Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Criticizes the Human Rights Council, but Seeks Cuba’s Reelection as a Member

Taking as a given his presence in the organization during the next period, he promised the Island would defend a “universal vision, but from the South.” (Minrex)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 1 March 2023 — On Tuesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez accused the United Nations Human Rights Council of caving to the “imperialist interests” of “powerful governments” and accused the Geneva-based organization, of losing “credibility.” The diplomat took advantage of his speech to request, however, Cuba’s reelection as a member of that international organization.

Rodríguez dedicated a good portion of his statement to criticizing U.S. foreign policy toward the Island and said that no State “has the authority” to judge another with regard to human rights, as no one is “exempt from challenges.” He compared the Council to the “extinct Commission on Human Rights” and stated that it “imploded” because it became a “tribunal” to evaluate nations.

Cuba could be reelected as a member of the Council in October for the 2024-2026 period, and several countries, stated the Minister, have offered the Cuban government their “valuable support” in those elections.

Taking as a given his presence in the organization during the next period, he promised the Island would defend a “universal vision, but from the South,” aligned with “the poor, the forgotten and excluded,” so long as its membership is ratified. continue reading

However, the pebble in the Cuban diplomat’s shoe continues to be the U.S., signaled the Minister. The Island will not fold, he said with his usual rhetoric, to those “masters of finance, markets and weapons.” He did not miss an opportunity to express dismay at “the genocidal policy of the blockade” and to enumerate, on the podium, the list of business opportunities with foreign companies that have been blocked by the U.S. sanctions.

Rodríguez was thorough in his listing of the Island’s financial problems, which he attributed, as usual, to the embargo. The United States, he said, is responsible for the “deterioration in consumption and living standards of families,” for “inflation, prices, and salaries,” the food and medicine shortages, and also for the interruptions in electrical services, not to mention “industry, construction, services, commerce, investment, health and education.”

But what really bothers the Minister is the inclusion of Cuba on the “arbitrary list” of state sponsors of terrorism developed by the State Department, on which it remains to this day, awaiting the Biden Administration’s decision on whether or not to maintain it.

On Tuesday, the report, which states the reasons for which the U.S. Government did not remove the Island from the list, was published and although “it does not constitute a new announcement” on what will occur in the future, on Tuesday the Minister as well as the official government press were quick to condemn this “infamous and unfounded” measure of the Ubuted States.

Rodríguez continued his diatribe against the Biden Administration with which Havana is attempting a second diplomatic “thaw,” accusing it of financing “destabilizing and ’regime change’ operations.” He added that the U.S. discredits Cuban doctors and promotes “censorship and manipulation of large social media platforms against Cuba.”

The result, he said, is the emigration of “qualified people and those of working age.” The Minister confirmed that his government insists “firmly and irreversibly” on socialism as an economic and social model, “with a wide majority and active support of the people.” He didn’t mention at the Council that those who peacefully oppose the government suffer surveillance, persecution, arbitrary trials, and high prison penalties in jails where human rights are systematically violated.

During his visit to Geneva, Rodríguez held several meetings with high ranking dignitaries of the United Nations and diplomats from the Island’s allies, such as Venezuela and Vietnam.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

‘You Won’t Be Flying’, and 80 Cubans on Their Way to Nicaragua Remained in Havana

Cubans stranded at Havana’s José Martí airport after they were not allowed to board a Viva Aerobus flight to Managua. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Mexico, 20 February 2023 — A group of around 80 Cubans who were trying to fly to Nicaragua were stranded on Sunday night in Havana’s José Martí International Airport when they were prevented from boarding flight VB-317, operated by Viva Aerobus, to Cancún where they had a layover before continuing to Managua.

“It was last night, on Viva flight 317, Havana-Cancún, which was leaving at 10:35 pm and departed closer to 12 am. All those personnel checked and only those of us who were going directly to Cancún boarded,” José Enrique Castellano, one of the travelers whose final destination was Mexico, confirmed to 14ymedio.

The complaint came to light on Monday via a video shared by Javier Díaz, from Univision 23, during which one of the people stranded says they’ve spent several hours in the airport terminal without receiving service from the airline and without an official response to what occurred. The travelers include small children and people from several provinces throughout the country — Santiago de Cuba, Las Tunas, Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila, Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus, Havana, and Pinar del Río.

“It is not Viva Aerobus, it’s ’death Aerobus’,” the man said while showing dozens of Cubans sitting and lying inside Terminal 3 of José Martí airport with looks of exhaustion. “This is Cuba, here are the Cubans, look, small children who haven’t had breakfast, haven’t eaten, without water, without a snack… We’ve slept here since last night, on these benches, on the floor.”

After completing the check in, passing through Immigration and Customs, already at the airport border, and after the flight began boarding is when the incident occurred. “There, 150 meters from the plane, they boarded the Cancún flight and when we thought we were boarding, they said, ’You won’t be flying’,” explained the Cuban. continue reading

Airport authorities blamed the travel agencies, said the passenger, but “It’s the airline’s fault because we checked the ticket, that is, it was the passenger list that they must send to Nicaragua for people to enter, which they did not send,” he said. (Before departure, the airlines must send the passenger list to the destination country). “And that is why we are here, Nicaragua did not allow the plane entry and that’s it, nothing happens, the Cubans are discarded here,” he added.

At the beginning of February several travel agencies operating between Mexico and the U.S. announced the return of Viva Aerobus with flights between Havana and Managua and at much lower prices than in 2022. On this occasion, tickets were between $799 and $1,200, depending on the number of bags the passenger was traveling with. The first flight was scheduled for February 12th.

Previously, that same ticket between Cuba and Nicaragua was close to $4,000 and the Mexican airline had flights from several provinces throughout the country, including Santiago de Cuba, Camagüey, and Villa Clara. These flights were usually arriving on the Island with very few passengers and were full when departing to Cancún before continuing on to Managua.

On April 8, 2022, the Mexican airline decided to suspend these flights without explanation. “Once again, we state that the charter company and the airline were not involved in this decision which affects everyone and we ask for you understanding in this matter,” clarified the Mexico-based Vagamundos travel agency, at the time, without detailing if it was the result of an agreement between the government of Cuba and the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Days earlier, the governments of Cuba and Mexico had finished the XV round of conversations on the topic of migration where both parties commited to “guarantee the regular, orderly, and safe flow of travelers.” The meeting took place prior to the Mexican President López Obrador’s visit to the Island in May 2022.

The return of the Havana-Managua route in 2023 occurred shortly after the Biden administration put the brakes on the migration of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans with its implementation of humanitarian parole, and the return to Mexico of all migrants of these nationalities who attempt to illegally cross the U.S. southern border.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Cuba: All Books Have an Owner

Raúl Martínez’s “Nine Repetitions of Fidel and Microphones” (1968) serves as a metaphor for Castro’s obsessive rewriting of the historical narrative and his own image.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Havana, 26 February 2023 — History is the most deceptive and refined form of fiction. The talent of historians to disguise their prose, hide their voice and their focus, how discreet the selection process and editing of life, the skill with which they choose a leader, a time, a territory, converts their discipline into verbal acrobatics.

