The electrical disconnection stretches from Ciego de Ávila to Guantánamo. (Twitter/@EmpresaElctric2)
14ymedio, Havana, 13 February 2022 — Half the Island is without power this Monday, as reported by the Cuban Electric Union (UNE) itself on its networks and confirmed to 14ymedio by sources in several affected provinces.
In a brief note on its Facebook account, which did not allow comments, the UNE says that “there was a failure in the 220 KW network” between Sancti Spíritus and Nuevitas that caused a “total disconnection” of the electrical system “in the Central-Eastern area, affecting the provinces from Ciego de Ávila to Guantánamo.”
Subsequently, the Ministry of Energy and Mines explained in a tweet that “the cause of the disconnection was a fire in a nearby cane field,” without specifying where it was, and said that “work is being done on the restoration of the system,” which “will take between four and five hours.”
The city of Camagüey ran out of electricity shortly after 1:00 p.m., an interruption that paralyzed life in a town that had some hope that there would be relief from the blackouts it had experienced in recent weeks.
This is the biggest breakdown in the national network since last September 27, when the National Electricity System collapsed completely and the Island was left in the dark for several hours. continue reading
After the continuous and prolonged blackouts of the second half of 2022, which provoked massive protests on the Island, the Government sold as a triumph that at the beginning of the year there were hardly any affectations to the network. But the optimism did not last long: since then, the authorities announced that between January and April there would be cuts, so that the electricity system “is prepared for the large demand during the summer.
Although the regime had promised “short” blackouts, some provinces experienced cuts of up to six hours in a row at the end of last January.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Delivery of the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, in the degree of Collar, to Díaz-Canel. (Twitter/Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez)
14ymedio, Mexico, 11 February 2023 — Mexicans did not welcome the reception of Miguel Díaz-Canel by his counterpart Andrés Manuel López Obrador this Saturday in Campeche, in the southeast of the country. The rejection increased when it became known that the Cuban president will be decorated with the degree of the prestigious Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, with the rank of Collar, which Fidel Castro also received in 1988.
“More and more Cubans are fleeing their homeland because the dictator starves them and imprisons them. López Obrador insults Cubans and Mexicans by giving the Aztec Eagle to Díaz-Canel, a human rights violator,” Mexican Senator Lilly Téllez, one of the most critical rulers in López Obrador’s administration, wrote on Twitter.
In addition, several media outlets published criticism of the visit, including journalist Manuel Lopez San Martín, of the ADN 40 chain, who pointed out: “The dictator of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, should not be welcome in Mexico. A repressor, who tramples freedoms and violates human rights, should not be decorated by our country. There is nothing to applaud or recognize in an authoritarian anti-Democratic leader.”
The Cuban president, a few minutes after deplaning in Campeche, said that he came to “ratify the will” of the Cuban people and government, “to continue strengthening and deepening relations with Mexico, not for reasons of protocol, but as an expression of the brotherhood” that unites both countries.
On his fourth trip to Mexico, since he occupied the Cuban presidency, Díaz-Canel, said that he is happy to return to meet again with his “friends” and share a few hours with López Obrador. continue reading
“We came to return in person the embrace we received in difficult times along with the material help and technical advice in vital areas and activities from the Mexican Government,” Díaz-Canel added, referring to Hurricane Ian, which left two dead in the country last September.
One of the objectives of Díaz-Canel’s visit is to supervise, together with López Obrador, the construction of the Maya Train, which passes through Campeche in the Yucatan peninsula. For the construction, rajón stone, a type of gravel extracted from a Cienfuegos quarry, will be used. The infrastructure, converted into a small lifeline for the Cuban economy, is a 900-mile railway that will connect the main tourist cities of the area. To accomplish this, it will be necessary to eventually send more than 200,000 tons of rajón per month from the Island.
In addition, the Cuban ruler said that the current relationship between Mexico and Cuba managed to concretize several programs and actions “for mutual benefit,” such as the sending of Cuban health specialists to Mexico.
“In less than a year we have complied with what was agreed, and there are results to show,” said the president, who will leave for Belize on Sunday. He was referring to the more than 500 health professionals who have arrived in Mexico to provide services as part of an agreement signed between the two governments.
For his part, López Obrador said that Díaz-Canel is a “distinguished, admired, and fraternal guest.”
The presence of hundreds of Cuban doctors in hospitals in the Mexican capital hired to combat the COVID-19 pandemic aroused a controversy in the country in 2020 because of its cost and the activities carried out.
Currently, more than 600 Cuban health workers are working in several urban health centers in Mexico, and so far it has not been revealed whether they will be transferred to hospitals in remote areas, which was the initial purpose for which they were allegedly hired by the López Obrador Administration.
At the same time, the Mexican Government has used less than 3% of the nine million Abdala vaccines purchased from Cuba for boosters, since distrust of the drug prevails among the population. It does not have the approval of the World Health Organization, nor are there studies that certify its effectiveness.
El dictador de Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, NO debería ser bienvenido en México
Un represor, que atropella las libertades y violenta los derechos humanos, no debe ser condecorado por nuestro país
No hay nada que aplaudirle ni reconocerle a un autoritario antidemócrata
Text of Tweet: Cuba’s dictator, Miguel Díaz-Canel, should NOT be welcome in Mexico. A repressor, who tramples freedoms and violates human rights, should not be decorated by our country. There is nothing to applaud or recognize in an authoritarian anti-democratic leader.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Rogelio Polanco this weekend, after being elected as a candidate by Holguín for the next elections. (@RPolancoF)
14ymedio, Madrid, 8 February 2023 — At the age of 57, the head of the Ideological Department of the Communist Party, Rogelio Polanco, feels part of what he calls the “process of gradual and orderly transfer of the main positions and responsibilities of political direction of the Revolution from the historical generation to a new generation,” and from that place he is willing to fight one of the most important battles for the regime: that of ideas.
The official spoke at great length in an interview for La pupila insomne [The Insomniac Pupil], in which he refers to the need for the transformations to be profound, but the detailed explanations make it clear that what changes, in any case, is the form, not the substance. “All our ideological commitment is aimed at reinforcing (…) the foundations of our ideology, based on the thought of José Martí, Fidel Castro and, of course, on Marxism and Leninism,” he explains.
