Translator: Silvia Suárez – Page 9

Cuba: Fidel Castro’s Tantrum with Gorbachev

During Gorbachev’s trip to Cuba in 1989, he and Castro could not hide, despite high levels of diplomacy, the abyss that separated their ideas. (EP)

14ymedio, Frank Calzón, Miami, 3 September 2022 — Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader who wanted to salvage communism with his reforms and openings known as glasnost and perestroika, could not convince Fidel of the pragmatism of these reforms during his visit to Cuba in 1989. Fidel did not like the interest generated by the Russian — younger than he — among Havanans, nor did he like his ideas of renewal.

Now, the state-run press in Cuba has limited itself to succinctly informing about his death, which has been the subject of hundreds of articles and commentaries in the most important press outlets around the world.

In an article this week in the Washington Post, Nathan Sharansky, a human rights activist and former political prisoner in the USSR, wrote that Gorbachev, “expressed regret that the U.S.S.R. had fallen apart, but also emphasized his personal achievements, including the promotion of political and religious freedom, the introduction of democracy and a market economy, and, of course, the end of the Cold War.”

In his book titled Perestroika, published in 1987, Gorbachev — who would become the leader of the Soviet Union the following year — wrote that “the world is not what it used to be, and its new problems cannot be solved by the inherited concepts of centuries past.” Gorbechev did not want continuity. continue reading

Those ideas and his willingness to cooperate with the United States were anathema to Fidel Castro, who always wanted to be the leader of a grand anti-American coalition. The immediate result was that Havana banned the distribution of Russian publications, such as Sputnik and Novedades de Moscú [News from Moscow], and began to repatriate the Cubans who lived in Russia to avoid contagion with the dangerous reformist virus.

Among those who were later disgraced for favoring the reforms were General Arnaldo Ochoa, a national hero decorated by Fidel Castro himself and later executed on the dictator’s orders following a sham trial for drug trafficking.

Regarding Ochoa’s case, the Los Angeles Times stated at the time that “it is possible that Arnaldo Ochoa will be spared from a firing squad by his old friend and leader Fidel Castro, but . . . Castro has decided that his Island’s future lies in . . . Stalinist Communism including purges and show trials for those unfortunate apparatchiks who stray from the party line.”

After the Soviet Union disappeared, Irina Zorina, an intellectual, and a group of Russian dissidents founded the Russian Committee for Human Rights in Cuba and the Russian Embassy in Geneva responded to a call from Carlos Franqui and Freedom House, sponsoring a session to hear the grievances of former Cuban political prisoners who were visiting the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in the Swiss city.

The session was also attended by diplomats, journalists and representatives of human rights organizations. Cuba’s State newspaper Granma ran an editorial commentary illustrated with rats, vodka bottles and American flags, alleging they wanted to convert the Russian diplomatic mission into a tavern.

Sharansky’s Washington Post article comments that during Gorbachev’s, “first trips to the West. . .Gorbachev discovered that the Soviet Union had paid a heavy diplomatic and economic price for its treatment of dissidents. As a result. . .he began to release political prisoners and long-time refuseniks (Jews fighting for their right to emigrate to Israel.) ”

Shanasky also wrote in his book, The Case for Democracy, that “three things are necessary for people to achieve freedom: people on the inside willing to suffer to achieve it; people on the outside to help them; and for democracies to condition their political, economic, and cultural relationships on the regime’s implementation of specific reforms, beginning with the release of political prisoners.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuban President Diaz-Canel and the Blackouts: Enemies On All Sides

Cubans are frequently reduced to using candles as their only source of light. (Yoani Sanchéz)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 29 August 2022 — It is one thing to say that Cuba will overcome the current energy crisis; what Díaz-Canel did is quite another matter, he insulted the Cuban people who are fed up with so many lies, and with waiting for “The New Man” who will never arrive. Even Silvio Rodríguez spoke up.

During his trip to two power plants — the Máximo Gómez plant in Mariel and the Ernesto Guevara plant in Serna, Santa Cruz del Norte — the communist ruler provided details of the strategy to overcome the national electricity system’s situation which has resulted in continuous blackouts over several months. But also, according to some, he’s freaking out. What is happening to Díaz-Canel?

Who would have predicted it? Once again the embargo or blockade appears as the justification for all the maladies that accumulate on Díaz-Canel’s agenda. That is, Cuba’s communist ruler, after acknowledging that the energy crisis has nothing to do “with enemy activity, nor with any bad behavior of the thermo-electric plant employees” he launched harsh attacks against the United States, faulting the blockade [i.e. the US embargo] for “the systematic effects it has provoked, which left the country without possible financing to carry out the maintenance work, repairs and the new investments needed in that sector.” Up until this point, nothing new.

Once again, taking the Doberman out for a walk. Maybe one of the state newspaper Granma’s journalists should have reminded Díaz-Canel of the Soviet-communist origins of the power plants that are still in operation, with several issues of obsolescence. No. Putin, Díaz-Canel’s principle associate, certainly would not like to receive this type of critique of his technology. continue reading

Without taking responsibility for a single one of the events, Díaz-Canel found a new argument, blaming some “presumed enemies of the revolution” for the whole situation, which is being taken advantage of to “create discouragement, uncertainty, to call for vandalism, to promote disorder. Sadly there are people who, with vandalism, indecent behaviors, lend themselves to these activities.” Inconceivable. What is the communist ruler acknowledging publicly?

Not content, he added that this type of behavior should be separated from “the doubt that the population may have at a certain point, of its demands or of the concerns that are channeled through the [communist] party’s system of services, the government, and the revolution’s institutions.” In fact, he did not realize, or he does not want to realize that it is the same, and he is running out of credit. On this, even Silvio Rodríguez agrees with this blog, which is not usually the case.

In addition, Díaz-Canel should understand that when faced with the dissatisfaction that exists, no party line will suffice, it’s simple, get the electricity to work. Problems are not fixed by covering them up, but rather by resolving them.

When Díaz-Canel wastes Cubans’ time by talking about “the hypocritical, double standard, genocidal, inhumane policies to which they subject the country through unjust sanctions and an intensified blockade” he only wastes energy on an argument which not even he still believes. And all he has to do is resolve, as quickly as possible, a problem which cannot last days, nor weeks, nor months because it could all blow up. When he least expects it.

To simplify Cuba’s communist leader’s statement during his trip to the two power plants in Mariel and Santa Cruz del Norte, “today we have a process of accumulated technological deterioration which cannot be resolved in short order.” And how did we arrive at this situation?

The whole situation corresponds to the communist state-run media’s new propaganda campaign which insists, once again, to a people tired of so many promises and lies, that ” Cuba will overcome the current energy crisis created by the effects over several years of the United States blockade.” Then it remains calm because, with that, it intends to buy time and return to the essence of the revolution, which they have not moved away from in 63 years. Meanwhile, Cubans are fleeing the island in one of the largest exoduses of the last 20 years. [Translator’s note: In fact, ’largest ever’.]

Díaz-Canel observed during his trip to the power plants “intense work, under very difficult conditions, over many hours and with enourmous determination on the part of the power plant employees to recover the power generation capacity as soon as possible and of course, provide more stability, and get us away from these very complex and unpleasant situations which affect our entire population.”

None of that can be criticized, far from it, but did he really expect anything else to happen? Díaz-Canel knows and the plant employees also know that this energy crisis will not be resolved overnight and that its effects will continue, unless a 180 degree turn changes everything.

