Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 88

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Two Cuban Economists Criticize the Obstinacy in Favoring Inefficient State Agriculture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Prisoner’s Dilemma in Cuban Society

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba and Russian Mafia Capitalism

President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Russian advisor Titov Boris Yurievich, accompanied by other officials, this January in Havana. (Presidency)

14ymedio, Jorge Hernández Fonseca, Miami, May 8, 2023 — Cuba today faces a dangerous future: the implantation of Russian mafia capitalism on the Island. It is the defeat of communist ideology, without disguises or half measures. But it is also the victory of the continuation of Castroism, now without ideology, ruling on the Island. Russian capitalism works, although not in the democratic way it should. It is the farewell “gift” that Raúl Castro gives to Cubans, whom – like Fidel – he has always ignored.

An agreement for the implementation of the experiment has just been signed on the Island, between a direct envoy of Putin and the Castro authorities. Previously, Díaz-Canel and the Russian leaders had agreed to implement the “Russian political-economic system” on the island, a declaration of incompetence on the Cuban side to govern and give its people the minimum.

They have already delivered the Uruguay sugar mill in Jatibonico to Russia, and the Russians will enter the Island pretending to make “investments,” which will be nothing more than taking over all the unproductive companies in the country and sharing them with the local, incompetent communist leaders.

As part of the game – of course – they will have to give the Cuban farmers some economic freedom to produce. Then we will see a surplus of agricultural production since, whenever this has happened, farmers have filled the country with all kinds of food. continue reading

The political dictatorship will remain intact; the repression of opponents will be increased to maintain material and power perks; and those well-intentioned innovators outside the party will have their actions limited, because the idea is, as in Russia, that only the “partners” of the dictator can be “oligarchs,” to protect political power.

Most likely there will be food and some material goods, and the day to day will be more bearable. There will be no political and social freedom, and the only thing that can be expected from the dictator and his gang is that, as in Russia, they continue to oppress the people even as they end the ration book.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Thanks to the Arrival of a Ship From the United States, Cubans Over the Age of 13 Will Have Chicken in May

Sale of chicken in the Nueva Imagen store belonging to the Caribbean Chain in the municipality of Taguasco, in Sancti Spíritus. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 6 May 2023 — On Friday, the Cuban government reversed the measure taken last week to eliminate the rationed sale of chicken to Cubans over age 13, who would have to settle for picadillo and mortadella. The change coincides with the arrival at the port of Havana of a container ship carrying chicken, confirmed by 14ymedio.

In a brief note, the Ministry of Internal Trade reported that the selling of chicken from the regulated family basket began this Friday in Camagüey, while the distribution in the other provinces will depend on the future availability of the food. The institution explained that children up to and including the age of 13 will receive one and a half pounds of poultry, and, from the age of 14, they will be entitled to only one pound.

The websites that follow the international maritime movement, recorded the arrival this Friday in Havana of the ship Orange Spirit, with the flag of the Bahamas, from New Orleans, United States.

Faced with the fall in chicken imports from the United States, the Cuban authorities acknowledged last week that they did not have enough food for national distribution and excluded those over 13 years of age from deliveries, with the exception of people on medical diets.

Chicken imports from the United States fell in March for the second consecutive month, when Cuba spent $17,830,000 for 18,280 tons purchased, while in February it had bought 23,014 tons for $23,500,000. continue reading

Cuba imports chicken meat from the United States, Brazil, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands, although the supply of the latter two countries is unstable, with months in which not a single pound enters. Purchases from Brazil also plummeted by 68.1% between February and March, going from 3,565 to 1,137 tons, although they registered a more significant drop in January, with 975.5 tons.

Cuban economist Pedro Monreal pointed out that the Island could not take advantage of the lower price of American chicken in March, which he attributed to the lack of foreign exchange on the part of the Government. The United States sold a kilogram of meat [2.2 pounds] at an average of $0.97, five cents less than the $1.02 it cost last February.

