Cuban boxers Albert González and Carlos Castillo had been training since September 24 in Berlin, Germany. (Collage)
14ymedio, Havana, 4 November 2022 — The defections continue to knock out, in the international championships, the Cuban boxing team Domadores. This Wednesday, the boxers Albert González and Carlos Castillo left the team in Germany, where Cuba had won its first three bronze medals at the Boxing World Cup, held this year in Cologne.
The athletes didn’t even show up for the scheduled fights, so the national commissioner, Alberto Puig, accused them of having “missed their commitment.”
The escape of González and Castillo, two elite fighters and valuable members of the Domadores, marks a critical moment for a selection that has not yet been replaced by the recent abandonment of Osvel Caballero, who escaped in Mexico after triumphing over his opponent, the Mexican Gerson “Tigre” Escobar.
The boxers, both from Havana, were in training since October 24 in Berlin, along with seven other boxers led by the two-time Olympic champion Roniel Iglesias, the three-time world king Lázaro Álvarez and the world champion in the 75-kilogram category, Yoenlis Hernández. The Domadares group is completed with Alejandro Claro, Sadiel Horta, Rafael Joubert and Freddy Pérez. continue reading
Castillo arrived in Berlin after beating Kazakh fighter Amanat Sabyrgali in the Boxing World Cup, and after receiving his champion credential in the superweights for defeating Cuban Yoel Duvergel in the Playa Girón National Tournament. After his victory, he declared to the media Jit that he had “rewarded” his mother’s many-year sacrifice and announced that that was “his moment.”
For his part, González, who was supposed to debut against the German Ben Ehis, is experiencing an uphill career that led him to be considered by coaches Robinson Poll, Víctor Sánchez and Julio Lázaro Mena, who integrated him into the delegation to face several European opponents at the end of the year.
The two boxers are expected to look for ways to get into professional boxing from Europe or to get to the United States, where their future could be promising, as published by SwingCompleto.
The bleeding of Cuban athletes is a constant. This Wednesday, the escape of players Yordy Magdariaga and Juan Raúl Cruz, from the Under-18 national team, was confirmed, according to journalist Francys Romero.
“Cuban baseball players continue to trust that there is more future outside their country than inside. Both Magdariaga and Cruz will begin a stage now of perfecting their tools and, in addition, presenting themselves to talent evaluators,” said the reporter to the media BaseballFR!
Translated by Regina Anavy
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There are very few students interested in the specialty of General Surgery, and those who study it are demotivated by the lack of practice. (Facebook/Hospital Antonio Luaces Iraola)
14ymedio, Havana, 5 November 2022 — The stampede of 146 graduate students puts emergency medical care in Ciego de Ávila in crisis. A report published this Saturday by the official newspaper Invasor plucks up courage to find explanations. It attributes the figure to the demotivation of young people and takes a long detour to never mention the most obvious cause of the deficit: emigration.
Of the total number of dropouts that the University of Medical Sciences (UCM) registers “in pencil,” 71 have definitively renounced the specialty (26 comprehensive general practitioners, 7 dentists, 1 nurse and 37 specialists in secondary care), while 75 point out that their refusal to continue their studies is “temporary.”
The deficit translates into poor medical care in the province, and to top it off, morbidity rates have increased. Most to blame, in the opinion of health managers in Ciego de Ávila, is the covid-19 pandemic, which closed the operating rooms to operations that weren’t urgent and therefore eliminated the possibility that young residents could train.
“No surgeon is trained by watching,” Dr. Alberto Bermúdez, head of the surgery classroom service at Antonio Luaces hospital, with more than 30 years of experience, laments in the official press.
According to Bermúdez, there are very few students interested in the specialty of General Surgery, and those who do study it are demotivated by the lack of practice. In addition, students “without aptitude” often opt for this specialty. continue reading
“If in six months of specialty, the resident has only been able to do a suture in the emergency room, he is disillusioned; he already did that in the fourth year of his career,” the doctor complains. Of the twenty students he supervised in other years, in 2021 there were only four, of which only one aspires to become a surgeon.
However, the report prefers to point out the usual suspects: the financial situation of the country and the “blockade” of the United States, responsible for a “long list of patients awaiting operations” and, therefore, the “highs and lows of the teaching cycle.”
For her part, the academic vice-rector of the UCM, Mirta Elena Rodríguez, washes her hands: the faculty insist on graduating residents only when they have scrupulously completed the curriculum of the specialty, even if that means delaying the period of studies.
This also means that many teachers must offer their classes and then go to the operating room almost immediately. The pressure of this double routine is also felt by residents such as Rosabel Fiallo, who is taking General Surgery.
“The workload always falls on us, because we’re trained under the principle of ’learning by doing’. After working in emergency, I went straight to the operating room because I had to follow up on cases and take advantage of the time to learn,” says the young woman.
At no time does Invaser mention the fact that many professionals leave the country, in the unprecedented exodus that the Island is experiencing. The renunciation of medical studies is not exclusive to the specialties, but is even more frequent in the undergraduate stage.
The few prospects of practicing the profession with a minimum of necessary conditions scare away future doctors as well as residents.
Kirenia, a young woman who deserted her path to leaving the country, confessed to 14ymedio that she couldn’t see herself “working more than twelve hours a day in a hospital where there are no medicines, the toilets are so dirty that many doctors spend their entire working day without even urinating and earning a little more than 4,000 pesos that don’t go very far.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Image of the 2021 vote in the UN General Assembly against the US embargo on Cuba. (UN)
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Valencia, 3 November 2022 — There is no doubt about it. The Cuban communist regime has taken the fierce U.S. embargo/blockade for a walk in the United Nations, which it keeps for the appropriate occasions. As of now, it achieves international attention in this forum of nations. And, if there is something that continues to provoke rejection and fatigue towards the castrista outcry against the blockade, it’s the way they have to try to convince the world, and to a large extent themselves, of what is that blockade that only exists in the feverish minds of a few.
To begin with, as we have pointed out in this blog on numerous occasions, there is no blockade as such, since Cuba trades, invests, receives tourists and subsidies from 192 countries of the world completely freely. And let’s use correct language. The dictionary of the Academy of the Spanish Language says that a blockade is “a maritime force that blocks.” Has anyone seen any US ship closing Cuba’s traffic since those days of Soviet nuclear missiles? No. Obviously, there is no blockade. What there is is a dispute, and it would be better to use this term.
For example, Castroism says that “the blockade is a system, based on hatred and punitive measures against human beings.” However, for many it isn’t, and it represents a legitimate option of economic rights that, at the time, were trampled upon by the same political regime that governs the destinies of Cubans. No one was worried then about the billions of dollars of property that was seized by Fidel Castro’s communist regime and, worse, the joke of committing to payments that never arrived.
