Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 75

The Grief of Cuba’s ‘Peter Pan Children’ Comes to the Miami Film Festival

A group of Cuban children arrives at the Miami airport in 1961, as part of Operation Peter Pan. (Barry University/Archive)

14ymedio, Emilo J. López, Miami, 25 February 2023 — The documentary El adiós de la esperanza [Journey to Hope], by Lieter Ledesma, a Cuban actor and presenter based in Miami, is a tribute to the more than 14,000 Cuban children who suffered the “uprooting of separation” when they were sent by their parents alone to the United States between 1960 and 1962, according to its director.

This debut film by Lesdema reveals those painful experiences through the testimony of five people who as children participated in Operation Pedro Pan (Peter Pan), a massive and heartbreaking exodus that was carried out clandestinely in the early years of the Castro dictatorship.

Ledesma says that many Cuban parents warned about the “radicalization of the revolutionary process” that involved “the closure of private schools, the prohibition of religious education and the stigmatization” of those who did not sympathize with the Revolution.

Many of those parents made the hard decision to put their children on flights to Miami to begin a new life in freedom. continue reading

The film, 52 minutes long, presents “intimate details” of the family separation caused by this exodus in the testimonies of Antonio Tony Argiz, today a successful businessman who founded and directed a firm with 800 employees in various parts of the United States, and of Eduardo Padrón, the Rector Emeritus of Miami Dade College.

“During the filming we met people who remember their childhood being shattered by the separation from home. Some can’t help but burst into tears with those memories,” says Iliana Lavastida, executive director of Diario Las Américas, the newspaper responsible for the production of the documentary, which is recorded in Spanish with English subtitles.

The memories, anecdotes and testimonies of these children of the Cuban exile, continues Lavastida, were marked by “traumas of experiences in orphanages or with unfamiliar families,” in addition to having to learn to communicate in an unknown language.

Those children, today adults, have a deep feeling of gratitude toward their parents, “whom they identify as the real heroes for having had the courage to give up watching them grow in order to ensure them a better future,” the producer emphasizes.

For Ledesma, Operation Pedro Pan was a “dramatic event that many families chose as a desperate solution. The Pedro Pan children, for the most part, grew up marked by the longing for a broken home and a land where they were born, which they mourn and feel is theirs.”

The operation, which began on December 26, 1960 and officially ended on October 23, 1962, with the suspension of all commercial flights between the United States and Cuba, took place shortly after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

The details of what to this day is considered the largest mass exodus of unaccompanied children on the American continent serve also to “demystify a certain narrative” that says Pedro Pan was an operation organized by the US State Department and the CIA to destabilize Cuban society in the 1960s.

“In the statements of the interviewees in the documentary, they make it clear that it wasn’t,” say Ledesma and Lavastida.

The architect of Operation Pedro Pan was Monsignor Bryan Walsh, who was in charge of receiving the minors, who were later transferred to camps, orphanages or adoptive families, initially until their parents managed to leave Cuba.

The other three testimonies in the documentary correspond to Miami businesswoman Aida Levitan, president of The Levitan Group; Enrique Ric Prado, who was director of Special Operations of the CIA Counterterrorism Center, and Eduardo Eddy Álvarez.

The five interviewed for the documentary are joined by the artists Willy Chirino and Lissette Álvarez, the Archbishop of Miami Thomas Wenski, the former mayor of Miami Tomás Regalado and the well-known Miami real estate developer Armando Codina, among some twenty testimonies.

The documentary directed by Ledesma will be shown on March 6 at the Miami Film Festival, organized by Miami Dade College.

This year’s programming includes more than 140 productions of various genres from 30 countries, including feature films, short films and documentaries, and more than a dozen world premieres, three in North America and seven in the United States.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Pound of Sugar Approaches 200 pesos ($8.30) on the Informal Cuban Market

Sign in window: “We buy sugar.” A private business buys sugar from customers to make their chocolates. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 26 February 2023 — Rice and sugar seem to have launched a competition in Cuba to see which increases the most in price on the informal market. While rice already exceeds 200 pesos ($8.30) a pound in several areas of the Island, sugar, once the national emblem, is on its heels and also sells for around that number and, in some provinces, even exceeds it.

“I sell 17 pounds of sugar at 180 pesos if you buy them all; if you only want a part then it’s 190,” reads an ad published in a sales group on Facebook that in a few hours accumulated dozens of comments. “It’s in Central Havana and I don’t have home service,” said the informal merchant, who shortly after updated the information with a brief message: “Sold, and I don’t have any more.”

In the previous harvest, the production of Cuban sugar mills barely reached 480,000 tons of sugar out of the 911,000 that were planned, a failure to meet the target that caused a deficit of 60,000 tons for national consumption and seriously affected exports.

Given the disastrous numbers, the product has been even more restricted in the ration stores in recent months. “They only sold me one pound, and they say that this month it’s not my turn anymore,” a lamented a retiree this Friday, noting that she buys her basic normal basket in a place on Conill Street, in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución. continue reading

“During the Special Period (the crisis of the 90s) at least there was no shortage of sugar,” said the woman. “Many people survived those years thanks to sugar water, so now the situation is worse because we don’t even have that.” Comparisons between the current economic difficulties that the Island is going through and those suffered after the collapse of the Soviet Union are frequent.

“In my house we permanently had a bowl with sugar on the table so that everyone who came to visit us could eat a few tablespoons to be able to continue on their way,” recalls Evaristo, a resident of the neighborhood of El Cerro who this week bought “ten pounds of sugar at 170 pesos” and considers himself “lucky” because “you can’t find it now at that price.”

Recently, the Ministry of Internal Trade recognized that the delivery of sugar from the rationed market will depend on the existing availability in the country. The first results of the 2022-2023 harvest indicate that production will again be down in the dumps and far from the goal of 455,198 tons.

There is also no shortage of those who see in the product deficit a possibility of doing business by importing substitutes. “I sell 500 grams of aspartame, a sweetener that sweetens more than sugar. It is ideal for businesses that prepare sweets. The bag costs 60 dollars. I only accept this currency,” reads a very popular classifieds portal.

Others, given the price similarities between some foods, propose a barter. “I will trade five pounds of rice for three pounds of white sugar,” suggests someone in another Facebook group where the exchange of goods has gained space. The galloping loss of value of the Cuban peso makes many prefer to offer their merchandise in exchange for other foods rather than receive the national currency.