The price of chicken meat skyrocketed in the second half of 2022 due to the increase in the price of feed for poultry — mainly corn, wheat and sorghum. This resulted in the price for Cuba reaching its highest ceiling in October, at $1.29 for 2.2 pounds, but decreasing to $0.93 in January of this year.

In recent weeks, the availability of food on store shelves has also been affected by the fuel crisis, which the country has been suffering since April. The general director of Merchandise Sales of the Ministry of Internal Trade, Francisco Silva, assured, interviewed by the official press, that priority will be given to the distribution of the food corresponding to May, available in the warehouses since April 29.

The absence of chicken, pigs, beef and fish is increasingly noticeable on the table of Cuban families, despite the fact that these foods are rich in protein and a source of energy for human development.

In Matanzas, the diets of malnourished and low-weight children, as well as pregnant women, are covered with quail eggs replacing chicken eggs. Boris Tiel Carraveo, director of the Poultry Company of the province, assured the official press that the meat is also sold to them in the “final decrepitude” phase of the bird.

The farms produce nine million units daily, whose main destination is social consumption and the young. The official assured that the plan contemplates obtaining eight million eggs in 2023, of which they had 2.4 million up to April.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Fall in Cuba’s Purchases From the United States in March Anticipated the Removal of Chicken From the Ration Book

Line for chicken in Luyanó last March, when purchases were minimum despite the low price. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 5 May 2023 — The amount of chicken exported from the United States to Cuba fell in March for the second consecutive month, the lowest level since October 2022, despite the decrease in the cost. “The best prices could not be taken advantage of, probably due to the shortage of foreign exchange,” explains Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, who analyzes monthly, on his social networks, the imports of chicken to the Island.

In total, Cuba spent $17,830,000 on the 18,280.1 tons acquired, while in February it bought 23,014.7 tons for $23,500,000. “The value of monthly chicken exports from the United States to Cuba in March 2023 decreased by 24.2% compared to February, which was reflected in a monthly contraction of 20.6% in the tons exported,” says Monreal.

One kilogram (2.2 pounds) of U.S. chicken sold at $0.97 in the third month of the year, five cents less than in February, when it was $1.02, although not as cheap as in January ($0.93). Throughout the second half of 2022, chicken prices reached very high values, with the peak in October when it reached $1.29.

However, the price is much more attractive a priori than that of chicken from Brazil, another of the large suppliers of the product to Cuba. In this case, the product cost $1.27 in March, compared to $1.23 and $2.06 in February and January respectively. The calculations are made without counting freight and insurance, more expensive in the case of Brazil due to the distance, although another determining factor is that the embargo forces Havana to pay in cash and in advance for the food products of its northern neighbor. continue reading

Chicken imports from different countries starting in January 2022. (Pedro Monreal)

Despite this, Cuba didn’t buy more chicken from Brazil either. Exports from that country to the Island also fell visibly, remaining at just 1,137.7 tons, compared to 3,565.7 in February, which was a very high amount compared to the average, which during 2022 was at 2,769 tons, with highs of 5,959.8 in February of that year. Despite the fact that a scarce 975.5 tons of Brazilian chicken were bought in January 2023, Cubans perceive more presence of this product in stores lately.

The data published by Monreal also reveal that other traditional suppliers have practically disappeared from the map. Between January 2022 and March of this year, Spain has sent a few tons half of the months, a situation similar to that of Poland, although with higher quantities. The Netherlands, which in several periods sold quantities greater than 4,500 tons, has not sold anything in 2023, according to Trade Map figures.

Those same numbers show that chicken imports were not so low a year ago, in May 2022, when purchases were around 17,500 tons, even less than the 20,000 of this March. The difference was that in the previous months of last year a large volume had been amassed, while so far in 2023, purchases have only decreased.

