Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 61

Changes in the Selection for the Humanitarian ‘Parole’ Benefit New Cuban Applicants

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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Chicken From the ‘Empire’ Was Delivered for the Cuban Ration Book

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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The Supreme Court of Cuba Confirms Life Imprisonment for Two Convicted of Femicide

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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Unpaid Salaries and a Limit of 5,000 Pesos in ATMs Due to the Shortage of Banknotes in Cuba

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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The Origin of Ships and Cargo Is a State Secret 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 Orange Spirit, 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 Marianna V.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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Two More Minors Were Registered Among Cuban Political Prisoners in April

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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More Than a Hundred Migrants Cross the Rio Grande in the Middle of the Day To Reach the United States

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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Five Cubans Wait in a Camp in Matamoros for the Appointment To Enter the United States

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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The Export of Charcoal to Europe, a Minor Joy for Cuban Foreign Trade

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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Three Cuban Hockey Players Remain in Spain: ‘We Were Hungrier Than a Caged Lion’

The Cuban women’s hockey team, with Yadira Miclín Galbán, Marianela López and Daylin Suárez Pérez before they abandoned it in Barcelona. (Facebook/Francys Romero)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 May 2023 — Three members of the Cuban field hockey team left their delegation in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday. Yadira Miclín Galbán, Marianela López and Daylin Suárez Pérez were touring Europe with their team and were being trained from May 3 to 13 to participate in the Central American Games in San Salvador 2023, according to journalist Francys Romero.

The athletes are added to the more than 75 Cuban athletes who have “deserted” from their teams between 2022 and 2023, a number that, Romero considers, “will continue to rise” and that does not include those who have left by “other paths such as sports leave, retirement, an illegal or a legal way.”

Suárez, one of the three athletes, commented on Romero’s publication and published several photographs about the life she was leading on the Island and in which she appears cooking, along with several friends, on a wood stove. “That’s why we stayed in Spain,” she wrote. “The Inder (National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation) has us starving and cooking with firewood. They pay us a pittance, and we are hungrier than a caged lion.”

“You wake up hungry and go to bed hungry,” concluded Suárez, who also released a photograph with her two training shoes, different from each other and in a terrible state: “Look how I was training,” she said, before concluding: “I love my Cuba but who loves me?”

On April 12, the Cuban News Agency (ACN) expressed itself in laudatory terms about Cuban hockey players of both sexes, whose delegations trained to “maintain regional supremacy” in the San Salvador games. continue reading

Álex Hernández, president of the Cuban Lawn Hockey Federation, then pointed out that the women’s team would travel to Barcelona at the beginning of May, and the men’s team would fly to Chile and Argentina for the purpose of training. “We plan to end up with a good preparation for both teams so that they arrive in optimal shape at the Central American games,” said the manager.

According to Hernández, the sport was on the right track in Cuba and received advice from its international federation in the person of its Pan American president, Alberto Budeisky, “who ratified his support for the development of this sport on the Island,” he said.

There was a “great motivation” for the trip to Barcelona, Mileysi Argentei, the person in charge of pre-selecting the athletes, told ACN. “Keeping the crown in the area” was the goal that we committed to in the Central American games, he said. “Despite being a young team, it has on its payroll 11 Central American champions and three with international participation, which can contribute a lot to the rest of the girls.”

At the Barcelona training base, Yadira Miclín and Dailin Suárez were expected to play as defenders, while Marianela López would serve as a forward.

In recent years, the exodus of athletes has been unstoppable. Last April, Cuban rowers Maykol Álvarez, Yoelvis Hernández and Osvaldo Pérez left their team in Santiago de Chile — where the Pan American Games of 2023 would be played — and the others deserted during a stopover in Mexico.

After the Cuban defeat in Miami during the controversial World Baseball Classic, the catcher Iván Prieto also escaped from his hotel and stayed in the United States. The stampede of Cuban athletes became a headache for the regime, which in July 2022 — after the escape of several Cubans in the Athletics World Cup, also in the United States — dismissed Yipsi Moreno, then national commissioner of that sport, from his position.