Nobody remembers that episode, but there were tens of thousands of people who lost all their assets, and were not only dispossessed. They were repressed and imprisoned by the regime that had confiscated their property. Between 1959 and 1968, more than 90% of the assets of foreigners and Cubans passed into the hands of the State. No one has ever given the slightest proof of complying objectively and correctly with the compensations. The permanence of the dispute between the United States and Cuba is a firm commitment of the former to the rights of its citizens. It is not an act of hatred, precisely. The punishment applies to those who fail continue reading
to comply. Then, with the passage of time, the dispute acquired other nuances until it reached the present time, 63 years later.
From this perspective, if the international community makes claims for the dispute to disappear, it’s because it ignores the background, or simply, it has taken the side of the Cuban communists. The dispute is not a “crime against a neighboring nation, noble, solidarity, respectful, that has never attacked or will attack the US.” On the contrary, it is a defense of the interests of its citizens, who were aggrieved by that neighboring nation, and a firm commitment to freedom and democracy.
At the same time, Cuban communists stretch the rope of the blockade to the limit.
For example, they usually say that “the blockade causes Cuban children who suffer from the lack of a drug, the implantation of an organ, or the use of a reagent, for the ridiculous reason of having only 10% of American components.” Or when they say that “Cuba can’t buy food or has to look for it in distant markets, or simply do without because the banks where we must pay don’t accept Cuban financial transactions.”
False. It allows, precisely, the purchase of food of all kinds and medicines and medical equipment in the United States. The data support it. Purchases of these products exceed 200 million dollars a year. The only condition is that Cuba pay in cash. The truth is that with Cuba’s data on debt defaults, that requirement not only seems reasonable, but should be extended to all countries that trade with the Island. The United States does well to protect its exporters.
And of course, there are lies and more lies to distort reality. It’s not true that because of the blockade “the use of the US currency has had to be suspended because no necessary resource is allowed to be acquired with it, whatever it may be.” The dollar is used in Cuba today more than ever, and there is a stable demand that keeps the price high in informal markets, reflecting the deep imbalances of the economy.
Cubans demand dollars and will continue to do so, above the existing supply, because they are a safe haven, a trustworthy currency, and they increase purchasing power and facilitate access to all kinds of goods and services. The necessary traceability of those dollars is something very different, and here once again, if the regime doesn’t get Cuban dollars accepted in foreign banks, it is because the origin of them is unknown, and international payment standards must be complied with, which, for example, Fidel Castro despised. Taking Cuba off the list of terrorist countries can, in this case, even be reckless.
If relations between the United States and Cuba continue to be assessed through the framework of the dispute, there is only one party responsible: the Cuban communist regime. In the text it is very clear what has to be done and how to leave behind this situation that, on the other hand, has always existed and only becomes a threat in those moments when Cuba ceases to have some external partner willing to subsidize its economic and political adventures. In that sense, between 1959 and 1993 there was no talk of any embargo. Reason? The generous Soviet subsidies. Later, with the economic emergencies of the Special Period, the argument of the embargo arose, but when Chávez’s oil arrived, the tension calmed down again. Until now, when Castroism is in the terminal phase and doesn’t know what to do.
It’s even possible that the dispute is in its final hours. However, there are those who think that it’s now more justified than ever. At the United Nations, Cuba wins every year in votes on this issue. David’s false fight against Goliath always has supporters. What there is no doubt about is that the sacrifice of the United States for giving continuity to a policy that began as a defense of the interests of its citizens and ended up being a wise strategy for the democratic, economic and social transformation of Cuba, will be rewarded when Cuba joins the set of democratic countries of the world. And that will be soon. And then, the dispute will be over.
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Editor’s note: This article was originally published on the Cubaeconomy blog and is reproduced with the author’s permission.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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From left right and from top to bottom, Aimara Meizoso León, Elizabeth Meizoso, Indira Serrano Cala, Omar Reyes Valdés, Nathali Acosta Lemus and Yerandy García Meizoso, six of the seven victims of Bahía Honda. (Collage)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 4 November 2022 — A commission formed by lawyers, parliamentarians and politicians from several countries stated on Thursday that the death of seven occupants of a boat hit by a border guard ship in Cuba may constitute a “crime against humanity” and asked the Cuban people for evidence to denounce it.
The International Justice Cuba Commission, created in order to bring to international justice those responsible for human rights violations in Cuba, echoed the allegations of survivors and relatives of the seven dead.
In statements released by Miami media, several people said in recent days that the ship of the border guards cut off the boat, in which 23 people were traveling to the United States, and rammed it.
Diana Meizoso, who saw her two-year-old daughter die in the collision that occurred in Bahía Honda, told Radio Televisión Martí on Monday: “They rammed the boat and broke it in half.”
According to Meizoso, when the patrol ship passed their boat, “he (the border guard officer) said: “Now I’m going to break you in half,” and then rammed us and broke the boat in the middle.” continue reading
The Cuban exile in Miami described from the first moment as a “massacre” what happened in Bahía Honda on September 29 and announced for this Saturday an act of support to the victims and their families.
The Justice Cuba Commission, led by Mexican jurist René Bolio, said on Thursday in a statement in Miami that it had analyzed all the available information about “the Bahía Honda massacre,” where “several innocent civilians were killed by Cuban dictatorship officials.”
“These crimes, for their notorious cruelty, for being by the dictatorship against citizens, for having been committed by members of the system, for having used means owned by the dictatorship, and for several other elements, are considered crimes against humanity, according to the Statute of Rome,” he emphasized.
According to the commission, those responsible for these crimes “are not only the material executors, but the full chain of command,” and “universal jurisdiction means that any established court can prosecute such crimes.”
The Commission asked the Cuban people and everyone who has “evidence, proof and information” to send it to Justice@JusticeCuba.org.
They also request “all means of identification of the criminals, their identity, positions, hierarchy and current location.”
The purpose of the Justice Cuba Commission is to constitute an international court to judge the crimes against humanity committed in Cuba.
In July 2017, the then-called International Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against Humanity by Cuba held its first public hearing in Miami, in which victims and witnesses of human rights violations in Cuba participated from 1959 to the present day under the slogan of “Never forget.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Transfers on tobacco trains located in the Pinar del Río facilities destroyed by Hurricane Ian. (Granma)
14ymedio, Havana, 4 November 2022 — More than a month after the passage of Hurricane Ian, which devastated the west of the country, the Cuban government has as an urgent task to protect more than 6,000 tons of raw tobacco, part of which will be transferred to other provinces from Pinar del Río.