The accounts correspond to the reality on the Island, where for this month it is not expected that there will be chicken in the ration book except for those who have a medical diet and those age 13 amnd under. The rest must be satisfied with picadillo and mortadella. The news was given in a note from the Ministry of Internal Trade that explained the recent difficulties for the supply of the basic family basket.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba and Russia Sign a Memorandum To Promote Joint Investment Projects

Signing of the Memorandum on mutual understanding for the realization of the Russian-Cuban Investment Initiative. (Russian Embassy in Cuba)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 5 May 2023 — In Havana on Thursday, Cuba and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding for the bilateral investment initiative that includes the business projects agreed to between the two countries with the aim of expanding their relations.

Cuba’s Deputy Prime Minister and Head of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Ricardo Cabrisas, signed the document together with the adviser to the Russian Presidency for economic affairs, Maxim Oreshkin, at the end of his visit to the Island at the head of a delegation of officials and businesspeople.

Cabrisas pointed out that there is the political will of both governments to “advance rapidly” in the economic-commercial sector, according to the state Cuban News Agency (ACN).

Both officials stressed the importance of the meetings that took place between managers and businessmen from the two countries. continue reading

In their discussions, they addressed the main issues to promote the participation of Russian investors in the implementation of Cuba’s Economic and Social Development Program until 2030, in sectors such as energy, tourism, food production, civil aviation infrastructure, sugar industry and mining.

The day before, Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel and the adviser to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, held a meeting in which they ratified the intention to bring bilateral economic, commercial and financial ties to the same level as political relations.

During the conversation, Oreshkin said that the main work guidelines that have been proposed for the development of economic relations between the two nations are focused on energy, the increase in tourist flow and the investments of Russian companies in Cuba.

Díaz-Canel said that the presence of the Russian delegation on the Island has “a lot of significance” and that it gives continuity to the exchanges of high-level visits held in recent months.

Last week, the chancellor of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, and the president of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, were in Havana, and previous visitors included the secretary of the Security Council, Nikolai Paptrushev, the president of the bilateral Business Council, Boris Titov, and the executive director of the state oil giant Rosneft, Igor Sechin.

Russia is Cuba’s second regional trading partner and Cuba’s fifth trading partner at the global level.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Human Rights Commission Forces Mexico to Re-Accept a Family of Cubans

The Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (COMAR) has received 48,970 applications for refuge in the first four months of the year, of which 3,374 are from Cubans. (EFE)

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 5 May 5, 2023 — The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) on Thursday ordered the National Institute of Migration (INM) to repair the damage caused to a family of four Cubans that it deported in November 2022 “despite having refugee status.” The measure includes “some compensation,” without specifying what it consists of, in addition to “allowing them to enter” Mexico and “to be given the medical and psychological care they require.”

According to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), the agents violated the rights of these people by not “verifying their documentation,” detaining them for eight days in a way station in the state of Tabasco and “returning” them to the Island.

As punishment, the officers involved in the arbitrary deportation will only be given “training and education in human rights, focused on legal security, legality and the principle of non-return.”

According to its archives, on December 1 of last year the human rights organization received the complaint of one of the victims. In the letter he details that on November 8 they were arrested at a checkpoint on the road section that goes from La Venta to Villahermosa with the argument that the documents certified by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (COMAR) were not valid. continue reading

Six months after the deportation of the Cuban family and five months after the complaint, the CNDH determined that the Migration agents “did not conduct a thorough interview” nor did they grant the necessary conditions so that the aggrieved people could file the appropriate appeals or trials.

In the interview with COMAR on October 11, one of the deported Cubans said: “Since 2018 it’s been hell for me and my family to be able to live in my country; we suffer constant police harassment.” He said that he was arrested in December of that year, “beaten and threatened with death for claiming my right as a citizen.”

This Cuban specified that on July 12, 2022, his father was intimidated at work by the police and “suffered threats against his life and that of his family.”

According to COMAR’s statistics, in the first four months of the year, 3,374 Cubans have applied for refuge, 333 have been accepted, 607 rejected and 2,434 Island nationals are still waiting for resolution of their cases.

The deportation of this family of Cubans “violated the Migration laws,” migrant defender José Luis Pérez Jiménez told 14ymedio. “During the past year, there were clandestine deportations of Cubans, despite the fact that they have stays granted by district judges or COMAR documentation.”