Inside people’s homes consumption is cut, coffee is taken more bitter, and fruit desserts in syrup are scarce. “Now I can’t even think of offering you anything sweet when you visit. The little sugar we have left is for the family’s consumption. There is not one more spoonful for anyone,” says Evaristo, who was born in 1959, when Cuban sugar mills achieved more than 5 million tons of sugar.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Energy Collapse of Recent Days is ‘Unprecedented’ in Cuba, Recognizes an Electric Company Employee

The fires have damaged the transmission infrastructure in the province of Ciego de Ávila. (Electric Company)

14ymedio, Havana, February 25, 2023 — The energy collapse that has caused four major blackouts on two-thirds of the Island in just nine days “is unprecedented,” Daniel Pérez García, director of the Electric Company of Ciego de Ávila, acknowledged on Thursday.

For the official press, which defines blackouts as “deplorable facts,” the crisis began on Monday, February 13, with the first disconnection of the National Electricity System (SEN) from Ciego de Ávila to Guantánamo due to a fire in a cane field. On Saturday, the 18th, the second blackout of up to six hours occurred in the network that connects Matanzas to Guantánamo, attributed to “human error.”

The service was interrupted again on Tuesday, the 21st and Wednesday the 22nd, with cuts caused, respectively, by a fire and a breakdown whose causes are still unknown.

Blackouts have mainly punished families in the central and eastern provinces. The “starting point” of the crisis is due to the weakness of the electrical system, Carlos Arencibia Fernández, director of the Provincial Loads Office, said at a press conference. Any disturbance causes an automatic frequency trigger as a “protection measure,” he added.

The official said that the system is not robust enough to withstand the maintenance load and the breakdowns in thermal generation units, in addition to the difficulty of obtaining fuel. continue reading

The age of the SEN’s infrastructure, with thermoelectric plants more than 40 years in operation, makes it vulnerable to any extreme climatic event. For Arencibia Fernández, the occurrence of fires during the drought period, which extends from November to April, is “normal” under the high voltage networks of 110 to 220 kilovolts (kV). Then, there are the effects on the transmission of energy due to thunderstorms in the summer season.

But in previous years “there were no current consequences because the generation was compensated,” he said.

The fires recorded in Ciego de Ávila have put the electricity infrastructure of the province in tension, warned Pérez García. In recent days the flames have come close to substations such as Morón Norte and Santana, but without impact.

As if that were not enough, he added, there have been 34 interruptions in the service so far in 2023, due to the change of 86 poles that have been affected by fires that occurred as of February 19. In the municipality of Baraguá alone, 17 infrastructures were damaged, he said.

One of the fires also triggered the bioelectric line of the Ciro Redondo power plant, whose function is to protect the transmission of the boilers. Pérez García considered it urgent that it be solved in the coming days to guarantee “better conditions” in the service. For the time being, the directors pointed out that the priority is to restore the supply of electricity to “vital centers,” such as hospitals, dairy companies and sugar mills.

Meanwhile, the Electric Union (UNE) expects the system failures to be solved with the mobile generation in a floating Turkish generator which is being installed in the bay of Santiago de Cuba, as well as the activation of unit 1 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez thermoelectric plant from Felton in Holguín, after several weeks of maintenance, said Alfredo López Valdés, general director of the UNE.

After a 2022 with blackouts of up to 12 hours, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, warned at the beginning of this year that the cuts would continue between January and April for the maintenance of the generators, but he promised that they would be localized and not “as traumatic” as those experienced between August and October of last year.

A month had passed since those statements, when he hardened his prognosis for the power cuts and said that they would occur three hours a day until May.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Latin American Hybrid Left

The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez (on the right), receives the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, at the beginning of the Celac summit of 2023, in Buenos Aires (Argentina). (EFE/Matías Martín Campaya)

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 23 February 2023 — During the Cold War, Latin America was more like a hot zone. It is undeniable that almost all the countries in the area suffered extreme right-wing dictatorships, nor can the United States’ support for these regimes cannot be hidden. The fear of Soviet tentacles was real, and Cuba was proof enough, with a missile crisis that almost exterminated us all.

But Fidel Castro would also use fear as a permanent discourse, governing at gunpoint and deploying a fierce propaganda campaign to seduce fans of violent revolutions.

The left would come out of its first adolescence without being so Marxist or rebellious. The United States lowered the tone and became more tolerant, mainly after the collapse of the USSR. Leftist Latin Americans could then come to power with votes rather than bullets.

This is how the Pink Tide emerged, with its bouquet of enthusiastic figures. The group went along successfully for a while, increasing social spending and managing to reduce poverty. Although, in reality, the initial luck was possible thanks to the increase in the price of oil and other raw materials.

Then came the debacle: corruption scandals, inflation, a return to poverty and electoral defeats. Except some leaders would not be willing to give up power so easily. Today, Latin America suffers from three dictatorships, all of the extreme left.

Some analysts talk about a new Pink Tide after the victories of López Obrador in Mexico, Fernández in Argentina, Boric in Chile and Petro in Colombia, plus the rebirth of Lula in Brazil. And although it is true that the largest economies in the region are governed by progressive leaders, the context is very different. The world has still not recovered from the impact of the pandemic, and Putin’s invasion has disrupted everything. continue reading

Like the war, this tide is quite hybrid. Its protagonists have openly expressed their differences with respect to Russia and have demonstrated nuances concerning the “triangle of sadness” (Cuba-Venezuela-Nicaragua).

Boric, for example, has harshly criticized the three regimes. He has said that the situation of Cuban prisoners of conscience is unacceptable, has urged Venezuela’s President Maduro to hold truly democratic elections by 2024 and has called Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega a dictator. The Chilean has also described Putin as an autocrat who is waging a war of aggression and not, as Russian propaganda claims, a “special military operation.”

For his part, Gustavo Petro, the first leftist president of Colombia, has been much more ambiguous on the issue of Ukraine and refused to send that country the Russian weapons he possesses, a decision that was applauded by Moscow.

Although Petro tried to keep his distance from his authoritarian neighbors during his campaign, his inclination in favor of castro–chavismo is no secret to anyone. With Nicaragua the matter is more delicate, partly because of a territorial dispute between the two nations and also because Ortega’s decision to banish more than 300 Nicaraguans is absolutely indefensible.

For the current president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, Cuba and the ’blockade’ [i.e. the US embargo] will always be part of the same phrase, since he “is not aware of the repression on the Island.” At the recent Celac summit, he said that all those present had been elected by their people and that Maduro was “more than invited.” However, Chávez’s heir canceled his trip at the last minute. He did not want to take risks, since there is a reward of 15 million dollars for those who facilitate his international capture. With regard to Ortega, the Argentine chameleon has also been forced to condemn him after his last tyrannical extravagance.

