Loaded with words, the 15-meter-high consortium is a hymn to freedom and the power of literature.
‘Those who cross the Plaza de Armas in Havana these days will come across an enormous installation by the French artist Daniel Hourdé. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 18 November 2024 — El árbol de las Mil Voces extends its branches in the centrally located space and, instead of leaves, displays an endless number of book pages. The collection, loaded with words and measuring 15 meters high, is a hymn to freedom and the power of literature. But its foliage, with fragments of Lorca, Proust or Goethe, takes on another meaning in Cuba, a country marked by censorship and editorial dogma.
The writings, on pages that hang like fruits of human knowledge and creativity, include a wide catalog of Poetry, Narrative, Art History and Philosophy. The wind can stir the structure, shake the steel pages that creak and rattle, creating a unique symphony on each occasion, but it cannot bring down the thick trunk that supports human creation. The gusts can barely batter the flowers, just as intolerance can barely hit literature but never uproot it.
‘The Tree of a Thousand Voices’ arrives amid an artistic wasteland where much of the diversity that Cuban culture once displayed has been lost
Standing near the base, it is sufficient to glance up to read names that Cuban editorial policy in recent decades has looked down on, such as Octavio Paz and Milan Kundera. But there are also many other works that readers on the Island have missed because the economic crisis has reduced continue reading
the publication of international authors, while resources continue to be allocated to supporting propaganda. More than a thousand voices, Hourdé’s tree seems like a chorus of cries that remember the unpublished titles, the stories not disseminated and the gaps left in so many bookstores and libraries.
The piece has also landed at a very complicated time for freedom of expression in Cuba. The 15th edition of the Havana Biennial could not take place in a worse context, with hundreds of political prisoners and artists, such as Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, having been sentenced to prison for pushing the limits of the narrow cultural policy. The intensification of repression, the tightening of censorship and the lack of opportunities for creators have also contributed to the especially dramatic exodus among painters, sculptors, actors and writers.
The Tree of a Thousand Voices arrives in the middle of an artistic wasteland where much of the diversity that Cuban culture once displayed has been lost. If the piece symbolizes freedom of expression, as its author has stressed on numerous occasions, it only remains to read it as a wake-up call in Cuba. Its branches and leaves, full of words, grow and expand in a restored square for tourists, in the framework of an event that functions as a showcase for a plurality that does not exist, and surrounded by people who have been deprived of the right to decide what they can read and what voices they can listen to.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Residents walk through the streets with bottles and buckets to fill them in houses with cisterns that still have a little water
Aguas de La Habana workers on Melones Street in Luyanó / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, September 6, 2024 — The government of Havana assured this Friday that it is restoring the water supply service, two days after it was interrupted in the main sources of supply of the capital by “electrical interruptions.” According to a brief report, “17 pumps – out of 19 – are already operating in Cuenca Sur,” one of the three large conductors that suffered breakdowns along with those in Ariguanabo and El Gato.
The effects had an impact on numerous neighborhoods. In El Vedado and Nuevo Vedado, severely affected by the breakdowns of the last few days and by previous ones, the lack of water forced private businesses to close. On Tulipán Street, numerous coffee shops suspended the sale of pizzas and sandwiches. The cancellation disappointed students from several schools and workers from nearby ministries who are regular customers of these premises.
Near Boyeros Avenue, in one of the spots that sells fruit smoothies and sandwiches, this Friday morning a nearby neighbor warned that “not a drop of water has entered the cistern, so they can’t not even wash the glasses.” A nearby candy store also closed its doors waiting for the service to be restored in a neighborhood that, a few years ago, was described in the classifieds of buying and selling homes as a place where “there is always water, never missing.” continue reading
A nearby neighbor warned that “not a drop of water has entered the cistern, so they can’t even wash the glasses”
Despite the government’s announcement, in some neighborhoods, such as Luyanó, not even one drop of water has arrived. Residents walk through the streets with bottles and buckets to fill them in with houses with cisterns that still have a little water.
Frustrated, the inhabitants also see that the little water in the area is wasted. “How is it possible that there is no water in the city when a river is overflowing on the road in Luyanó?” a resident asked 14ymedio. This newspaper found that, in fact, there is a jet of water running all over the pavement. “A river is running all over the road. I don’t know where it’s coming from,” she says.
“I haven’t had water for three days,” she adds. “No one has water here, because almost no one has a cistern.” In addition, there are water thieves, who insert a hose into the pipes that run through the streets and sidewalks in front of the houses and suck up the water.
To the shortage must be added “the quality of the water, which is reaching the already contaminated neighborhoods, which we can detect by its color and bad smell. We have to prevent an epidemic from being triggered by this. Imagine the complications that such an event would bring, especially with the lack of medicines,” denounced Marilín López, a resident of Havana, in a Granma report.
The interruption of the supply in recent days has led to despair among the inhabitants in many areas of Havana. Last Tuesday night, in San Miguel del Padrón, the residents took to the streets to protest after more than two weeks without water. In previous days, in Central Havana, Old Havana and Luyanó, the demonstrations managed to restore the service.
“What else are they going to do, if they can’t flush the toilets? So they put a bag in a bucket as a toilet bowl and then close the bag and throw it in the dumpster”
That same Tuesday, the authorities recognized that currently more than 600,000 people suffer “affectations” with the water supply in Cuba. A report published by Granma explained that the number of people who do not have adequate access to water in Cuba has been increasing by almost seven percent.
Although the problem is not new, it has become more acute in the last two weeks. On August 21, 14ymedio reported that the shortage had caused the situation to become scatological in some parts of the capital. In the municipality of Nuevo Vedado, for example, like those who live closer, in Luyanó, they use plastic bags when “nature calls.”
