, fans, computer CPUs, meat grinders, blenders, line protectors) at prices in dollars, although there isn’t much to see: just 14 items. The most expensive is a desktop PC, at $795.80, and the cheapest, an LED light bulb at $4.35. As an offer, there was a solar charger reduced from $31.45 to $10.99. continue reading
The WhatsApp group that was accessed by scanning the code was managed by two people who called themselves Gema Wang and Nico Zheng, who answered the questions of those who were entering. Many searched for electrical household appliances or devices that aren’t in their catalog, such as pressure cookers or washing machines, which, they assured them, “will arrive in July.”
“Are they cheaper than in stores in MLC (freely convertible currency)?” asked another potential customer. “Yes!” they answered, despite the fact that items can be bought only with foreign Visa, Mastercard or UnionPay cards (that is, they can only be acquired by emigrants who purchase them for their relatives on the Island).
Although Wang and Zheng welcomed people on WhatsApp saying that they are “a Chinese company,” on their website it can be verified that they are based in Hong Kong and operated jointly with the Cuban state-owned company Copextel, belonging to the Electronic, Automation and Communications Industry Group (Gelect).
Until now, the agreements between China and the Island to create joint ventures in the field of biotechnology were known — one of which, dedicated to producing a drug against nasopharyngeal cancer, was praised in the official press just last month — but barely any are known to be in commerce.
Last November, after the official visit to China of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Beijing and Havana signed a total of 12 agreements about which no details were offered beyond saying that “they cover different sectors.”
Among them was a “memorandum of understanding” signed by the ministries of Commerce of both countries for the “strengthening of economic and trade cooperation,” and another with the Agency for International Development Cooperation aimed at “promoting the Chinese proposal for global development.”
In any case, the union of foreign private individuals with Cuban state companies has been raising suspicions for months. The latest denunciation has come from the Communists of Cuba collective, a Trotskyite group, saying that “the Cuban ruling bureaucracy advances decisively to the capitalist restoration, implementing the Chinese-Vietnamese model.”
Those who joined the WhatsApp group were not worried about this at all and immediately turned the exchange of messages into a private bulletin board for the sale of coffee, milk or chicken. Most of them, however, entered the site and left a short time later.
The drinks — 12 Sprite, 12 Orange Fanta, 24 Coca-Cola and 24 beers from the Chinese brand Tsingtao, which Cubans usually make fun of for its similarity with the word singao [“motherfucker”] — vanished in half an hour. Getting a soft drink was the only thing that mattered about Haitech to those who joined the WhatsApp group.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Activist Yasmany González and his wife, Ilsa Ramos. (Facebook/Ilsa Ramos)
14ymedio, Havana, 12 May 2023 — “He is very emaciated and they continue to interrogate him,” wife of activist Yasmany González Valdés, tells 14ymedio, after her husband has been detained for three weeks at Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters in Havana. “I ask and ask the officers about his case, but they don’t give me information,” she says.
Ramos was able to visit her husband this Thursday to bring him some toiletries. “We have not been told if he will finally be brought to trial or when it will be. It seems that he will continue in Villa Marista for the time being,” says Ramos, who reiterates that González is being investigated for the alleged crime of “propaganda against government bodies.”
The activist, also known as Libre Libre, was arrested on April 20 after a “violent search” at his home in Centro Habana. About 15 political police officers participated in the search, confiscating a workman’s overalls, a brush and his mobile phone, as part of the investigation into the graffiti that appeared in several central points of the capital against the Cuban regime.
“I pray to God that you will soon be free, as well as all our political prisoners,” Ramos wrote on her Facebook account, where she also recounts the vicissitudes she has had to overcome after the arrest of her husband, especially since the couple has an autistic child who needs care and who is very attached to González. The woman denounces pressure from the political police and having been “also interrogated.” continue reading
Initially, the Observatory of Cultural Rights (ODC) alerted about the detention of Libre Libre and noted that the activist was summoned by the Police at the beginning of April at the Zanja station, in the Cuban capital, where he was linked to the group that calls itself El Nuevo Directorio (END). According to González’s account, on that occasion they did graphological tests and also tried to detain him for a non-payment of fines that had already been paid.