There, the local press reports, of the 33,000 tons of stored leaves, 14,000 were damaged by the destruction of the hurricane on the facilities. Now, says Emilio Triana Ordaz, general director of the Agricultural Transport Company, belonging in turn to Tabacuba, they need nine trains to carry about 3,000 tons to Sancti Spíritus, Matanzas, Villa Clara and Cienfuegos.
“With the passage of the hurricane, most of our warehouses, depositories and selected leaves suffered damage. The tobacco was left under waxed or polyethylene tarps, not under the roof, so the mission is to move a considerable amount in and out the province,” explained Triana Ordaz, revealing the urgency.
On Saturday, the State newspaper Granma published, in the words of the same official, that even before Ian “we had decided to send about 2,000 tons of the leaf to the central provinces, to expedite the selling process.”
According to the provincial newspaper, Guerrillero, each train can hold about 300 tons and be filled in four days. “The operation is designed for three trains to be rotated: one being filled, one in the process and another being unloaded,” Triana Ordaz continued. If these plans are achieved, it won’t take more than a month to complete the mission.
Another state official, Vladimir Ríos Pérez, pointed out that they have about 4,800 tons “to sell at a discount,” and they will keep about 1,600 in Pinar del Río “to fulfill the 2023 plan.” continue reading
In any case, they recognize that in San Juan and Martínez, where almost all the warehouses collapsed, “we need to build 1,384 curing houses to guarantee the success of the campaign,” something that probably won’t happen soon.
Tabacuba officials also announced that they have “readjusted” the plans and decided to postpone the campaign for another month, until January 30.
In addition, they report that the insurance covered “80 million pesos and must cover 60 or 70 million more.” The damage to production, however, is significant: Pinar del Río tobacco, even unprocessed, is considered the best in the world, and its quality depends on the integral care of the leaf and the skill of the local farmers.
Meanwhile, this Thursday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel again visited the area most affected by Hurricane Ian. It is the eighth time since the disaster that he has, according to the official press, which displays a tweet from the presidency saying that the president travels to Pinar del Río “every week.”
Despite the usual triumphalist language of the note, it is reported that most of the damage is still not repaired. In the municipality of Guane, only 23% of the 3,450 “affects” that exist have been resolved. And only 400 of the 2,000 homes have been restored in Sandino, one of the “captive villages” where hundreds of families linked to the Escambray uprising were banished in 1964.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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History has shown that many recipients of aid have used these riches for their own benefit, selling the donations to the needy population itself. (Granma)
14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 4 November 2022 — Some of us don’t understand how a significant number of people who defend democracy and freedom can assist dictatorial regimes when they face some type of disaster, either because of natural disasters or because of terrible administrative management, even knowing that those regimes divert the aid to satisfy their governments’ needs.
Consider President Joe Biden, who gave two million dollars to Cuba. The Island dictatorship, in an unprecedented wink, accepted that the contribution be made through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the same entities that the Cuban government doesn’t allow to contact political prisoners.
Solidarity with those who endure and suffer is an extremely laudable decision; however, history has shown that many recipients of aid have used that wealth for their own benefit, selling the donations to the needy population itself, or depositing the money in their own accounts, then outdoing themselves in perfecting repression or in concluding some project that assures hegemony.
The best example of this reality is North Korea, which, due to the terrible economic management of its dynastic dictatorship, endures chronic food crises and even devastating famines, such as that of 1995 to 1997, to the extent that the dictatorship acknowledged continue reading
that more than 200,000 people died, although international media claimed that the deaths reached two million.
Despite its economic difficulties, Pyongyang has managed to mount a powerful army, 1,200,000 active soldiers and more than 600,000 in the reserves, in addition to having nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, plus submarines capable of launching them. It has one nuclear weapon, it says, and despite serious economic problems, is building another.
The most appropriate question is, how is it possible for a country to achieve such advanced military development and not be able to produce food for its citizens? In these subsidized and indebted dictatorships — North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia — the limited food they offer to their population comes from foreign aid, while their development and military production is basically a consequence of their productive management. Have they discovered the solution to the alternative: “cannons or butter”?
North Korea and Cuba are two countries receiving large economic aid. Billions of dollars have been given from the Kremlin to Pyongyang and Havana for decades. The Koreans developed nuclear weapons, despite the fact that several U.S. governments sent them aid, fuel and other proceeds in exchange for paralyzing the construction of nuclear reactors and the production of plutonium.
For their part, the Castros spent the multi-billion Soviet subsidy and Western loans on the subversion of the democratic order in America and in its African imperial wars. The hunger and difficulties suffered by Cubans are due to the country’s bad government and not because of foreign measures against the dictatorship.
Cuba has swindled material aid from abroad for its benefit. I remember that, in 1963, the devastating cyclone Flora hit Cuba, and the dictatorship ordered that all the goods that were in Customs having been sent from abroad to relatives in need on the Island, be confiscated and sold to the population, a situation that has been repeated on numerous occasions with international donations. This was the case with clothing and Mexican contributions, basically rice and beans, sold in stores that require hard currency; or the extreme example of the sale of cooking oil donated by the World Food Program, which led the Minister of Interior Commerce to declare that “the decision to sell donated oil was an alternative to the shortage experienced on the Island.”
The call of the Assembly of Cuban Resistance to President Biden is timely: sending aid to the Cuban people through totalitarian authorities means nurturing repression and increasing poverty. I don’t doubt that this opinion allows the supporters of those repressive regimes to accuse those who state it of being official haters, but the truth must be told even if it can be distorted.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant in Cienfuegos. (September 5)
14ymedio, Havana, 1 November 2022 — Cuba lost two other thermoelectric power plants due to breakdowns this Monday, when Unit 4 of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes in Cienfuegos and Unit 5 of the Antonio Maceo in Santiago de Cuba left the National Electric System (SEN).
“With these unforeseen departures, an availability of 1741 MW and a maximum demand of 3100 MW is estimated for the peak hour, for a deficit of 1359 MW, so if the expected conditions are maintained, an impairment of 1429 MW is predicted at this time,” warned the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba (UNE) in a note disseminated on its social networks, which was closed to public comments.
In recent months, the UNE has resorted to this censorship, aware of the fatigue of the population, which finds Facebook one of the best places to vent. Other organizations, however, have not established these limits, and that discomfort has been shown.
“We’ve been hearing the same song for more than six months, and now, when everyone is asleep, they shut off the power. They don’t care about anything. Until what time will this torture be and for how long?” criticized one user. Another added: “Six months of this year, and you have to count the previous year. The situation only improves when it’s cold. Cuban thermoelectric plants don’t like the heat.”