“What else are they going to do, if they can’t flush the toilets? So they put a bag in a bucket as a toilet bowl and then close the bag and throw it in the dumpster,” where it ends up in the open-air landfills, says a resident of that municipality. This creates another problem, because the organic waste piles up in the 20,000 tons of garbage generated every day in the capital, and that remain on the streets for days.
The crisis was also serious in Caibarién, Villa Clara, where it started on August 18. It was not until two weeks later that the Villa Clara Aqueduct and Sewerage Company offered “apologies for the inconvenience caused.” Almost 35,000 were officially affected. The response to the delay in repairs and the “very critical situation” was the “policy” of selling bottled water to the population.
The official spokesperson Henry Omar Pérez reported this Thursday that 4,255 gallons of water had arrived in Caibarién. Each gallon costs 85 pesos. However, he said that distribution will be prioritized for children between zero and 13 years old (5,089). Then come “the bedridden, pregnant and sick”; if there is any water left, the rest of the population will be able to buy it.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
At almost one thirty in the afternoon, Arlena and Carolina finally get their precious sun loungers in front of the Atlántico hotel, and a menu with meals for 3,000 pesos
The rickety train arrives when there are just a few minutes left before the appointed time / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 4 August 2024 — At 1:20 in the afternoon, Arlena was putting her bag on a lounge chair on the beach at Santa María, west of Guanabo. “I’m already in place”, she exclaimed with relief, not knowing that she would still have to wait for the moment she had been looking forward to since 8:40, since she arrived at the Havana train station. It was a private beach where only hotel guests could stay. They set off again.
The Cuban authorities announced at the beginning of July the restoration of the service of this train that leads, for a modest 35 pesos price, to the beaches of the East of Havana during an unforgettable trip of an hour and a half for the scant 25 kilometers that separate the two locations.
Arlena and Carolina decided to spend their first day of vacation on the sea shore this Wednesday, although to do so they had to take a train that, from around the station between Egido and Arsenal, promised to be what it is: a trip suitable only for the most common classes. About 50 people were hanging around the platform, where the smartest ones were trying to do business, as always.
About 50 people were hanging around the platform, where the smartest people were trying to do business, as always / 14ymedio
When the two women arrived at the platform, after a long walk from Luyanó, without a taxi in sight, there was already a cake seller on a bicycle selling the cakes for 70 pesos a piece, and an inflationary peanut vendor, who had gone from charging one peso for a cone to 10. There was also a coffee stand to bravely face the morning, and cigarettes for 400 pesos, although a worker from the Railway Union was giving a warning before the continue reading
Beast arrived: drinking alcohol or smoking is strictly prohibited, under penalty of a fine of 2,000 to 5,000 pesos.
The rickety train arrived just a few minutes before the appointed time. Families with children heading to the beach and passengers heading to Guanabo, as a less recreational destination, are milling around, leaving behind the kilos of garbage that pile up next to the station.
About 50 people were hanging around the platform, where the most astute were trying to do business, as always / 14ymedio
The interior view is not that more encouraging. Looking down, you see torn seats; looking up, you see torn-off roofs in all the carriages. The hard plastic seats are uncomfortable for Carolina, who has been suffering from pain in one leg for weeks, so the two of them change carriages, and settle on the third, which has more comfortable seats. Soon after, they will no longer be able to choose.
After a stop in Guanabacoa and another in Cambute, the train is more than full and the passengers resign themselves to standing among the incessant clatter and noise that serve as a holiday soundtrack.
The cost of the ticket is 35 pesos to the beaches of eastern Havana on a trip of one and a half hours / 14ymedio
“This is going to end up like the trains in India, with people on the roof,” jokes one passenger. Although there are two policemen in the third carriage, discipline is set aside and several people smoke openly, while out the window all you can see is grass everywhere, fields of sweet potatoes and some isolated wooden huts. As Guanabo approaches, a “rare bird” is spotted: cattle.
It’s after 10:40 and the hardest part of the journey is finally over. Or so Arlene and Carolina think, as they walk through the town of Guanabo towards the west, towards the beaches.
When the beach comes into view, businesses multiply, with their escalating prices in sight / 14ymedio
When the beach comes into view, businesses multiply, with their escalating prices in sight. Mamoncillos (Spanish limes) at 100 pesos, pizzas at 170, beer and malt at 200… but the kilometers take their toll on the couple, who are looking for a beach without trash to settle down on, so they end up renting a horse-drawn carriage to smooth out the distance.
600 pesos later, when everything seemed to be going better, there was still one more problem to overcome when the horse-drawn carriage breaks down. “It’s 12 o’clock and I still haven’t placed my butt on the beach,” she laments. An hour later, they barely reached the promised beach.
The miles are taking their toll on the couple, who are looking to settle down on a beach without trash / 14ymedio
Carolina and Arlena sit on a lounge chair in front of Santa María Beach hours after leaving Havana, but their joy doesn’t last a minute, because they are in the private area and only hotel guests have access to those amenities, just like the water bikes and all the good things they see, so it’s time to pack up again and start walking.
At almost 1:30 in the afternoon, our central characters finally get their precious sun loungers in front of the Hotel Atlántico, and a menu with meals for 3,000 pesos. Two pizzas and a few beers make the long day easier. A line separates the shiny beds of the hotel guests from Carolina and Arlena’s rickety ones, who, at around 2 in the afternoon, finally take their first dip.