Moreno, one of the wholehearted supporters of the regime, was also removed from the Council of State, the body that is responsible for choosing the Government and approving the laws proposed by Parliament. Upon leaving the athletics commission, the Inder issued a brief statement: his dismissal, they said, responded to the “personal will” of the former athlete.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Two Cuban Economists Criticize the Obstinacy in Favoring Inefficient State Agriculture

The private sector already leads agricultural production in many food groups. (Escambray)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 March 2023 — The plan to move food production to the local level is going badly for the moment. The province of Artemisa evaluated the results of these first months on Monday in a meeting led by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, which was also attended by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero and other senior leaders, only to verify that “much is still to be done” and “the potential is not exploited,” something that independent economists had been warning since the decision to decentralize the sector was made.

The Cuban economist Elías Amor, who has lived in Spain for years, summarizes the situation in a couple of phrases: “The communists are committed to this change of structure and management of resources because the budget of the central State can no longer suffice, and they need to transfer expenses to the territories, where the collection of taxes is usually greater. But they don’t realize that by imposing this model what they really do is transfer the inefficiencies and poor functioning of the central communist state to the territories.”

The expert dedicates this Tuesday an analysis on his blog to the meeting of the Cuban leadership and expresses his opinion on the “structural changes” of food production forcefully. “Municipalities do not serve to produce enough food,” he says. From his point of view, the new policy is already showing signs of failure and will widen “the differences between Cubans based on residing in one area or another of the territory,” among other things.

Another Cuban economist, Pedro Monreal, relies on figures that show that the private sector is an emerging contributor in many products and a leader in the majority compared to the state sector. “The ’structural’ changes in Cuban agriculture that prioritize state companies subordinate to the municipality and focused on local supply could relegate support to the component where the greatest proven supply response capacity exists: the private sector,” he says. continue reading

Monreal exhibits a graph with data from January to September 2021, in which it is observed that the private sector literally swallowed other forms of production both in fruit trees (84%), beans (75%), vegetables (76%), meats (75.5%) and corn (73%). The State won the game in animal protein, especially in eggs (80%), more modestly in pork (63%, although many individuals raise animals without declaring them) and cattle (61%), where the private sector has significant figures for its position (13.5%, 36.6% and 24.6%) respectively. Finally, rice production is leading by the state Basic Units of Cooperative Production with 37%, but the private ones are not far behind and contribute 35.4% to the total.

With the figures in hand, Monreal concludes: “Cuban private agriculture is already a mainstay of food security, but it is necessary to move towards a modern private agriculture that allows the results to multiply in the short and medium term.”

For that reason, the expert emphasizes that the Cuban authorities should face the problem and change the model by giving legal guarantees to farmers and land in usufruct, access to credits and markets, allowing the competitive formation of prices and prohibiting monopolies.

“In a new agricultural model in Cuba, local systems, national distance supply systems and exports should coexist, as well as direct relations between national private actors and foreign investors,” concludes Monreal, who ventures to suggest changes in agricultural policy without specifying more.

Cuban leaders, however, spoke on Monday about “eliminating obstacles” to the current model and, as in recent months, took advantage of the recent decentralization to shake off their responsibility for the poor evolution of the indicators. At this point it is already known that the meat plan and the sugar plan will not be fulfilled — the latter, they said, is one of the most deteriorated in the province — in addition to the plan for international tourists in Artemisa. The governor, Ricardo Concepción Rodríguez, attributed it to “subjectivity and ignorance in the application of the Food Sovereignty and Nutrition Education Law.”

The local leader maintained that, of the 111 commitments “generally made” in January, 72 have been fulfilled, 24 have not and another 21 “have a chance of being fulfilled,” a balance that would not be so bad if it were translated into results. Manuel Marrero summarized it this way: “If the results of the analyses and commitments that have been made in this context are not seen at the family table, we will not have achieved anything.”

Díaz-Canel included among the future challenges the control of the livestock census, an issue that drives producers mad, tired of being required to comply with adequate indicators of the number of animals they declare at the same time that they are not paid with due speed or in the appropriate currency to maintain their herd of cattle, which, in turn, results in new breaches and penalties.