Díaz-Canel recalled his television appearance in June, during which he said there would be a strategy to eliminate the blackouts by summer, and which Granma described as “a well conceived design.” However, it is evident they must have been talking of another country because this summer, which is not yet over, has been one of alumbrones* more than blackouts and the entire country has been affected by the lack of electricity.

Clearly, it is due to the “accident in the Felton 2 boiler, when the bearing at Felton 1 broke and due to the instability with which CTE Antonio Guiteras, in Matanzas, functions and we have not been able to maintain it to the degree necessary.” Events which they try to present as accidental but which have a peculiar background which should, in any case, be the subject of further investigation.

Somehow, it seems Díaz Canel is crying out for that investigation commission to establish where the responsibility lies when he declared that “for the country’s electrical energy system to function in a stable manner, it is necessary for the hard core where it is generated, which are the Felton and Guiteras plants, to be functioning at full capacity.” If this is known, then what game is he playing?

None. Selling smoke which will dissipate just like the Matanzas fire. Trying to convince Cubans fed up with the situation, that the umpteenth update to the strategy aimed at getting away from the blackouts in the shortest time possible “before the end of the year,” to develop, in 2023, an investment and maintenance group that will stabilize the system and change the energy matrix. And Cubans look at each other knowing that this blah blah blah is more of the same and the way things are going, the problems will continue.

They will continue because the electricity crisis is not resolved with strategies, but with actions. With money, which instead of being dedicated to the hotel industry, should be directed at the capital development of the economy in proportion to the GDP. If this basic infrastructure development indicator, which in Cuba barely reaches 15% compared with 25% in Latin America, there is nothing to do. It is an issue of money and profitability that cannot be repaired with a patch of a few replacement parts. Electricity is either managed profitably or it goes under. Like the rest of the sectors of the Cuban economy.

Financing, once inaccessible, now seems to come mostly to recover unforeseen thermal and distributed generating capacity; in a group of new technologies for generation. The same question then arises, why wasn’t that financing available earlier, and most importantly, from where does it come? Beware of indebtedness, these aren’t the best times for risk-taking ventures.

Díaz Canel neither takes responsibilities for this electricity disaster, nor those of his predecessors, the Castro brothers, who really did very little in all of this. One of communism’s great failures in Cuba has been forecasting, and therefore, the current situation of instability of and decline in electricity supply has not been an isolated event, but rather has been a long time coming. What happens is that when these unforeseen events arise, there is no other option but to see that the social communist system of organization does not have the capacity to confront them.

The response is to continuously follow up on the maintenance and repairs, “to prove how the capacities are being incorporated, how the rest of the system behaves, and which electricity generation results have been achieved.” That is, more of the same as always: bureaucracy and hierarchy, hopefully it will not occur to them to create an OSDE [Organization of Direct Business Services} for all of this. That would be the limit.

What was said does not have a response and now the attacks come from all directions. It’s bad.

*Translator’s note: “Alumbrones” is a word coined in Cuba in the 1990s during the so-called Special Period, to refer to the unexpected moments when the lights came ON, versus the long periods without electricity.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuba’s Enemy is in the Plaza of the Revolution

Raúl Castro placed his son Alejandro (on his left in front of his grandson Raúl Guillermo) in what he called the Commission for Defense and National Security. (Cubanet)

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 31 August 2022 — If we take into consideration that the security of any country is based on the notion of stability, peace, development, as well as in the strategies to achieve these objectives, there is no doubt that the authoritarian powers on the Island constitute the main threat to National Security.

This concept emerged in the United States shortly after the end of World War II. In the context of the Cold War and facing the threat of nuclear weapons, the term focused on prevention, on the capacity to predict danger and strategies to mitigate its effect. Over time and as globalization erodes borders, the term has acquired other connotations.

Today, a state’s National Security does not only depend on external threats. Included in that concept are common delinquency, mafias, environmental risks, pandemics, catastrophes or uncontrolled migration.

In Cuba, Raúl Castro positioned his only son within something called the Commission for Defense and National Security. As usual, none of the delegates asked uncomfortable questions and no one questioned whether placing Alejandro Castro Espín in that area on a whim was in response to a true national interest or only had to do with having a colonel with the last name Castro mindfully watching over (with his only eye) the monarch’s sacred Family Security. continue reading

It is extremely difficult to define the Cuban system. It is not communist because communism does not exist, pure fiction, something which has never been nailed down anywhere on the planet. Socialism, on the other hand has so many definitions, it would be vague or imprecise to describe Cuba as a socialist state, especially when taking into consideration that on the Caribbean island, laborers are not a force with any political weight, nor do they have the opportunity to propel change in any way.

This small portion of the world has been a territory controlled since 1959 by a clan of individuals who have monopolized decisions, development strategies, and the notion of national security. Since then, Cuba has remained under the yoke of a gang which has used the ideologies of the day at whim to justify its empowerment. This caste has already failed precipitously in the country’s economic development, the conquest and guarantee of individual and collective rights, in achieving the wellbeing of the population and even in the state’s own survival.

The situation becomes more complex when the chiefdom, self-legitimized as a result of historical events, biologically disappears, in addition to the elimination of its contrarians or the best press any generation has had. But they’ve been replaced by a gang of legendless bureaucrats. The replacements (tombs in guayaberas) do not appear in the history books read by schoolchildren, nor have they worked a day in their lives, and no dove ever posed on their shoulder. The forced replacements did not inherit the charisma of their models, they cannot count on popular support, they don’t even have the benefit of the doubt.

The current situation in Cuba is the worst it’s been in decades because, beyond the inflation, lack of bread, or the 18-hour blackouts, people are no longer willing to keep silent. We are the country in Latin America with the most political prisoners, we are at the bottom of most development list, and we compete with the worst countries in rankings of human rights violations.

However, the gang that has recently moved to Siboney refuses to accept democratic solutions. They continue to blame a “blockade” which collapses every time a Cuban buys chicken “made in the USA” in a freely convertible currency (MLC) store. They insist on the threat of foreign military intervention, which even the most recalcitrant opponents in Miami completely discard. They repeat like parrots that all demonstrations of discontent are paid for by the CIA, which must be bankrupt with so many accounts to settle. Officials of team Diaz-Canel beg ordinary residents for sacrifice, babble slogans that seem like tongue twisters, demand “creative” resistance. They appeal to the people to endure face slaps from police, beatings of 11-year-old girls, and all this for a bright future in which no one believes.

Silvia Rodríguez had a point when he predicted that the people will end up confronting the government. It has done so with flowers, songs. . . or stones. Tomorrow could be worse. The main threat to national secuirty is the system itself.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Two Officials from Nuevitas Added to the List of Cuban Repressors

The two officials on the list of repressors, Roberto Conde Silverio and Alien (or Allen) Velázquez. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 August 2022 — On Monday, the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FDHC), added to their data base of repressors the two officials who attacked protestors in Nuevitas, Camagüey, during the most recent protests.

One of them is Roberto Conde Silvierio, First Secretary of the Communist Party in that city, accused of ordering “the persecution, repression and intimidation of people” who peacefully took to the streets on August 19th and 20th.

The entry on the list of repressors states that police and paramilitary responded to a call from the official “with physical aggression against protesters, including two girls.”