The interview, of more than 7,000 words, leaves little room for the news. Among the few announcements that Polanco makes is the extreme intervention of the new Institute for Social Communication, created in 2021 to replace the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) and about which nothing is yet known. “We are proposing that at all levels and institutions the structures that are in charge of communication have to be hierarchical at the highest level of direction, because communication is a strategic resource,” he says.
Polanco also addresses the transformation that awaits the media of the Island, and that, from his words, will follow more or less the arrival of advertising in the Cuban media, although the official omits the word and prefers to talk about the experience of giving “a greater capacity to reflect the reality of Cuba and also that those media be allowed to have income for their sustainability, which guarantees the creation of better technological capabilities to face this new digital ecosystem.”
He also mentions the changes in the selection of journalism students and the importance of being “better prepared from a professional point of view and also in values,” an issue that is not really new either, since ideological adherence has always prevailed in this university career and its working reality on the Island. continue reading
However, Polanco introduces this alleged battery of measures to deal with what he calls “hybrid war,” a concept already exploited by the ruling party for months and that he develops to exhaustion in the interview. In his opinion, the United States is using the entire network to discredit its “enemies” while exporting culture and capitalism as the only model to follow. In addition, it has the necessary technology, since the companies that manage the algorithm (in clear allusion to Google or Facebook) are on its side.
On the other hand, the discomfort generated by the terrible situation of the world economy in general and Cuba in particular — part of which is induced, he argues, by the blockade [American embargo] and its effects — is used to generate chaos and cause confrontation by the people with the Government. His recipe for fighting all this is as follows: “Take those weapons away from our enemy. Learn to master them and use them for our own goals. We have to master the use of those tools.”
The objective, he says, is to strengthen political preparation at all levels so that “the people increasingly understand and accompany the leadership of the Revolution in the process of development of our nation, socialist construction and confrontation with subversive actions.”
Polanco steps on delicate ground when he talks about emigration. The official recognizes that the number of young people who have left complicates the economic and demographic situation of the country, but affirms that Cubans are migrants like those of any country in the world, who return when they improve economically, even though reality denies it.
“Today, thousands of Cubans live outside Cuba, maintain a normal bond with their homeland and return systematically. Even many actively participate in solidarity actions with their country of origin. Let’s go to what social science and demographic analysts call a circular migration,” he argues after an extensive dissertation on exiles since the 1960s, alluding to the Cuban Adjustment Act and the visas agreed upon and not delivered by the Trump Administration.
In any case, and aware that Cubans are leaving — more than 300,000 to the United States alone in 2022 — he asks that the “personal and professional realization” of young people be stimulated “without denying, of course, that anyone who wishes to emigrate can do so because it is their right.” As he explains, the Cuban Government has created working groups that can “in the short term present some projections of those policies in the field of employment, improvement, housing and other facilities especially aimed at youth,” but the economic, employment and lack of infrastructure data threaten to make any plan useless, no matter how good.
A similar case occurs with some other of Cuba’s achievements that Polanco enunciates. The official speaks of “continuing to strengthen fundamental social conquests” and accurately cites everything that is now in a situation of shipwreck, from education, which is experiencing a full exodus of teachers and students who, if they stay, must resort to a private tutor; to health, in the midst of a crisis of shortage of doctors, supplies and medications; and even sports, following Cuba’s failure in the Caribbean Baseball Series. To reach the zenith, the official exalts the “high level of democratic participation and elevated popular control” that exists on the Island.
Polanco goes into the final stretch of the interview talking about working in networks to reach a youth that is increasingly seduced by new formats rather than by books, and he calls for “generating content to infinity and in a creative way” to compete in the message. “We have to manage to be appropriate in that format,” he summarizes, before ending by making a plea in defense of the emotional, in addition to the intellectual. “Che said that a revolutionary is motivated by great feelings of love. It’s love in all its expression, so we’re still in love.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Mirabal goes to the Venice Biennale solo for the first time. (EFE)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 8 February 2023 — On Tuesday, Cuban plastic artist Michel Mirabal presented his exhibition project at the National Museum of Havana, on a very current theme: “migrations in the world.” He will attend the next Venice Architecture Biennial with this same project.
Mirabal, known as the painter of hands and flags, will display six large installations, six works of painting and two sculptures, in the rooms and the outdoor space of the Loredan palace, an 18th-century building located in front of the Grand Canal of the Italian city of canals.
The project of the exhibition “Architecture of a System” is based on Cuban emigration from all over the world, the artist explained to EFE.
“In recent years due to wars, the displaced have become a very strong phenomenon, and I wanted to draw attention to that. I also want it to be as raw and real as possible, without half measures,” he said.
Mirabal (b. 1974), considered one of the most important current plastic artists in Cuba, is more famous outside the Island than inside, which he says is his source of artistic inspiration, especially its problems. continue reading
In this exhibition, which is accompanied by the art video “Exoduses, causes and consequences,” Mirabal addresses an issue that also concerns his country, where there is “a brutal exodus, more than half a million people who are not there, including many friends, family and my eldest daughter. So I experience it very closely,” he says.
His return to Venice — the city that hosted him with a scholarship between 1999 and 2002 — will be, from May 16 to July 23, the first time he exhibits a solo show at the biennial.
After the exhibit, Mirabal plans a four-year journey through museums, galleries and foundations of countries in Europe, China and Israel, and he also will bring this exhibition to the National Museum of Fine Arts of the Cuban capital, produced by the Spanish company Art Logistics.
Nelson Herrera Ysla, an experienced Cuban art critic, is the curator of this project, which he described as “very complex,” especially because of the requirements of the old Loredan palace, which “has interiors that cannot be touched. This makes it very difficult to place works there.”
He says that at the entrance of the building there will be a metal sculpture made from vehicle exhaust pipes, and in the interior there will be scarecrows, white sheets hanging on barbed wire. There will also be a work that addresses the constant Cuban migration with a group of passports incorporated into paintings by the artist.
Herrera Ysla said that the video art, made by Alejandro Pérez with a soundtrack by composer and pianist Frank Fernández, brings “the image in motion and music” to the exhibition.