“Local leaders should confront the central government for this imposition that can only lead them into chaos,” suggests Elías Amor, who finishes by saying, “Everyone knows that the formula is useless, but everyone advances united in the disaster.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Bridge in Ruins and Few Passengers: Deterioration Reaches the Small Launch From Regla in Havana

With each step that the travelers took on the walkway, there was a squeak, and the man tilted his head, as if foreseeing the collapse. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya/Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 5 May 2023 — “Line up, one by one and slowly!” shouted a security employee at the Regla pier, to the passengers who had just arrived in the boat and had to travel over a short walkway to reach land. The metal structure is so rusty and full of gaps that it is dangerous to overload it.

Under the walkway, a man sunk up to his waist in the black waters of the bay dug into the mud in search of small crustaceans, perhaps to use them as fishing bait or to prepare a lunch. With each step that the travelers took on the bridge, there was a squeak, and the man tilted his head, as if foreseeing the collapse.

The deterioration of the walkway is just one of many things that, in recent years, make transit difficult between the Cuban capital and the town of Regla. The boat also shows signs of the passage of time and the lack of maintenance, in addition to having only one trip per hour, due to the fuel crisis that the country is going through.

“Sir!” the employee shouted, upset when she realized that one passenger tried to overtake another on the right side of the walkway. “You can’t do it like that,” added the woman, who said she was tired of the same thing “every day.” When the boat finished emptying, the scene was repeated, but this time with the new customers, who would disembark on the other side, in Old Havana.

A few meters from the damaged pier, on Friday morning a dozen inhabitants of Regla waved flags and shouted slogans for May Day, postponed last Monday due to weather conditions. The rally took place in front of Regla’s beautiful church and dissolved a while later without sorrow or glory. continue reading

In the nearby park, a group of people were waiting for a bus, and an old man talked about “the fight that happened on the bus,” an increasingly common scene given that the mood is very heated by the lack of transport. “It was tremendous, even the driver got hit,” added the man, staging the scene with his hands.

After the official May Day events and the uproar of the bus stop, Regla looked this morning looked like a paralyzed town, without the tourists who previously abounded in its streets or the avalanche of believers who visited its church to venerate the patron saint of the town and the Bay, which in santería is equivalent to the orisha Yemayá.

Under the walkway, a man sunk up to his waist in the black waters of the bay dug into the mud in search of small crustaceans. (14ymedio)

The panorama was also quite different from the turmoil that happened in Havana Bay three decades ago. Right at the jetty, from where the boat departs to reach Regla, the social explosion of August 5, 1994, known as the Maleconazo, began.

In a year when Cubans had hit rock bottom with the rigors of the Special Period, several attempts to hijack that boat stoked the hope of hundreds of people to “leave on the next boat for Miami.” With that illusion they gathered around the pier to try to board the boat and leave from a country where even a piece of bread had become a luxury.

When the police canceled the departures of the boat and closed the pier, popular indignation overturned on Malecón Avenue, with people breaking stained glass windows, overturning garbage containers and shouting anti-government slogans. In its three decades in power, the regime had never experienced such an event in the very streets of the capital.

When the boat finished emptying, the scene was repeated, but this time with new customers who would disembark on the other side, in Old Havana. (14ymedio)

In addition to the strong repressive response ordered by Fidel Castro, in August 1994 the opening of the borders was decreed, and more than 35,000 Cubans threw themselves into the sea in precarious boats. It was the so-called Crisis de los Balseros — The Rafter Crisis.

After the social protest, the Cuban regime militarized both piers and established strict security protocols on the docks of the two shores to prevent the hijacking of the boat. But with time and the lack of maintenance, the control measures have been relaxed, and the structures of the breakwater have been filled with rust.

A cluttered bridge, a few passengers who need to cross the bay and a boat that only leaves every hour is what is left. The shortage of fuel and laziness have done their part, but it has been the stagnation of Regla, its few options and its depressed trade, which have put the final point on mobility.

There is only one boat left to make the journey, every hour. The trip, although fast, gives an opportunity to contemplate the new element in the profile of the city, the Turkish floating power plant moored in the port of Havana, expelling polluting fumes.