A line separates the shiny beds of the hotel guests from Carolina and Arlena’s rickety ones. At around 2 in the afternoon, they finally take their first dip / 14ymedio
Before 3 o’clock, they are already packing their things for the trip back to Havana. “Are you going to take the train back?” asks a neighbor lying on a sun lounger. “No way!” Carolina is indignant. And they walk away until they catch an improvised taxi that takes them to Santos Suárez.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
’14ymedio’ interviews the musician Gorki Águila in a place in Mexico that we are hiding for his safety
“My plans were in Cuba, where I have my artistic project”
“I am in a dreadful loneliness; I have a growing resentment towards the communist regime every day”
“I want to overthrow the Castros, I don’t want to f’ing reform communism at all”
The leader of Porno Para Ricardo works in a musical instrument store in Mexico / Courtesy Gorki Águila
14ymedio, Adyr Corral, Mexico, 15 July 2024
MEXICO/Scene 1
Gorki Águila waits impatiently on a park bench located in a part of Mexico that he expressly asked not to be revealed, for security reasons. The 55-year-old musician left Cuba in mid-May, after being threatened by the regime with serving a sentence of at least four years for contempt. Months after the incident, he is still afraid of what could happen to him, and he does not allow photographs either, as that would make it easier for political police agents to find his location.
While he suspiciously puffs on a cigarette, the musician reveals to 14ymedio that he has received threats from State Security since his first day here: “They wrote to my WhatsApp. As soon as I set foot in Mexico, they asked me, as if they were my friends: ‘Is everything okay, were you able to talk to your family?’ They know where my family lives,” he says, while showing his phone screen with the conversations.
The leader of the Cuban punk band Porno Para Ricardo now works in a musical instrument store to support himself. He arrives at the appointment wearing black pants and a jacket with a white shirt. Mexicans who pass by, sense from his aura, without really knowing who he is, that they are in the presence of a rock star and they direct phrases at him in the form of compliments such as “Long live rock, Robert Smith”, in reference to his resemblance to the singer of The Cure, the English post- punk band, who wears a haircut similar to his.
“They humiliated me and lowered me to a level… I spent almost 15 days crying and not being able to speak. “I arrived with a deep post-traumatic stress”
His new fans also do not imagine that, at the beginning of May, the political police prevented him from boarding a plane that would bring him to Mexico in his first attempt to leave Cuba after receiving an ultimatum, under the argument that it was regulated. Or that, on that very occasion, State Security agents detained him at José Martí International Airport in Havana and later imprisoned him in their barracks to intimidate him.
“They humiliated me and lowered me to a level… I spent almost 15 days crying and without being able to speak. I arrived with deep post-traumatic stress. The protocol for you to go in there is that when you enter, you lower your head against the floor of the patrol car, and it made me extremely dizzy, because the patrol car started spinning, fffff! fffff! So that you don’t know where you’re coming in”, he says about his stay at Villa Marista [a pre-Castro private Catholic school turned into a high security prison].
14ymedio. Why did you come to Mexico?
Gorki. I didn’t choose to come. No, no, I came because I had my residency, so I didn’t need to get a visa, but State Security wanted me to leave. They spoke to me: “Either we’ll put you in prison or you’ll leave”. It’s not just me, they have done it to many opponents.
14ymedio. They told you: you are going to jail or you are leaving Cuba and you preferred…
Gorki. Prefer? No, I did not prefer, I am here under state coercion. I would be in Cuba, you understand? When I went to the airport, they told me, you’re not going to leave and I’ll explain why, because they wanted me to tell them when I left… They knew I was going to Mexico, but they wanted to know what day I was leaving, to carry out an operation and record me on video.
14ymedio. Like a kind of political victory?
Gorki. Yes, and also take those images to later perhaps, perhaps, discredit me. Because I go out with them at the airport, just like that, talking and them making jokes with me, as if they were my family: “Heh-heh. Gorki, you screwed that little girl.” They were making stupid jokes and obviously I didn’t pay attention to them, though I may have laughed at times, I don’t know. And that is filmed by airport cameras. They’re going to use that, obviously.
The rock star has challenged the Castro Regime with his strident and explicit music / Courtesy Gorki Águila
Scene 2
Gorki rummages through the school-style backpack, black with striking orange stripes on the sides, that he has with him. After searching through his belongings with his hand, he takes out a cigarette and lights it while he recounts part of the interrogation he had when he was detained in Villa Marista. “The guy sits next to me and tells me: ‘Look, we’re going to help you, you have a crime of contempt that has a penalty of at least four, five or ten years. But we’re going to help you. We’re going to give you a chance,” he says in a fake voice, as if to give more theatricality to the anecdote.
He takes a couple of drags on the cigarette and the smoke makes his eyes narrow as he continues with his story. “They said something so clownish, so ridiculous, with a conviction: ‘We are going to help you within socialist legality’. At that moment, I should have said, seriously… Seriously? I have a more or less minimal IQ, the southern hemisphere of my brain works….” At that moment, a young boy who must not be older than 17 interrupts him and the interview is abruptly suspended. continue reading
“Excuse me brother, I heard that you are a guitarist. I would like to give you this drawing. I hope you like it” – says the little boy, extending to the musician a sheet with a fairly abstract sketch drawn freehand with a pencil and that from the corner of his eye looks like the portrait of a humanoid figure with reptilian features.
– How cute, huh.
– Thank you for accepting it, the kid responds and then the novice cartoonist threatens to walk away but Gorki prevents him from doing so.
– Hey man, come. Let’s see if I have ten pesos, he says as he digs through his backpack again, this time looking for some change.
14ymedio. What was your routine like in Cuba and how has it changed in Mexico?