Luckily, citizens or readers have something in their favor: an absolute brotherhood of historians does not exist, there is no complete book compatible with all regions and policies. We cannot count on, to state it that way, one true universal history. That helps so that a simple comparison between a book in its own country and another abroad may reveal anachronisms, conspiracies and splinters.

There are some familiar examples. What is known in Cuba as the War of ’95 or — as the martiana* propaganda called it — Necessary, in Spain is referred to as the War of ’98. While 1895 marked the end of containment for us, three years later the Spaniards would see their fleet bombed, the nation in a depression and the old empire defeated. For Cuba, ’95 brings independence; for Spain,’ 98 was Baroja and Unamuno**, crisis, meditation and a rebirth.

Since 1762, islanders spoke of the takeover of Havana by the British, as if they were not conquerers, but tourists, who had entered the city. The British, who referred to the Spanish War of Independence using the gentle name of Peninsular War, correctly define it as a seige or invasion.

But, there is no need to go so far back. No era has been more battered by official historians than the last 120 years. The Republic born in 1902, after decades of tension and bloodshed, Castro dismissed as a Pseudo-republic, a Mediated Republic or Neo-colony. That is how we learned it, wasting words, and that is still repeated — with little innocence — by our grandparents, often loyal to the caudillo, forgetting Eliseo Diego’s bittersweet poem: “It has to do with how my father used to say it: the Republic. . .with his chest puffed, as if referring to the soft, ample, sacred woman who gave him children.” continue reading

Contrasting one book with another it is not only fruitful to consider the space where it was written, but also the time. It is sufficient to compare the first histories of Cuba–those of Bishop Morel and José Martín Félix de Arrate — with the manual of Soviet echos used by university students. Clearly, I’m not referring to the evident differences in style, the methods or the rigor of the research. I am referring to the master which the books serve — all books have an owner — who is interested in viewing life a certain way, who wants to reassure or to destroy.

The misrepresentation of national history that Castro made was so grotesque, and the historians so submissive, that very early on, it provoked the mockery of Manuel Moreno Fraginals in History As a Weapon. “Students,” he worte in 1966, “are perplexed by the works that pretend to be the immediate antecedents to the present we are living and that nonetheless have nothing to do with it.” The new past Castro offered was an epic series of nonsense that, I imagine, the old republican authors such as Roid and Ortiz would not be able to read without blushing.

Moreno Fraginals, lucid and misunderstood, author of the best book ever written on the history of Cuba, died in Miami in 2001. Fidel Castro, for his part, was rewarded for his delirium with the 2008 National History Award. His brother, Raúl received it in 2021.

We’ve always been at the mercy of words. Playa Girón, booming and triumphant or Bay of Pigs, geographic? October Crisis or Missile Crisis? Separatism, reformism, or anexationism? Blockade or embargo? Socialism, communism or capitalism? Protests or disruptions? Emigration or exile? The confusion, which spans from the private to the judicial, is contagious.

The drafters of the Constitution of 2019 ignored that it is an error to refer to La bayamesa*** as the Hymn of Bayamo. When it was printed, disregarding the warning, several writers proposed that — to be true to the sudden fervor of referring to all symbols by their place of origin — they should refer to the Seal and Flag of New York, the city where Miguel Teurbe Tolón designed them in 1849.

But if dictators know how to calibrate history and reorganize words, nothing compares to the way in which the domestic narrative is concocted and, even more shameless, the personal narrative. At the end of the day, we are the stories we tell about ourselves, the versions that become nuanced or disolve, a fiction continually touching up what we said, did, or thought. We were the first to use history as a weapon — more like a pocket knife or dagger.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

Translator’s notes:
*”Martiana” refers to José Martí
**Baroja and Unamuno were two Spanish authors of the late 1800s.
***La bayamesa is the Cuban national anthem.

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Less Repression and More Freedom: The Solution to Lower Prices in Cuba

Food prices in Cuban markets and establishments have only risen in the last two years. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 27 February 2023 — Does anyone believe that the regime’s shakeup in Cienfuegos against those who raise their sales prices are conducted to improve food for the people? Not in the least. For too many years we’ve seen the same harassment practices and knocking down those who attempt something so legitimate and normal as earning money, end similarly: lack of food, scarcity and rationing. And now, since the reordering task, uncontrollable prices.

The communists repress freedom, policies and economies. Everything that is separate from the official collectivist and obedience paradigm must be extinguished from the root. The fines and sanctions applied to vendors for what the regime describes as abusive food prices are an instrument of repression so that no one can profit. They’ve even confiscated goods, as if this were 1968.

We are facing practices that try to identify crimes where they don’t exist. The regime’s repressive behavior only serves to dwell on the problem, rather than reaching a solution. While it is true that the state security apparatus dedicated to these tasks must be given their daily assignments, but up to a certain point.

When the communists begin harshly repressing those who they call “illegal agriculture vendors, price distorters, hoarders and others who assault the correct development of social dynamics,” they do nothing more than eliminate a good portion of the informal economy that exists on the Island, basically because the formal economy, organized under the communist model, simply does not function. It is no good.

It is not easy to find a country in the world with a payroll so loaded with inspectors, comptrollers, vigilantes, police officers, informants, snitches, and others in charge of repressing the people. The regime calls them “specialists in the struggle against crime,” but considering their modus operandi, and the results of their activities, there is little specialization and much totalitarian attitude. continue reading

Furthermore, we can observe that as control and persecution grow, the size of informal economy — which struggles to create space within the regime’s rocky interventionist system — increases. Such that all these semi police teams charged with confronting that which the regime refers to as “illegalities at the points of greatest commercial interest” end up doing as they wish under the astonished gaze of the citizens. Hunger is generalized and does not discriminate in that every-man-for-himself that has become of Cuba’s communist economy.

The accusations described by the teams of repressors are not crimes, because all vendors have their papers and permits in order. The crime is selling agricultural products at prices higher than those set by the provincial governor. As if the governor really knew what the costs of the products were and at what price they must be sold. This bureaucrat, sitting in his comfortable, air conditioned office, is empowered by the communist regime to decide on supply and demand, on freedom of choice and on decisions of purchase and consumption.

In a free market economy it is so much easier. Without the need for useless bureaucrats, consumers visit different establishments or navigate online until they find the product and price they are most interested in. There is neither coercion, nor repression, and everything is easier. Simply, people don’t purchase from those who sell at a high price. That is the punishment for those who are inefficient. When in Cuba people buy from vendors at high prices, it’s for a reason. Does the regime have an answer for that?

No. It neither has one, nor is it searching for one. When vendors or consumers do not obey, the regime turns to fining and sanctioning, and if the accused protests or returns to selling at a high price, additional, harsher measures are put in place, including forced sales or confiscation.

Cubans are surprised by the high prices for basic products. A dozen eggs for 500 pesos, tomatoes for more than 100 pesos. And so on. Faced with these prices, bureaucrats try, with resolutions and official orders, to fix prices at lower levels, to save themselves and unleash repressive actions. The result of all of that is that products disappear from the market and later they can’t be purchased, even at double the price. This process by the authorities goes against economic rationale and the public interest.