The trip, although fast, gives an opportunity to contemplate the new element in the profile of the city, the Turkish floating power plant, polluting the air. (14ymedio)

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Prisoner’s Dilemma in Cuban Society

If the majority of Cubans remain inert while a few are persecuted and tortured for defying the regime, the result will be none other than the perpetuation of moral poverty. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Karel J. Leyva, Montreal, 6 May 2023 — The Cuban people are facing a difficult dilemma: to continue to be subjected to an oppressive regime that limits their rights and freedoms, or to risk being punished mercilessly for fighting for a democratic future. The theory of the prisoner’s dilemma, developed by mathematicians and social scientists, allows us to understand this dynamic, which reflects the tension between immediate personal interests and the mutual benefits that could be obtained by Cuban society. What is the cost of silence in an authoritarian regime?

The basic hypothesis of the prisoner’s dilemma is that two people are arrested for a crime and are interrogated separately. Each one has two options: admit the crime and betray the other, or remain in solidarity, refusing to betray. If they do not admit the crime, both will be released with a light penalty. If both admit the crime, they will be sentenced to a more serious penalty. However, if one person admits and the other does not, the first will be released while the one who did not give in to pressure from the police will be sentenced to a very serious penalty.

The ideal, clearly, is that both refuse to admit or betray, in which case the optimal solution is reached, and the police are left empty-handed while they escape punishment. However, the dilemma is precisely that both individuals have a strong motivation to betray, since, if one remains supportive and the other betrays, the second will be acquitted. The prisoner’s dilemma shows how, in certain situations, the individual search for benefits can lead to negative results, while cooperation, solidarity and trust can lead to much more favorable results for all parties involved.

This is precisely the dilemma faced by Cuban society, which is finds itself with the choice of cooperating to overthrow a dictatorship that represses, manipulates and subjugates, or to betray, thereby renouncing a desire to live in a prosperous, just and democratic society. Although in a metaphorical sense, I use the word “betrayal” with all intention, because the lack of citizen action, solidarity and cooperation can be interpreted as a form of betrayal of their own interests, those of their children and fellow citizens, those of the nation. continue reading

When a dissident is allowed to suffer the injustices to which he is subjected by tyranny, a compatriot is somehow betrayed. When it is accepted that the system condemns a child to experience hunger and material need, in some way the moral commitment that one has to him is deceived. When one remains inert before the tyranny that oppresses and mistreats, the dignity that constitutes us is betrayed, and with it the very essence of the human is ceded, which is the search for freedom and wellbeing.

It is true that political abstinence does not imply direct action against the interests of society. Nor is it comparable to the desolate and shameful betrayal of those who violently impose misery and those who support them, whether applauding hypocritically, betraying their compatriots or repressing in one way or another those who have the courage to face the muscular totalitarianism that governs in Cuba.

There is an abyss between the metaphorical betrayal of a people who suffer in silence and the literal betrayal of the sinister accomplices of oppression, who crawl bogged down in a dark dynamic of betrayal and submission. It is not comparable to betraying one’s own interests, for fear of being thrown into prison after a summary trial, to the vile betrayal committed by those abject lackeys who diligently serve dictatorial designs, surrendering their compatriots to the jaws of the oppressive regime.

Despicable executioners of the people, they are the personification of betrayal, cowardice and disloyalty. What I suggest is that the cost of the apathy of the people is the indefinite perpetuation of the dictatorship and the misery that comes with it. Such inaction has devastating consequences for the quality of life of today and tomorrow and contributes to keeping the nation in a state of subjugation and poverty.

There is no doubt that the risk of reprisals is substantial. No one is unaware that repressors are capable of everything. This is precisely the nature of the dilemma. Because there is also no doubt that if the majority of Cubans remain inert while a few are persecuted and tortured for defying the regime, the result will be none other than the perpetuation of the moral and economic poverty that suffocates Cuba.

The prisoner’s dilemma does not suggest that there are only two alternatives in reality or that the latter is dichotomous and simple. Between fighting and not fighting, there are a range of possibilities, from leaving the country to being loyal to tyranny and defending it, even if everything collapses and the soul is lost along with it.

Nor does it establish a moral judgment on individual decisions. It is morally legitimate to flee from communism, protect physical integrity and seek a life that gives us everything that tyranny has forcibly denied us. Similarly, it is understandable to avoid exposing yourself to the danger of facing a repressive apparatus that knows no ethical limits.