Gorki. I’ll be honest with you, the difference for the better is that I have guaranteed coffee, that I have a little bit, that is, condensed milk to add to my coffee and I have bread, guaranteed. It’s so easy to eat here, it even surprises me. Everyday life in Cuba was “what the “f” am I going to eat?” Sometimes, I didn’t have coffee and getting up without coffee is like not getting up. Sometimes, I didn’t have food in Cuba and I would say: “I’m going to stay here in bed longer.” And also, I have medicines, for example, I can go to any pharmacy… they are expensive, but there are options. My head was hurting – I suffer from epilepsy – and I didn’t have a f’ing aspirin in Cuba, man, and here I have it at hand.
Sometimes in Cuba I didn’t have food to eat, and I would say ‘I’m going to stay here in bed a bit longer
14ymedio. What is your life like here?
Gorki. I can describe it to you in three words: loneliness, rootlessness and a lot of resentment, a lot of hatred towards the Castro regime, towards the communists. I have no plans in Mexico, I had plans in Cuba, they plucked me from my land under duress and threw me here. My plans were in Cuba. I have my artistic project, I have my recording studio project, that’s where I come up with the songs, where I come up with my posters (some of them are for sale). Those are my plans. Now, what I have to do is make them up here, what I am is in pure loneliness here, in a rootlessness that you don’t even know at what level. An increasing sadness and resentment towards the communist regime every day, I hate it much more, every day, every minute, every second that passes. I hate it a lot. I have to remake myself.
His creations are mostly inspired by the aesthetics of the golden era of the political poster, the predominant means of communication in public, educational / Gorki Águila
14ymedio. Here, haven’t you been able to?
Gorki. No. I live in a makeshift room in a living room, how do I move a studio there?
14ymedio. Is it a matter of time?
Gorki. I imagine, I suppose. I will never give up my creative side, but that bothers, humiliates, offends, degrades. I’m telling you, every day I hate communism and, in particular, the Castro regime more so.
14ymedio. Do you feel free in Mexico?
Gorki. You have to define freedom, you see, how do you feel free? You feel free within your context. You feel free when you obey your will. How can I feel free, if I am living uprooted? I am in a context that is not mine.
14ymedio. How are you doing with that?
Gorki. I lived in Cuba in my house. Now, I have to live on a mattress in a living room, imagine! I don’t know if you have habits like that, in that way, attached, but for a 55-year-old man the worst thing you can do is tell him, come on, let’s go to a nursing home! I want to die in Cuba. Every day there are fewer people, there are fewer Cubans in Cuba. Cuba, now, is no longer Cuba. Let’s think about that. It’s a crime against humanity, what the Castros are doing in that place. Their hands are not going to shake when they shoot, like in Belarus, no, no, they are going to shoot and kill. 11J happened, they killed two or three people with total impunity. I am an opponent. I want to overthrow the Castros, I don’t want to reform communism at all. I am here because I believed in those plans, and at a specific moment, those plans fell apart in my head. I felt like I was totally alone immersed in a whole broth of demagoguery and corruption on the part of people who say they are our friends and that they are helping us. There is no opposition in Cuba today, I tell you categorically. With all propriety. There is no opposition in Cuba. There are people who send phone recharges, crumbs, and who dictate a road map, that is not opposition.
What the Castros are doing in that place is a crime against humanity. Their hands are not going to shake when shooting, like in Belarus, no, no, they are going to shoot and they’re going to kill.
14ymedio. What is needed for there to be opposition in Cuba?
Gorki. Create a real, raw debate to locate what our problems are. When you want to be cured, you have to know that you are sick, if you don’t know that you are sick, you will never be cured, that is the first step. And after accepting that you are sick, you have to diagnose yourself, there has to be a diagnosis. So, to recognize the disease, we are still in the step, we do not recognize that the Castros are not our only enemies, but everything that surrounds that. In other words, there are people who are living off the Cuba issue, the “freedom in Cuba” issue.
Look, when you are a flat tire fixer and in front of you, on the road, there is a pothole full of glass, do you want that pothole to be fixed? If you live by the fact that every car that gets a flat tire comes and has you fix the flat, your business is fixing flats, you get it? When (or why) are you going to tell the driver: “Oh, that pothole is bad!”? So it never gets fixed, because you’re f’ing living off that pothole, your dough comes from there, and then, that’s what’s happening. In no road map of any NGO [Non-Governmental Organization] that exists, in any other country, or in Miami, does it say: “Cuba is going to be liberated in 2050. I am going to stop making money and living off this NGO and stop living this way.” None! No NGO tells you “in such a year I will stop receiving money for doing this job that for me is onerous and infamous, because I am receiving money from living off the issue of freedom in Cuba and in addition, I get applause from the international community.”
14ymedio. Previously, it was thought that if Fidel died, the Castro Regime would fall….
Gorki. That’s what I thought when I was a kid. And who has to die next? Until when, people? The only ones who are going to overthrow the regime are the Cubans who are inside Cuba, we are not going to overthrow it from beyond, opposing it with air conditioning.
14ymedio. How does art influence all this?
Gorki. For me, art is super important, why do you think that politicians always join artists in campaigns, because they know that art is a super immediate, super powerful vehicle. Pop music is super powerful when it comes to transmitting, much faster than a pamphlet and a speech. A pop artist’s audience members are voters. A pop artist utters any stupidity and those people are going to believe it.
14ymedio. Is Porno for Ricardo still alive?
Gorki. Yes, when you see I’m dead is when you will be able to say “Porno para Ricardo ceased to exist.” It will exist as long as I live.
14ymedio. In the past, you said that Porno para Ricardo was a rock band that wanted to have fun, have they had fun? Are you still having fun?