For the president of Mexico, castro-ortega-chavismo is as innocent as singing Las Mañanitas. López Obrador sabotaged the Summit of the Americas when Biden did not want to invite the triumvirate, which maintained relations with Maduro while 60 countries recognized Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president of Venezuela, and López Obrador recently handed over the order of the Aztec Eagle to the Cuban dictator. But as with Ortega, El Peje* also softened his radicalism. A few days ago he revealed a letter he sent in December to the former guerrilla-dictator, requesting the release of the opposition prisoner Dora María Téllez.

Lula has been a fervent defender of Castroism, going so far as to affirm that Cuba would have the same standards as Norway or Denmark if it were not for the embargo. He also refuses to hand over weapons to Zelenski and has proposed a third way for a dialogued solution, led by none other than China.

As we can see, the Latin American hybrid left is no longer a teenager, but there is still a long way to go before it becomes a democratic adult.

*Translator’s note: El Peje is Lopez-Obrador’s nickname because of his accent. The nickname comes from pejelagarto (literally, fish lizard), an alligator-like fish from his native Tabasco, meaning he’s hard to pin down.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cassava Flour Ham and Soy Milk, the ‘Alternative’ Diet of Cubans

The ham produced with these “new ingredients” has been distributed in recreational centers and for domestic consumption in the form of slices to make sandwiches. (5 de Septiembre)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 February 2023 — The alternative that the Meat Company of Cienfuegos found to stay active is the production of sausages based on cassava, rice and cornstarch, due to the shortage of wheat and the low production of beef and pork on the Island. “We have had good results,” Luis Jiménez Marrero, an operator of the plant located in the municipality of Palmira, told the provincial newspaper 5 de Septiembre.

In Cuba, wheat flour is used in the production of ham, uncommon in other countries, but even wheat is absent in food production. “The mixture of the ingredients responds to current needs,” Jiménez Marrero said, while recognizing that the durability of the cold meat is still being analyzed and that “flavors conditioned to characteristics” are sought.

The ham produced with these new ingredients has been distributed in recreational centers and for domestic consumption in the form of cold cuts for sandwiches, the operator added, with “good acceptance” by the consumer. “We managed to make the product in small slices, which is easy for consumption: you open the package, take out the slice, put it on bread, and you now have a snack,” he explained to the local newspaper.

Cassava is the star substitute for wheat flour in Cuba and is used to make fish or bread croquettes, although in bakeries it has not been so popular due to its rapid expiration and the variations in taste. In addition, cassava starch is used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry, and also as a substitute for malt in beer manufacturing. continue reading

The general shortage of products has led producers to explore new alternatives, such as in Pinar del Río, where soy is grown to meet the demand for feed in the pig sector. This cereal, high in protein and used to make milk of plant origin, is also a source of oil, a use that the Cuban authorities are currently analyzing, said Ortelio Rodríguez, sub-delegate of Agriculture of the province.

In statements to the local newspaper Guerrillero, the official explained that the province has 247 acres of soybeans, distributed in the municipalities of Pinar del Río, Consolación del Sur and Los Palacios. The goal, he added, is to obtain enough seeds to reach 2,471 acres in the Vueltabajo region in the second half of this year.

Soy is an “ideal” candidate for Cuban producers because its cultivation produces high yields with the application of few agricultural inputs, up to 3.5 tons per acre, in addition to adapting to extreme climatic conditions.

Rodríguez recalled that soybeans were previously grown on a “small scale” in the province, but there was resistance from the health system because there was a myth that it attracted pests that put tobacco plantations at risk. “The same diseases that attack soybeans also affect beans and, despite that, thousands of acres have been planted in Pinar del Río without us having had problems,” he said.

Soy was one of the life-saving crops of the Cuban economy, according to Raúl Castro’s promises in 2007, when he said that enough milk had to be produced for “everyone who wants to have a glass.” Since then, there has been little progress. The Cuban government produces soy yogurt for lactose intolerant people, although the common use of this derivative is due to the fact that milk production fails to meet national demand.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Judge Grants Political Asylum to the Pilot who Escaped from Cuba on an Antonov Plane

In a year and a day, the Cuban pilot Rubén Martínez Machado will be able to apply for permanent residence through the Cuban Adjustment Law. (Facebook)

14ymedio/EFE, Miami, February 23, 2023 — Cuban pilot Rubén Martínez Machado, who escaped from Cuba on October 21 in a Russian Antonov plane, was granted political asylum in the United States. “We won. They gave asylum to my client,” lawyer Eduardo Soto reported on Thursday.” There was no reservation of appeal, so he stays here.”

Martínez, 29 years old and detained up to now at the Broward Transitional Center, a facility in Florida of Immigration and Customs Control of the United States, attended a judicial hearing this Thursday. After the decision in his favor, he is expected to be released this Friday, according to Telemundo 51. In a year and a day Martínez Machado will be able to apply for permanent residence through the Cuban Adjustment Law.

The Cuban said that he used the plane he was flying, belonging to the National Air Services Company, to leave the Island, and he flew from the province of Sancti Spíritus, in central Cuba, to the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the wetlands of the Florida Everglades.

After an hour of travel and a little after landing, Martínez Machado was placed at the disposal of the U.S. Government Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP). continue reading

His future was uncertain after the judge denied him bail to be released on the grounds of having stolen the plane in which he arrived in Florida. In this context, the pilot’s lawyer filed an appeal.

During the hearing on November 10 before a U.S. prosecutor for the crime of “stealing an aircraft,” Martínez declared that the plane was only “a means” to leave the Island, and that 12 days were enough for him to plan the maneuver.

Martinez stressed that he had managed to raise the equivalent of 3,000 dollars to legally leave Cuba for Spain, but that after the monetary change brought about by the Ordering Task,* his savings were reduced to 1,500, according to his calculations.

He insisted that he made the decision to bet his life “on being free, which is still at stake.” During the process, the Cuban’s lawyer commented that his client “is happy to have arrived in the country of freedoms.”

In mid-November, when the U.S. Government was trying to move the plane in which Martínez traveled, the aircraft crashed in the Everglades, west of Miami-Dade, Florida. Federal authorities then said that it was operated by two “government-contracted pilots,” who were in the process of moving the plane to another location, but they did not provide details.