What this model shows is, simply, that the best options for a nation depend on a complex network of individual decisions. The Cuban people can remain powerless, abandoning to their fate those who prefer not to betray the ideals of freedom, democracy and prosperity. It can also rediscover the cohesion and citizen confidence that the regime has undermined for decades, and choose to think as a nation to exorcise misery, helplessness and ruin once and for all.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Regime Will Try Those Arrested in Caimanera for Disturbing Public Order

Hundreds of Cubans took to the streets to protest, asking for “freedom” in Caimanera, Guantánamo. (Video)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 May 2023 — Those arrested in this Saturday’s anti-government protests in Caimanera, Guantánamo, will be tried for “altering public order.” In an informative note, Saimara Llamaré Galano, president of the Assembly of People’s Power of this town, assured that what happened will not go “unpunished” and that the detainees will have “all constitutional guarantees and respect for their rights,” despite the fact that relatives of those arrested have already reported ill-treatment at the police station.

On Saturday night, hundreds of Cubans took to the streets to protest in the emblematic municipality that is located near the United States naval base. The demonstration, with a majority participation of women and young people, was broadcast on social networks, and the Cuban regime immediately cut off the Internet connection.

As has happened with the protests in the last two years — especially those of 11 July 2021 [’11J’] and those of the summer of 2022, coinciding with the power cuts the government of President Díaz-Canel has tried to paint the demonstrations as people who “only want to disturb the tranquility of the citizens,” adding in this case that they were “in a state of drunkenness.” According to the note, local authorities first arrived to “address the situation,” but the detainees circumvented the “civilized dialogue to expose their demands,” so police action was required.

“Acts of this nature that threaten social peace will not go unpunished,” says the president of the Assembly in the text. continue reading

The images disseminated revealed the violence exerted by the National Special Brigade of the Ministry of the Interior, known as the Black Berets, who beat and arrested several people in the crowd. The statement does not provide information on how many Cubans were arrested, but independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada shared on his Facebook page that at least five were arrested. Their names are Yandris Pelier Matos, Felipe Correa Martínez, Luis Miguel Alarcón Martínez, Rodi Álvarez González and Daniel Álvarez González.

Assembly president Llamaré Galano described the transmissions and treatment in the independent media of the protest as a “campaign orchestrated from the outside by the usual haters,” who through social networks “invoke” the “acts of vandalism, called to attack the lives of citizens and even for a military intervention.” She also pointed to the celebration of Labor Day on May 5 as an “expression of support for the Revolution,” in her opinion backed by “the people of Caimanera.”

The information note of the Popular Assembly was released by the official Channel Caribe, causing a division of opinions among readers, since there are those who are in favor of the “hard hand” and others, the majority, who question the behavior of the security forces.

“The violent ones there were the policemen. It’s in the video and we’re not blind,” one user wrote. Another commentator joined the criticism stating that the “true manipulation” is to pretend that everything is fine when there is “hunger, misery and inattention.”

On Monday, the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights warned that journalist Yeris Curbelo Aguilera, who interviewed the relatives of those arrested at the protest, was summoned by State Security.

In one of her videos, Victoria Martínez, mother of two of the detainees — Felipe Correa and Luis Miguel Martínez — denounced the police brutality. According to her account, the uniformed officer “kicked” one of her sons “in the head,” and she does not know the state of his health. His brother, who is mentally retarded, went out to defend him and was also the victim of “hits everywhere.”

Translated by Regina Anavy
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The Spanish Hotel Melia Company Continues To Bet on Cuba Despite the Bad Tourism Data

In August 2022, this newspaper noted the terrible conditions of numerous hotels, whose doors, like those of the Sevilla, were barred with wood. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 6 May 2023 — With the opening of four new facilities in Havana and Holguín, the Spanish hotel company Meliá aspires to regain its prominence on the Island. During the International Tourism Fair (FitCuba) held this week in the Morro-Cabaña complex of the capital, the executive vice president of the Cuban division of Meliá, Gabriel Escarrer, said that the company intends to consolidate its position and relies on the forecasts of the Cuban Government about increasing the flow of travelers to the country.

Among the “novelties,” said Escarrer, is the inauguration of the Innside Habana Catedral hotel, an accommodation for tourists who want to discover the colonial city in one of its emblematic spaces, the central Plaza de la Catedral.