About what he expects from this project, Mirabal tells EFE: “I do what I like to do. I’m happy with the result of my work and my colleagues.”
His presence in this Biennial “can be a breakthrough, because I never had the opportunity to be at an event like this. All artists would love to be in Venice, and I think it’s going to be epic,” he says.
Born into a family of artists, Mirabal is a graduate of the School of Design. He studied painting at the renowned Academy of San Alejandro and began painting 20 years ago.
He has participated in more than 50 personal and collective exhibitions in Argentina, Canada, Cuba, China, the Dominican Republic, the United States, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, Jamaica, Haiti, Mexico, Panama and Portugal.
His works integrate collections of important cultural institutions and private exhibitions, including the Rockefeller museums; those of Fine Arts of Medellín and Bogotá, in Colombia; the Martin Luther King and Afro-American foundations of New York, and the collections of Gabriel García Márquez, Mohamed Alí, Donald Trump, Danny Glover, Quincy Jones and Carlos Santana, among others.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Managers expect the cassava flour plant to start operations this month. (El Artemiseño)
14ymedio, Havana, 9 February 2023 — The Ceiba Citrus Company, located in Caimito, Artemisa, has bet all its cards on the construction of a new cassava flour factory. However, despite the investment required by the plant, its managers cannot guarantee that the harvest of the tuber on the Island will live up to their expectations.
Alejandro Valdés, general director of the factory, told the provincial newspaper El Artemiseño that they are working “without rest” in the assembly of the machinery, with an initial production capacity of 440 to 2,645 pounds per day. In full operation, the manager said, the technology will allow obtaining one ton of flour for every two of fresh cassava.
The operation will require a stable supply of the tuber and, although the amount required for the premiere of the factory is assured, Ceiba does not have guarantees that the national production of cassava can keep up with it. Within a year, at least the planting of 740 acres will be required to maintain the industry, with a yield of between 16 and 20 tons per acre.
The machinery is a donation from the Sustainable Agriculture Support Project (PAAS), implemented with the support of the Swiss Development Agency and the Dutch NGO Hivos, dedicated to strengthening agricultural production on the Island. Valdés said that since June last year they have been “immersed” in the assembly, but acknowledged that there were delays because they did not have the “relevant capacity” to handle the technology, which has led to “variations throughout the process and has been a very useful learning process.” continue reading
The shortage of materials has made it difficult to meet the deadlines, added Orestes Leiva, administrator of the new industry, who expects the plant to be ready between February 15 and 20, if the entry of materials remains stable.
Valdés explained that the machines will cover the entire process, from the transport of the cassava to its cleaning in a tank where some blades will remove its skin. Then, it will be moved to a grinder and dried in an oven at about 400 degrees, in order to finally grind and pack the flour.
Cassava derivatives have served as an alternative to the scarcity and increase in the price of wheat and other cereals on the Island, mainly for the preparation of bread that is distributed in the ’normal family basket’ [through the rationing system]. Its high starch content makes it a healthy food. It’s also used by industries for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, and can even be used to replace malt in beers.
However, its use in baking has not achieved popular acceptance, which points to breads made with a mixture of the tuber and wheat flour as less durable, with a darker dough and variations in flavor. For most consumers, the use of cassava for these purposes results in a lower quality food.
Sergio Rodríguez Morales, director of the National Institute of Tropical Food Research (Inivit) of the Ministry of Agriculture, told the official newspaper Granma that the cultivation of cassava has had several “significant advances” but insisted that it falls short in meeting the demand for human, animal and industrial consumption.
Currently, Cuba has about 111,000 cultivated hectares of cassava, the highest area in history, although the goal of the Ministry of Agriculture is to reach 494,210 acres in the “shortest possible period,” the technician said.
The article in Granma, published last November, refers to the fact that producers see more profitable income in the cassava with the sale of 220 pounds at 350 pesos. Raidel García, a farmer from Camajuaní, considers it a plant that is “irreplaceable in current times” because it is harvested throughout the year and survives without irrigation and application of fertilizers.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Another failure for Cuban baseball in the Caribbean Series after the Island was eliminated. (Cubadebate)
14ymedio, Havana, 7 February 2023 — Cuba is still without a compass in the 65th Caribbean Baseball Series “Gran Caracas 2023.” On Tuesday it suffered one more defeat against Puerto Rico (4-3), the fifth in a row, and was eliminated from the series that takes place in Venezuela. A single by Emmanuel Rivera to center field was enough for the Puerto Ricans to give a setback to the Island as a whole in the lower part of the ninth.
The three-run rally at the top of the second inning was useless. With singles by Yosvani Alarcón, Rafael Viñales, Carlos Benítez and Yordanis Alarcón, Cuba moved ahead 2-0. Thanks to another single by Yunieski Larduet, the Island was winning by 3-0.
In the fifth inning, Puerto Rico scored thanks to two runs after a single by Daniel Ortiz, a triple by Roberto Enríquez and another single by Bryan Torres. In the ninth inning, the triumph over Cuba took place.
Puerto Rico put the game “under protest.” Puerto Rico’s manager, Mako Oliveras, alleges that on the roster that Cuba delivered, the name of Andy Rodríguez appeared instead of Andy Vargas, although it seems that it was all a mistake. continue reading
“I am not happy about Cuba’s defeat but I knew it was going to happen, because Cuba’s performance has been embarrassing,” commented Swing Completo journalist Daniel de Malas.
There had to be four consecutive defeats of the Cuban team in the Caribbean Baseball Series, one of them 20-3 by the host Venezuela, before a pro-government news source like Cubadebate would accept that Cuba “should have been backed up with quality baseball players.”
The publication took place after the 5-4 stumble before Colombia. We must “bring no less than eight reinforcements to this club tournament; all countries go with the best,” the same medium published.
The game against Venezuela evidenced the shortcomings of a Cuban team that came to this event with confidence in its pitchers, although “they weren’t very high-profile, except César García and Leandro Martínez,” said manager Carlos Martí prior to the competition, with experience in these battles in 2017 and 2018. “We won with them in Cuba and we are going to fight here,” he proclaimed.