* 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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Delta Resumes Flights to Cuba Three Years After the Start of the Pandemic

Delta will resume its flight between Havana and Miami on April 10. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, February 22, 2023 — After three years of interruption due to the coronavirus pandemic, Delta Airlines announced that it will resume operations with Havana on April 10. The company will reconnect the capital of Cuba with Miami International Airport with two daily direct flights, it reported in a statement published on its website.

The airline has allocated an Airbus A320 aircraft, with First Class, Delta Comfort+ and Main Cabin ticket options. Its first daily flight will leave Havana at 11:55 a.m. and the second at 4:25 p.m., while the route from Miami is scheduled to depart at 9:05 a.m. and 1:40 p.m.

Delta, whose base of operations is in Atlanta, is the only American airline to fly to the Island since 1953, but it suspended operations in 1961 due to the political and migratory instability caused by the Revolution.

The pause lasted 55 years until 2016, when Delta resumed its flights in the midst of the thaw initiated by then-President Barack Obama. In 2020, it was forced to stop by the coronavirus restrictions. Before the health crisis, the company connected Cuba to Miami, New York-JFK and Atlanta. In its statement, Delta said that it “continues to be committed” to restoring its global network, which will allow it to consolidate a significant increase in profitability. continue reading

With the resumption of services with Havana, Delta reports that passengers traveling to Miami will have access to 203 weekly flights, non-stop, from 10 airports in the United States.

In October 2022, Delta joined United Airlines’ request to postpone an extension to the United States Department of Transportation to delay the start of operations, because it needed more time to review contracts with service providers and adjust the infrastructure at José Martí International Airport. The company pointed out that it also had “continuous challenges” to obtain visas for the personnel who would travel to Cuba.

United resumed operations in November 2022 with direct flights to Havana from Houston (Texas) and Newark (New Jersey). That same month, American Airlines reactivated its trips between Miami to Abel Santamaría International Airport, in Santa Clara.

On the eve of the high tourism season, the Cuban government said last November that 45 foreign airlines operated at international airports, including Mexican and Canadian companies, and other less well-known companies such as the Polish Lot and the TAAG Angola.

Foreign tourism in 2023 began on the wrong foot with the arrival of 246,000 visitors in January, a figure that, although it exceeds that recorded in January 2022, when 86,424 were received, is 37.5% below the 393,762 foreigners who visited the Island in January 2020, before the shutdowns.

Authorities expect the long-awaited recovery of the tourism industry to be achieved this year, but industry specialists expect the world to return to pre-pandemic tourism levels only in 2024 or 2025.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Fault Has Been Fixed, but the Energy Deficit Prevents Power Returning to Part of Cuba

The provinces from Cienfuegos to Guantánamo are without service, the Electric Union reported. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2023 — A massive blackout left much of Cuba without electricity on Wednesday afternoon. It is the second consecutive day for countless residents of the eastern part of the Island and the fourth out of the last ten days. Around 8 at night, the fault had been solved but the energy deficit prevented the return of power in many places, according to the general director of the Unión Eléctrica (UNE), Alfredo López.

The breakdown happened again on the 220 kilovolt line that connects Matanzas with Cienfuegos, leaving all customers up to Guantanamo without service, including industries, said hours before Yadier Ruiz, director of the Power Control office in Villa Clara.

López explained that, in the fragile state of the system, the large load transfer from West to East is causing situations like these. The failure of this Wednesday repeated the failure of previous days. continue reading

The director of the UNE confirmed that one of the Turkish pieces of equipment in the western area will soon move to Santiago de Cuba, an insistent demand from the eastern provinces for weeks, tired of being the ones that suffer the consequences most frequently of breakdowns and lack of energy.

That, added to the reincorporation of the Lidio Ramón Pérez thermoelectric plant, in Felton (Holguín) next month, when its maintenance ends, should improve the prospects for the eastern half of Cuba, although users are wary of promises that are never fulfilled.

“It’s been two days since we’ve been able to turn on the appliances in order to cook,” independent reporter Francisco Herodes Díaz explains from the city of Santiago de Cuba. “Just when we were getting used to having electricity again, we had another blackout.”

The situation is especially sensitive in areas of the country that depend on electricity for cooking food, because they don’t have a supply of manufactured gas or access to liquefied gas, which is distributed in tanks, or the ability to maintain a supply of firewood or coal.

Speaking on state television on February 16, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O’Levy, said that “about 250 million dollars a year” are needed for the network to work under “normal conditions,”not counting the cost of importing fuel. In 2022 alone, 1.7 billion dollars were spent on that.

After the fall in tourism revenues, resulting from the increase in U.S. sanctions during the Donald Trump Administration and the complications of the pandemic, spare parts purchases and maintenance became increasingly deficient, causing the availability of energy in Cuba to be 37% over installed capacity in the country.

The last two major anti-government protests took place in a context of widespread electricity crisis: on July 11, 2021 (11J) and at the end of September and early October 2022, after the passage of Hurricane Ian.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Telecommunications Company Attributes the Cuts in Communications to ‘The Failure of a Card’

“There is an interruption in the networks and work is being done to restore the service,” Etecsa replied to this newspaper. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2023 — Several independent activists and journalists in Cuba suffered a cut in communications this Wednesday. Both 14ymedio’s director, Yoani Sánchez, and its chief editor, Reinaldo Escobar, cannot use their telephone lines. Miriam Celaya and Boris González report the same.

In a phone call, the state telecommunications monopoly Etecsa responded to this newspaper that “there is interruption in the networks and work is being done to restore the service.” In the face of a client’s protests through Twitter, the company replied: “Send us privately your service number to check. We have similar reports and our specialists are reviewing. Do you only notice problems placing the call or in some other service?”

Hours later, the company issued a brief statement via its social networks in which it said it had received complaints from customers “about difficulties in establishing voice calls through the cellular network.” The diagnosis that Etecsa made blamed “the failure of a card that caused instability in the operation of a computer that intervenes in the processing of this service, which caused effects to be perceived randomly in making or receiving calls.” In addition, they said that SMS services and mobile data were in operation.

“If the difficulty in accessing this service persists, we would appreciate it if you could contact us through our official channels,” the text concludes. continue reading

The company did not at any time allude to possible problems with the energy supply. In just over a week, there have been three serious power outages on the Island, which the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba (UNE) has attributed to “breakdowns” caused by fires or “human error.”

On the other hand, Cubanet collaborator Vladimir Turró was detained by State Security for almost three hours, in which his whereabouts were not known. Another independent journalist, Julio Aleaga, was also arrested when he left his house in El Vedado this morning and released in the afternoon.