So, what is the solution, if there is one? Well of course there is, and it is very easy. What they need to do is increase supply so that those who aspire to sell at high prices find themselves in a market that does not accept those prices. Supply and demand, if functioning freely, ensures that adjustment. Cuba’s problem is that, its economic model does not produce enough because it is in the hands of an inefficient state, unconcerned about profitability. Authorities, which fully desire greater prosperity and economic production, manage to do just the opposite: repress producers and vendors, converting legal actions into illicit, persecuting and repressing behaviors that are not criminal, but rather caused by the regime itself.

At some point, communists must realize that the only thing capped, fixed and centralized prices generate is an informal economy searching for room to grow and develop. What the communists refer to as violations and crimes are nothing more than rational and efficient behavior reacting to the regime’s aggresive environment which blocks people’s decisions. Rather than betting on being more energetic and preventing people from acting with impunity, that is, instead of repressing and suffocating freedoms, the regime must incentivize production and give producers and vendors freedom to access markets without restriction or threats. There is no other way.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Iranian Refugee Keivan Esfandiyar Has Been Trapped in Cuba for More Than Four Years

Esfandiyar, in addition to being a teacher, has a degree as a nurse anesthetist. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 20 February 2023 — Keivan Esfandiyar taught teenagers aged 13 to 16 years at a school in Tehran, and although he taught Experimental Sciences, he used to make comments in class and with his colleagues about human rights, democracy and civil liberties. One day he received a summons to appear before the Judiciary and he knew then that he could no longer remain in his country.

Born in Tehran in March 1988, Esfandiyar, in addition to being a teacher, has a degree as a nurse anesthetist. He is married, he lost his mother when he was very young, but the rest of his family is in the Persian country. In November 2018 he arrived in Havana and after spending more than four years, he can no longer tolerate his status as a refugee in Cuba and his main concern is how to emigrate to any country that is not Iran.

This week, Esfandiyar spoke with 14ymedio from a funeral home in Central Havana, a place to evade prying eyes and also a symbol of the fatalistic state in which he feels his life on the Island has become.

Question: How did an Iranian end up as a refugee in Cuba?

Response: The most logical thing was to go to Turkey, with whom we share a border, but right now there are more than three million Syrian refugees there and a growing number of Afghans who are fleeing the Taliban and the situation is very difficult.

Q: Did you know that the Cuban regime is a friend of the Iranian government?

R: I learned that later, but what I do know is that Turkey is friendlier than Cuba to the Iranian dictators. They have returned thousands of Iranian refugees, many ended up in prison and several were executed. Cuba hasn’t returned any.

Q: But, why Cuba?

R: A friend told me that at least 15 Iranian refugees had been received here and that they were protected by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) offices. I then consulted the internet, read that in Cuba there was security and good health services and I entered through the airport in Havana with a tourist visa.

Q: Was it difficult for you to make the decision to emigrate?

R: In Iran, in every office, in every school or institution belonging to the government there is a man from the security forces. This man is responsible for surveilling, being aware and pressuring others to inform on their colleagues. They, in turn, inform their bosses at the political police. I was viewed as a bad influence on those young people, as an enemy of the government. They kill for those reasons. It was difficult to make the decision, but I had no other choice. continue reading

Q: You said that you spent two years as an “asylum seeker” and another two years as a refugee. You receive economic support for refugees from UNHCR which covers the basics. How has it been going for you in Cuba?

A: I live like a Cuban, with problems in the water supply, power outages, lining up to buy food and looking for medicine on the black market, but with the added difficulty that they see me and treat me like a foreigner who is here as a tourist, which makes people think I’m rich.

Not long ago I asked a man on the street to let me light my cigarette with his lighter. He was a middle-aged man with a respectable appearance who said, very seriously, “Give me 50 pesos and I’ll light your cigarette.”

Neither my wife nor I have a work permit, we spend the day in the small room we rent in a licensed private house, we do not have the luxury of doing anything fun like dining in a restaurant or going to the beach. The only advantage we have is that among Cubans we have not felt racism nor xenophobia.

Q: You place your hope in obtaining refuge in another country, especially the United States. What processes have you gone through or plan to undertake to achieve your objective?

R: I should say that UNHCR is not the problem, but rather the countries that should give us refugee visas. Canada does not receive any and the European countries have the idea that refugees who are in Cuba are the responsibility of the United States Embassy, but those offices have been closed for a long time and have not processed a case similar to ours through UNHCR. Now we have a bit of hope because they now have people working in the consulate.

Q: In August 2022 your daughter Viana was born in Havana; she is registered as a Cuban. Does that change the situation?

R: We decided to have a child now because we did not know if time would run out. We hope that with Cuban emigration [Directorate of Identification, Immigration and Foreigners] there won’t be a problem [for their daughter to leave the country], but they have told us that the Americans no longer provide refuge to Cubans and other countries have the same problem.

Q: How has it been for you with the free public health?

R: For the last year, we’ve had a card issued by the Red Cross, which states that it serves to “receive services at Health Units authorized by the Ministry of Health,” but the problem is that it is very difficult to obtain the medicine. I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and I need to take pills called sertraline and for five months, the pharmacies have not stocked them. This issue is not viewed as serious enough to obtain refuge in other countries. If I were diabetic it would be viewed as an emergency situation.

Sometimes I believe they are waiting for me to go completely crazy to process my case.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez 

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Inflation in Cuba was Out of Control in January

Black beans, a staple of the national diet, have had a recent cost increase of 10.5%. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 19 February 2023 — A bad start for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Cuba in January. The Office of National Statistics and Information just released the data and it is not good. Prices increased by 2.32% in January compared with December.  What’s worse, the interannual variability rate, which measures how inflation behaved between January 2022 and 2023 was 42.80% which is greater than what was reported in December, when it was 39%.

Furthermore, comparing the interannual rate from January 2022 (relative to 2021), which was 23.26%, the rate this year is practically double. This means that inflation in the Cuban economy is accelerating and gained speed once again at the beginning of the year, with its negative effects on the purchasing power of the population and relative prices. It gives the impression that the regime has thrown in the towel and is proving incapable of stabilizing the economy with appropriate fiscal and monetary policies.

Why have prices increased in Cuba so intensely in the month of January? In essence, because four relevant components of the CPI increased by 2% or more in that month.

The first was Restaurants and Hotels, with 4.96% (double the median), which increases the interannual rate to no less than 59.85%, raising the index’s total by 20%. Analyzing the products with the greatest increase in prices, once again leading are: Snacks with a monthly increase of 7.08%; followed by To-Go Prepared foods, 4.29%; and Lunch and Dinner, at 4.1%.

Basically, it has to do with goods processed by the activities of the sector, which charge higher prices because they need to pass onto consumers the increase in the costs of raw materias and ingredients they obtain from their suppliers. continue reading

In second place, Foods and Non-alcoholic Beverages registered an increase of 2.74% compared to the previous month (higher than the median) and also, the highest interannual rate, 67.97%, contributing 53.66% to the index.

The two most inflationary components are also those that are weighted the highest in the index. The acceleration in inflation in the coming months is set. Products that have registered the greatest increase in prices in the Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages group are once again cheese at 7.36%, ham at 5.96%, lamb at 5.34% and pork at 2.26%, products that are becoming more expensive in addition to being scarce in the markets.

The third most inflationary component was Furniture and Home Goods, which experienced price increases of 2.22% in January relative to December and with that, put the interannual rate at 18.83%. This is one of the components of the index which has gained strength relative to last year as cost increases are passed on to the sale price.