“You always have to be careful with the story,” journalist Francys Romero wrote on his social networks. He recalled that “Cuba’s teams in the Caribbean Series were full of stars between 1950 and 1960.”
The reporter regretted that “after six decades, these Cuban teams are drawn up to motivate a trip for a championship under the sun. They don’t even have reinforcements. It’s painful.”
The Island opened its participation in the current edition of the Caribbean Series with a triumph against Curaçao (3-1). And from there, defeats accompanied the team. The first was against the Dominican Republic (3-1) and then against Mexico (6-5). After the resounding defeat of Agricultores, the team that represents the Island in the Caribbean Series, against Los Leones de Caracas (20-3), Cuba was surpassed by Colombia (5-4), and this Tuesday by Puerto Rico (4-3).
Cuba had not suffered such an embarrassing stumble since February 8, 1977. On that occasion, the representative of the Dominican Republic (Tigres del Licey) connected with 23 hits in a Caribbean Series game, according to the statistical firm Quality Sports.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The Dominican Republic Police arrested Cuban Alejandro David Hernández Castro, accused of committing fraud in three shops. (Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana, 9 February 2023 — The National Police of the Dominican Republic arrested Cuban Alejandro David Hernández Castro on Wednesday for defrauding businesses of 6,612 dollars (376,128 Dominican pesos). According to a report, the detainee, who posed as a baseball player, used a bottomless bank card in three establishments to pay for food and get a tattoo.
Upon learning of Hernández Castro’s arrest, the people who were scammed came to ratify the complaint. A Dominican woman, whose name was omitted, accused the detainee of “consuming food and drinks in the company of several people” in the restaurant located on Mustafá Kemal Street, in the Naco expansion. The bill was $940 (53,528.20 Dominican pesos), which he paid with a card issued in the United States.
According to the Dominican authorities, the card with which “apparently” Hernández Castro paid “is from a US financial institution in which the digital verifone (payment platform) approves payment, but the money never arrives in the account of the commercial establishment.”
The National Police said that the Department of Investigation of Crimes and High-Tech Offenses investigates this type of fraud.
Another accusation against the alleged 22-year-old baseball player was made by the owner of a nightclub. He said that Hernández Castro, in the company of several people, consumed different drinks during his stay in the club, and his bill amounted to 5,273 dollars (300,000 Dominican pesos). The scam was similar to that used at the restaurant. continue reading
A tattoo artist also identified Alejandro David as the person who entered his establishment in the Los Prados sector and presented himself as a baseball player who would be recruited by a Major League team. The alleged athlete asked him to tattoo an image on his back and ended up defrauding him of 400 dollars (22,600 Dominican pesos).
Hernández Castro was arrested while crossing 27 de Febrero Avenue at Abraham Lincoln, in the National District. At the time of the arrest he did not have any identification, and the police later found two false passports among his belongings.
It was also learned that the detainee entered illegally on a raft. The journey was from Haiti, so he was undocumented in the Dominican Republic.
The detainee is under the control of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Naco National District, for the corresponding legal purposes.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
In the Yucatan, 3,917 Covid vaccine doses were administered between January 9 and 31. (Twitter/@desdebalcon)
14ymedio, Mexico, February 7, 2023 — Since December 21, the health authorities in Mexico have applied only 262,540 doses of the Abdala vaccine to reinforce the coronavirus schedule. This amount represents less than 3% of the nine million doses Mexico bought from Cuba, despite the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet approved the emergency use of that vaccine, and there are no studies that certify it “as a booster” against COVID-19.
According to official data, 116,186 vaccines were administered in Mexico City between December 21, 2022 and January 26. This figure generates some suspicion, since the same Ministry of Health in the capital had reported on the 24th of last month the application of the vaccine to 84,515 people. In 48 hours, 31,671 residents of the capital were vaccinated.
According to information obtained from six state health centers and Mexico City, without specifying the number of people to whom the vaccine has been provided or the progress of the scheme, some figures were obtained on the application of Abdala.
The Secretary of Health in the state of Chihuahua, Felipe Sandoval Magallanes, confirmed that of 180,000 doses of Abdala, “only 10,000 doses have been given ” and admitted that it has had little acceptance in the population, so he asked that he be “given the benefit of the doubt.” continue reading
The Cuban vaccine was a failure on immunization day in the Yucatán. There was little demand, and between January 9 and 31, only 3,917 people were interested in receiving the dose.
A similar case occurred in the state of Oaxaca. Almost a month after the start of the day of boosters against COVID-19, this newspaper confirmed that as of last February 3, only 27,811 of the 139,300 vaccines they received from the Mexican Government had been used.
In Baja California, 40,000 units of the Cuban vaccine have been supplied since its delivery in December last year, and 104,600 doses arrived in this state. In Veracruz, only 30,000 biological products from the Island have been injected.
The purchase by Mexico of nine million doses from the Government of Cuba has generated distrust among the population and has been questioned by Mexican specialists.
“Abdala contains aluminum hydroxide as an adjuvant, which is not done for other vaccines against covid-19, since it decreases their effectiveness,” said the infectologist and 2020 National Health Award winner, Francisco Moreno Sánchez.
Health consultant Xavier Tello told the Latinus portal that, given the new variants of the coronavirus, “the recommendation is to use bivalent vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna.” He questioned the use of Abdala, which was acquired by Mexico to reinforce the regimen against SARS-CoV-2: “How do you use a vaccine that no longer works as a booster?”
Meanwhile, other vaccines (based on messenger RNA) have used the complete spike protein (S), which induces defenses in areas where there are mutations. The American Chemical Society warned at the end of 2021 of the possibility that vaccines based on the S protein (Pfizer or Moderna) could fall short if the strategy was not diversified. Since then, pharmaceutical companies have been studying the situation and the possibility of improvements.
Tello told the same media that “Cofepris [Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks] made the decision that this vaccine be approved for emergency use in Mexico as a primary vaccination, which means that a person who is not vaccinated is the one who receives that dose.” He insisted that “there is still no approval” for the use of Abdala “as a booster.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
“The virus was detected in wild birds at the Havana Zoo,” reports Cenasa. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, 7 February 2023 — The National Animal Health Center (Cenasa) has released a brief note in which it officially declares, before the World Organization for Animal Health (WHOA), the presence of avian influenza in Cuba.