The Cienfuegos electricity company even held an exchange with a user who was protesting the difference in the cuts between the different provinces. “You, what you do is eat the people’s food, you can’t even pretend that you give a damn and defend that the effect is equitable and that with 90 MW of power the entire province will be turned off when the rest of the country has only a portion of its population. Those who don’t know history can make the mistake of repeating it. And as Fidel Castro said, ’when an energetic and virile people cries, injustice trembles’,” he cried out, adding in his argument that Cienfuegos is one of those places with the least amount of electricity consumption in the country as a whole, and, nevertheless, the light is cut off as much or more than in Villa Clara. continue reading
“The National Electroenergy System is interconnected on a narrow and long island in which the energy blocks must be distributed from one end to the other depending on the demand of each province and the transport capacity of the power lines. In addition, it needs to work with a certain reserve that allows it to assume the variations of demand in moments. So the distribution of the MW to the provinces is not static nor can it be calculated with a simple division,” the company explained.
The comments have multiplied, as usual, in the official accounts that reproduced the UNE note. Some of the users also recalled that there is only one month left until December, when the authorities stated that the problems would be resolved, and yet nothing seems to improve — just the opposite.
Last week, the UNE announced Felton’s departure from the SEN. The thermoelectric plant must do a one-week maintenance to improve the capacity of its block 1, while block 2 has been out of service for some time.
The Antonio Guiteras de Matanzas is also out of service, although the UNE doesn’t even mention it now. It’s the largest thermoelectric plant in the country, and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel trusted that it would recover last August. But today the power cuts continue, along with breakdowns and lack of fuel for the generators, a situation which is getting worse.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Of the 424 workers who worked in the Uruguay sugar mill, 180 are today engaged in minor repair work and 101 in miscellaneous activities. (Granma)
14ymedio, Havana, 1 November 2022 — The directors of the Azcuba company revealed this Monday to the State newspaper Granma what they plan to do with the “sleepy” mills during the next harvest. Only 23 factories throughout the country, of the 56 that could operate, will be responsible for the production, from this November, of the 455,198 tons of sugar planned.
However, the mills that don’t grind this year “will not be dismantled,” said Dionis Pérez, communications director of Azcuba. In a long report, the Communist Party newspaper once again recognizes the “moderate” dimensions of the next harvest and justifies the Government, which seeks to “maintain stable production” with the little funding it will allocate to cane production.
The harvest will not even come close to the figure demanded by Cuban consumers — about half a million tons of sugar — and it is expected that it will be destined mainly for export and tourism. What is left over will cover the ’family basket’ (the allocation through the ration program).
With Granma’s article, Azcuba warns the workers of inactive sugar mills about what they must do to justify their salaries: “Repair, maintenance and conservation work,” Pérez summarized, “for which funding is available.”
A part of the budget allocated to the harvest will be diverted to the inoperative factories, which doesn’t rule out “the risks of dismantling machinery” due to some unforeseen planning. continue reading
“The workforce will be maintained,” the official clarified. “One part will participate in the conservation and preservation of the refinery, and another will be incorporated into the maintenance and repair work, after the authorization of funding for these activities.”
Pérez resorted to euphemisms and circumlocutions to mitigate the helplessness in which the workers will remain. In case of any doubt, he referred to the “93 measures to save the national sugar agro-industry” drafted by the Government.
It’s not clear how the “relocation” of sugarcane personnel will be organized or which workers are promised “sources of personal income” in the production of sugar-derived foods. In addition, the authorities promise to hire them as workers in the “construction of 447 homes, mostly in sugarcane communities,” and will offer them employment in the “rescue and commissioning” of about thirty carpentry shops and warehouses linked to the sugar mills.
The plan foresees the delivery of 141,905 acres of land to sugar companies in the future, destined for the preparation of the next harvest, but it didn’t specify when it would happen. This is just a “projection.”
In the absence of work in this harvest, there is no choice but to concentrate on the next one, that is, “planting cane and food,” says the official, who presents Azcuba’s decisions as a “strategy” for the creation of more stable “work collectives.”
Granma dedicated a good part of its report to the words of Dionis Pérez about the tasks carried out by the inactive Uruguay sugar mill, known as the Colossus of Jatibonico (Sancti Spíritus).
The Government “had decided that there would be few inputs and little financing to repair the mill. We were only going to do conservation work and repair some lines of the equipment,” said Eddy Gil Pérez, director of the plant.
Of the 424 workers employed at the Uruguay mill, 180 are today engaged in minor repair work and 101 in miscellaneous activities of painting or construction. The idea was, according to the manager, that everyone would be left with “some work tie” and within the sugar sector. The money to pay those salaries comes from a bank credit that must be repaid within the impossible two-year period. Even so, only 80% of the payments have been covered.
“Next year, the State will grant us a credit for the concept of a ’paralyzed factory’,” says Gil, who expects 15 million pesos from state banks for the Uruguay mill to resume its work in 2023.
The “dead time” of the Cuban sugar mills will be extended until next year, without there being good reasons to expect a change in their infrastructure. The deficiency in the organization of the harvest translates into unemployment, instability and more debts for the Cuban sugar industry, which was once the first in the world.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Cubans line up outside a DIIE office to get their passport. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 3 November 2022 — This Tuesday, Liliam and Jorge went for the third time to the office of the Directorate of Identification, Immigration and Aliens (DIIE) in Centro Habana, and their passport was not ready although they have tickets to travel to Nicaragua next Saturday. The mass exodus, together with the economic crisis, is delaying the delivery of travel documents.
“We managed to book the flights, paying more than a thousand dollars each, but if they don’t give us the passports in the next few days we can lose that money,” the mother of two children, who will also travel to Managua, explains to 14ymedio. “They were supposed to deliver everything on October 25, and nothing has arrived yet.”
The delay in deliveries is confirmed by an employee of the office located on Castillejo Street, on the corner of Jesús Peregrino. “We don’t make the passports here; we have to wait for Sepsa (Empresa de Servicios Especializados de Protección, S.A.) to bring them, but they don’t have fuel for their vehicles,” he tells this newspaper.
“They must travel in a safe vehicle because we’re talking about very sensitive documents, which must be guarded until they reach their destination,” he adds, like the cash from the banks or exchange offices.
“That has extended the period between requesting a passport or identity card and when it can be picked up,” the employee adds. “Now it’s taking about 30 working days, where before it was two weeks, but that may be more dependent on how the issue of transport is resolved and the number of requests for new documents.”