The fourth group is Diverse Goods and Services, with an increase in January of 2.01% which in the interannual rate increases to 18.49%.

One should consider that these four components are barely affected by import-related inflation, the argument being used by leaders to justify the out-of-control prices. It does not seem to be a result of the embargo or “blockade” either. The inflation has roots in the domestic economy and responds, ever more so, to the inability of the communist model that runs the economy, which should be regulated by the market — much more efficient.

Next, there are three components of the CPI that, though they registered increases below the median, had interannual rates above 10%. That is the case for Education (one of the achievements of the revolution, free of charge), with an interannual rate increase of 17.86%. Also, Transportation, with an interannual rate of 15.18% and finally, Home Services registered a 14.54% interannual inflation rate.

Transportation deserves special attention, since one of the items of the index with the greatest increase in January is in this group. Specifically, Urban Taxis and “bicitaxis” (as a group) increased by 10.59%, while urban transportation via motorbike increased by 4.31%. Once again, underlying inflation exerts influence on the accelerated price increases which will occur in the near future.

There is one component of the index, Alcohol and Tobacco, which experienced a 6.13% decline in the monthly rate, but its interannual rate still ended up being 18.7% which suggests that inflation is rooted in the economy (an underlying effect) and despite a few monthly improvements, the trend continues to rise.

The year is off to a bad start with inflation data, particularly negative for its impact on the purchasing power of salaries and pensions (declining for foods and necessary processed goods) and introduces a distortion factor because many activities must transfer cost increases onto prices to avoid becoming insolvent, as happened when the Ordering Task* went into effect.

Inflation takes root in the Cuban economy and causes negative effects such as, for example, a declining Cuban peso, cash shortages in the banking system or acting as an unfair tax which hits the poor with greater intensity. The regime, defenseless.

*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: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Statement of Human Rights Organizations on the Situation of Cuban Political Prisoners / Cubalex

Cubalex, 20 February 2023 — The recent release of 222 political prisoners in Nicaragua and their immediate deportation to the United States, has raised the alarm among Cuban civil society regarding a similar “solution” to the current context on the Island. The protests of 2021 and 2022 resulted 768 protesters behind bars, a five-fold increase in the number of political prisoners since July 2021 (152).

The alarm is caused by conversations between the Cuban government and organizations such as the Catholic Church, the European Union and the United States Government, which have expresses positions in favor of the unconditional release of the political prisoners.

A precedent, two events in Cuba’s recent past: the release and exile in 2010 of most of the political prisoners of the Black Spring (2003), as part of a negotiation process to modify the Common Position of the European Union with regard to Cuba. Also in 2015, the release 53 political prisoners and subsequent exile for some as the only path to leave behind the pressures of State Security, as part of the negotiation process for reestablishing relations between Cuba and the United States.

Rappoteurs of the special proceedings of the UN Human Rights Council have expressed concern over the “forced exile” and threats of forced exile and have stated that “authorities would be directly involved in the physical expulsion of those affected”, or would have created a “markedly cohersive context of continuous threats, harassment and violations of human rights,” also against family members of those affected.

Although the Cuban case is referenced, in 2019, it is a valid warning for other scenarios. Sadly, it is a systematic practice of repressive regimes. The Nicaraguan political prisoners didn’t participate in the negotiation process either. They were not informed that the condition of their release was forcibly exiting their country.

Thus, the signing organizations:

1-Maintain that the deprivation of liberty as a form of punishment for continue reading

exercising freedom of expression, assembly and association, and forced exile are reportable practices. The Cuban government uses them repeatedly to gain advantage in political, diplomatic and economic negotiations, as as a method of exerting social control and demobilizing civil society.

2-We consider, faced with an eventual negotiation between governments for the release of Cuban political prisoners, that it must be a process of humanitarian value. No citizen should be deprived of freedom for exercising their right to express themselves and protest. Their release, therefore, should be immediate.

3-We highlight that forced exit from the country as a condition for freeing or releasing political prisoners is a violation of the right to freedom of movement, as stated in the first paragraph of Article 12 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. No person, much less those deprived of liberty under inhumane conditions in Cuban prisoners, can be forced to abandon the country as a condition to achieve their release or ultimate freedom. Whoever negotiates with the Cuban government should request guarantees that the person deprived of their liberty will decide on whether to leave the country without pressure from State Security. The pressure in these cases is a form of forced exile.

4-We believe that the participation of those deprived of liberty and their family members in the exit negotiations should be prioritized. The victims must be at the center of the negotiations. In addition certain minimum guarantees would be necessary for those who freely and voluntarily decide to leave the country, such as facilitating the processes for relocation and for obtain legal status and access to rehabilitation services.

5-We propose that prisoner releases and subsequent deportations that do not consider the mentioned guarantees for the victims be subject to questioning by human rights organizations and democratic governments, regardless of whether they are part of the negotiations. We oppose any laudatory pronouncements such as those made by the U.S. State Department, in which acts violating human rights are presented as “positive steps” for the consolidation of relations between countries and a path toward democracy.

The signing organizations have accompanied the Cuban government’s victims of repression, including those incarcerated as a result of the protests in the last two years. We welcome with hope the idea that they will be release, under any possible form. At the same time, we warn that the causes of this citizen unrest, as well as the repression–reinforced by the new Criminal Code — remain in effect. The spiral of violence, resistance and punishment will not cease until a Democratic State of Law governs Cuba, with full respect for human rights. A search for that Justice, in the present and in the future, calls to us and unites us.

On this 20th day of February, signed:

The declaration can be found here.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

Note: TranslatingCuba has modified its practice of not including links to sources only available in Spanish, because the ease of instant translation through browsers now makes these sources easily readable.

D Frente Urges Cubans to Advocate on Social Media for Abstaining From the Elections on March 26

“The only remote way for a candidate not to be elected is for people in that location to agree to vote for another candidate and that isn’t going to happen,” says Yunior García Aguilera. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 14 February 2023 — D Frente [D Front], an opposition group, born from an agreement among distinct organizations, is urging Cubans to abstain from the next elections for delegates to the National Assembly of the People’s Power on March 26th. In a statement issued on Tuesday, they invite citizens to participate in a campaign they are calling “Your abstention is your voice,” which consists of sharing on social media “one reason” for which they will abstain from participating in the election.

For D Frente, data from the last two elections, the referendum on the Family Code and the municipal elections in September and November 2022, respectively, in which abstentions reached record numbers, provided evidence of a “pretty clear trend” in the current political system: the “accelerated loss” of representative capacity. “It does not represent their own followers, because these cannot select from among a plurality of their supposed representatives, and they do not collectively represent society because it cannot freely select from among alternatives truly present in the country,” they state.

For this reason, they say that on March 26, 2023 “this new reality” will be verified: the divorce of “the official representative model” and “the real country.”

“When, of the 8 million voters, 3 million cannot find channels for representation, the problem lies with the system,” states the group, which highlights that the 470 delegates that will be selected on that day do so as a result of a proposal of “organizations registered in the State’s organigram.”

D Frente says that the electoral process, which began on January 30th, began by “violating the election law at least twice,” by “failing to publish the voter census and with a full-fledged electoral campaign.”