A month before the arrest of this family, journalist Mario J. Pentón denounced through his social networks that a group of Cubans had been taken with the deception that they would “process their refugee status” at the Mexico City International Airport, where they were put on a plane with the intention of deporting them. But thanks to the evidence, this was avoided.

In April, Ramón Tejera told this newspaper that together with his wife Yairely Andreu and daughter they were deported for not paying Migration agents an extortion of 1,500 dollars at a checkpoint. The family was transferred to the Border Bridge II of Piedras Negras despite having safe-conducts of legal stay for 180 days.

During their arrest, an officer told this Cuban naval engineer: “If you give me 4,000 dollars per person I will take you to the Rio Grande to cross.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Russia’s Waste of Good Intentions Towards Cuba During the Visit of Putin’s Economic Adviser

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, meeting with Oreshkin, highlighted from Moscow his “enormous sensitivity to the problems of Cuba.” (Granma)

14ymedio, Madrid, 3 May 2023 — This is the third consecutive week of a high-level Russian visit to Cuba. Maxim Oreshkin, economic adviser to President Vladimir Putin, met on Tuesday with the highest authorities of the Island, starting with President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who highlighted from Moscow his “enormous sensitivity to Cuba’s problems.” The Cuban president recalled the Russian cooperation of August 2021, during the oxygen crisis at the worst moment of the pandemic, and said: “That is a fact that we carry in our hearts, in our feelings and for which we will be grateful for all our lives.”

Oreshkin’s meetings with Ricardo Cabrisas, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Foreign Trade and Investment, and Joaquín Alonso Vázquez, President of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), made it clear that, sentimentality aside, the Russian arrival is about business, although nothing concrete appears on the horizon, beyond Moscow’s good intentions.

Cabrisas approached several cooperation proposals with Putin’s man, including the possible creation of a regular Russia-Latin America or Russia-Caribbean maritime service. The recently-debuted minister, a substitute for Rodrigo Malmierca, nominated the Island as the center of operations for that route by assuring that Cuba “has a maritime port, air and road infrastructure that could allow connectivity, but that needs modernization.” With this he made clear, without saying it, that the money would have to come from Russia.

Next, Cabrisas pointed out to Oreshkin other sectors where it would be possible to invest: energy, agro-food, finance and tourism, to which the Russian replied that Cuba has to “pay attention to commercial exchange to increase and diversify exports, in particular those associated with health and tourism.” continue reading

In addition, the economist spoke of exploring other ways of collaboration through foreign investment and his interest in the — now-collapsed — sugarcane business, an industry in which the Russians have already created a joint venture to resurrect the Uruguay sugar mill in Jatibonico, currently in remodeling works.

From Oreshkin’s meeting with the president and the three vice presidents of the BCC, little has happened, except for Cabrisas’ laments about the “more than 100 banks from different regions of the world [that] suspended operations and correspondents with the Cuban banking system as a result of the inclusion in that unilateral list,” he said, in reference to the plan prepared by Washington to sanction countries which it considers sponsors of terrorism. That, he added, “creates delays in executing collections and payments with foreign partners.”

The restructuring of the debt with Moscow, whose extension until 2027 was negotiated by Cabrisas himself and ratified last year by the Russian institutions, and the new payment system through Mir bank cards, which has been working for tourists on the Island since March, are some of the issues that concern the BCC and that would justify this Tuesday’s meeting, although the official press has not expressly mentioned them.

Some analysts consider that the meetings were more propagandistic than concrete, since the only thing published so far have been proposals, conversations and plans to reactivate the financing for “programs that remain paralyzed.”

“In the end, if you look beneath the surface, you can see that they are the same agreements that the delegation led by Díaz Canel had on the table during the visit to Moscow last year,” says economist Elías Amor in his blog Cubaeconomía, where today he analyzes the meeting in a post entitled Cuba and Russia: a lot of noise, little substance. The expert recalls that for months there has been talk of plans that have not been realized, just like the projects before the pandemic that are now described as “paralyzed.”