“I was arrested today at 8:30; they had me in the car for two hours and took me to the Zanja station,” the analyst explained to several colleagues on the Island. “I was questioned by two officers separately: ‘Alfredo’, about my participation on social networks, and ‘Osvaldo’, about my activity with the APLP [Association for Freedom of the Press].” Aleaga added that “they want to send me into exile.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Addition to the ‘Blockade’, Cuba Blames Migration and Crime for Low Sugar Production

The Urbano Norris sugar mill, in Holguín, is one of the largest, and its production deficit is becoming more noticeable. (Government of San Germán)

14ymedio, Havana, February 20, 2023 — The amount of sugar that Cuba’s State-owned sugar producer, Azcuba, should have produced by this time is unknown, but the deficit is already 95,000 tons, a huge amount if one takes into account that 400,000 tons is the total needed just to meet the domestic demand for sugar. The engineer of the state sugar company, Ángel Luis Ríos Riquenes, optimistically told the official Communist Party newspaper Granma that they can guarantee the forecast, but his explanation doesn’t inspire too much confidence.

“It is true that it will take a little longer than expected. With the productive deficit we have so far, some mills have marked the end of the sugar harvest in April; others, in the month of May. The greatest risk is that we may be affected by weather conditions,” he said in an interview published this Sunday in Granma.

Last September, after a ruinous harvest, the authorities made the decision to grind in fewer mills to work more efficiently. Compared to the 36 working mills in 2022, of which only 3 met the targets of the plan, the president of Azcuba, Julio Andrés García Pérez, said that for this season the harvest had to be “planned so that it is objective, flexible and, although small, with good practices, concentrating resources in fewer sugar mills.”

In 2022, 911,000 tons had been projected and only 473,720 were obtained, so 455,198 tons of sugar have been scheduled for this year, which will go to the ’family basket’ as a part of the rationing system, tourism, medicines, industrial productions and export. Last year, 411,000 tons were committed to sales abroad but could not be sent.

The words of Ríos Riquenes, this Sunday, warn of the real possibility that the negligible projected harvest will not even be reached, and among its causes the expert cites something new: the staff deficit due to “the aging of the workforce and the effect of migration. It also influences the current economic situation of the country, marked by inflation. For example, the productive problems of a plant prevent workers from receiving decent wages, and many leave,” he says. continue reading

To make matters worse, there are fewer and fewer bosses and qualified personnel, “which has caused a lack of discipline and rigor,” says the engineer, who reveals that the Antonio Guiteras sugar mill (Las Tunas) has suffered several major breaks due to bad operation and was stopped for nine days. This is, along with Urbano Noris (Holguín), the one with the most problems. Both contribute the most to meeting the targets of the plan today, and their “non-compliances” weigh heavily in the total, says Ríos Riquenes.

Electrical breakdowns, fires, the lack of parts for both cane cutting and transport, fuel shortages and financing problems, attributed as usual to the US ‘blockade’ [as the Cuban government insists on calling the US embargo], do the rest.

Ríos says that the problem, for the moment, has not been the cane particularly, although it could be exploited more, but that the grinder does not run satisfactorily. He points out five other main sugar mills: 30 de Noviembre (Artemisa), Mario Muñoz (Matanzas), Panamá (Camagüey), Dos Ríos (Santiago de Cuba) and Arquímides Colina (Granma).

“To counteract this situation, measures were taken with the cadres to strengthen attention to those mills. Today most of them have been taking the steps, as confirmed by the increase in grinding and yields,” he says, pleased, although he adds one more reason to justify the low production: crime.

“The criminals have trashed fences and warehouses; they have threatened the guards and workers of the plants, as well as the families of those who oppose them. Their damage has been quite extensive in some sugar mills — those of Matanzas, Camagüey and Holguín, in particular. We took a tour of all of them [on the Island], and it’s clear that confrontation will be harsh,” he adds.

Azcuba maintains its strategy, the engineer continues, to “flexibilize” the harvest and to have some of the mills that are not grinding make molasses for alcohols and spirits, an experience that, according to him, gives employment, produces income and contributes to the battered economy. In addition, some power plants have been authorized to pay the debts they have with cane producers with the income obtained from alcohol production. That also offers a way out for cane producers, who, under the order not to grind for more than a dozen power plants, can sell the cane for alcohol even if it is not for sugar.

The data provided on Cuba in the interview support the more detailed ones published on the 15th in the Sierra Maestra newspaper about the province of Santiago de Cuba, where they need more than 3,000 tons for a plan of 19,000 “that can no longer be fulfilled in March due to the days of delay,” according to William Hernández Morales, coordinator of the Provincial Government sector.

The sugar panorama in Santiago speaks for itself: of the four sugar mills that still remain in the province, the América Libre has the harvesting area in operation, and the grinding has been stopped for three years. The Julio A. Mella is dedicated to molasses, alcohol and animal feed; the Paquito Rosales to molasses — although it is providing some sugar outside the plan — and only the Dos Ríos contributes to the harvest for the basic family basket.

In 1959, Cuba had 156 operating mills that produced 5.6 million tons of sugar. During the years of the Soviet subsidy, although without reaching the mythical 10 million announced by Fidel Castro, record figures were reached that went beyond eight million tons in the best harvests, between 1970 and 1989. Since then, the decline has been constant, but in recent years it has plummeted, and in the streets, Cubans miss one of the products that they have resorted to the most to fill their stomachs due to the lack of food, despite the fact that it’s damage to health is increasingly known.

“The other day I went to ask them to make me a cake for Valentine’s Day, and they told me that they had almost no sugar,” a Habanero, scandalized by the cost, told this newspaper: “2,000 pesos [$83] for a cake without sugar!”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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When the Motherland is Really a Mother

Madrid has offered Spanish nationality to political prisoners released by the Daniel Ortega’s regime in Nicaragua. (EFE)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Madrid, 18 February 2023 — There is a rhetorical way of referring to Spain: “The Motherland.” But sometimes that fits reality and is said without hypocrisy. Especially, when it involves some sacrifice and a certain price has been paid. The socialist government of Spain, contradicting its minority partners in the coalition with Podemos, the communists, has offered citizenship to 222 Nicaraguan opponents. The comrades are going nuts.

That’s very good. The offer was made by José Manuel Albares, the Spanish chancellor, and there are 222 European Union passports. If the satrapy formed by Ortega and Murillo, president and vice president, (and also a married couple), planned to leave those who dared to do politics in Nicaragua without nationality, they were meticulously wrong. The Spanish passport opens the door to 27 nations. In addition, they can fly to many places without having a visa.