This, they continue, is an indication of “two deep realities”: on the one hand, emigration, which is assumed to be 3% of the Island’s electorate though the government “avoids exposing and verifying” that, and on the other hand, the obligation the regime has to “fight, through every possible public media outlet, for the participation at the polls of every single Cuban voter,” given the “progressive rupture of the so-called revolutionary consensus.” continue reading

Faced with these data, the organization demands with urgency “a new political contract for Cuba that will express its new plural, social and generational dynamic.”

For that, they propose that the “strategic roadmap” pass through “a constitutional reform that would institutionalize popular sovereignty as a cornerstone principle that would establish the rule of law without ideologies and where the Communist Party would no longer be the sole party,” as a first step toward “democratic, free, multi-party, just and inclusive” elections.

In addition to participating in the “Your abstention is your voice” campaign, D Frente suggests that Cubans request a certification of their voter status from the Electoral Council in each municipality, one step, they explain, “that is legally necessary for those who have supported or would like to support with their signature the diverse legislative and constitutional initiatives promoted by organizations that make up our group.”

In Madrid, exiled playwright Yunior García Aguilera, a member of D Frente, speaking for himself, told 14ymedio that establishing abstention is the right thing to do and that the campaign for a rejection vote must double down, but warned that the regime has thousands of ways to ensure those 470 delegates will ultimately be elected.”

For example, in contrast to the municipal elections, “now anyone could vote in any polling location,” which “could lend itself to them inflating the numbers and they could present results that are better than the previous elections.” This is how, in some municipalities, they aim to achieve 90% or 95% participation.

The artist and opponent does not believe that level will be reached, but he does believe they “can surpass the last estimate, from the municipal elections.” In any case, he says, it won’t make a difference, given that delegates only need 50% plus one vote to be elected.

“The only remote way for a candidate not to be elected is for people in that location to agree to vote for another candidate and that isn’t going to happen,” he says, but insists in the symbolic value of the abstention. “If we exceed the number from previous elections it would be a resounding response to the regime, although it will not change the results at all.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

How to Enthrone Democracy and the Market in Cuba in Just 365 Days

How long the regime lasts will depend on the ability of the opposition to exert pressure, and on the willingness of the thousands of reformists who still exist in the government to change. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Madrid, 12 February 2023 — In Cuba there will be elections in March for the National Assembly of the People’s Power (ANPP). These are potentially the most important elections the system provides. Ricardo Alarcón, former President of Parliament, realized this and Raúl Castro dismissed him and did not allow him to run again. “You don’t play with power” is the motto of the Castro brothers, and Alarcón was going for power head first.

They will run, and will be elected with 99% of the votes, Raúl Castro, Miguel Díaz-Canel, Manuel Marrero, Elián González, and the current president of the ANPP, Esteban El Gori Lazo, as Fidel himself used to call him to humiliate him for being black and heavy-set. This caused him much laughter, which the extraordinary poet Raúl Rivero heard directly, before he confronted the regime of “the dead and flowers” (Silvio Rodríguez said in Ojalá, a song written by the troubadour to hurt the dictator, although disguised as loving care).

Up to 605 “fathers and mothers of the homeland” will be elected on that day. My advice, requested by no one, is to enjoy the occasion. It may be the last. The July 11, 2021 date is not only a precedent, it is a path. That day, thousands of people yelled “freedom” and sang Patria y Vida*, which immediately became the second anthem of Cuba. More than a thousand of them have been accused before tribunals and are serving unjust sentences.

The number of recently arrived exiles in the last year is more than 300,000 people. There are plenty of children and family members of generals, ministers and former ministers, of delegates and former delegates. That includes only the U.S. because in that country they collect and preserve data better than most of the world.

More than two decades ago, I received dissident Gustavo Arcos Bergnes (GAB) the name of an active general who commanded troops. A short time later, he told me he could be trusted to initiate a transition in Cuba. GAB was Fidel’s party colleague, an attacker of the Moncada barracks, where he was shot in the spine and was almost paralyzed. After the triumph of the Revolution he was the Cuban ambassador to Belgium.

GAB was a serious man. So much so, that he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for criticizing his former boss. Once in jail, and later out of jail, he met with Ricardo Bofill, with Martha Frayde, with his brother Sebastián Arcos Bergnes, a mid-level leader of the Revolution, and with his son, also named Sebastián, to place the opposition under the cloak of human rights and prevent another bloody revolutionary cycle. Later came Elizardo Sánchez and Juan Manuel Cao, not even 20 years old, whose verses were “taken” as if they were bombs, very witty verses against the Commandant. Today he is renowned novelist and Channel 41 reporter.

At that time I believed the regime did not have much time left, but Fidel pulled Hugo Chavez from his sleeve, and as he had previously with Lula da Silva, and as he supported the Sao Paolo Forum, he was able to weather the storm by renting out professionals. Fidel and Hugo Chavez no longer exist, and the Sao Paolo Forum is under the constant scrutiny of the Brazilian army, thus, the Cuban communist dictatorship’s death sentence has been issued. It died of starvation and incompetence. continue reading

Definitely, it died of what communist regime’s usually die of –t he inability to produce sufficient quantities of goods and services. Much less than what are achieved in an open economy subject to the market and the existence of private property, although at the expense of the attempted equality of results. However, how long it lasts, be it months or years, will depend on the capacity of the opposition to exert pressure, and the will, of the thousands of reformists that exist in the government, to change. We all must listen to them attentively.

In 1990, liberal soviet economists put in motion a plan to transform the USSR in 500 days; Cuba only needs 365 days. The plan promised to revive in that timeframe the subordination of all to the market and, still within the rules of Marxism, it was believed that society would, on its own, discover political freedom. Ultimately, they achieved neither economic nor political freedom. That all ended, despite having the approval of Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev.

In 1990 Grigory Yavlinsky, president of the Yabloko or “Apple” party, and Stanislav Shatalin, bet all the prestige of their doctoral degrees in economics that the formula would work in the USSR, but as soon as Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov tenaciously opposed it, their plan was destroyed. I do not believe that will happen in Cuba. If a clear consensus exists, within and outside power, it is that there is no human way to revive Cuban communism. Which is why, in the last year, 300,000 people have left to all parts of the planet, and among them many members of the nomenklatura and their descendants.

What has been learned about the transitions is that they all have a high level of improvisation and singularity. Anyway, it has been useful to gather the ideas put in place in other countries and other systems:

    • Restore hope. Yavlinski and Shatalin’s “unborn” plan serves to frame the reforms within a timeframe. In one year “things” will begin to improve. To a society which has been deceived countless times by crazy plans that don’t work, this is referred to as restoring hope.
    • U.S., always the U.S. Little Cuba can become a place where it is possible to do business with her. At the end of the day, it will only be with 11 million people. A free trade agreement will be necessary. One of the reforms that should be made is the dollarization of the economy. The Island’s biggest resource is having as a neighbor, only 90 miles away, 325 million people including the richest and most creative on the planet.
    • Between 20% and 30% of the Cuban Americans have roots on the Island. That is a source of extraordinary richness on both shores for potential business.
    • For the first time, the U.S. has someone with whom they can speak outside of its territory. Cuban American members of congress should appear on this list of priviledged people. Four or five formermembers of congress as well.