Senior Russian officials already revealed in 2020 that many agreements remain unimplememted due to the breaches on the Cuban side. As for the announcement of the maritime service, the most recent project launched during the meeting with Oreshkin, Amor wonders why in thirty years of relationship with Russia it has not been carried out. “Cabrisas should ask himself why that service does not exist and if, really, the Russian economic hierarchs and global freight forwarders are in favor of the work.”

In any case, Oreshkin’s visit comes a few days after that of the State Duma President, Vyacheslav Volodin, who was in Cuba last Saturday, April 29, two weeks after the visit of Chancellor Sergey Lavrov on the 20th, with Raúl Castro’s reception included.

In addition, Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council; Igor Sechin, Executive Director of the state oil giant Rosneft; and Boris Titov, President of the Bilateral Business Council, who has been advising the Cuban government on changes it must make in the economy, have been on the Island — in Elías Amor’s opinion, for the expansion of private businesses. Cuban economists abroad, however, consider that the Russians’ advice is nothing more than promoting the creation of mafia oligarchies in the style of those that have been operating in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Maxim Oreshkin has become, at just 40 years old, a key man in Putin’s war economy, according to the economic media Bloomberg in a profile created in August last year. His role, according to Sergei Guriev, a Russian economist exiled in Paris, is “to find out how to circumvent sanctions, and he is doing so quite successfully.”

Among the policies he promoted were negotiations with European Union countries that agreed to pay for Russian gas with rubles and banking plans to limit the effect of the interruption of the Swift financial messaging service.

Oreshkin, sanctioned for putting his economic policies at the service of war, is firmly opposed to the state-centralized economy. “Russia is not going to abandon the market economy, on the contrary. Now private initiative is especially encouraged. The president constantly points it out in his speeches,” he told Bloomberg.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba and Russia: a Lot of Noise, Little Substance

Ricardo Cabrisas, Deputy Prime Minister of Cuba and main negotiator of its foreign debt. (EFE)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 3 May 2023 — The old guys, you already know. Cuba’s new deputy prime minister and, at the same time, minister of foreign trade and foreign investment, Ricardo Cabrisas, who replaced the all-powerful Malmierca at the head of the leadership of the wealth economy in Cuba, has debuted in office with the signing of a series of agreements with the Russian presidential adviser Máxim Oreshkin to, according to the state press, “deepen bilateral economic relations and carry out projects in sectors of mutual interest.”

In the end, if you look beneath the surface a little, you can see that they are the same agreements that the delegation headed by Díaz-Canel had on the table during the visit to Moscow last year. This type of news is part of a propagandist sequence that, for the regime, and in particular for Díaz-Canel, is phenomenal, throwing balls off the field to gain time. In the end, Cabrisas has been, and is, an expert in this art, and therefore no one has great expectations of what the presence of the Russian delegation on the Island means. It is nothing more than another example of the relationship between the two countries, even in very delicate moments like the current one, in which there are questions about Putin and rejection of the war in Ukraine.

In this case, Cuba has decided to accompany Putin in this adventure and go to the end, if necessary, although this will earn it international disapproval. We will see this in the coming months. Díaz-Canel was in charge of making Cuba’s position very clear: “Convey an affectionate greeting to Putin, whom we thank for the support that the Russian Federation has given us in the fight against the blockade.”

For his part, Cabrisas was happy, although he knows that these operations are limited and can end as quickly as they are announced. So he dedicated himself to stating to the media what everyone knows. “Russia constitutes for Cuba the second commercial partner at the regional level and the fifth at the global level, with a growing trend of commercial exchange since 2017.” Well, and what good is that for the Cubans? Have they seen their living conditions improve? continue reading

Díaz-Canel stressed that “the presence of this Russian delegation in the Greater Antilles has a lot of significance and gives continuity to the exchange of high-level visits that has been maintained over the course of recent months.” In his opinion, “it marks an intention of follow-up, of continuity to all the agreements that we have established as a whole, and is another expression of the deepening of bilateral relations between our governments and our peoples, which are historic and characterized by a high level of political dialogue, of coincidence on many points of the international agenda and of joint support in international forums on various topics.” But really, to date, very little of what was agreed has been put into practice.