They will also take over the management of the historic Sevilla hotel, with 178 rooms, located on the Prado of Havana, which will receive the “Affiliated by Meliá” label. The establishment, inaugurated in 1908, gained worldwide fame after the publication of the novel Our Man in Havana, by the British writer Graham Greene, and the filming in 1959 of the film of the same name in the hotel itself, a few months after Fidel Castro took power.

In August 2022, this newspaper verified the terrible condition of the property, whose doors were closed by a crossbar, although the shops in its commercial gallery, which overlook Prado Street, were open.

Another heritage hotel in Havana, the Plaza — inaugurated in 1909 and one of the most recognizable in the city, located a few meters from Central Park — will become part of The Meliá Collection, a special category that marks the “exclusivity” of certain accommodations of the company and that arrives in Cuba for the first time. However, last year, the gates of the Plaza were also closed by thick wooden crossbars. continue reading

Finally, Meliá will take care of managing a completely new hotel, the Sol Turquesa Beach, a colossus of 531 rooms in Holguín, which it presents as the simulation of “a Spanish hacienda of the late nineteenth century.” In addition, it will have “waterfall pools,” “comfortable rooms” and “evocative gastronomic proposals.”

In a note on its blog, the company also anticipated the upcoming opening of the Meliá Trinidad Peninsula and noted that, since last March, Varadero has the brand new Sol Caribe Beach. In addition, it plans to “refresh” its rooms in different hotels that it already manages in the capital and will improve, the company says, the menu — hoping to incorporate Japanese and Tex-Mex restaurants — and the tours of Old Havana.

Last year, the gates of the Plaza were also closed by thick wooden crossbars. (14ymedio)

The Jagua hotel, in Cienfuegos, will be restored in 2024 and will be renamed as the Innside Cienfuegos Jagua. Other remodelings on the list are those of Paradisus Varadero, Paradisus Princesa del Mar, Paradisus Río de Oro, Meliá Las Américas, Meliá Varadero, Sol Palmeras and Tryp Habana Libre.

Meliá’s power on the Island translates into numbers: “More than 14,000 rooms in 38 hotels,” calculated the director of Communication of the company’s Cuban subsidiary, Maite Arteida, in an interview for the medium Excelencias Cuba.

Artieda explained that Meliá is directing its offers, above all, to Canadian tourists. “Canada remains the leader in terms of tourism to Cuba, and then in Europe we have important countries like Germany, Spain and Portugal. The latter two, for the summer, continue to be our priority markets,” he said.

He pointed out that Meliá has covered all the important destinations on the Island, including Havana, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Varadero, Cayo Coco and Cayo Santa María. Asked if the company was planning new investments, he detailed the plans for the Meliá Trinidad Peninsula — the first to open in that city: “It is a hotel that faces the sea, overlooking the Escambray mountains, very close to the city of Trinidad, which will offer travelers the complete experience of sea, mountains and discovery of that culture that is unique in Cuba.”

“We are a hotel chain, but what we really do is to create experiences through our different brands,” he concluded.

Meliá, based in Palma de Mallorca (Spain) and present in Cuba for more than 30 years, has seen its situation complicated not only by the coronavirus pandemic, which put international tourism in check, but also by multiple lawsuits after the reactivation in 2019, by then President Donald Trump, of Title III of the Helms-Burton Law. Some 14,000 judicial proceedings were launched against the companies that had “trafficked in property confiscated by Fidel Castro’s regime,” including Meliá.

For the Cuban Ministry of Tourism, Meliá’s new move is good news. Juan Carlos García Granda, head of the sector, again announced the entry of 3.5 million foreign visitors to the Island as a target for 2023. The forecast, made like the one a year before — when it promised 2.5 million tourists — had to be rectified again and again during 2022, which ended with just 1.7 million.

The slow recovery of the sector, the global disinterest in the Cuban destination, misdiagnosis of the problems and the preference of tourists from allied countries such as Russia for other vacation destinations such as the Dominican Republic, are several of the factors that deny García Granda’s optimism. The only thing that does not stop despite the crisis, as demonstrated by Meliá’s new bets, is the frantic construction of hotels.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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