What I mean is that it is not worth making a detailed plan. It is only necessary to create the conditions for it to work and let the imagination do the rest. We continue to wait for someone who can initiate the transition in Cuba. I don’t believe that general who commanded troops who Gustavo Arcos Bergnes spoke of is still alive.

*Translator’s Note: Patria y Vida was the 2021 Latin Grammy Song of the Year; the title translates to “Homeland and Life”–a play on the Cuban government’s old slogan of “Homeland or Death”. 

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Cuba Purchased More Chicken from the U.S in 2022 at a Higher Price Than in the Previous Year

Purchases in December included cigarettes, corn flour, caramel corn chips, peas, frozen chicken, as well as beef and pork. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 11 February 2023 — The total value of chicken imported by Cuba from the United States in 2022 was $295 million, a level 5.6% higher than the previous year. The data, provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and analyzed by economist Pedro Monreal, contributes to dismantling the excuse of the embargo, the Cuban government’s favorite excuse to justify its inefficiency.

Cuba is ever more dependent on American chicken, on which the country spent $279.1 million in 2021. The numbers have doubled since 2020 (an increase of 105.9%), during the pandemic, when the regime spent $143.7 million for chicken imports.

Last December alone, a record $33 million was spent to import 26,460 tons of chicken. Monreal warned on his Twitter account that the amount paid in the last month of 2022 is half of what the Island budgeted for January 2019, but for the same amount imported, evidence of a greater hard currency outlays and an increase in the price of that food item.

Thus, the value of a kilogram of chicken imported was $1.26 at the end of December, the equivalent of an 44.8% annual increase compared with a price of $0.87 that same month in 2021. The price of white meat remained relatively high during the second half of 2022, when it reached more than a dollar per kilogram and reached its highest level in October — $1.29, on average.

“The inability to produce chicken is the elephant in the room of the national agricultural policy,” said the economist with regard to the low levels of avian production in Cuba, a food that in the last years has become an essential part of the Cuban family table due to the disappearance of other sources of protein from the market and the high price of pork.

Much different from the official discourse, which insists that Cuba does not depend on the United States, the data confirm a different reality. According to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, purchases of agricultural inputs and food products from the United States reached historic levels — $328.5 million at the end of 2022, which represents an increase of 7.7% from the $304.7 million reported in 2021. continue reading

Imports in December reached $39.3 million, 28.7% higher than the level reported that same month in 2021, by a little more than $28 million, or 178% more than the $14.1 million in December 2020.

Purchases in December included cigarettes, corn flour, caramel corn chips, peas, frozen chicken, as well as beef and pork. Furthermore, there were shipments of beans, coffee, beer, non-alcoholic beverages, and also soap, shampoo, detergent and beauty products.

The Council reported that the import of hygiene products alone totaled $9.22 million, the highest level since 2013, the first year data were recorded since sales to Cuba were authorized in 1992.

Humanitarian donations from the United States also reached record levels of $30.08 million at the end of last year, 171.7% greater than the $11.07 million received in 2021.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

In Cuba Cardinal Stella Asks for ‘Freedom’ for the July 11th (11J) Prisoners

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Havana, February 8, 2023 — On Wednesday in Havana, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, Pope Francis’s envoy, requested the release of Cubans who participated in the antigovernment protests on July 11, 2021.

Stella made these statements toward the end of his visit to Cuba, where he recalled the trip Pope John Paul II made to the country 25 years ago, at the time considered an historic gesture.

“The pope very much desires for there to be a positive response” from the Cuban government to the Church’s requests for the release of the convicted protesters, stated the cardinal in statements to the credentialed media on the Island.

In this regard, he believes that whether it is legally defined as amnesty or clemency is secondary because “words can also be secondary.”

“But it is important that young people who at one time expressed their thoughts in the manner we know can return to their homes,” he highlighted.

The cardinal assured that during his visit to Cuba he was able to express to Cuban authorities this “desire” of the Church and he expressed a wish that from this “useful and positive moment” that is his trip “new things will emerge for the Cuban people.”

Shortly before this, during a speech at the University of Havana in front of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Pope Francis’s envoy underscored that “freedom cannot be subordinated to any calculation of interests, circumstances, waiting for better times.” continue reading

He added that Cuba “should be free of all interference,” but he also encourages “its children to be free men and women.” Freedom, he added, must allow for material and spiritual growth.

Stella called for “promoting reconciliation and brotherhood” from “diversity” and not “a similarity of ideas”, and called for a “culture of encounter” that encourages the creation of “bridges” over which “to travel in common.”

In his declarations to the media, the cardinal called on the role of dialogue, from “kindness and respect,” is his conversations with high ranking Cuban officials as well as in relations between Havana and the United States. “Solutions can be found by speaking,” he stated.

The Vatican wishes that “those who have power could talk, and could mutually listen,” stated Stella, because “from there could emerge things that benefit the Cuban people.”

“Hopefully it will happen and happen soon (this dialogue) and it can become an important step for many advances which the Cuban people really need. There are things that should be done and done soon,” he added.

He also referenced the strong migration currently occurring in Cuba, which has lost about 3% of its population in 2022 alone, mainly due to the severe economic crisis, but also due to political repression.

The pontife’s envoy asked for Cubans to be able to make “their hopes and desires” a reality in their country and for young people to achieve their “dreams.”

Pope Francis was one of the international architects of the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba between 2014 and 2017, with former Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro, a phase known as the thaw.

However, the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House ended that process and, in fact, reversed it with the application of new sanctions — added to those already in place — and the inclusion of Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

In the last few months there has been a discrete and pragmatic rapprochement between the two countries in different areas of common interest, such as migration and national security and some of the latest sanctions have been lifted by Washington.

Stella arrived in Cuba on January 23rd on a trip framed by the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s pastoral trip to Cuba, the first pope to visit the Island. Later two of his successors, Benedict XVI and Francis, visited Cuba.

After the first few days in Havana, during which he had the opportunity to meet some high ranking Cuban government officials, Stella began a trip to visit every Catholic diocese in the country and interview those in charge.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

‘Let Them Lock Me Up if That Will Make Them Happy,’ Writes One of the Editors of ‘La Joven Cuba’

On Monday, Jorge Fernández Era did not show up for the summons after claiming its nullity. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 31 January 2023 — Jorge Fernández Era, a writer and collaborator of the digital magazine La Joven Cuba summoned to an “interview” with State Security on Monday in Havana, presented a claim that it was null for violating the Criminal Procedures Law and did not attend the meeting.

The editor took the same route as professor Alina Bárbara López Hernández, a coordinator at the same publication with whom the Prosecutor in Matanzas sided in a similar situation last October.

Yesterday Fernández Era shared on his Facebook profile the verbal clash he had last Friday with First Lieutenant Manuel Fernández García, who from the street called him down to the ground floor of the building where he lives in Santos Suárez (Havana) when he had just finished the humor column he publishes in La Joven Cuba on Sundays. The First Lieutenant informed him that he was now the one who “attends” to the publication.

“He handed me a little paper, so sloppy one number was written over the other with a certain air of, ’just use that one, there are no models to follow’,” said the journalist about the moment the official handed him the summons for Monday. Fernández confirmed that the date as well as the time are clear, but disagreed about place for the meeting, as it is a different municipality from where he lives (Plaza de la Revolución).