The second repressor identified is Alien or “Allen” Velázquez, a State Security agent, reportedly the leader of the beatings received by two 11-year-old girls, in the Pastelillo area of Nuevitas, who were trying to prevent the repressors from arresting José Armando Torrente, one of the adults who went to protest on Saturday, August 20, 2022 against the 18-hour blackouts.” continue reading

One of the minors is Torrente’s daughter, Gerlin Torrente Echevarría.

“We warn against possible trauma as a result of the repression against the girls who were assaulted during the protest in Pastelillo on the 19th,” stated Justicia 11J in a statement published on Monday on social media. “As of now, they continue to be in pain and with a fever. According to a family member, one of the girls is suffering from insomnia due to the pain.”

At this time, the legal platform states, police were in the Pastelillo neighborhood, looking for protesters they were unable to find. “The repression continues in Nuevitas, although the state-run media insists on showing a false calm in the region,” the statement said.

In it, they also point out that Roberto Reyes Montenegro has been “forcefully disappeared” and warned that the 58-year-old man is epileptic and also has high blood pressure. “Neighbors say that on the 20th he was put on a truck which was rounding up protesters from Camalote [52 km from Nuevitas in the same province of Camagüey]. His family still has not heard from him,” they said.

Adisnel Hernández Ricardo, missing as of Monday, was confirmed to be under arrest. Similarly, the organization logged the following people as under arrest: Lester Camejo, Orlando Pérez Cruz, Yoandry Lescay, Menkel Menéndez Vargas Chicho Bonilla.

In the case of this last person, Justicia 11J denounced that on Sunday the 21st “his home was razed, an 80-year old woman (who fainted as this happened) and a one-month-old newborn girl also lived there.” “More than 20 red berets participated” in the assault, accompanied by dogs, the organization states.

The organization also reported on a complaint made by El Caimán Libre of “the beating and imprisonment of a mother who was demanding her son’s release,” in the town of Camalote, though her identity remains unknown.

Similarly, they confirmed the identity of a 17-year-old minor arrested, Kenay Perdomo Soria, who partipated in the protest in Camalote on Saturday. “Kenay will be treated legally as an adult despite the Convention on the Rights of the Child which defines a child as anyone under 18 years of age,” states Justicia 11J.

Since June 14, when the cacerolazos [banging on pots and pans] protesting the “scheduled blackouts” began, the organization has documented 77 protests, during which 49 people have been arrested. Among them 14 are from Nuevitas, the latest city to rise up against the government.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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From Jail, Rapper Maykel ‘Osorbo’ Suggests He is Willing to Leave Cuba

Rapper Maykel Osorbo “began to get scared” when “his lymph nodes swelled” in prison, says Anamely Ramos. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2022 — “If a door were opened for me right now, where I could go into exile, brother, I’d go, do you understand?” The words of Maykel Castillo Osorbo, in a telephone conversation from prison with Armando Labrador, owner of the Cántalo TV YouTube channel, suggest that the artist is willing to leave Cuba in exchange for his release.

The audio, shared Monday on that channel, by Esteban Rodríguez, who was accompanied on this occasion by other activists in exile: art curators Anamely Ramos and Carolina Barrero, actress Iris Ruiz and protest rapper Eliexer Márquez El Funky, co-author of Patria y Vida with Osorbo, Gente de Zona, Yotuel Romero and Descemer Bueno.

The plan to get Osorbo out of prison – where he is serving a nine-year sentence for contempt, assault, public disorder and “defamation of institutions and organizations, heroes and martyrs” – is part of a “very long process,” in the words of Anamely Ramos, one of the people closest to the artist.

It started when he became sick in prison and they began to fear for his life. Distrusting the medical tests carried out in prison and facing the uncertainty of a lack of diagnosis, Ramos said on Cántalo TV, that “it was evident that something had to be done to save Maykel’s life, because we don’t even know what he has.” continue reading

The curator stated to this newspaper that, although he had not said so publicly, when his lymph nodes began to swell the musician confessed that he would leave if he had “the opportunity”

The curator stated to this newspaper that, although he had not said so publicly, when his lymph nodes began to swell the musician confessed that he would leave if he had “the opportunity.”.”That’s when Maykel started to get scared,” she says. “Until that point, Maykel had kept telling me that even if they blackmailed him, he was not going to leave Cuba, that he preferred to be in prison.”

It is the same position that Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, leader of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), maintains until now. He was sentenced in the same case as Osorbo, to five years in prison, for disrespect against the nation’s symbols, contempt and public disorder.

Alcántara has denounced on numerous occasions that State Security, as it has done to other opponents, such as artist Hamlet Lavastida, is trying to blackmail him with the prison-for-exile ‘card’; however, in his case, he has made it clear for now that “he will not under any circumstances accept exile as an option.”

In addition, he recently denounced via MSI (the San Isidro Movement) that blackmail involved Osorbo: if Alcántara did not accept a forced exile agreement, the rapper would also not be able to leave Cuba to be treated for his health problem.

Both activists refused to appeal their convictions last July. In the case of Osorbo, he declared through his friends that “he will no longer lend himself to that circus,” referring to the trial to which they were subjected.

Despite Maykel Osorbo having already expressed his desire out loud, Anamely Ramos states that, in any case, his release depends on the regime. After alluding, without details, to “steps being taken in different countries,” she said, “Whether those steps will give rise to results or not, we don’t know, because Maykel is in prison in Cuba, sentenced in Cuba. Ultimately, only State Security knows whether they are going to let Maykel out or not.”

Translated by Silvia Suárez

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Spanish Businesses Want Legal Security Before Investing in Cuba

Mango, on luxurious Manzana de Gómez in Havana, is one of the few Spanish clothing stores in Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 29 August 2022 — The discrete opening to foreign market investment announced by the Cuban government this month has piqued the interest of Spanish businesses, according to the economic daily Cinco Días.

On Monday, the Spanish daily published an article which mentioned that the businesses which market raw materials, food, equipment, machinery, replacement parts, inputs for the development of local industry or inputs for the development of renewable energy will benefit the most, according to Hermenegildo Altozano, a partner in the Bird&Bird law firm, which provides legal advice related to operating on the island.

The specialist warned, however, that it all depends on the weak point of investing in Cuba: legal security. “Cuban operators must comply fully and precisely with the commitments made to foreign operators and they must be assured that there will not be restrictions or conditions on foreign transfers in freely convertible currency,” he explained.

Ignacio Aparicio, an partner at Andersen’s Cuban Desk, another legal advising company specializing in Cuba, believes that the measures of the executive branch are pending additional details, but he considers them of interest to foreign business owners. “Participation of foreign investors had not been possible until now, which limited the posibility of international brands of various products entering the Cuban market. They always had to access these channels through third-party, state-owned companies, which made it difficult to correctly implement their marketing policies such as price setting, sale pricing, and protecting their brand,” he told Cinco Días.

According to that outlet, the companies with the most options are those that have already been exporting to Cuba, such as those that sell equipment, which in 2021 made up 37% of sales to the Island, valued at € 235 million in machinery, mechanical or electronic devices. continue reading

Food, especially preserved meat and fish, represented 19% (€ 117 million), and plastics 8% (€ 49 million).

But the information is also suggestive of a possible arrival of textile giant Inditex, which has a presence in every country in the world except on the Island. “Companies view it as good news due to their affinity for Cuba and the acceptance of these brands in that region of the world, but at the same time, have some reservations due to the uncertainty and the lack of legal security,” said Eduardo Zamácola, president of the National Association of Retail Fashion (Acotex).