Gorki. Yes, we have had our revenge. Look, always, in creation, you suffer the creative process…
“Pop music is super powerful when it comes to transmitting, much faster than a pamphlet and a speech” / Courtesy Gorki Águila
Scene 3
Gorki is interrupted again. This time it’s an old lady who goes around the park in her wheelchair begging for alms. “They don’t give me a coin. Whatever you like to support me with, young people. Thank you, young people, for helping me,” she says, without any remorse for cutting off the singer’s story about his creative process.
The backpack was left open since the last rummage, so it is not difficult for Gorki to take out a coin and give it to the woman who, before extending her hand to receive it, had already started her wheelchair by giving the right wheel a strong push. “Also, if you give it to everyone you will run out of money, man! And I feel sorry for them, but sometimes they are also scammers. Anyway,” says the rocker before resuming the conversation.
14ymedio. What price have you had to pay for having fun?
Gorki. The price we have had to pay, for example, is to give up our audience. We did it conscientiously. We knew that if we took the step of getting directly involved with the regime, we were going to disappear, that is, they were going to give us a magical pass like Harry Potter, with the wand, tiki, tiki. You don’t exist anymore.
I really dreamed that I could influence, that is, influence in the sense of my crumb. That, at one moment I could experience the fall of the Castro Regime. I have no hope anymore, the way things are
14ymedio. When you woke up, the tyrant, the tyrannosaurus, was it still there?
Gorki. Yes, exactly. I made a parody of it, I even put it on Facebook once: “When I woke up, the regime was still there.” You could say, because I really dreamed that I could influence, that is, influence the meaning of my crumb. That at one moment I could experience the fall of the Castro regime. I’m no longer hopeful, the way things are.
14ymedio. Do you think you won’t live to see it?
Gorki. Now I’m not sure. I have lost faith in that sense, something that depresses me. My mom died and she didn’t see it, it seems I will too. It’s kind of sad… Don’t you want a beer? I know a place where we could smoke.
14ymedio. What’s next for Gorki in Mexico? What are his plans?
Gorki. What I am sure I can tell you, in the present, is that I am going to continue being anti-Castro and I am going to continue being libertarian and I am always going to bet on freedom and I am going to be consistent and coherent with what I have said. Now, not in the future. I don’t know what’s coming in the future. I’m telling you a punk motto, and that’s it. The Sex Pistols motto. But I don’t know what’s going to come with me. I have total uncertainty. I just tell you, part of my hatred is based on that. They have put me in a place where I do not want to be. I would like to come visit, and go to my place, to my Motherland. I don’t know what awaits me, I would like to make music, join bands here to play on stage, to experiment and give that message that Cuba is not what they sold you, that theorem that they have sold you. I would love to do that.
“They have positioned me in a place where I do not want to be. I would like to come visit, and go to my place, to my Motherland” / Courtesy Gorki Águila
Scene 4
Someone else approaches Gorki and this time completely steals his attention. She is a brunette woman in her 20’s. The pretext for interfering in the interview is to collect some money to cover the expenses of an animal shelter.
-Hello, sorry. Sorry for the inconvenience, I come from a shelter that is dedicated to rescuing dogs. At the moment, we have 300 dogs and 50 cats, I don’t know if you would like to support us, says the girl.
– I am a fan of dogs, Gorki answers.
–Look, there are two there– says the activist while pointing to her companions, who have a Great Dane and a Golden Retriever doing convincing work, based on their mere presence, with the passers-by from whom they also ask for support to pay for their food and that of the other animals.
At that moment, Gorki ends the interview and gets up to go meet the dogs.
Gorki has always been a dog lover / Courtesy Gorki Águila
Translated by Norma Whiting
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Diplomarket is suspected of being closed, like others, for tax evasion
So far this year, 24 alleged cases have been reported to the ONAT in Havana, nine of which have ended in complaints / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Madrid, 10 July 2024 — The Cuban State does not know how much money it fails to receive due to tax evasion, although only until June it had already identified more than 162 million pesos, which, without a doubt, falls short. This Wednesday, the official press dedicated two dense articles to characterize this type of crime, thanks to which it is known that until the end of March, 210 reports of complaints were issued, of which 117 have been analyzed.
There are, however, only six final sentences: two in Ciego de Ávila, two in Camagüey, one in Santiago de Cuba and another in Holguín. “We are still dissatisfied and, above all, we have to be more agile when working on these procedures”, said Belkis Pino Hernández, first deputy head of the National Tax Administration Office (ONAT).
Among the details provided by ONAT, one stands out that could be the one that led to the closure of Diplomarket a month later, known as the Cuban Costco, supposedly intervened by the authorities at the end of June, who arrested the owner, Frank Cuspinera, and his wife for “tax evasion, currency trafficking and money laundering.”
Pino Hernández said that at the end of May there were already 15 MSMEs closed due to “accounting irregularities.” Some of these cases can lead to tax evasion crimes. “The MSME that does not keep its accounting in order and, in addition, does not correctly pay its tax obligations, demonstrates an intention to evade, so we have the right to proceed with the complaint,” she said. Also, up to the same date, the authorization of 323 self-employed workers was withdrawn – temporarily or permanently – and 2,253 bank accounts of physical persons were seized.
The ‘MSME’ that does not keep its accounting well and, in addition, does not correctly pay its tax obligations, demonstrates an intention to evade
In Cubadebate, tax authorities dedicate ample space to detailing the types of evasion, which in Cuba tend to be the under-declaration of income, the omission of income obtained outside the country by a business or the use of third parties to “hide the existence of several businesses, split the tax base and hide the concentration of wealth”, something that Cuban law does not permit.