“That has nothing to do with anything,” responded the agent. “You say so, and as a citizen I have the right to doubt,” replied Fernández who noted how his observation made the lieutenant uncomfortable. continue reading

The collaborator explained that the official reminded him that he should not be inspired by the case of Alina Bárbara López Hernández, warning him that “Matanzas is not Havana” and assured him that in that case, laws were broken. “And how many have been prosecuted for that?” replied Fernández, according to his own account, highlighting the lack of sense of humor with which the lieutenant took his comments.

On Monday, the writer went to the Prosecutor in Havana to present a claim requesting the nullity of the summons and announced that he would not go of his own accord to the office on Zapata and C to be interrogated. “The transportation is already pretty bad,” he joked.

Fernández asked himself why, if the Revolution is backed by most elite intellectuals, can’t they sit and have a civilized discussion with the “confused” and “wayward” in a place more suitable than a police station. “How could they refer to it as a battle ’of ideas’ if they do not include everyone who possesses them, but only those who say ‘yes because yes’, ‘yes but no’ and ‘yes because if I say no. . .’?” he bemoaned.

The writer also reproached that there is a presumed press worthy of calling itself revolutionary if it never questions the politics of the government “that decides the destiny, dreams, and personal and collective accomplishments.” Fernández also requested that they acuse La Joven Cuba’s collaborators of whatever they want, but at least, “have the decency and the courage to publish without deletions any one of our articles.”

Lastly, in his allegations of Monday morning, the collaborator stated ironically that his style of writing is sarcasm. “What fault is it of mine that I was born in a such a fun country, and with such sympathetic leaders? Let them summon me, arrest me, handcuff me, interrogate me, let them lock me up if that will make them happy. The difficult part will be to mutilate my freedom to laugh at the joke that I will keep silent.”

Hours later, the writer returned to social media to calm the many people who worried about his situation and shared that no one had bothered him since he posted the claim, although he is now awaiting the decision of the Prosecutor, who has 60 days to decide.

Fernández who thanked those who have supported him during these tense days, hopes to enjoy the same luck as the professor and joked about the alternatives in case he is unsuccessful in his claim. There’s always the option to move to the Athens of Cuba, where, judging by his declaration, laws are blatantly broken and summons are not what they once were. Who knows? The peanut vendors might have even declared independence from the rest of the national territory.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

In Cuba, Plans are Imposed Upon Cattle Farmers from an Office and That is Why There is Neither Meat nor Milk

Cattle farmers lack the space to increase their herds of cattle. (Vicente Brito/Granma)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, January 30, 2023 — Pedro Rubio Tristá is one of the most successful cattle farmers in Las Tunas, he provides many fattening bulls to the government and exceeds the planned meat and milk production. Furthermore, he says he receives payment in hard currency and sells sweet potato to the government at a good price. However, he committed an unforgivable error of selling five cattle to his cousin and, although the cattle mass did not decrease, that earned him the prohibition of slaughtering any animal in 2022.

“He doesn’t understand and considers it an extremism,” stated an article published in a state-run press outlet which details the problems faced by producers and clearly explains why there is no meat or milk in Cuban markets.

“It has been two years since an official came here. The plans for milk and meat are imposed upon us from an office,” snaps Dilber Leyva, president of a cooperative in Las Tunas which exposes the problems with dairy products and bemoans that leaders develop plans without noticing the peculiarities of the territory and, much less each individual.

Last year one of his producers, he says, had to deliver 500 liters of milk from the 10 cows he owns, but four of them were pregnant, which made it infeasible. “He had to pay a large sum of money for not meeting the plan when, objectively, he was unable to,” he reproached. At the same time, the rate of default on the fines is high because many of them do not have the money, which results in debt for the cooperative which, in turn, cannot pay. A vicious circle.

“The cooperative’s milk debt for fines increased to 215,000 pesos last year because 50 producers did not honor the projections. For three months we were unable to pay farmers because Empresa Láctea [the Dairy Company] withheld the money for the debt,” he continued. And to top it off, the bank (Bandec) doesn’t give them credit either. continue reading

Jorge Velázques is another one let down by the same case as Rubio. Between him and his brother, Blas, they delivered 36 fattening bulls larger than 450 kilos. Their cattle herd increased and they exceeded the production plan. However, it occurred to him to pass three cattle to their brother, within the same farm, and both were penalized with the same measure: prohibition of slaughtering even one cattle.

“With regard to the contract, the prices are unstable, the prices of the businesses that are supposed to help are very high, delayed payments are constant and the prices include taxes on our products because contracts are written according to the norms decided by only one person. That is not a contract,” he protests.

After having interviewed up to 20 farm workers, Periódico26 has not found a single story of satisfaction with the much-lauded 63 measures to stimulate agriculture and livestock.

The nonsense with the land is not minor. Cattle farmer Raúl Escobar owned, via a family inheritance, a large part of the land in his neighborhood, Indaya, on the outskirts of Las Tunas. He decided to give it up, he says, “to benefit the community,” but now he wants more space to increase the cattle herd and they won’t give it to him. “And we’re talking about one of the measures to stimulate cattle farming,” he protests.

Yoel Martínez Vargas, an Agriculture delegate in the province, stated that the root of all the problems is that those who decide do not get close to those who produce, and he calls for speed in providing land. “Still, not infrequently, farmers are after the leaders, when it should be the other way around,” he says.

There are more than 50,000 hectares in the province that are either idle or not fully exploited because they were granted without rigorous study, he states. The official calls for improving conditions for farmers by providing them with proper housing and reassessing their work so they don’t leave.

The article states that each farm worker owns just 13.42 hectares, which only allows for 13 head of large cattle, when there is “more than enough” land to provide him with the 67 hectares needed to for adequate production.

Another nefarious data point for the province — in Las Tunas, more than 1,200 producers fall short of the milk they need to deliver. Although the article adds that “in most cases the reasons are unknown,” the statements made by the farmers, compiled in the report, are very clear.

Martínez Vargas requests that those who understand, in detail, how the new measures function approach each producer and get involved in development.

The delegate took advantage of the document to announce the decentralization of the sector in the province. Empresa Integral Agropecuaria [Integrated Agriculture Company] will disappear and one will be created in each municipality; urban farms will be converted to mipymes (micro, small and medium enterprises) and Puerto Padre will be the first agroindustrial municipality in Cuba’s Eastern Balcony (Las Tunas), shifting to the local government. In his opinion, this should be good so the sector will make its own decisions and manage is eventual profits.

Yoel Martínez Vargas expressed that “the root cause is poor contracting because the production plans are not well-conceived. Right now, more than a few, are increasing their mass and they cannot slaughter them because the contracts are poorly written.”

On several occasions the report refers to the words of Vice Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca and his calls to “stimulate thinnking and creativity,” which serves as the headline for the article. However, those responsible never take responsibility for their errors and the solutions revert to being little more than good intentions.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

An Ice Cream Vendor Shot Three Times on July 11, 2021 (11J) Demands Reparations from the Cuban Justice System

Orisis José Puerto Terry went from being a victim, to being accused, and denounced that now he is being harassed by police. (https://twitter.com/justicia11j)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 29 January 2023 — Osiris José Puerto Terry has a bullet lodged in his back, a prominent scar on his abdomen and another on his right foot, almost all the way to his knee cap. A captain of the specialized police force shot him during the protests on July 11, 2021 at the corner of Santa Emilia and Diez de Octubre. “It is attempted murder,” denounced this ice cream sandwich vendor who that day was only trying to make it home.