The first painting signed by END with the slogan “No to the PCC” appeared on March 20 on the walls of the Faculty of Physics of the University of Havana. The second appeared in Aguirre Park, on March 23, and a third on April 17 was placed at the entrance of the university stadium, on Ronda Street. But it was the fourth and most recent poster that would have bothered State Security the most, when it appeared on the morning of April 20 at number 7 Humboldt Street, in Centro Habana.
The location of this last sign coincides with the place where four young people belonging to the Revolutionary Directorate were murdered in 1957, during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. The graffiti, made on the same day as the anniversary of that repressive action, generated a strong police operation to cover the letters with paint, in addition to an “act of atonement.”
Yasmany González has repeatedly denounced the harassment he has suffered from State Security. In 2022, after four days of detention in Villa Marista, the activist, who works as a self-employed bricklayer, said he would stop posting on social networks. He had previously been fined for denouncing human rights violations and demanding the release of the detainees in the ’11J’ protests of July 11, 2021.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A group of migrants in the La Tierra de Oro shelter, in Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua). (EFE)
14ymedio, Mexico, 15 May 2023 — Mexico and the United States tightened their migratory measures to reduce the flow of Cubans before the end of Title 42. Since last Friday, the Mexican National Institute of Migration (INM) — denounced for acts of extortion, threats of deportation and violation of human rights — stopped granting “safe conduct passes that allow free transit through the country.”
Through a statement, the Government of Mexico also reported the “closure of 33 migratory way stations at the national level,” places in which several Cubans have been detained despite having refugee status or having residence permits issued by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar).
At the beginning of May, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) ordered Migration to repair the damage caused to a family of four Cubans that it deported in November 2022 without verifying the legality of their documents.
Several groups of activists and defenders of the rights of migrants warned that mass arrests can become human rights violations by not having a place to provide accommodation for foreigners.
Paris Lezama, director of El Pozo de Vida, an organization against human trafficking, and a member of the Board of Directors of Esperanza Migrante, pointed out that behind this measure is the “return to having a policy of migratory containment,” so that these people “do not reach the border” of Mexico with the United States. continue reading
The independent senator and government opponent, Emilio Álvarez Icaza, warned that if Mexico does not attend to the “thousands of migrants” that the United States is returning, “a humanitarian crisis will break out with problems of hunger, health and security.”
One day before the elimination of Title 42 in the United States on May 11, the Customs and Border Protection Office arrested 11,126 migrants at the border, while on the Mexican side Migration reported the ’rescue’ (arrest) of 5,499 irregular foreigners.
Migrant families wait for the response to their CBP One request in Chihuahua. (EFE)
Last Thursday, Mexico accepted the return of 17 Cubans, 909 Venezuelans, 15 Guatemalans and one Haitian. That day, almost 30,000 migrants were waiting in the border states to cross the Rio Grande, and others waited for a response to their requests of CBP One [Customs and Border Protection] to present themselves for asylum appointments on US territory.
Also, the US Government reiterated this Sunday to the Cuban and Haitian rafters that if they are arrested on the high seas, “they will be disqualified from humanitarian parole processes” in an “indefinite” way.
The US Department of Homeland Security confirmed the deportation on Monday of thousands of migrants to a dozen countries, including Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, with the new immigration policy established after the lifting of Title 42.
After the end of the COVID-19 health emergency last Thursday night, the United States stopped applying Title 42, which allowed the immediate expulsion of undocumented migrants under the pretext of the emergency but instituted other restrictions on asylum applications at the border, and began deportation through another regulation known as Title 8.
Unlike Title 42, Title 8 does allow migrants to request asylum when they arrive at the border, but they have to meet several requirements, including having applied for that condition in the countries through which they passed, or else they can be deported quickly.
Irregular crossings at the border have been reduced in the last three days by about 50%, from 10,000 per day to 5,000, according to National Security data.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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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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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.
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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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.
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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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, 16 May 2023 — Yoenlis Hernández’s escape was a one-two punch for Miguel Díaz-Canel, who the day before congratulated him for having been the only gold medalist and two-time champion in the 165-pound category in the Boxing World Cup that was held in the capital of Uzbekistan. According to journalist Yordano Carmona, the native of Camagüey “abandoned the Cuban delegation returning from Tashkent.”