They also detail some evasion methods that set off alarms in ONAT. One of them is the lack of accounting records or an automated system for this. It is common, said Judith Navarro Ricardo, a specialist in the organization, for self-employed workers not to declare all their employees, as well as to declare lower salaries to reduce taxes and contributions to Social Security.
Other techniques of some MSME owners are more refined “who use self-employed workers, who have three months of exemption to make imports that are not for them, but for the MSME. There, we see a fraudulent way of paying less.” The same happens in the artistic sector, where there is a one-year payment exemption for recent graduates, which allows tricks, such as making transactions through their accounts to avoid paying taxes.
There are, the expert counted, at least 600 MSMEs that reported losses in which “accounting mismanagement” occurred, including “the accounting of equipment purchases as direct expenses instead of inventories, which artificially decreases the company’s profits.”
The focus has been placed on Havana, the province with the most taxpayers, where an estimate of the figures has been made. Yoandra Cruz Dovale, director of ONAT in the capital, explains that there are around 860 cases per month of inconsistencies between the data provided by companies as salaries and by workers as personal income.
“If we compare this number with the number of registered self-employed workers, around 121,000, we would be inferring that 0.7% are possible under reporters. However, if we review the contribution not made to the State budget, in 2023,148 million pesos were recovered by these reviews, an amount that is the expenditure budget for one month of a medium-sized municipality”, she said.
In 2023, 104 intensive inspections were carried out in Havana, in which 241 million evaded pesos were determined
But not all non-payments detected are crimes of tax evasion. “At the end of May, more than 80,000 control actions had been carried out, determining debts in the amount of 819 million pesos,” Pino Hernández told the State newspaper Granma, referring to the total number of cases in the country.
The official highlighted that when a non-payment is determined, the taxpayer can correct the error or omission and pay the money under the “principle of opportunity.” Only if there was intentionality is it evasion and goes to trial. In this sense, he cites as an example a private company that “did not include in the calculation the stimulation paid to workers, which led to the determination of the debt, with the corresponding surcharge and fine,” however, it was exempt from a process since it was considered proven that it was a misinterpretation of the tax regulations.
Fiscal problems have led to 8,764 people being banned from leaving Cuba, although it is unknown what percentage they represent of the total number of regulated people – another fact hidden – for “political” reasons.
Finally, the authorities have provided data on the presentation of the personal income tax return, which this year improved, since only 0.8% of taxpayers (4,744) failed to comply with their obligation, the majority in Havana, Villa Clara, Matanzas and Camagüey. Meanwhile, in the agricultural sector, compliance was 100%.
Regarding the profit tax, only 34 taxpayers did not declare (0.2%) and in the dividend tax, 116 partners (1.5%) failed to do so, the majority from the province of Granma.
In Cuba there are currently just over 1,109,000 taxpayers, the majority of them physical persons (1,074,000), of which 527,000 are self-employed; and 35,448 legal entities, of which 9,084 are MSMEs.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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The residents, meanwhile, only hope that the city buildings will benefit from the paraphernalia of the event.
Newly painted pharmacy in Sancti Spíritus due to the events of July 26 / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Mercedes Garcia, Sancti Spíritus, 4 July 2024 — Even in the midst of the most painful crisis that the Revolution has faced, the Cuban regime insists on remembering its “rebellious lineage” every year by granting one province primacy in the events for July 26. Since last June 14, Sancti Spíritus has held the headquarters, an “acknowledgement” that Cubans see more as an opportunity to renovate the city than to honor the assailants of the Moncada barracks.
The authorities “put their foot down” – as Ramiro Valdés recommended in the province days ago – and, since the announcement that the central event of the anniversary will take place in Sancti Spiritus, the problems seem to have disappeared. 100% of its taxpayers paid their taxes in 2023, infant mortality in the first half of this year is – suspiciously – the second lowest in the country, and Construction, one of the worst sectors on the Island, advances thanks to mini-industries.
That is, at least, the Sancti Spíritus that the official press is selling, decked out to receive senior government officials and, with luck, Raúl Castro himself.
The entrance road to the province was also paved / Escambray
From the interior of its streets, however, a different reality is felt. The 10 kilometers of asphalt that were dedicated to repairing the province’s roads are all focused on a single section: the road that connects the municipality of Cabaiguán and the capital city, and that also connects with the National Highway. That is, a brand-new tar carpet through which the ministers and officials will enter the city for the event.
The same has happened with the facades of state restaurants, such as Dinos Pizza, to which they added umbrellas and seats in the doorway, but inside, the bottles on display are empty and the prices do not drop below 200 pesos.
They added chairs and umbrellas to Dinos Pizza, but the rest remains the same / 14ymedio
Other “beneficiaries” of state paraphernalia have been pharmacies and bodegas (the ration stores). Those closest to the center and, of course, to the routes that the officials will take, boast blue, pink and red colors on their facades that still smell of fresh paint. The leaks from the interior and the shortage of products, however, have not changed. “Paint, a lot of paint. But no supplies,” a resident of Garaita, one of the “retouched” establishments, complained to 14ymedio.
Many state establishments, some of them on the boulevard, remain closed to preserve the touches until the 26th, when their doors will open with offers of food and entertainment that the people of Sancti Spiritus have not had at their disposal for a long time, and which is doubtful will be kept after the festivities.
Some grocery stores have their facades painted again, but they are still without food / 14ymedio
The local press has also not been shy about granting a certain “joy” to the “people of Sancti Spiritus,” alleging that the Central Committee of the Party has granted a great “honor” to the province for “the work that its cadres, management structures, workers and people in general, as an expression of the popular will to move the country forward in the midst of a particularly complex economic situation.”
Many leisure and gastronomy venues remain closed / 14ymedio
To commemorate the distinction, on the same day of the announcement, local leaders celebrated the event with the people of Sancti Spiritus, who “spontaneously” carried drums and Cuban flags.