The entity, linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, reported that “the virus was detected in wild birds of the Zoological Garden of Havana, located on Avenida 26, municipality of Plaza de la Revolución.”
Cenasa assured that “the corresponding health measures have been implemented to contain the virus, such as quarantine and the temporary closure of the Zoo,” in addition to keeping the population “informed about the evolution of this event.”
Health authorities recommend immediately informing the official veterinary service of any locality if an increase in the mortality of farmed or wild birds is perceived.
Last December, Cenasa had already warned about the possible appearance of viral infection on the Island and clarified that “since 2021 the animal health situation is quite complex due to the appearance of multiple outbreaks around the world.” Faced with this, he advised extreme surveillance mechanisms to prevent it from reaching the country, although he considered the threat as serious. continue reading
Among Cenasa’s recommendations were avoiding the contact of wild birds with poultry breeding, implementing extreme biosecurity measures in poultry facilities and prohibiting the transfer of sick birds. The institution also advised hunters not to take captured birds home and to disinfect everything used in their capture.
The World Health Organization then warned that some subtypes of the virus (H5 and H7) of type A can be highly pathogenic and cause serious disease in birds that can spread quickly, resulting in high mortality rates in different species.
Although it’s uncommon, certain strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza have the ability to infect humans, representing a threat to public health. The main risk factor is direct or indirect contact with infected animals or with environments and surfaces contaminated by feces.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Granma produce 90% of national coffee, according to the official press. (Venceremos)
14ymedio, Havana, 7 February 2023 — Cuba is on a crusade to increase the productivity of its coffee with the renovation of 316,295 acres, of which 67% will be for the cultivation of Robusta, a bean that has less demand in specialized markets and that is bought at a lower price than the soft and sweet Arabica. However, even the Cuban aromatic cannot compete with its Caribbean peers with a production that has been reduced by more than half in the last 30 years.
Felipe Martínez Suárez, director of the Agroforestry Experimental Station, located in the mountainous municipality of Tercer Frente, in Santiago de Cuba, explained to the official newspaper Granma that a team of researchers is working on the recovery of 46,950 acres of Robusta and another 22,240 acres of Arabica. The official explained that it is not about new crops, but about “rectifying the coffee” with the pruning of young branches, changing the canopies and reseeding only when necessary.
The projection is optimistic, he added, and he plans to obtain 25,600 tons of coffee with these measures, two tons for each acre cultivated in the province, which has the highest production nationwide. “We have four years to do all that; otherwise we will not have the amount needed in the country by 2030,” he said.
Coffee activity is mainly carried out in nine provinces: Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Granma represent 90% of national production; in the central region. Sancti Spíritus, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara contribute 7%; and in the west, Artemisa and Pinar de Río provide the remaining 3%. continue reading
Martínez Suárez explained that the coffee development program does not seek to expand the cultivation areas, but to increase yields and improve the infrastructure that currently allows four tons per hectare of Robusta coffee and 2.79 tons of Arabica. “Innovations” such as the use of biotechnology are also required, preventing the planting of new beans and grafts in the field.
Cuba recorded its best harvest in 1961, when it reached 60,330 tons of gold coffee, but since then production has been decreasing, to the point that in the 1970s and 1980s it was reduced by almost two-thirds and placed at 21,863 tons. The decline of the sector continued in the 90s and the 21st century, and by 2021 it barely reached 8,900 tons.
With this production, the Island falls below its peers in the Caribbean. According to the International Coffee Organization (OIC), Cuba obtained 130,000 sacks of coffee (of 132 pounds) in the 2019/2020 harvest while producers in the Dominican Republic reported 402,000 sacks and Haiti, a country with great problems of food insecurity, produced 347,000 sacks.
The production of the Cuban aromatic of the 2019/20 cycle was the highest since the 2008/2009 harvest, when 133,000 sacks were produced. The result, however, is 3.1 times lower compared to the 414,000 sacks obtained in the 1990/1991 cycle, the last year available in the OIC database.
In other words, Cuban coffee production has fallen by 68.5% in the last three decades.
Martínez Suárez acknowledged that the harvest is insufficient to meet domestic demand, and a “million-dollar amount” is allocated for import, so, he promised, “significant volumes” will be allocated from the new production for social consumption and distribution in freely convertible currency stores.
According to their projections, 14,000 tons of the bean will be for the regulated (rationed) consumption of Cuban families, 5,000 for export and 2,000 tons for the cafes of the gastronomic network.
These results are conditional on the sector being able to obtain agricultural inputs to nourish plants, such as biostimulant and fertilizers, the official added. “While they do not reach all the required volume, growth will be more effective with cultural attention,” he said.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 16 Cubans on Tuesday. The photo shows one of the patrol boats on the high seas. (Twitter/USCGSoutheast)
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 8 February 2023 — The first week of January, Landry González and 16 other Cubans landed in Florida. The American dream that he thought he had achieved still seems far away. According to Voice of America (VOA), they did not give him a chance for a credible-fear interview; they gave him a release order that establishes conditions such as attending hearings in the immigration court.
“I was unlucky to be given the I-220A,” lamented this 38-year-old Cuban. “Three friends who arrived a year ago received parole, and my brother, who arrived in 2016, received all the benefits,” he told VOA.
Since the beginning of the year, the rafters who manage to land are being given an expedited deportation order, the verdict issued by a judge for the expulsion of a person but which can be reversed with legal advice. This order has an expiration period of 60 days. Hence, many Cubans do not know if they will really be deported or if they will be able to opt for another solution, because this period of time has not yet expired for them.
On form I-220A, Immigration lawyer Rosaly Chaviano explained that people “can apply for asylum and try to prove a case of credible fear, but their asylum will be pending, and they will have to renew their work permit every two years until they eventually have an interview date, if they are approved.”