And related to this, the Cuban minister had the idea of asking for the creation of a “regular maritime service, Russia-Latin America or Russia-Caribbean, for which Cuba has a maritime port, air and road infrastructure that could allow connectivity, both internally and abroad, but that needs modernization.” Doesn’t that regular maritime service exist after the three decades of relationship between Cuba and the former USSR? Cabrisas should ask himself why not, and if really the Russian economic hierarchs and the global freight forwarders favor the work.

A good example of the projects is that, once again, energy, agro-industrial, financial and tourism areas are cited, that Cuba wants to promote with Russian money and which have not yet taken place. Does anyone know why? There must be a reason.

Putin’s adviser tried to look good, and in the communist state press, “he condemned the U.S. commercial, economic and financial blockade of Cuba” and showed a strange willingness of his country to defend itself together with Cuba from unilateral sanctions imposed by western centers of power on the two countries. As if Cuba were currently being subjected to measures such as those applied to Russia by the invasion of Ukraine. It is important to point out that they have nothing to do with it.

He also said, as if he were a magician, that his country “brought to Cuba a set of investment initiatives, with projects that will seek to contribute to the income of this Caribbean nation.” And he added that they are working on the development of “a new format of relations and interaction to take advantage of the existing potentialities in the Cuban economy” that can be specified in the signing of a protocol between the two countries to establish specific projects that must be put into practice. Well, how long will we have to wait for it? Will it be the same as the small and medium-sized enterprises project?

Doesn’t all this sound like the same thing that was said in Moscow during Díaz-Canel’s visit? This whole issue of Cuba and Russia relations sounds like a broken record. A lot of noise, little substance.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Killing the Castro We Carry Inside Us

“WE ARE FIDEL” – The greatest challenge that we Cubans face is not only to overthrow a despicable dictatorship, but to know how to build a democratic country tomorrow, truly free, without dogmas. (Cuban State TV Roundtable program)

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 2 May 2023 — The Cuban dictatorship has practiced for decades the exclusion and extermination of anyone who thinks differently. They shot and put thousands of adversaries behind bars, locked others in concentration camps, ostracized hundreds of artists and intellectuals, and pushed almost a quarter of the population into forced exile.

To raise the flags of intolerance, they always used the excuse of the besieged fortress. Anyone who dared to depart from the dogma was accused of being an “accomplice” of the historical enemy, a CIA agent or a mercenary in the service of the empire.

The worst thing that could happen to those of us who oppose fundamentalism would be to end up reproducing their methods. The playwright René Ariza closes the documentary Improper Conduct by saying: “You have to watch out for the Castro that everyone has inside.” The greatest challenge that we Cubans face is not only to overthrow a despicable dictatorship, but to know how to build tomorrow a democratic country, truly free, without dogmas.

Every cause runs the risk of being absorbed by its most radical wing. And that radicalism is sometimes the result of legitimate pain, but at other times only a symptom of opportunism. Some need to be purer than the rest, more upright. In the time of Christ, the Pharisees were the Jewish sect that appeared to be more rigorous and attached to the law. Hitler counted on the fanaticism of the Brown Shirts. Mao mobilized an army of students, with his red book under his arm, to carry out his Cultural Revolution. Díaz-Canel embraces his Red Scarves, the young militia that shouts with devout pathos: “I am Fidel.”