For the Sancti Spíritus residents, however, being the venue for the July 26 events is only equivalent to avoiding blackouts for a few days or finally seeing public transportation working. For the rest, the arrangements seem few and superficial compared to those obtained by other provinces in previous years.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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Economist Pedro Monreal points out that this measure “entails the risk of corrupt markets.”
The sale of imported flour by private parties has, on many occasions, allowed the state sector to have bread. / Escambray
14ymedio, Madrid, 28 June 2024 — Cuba’s private sector will be able to obtain a maximum profit of 30% on the goods and services it sells to the State as of July 1. This Thursday, the Cuban Government made public a resolution – dated Tuesday – in which this limit is established with the objective of “containing the expenses of state entities in their economic relations with non-state forms of management.” The measure is, as economist Pedro Monreal summarizes, a variant of “price caps,” which not only have not shown their effectiveness, but can even be harmful.
“State entities, in the process of economic contracting with non-state methods of management for the acquisition of goods and services, agree on prices and rates whose maximum profit rate does not exceed thirty percent (30%) of the total of costs and expenses, as well as the amount corresponding to the application of taxes on Sales and Services,” details the resolution published in the Official Gazette.
The text, which emphasizes the containment of inflation as its goal, urges lower-level administrations (provincial and municipal) to approve the maximum prices and rates of the goods and services they select based on the needs of each territory.
Private sector retail sales account for just 4.1% of those of the country as a whole. Although it is not known what part of them end up at the state sector
The impact of the measure, provided it works, would be more than limited. As Monreal points out, private sector retail sales account for only 4.1% of those of the country as a whole. Although it is not known what part of these sales ends up in the state sector, the percentage is too negligible to have any type of significant consequence. continue reading
“In addition to the fact that the base of ‘savings’ in state expenditures by limiting the rate of profit on non-state sales acquired by state entities does not appear to be very large, experience indicates that ‘price caps’ are not effective to reduce inflation,” the expert indicates.
The Cuban economist insists that the way to contain inflation, which has not stopped growing exponentially since the entry into force of the so-called Ordering Task (2021), is expense reduction. The largest State budget items go to Health (19%) and Education (17%), but both are essential for the Government, in addition to being “problematic” – Monreal describes – for society, which is why the specialist suggests the cuts in the next largest sector, Public Administration and Defense (16%).
“Prices must essentially be fashioned in the market (even in regulated markets). Replacing this function of the market with ‘powers’ of local officials not only restricts market prices, but also entails the risk of ‘corruption markets’, Monreal concludes in an X thread in which he has recorded his analysis of measures.
Replacing that market function with ‘powers’ of local officials not only restricts market prices, but also risks ‘markets of corruption’
The publication of the information in Cubadebate has generated an avalanche of comments in a few hours in which, in general terms, distrust is perceived regarding the measure. “With knowledge of the facts, it will mean a new brake on many activities. For example, tourism, which, in order to be able to provide services relies on many private companies. Imagine now, with the crisis of ITH [marketing company for the sector] not being able to supply its clients and, starting July 1, applying that measure, are we prepared?” a reader points out.
Others have seen, immediately, how corruption is going to run rampant. “Profit rate = Income – (costs + expenses). In other words, a high price can be perfectly justified by saying that the costs or expenses were high; no one can control that for an individual. We are kicking as we drown.”
Some readers point out that the measure is correct or that the 30% profit is already too much and the margins should be tightened even more, comments that are appreciated by the Ministry of Finance and Prices itself, which intervenes in the debate. However, a large group of users agree that the Government is insisting on a path that has never been successful.
“Although the price cap is considered counterproductive by many economists, practice has demonstrated its inefficiency in the best of cases, plus its counterproductive effect in the majority of cases. So, here we are, continuing to stumble over the same stone. Tripping over a stone is not bad if you do it for the first time, but in Cuba we do it so many times that we end up falling in love with them.”
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Senior civil and military officials meet in Havana to prepare “the war of all the people”
Neighbors have been busy cleaning the mountains of garbage that invade their streets after the floods / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 24 June 2024 — The threat of another rainy day looms over the Cuban capital this Monday. Only the Eastern side of the Island is breathing with some relief, since at 3 in the morning the Meteorological Institute announced that this Monday will be “cloudy in a large part of the country, with some showers, rains and thunderstorms from late morning in the western half. In the afternoon, rainfall will spread to the rest of the national territory, becoming copious in the west and center. The rains can be heavy in some locations.”
It will rain over already wet surfaces, literally. In Havana the weekend has been devastating for the hundreds of people who have lived staring at the ceiling, hoping it wouldn’t fall on them, as has happened to about twenty families who have partially or totally lost their homes due to rainfall in recent days. The highest point of the situation occurred on Saturday, when, in just three hours, between 2 and 3 in the afternoon, 56 millimeters (2.2 inches) of water accumulated at Casablanca Station in Havana.
The most affected municipalities were Diez de Octubre, Old Havana, Centro Habana, Boyeros and Plaza de la Revolución, where residents were busy cleaning the mountains of garbage that invaded their streets and that, carried by the water, prevented drainage through sewers, causing water accumulation. Mosquitoes, happy in the humidity, were added to the waste, spreading arboviruses to the fearing population, who did not give up in their efforts to unclog the streets despite the authorities asking them for “prudence and discipline.” continue reading
Liván Izquierdo Alonso asked for caution and called for “common sense and for the people to be disciplined and not cross flooded streets”
“Multiple images were posted on social networks, essentially in the profiles of Havana residents on Facebook and X (previously known as Twitter), where the population can be seen in the streets, in waters above their waists, just like cars whose tires cannot be seen because they remain under the precipitated water,” said Tribuna de La Habana.