The place is full of people every day, and it’s difficult to find an empty space on its two floors to sit down, due to the avalanche of applicants. Most of those who go to the office do so to start the procedure for a new passport, although there are also those who want to request the mandatory extension of that document every two years, and others who need an identity card. continue reading
I have just retired and have stopped the whole pension process because I lost my identity card, and although four weeks ago I applied for a new one, I haven’t received it yet,” complained Rodolfo, a neighbor of nearby Salud Street, who is still waiting to start several official procedures. “They gave me a paper that supposedly replaces the card but in many places they don’t accept it.”
As soon as the doors are opened in the Castillejo office, a worker lets the first group in. Those who enter are placed in rows of seats until they are called, one by one, to go to a table where another employee in front of a computer enters the person’s data to call him later. On the upper floor are the areas for taking fingerprints and photos.
“They can have everything very well organized, but what’s the point if the delivery times are late?” complains Rodolfo. “Since I arrived today I have even seen people crying because they had everything ready to leave the country believing that they were going to get their passport on time and then found out that there are serious delays in delivery.”
In front of the premises, Idania looks through her window at those who begin to enter the second round of calls, after the obligatory break from 11 in the morning to 1:30 in the afternoon to save electricity in the state premises. “I’ve lived here since I was born and I’ve never seen such a long line. Whole families are coming to get their passports and emigrate,” she tells this newspaper.
“In these days there is so much delay in the preparation of the documents that I have seen people who have even tried to give money to expedite the procedure, but the employees can’t do anything,” she says. “This is not the place where they make them; they have to wait for them to be brought, and if there is no gasoline for the cars there is no way.”
“And it’s not only here. The 17th Street office in El Vedado is the same, with a permanent line and delivery dates of more than a month and counting,” she says. “There are people who come from other municipalities with the illusion that it will be faster here, but it’s a general problem, and no one escapes.”
Idania estimates that every morning, when the DIIE office begins to open, there are already “more than a hundred people outside waiting to enter.” Throughout the day that figure can continue to multiply several times. “In this place, quietly, they are serving more than five thousand people a week, and if only half come to ask for their new passport, then we are talking about many people.”
In silence, so as not to bother employees or get into problems that delay the process, fifty people wait on the ground floor, sitting and listening to the rules, read by a worker with a martial tone: “Here you cannot use your mobile phone; to call or receive calls you have to leave. You must be aware of the person in front of you so that you don’t miss your turn*, and you aren’t allowed to speak loudly either.”
After the indications, there are a few minutes of silence that break when a young man goes down the stairs and shouts with annoyance: “I’ve been doing this and nothing more for a month. Another day lost and no passport!” A murmur of indignation runs through the room, and several people go out on the sidewalk to use their cellphones. “We won’t be able to leave on Friday. They are still not delivering the passports that were supposed to be available in the second half of October,” one is heard saying.
*Translator’s note: In Cuba, people line up by asking “who’s last?” when they arrive, and then waiting until the next person to join the line behind them asks the same thing. Once the ’order’ of those waiting is established, people can then move around, a convenience particularly when lines can be hours long.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The authorities affirmed that the border guards must act without putting anyone’s life at risk and that the facts will be investigated. (Granma)
14ymedio, Madrid, 3 November 2022 — Four days after the tragedy, the Cuban authorities “deeply” regretted the deaths that occurred in Bahía Honda and announced an investigation to clarify the events of October 28, when a Border Troops speedboat rammed a makeshift boat in which 28 balseros [rafters] were traveling, and at least seven of them died. The agents, however, count on the apriori defense of their superiors, who worked hard this Tuesday to clarify how many migrants have been rescued by the body.
“The border guards have saved 2,085 people in 168 operations. Of the total, 121 people were related to seven acts of human trafficking,” said Colonel Imandra Oceguera Cull yesterday. He is the head of a department of the Directorate of Border Guard Troops of the Ministry of the Interior. He spoke on the Cuban Television program, Roundtable, about migrations, a phenomenon that is bleeding the Island and that has grown exponentially since last year when Nicaragua decreed a waiver of visas for Cubans.
The choice of subject is no coincidence after last Friday’s event, in which relatives of the victims and survivors denounced the agents’ attack on the boat, even describing what happened as murder. Oceguera alleged that the goal of the border guards has always been the preservation of human life. “Hundreds of people have been rescued from the danger of losing their lives at sea,” he reiterated.
The officer also indicated that agents can’t use force or firearms or carry out any action that involves risk when there are rafters involved. However, he insisted that a “thorough investigation” is being carried out, which will determine responsibilities. continue reading
So far, the authorities already identified an indirect and habitually responsible party: the United States. In addition, they point out that “the same participants in these events recognized that they were abandoned to their fate by human traffickers,” whom official sources accuse of acting irresponsibly, aggressively and negligently. “When there are cases of human trafficking with boats coming from abroad, their final destination is the United States,” they stressed.
“These criminal elements, which are located in that country, act for profit and without real interest in human life. They act at night, in inhospitable places, and travel at high speeds. Another element that characterizes them is that they overload the speedboats, which demonstrates their lack of knowledge of the navigation rules,” said Oceguera, who added that these routes are occasionally used to introduce weapons or drugs, a fact that he described as a “serious threat” to national security.
“To this is added,” the official said, “the fact that the materials of the boats are not adequate, the balseros don’t know the most basic rules of navigation, lack rescue methods and don’t have any way of determining the state of the sea,” the official stressed.
Despite everything, the lieutenant colonel recognized that there is a fluid exchange with his American counterparts when it comes to supervising border waters. “It’s a direct communication, case by case and in real time. When such an event is detected, you are immediately informed of the number of people on board, the characteristics of the environment, and their position.”
Mario Méndez Mayedo, head of the Directorate of Identification, Immigration and Alien Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior, and Laura Pujol Torres, Deputy Director General of Consular Affairs and Cubans Residing Abroad, also participated in the program. The latter specified that emigrating should not be a politicized or negative phenomenon, but something that is necessary under appropriate conditions.
Pujol insisted on the responsibility of the U.S. Government in increasing the flow of travelers for having paralyzed the granting of visas between 2017 until this year (when it finally delivered the amount agreed in the agreements), and for maintaining a policy of sanctions that suffocates the country’s economy. She didn’t make the slightest gesture of self-criticism about the inability of national authorities to mitigate any possible effect of the embargo and insisted that the Cuban Adjustment Law “irresponsibly stimulates this type of event and hinders any action that, on the other hand, the authorities may have to mitigate these issues of irregular migration.”
According to her, several Latin American countries, including Cuba, have recently started talks with the United States, and things are on the right track. “Positive steps have been identified within Joe Biden’s Administration to reverse this process, and Cuba will always be willing to talk and cooperate,” she said.