However, in exile we did not escape the jihadist temptation either. Anger is a product that sells well, especially on social networks. And some have exploited the market of anger to the fullest. State Security uses thousands of whisperers to feed distractions. They push us to waste arrows against the periphery and even against ourselves. continue reading

In recent days, while the dictatorship was indoctrinating 300 Americans, part of the exile was entertained by putting Ana de Armas against the wall. And what was the capital sin of the actress who played Marilyn Monroe? Did she shout “Homeland or Death” or take a selfie with the dome of the Capitol? Did she defend the regime or applaud the repression? No, she just went to spend her birthday in the country where she was born, with her friends. The actress, after being nominated for the most important award in the film industry, decided to celebrate with her classmates from her first years as an acting student.

I am not saying, with this, that we should give up debating about the human and the divine. Debates are essential to build a critical society. But the line that separates the expression of opinion from an act of repudiation is usually very thin. Cabrera Infante said that, in those convulsive first years, Fidel Castro called Nicolás Guillén a “slacker” at a university rally. “The bearded one” used his charisma and power to throw a mob of students against the poet’s house, shouting slogans against laziness. Whether the anecdote is true or not, Guillén would not be the only victim of the sinister influencer.

Sometimes one goes on social media wondering, who are they stoning now? Just a few weeks ago we witnessed attacks against the documentary The Padilla Case, by filmmaker Pavel Giroud. But there was not only debate about how he had access to the original files or whether he should have published them in their entirety. It went further. Some even started boycott campaigns to prevent the film from reaching certain festivals. Time showed that his work knew how to reach circuits and spaces where the original material had been Olympicly ignored. Life proved the artist right. Seeing him receive the Platinum Prize and listening to his words in front of millions of people around the world was an unquestionable victory for the cause of Cuba’s freedom.

To achieve the long-awaited democracy, it is not enough to assume the opposite discourse. It is also necessary to move away from authoritarian and totalitarian methods. To win the empathy of millions of undecided Cubans and the international community trapped in doubt, we must never look like that rabid caricature that Castroism tries to sell about us. We must put aside the temptation to pretend that everyone thinks and acts like us. We have to kill the Castro we carry inside us.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Aggravation Inflames Spirits in the Gas Lines in Havana

Those waiting in line at the gas station look serious as they talk about the daily vicissitudes that people suffer. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 4 May 2023 — Hundreds of people milled around at dawn this Thursday on the corner of San Rafael and San Francisco, in Central Havana. They were part of the large line of people waiting to fill up at the nearby gas station on Infanta Street.

They talked about many topics, but far from the idyllic image that the official press offered a few weeks ago, in an article that outraged Cubans and that extolled the opportunity to “establish bridges of friendship” in the endless lines at gas stations, they did so with serious gestures, discussing the daily vicissitudes that people are suffering.

One had turned off his motorcycle and complained about having to drag it to the station, while another complained about the bread situation. The guy behind him talked about “Díaz-Canel’s lies in the news.” Many were silent, scowling; none of them protested out loud. However, people were upset, and there was a feeling of contained violence in the environment.

Watching them was a massive operation of police and “prevention” brigades of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, something unprecedented for this type of line.

As the authorities have done on other occasions when shortages have increased the number of people in lines, this one at the San Rafael gas station was “distributed” onto adjacent streets, out of the way, to disguise the magnitude of the problem. continue reading

The line at the San Rafael gas station was “distributed” onto adjacent streets, out of the way, to disguise its magnitude. (14ymedio)

This was not the only “organizational measure” that the provincial government took in the face of the May Day events, postponed for this Friday, in which numerous foreign guests are expected to participate. Tribuna de La Habana echoes the suspension of the sale of fuel at six gas stations in El Vedado, from seven in the evening on Thursday to ten the next morning.

The measure affects service stations at 3rd and 12th, Riviera, Tángana, Vista al Mar, Rampa and G and 25th. The official note says that “customers who are waiting at these stations will be guaranteed their same place in line according to the established records or listings, and, for security reasons, there can be no parking of vehicles in these places or their surroundings at the aforementioned time.”

“If that happens here in San Rafael, I don’t know what I would do; I’ve been here for two days now,” commented a taxi driver, desperate. Another driver responded: “Maybe we’re the ones who start the next social explosion.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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