The business owner, who through Acotex represents more than 800 companies, believes that if these obstacles can be overcome it will open up a business opportunity for Tendam (which owns Spanish Cortefiel, Springfield, Pedro del Hierro, Women’secret and Fifty); Mango, which had two stores in Havana though only one remains; and Inditex. The Spanish textile empire created by Amancio Ortega includes many popular brands, among which the most well-recognized is the original, Zara.

The article highlights the “successful” Spanish presence in Cuban tourism through hotel management. According to data from Icex (the Spanish government agency that promotes international investment), there are 100 hotel administration contracts on the Island of which 70 are with Spanish companies. Meliá and Iberostar, with 33 and 18 hotels, are among those with the largest numbers, although the activation of Title III and IV of the Helms-Burton law resulted in legal trouble for both of them, especially the first; the final legal decisions are pending.

Furthermore, Icex revealed that three Spanish groups, Globalia, Atlantic Group Investment and La Playa Golf and Resort, are developing large-scale real estate projects associated with golf courses: El Salado (Artemisa), Punta Colorada (Pinar del Río) and La Altura.

Foreigners will be able to invest in wholesale commerce through mixed enterprises, international economic association contracts, or through the creation of an affiliate in Cuba or a franchise that is 100% foreign-owned. In contrast, for retail, the only modality will be through a mixed enterprise.

This measure is intended to ease the scarcity of goods on the Island, which has worsened in the last year, but although investors are eyeing Cuba, the warnings are the same as usual and it all depends on the fine print in the norms.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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In Nuevitas, Cuba, ‘The Little Roosters Dress in All Black and Walk the Streets to Instill Fear’

“There’s a ton of people who are not from around here patrolling the streets, some dressed in civilian clothing.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 August 2022 — Dozens of neighbors went out to the street on Wednesday night to the Humberto Álvarez people’s council in Matanzas. “There were a lot of people and the police could not do anything,” stated a resident of the settlement near the old Dos Rosas sugar mill, between Santa Marta and Varadero, where many of the residents are migrants from the eastern part of the country and several makeshift neighborhoods.

“The place is quite violent, so it is not easy,” said the same source.

In videos shared on social media, it is possible to hear, amid the tumult, the sound of banging on pots and screams of: “join us.” At this time, that area does not have internet access.

Meanwhile, in Nuevitas (Camagüey), the regime has managed to quiet, with repression and for the moment, last week’s mass protests, the most important in Cuba since July 11th, 2021 (11J).

“Here, people are very scared because many people have been arrested who didn’t even go out to protest that day, simply for being on their porch filming those who passed,” says one of the residents from the Pastelillo neighborhood, one of those that spilled into the streets last Friday.

The young lady didn’t even want to give 14ymedio her name, “My mother is scared and does not want me to tell anyone what is happening, so I won’t be the next one they take.”

On her block, she says, “they’ve taken two, one of them a kid who keeps to himself and has a young daughter.” His wife, she says, “is desperate because she has no news about where he is being held, though she says they are being transferred to the city of Camagüey.” continue reading

“There are a bunch of people who are not from here patrolling the streets, some wearing civilian clothes and also the little roosters, who dress all in black,” she says, referring to the Black Wasps or Black Berets [Army Special Forces]. “There is a lot of discomfort about that because you can tell they walk down the street to instill fear.”

Furthermore, she adds, “Two nights ago they shut off the power and played loud music at the Bar La Patana. People were pissed off at that because the entire neighborhood was dark and they were having fun there and provoking people with their songs. I’ve seen many older people put up with what they are doing to us. Even one of my neighbors who until last week was a badass has retreated because one of her nephews is among those detained and they beat him, forcefully taking him from his house.” The neighbor told her that they didn’t give her nephew any option but to protest, “because all he’s ever had in his life is misery.”

The internet signal, which they had cut off in Nuevitas for more than three days, is returning bit by bit, but the police is heavily guarding the stores that sell in freely convertible currency (MLC).

Justicia 11J confirms this scene in a statement shared on Wednesday, “The park in Nuevitas is completely militarized. They’ve informed us that they can observe about 8 policemen on motorcycles, 6 patrol cars, 3 black beret cars and innumerable policemen.”

At the moment, the organization, which maintains a register of about fifty arrests in all of Cuba since mid-June when the cacerolazos (pot banging) began in response to the scheduled blackouts, denounced that the number of arrests in Nuevitas exceeds 18.

Among them, the 11-year-old girls who were beaten by police the night of August 19th. “This morning, Ivón Freijoo and Daimarelis Echeverría, along with their daughters, Beatriz Aracelia Rodríguez Freijoo and Gerlin Torrente Echevarría, respectively, were taken to an interrogation,” stated the organization in a post on Facebook, reiterating the denunciation made by the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights.

The organization revealed that Beatriz’s father and Ivón Freijoo’s husband, Frank Carly Rodríguez Ultra, arrived in the United States and that at this time, “is being held in custody by the Coast Guard.” For this reason, they warned of the “danger that a return to Cuban represents for this father and this family,” and asked American immigration authorities to “assess his political asylum claim based on credible fear.”

Related to that, the young neighbor who spoke to 14ymedio assured, “I know there are people who participated in the march who jumped on a raft over the weekend. There were about ten young people who knew that if they were caught they’d end up jailed.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuban Civil Society Manifesto

Cuban Civil Society Manifesto

Prominent philosophers of universal history such as Spinoza, Rousseau, and Kant agreed to define Civil Society as a collective body constituted by the individuals of a society, which is positioned outside the limits of the State. The State only makes sense so long as it represents the interests of all its citizens; for this reason, a consensus in Cuban civil society has superior moral force. In any circumstance, it is not civil society that must submit to the State, but the latter to civil society.

Therefore, the undersigned are all well-known for their various Cuban civil society activities at different points in time, past or present, who currently reside inside and outside Cuba, since the Cuban nation extends beyond the Cuban archipelago to any part of the world where there is a Cuban who identifies with the collective aspirations of his compatriots.

The country is facing an alarming situation, which has resulted from governance that is based, on the one hand, on a concentration of business enterprise within the State, a source of inefficiency and corruption of some bureaucratic classes who have dragged down the population for more than six decades to a dire situation.

All the reforms implemented at different times that, as the word indicates, are only changes in form, when what is required is a sustainable economic model that does not depend, in order to survive, on periodic subsidies from external allies.

On the other hand, the systematic coercion of essential rights such as free oral and written expression, as well as artistic creativity, the right to free peaceful association, the right to freedom of movement, in particular the right to be able to leave their own country and return to it, and the right to free economic entrepreneurship of independent citizens, all this exercised by a State whose three main powers, executive, legislative and judicial, are under the absolute control of a partisan elite that no one elected.

We, therefore, declare ourselves in favor of profound and urgent changes that will lead the country out of an unprecedented crisis and avoid a confrontation between Cubans, with tragic consequences.

All convictions and prosecutions of citizens for practicing or defending these and other fundamental rights of human beings must be dismissed, and those who have suffered them, released, in particular all those whose only sin was having publicly expressed their desires and dreams of a better Cuba.

Even those who carried out violent acts only reacted to the brutal repression of which they were victims; therefore, if they deserved to be punished, then, with much more reason, all those pro-government entities that repressed them should have been prosecuted. Public protests are not prevented by applying disproportionate measures of violence and excessive sentences, but rather by taking steps that allow citizens to freely conduct their artistic and productive activities.