Colonel Mario Méndez Mayedo detailed the cost of a trip through a coyote, which has passed, according to his calculations, from 2,000 to 3,000 dollars a while ago, to 15,000 dollars, and he added that these traffickers profit by putting the lives of others at risk and, frequently, leaving when things go wrong. In addition, along the way they find corrupt agents who demand more money and end up blackmailing relatives. He also cited the minors involved in these outings, the wounded and dead that remain on the road and the inhuman conditions of these trips that, despite everything, hundreds of thousands of people undertake every year.
The soldier finally accused the U.S. of politically manipulating Cubans, whom it welcomes as asylum seekers for alleging “credible fear” when many return to the Island within a few months “without any problem, and that is known by the US authorities.” And he added: “It makes no sense for a person who legally leaves his country to have ’credible fear’ as an argument to enter the United States.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A mother and her daughter, both from Cuba, were trapped in the Río Grande. (Twitter/@USBPChiefRGV)
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 2 November 2022 — The United States Border Patrol rescued two Cuban women, a mother and daughter, who were trapped in the Río Grande, in the Mexican city of Reynosa, south of Texas. According to the chief officer of the Valley sector, Gloria Chávez, the women were “abandoned” by coyotes 320 feet from the Anzaldúas diversion dam.
With the support of the team of Firefighters from Mission, Texas, the “rescue in fast and shallow waters” was carried out, Chávez explained.
Mexican media specified that the Cubans were trapped “after the gates of the diversion dam were opened and released water,” so they dialed 911 requesting help.
Between October 2021 and last September, the Border Patrol rescued 22,014 migrants, 72% more than in 2021. According to data from the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in this same period, 853 deaths of irregular migrants were recorded in their attempts to cross the border between Mexico and the United States.
Regarding the exodus of Cubans, in the fiscal year that just ended in September and began in October 2021, the Border Patrol arrested 224,607 Cubans without documentation, a figure that grew by 471% compared to the same period of a year earlier. continue reading
On their journey to the United States through Mexico, Cubans face extortion, robberies, rape and a network of coyotes who, in some cases, abandon them in the desert or in the middle of the Río Bravo, as happened to this Cuban mother and her daughter.
“Smuggling organizations abandon migrants in remote and dangerous areas, which has caused an increase in the number of rescues, but also, tragically, an increase in the number of deaths,” CBP spokeswoman Cecilia Barreda told CBS News.
The officer emphasized that migrants encounter on their border crossing “extreme heat, and the desert miles they must walk after crossing the border in many areas are relentless.”
By sea, the exodus of balseros [rafters] also reaches alarming figures. This Wednesday, nine Cubans were arrested after disembarking at Biscayne National Park, a nature reserve in the bay of the same name, in Florida.
The head of the Border Patrol in the Miami sector, Walter Slosar, reported that another group with nine Cuban nationals landed on Tuesday at Cocoplum beach, in Marathon. Counting these, there are 110 Cubans who arrived in Florida in the last 48 hours, of which “52 did it in 12 hours.”
The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted 1,132 Cubans last month, a significant figure if you take into account that in the previous twelve months there were 6,182.
Meanwhile, on the crossing through Mexico there is again talk of the formation of caravans seeking to reach the border with the United States. The figure already excedes 100, although many of them are broken up by the immigration authorities.
This Wednesday a new caravan, mostly with Venezuelans, departed from Chiapas, on the southern border of Mexico, for the United States, as a protest 20 days after the announcement of the new U.S. measures to control Venezuela’s migration.
The migrants, who remained in Tapachula Square, on Mexico’s border with Guatemala, demand that the United States revoke the expansion of Title 42, which immediately expels Venezuelans arriving by land to that country.
The South Americans requested free passage and that they be allowed to work because they refuse to return to Venezuela. Migrant Juan Méndez explained that they have been calm and trust that at “any time” the U.S. will reopen the border to Venezuelans.
“We are good people, and what the Mexican authorities do is persecute us as criminals. We are asking Mexico to help us, because now we have no money and have to ask,” he told EFE.
The Venezuelans were joined by migrants from Colombia and Ecuador, such as the Colombian Luis Kevin Montaño, who said that his companions in the caravan are determined to arrive in the United States.
“In my case I’m leaving because of problems. I’m not going because I want to leave my country, but we’re going to walk to get to the United States,” he said.
This is the first migrant caravan to leave in November from the southern border. “We left together, join us, let us continue, we want to work, we are not criminals, we are working people, yes we can, sí se puede,” the foreigners shouted on their journey.
Prior to their departure, the Migration authorities and the National Guard arrived at the park where they were camping to invite them to carry out their procedures, but they rejected the process. The authorities then undertook an immigration control operation in the hotels and streets of Tapachula, where they arrested more than 50 migrants who didn’t prove their right to stay legally.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Private barbershops in Havana haven’t escaped the crisis of shortages, and some are forced to resort to the black market, where they pay prices of gold. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, Miami, 30 October 2022 — David left his dream of being a dentist to open a barbershop in Havana in 2016, one of the best years in Cuban’s recent history, with the visit of Barack Obama, tourism reaching the sky and hopes for more lively changes than ever. Six years later, and after a traumatic journey on the “route of the volcanos,” he tells 14ymedio how he had to leave the Island and his prosperous business due to the regime’s persistent refusal to open the domestic market.
“I started from scratch like everyone, with the basics. The business was growing, and in 2018 you could expand and hire a worker. I was gaining experience and customers, improving, because I had to prepare, and I passed styling courses,” he says from his new residence, in Naples, Florida, where he arrived in March 2022.
Until that moment, and like so many Cuban barbers, David had to resort to the black market to acquire his products. The Government’s resistance to creating wholesale markets for self-employed businesses limited (as it continues to limit) the ability of entrepreneurs to obtain materials to work with and pushed them to immerse themselves in illegality, exposing them to all kinds of fines and inspections.
“The barbers communicated in a WhatsApp group where we helped find work material that in Cuba is very difficult to get; for example, a razor blade had to be bought on the black market, because there are none. They don’t exist. So, how do you justify your work? And that’s a basic material, because for every customer you need a blade,” he explains. At that time, the price was 15 pesos each, and David is convinced that, currently, the price will have climbed vastly, and everything was brought from other countries. continue reading
The only formula authorized by the Government for barbers to buy their work materials was to acquire it, sporadically, in stores in freely convertible currency (MLC), but they were paid in national currency. If things were complicated before the Ordering Task*, with monetary unification and galloping inflation, the situation went from bad to worse.