The United States has reiterated since the end of last year that any rafter who is arrested on his journey will be returned to his country of origin. In mid-January, the Secretary of National Security of the United States, Alejandro Mayorkas, insisted: “Cubans and Haitians who go to sea and disembark in the United States will not be eligible for the parole process and will be subjected to deportation procedures.” continue reading
On Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 16 Cubans aboard the Issac Mayo ship. According to official figures, since October 1, 2022, the US authorities have thwarted the crossing of 5,576 rafters.
The agency stressed that the “ships that patrol the Florida Straits, the Windward Steps and Mona, prevented more than 100 rafters” from disembarking in the United States between January 27 and February 3. This Wednesday the Coast Guard shared a video of the overflights that are carried out to locate migrants on the high seas.
Some of these attempts by Cubans to reach the United States have ended in the Bahamas, the Royal Defense Force reported last Thursday.
According to official data, 59 Cubans have been detained in the Bahamas so far. On Tuesday, the Telemundo journalist, Jany Gonzalez, shared on her social networks that 31 of these people who left the Island on December 31 on a raft have already been presented to the Court and are waiting to be deported.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported on Tuesday that the number of arrests of migrants trying to cross the southern border of the United States irregularly reached its lowest point in two years in January.
The authorities attribute this decrease to the extension, at the beginning of January, of Title 42, a controversial health regulation, to allow the “hot” expulsions of Haitian, Cuban and Nicaraguan migrants.
As of January 31, the arrests of people of these three nationalities, along with Venezuelans, who have been subject to Title 42 since October, decreased to an average of 95 per day, a drop of 95% compared to the 1,231 daily arrests that were reported at the beginning of the month, a DHS official said.
“In January we saw the lowest number of arrests by the Border Patrol since February 2021,” the official said.
The use of Title 42 by Joe Biden’s government has been widely criticized by human rights organizations and even by some members of the Democratic Party.
“On the ground, at the border, it’s very clear that many people of those four nationalities wait on the Mexican side and desperately try to get an appointment for requesting asylum with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which cannot meet the demand,” Yael Schacher, director for the International Rescue Committee, told EFE.
Many people, in her opinion, are in danger or struggling and are willing to risk crossing the border instead of surrendering, as they would have done before being subject to Title 42.
At the end of January, a group of 80 Democratic congressmen, led by Senator Robert Menéndez, asked to reverse the decision to expel people from Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti who cross the border with Mexico. “Title 42 is a mockery of national and international law.”
The Biden government has defended itself from criticism, insisting that it must continue to implement that program by order of the Supreme Court, which in December accepted a request from about twenty states governed by Republicans and determined that Title 42 should remain active.
In addition to the expansion of the regulations, which restrict access to asylum at the border, the Government plans to impose a five-year ban on entry into the United States on people who cross the border irregularly.
The regulations, inherited from the mandate of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), have allowed more than 2.5 million arrests since it came into force in 2020, according to data from the International Rescue Committee.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Women have been employed more in the state sector, which, according to Cubadebate, decreases their chances of starting their own business. (EFE)
14ymedio, Madrid, 30 January 2023 — Just 23.3% of the members of the 4,096 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) approved by the Cuban Government at the end of June 2022 were women. The data, offered this Sunday by Cubadebate, dedicated to analyzing the gender gap, joins other data that show that women are far from occupying the role that the official press attributes to them every March 8, when it boasts of the predominant place they have reached “thanks to the Revolution.”
A report by the consulting firm Auge has analyzed 100 MSMEs they advised and of the 178 partners of those businesses, 66% are men and 34% are women. The study warns of another inequality, the predominant profile is that of men aged 30 to 55 years old and they are also the ones who have the most stakes in companies with more than one partner.
Other official data, although in this case from five years ago, are those released by the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (Onei), which placed the gender gap at 27%. The rate of male economic activity in 2018 was 76.9%, while the female rate barely reached 49.5%, with less employment in rural areas.
The official newspaper also notes in this article the miserable monthly salary of the state sector in that year, which was 777 pesos (32 dollars with the exchange rate current for that date).
Ileana Díaz, a professor at the University of Havana and coordinator of her Entrepreneurship Network, tells Cubadebate that the situation with regard to companies only conveys to the sector what was already happening in self-employment, a precursor of private business on the Island. Some 30% of those who worked on their own were women and most — she indicates without specifying the figure — did so as employees of the business owner and not as owners. continue reading
“They have less accumulated capital than men; not only financial, but also social, relational, which prevents them from moving more easily in the business and business world,” emphasizes the economist.
Few women have the 100,000 pesos on average that new businesses declare according to Auge data, says the article, attributing that lack to the fact that it is more common for men to own properties, such as cars or houses, whose sale can provide them with that initial capital.
The note shows the recognition that the public sector has been a factor of increase in the gender gap in Cuba, since it considers that women have less “relational capital” because they have worked more for the state “and almost always as officials or specialists and not in a management or decision-making position.”
They also attribute it to the widespread assumption of household chores and family care, something that the Revolution allegedly also aspired to leave behind. “Cuban society is better prepared than others to implement affirmative actions that favor access to economic spaces without discrimination, since the equality of people is a generalized value and verified in the laws,” says the Cubadebate article, which also starts by resorting to the embargo as an excuse.
The worsening of the island’s economic situation, which they attribute to the increase in US sanctions and the pandemic – which in turn have caused tourism to plunge “and put various stumbling blocks into the process of economic order” — worsens even more an already worse situation for women in employment, says the article.
“The tense economic situations of recent decades have made family daily life very challenging and overloaded, above all, for women,” says the article, which calls for thinking with a gender perspective when addressing “economic transformations.”
Although the gender gap is a feature common to all countries, with greater or lesser intensity, the recognition clashes with the traditional discourse of the regime, which it affirmed last March 8th in an article for Women’s Day. “It would be enough to look around us today to see in important political and state positions, of the economy, health, science and technology, education, diplomacy, parliament, sport, mass organizations, defense and security bodies, in everything, the special and often majority presence of women.”