The Venezuelans are settled in the Salamanca neighborhood of Madrid, a place that doesn’t know trouble judging by the high price per square foot. There are, more or less, 400,000 that have settled in the Kingdom of Spain. There are hundreds of entrepreneurs who benefit from franchises or who create them. Thousands more work as clerks in the stores that serve Venezuelans.

If the flood of Dominicans, Ecuadorians and Peruvians who arrived earlier — there are one and a half million Hispanic Americans living in Spain — was characterized by poverty, with some exceptions, these Venezuelans, the rich and the poor, have skills and modernity in common. Cubans, another substantial source of emigrants, always saw Spanish destiny as a step towards their integration into the United States, which has always made things easy for Cubans.

Spain is correcting numerous mistakes. Passports have been offered to the descendants of the Sephardim (not the English who expelled the Jews in 1209, or the French in 1306). On such a significant date as 1492, from the kingdoms in which they had lived for hundreds of years, they were expelled from Castile and Aragon. A century earlier, in 1391, the popular pogroms occurred in which they killed numerous Jews and burned the Jewish quarters. continue reading

It was the classic case of shooting oneself in the foot. Suddenly, the investments dried up and the counselors to the kings of Castile and Aragon by such a distinguished community disappeared, almost in their entirety. It is uncertain how many Jews were affected by the expulsion decrees (there were two edicts), but from March 31 to July 31, 1492, apparently about 100,000 people were expelled, and they had to sell their properties at great discounts during that period. The Catholic Monarchs, while teaching Spanish to the New World, a magnificent gift that unified several hundred pre-Columbian languages and dialects, inadvertently created, with the expulsion of the Sephardim, a very special commercial network in the eastern Mediterranean.

In truth, during the Franco regime, the exiled Cuban students who came to Spain, to finish their careers interrupted by communism, were taken in. But Franco died at the end of 1975, and the exiled Cubans had the same fears as the Spaniards: that all the passions repressed since 1939 would be unleashed. Not in vain, Cuba had been strongly linked to Spain until 1898 and was the last of the American colonies that was emancipated. However, what happened was exemplary and unexpected: a surprising peaceful transition to democracy and freedoms. Certain Cubans, on and off the Island, took note. It was totally possible to break with communism without the experiment crumbling in their hands. In any case, they would have to wait until communism imploded, something that happened between 1989 and 1991.

After the news that the Caudillo had died, events began to accumulate. In 1976, Adolfo Suárez was already head of government, and the Cuban opposition depended, on the Island, on the Spanish diplomat Jorge Orueta, and outside, on Carlos Robles Piquer and his brother-in-law, Manuel Fraga Iribarne, and on his willingness to present a story, El radarista [The Radar Operator] by Commander Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, Hispanic-Cuban, a social democrat and one of the most important leaders of the Revolution. Eloy had to wait in the harshest of prisons, where he was severely tortured, until Governor Felipe González released him.

Felipe González, who crossed Moncloa with the opposition to Castroism and, at the same time, called Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and asked him to listen to the opposition — for which Fidel never forgave him — was replaced by José María Aznar after exemplary elections. One of Aznar’s first diplomatic successes was to achieve a common diplomatic position on the Cuban issue within the European Union. The proposal of the “Common Position” was essentially written by Miguel Ángel Cortés in 1996, a deputy and senator for Valladolid within the Popular Party.

Aznar’s two mandates were characterized by a very clear policy against Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. This did not prevent Fidel from calling him on the phone to beg him to intercede for Chávez’s life during the coup in April 2002, which he did. What was not subject to any change was the Common Position, which remained inalterable. Guillermo Gortazar, historian and deputy of Alianza Popular, at the head of the Hispano-Cuban Foundation and the collection of Revista Hispano-Cubana, admirably curated by Grace Piney Roche, gives a good account of this.

The Common Position was supported by the 15 nations that were then part of the EU (today there are 27). It remained until it was not possible to sustain it within the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. In June 2008, just three months after the elections that had given him a second term, Spain changed its vote. But he could not avoid the contempt of Havana for his insistence on the release from prison of the dissident Raúl Rivero (2005) and his wife Blanca Reyes, a legendary lady for having walked, Sunday after Sunday, with the Damas de Blanco [Ladies in White]. Rodríguez Zapatero defended himself against these accusations on the grounds that he had not granted citizenship to Rivero.

That was before, in the time of Zapatero. Now it’s the turn of the Nicaraguans and Sánchez. With a stroke of the pen, 222 people have been granted citizenship. That’s what a mother does. She comforts and encourages her children not to shrink from adversity.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Actions Against the Aging of the Population That Do Not Work

One example of the elderly care systems that exist in Havana. (Orden de Malta)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 19 February 2023 — The actions of the Cuban communist regime to face the serious problem of accelerated aging of the population do not work and are based on an ideologized and untechnical analysis of the situation. This is the conclusion that can be obtained from a note published in the state press informing of the update in 2022 of the national policy to address demographic dynamics.

The Cuban population aged 60 and over accounted for about 21.6% at the end of 2022, being the only segment of population that is increasing in the country, with almost 2.4 million people in this category.

And as happens in many other areas of government action, the response of the communist regime to the needs of older adults has resulted in more public spending. Specifically, a state budget for 2023 of 2,113 million pesos ($88,042) has been announced, aimed at supporting actions against the accelerated demographic aging suffered by the country.

Under such conditions, strategies have been announced related to providing resources (that is, spending more) on the production of dental implants and hearing aids, nursing homes, maternal homes and grandparents’ homes.

At the same time, the central government has instructed territorial programs to give priority to sensitive issues such as the decrease in the working-age and economically active populations, the increase in urbanization (despite the decrease in the urban population) and the average number of people per household.

The Cuban demographic situation is explained by the joint evolution of fertility, mortality and internal and external migrations in response to an unproductive, inefficient and collapsed economic system. All of this significantly influences the fall in the birth rate and fertility, and the aging of the population. And here comes the error of the leaders, mixing actions and public policies, which have little to do with each other. continue reading

At this point, there are many doubts. What will the care program for the infertile couple or the modernization of equipment for assisted reproduction centers have to do with the accelerated aging of the population? What is the point of territorial governments having to allocate more resources to the construction and maintenance of childcare centers, the construction of homes for mothers with three children or more, as well as housing needs, when the urgency is in a population that is growing older?

There is the impression that the regime mixes policies, actions and resources that should have a different design for more effective execution. It doesn’t know what to do and relegates everything to public spending.