“To buy from the State, which exchanged 24 pesos for a dollar, I had to lose money, because I had to buy it on the black market [where from the beginning the currency was double the official rate]. In addition, I have to justify it, put everything on paper to declare my taxes. How do you justify something like that, if on the street no one is going to give you a voucher?” David explains that the things he needed to acquire in the informal market were not occasional but basic, from the aforementioned blades to talc or cologne and even cloths to clean the floor — although, “well, we Cubans are always inventing and can clean with an old T-shirt,” he says.
The worst, despite everything, was the price cap that the Government of Havana decreed at the beginning of 2021. The maximum price for a cut was 25 pesos, as the local press said in an article mentioning the fines imposed for violating the regulations. “At the Los Amigos Barbershop, a rented unit on 17th and H, the entrepreneur was fined 8,000 pesos, in line with the provisions of Decree Law 30, for charging 50 pesos for a haircut, when the established price is 25,” the text said.
David remembers that case perfectly. “A week ago a law had passed saying that a cut couldn’t be more than 25 pesos, and the barbers began to protest. They spent three months harassing the barbers, that little boy who works in front of 17th and H complained a lot. His place belongs to the State, but you are the one paying him. I can’t allow someone to tell me how much I have to charge for my service. I can have competition and that forces me to match my price, because if I charge 100 here and someone else charges 80 for the same thing, I will lower it. But not if someone comes and tells me that I have to charge so much for that,” laments the barber.
“I preferred to charge less and take care of myself before they fined me 8,000 pesos and withdrew my license, because [the cost of that] is four minimum wages, so to pay it was a lot of work,” says David, who recalls the failed rebellion of the barbers. “Those who worked in State premises demonstrated, but they didn’t solve anything.”
That combination — the impossibility of buying products to maintain his business legally, the price cap and the risk of being fined — took away his enthusiasm for his work and encouraged him to leave the Island through Nicaragua.
Now, from quiet Naples, Florida, he deals with the American bureaucracy to legalize his situation, but things are getting better. “I had my birthday in March. My family all gathered and took me to a very big fair, where there were gadgets and games. I went to eat a pizza with my cousin and I look back and see a policeman behind me. Of course, I came with the idea that such a guy, in your country, represses you,” he reflects.
He invites Cubans to reflect before following the path he took because he considers emigration to be a very personal decision, as well as risky. He tells them: “Open your eyes, see your own reality and do what you have to do to escape, you won’t regret it. It’s hard, because you lose many things, friendships, family, you lose something that is part of you, but there is nothing more beautiful than living in freedom.”
*Translator’s note: The “Ordering Task” is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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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.
“Vicky,” as she is also known, said that State Security monitors and controls all the content of Cuban Television. (Screen Capture)
14ymedio, Havana, 29 October 2022 — On Wednesday, Former Cuban Television presenter María Victoria “Vicky” Gil Fernández, resident of Tenerife, gave an extensive and controversial interview on the YouTube channel “The World of Darwin,” in which she offered biographical details about her brother, Alejandro Gil, the Minister of Economy of Cuba, and her former colleague, Edmundo García.
She considered her statement on the Miami channel an “obligation” to Cubans, and said that she had the “right to be able” to defend herself. She noted her 35 years of work as a presenter of the program Delagranescena [TheBigScene] and considered her interview as “a vindication.”
Vicky, as she is also known, said that State Security monitors and controls the content of Cuban Television. “Everything that is said goes through a sieve; everyone knows that,” she admitted, before sharing personal anecdotes about the censorship of several broadcasts of Delagranescena. “There is no freedom of the press nor of ideas in a dictatorship,” she said bluntly. “No one is afraid to say it: it’s a dictatorship,” although, she added ironically, “of the proletariat.”
The presenter commented on her ties with journalist Edmundo García, one of the most controversial characters linked to the Cuban government from the United States. “He was imposed” on the television program in the forced replacement of Omar Moynelo, she remarked.
She described García as a guajiro [peasant] from the interior of the country who quickly entered the world of art trafficking as he gained fame on the program, Vicky commented. “According to him, his friends were Vargas Llosa, Miguel Barnet, and his way of life was of the high bourgeoisie.” He had bodyguards, mobile phones and cars when no one could have them, she claimed. continue reading
“His life was not that of a communist, and he acquired a fortune in the International Financial Bank” from money he obtained in his business of buying and selling paintings. Gil detailed how she also participated in art trafficking and obtained her slice, although not at the level of García, who was often arrested by the police and released shortly after thanks to his connections.
She said that García, with the complicity of journalist Ciro Bianchi Ross and the family of Antonio Núñez Jiménez, was responsible for the sale of a fake Picasso painting to an Italian collector. For the scam, Gil said, they earned $200,000. The Italian, of course, returned to Cuba to file a complaint, but the participants were left unpunished “for absence of evidence.”
“They removed him from the program without doing anything,” says Gil, who also wasn’t clear about the causes of Edmundo García’s expulsion and didn’t know anything about his “mission” in Miami.
In the second segment of the interview, the presenter referred to her brother, Alejandro Gil, whom she considers “a communist.” “My brother has no need to be where he is,” she said, but “he blindly believes that he will be able to move the country forward.”
Alejandro Gil graduated as an engineer in Maritime Transport Development from the Technological University of Havana (CUJAE), a profession that has little relation to his current position as Minister of Economy. “I can’t exempt him from his responsibility,” Vicky acknowledged, alluding to the current crisis in every sector that the country is going through. “I can’t even say that I’m a puppet sister.”
“The Cuban economy has always been led by incompetent people,” she concluded. “Political will has always triumphed over economic reality.” She added that Cuba can only grow financially through “its beaches, nickel and the poor doctors.” María Victoria Gil discredited the Ordering Task*, whose failure could be easily predicted.
“Give me time,” has always been her brother’s response, “convinced” that his recipe to save the economy is the right one, according to her.
“My brother was a tycoon,” she says unequivocally, recalling his very successful career in a maritime insurance company in the United Kingdom. He was a member of several international clubs in London, Russia and Havana. He “left everything,” she explains, “for communism and stupidity.” Back in Cuba on one of his trips they made his head spin with flags and honors, and he became part of the government apparatus. “My family wanted to kill him,” she said.
Vicky defended herself from the accusations of being “a figurehead of the Castros” and said she had bought a small, charming place of just 150 square feet in Tenerife, Canary Islands, with the money of a cousin, who lives in Spain.
Gil analyzes Fidel Castro with the same indulgence and describes him as a “human being who was wrong,” although he did admit that he was “too self-centered.” She commented that there are many rumors about the leadership of Cuban power, and many are true, such as those that refer to Raúl Castro’s grandson, Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, ElCangrejo [The Crab].