The text also recalled the words of Fidel Castro, who had already stated in 1959. “When our Revolution is judged in future years, one of the issues for which we will be judged will be the way in which we have solved, in our society and in our homeland, the problems of women, even if it is one of the problems of the Revolution that require more tenacity, more firmness, more perseverance and effort.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The roof of the steel mill, with a maximum height of 148 feet and a total extension of 88,583 feet, could only be 40% repaired. (Granma)
14ymedio, Havana, 4 February 2023 — With the credit of 111 million dollars, offered by Russia to Cuba in 2017, the integral repair of Antillana de Acero has been achieved. Now, the experts say that it remains to be seen how, in a country that lives to the rhythm of blackouts, the enormous amount of electrical energy necessary to run the ovens, cranes and other equipment will be obtained.
Interviewed by the official State newspaper Granma, the CEO of Antillana, Reinier Guillén Otero, confirmed that the situation of his company was “critical.” They had been negotiating with Russia for years over the financing of the repair, which was approved five years ago. The result, rather than restoring, was to replace, in practice, the entire structure of the factory.
The Russian credit was distributed to 54 projects, calculated Guillén, including steelmaking, which needed the “most expensive and dangerous” process. The roof of the steel mill, with a maximum height of 148 feet and a total extension of 88,583 feet, could be only 40% repaired.
The renovation of the streets, the foundations of the plant and other common spaces needed 1,099,868 gallons of “high-strength” concrete. The cranes of the installation, essential for the transfer of the scrap, and the oven to melt the steel were also repaired. continue reading
The work should be completed by August of this year, although managers admit that important steps are still missing in the assembly of new cranes, the installation of some equipment and the general works of the factory. However, Granma’s report avoids calculating how Antillana de Acero will deal with the instability of the National Electricity System.
Aristides, an electrical engineer, worked for 22 years in the factory and received with concern the news that the colossus is producing again. “It is a huge consumer of electricity because it has electric arc furnaces that consume a lot of energy. In addition, the traveling cranes necessary to move the loads are 100% electric. In other words, it is to be expected that this entry into operation will strain the energy situation,” he tells 14ymedio.
The retired engineer recalls the structure of the plant, which he considers “a small town within the city,” with its large rolling workshop and another of machining, a continuous emptying installation, which converts the liquid metal into the so-called billets that once achieved are passed through giant rollers that compress them until they are converted into steel bars.”
Arístides, who knows the energy cost involved in the start-up of Antillana de Acero, believes that “if they are going to reactivate production it is because they already have a safe foreign contract with a country or company that is going to buy the steel.” From the million-dollar investment made by Russia, it could be speculated that part of the product will end up in the Eurasian country.
Inquiring about the military use of Cuban steel, Aristides believes that “it does not have the quality to be used in armaments because it is a carbon steel” although he recalls that at “at one time grenades were made for the training of the MTT (Militia of Territorial Troops), but it was very brief. There was tremendous paranoia at first but in the end — like everything in this country — the workers ended up even using the grenades as paperweights in the offices.”
“There has never been enough production to cover national demand, and part of those steel bars is exported. They have always prioritized export, which is what brings in hard currency. Some of the auxiliary workshops have the capacity to provide services to Cubans but they have never been given authorization for that,” says Aristides. “It could solve many problems and also pay someone money for that work, but it has never interested them.”
The engineer refers to the fact that the neighbors of the factory could be paid for blacksmithing, turning and parts assembly. “Like all Cuban industry, even though they say it’s efficient, it is actually insufficient, because it has focused only on steel sections that are rolled or pressed into shapes, and although in the past the steel mill made other products, such as balls designed to break concrete, that line has been closed for a long time.”
Steel sections and bars and rods are the skeleton of any construction and elements that are currently scarce on the Island, where housing deterioration and housing deficits have been growing significantly in recent years. The official sale of these construction elements has been reduced to those affected by the most recent hurricanes, and on the informal market, prices are skyrocketing.
“You find steel that you can see has already been used in formwork or taken from abandoned buildings, and that’s what you have to work with,” Samuel, a young man of 31, who together with his family is “pulling the new plate” for the roof on his home, in the Havana municipality of Cerro, explains to this newspaper. “Now we are stopped by lack of steel bars and rods, and we have been doing this for two years because what you find is very expensive.”
When Samuel has tried to haggle over the price of steel with informal merchants, the invariable response is that “it’s because Antillea is still disrupted.” Now that the colossus of El Cotorro will produce again, the young man has some hopes that “therods and bars will start to be seen” and his home will have the roof he lost again due to leaks and deterioration.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Miguel Díaz-Canel receives a group of Russian businessmen on January 18, 2023 at the Palace of the Revolution, in Havana, Cuba. (Cuba Presidency/YouTube/Captura)
14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, February 4, 2023 — It’s evident that the Castro leadership, those whom they call moncadistas [the ones who took part in the attack on the Moncada barracks, celebrated every July 26], by their stubbornness in maintaining privileges and fortunes at all costs, don’t cease to reinvent themselves by resorting to any maneuver in order to preserve power, the only guarantee of their survival. Miguel Díaz-Canel has shown great talent in managing to genuflect before the Castros.
There is no denying that the Castros, the First Family on the Island, knew how to make their transition from power. They found the ideal person to run their errands, while they continue doing as they wish with the rights of Cubans, so much so that I dare to parody a song by Panchito Riset: “Fidel, the little room is the same as you left it, as you arranged it.”
Nothing has changed in Cuba, although there is no shortage of those who despair about finding developments that would indicate a new direction, or of those who continue demonizing the opponents of totalitarianism. The new governance acts under the instructions of the Castros. The nature of the regime is the same as 64 years ago. Those who sponsor a policy of coexistence are wrong, as are those who defend giving carrots to the dictatorship, which only strangles the people.
Also, those who assumed the Spanish transition as a model for the change in the Castro regime were wrong, just like those who said that when Fidel is gone, [the Revolution] “will crumble like a merengue [cake] at the door of a school” (a very Cuban expression). We have been mistaken in the predictions of how Cuban totalitarianism would end. However, I have no doubt that it will end as long as there are Cubans in prison demanding their rights, such as the young Angélica and María Cristina Garrido, Lizandra Góngora Espinosa, Félix Navarro,José Daniel Ferrer and a thousand other people, after 64 years of a doctrinal dictatorship. continue reading
A few weeks ago my friend and prison mate, Juan José Estrada, warned that the Russians, whom Cubans called bolos [from ’Bolsheviks’] in the sixties because they were crude, poorly dressed and smelled bad, would return to Cuba to the rhythm of capitalism and not in representation of a failed regime that victimized both Russians and Cubans. He suspects that this became a reality in past days.