Regardless of the pernicious effect that the US embargo may have had on the country’s economy, the excuse of the “imperialist blockade” no longer convinces most citizens who have suffered, in the flesh, the government’s policies which present restrictive barriers to their attempts to satisfy, of their own accord, their pressing needs; these include high taxes, high licensing fees, and extortion by a powerful buyer which forces farmers to sell to it most of their production at a price set by that buyer, and other measures that put the brakes on productive stimuli.

The main blockade, therefore, is not the one imposed by a foreign nation from abroad, but the one imposed, from within, by the governing leadership itself. Lift this and you will see how, in short order, how the resupply of Cuban families will begin.

We must have faith in the Cuban people. When those who are unjustly imprisoned are freed, with the expressed willingness to allow public forums among Cubans–without distinction of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and political and philosophical ideas–to reach a national consensus on the future of our country, no one should fear massive protests, because a miraculous light will have been lit in the collective consciousness that has a name: Hope.

August 2022

Translated by Silvia Suárez

Cubalex’s Assessment of the Sentences Imposed Upon Luis Manuel Otero and Maykel Castillo / Cubalex

Maykel ‘Osorbo’ Castillo Pérez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara (Cubalex)

Cubalex, Giselle Camila Morfi, 24 June 2022 — The crimes of disrespecting national symbols, contempt, defamation of institutions and organizations, and heroes and martyrs, are not compatible with international human rights standards. These crimes are an assault on the freedom of expression recognized in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (PIDCP in Spanish), as well as [Article] 13 of the Pact of San José.

The crimes of contempt, resistance, and public disorder are used in Cuba with the goal of censoring and criminalizing the right to protest, based on an ideological imposition that supersedes the right to citizen participation. These crimes are used for social control, rather than for the defense and guarantee of human rights; they are discretionary, lacking clarity and concreteness in the criminal norms. Public order, assessed by judges, has nothing to do with public order within a democratic society.

What is the motivation of judges to destroy these people’s presumption of innocence?

Where are the “sentiments of nationality and pride professed by the Cuban people to the national flag” defined, unquestionably?

The State’s motivation was political punishment to create a deterrent effect, to prevent the rest of society from freely expressing themselves out of fear. We see a great danger in that sentence, with an evidently exemplary effect. The assessment was completely subjective, discretionary, and with a finality that is entirely illegitimate and which promotes a culture of self-censorship.

The result of this and all the sentences against the July 11, 2021 (11J) protesters create an effect not only on the accused but all of society. It is in the public interest to understand everything that happened during the trial and access the sentencing document. continue reading

What judges refer to as “disrespecting, dishonoring and affecting the dignity of the highest authorities of the country, using false, digitally manipulated images of them, which were published on social media,” is nothing more than exercising freedom of expression and legitimate criticism of authorities. In this case, only a meme was shared. Government officials must be accountable to us and are held to a higher degree of public scrutiny, they must be tolerant of criticism because they must respond to the interests of their citizens.

We have very little data with respect to this since the content of the sentencing document is not known, not even the document number, but we can conclude from the information that has been released that none of the limits they refer to are recognized by international human rights standards, rather, it is a punitive abuse of power by the State. None of these reasons comply with the legitimate legality, finality, need, and proportionality required by the Interamerican system’s tripartite test [CHECK: not sure if they mean “test”; I couldn’t find a translation for “tes”. I’m assuming it is something where if three conditions are met, states are allowed to limit this freedom.] allowing states to limit freedom of expression.

Note: Sentences handed down to artists of the San Isidro Movement

5 years in prison for Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, as author of the crimes of disrespecting national symbols, contempt and public disorder.

9 years in prison for Maikel Castillo Pérez, for the crimes of contempt, assault, public disorder, and defamation of institutions and organizations, heroes and martyrs.

The entry Cubalex’s Assessment of the Sentences Imposed Upon Luis Manuel Otero and Maykel Castillo first appeared on Cubalex.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

No Blackouts in Taguayabon, Cuba

Taguayabón and Rosalía seem to be among those “untouchable” points on the map of Cuban blackouts.

14ymedio, Yankiel Gutiérrez Faife, Taguayabón (Villa Clara), 23 August 2022 — A blackout in the city is not the same as one in a rural area. When the power goes out in an urban center, even in smaller towns, the buzz of voices begins to break the silence, the heat gets people to talk, scream, bring their furniture onto the porch, and it is possible to smoke and listen to a portable radio.

In contrast, in a settlement, on the side of the road, or by an old sugar mill, blackouts are all-consuming and inhospitable. It’s the ideal opportunity for local thieves, nocturnal marauders, and bandits who always know the area’s uneven geography very well.

Amid the energy crisis some places in Cuba are apparently spared the outages scheduled by Unión Eléctrica. The settlements of Taguayabón and Rosalía, between Camajuaní and Remedios in Villa Clara, seem to be among those “untouchable” points on the map of Cuban blackouts.

The residents, accustomed to an Island where nothing is logical, know that at any moment they will lose the “privilege” of electricity. Suddenly, they explain the miracle alleging that both settlements are close to an area the government considers essential to the functioning of the province, however precarious.

In an “exceptional” stroke of circuit luck, both settlements are near General Docente 26 de Diciembre Hospital, at the entrance to Remedio, and the meat packing plant known as Osvaldo continue reading

Herrera in the people’s council of Vega de Palma on the route to Vueltas.

The bus always takes the same route as the meat: as soon as it passes Camajuaní it takes the bumpy road to Vueltas. (14ymedio)

The population of each of these areas is small, and thus they do not use excessive amounts of electricity; Taguayabón has 3,308 residents, Rosalía 235 and Vega de Palma 238. Vueltas, Camajuaní, and Remedios, which have tens of thousands of residents, can’t be spared the blackouts.

“We are well,” a resident of Taguayabón told 14ymedio, “but that does not mean we don’t know anything about the blackouts and the protests in other areas. In Camajuaní and Remedios they shut the power off six or twelve hours in a row, but those towns around here haven’t had a blackout in a month. Some joke that this is the new Marianao [a desirable neighborhood in Havana] and they want to move here.”

One ride on the hellish “Slaughterhouse bus,” which takes workers from Salamina near Santa Clara to Vueltas, is enough to make you understand the importance of the meat packing plant in Vega de Palma. The rickety vehicle, loaded with university students, sleep-deprived travelers, and employees of Cárnicos Villa Clara, runs slowly down the road to Camajuaní and takes a detour toward Salamina.

That slaughterhouse, along with two others — Lorenzo González in Sagua and Chichi Padrón in Santa Clara — is responsible for providing the raw materials to the Vega de Palma packing plant. The bus follows the same route as the meat: as soon as it passes Camajuaní it takes the bumpy road to Vueltas, passing el Entronque, another poor settlement.

The Osvaldo Herrera packing plant is run by the Ministry of Food Industry. It employs 250 workers and produces croquettes, canned goods, and sausages, including the unpleasant Cuban version of mortadella, the consumption of which is rationed by the government. Some of the products, those of higher quality, are sent to hotels in the nearby area of Cayería Norte. Another, non-negligible percentage of the sausage “tubes” ends up on the informal market or available through online food stores, which require prepayment in dollars from abroad.

The products at Vega de Palma also require flour from Cienfuegos, and soy from Santiago de Cuba necessary to make mincemeat, another gastronomic headache for Cubans, while other companies provide nylon, cardboard, and preservatives to package the products.