María Victoria Gil regrets that her brother “was involved in that problem” at the age of 58, because he’s the person who’s “most hated” by the people, along with Miguel Díaz-Canel and Manuel Marrero. She said that he lives in a tenement “that is falling down” and suffers from the blackouts, although other sources point to a comfortable house in the neighborhood of La Víbora, in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre.
“I hope he finds a way out, or leaves at the right time,” she said. “He will have to leave Cuba if there is a big change.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
*Translator’s note: The “Ordering Task” is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Pinar del Río was the area most affected by Hurricane Ian at the end of September, where there are still 108,000 unrepaired homes. (José M. Correa/Granma)
14ymedio, Havana, 1 November 2022 — The threat launched by the Cuban Government against “illegalities, corruption and indiscipline” has had little impact on the informal market of Pinar del Río. A Facebook message on Monday proposing the sale of construction supplies that the authorities reserved for victims of Hurricane Ian received a challenge: “I have tiles for sale privately, call me.”
The “tiles,” actually temporary zinc plates, were marketed through the Ventas Pinar group, where hardware products, household supplies, cell phones, clothing and food — shrimp, cookies, coffee — are in high demand but scarce in state stores.
More than a month after the scourge of Hurricane Ian, work to rebuild the damaged infrastructure is progressing slowly due to the shortage of construction products on the Island. In Pinar del Río, the area most devastated by the climate event, there are still more than 108,000 unrepaired homes, according to the official newspaper Granma, which reacted with alarm to see that the few materials provided by the Government had already appeared in the informal market.
“Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated case. On the site itself, and on others that have proliferated taking advantage of the expansion of Internet access, offers of all kinds of goods of ’doubtful’ origin have become commonplace for years, in sight of everyone who wants to look,” says the newspaper. continue reading
The newspaper gives the example that even induction cookers, which are sold in a regulated manner in the pinareña province for families who have been left without equipment, can be found in Facebook or WhatsApp groups at prices six times higher than the official value, about 20,000 pesos.
The harsh government warnings against the black market “do not seem to change” social media sales groups, recognizes the newspaper, which admits that, by informal means, “the most diverse assortments can be obtained, the result of corruption, lack of scruples and lawlessness.”
The shortage of food and basic products on the Island causes distortions that contribute to fueling illicit trade, through which electronic items as well as medicines can be accessed, but at exorbitant prices. Miguel Díaz-Canel has recognized that this happens “in plain sight” of his administration and the Communist Party.
The Government of Havana also reported that it imposed fines of up to 8,000 pesos on two bakeries in Ciudad Libertad, a neighborhood of the Havana municipality, after it was detected that they sold the standard bread with a weight below that established in the technical quality standards. In another operation in the Lido neighborhood, the inspectors confiscated from sellers several products from the basic basket [ed. note: i.e. the rationed goods allocated to each individual/family] that, the municipal government said, will be delivered to social institutions.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
From left right and from top to bottom, Aimara Meizoso León, Elizabeth Meizoso, Indira Serrano Cala, Omar Reyes Valdés, Nathali Acosta Lemus and Yerandy García Meizoso. (Collage)
14ymedio, Madrid, 31 October 2022 — There are now six* fatalities from the sinking of a boat by Cuban border guards last Friday. As reported on Sunday by LaHoradeCuba, the most recent one identified is Indira Serrano Cala, only 18 years old and originally from Guane, Pinar del Río.
An anonymous source told the independent Camagüey media that there was a vigil over the body of the motherless young woman, in that same town yesterday afternoon.
This Sunday they also identified another of the deceased, Yerandy García Meizoso, whose body was found a few kilometres away, reported Mario J. Penton from Miami.
The other victims are Nathali Acosta Lemus, Omar Reyes Valdés (the boat driver), Aimara Meizoso León and the little girl Elizabeth Meizoso, only two years old.
Meanwhile, the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FDHC) has included two officers from the Border Guard Troops on its list of repressors for being responsible for what it considers a “cold-blooded murder.” continue reading
In a statement made public this Sunday, the NGO based in the United States confirmed the names of the other deceased, none of whom had been mentioned by the Cuban authorities, who have not offered their condolences for what they consider a “painful act” that occurred because of the “hostile and cruel policy of the US Government against Cuba.”
Raidel Rodríguez López, head of Operations of the Northwestern Detachment of Border Guards, which covers the Bahía Honda area, Artemisa, where the events took place on the night of October 28, and Lieutenant Colonel Leovanys Cutiño Rodríguez, chief of the General Staff of the same detachment, have also joined the list of repressors.
Both are named by the FDHC as responsible for these “murders,” after attacking a boat with 23 people on board. The survivors, the organization recalls, “say that they were sunk on purpose.”
The NGO also attributes responsibilities in this event to General Jorge Argelio Samper Muarra, in charge of the Head of Border Guard Troops of the Ministry of the Interior since 2017, and to Colonel Jorge Luis Navarro Nolasco, head of the Northwest Detachment of the same police force, both previously on the list of repressors.
The two are guilty by the positions they occupy, “for several acts of violence by the troops under their command against Cuban balseros [rafters] on rustic boats, endangering their lives or causing them injuries and even death.”
The story also confirms that this is just another crime against humanity perpetrated in cold blood in the solitude of the sea by the communist regime,” argues the FDHC, which mentions several similar tragedies, such as the bombing of civilians aboard the XX Aniversario boat on the Canímar River, in July 1980; the sinking of the 13 de Marzo tugboat on July 13, 1994, which resulted in 37 dead, including 10 children, and the death of William Padrón Maza, from Avila, on March 1 of this year, from serious injuries received after being rammed by the Cuban Border Guard Troops 11 miles from Cayo Coco, when he was in a speedboat that was stranded.
In its document, the NGO reports that “eye-witness accounts by dozens of survivors attest to the fact that the border guards systematically attack them in the boats that carry men, women and children in their attempt to escape from hell.” It’s a “cruel method of preventing irregular exits by sea,” says the FDHC, which is being carried out “especially now, when the regime doesn’t want anyone leaving that way.”
That was the reason, the NGO concludes, for the “brutal repression” at the end of August in the Artemiseño hamlet of El Cepem, where several residents were prevented from going to sea on rustic boats: “They lie when they blame the Cuban Adjustment Law, when they know that those who are intercepted at sea are repatriated.”
Translator’s note: As of the date of this translation, the number has continued to rise.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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14ymedio, Havana, 4 November 2022 — The defections continue to knock out, in the international championships, the Cuban boxing team Domadores. This Wednesday, the boxers Albert González and Carlos Castillo left the team in Germany, where Cuba had won its first three bronze medals at the Boxing World Cup, held this year in Cologne.