Puerto Terry went from being a victim to being accused. A year and a half ago he underscored to Diario de las Américas that he was being followed by military counterintelligence and the Aguilera police unit in Lawton, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre. “On the seventh of every month I must appear at the police station with my wife and sign a document of commitment stating I will not become involved in politics, will not create problems and a series of other things. On dates determined by State Security, I must spend three or four days without leaving my house.”

The official who handled his case in Villa Marista, political police headquarters in Havana, “does not want me to say that they shot me three times while I was defenseless and without resisting at all. Why wouldn’t I say the truth? Saying the truth is not a crime,” he told that same news site. Puerto Terry is tired of his demand for justice and compensation being tossed back and forth and the empty words.

With regard to the case, he recounted that the Prosecutor stated that the two sub-officials injured him “while they were doing their job.” Puerto Terry denies that and reiterated, “That is a lie. A captain of the specialized police force shot me. In the Prosecutor’s response, five months after the fact, they called it causing injuries. I do not agree with that. I do not agree: three shots from a firearm are not injuries, it is an [attempted] murder,” affirms Osiris.

Puerto Terry told Diario de las Américas that on that Sunday the people who were protesting against the government were pushed back by the police and government supporters who were mobilized. “It was heated,” said the 49-year-old man, when around 5 pm, while he was crossing the street, a group of officials arrived “shooting firearms at the population.” continue reading

One of the shots hit a column he was using for protection. “A neighbor opened the door to the building where I sought refuge. When I was going to enter, the police fired a second shot which hit my right foot. I fell on the floor, I could not stand up, and the official fired a third short which hit me in the back,” stated Puerto Terry to that same news site. One of the neighbors came out and shouted, “It is Orisis lying there.”

The link to the YouTube video showing the moment in which this vendor was injured in the leg and when he was shot in the back was shared via Justicia11j’s Twitter account.

After offering him aid, a neighbor nicknamed Coquín put him in a car and took him to Calixto García hospital. When he entered the hospital, he was beaten by the police officers who were at the entrance, “When the doctors and surgeons from group number four who were on staff that day arrived, the officials asked, ’Are you going to save this counterrevolutionary?’.”

Puerto Terry was discharged on August 11th. An official at 100 and Aldabó, the seat of the Technical Investigations Department, took a statement from him and his wife. Despite having drafted a letter where he explained that on the day of the protest he went to sell his ice cream sandwiches and as he was returning home he ran into some neighbors on Pamplona and San Nicolás who offered him some rum.

On that July 11th and the days that followed, arbitrary acts occurred on the part of police against the population. After several accusations by civil society and Cubans on social media, it was evident that Diubis Laurencio Tejeda was murdered by a gunshot fired by police sub lieutenant Yoennis Pelegrín Hernández during the protests the following day, July 12th, in the Havana neighborhood of La Güinera, in the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Yelling ‘Freedom’ is an Aggravating Factor for the Tribunal that Convicted Nine Cubans for July 2021 (11J) Protests

The nine demonstrators protested at Esquina de Toyo, the same place where young Elías Rizo waved a Cuban flag on top of an overturned police car. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, January 28, 2023 — On Thursday, the court of Crimes Against State Security of Havana’s Provincial Tribunal handed down sentences of up to 15 years in prison for another nine 11J [11 July 2021] protesters charged with sedition.

The accused, ranging from 25 to 39 years of age are: Lázaro Yurisan Sarduy, sentenced to 14 years in jail; Lázaro Osmel Salinas (to 15 years); Yoslien Rosa and Yunier Sánchez (both to 11 years); Deyvis Javier Torres, Carlos Pérez Cosme and Reinier Borrell (10 years); and Alcides Peró Candó and Manuel Bermúdez (both received 5 years of correctional labor without internment).

Prosecutor Roeldys Matos Delgado accused the young people of “tumultuously agitating the social order and discipline” in addition to assaulting authorities and contributing to “undermining the socialist system.” He admitted that the protesters were “thousands of people,” in contrast to the official versions the state-run press tried to impose.

Matos stated that the “mob” advanced from the areas surrounding the theater in the Havana neighborhood of Mantilla, through Diez de Octubre, a main road, shouting “offensive phrases” against Miguel Díaz-Canel and the police. The Prosecutor also accused the protesters of using “rocks, sticks and various objects” against the agents at the “popular” Esquina de Toyo, on Diez de Octubre.

Esquina de Toyo was one of the most significant scenes on 11J. One of the young protesters climbed atop of an overturned patrol car and waved a Cuban flag, an image that became one of the most iconic of the protest. The “young man with the flag,” whose name was Elías Rizo, managed to leave Cuba following the protests and, after a long journey, settle in Madrid. continue reading

The accused, according to Matos, “climbed on top” of police patrol cars and managed to overturn them as a “show of contempt.” The crowd’s retreat occurred in the area of Vía Blanca, where police repressed protesters more harshly. After presenting their version of the events, the prosecution sought up to 27 years in jail for the young people.

The defense denied all the Prosecutor’s accusations and, in the case of Borrell, presented that he wasn’t even with the protesters, but rather riding his motorbike to the Esquina de Toyo “out of curiosity.” Other attorneys presented similar arguments about the lack of “direct” participation of the accused in the events of 11J. The defense team for Sarduy, who has had AIDS since 2019, reasoned that there was not enough evidence to prosecute him.

The Prosecutor’s response, as stated in the sentencing document, was to insist in the accusations and accept the events as “proven.” Furthermore, he alleged that the young people shouted, “Freedom!” at the top of their lungs and sang the chorus of Patria y Vida, a song “inspired in sentiments contrary to the state’s socialist system,” the agents had also heard them say, on more than one occasion, “Díaz-Canel, you are a motherfucker.”

Matos stated that if the police officers had drawn their weapons it was to shoot, as in the case of Yovani Viera, 14 shots into the air to “protect his colleagues.” Furthermore, he made a special effort to denigrate all the accused, attributing to them, “a violent nature,” “vulgar vocabulary,” “scarce relationships with their neighbors” and a propensity for “scandal.”

The tribunal, which was presided by Nelson Delgado and included Irela Heredia, Carlos Hurtado Castillo, Mercedes Ramos and Juan Sosa, assessed the events, the testimony of the witnesses — most of them police officers and public officials — and the videos used by the experts to identify the protesters, and sided with the Prosecution.

On January 23rd, we learned of another sentence from the same tribunal against 15 protesters whose total sentence equaled 75 years. Among the accused was Jonathan Torres, who at the time of the events was only 17 years old. The arguments made by the Prosecutor were similar and were well received by the tribunal.

The following day, in East Havana, another 10 people were tried, among those was instructor Pedro Albert Sánchez, charged with public disorder, assault, resisting arrest and contempt. The sentences were up to eight years in prison.

The 11J trials, which since the beginning have been used to set examples, were discussed by Minister of Justice, Óscar Silvera, in a meeting with ambassadors from the European Union last week. During that meeting, Silvera signaled to the diplomats that offering amnesty to the protesters was an impossibility.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.