In Vega de Palma there are two sausage-making machines, one meat grinder and one for boneless meat, five steamers with a capacity of 1,500 kilograms, fans, showers for cleaning the meat, and cold storage.

Yolanda, an employee at the packing plant, tells 14ymedio that for a long time her company has not had a backup generator for emergencies. “It depends entirely on the national electric system,” she states, “and although no one confirms that is the reason we don’t have blackouts, we know. Everything would spoil!”

“Some joke saying this is the new Marianao and that they want to move here.” (14ymedio)

If a blackout would break the cycle, the hotels wouldn’t have sausage, the butchers would not receive the monthly mortadella ration and the government would add another crisis to its long list of unresolved problems.

Nonetheless, not even uninterrupted power guarantees the packing plant’s function. Ernesto, another one of the employees, states that the company does not work every day.

“Sometimes the work is interrupted because there is no gas for the trucks that bring the meat from Salamina. Other times, what is missing is the raw material. We run out of wheat flour and it is impossible to make croquetas. Then we have to make mincemeat or mortadella, while we have the pork or chicken,” he concluded.

The other “guardian angel” against blackouts for these rural settlements is the hospital in Remedios. With 480 workers, of which 67 are doctors and 138 nurses, patients in serious condition are sent here from nearby municipalities including Camajuaní, which only has one polyclinic serving outpatients.

In the old yet very effective hospital, there are pediatric, obstetric, gynecology, anesthesiology, general surgery, intensive care, clinical laboratories, and other wards. A prolonged power outage would be fatal during surgery or for patients on life support.

Of course, neither the colossal packing plant nor the hospital in Remedios provides long-term guarantees. The residents suppose the government has weighed its options: it maintains the power supply because it would be more expensive to fuel generators for both centers.

No one holds out too much hope that the situation will remain as is, of course. If small towns in the Villa Clara countryside have not been affected much by blackouts, it is precisely because they are small. The Cuban government and its energy bureaucracy know where to shut off power and for how long. It is the reason for popular discontent, less controllable as time goes on, and its direct consequence — the nighttime protest.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuban Police Thwarted Andy Garcia’s Release from Prison and His Exit from the Country, His Family Denounces

Family members of Andy García Lorezno, one of those arrested for July 11th (11J), in front of his home in Santa Clara. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 August 19, 2022–Andy García Lorenzo, one of the men prosecuted for last year’s ’11J’ (11 July) protests in Santa Clara, was punished once again for his activism. The young man was transferred to a maximum security prison known as El Pre, his sister Roxana denounced on Thursday after the order for him toserve his sentence in a labor camp was revoked.

“That is what they told us, but we’re not sure of it,” said the young woman, who reminded us that it is not the first time State Security has lied to the family.

García Lorenzo’s transfer occurred just two days after his family denounced that the 24-year-old was “in poor health.”

“As of yesterday, my brother had not eaten for two days,” stated Roxana García during a live stream on Facebook, during which she said that Andy was in prison “in terrible conditions, without food. Most likely he hasn’t eaten anything. We don’t really know what is happening with him, what the justification was for his transfer, under what conditions, and in what manner.”

In the video, the young woman addresses State Security and revealed that the family “was preparing itself” because Andy would be out “soon” and the family would leave the country with him. “You have shown us that you will do everything possible to try to break up the family,” she said, but “Andy’s family will be around him for quite a while.”

Since García Lorenzo was arrested on the afternoon of July 11, 2021, Roxana as well as her husband, Jonatan López, and both of their fathers, Nedel García and Pedro López have been very actively defending 11J political prisoners and on several occasions have denounced the harassment of the political police.

The young man was sentenced to four years in prison for public disorder, contempt, and assault during a trial held on January 10, along with 15 other protesters. He was supposed to have served that time interned in a correctional labor camp known as El Yabú. continue reading

Before going to that center, García Lorenzo was able to spend close to two weeks at home while awaiting the paperwork to enter the penal system, but the joy was short-lived; after spending two days with his family, he was arrested on the street, while riding a motorcycle with his father, and transferred to the camp.

According to reports by the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH), Andy García Lorenzo’s case is another one among many opponents who endure terrible medical care in prison. On Friday, the Madrid-based organization demanded the International Red Cross and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions be allowed to visit Cuban prisons.

The Observatory allegedly received “information of health conditions that have occurred or have been aggravated among political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. In several cases, the allegations include indifference on the part of prison authorities or the lack of appropriate treatment for their illnesses.”

In addition to García Lorenzo, the Observatory has registered the cases of Angélica Garrido Rodríguez, “with facial paralysis following threats and intimidation by prison authorities”; Maikel Puig Bergolla, who suffers from diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and a skin infection; Félix Navarro, also diabetic and who has been infected with COVID-19 twice, experiencing drastic weight loss and infections.

The organization adds to that list prisoners Yuri Valle Roca, Mario Josué Prieto Ricardo, Dayron Marín Rodríguez and Walnier Aguilar Rivera. “From past experience,” it concludes, “we know the experience in the regime’s prisons has been nefarious for the physical and mental health of many Cubans.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuba: They’ve Militarized Nuevitas and Cut Off Internet Access to Prevent New Protests

Police repressed the protests in Nuevitas on Friday night. (Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 August 2022 — Nuevitas, Camagüey spent the day on Saturday under a heavy police operation, with restricted access to the internet and the streets patrolled by police and the military. Protests against the long power outages occurred on two consecutive days last week in that city.

Justicia 11J reported the “violent” arrest of José Armando Torrente on Saturday for his alleged participation in the protests in the Pastelillo neighborhood. The organization warned that “there is audiovisual evidence of aggression against his 11-year-old daughter, Gerlin Torrente Echeverría and another girl who was with her on Friday night, when police repressed the protesters.

Justicia 11J also stated that Gerlin’s mother was violently arrested but freed on Saturday night. Meanwhile, police have interrogated 21-year-old Fray Claro Valladares for his participation in the protests and also a 21-year-old young woman, known as La Chamaca, for live streaming the protests on Facebook.

According to Justicia 11J, José Armando Torrente was arrested in Nuevitas. (Courtesy)

On the other hand, arrests have also been reported in the area of Camalote, 52 kilometers from Nuevitas in the same province of Camagüey, where on Friday residents joined protests against the blackouts. Authorities avoided shutting off power on Saturday night in that municipality, according to neighbors who confirmed this to 14ymedio. continue reading

Although Justicia 11J is still verifying the information of those arrested, on social media they have published a list of at least six people arrested for participating in Friday’s protests. Among those arrested is Yasmani García Ramírez, who appears in several videos speaking to the rest of the protesters.

“It is worth fighting for a humble people who are paying for the blackouts in Cuba, suffering because their money is worthless to buy at the store, that is true, what everyone should know: we are living human misery. . .we are the most miserable country in the world. We’re all here demanding our rights as people, as citizens,” he is heard saying in a video where he is identified as Yasmani García and he ended by yelling, “Díaz-Canel, motherfucker!”

After his arrest, a video of his mother, Rogelina Ramírez, was shared; she confirmed her son’s arrest and stated that he only demanded his rights. “My son is only defending children, young people, those young people who like him have rights. Once children in this country turn 7 years old, they no longer have milk. At 7 years old they stop having breakfast and only have a packet of coffee mixed with seeds, which is what they can have before going to school,” says the woman.

In, Camalote, an area close to Nuevitas, Yasmani García Ramírez was also arrested (Facebook).