The presence of Russian businessmen on the Island — most likely some were KGB leaders along with Vladimir Putin — should be an indication for the hitmen of Castroism, those who beat, imprisoned and condemned the young protestors of July 11, 2021, that the regime they defend is doomed to failure and that their crimes have a punishment, as Fyodor Dostoyevsky would write.
Estrada stated in his comment that the Russians would visit Cuba as predators more voracious than the mafia that they had displaced halfway around the world, not as officials ready to squander their goods, as Moscow did in the past for ideological reasons. These realities don’t worry the Island’s totalitarian leaders as long as they hold onto power.
The interesting thing was that the visit of Russian businessmen coincided with the trip of President Joe Biden’s government officials to Havana. A paradoxical truth: the Russians came to do business, while the Americans visited Cuba to “establish and increase channels for law enforcement cooperation to better address transnational threats, not at the expense of human rights.”
It’s difficult understand the stubborn desire of some politicians, businessmen and social leaders of different nationalities to negotiate with Castro totalitarianism, arguing that the precarious situation of Cubans has a solution with the supply of goods and migratory placebos. The violation of the rights of Cubans and the opportunities that are denied to them are decisions of their own Government, not of foreign powers.
The problem lies in the prevailing system and not in its environment. Cuba was not a failed state or sponsor of terrorism before the arrival of the Castros. It was far from being a paradise, but it was a viable country, just as Venezuela and Nicaragua were before the arrival of Chávez, Maduro and Ortega-Murillo.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The answer of “500 pesos each” was enough for a murmur of indignation to run through the line. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 6 February 2023 — On the facade the English word “Grocery” is printed, and the line extends to the area outside the small private market recently opened on the ground floor of the Miramar Trade Center in Havana. Among airline offices, foreign companies and bank branches, the Pelegrin store, managed by a small business, had more curious than potential customers this Monday.
“And that milk? How much is it?” a woman asked a young man who left the premises with two packages of the product that carried a seal with the colors of the French flag and the clarification “Whole.” The answer of “500 pesos each” was enough for a murmur of indignation to run through the crowd. Despite the high price, no one moved from the line until they were able to access the market.
“I found out because I read on the internet that this store had opened,” a woman who bought some sweet vanilla cookies explained to 14ymedio. “They told me that it was only an assortment but it’s not that bad. There is more than in state stores in Cuban pesos, but it’s not a wonder either. I think they’ve made a mistake with the zeros on the right,” she said about the prices. continue reading
Small private companies engaged in the sale of imported food have been noticed in recent months in Cuba. (14ymedio)
Small private companies engaged in the sale of imported food have been noticed in recent months in Cuba with goods that they bring from countries in the region, such as Panama, Colombia, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Given the low productivity of the national industry, beer, malt, soft drinks and sweets with foreign brands cross the path of private trade.
The phenomenon has not escaped the popular humor that has already reinterpreted the acronyms that make up micro, small and medium-sized enterprises [mipyme (or SMEs)] with the acronym of import markets at high prices manicheados [managed] by the State. So far, the new form of management, which is presented in the official discourse as the key to getting out of the crisis, seems to be more for resale than for production of goods.
Hence, no one seemed surprised this Monday in Pelegrin that the 10-ounce packages of soda cookies cost 335 pesos. The price did not cause a great fuss because “the self-employed businesses are more expensive,” said a man who calculated that each one contains 15 sachets with three cookies inside, at “22 pesos per package and 7 per cookie.”
The store has a small area to serve customers, but behind the windows you can see a large warehouse where they accumulate the merchandise. (14ymedio)
The store has a small area to serve customers, but behind the windows you can see a large warehouse where they accumulate the merchandise they sell. “The cafeteria on the ground floor of my house in Centro Habana is better stocked but it’s true that it is a little cheaper here, but getting to this place costs the difference,” stressed a man who was “by chance” at the Miramar Trade Center looking for a plane ticket to Panama.
Among Pelegrin’s most expensive products, a 35-pound bag of dry dog food stands out, a mixture of salmon and potato, for a whopping 20,600 pesos. The product, of the Kirkland brand marketed by the international chain of Costco supermarkets, has the “Made in USA” letterhead. It has been imported to a country where official stores, specialized in the sector, have not sold pet food for more than a year.
This morning, the Siberian husky printed on the package seemed to look with some arrogance at the customers who let their jaws drop in front of the market counter when they heard the price, more than three times what it costs in the stores of the American chain, if calculated at the official rate of the dollar exchange in Cuba. “This is animalistic, for sure,” concluded an old woman.
“My dog doesn’t look like that, and I’m not going to spend half a year’s salary buying that food for him. Mine will keep eating leftovers and whatever else appears,” said another customer who, in the end, only bought a can of imported Coca Cola for 155 pesos. “I think they put ’Grocery’ outside so that people won’t confuse it with a state store,” he added before leaving the premises.
Among Pelegrin’s most expensive products, a 35-pound sack of dry dog food stands out, a mixture of salmon and potato, for a whopping 20,600 pesos. (14ymedio)The use of the word in English, instead of its Hispanic variants of “food store” or “ration store” is not accidental. Both Spanish terms are marked on the Island by the negative shadow that more than 60 years of rationed markets and centralism have projected on trade. The foreign term could seek to move away from the known and evoke another type of more assorted and efficient bazaar.
But whatever it is called and in whatever language, Pelegrin has prices that are triple that of a box of milk in Madrid or of pet food in Miami. Like other stores managed by SMEs, it seems to be oriented to a social class with enough money to spend 180 pesos on a tiny glass container of yogurt, the daily salary of an engineer.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
14ymedio, Havana, 13 February 2022 — Half the Island is without power this Monday, as reported by the Cuban Electric Union (UNE) itself on its networks and confirmed to 14ymedio by sources in several affected provinces.