It’s not a matter of complexity of Cuban demographic dynamics, but of correctly interpreting trends and needs and providing effective and efficient solutions. There is a lot of work to do before blaming the embargo, that is what is called the blockade, for the problems of aging, which is what they always end up doing.

Fundamental aspects for the elderly population, such as active aging and unwanted loneliness, are absent and irrelevant in the solutions proposed by the communist regime. And yet, experts indicate that they determine the success of policies aimed at older people in all countries that share the same problem.

Active aging allows people to enjoy more years, with better health and physical condition. And this can happen in Cuba by reorienting the health system towards the elderly, which will require very important investments. The standard of living of older people in Cuba, with pensions of very low purchasing power, compromises the objective of active aging. The elderly are a vulnerable group, living precariously at the expense of the regime’s inefficiencies.

The extension of the working age can alleviate the situation of poverty associated with retirement. Promoting the professional figure of seniors in companies and in education and training can serve to alleviate the negative effects of aging. But there are many more things to do, and in Cuba, these solutions neither exist nor are anticipated.

As for unwanted loneliness, it is a threat that falls on the elderly in a particularly intense way. The situation in Cuba is very bad, because young family members need to leave the country in search of new horizons. They leave behind the elders, who barely survive thanks to the remittances they receive from abroad.

Those elderly who lose their family and friends experience unwanted loneliness that negatively influences their living conditions and introduces great suffering when their immediate relatives are prohibited from returning to the Island due to regime sanctions, as has happened in the recent history of Cuba. That unwanted loneliness is not discussed in the actions designed by the authorities, because offering “parents’ houses” to address this problem means they have no idea what to do.

Let no one be fooled. The Cuban communist regime’s response to the needs of older adults comes too late and is ill-conceived. The effect of the waste of public money will be practically zero, especially considering that their policies to promote the birth rate will be difficult to implement.

The leaders have to recognize the origin of the problem that grips Cuban society and face its solution with appropriate actions that don’t depend on the management of public spending. It’s not possible to allocate public spending to social policies that are directly related to the standard of living and well-being of the population; in short, the economy. The problem is that no matter what they do, it’s too late.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The United States Prepares a Regulation That Will Make it Difficult for Cuban Immigrants to Apply for Asylum

A group of migrants at the southern US border. (Marlene Guzmán/Univision Network/Facebook)

EFE/14ymedio, Washington/Havana, 21 February 2023 — The US Government is preparing a regulation that would make it difficult for thousands of people to apply for asylum, including Cuban migrants, as it would prevent those who cross the border illegally or who don’t apply for protection in other nations from entering the country.

The regulations, created jointly by the Department of National Security and the Justice Department, would make it easier for the Government to deport people who cross the border and ask for asylum, since, by doing so illegally, they would lose the right to benefit from this protection.

White House sources explained on Tuesday that the regulations are intended to “fill the legal gap” that will arise after the possible end of Title 42 next May, since Congress has not taken “any measure to guarantee the safe and humane management of migrants.”

“This Administration will simply not allow mass chaos and disorder at the border due to the lack of action by Congress,” said these sources, after the regulations were published in the Federal Registry on Tuesday and a 30-day period of arguments was opened. continue reading

Although these sources did not explain when the regulations will be applied or what will happen if Title 42 is extended again (as has happened previously), they did point out that “the intention is for the regulations to take effect when Title 42 expires and not before.”

If it enters into force, this would be one of the most restrictive immigration regulations in the entire Administration of Joe Biden, who, upon assuming the presidency in January 2021, eliminated many of the exclusionary immigration measures of the Donald Trump Administration (2017-2021).

Among them, he eliminated the controversial Asylum Cooperation Agreement (ACA) with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, known as the “safe third country” agreement, which allowed the United States to deport refugees who arrived in its territory and had not asked for asylum in the first country they stepped on when they left their home country.

However, official sources of the Biden Administration wanted to distance themselves from this rule and assured that the new one is not the same.

“It is definitely different in the sense that we are offering a refutable presumption and not prohibiting access to asylum, as the previous Administration did,” they pointed out. Thus, the regulations “would allow people to apply for asylum in the United States whenever they enter through legal means,” they insisted.

Title 42 is part of the Public Health Law of 1944 and temporarily authorizes the expulsion of foreigners for health reasons.

The government of then-President Trump resorted to that rule in March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Biden decided to extend it on several occasions when it was about to expire.

However, with the pandemic already over, it is likely that this rule will be lifted next May, a situation that could trigger an unprecedented crisis on the southern border.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Television Debates the Negative Effects of Debt Default on Attracting Investment

Economists insist that something is wrong when the promised foreign investment doesn’t arrive. (Granma)

14ymedio, Madrid, 22 February 2023 — Cuban economist Carola Salas surprised viewers in the program Cuadrando la caja [Squaring the Box], broadcast on Cuban Television, by saying: “We have never really received the amounts promised in foreign investment, which means that something is not going well for us.”

The expert participated in a program together with her colleagues Antonio Romero who, like Salas, belongs to the Center for Research on the International Economy, and Jorge Casals, of the Center for Research on International Policy of the Ministry of Foreign Relations. The program was dedicated to the insertion of the Island’s economy into the international panorama, and was broadcast on February 5. The program received low ratings but acquired greater importance when the official press published the transcript of the discussion on Tuesday [partially in English here].

The expert’s statement came at a time in the conversation when there was talk of financing to structurally change the national economy, a need that was expressed on several occasions during the debate. Salas noted that foreign investment has become indispensable since the 1990s and that, although it has improved a lot, “the amounts are still insufficient and the commitments that are generated are not fundamentally fulfilled.”

In addition, he urged emigrants to participate in the “development” of their country by financing enterprises. “[It] can generate something that is widely used in the world, which is the interest that a citizen who lives elsewhere in the world can have with his land, with his country of origin (…) and can then invest his money in something that implies an improvement of relations,” he suggested, emphasizing the multiple appeals that the Cuban Government has made in these years to encourage exiles.

The experts, in a program led by Rafael Montejo, began their discussion with a conscientious description of how the Cuban economy developed internationally since 1959, specifically within the Soviet camp, and how the situation broke down after the fall of the Berlin Wall. continue reading

Experts are clear about the first cause of the current problems, aside from the ‘blockade’ [i.e. American embargo]: the departure of the Island from international financial organizations, promoted by Fidel Castro in 1964 with the departure from the International Monetary Fund and, later, of the World Bank. The leader of the Revolution was also the main promoter in advocating that Third World countries not pay their debts.