Yasmani García’s mother also criticized the inequality in access to food and that most people cannot access Freely Convertible Currency (MLC) stores. “There is always a part of society which benefits, benefits from that money that comes from abroad.”

According to the names shared on social media, Michel Escalera Ramírez, Kenay Perdomo Osorio, Héctor Curbelo, José Antonio Rodríguez Vega, Richard Conté Bigeltaf were also arrested in addition to an unidentified woman who had been beaten for demanding her son’s release.

The protests in Nuevitas began on Thursday night with shouts of “the people are tired.” Hundreds of neighbors took to the streets yelling slogans of freedom and demanding electricity. That day they also threatened to return to the streets if the authorities cut off the power again. By the light of their cell phones, those people held the largest protest since July 11th, which was repeated on Friday, this time with police presence.

Since Friday, the residents of Nuevitas reported its militarization. “All day they filled the town with black berets [Army Special Forces] who passed slowly in their vehicles down each street to intimidate us,” denounced a young protester, anonymously, on Saturday.

Justicia 11J reported 59 protests in response to blackouts in different neighborhoods throughout Cuba between June 14th and August 4th. The energy crisis affecting the Island has been increasing since June and, since July, the blackouts last between 10 and 14 hours a day.

The provincial government of Camagüey reported a new schedule of outages in the province of up to six hours by blocks. For Sunday, the state-run Unión Eléctrica expected a deficit of at least 34% in the electric power it generated.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuba Archive Proposes to Dissolve the Government and Organize a Democratic Transition

Until elections are held, Cuba Archive recommends provisionally maintaining the State’s administrative structure. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 August 2022 — Cuba Archive, an organization incorporated in Washington, D.C., started a petition on Thursday, Cuba libre: Compromiso de transición a la democracia [Free Cuba: Commitment to a democratic transition], on Change.org, and invites “all Cubans and Cuban organizations,” on the Island and abroad, to join a national “civic commitment” with a view toward a democratic transition.

The petition, which already has more than 100 signatures, presents a “peaceful change toward an organized state under the principle of democracy”, which would propose a solution to the crisis which currently affects all levels of life in Cuba.

With four main targets, Cuba Archive’s petition proposes to residents of the Island a process of “resistance, civil disobedience and non-cooperation” with repressive state institutions, as well as a “national debate” characterized by a variety of opinions.

It also challenges the regime to “dismantle repressive organizations and to make a peaceful transition viable” and for public officials to preserve state archives, which will be indispensable for the Island’s democratic future. Lastly, it demands that the international community not “extend credit or material assistance” to the government, except for humanitarian assistance provided through independent organizations.

In addition, Cuba Archive calls on “Cubans of good faith,” including civic and religious leaders, public figures, intellectuals and artists.

According to the organization, Cubans should look to the Constitution of 1940 as a reference to restructure the Cuban legal sphere, so long as the articles considered “exclusionary or impractical for the times” are removed.

A set of 19 recommendations round out the petition. Together, these provide the backbone for a well-defined program for a democratic transition on the Island. The proposals include naming a provisional government “of limited duration,” the members of which will not be eligible to hold office during the first free elections. continue reading

Special powers will be conferred upon the provisional government to restore fundamental citizen rights, repair the administration of the country, and plan for general elections within 24 months. Furthermore, it will be responsible for drafting a new Constitution for the Republic.

Another one of the recommendations is the prohibition of the death penalty, violence and vandalism against public property and public goods.

With regard to the Communist Party, the petition does not specify if it will be outlawed or not, but clarifies that the abolition of its influence and control over the state is indispensable for the transition toward democracy. The political police and all repressive organizations, which take direction from it, will also be dissolved.

Cuba Archive proposes the dissolution of the current government apparatus, declaring its members unfit and replacing all government officials. However, until elections are held, it recommends provisionally maintaining the state’s administrative structure.

It emphasizes that members of the military and government employees who have not committed “crimes against humanity such as torture, murder, forced disappearance and prevarication” may form part of the new arrangement, so long as their innocence has been validated through judicial mechanisms.

The legalization of organizations and political parties prohibited by Castroism, as well as the release of prisoners of conscience will be indispensable measures for guaranteeing a democratic future on the Island; so too will the repeal of laws that go against human rights, especially the rights to “self-determination, conscience, expression, press, information, association, assembly, movement, organization, privacy and religion.”

With this goal, it aims to prioritize “the dismantling of state monopolies over the press, education and communications”. The organization also describes possible lines to follow for agricultural, economic and trade development.

In the international scope, one significant recommendation is to suspend the refuge which the current government provides to “foreigners with ties to terrorism, drug trafficking and other activities which run counter to the good of the nation.”

This measure is in line with new legislation on the extradition of American fugitives on the Island, introduced on August 3rd in the U.S. Congress by Senators Bob Menédez and Marco Rubio.

Cuba Archive, also known as the Free Society Project or Archivo Cuba in Spanish, describes itself as a non-profit organization founded in 2001 to promote human rights on the Island through research and information. Its advisory board includes Cuban intellectuals such as Pedro Corzo, Enrique Encinosa, José Conrado and Carlos Alberto Montaner.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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The Fire at Cuba’s Supertanker Base is Out. Good. Now What?

The smoke from the four burning storage tanks, of the eight at the Supertanker Base. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 12 August 2022 — Nearly a week after the fire started in the industrial zone of Matanzans, it is more than evident that the Cuban communists have been overwhelmed by this catastrophe, for which there was no organization, nor protocols, or anything like that.

The state-run communist press, attempting as always to appear in the best light, accused the free press, the objective press, social media, i.e. us, of not speaking of heroism and of harassing when there was uncertainty. They also accused us of using the terms “failed state” and “country in crisis.” Let’s see how unaccustomed to criticism the Cuban communists are. They prefer to die while killing, but something makes them think they must spin a fine web or the whole thing will collapse.

It would be good, now that the fire is under control, it they would investigate, with utmost transparency, responsibilities for what occurred, and purge those who are not up to the circumstances. It would be an exercise in credibility, transparency, and responsibility to the Cuban people, and the entire world.

In case this would happen again, we must determine whether the operation was carried out correctly, if the available resources were on par with the needs, the true reach of international aid, the people affected and the solutions to be taken; in short, to learn from experience so that if it were to happen again they won’t spend a week carrying out activities that were mostly failures.

This is the direction that Diaz-Canel’s revised discourse should take, before one of local communists in charge, audacious and bothersome, such as Sucely Morfa, steps in. It is a piece of advice for Díaz-Canel to tell the truth, rather than ’wandering the hills of Úbeda’*, and to take the bull by the horns or there will be a Sucely who will do it for him, in spite of the imposed hierarchy among communists.

And, take note that I’ve said Sucely Morfa and that it did not cross my mind that the role should be played by Prime Minister Marrero, Provincial Governor Sabines or Vice President Morales Ojeda. They are for other things. Díaz-Canel should watch the youth, divine treasure, because the conga that will replace him will emerge from there.

I know that in politics decisions must be made at two levels. In the short term, facing the gallery to appease the Tyrians and Trojans*, one must do what is necessary to avoid turmoil. In the medium term, investigate and purge those responsible, however painful. continue reading

Díaz-Canel’s discourse belongs entirely on the first level, like when he gave his support to the colleagues of several organizations, especially drivers, or appreciated the international air and naval cooperation. That discourse has reached its end, it no longer makes sense, and now we must begin to demand responsibilities if things, as all indications are, have not been handled well.

This agenda compromises Díaz-Canel, who at the same time must be wondering what he will do with the supertanker base and must lay a foundation for recovery without resting on his laurels.

And then, official data will not cease to surprise, day after day. The Minister of Public Health said that as of Thursday, 130 people had been injured and treated, including two firefighters who were admitted to the hospital the day before for mild intoxication due to smoke inhalation. Only one death, 24-year-old Elier Correa Aguilar, providing services in the Firefighter Corps, although he was from Granma province. Twenty-three patients remain hospitalized, two were re-admitted to the hospital for follow up. Four patients remain in critical condition, two critical and 17 serious. We must thank God the disaster didn’t cause more harm, which is why it is so important to investigate and find the missing.

It is also surprising that the Minister of Science, Technology and Environment continues to state, with satellite images and radar, that it is not possible to detect the cloud, as it has disbursed. This is perhaps the worst possible scenario, rather than calculating its toxicity and effect on air quality. The longer it takes, the worse it will be. And they will need to prove the impact not only on air, but also on rain, vegetation, the soil and grasslands, in the medium and long term. A disaster from every viewpoint.

With the fire out, for which we should all be glad, the time has come to carry out equally important work, before the applause and the doling of awards puts an end to what occurred in Matanzas. These are new times that are not related to the evils of revolutionary times. A final piece of advice for Díaz-Canel: beware of Sucely Morfa. It has begun.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

*Translator’s note: ’Wandering the hills of Ubeda’ is a very common Spanish expression, from the 13th century, meaning going off on a tangent, losing the thread, failing to focus on what matters.

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Cuba’s Transition and Plans of the Castro Regime’s Business Mafia

With the death of López-Callejas (center), the potential of a Cuban Putin was aborted before birth, and the consolidation of that mafia business is on hold for the moment.

14ymedio, Ariel Hidalgo, Miami, August 8, 2022–Following a trip to Russia in 1992 to attend a seminar on the transition in Cuba, I published La transición que los cubanos no debemos hacer [The Transition We Cubans Should Not Make] in the Miami Herald. The Soviet Union had just crumbled and Yeltsin was in power. I posed the following question to the vice-director of Izvestia, a newspaper that was part of the old USSR, “To whom does Izvestia belong?” For me, this was a key question to which the response was, it “theoretically” belongs to the Russian Federation.

In a way it made sense, because at that time the newspaper was already in the process of being handed over to a great businessman, Vladimir Potanin who, at the same time, was the country’s Vice President. Marxism was no longer discussed and neither was socialism. Russia was taking its first steps, still wobbly, toward a business mafia camouflaged by a discourse that was beginning to be tinged with nationalism. The man charged with directing the transition to the end, Vladimir Putin, had resigned from the KGB a year earlier, and four years later would become part of the Yeltsin administration.

A similar process had begun in Cuba, except that the person supposedly destined to lead it died suddenly. General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, who is the father of one of Raúl Castro’s grandchildren, was referred to as the “tsar of the Cuban economy” for his role as the head of Gaesa, the most economically powerful conglomerate which controls the most important companies in the country. Last year he became a delegate of the National Assembly and a member of the Politburo, the senior leadership of the totalitarian party which governs the country.

The only thing missing was to replace President Díaz-Canel, who was provisionally placed in that position by Raúl Castro to take the fall for the disastrous results of the policies implemented by the leadership. His resulting unpopularity would justify this substitution. However, this last step for López-Calleja did not come to pass. Thus, the potential Cuban Putin was aborted before birth, and the consolidation of the system of a business mafia under the “godfathership” of the Castro family is on hold for the moment.

This occurred amid the deepest crisis it Cuba’s history and of uncontrollable popular protests across the country.

At this crossroad, what can the Castroist elite do? And when I say “Castroist elite,” I refer to what remains of the octogenarian — and now nonagenarian — “historic leadership.”

A. It could do nothing, just allow all the businesses to disintegrate under their own weight and let civil and military bureaucrats appropriate those means of production as new capitalists, on condition of being accountable to that leadership and in particular, to the “family.” This is one form of abandoning that antiquated model which has been proven unsustainable, and spawning another model more similar to the Russian than the Chinese. However, because the public is already aware and desperate, this would require violently repressing popular protests and demonstrations in a new kind of Tiananmen — a very dangerous thing as it could face sedition by young generals whose loyalties are not beyond doubt.

B. Secure asylum for themselves in an allied country without extradition continue reading

laws, while abandoning their minions and underlings to face the chaos and grave dangers of an overwhelming popular tsunami, while they peacefully live out their few remaining years or months with their families and their ill-gotten funds, but clear of danger.

C. Replace Díaz-Canel and his team with reformist officials whose image is more acceptable to the people and international public opinion, to spur hopes for short- and medium-term solutions, and allow them to implement changes toward a partial economic and social opening, at least until the so-called historic leaders disappear naturally. In that case, it would be a revolution in reverse, to release from the state the assets that had been under state control, still under the supervision of this elite who would retain some power, at least until their physical disappearance.

Any one of these three options is possible, but regrettably the most likely, in my opinion, is option A, due to the obstinacy they’ve always demonstrated to remain in power at all costs; and the least likely, for the same reason, is option B.

Option C would be the most intelligent, and there are several possible candidates, all unthinkable under normal circumstances. For example, one recently mentioned by several media sources would be Armando Franco Senén, the former director of Alma Mater, who was fired in April for tackling controversial topics which apparently caused discomfort among authorities. The expulsion, which spurred the resignation of the entire editorial team, occurred at the urging of the National Committee of the UJC and, in particular, Nislay Molina (at the time in charge of the ideological arm of the organization of young communists) who said, “We should have fired you a long time ago.”

I mention Senén due to the unexpected fact that, shortly after, Molina was relieved of her duties. In contrast, he was promoted to an important position at Palco, a state group less powerful than Gaesa, but with several companies under his control. This promotion was celebrated with much fanfare by Palco exactly one month after López-Calleja’s death. For a bureaucrat “to fall up” is a common event among the acolytes of the regime who make mistakes, put never among critics of the regime, no matter how moderate.

We must remain vigilant to facts such as these because López-Calleja’s death and the growing protests may have resulted in the elite discarding option A to lean toward C.

But all this is hypothetical. The only thing we can say with clarity is that in the near future, Cuba cannot continue being what it has been until now. Continuity of the current model will not be possible. History itself has shown this.

The model of a state-run centralist monopoly, misnamed “real socialism” is not viable and that is why it did not require military interventions, coup d’etats nor armed insurrections for all of socialist Europe to implode. Even China, to avoid collapse, had to make capitalist reforms. This is why Cuba, to sustain itself, always needed subsidies from a foreign ally, something which it no longer has and is not on the horizon. Nonetheless, its leaders are dead set on keeping it.

In Russia, the formerly communist oligarchs were able to impose a business mafia system because a strong opposition did not exist, but rather a few groups with notable personalities such as the Committee on Human Rights in the Soviet Union, the Helsinki Group and Memorial, all of whose members together do not exceed the double digits.

In contrast, in Cuba there is a dissidence, which totals about a hundred organizations with thousands of members with a history of almost 40 years of struggle, and a movement which has resulted in a popular trend of civic activists in the arts, known as “artivism,” which along with access to new telecommunications technologies has gained a meteoric strength impossible for the powers that be to stop, let alone extinguish, it.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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