Today they are experiencing the consequences, the experts now agree — although without blaming anyone. “That non-participation in international financial organizations prevents us from having a lender of last resort (…). It limits our ability to access international credits, and it raises the country’s risk to very important levels, to the point of being at the limit for divestment,” Salas summarizes.

The specialist notes that the vast majority of countries have foreign debt, but they can face it through this type of credit, either in better or worse conditions. However, Cuba does not even have that last resort, which in turn worsens the situation.

“The repeated breaches of international commitments on foreign debt, apart from hindering and lowering the country’s financial credibility, discourage investments,” he adds. The resources that the Island uses, with the lack of lenders, are discounted payments on the nominal value, the creation of funds, the exchange for investments, the conversion of debt amounts into national currency, and the issuance of bonds or debt bonds with sovereign guarantees, he mentions.

During the talk, the Island’s main trading partners are mentioned, all of them expected. According to Antonio Romero Gómez, five countries concentrate 60% of all foreign exchange: China, Venezuela, Canada, Spain and a fifth that depends on the moment and that has sometimes been Brazil. “And another country has arisen,” he adds without revealing what it is.

Cuban economists agree that it is necessary for the Island to take advantage of two areas specifically, and among them are neither China, Russia, Turkey, Algeria, nor Iran, the regime’s allies in other latitudes and to whom Miguel Díaz-Canel resorted this December to capture energy and investments. The three experts recommend looking at the nearest countries in the Caribbean and the “opportunities we have in Europe.”

“Obviously we have to transform our economic structure,” repeated Casals Llano, who, like his colleagues, believes that Cuba has become — and must accentuate its evolution — a service economy; and that the international trade industries that were once its engine of growth today are considered of little added value, in addition to having lost their primacy.

The three sectors that economists trust for development are biotechnology, the medical-pharmaceutical industry, and tourism, which should be renewed “totally under other new conditions.” Although the sale of medical services is still the most profitable position, they also agreed that computing and software have enormous potential in Cuba, where many young people already develop countless interesting applications, although they warn that they must be encouraged so that they do not migrate.

Romero Gómez closed the program with a pessimistic prediction and a cry, that, according to him, is falling on deaf ears. “I think we’re going to have a complex, very difficult year in 2023. We have to change the ways of driving our economy. I think we are going to have changes that are essential, that economists have been saying for a long time.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Writer Jorge Ferrer Releases the Recordings of Heberto Padilla’s ‘Confession’

In addition to Padilla’s appearance, the material includes the full remarks of other participants in the meeting, who were forced to confess their guilt. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 February 2023 — On Friday, Cuban writer and translator Jorge Ferrer released several original recordings of the appearance of the poet Heberto Padilla on April 27, 1971 before a group of writers and artists in Havana. The debate prior to the release of these film archives, hidden for decades by State Security and which served as the source for the documentary El Caso Padilla [The Padilla Case] (2022), by filmmaker Pavel Giroud, had recently become a bitter controversy.

In a note on his blog El tono de la voz [The Tone of Voice], Ferrer states that he is sharing the audiovisual material with the authorization of the person who sent it to him, although he did not offer his identity. In addition, he argued the need to make the documentary available to the public. “I am obliged to share the story, which is both mine and everyone’s,” he said.

This Thursday, Ferrer, who is a translator and an expert in Russian literature living in Barcelona, revealed that he had “copies of some sections, perhaps all, of the originals that Giroud used,” and commented on the controversy about the alleged “kidnapping” of the complete archives by the director.

Ferrer shared four film files that have been digitized, from two to 40 minutes long, that record the confession which Padilla was forced to make by State Security, after being detained for several weeks. “The revolutionary government offered him a confession in exchange for his freedom,” Ferrer explains.

In addition to Padilla’s appearance, the material includes the full remarks of other participants in the meeting, who were forced to blame themselves for having held “revolutionary conversations” and for having frequently met with “enemies of the Revolution.” Among the writers who took the floor after Padilla’s extensive appearance are the poets César López, Manuel Díaz Martínez, Padilla’s own wife, Belkis Cuza, and the narrator and journalist Norberto Fuentes.

In the case of Fuentes, whom Padilla exposed during his speech as an agent of State Security and whom he accused of sharing his “counterrevolutionary opinions,” the fragments shared by Ferrer do not include continue reading

his attempt at a defense alleging an “injustice” against his person not only on the part of the poet, but also by the Government itself, which disregarded his “claims” and wouldn’t hear them.

Padilla gives his seat to State Security Lieutenant Armando Quesada, who “rectifies” the intervention of Norberto Fuentes. In the background, José Antonio Portuondo. (Screen capture)

Fuentes is quickly silenced by Armando Quesada, a lieutenant of the Armed Forces and then director of the magazine El Caimán Barbudo. “I have been marginalized from the revolutionary process,” says Fuentes, but Quesada disavows the opinions of those who claimed that the Communist Party was “alienated” from the intelligentsia.

The absence of this discussion in the archives published by Ferrer, which however were used in Giroud’s film, is evidence that there are still important fragments of the archive to be delivered to the public. In recent weeks, numerous intellectuals and artists have demanded from the filmmaker the full publication of the original material, while others defend Giroud’s right to share it when he deems appropriate, after El Caso Padilla is screened at several film festivals.

The director’s response has been that the complete recording “is going to be released, but not now.” Some Cuban intellectuals have expressed their point of view on Giroud’s documentary and the context that has surrounded its projection. Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, in Hypermedia magazine, believes that the night of Padilla’s appearance was “the longest of national cinematography.” Pardo Lazo says that “there is no right to keep the original filming a secret. By retaining it — and this is the responsibility of all those who treasure the original recording — it smells of ego or duty fulfilled in a cautionary way.”

As for Néstor Díaz de Villegas, he affirms in Yucabite that Giroud made his documentary in “collaboration with the ghost of Santiago Álvarez,” who collaborated with the original filming. That night, he points out, “Padilla emerges as one of the comic geniuses in the history of cinematographic art. It is a comedy of entanglements where apology is denunciation and delation, exegesis.”

“Giroud has decided that we still can’t remember completely,” says Carlos Manuel Álvarez in El Estornudo. Regarding the retention of the original material by the director, Álvarez comments: “I don’t know what I would have done instead; I have never had in my possession, fortunately, the memories of anyone other than me.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

Please see the links here.

An English translation of the transcript of Padilla’s Public Confession is here.

A 2021 staged reading of Padilla’s confession and other speakers, with English subtitles, is here.

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