Liván Izquierdo Alonso, First Secretary of the Communist Party in the province, asked for caution and called for “sanity, and for the people to be disciplined and not cross flooded streets with the clear presence of downed cables.” His agenda that day, while the population entered the waters to clean up the disaster, had consisted of supervising the Territorial Defense Day in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, together with his deputy, Yanet Hernández Pérez, who is also Havana’s governor.
On the front lines, Major General Ernest Feijóo Eiró, head of the Western Army, called for “maintaining daily production and services, internal order: revolutionary surveillance in the neighborhood’s labor groups, all as an indispensable part of all the people’s war”.
The three, along with other military personnel, carried out the day’s program as if nothing else was going on. The official press describes a tour in which “places that have the essential potential to guarantee food for the population in circumstances determined by defense against an enemy attack were visited.” They also went to the April 19th polyclinic to “verify health professionals’ preparation to care for citizens who were injured by an enemy attack in the territory.” Not a word, however, about whether the necessary means are available for this. They also went to a school and the polygon “in which they witnessed a demonstration of skills for direct confrontation with those who try to invade this territory.”
The Havana authorities carried out the day’s program as if nothing was happening / Tribuna de La Habana
Feijóo Eiró spoke with the president of the Municipal Defense Council, Rolandis Rogríguez González, about the importance of “taking advantage of the reserves of experience in officers who are retired and have the necessary qualities,” while Izquierdo Alonso was interested in the “potential of a local organopónico”* and about crops, and spoke with authority about how to produce to feed the population. In addition, he said that “the functions of the different government structures must be preserved, permanently, every day, in coordination with the Defense Zones. This is where the concept of war of the entire people lies,” he stressed.
The surreal scene, recorded by the official press with as much detail and urgency as was lacking when talking about the building collapses, was answered with a more than premonitory comment. “It would be necessary for Defense Day to also be allocated to the collection of solid waste in the streets. The corner of Oquendo and Salud in Centro Habana has not collected the garbage for more than a week, it is impossible to live with the flies, mosquitoes and stench inside homes, even with everything closed,” warned a woman who identified herself as Karen Boffill, an affected neighbor.
Barely an hour later the strong storm began, which aggravated the situation of the previous days, and the unrest of Havana residents was visible on the networks due to the lack of opportunity of some authorities, who seemed more distracted in the “strategic conception defined by the Commander in Chief Fidel as All the People’s War” than in the rain and its consequences. “They have people wasting their time with a supposed war. War is what they have against the miserable people, and it’s now that rice for the month of June’s miserable ration book is arriving. Don’t fool people anymore and get to work, because that’s where they’re spending all your money”, said a resident of La Lisa.
“They’re still doing it. What war? We have the war right here, inside. Enough already about war. What needs to be done is start producing the land, planting sugar cane, which is what makes money”, another one cried. “The military is the one who has to prepare,” continued one user. They have to guarantee citizens security: from an attack from outside and the assurance of peace for the citizens. “They should do that, and not keep appropriating hotels and chain stores.”
Not a single word came from Cuba’s Presidency to those affected by the rains. This weekend, Miguel Díaz-Canel left two messages on X, one this Sunday, congratulating Cuban women engineers and another that same Saturday, to instruct the population of Unión de Reyes, Matanzas, where he was on an official tour, to work with the spirit of commitment to move forward.
Popular superstition has linked Díaz-Canel, since the beginning of his mandate, with bad luck. His arrival was preceded by the partial collapse, on Friday night, of a home on General Betancourt de Alacranes Street, in Unión de Reyes. A few hours later, another building fell on the other side of Matanzas, in Colón. Nothing strange for a province in which only the Varadero tourist resort is free of ruins. None of this appeared in the official press.
*Translator’s note: Organopónicos or organoponics Cuban-originated system of urban agriculture using organic gardens.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The film can be seen in Cuba using the link sent through friends
Former political prisoner Alicia del Busto (left) during filming, with actresses Jennifer Rodríguez and Rachell Vallori, and Lilo Vilaplana / Courtesy / Alfredo de Armas
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 15 June 2024 — In a narrow, dirty and crowded cell, several prisoners support each other so as not to lose their sanity or their lives. The guards bring a beaten woman to the dungeon and the prisoners receive her with words of encouragement, despite the situation in which they find themselves. The scene, from the film Plantadas*, shows the importance of solidarity in the Cuban political prison system and delves into a portion of national history silenced by official discourse.
Lilo Vilaplana speaks with 14ymedio about his work, which is a shock against oblivion and a tribute to those women who warned, very early on, of the authoritarian drift of Fidel Castro’s regime.
14ymedio/Escobar: How difficult was it to process all the hours of interviews with former Cuban political prisoners and concentrate them into two hours of film?
Vilaplana: It was like putting together a puzzle so that the final product reflected the story told by each of them. Plantadas is not a documentary, nor a docudrama, but we start from real stories to create an entertaining plot that has three female characters, with their dramatic lines, representing the thousands of political prisoners in Cuba’s prisons since 1959 for disagreeing with a system that was implemented with blood, terror, betrayals and lies. The work we did with the writer Ángel Santiesteban was precisely to create those plots and subplots. Arranging the action based on the initial stories was a difficult challenge and required many hours of work.
14ymedio/Escobar: Did you encounter any reluctance on the part of the interviewees to tell their story?
Vilaplana: Some did not want to speak, because they did not want to open that wound. I understand them, there are painful stories, many were not able to have children, there were others whose children were told by the communists that their mothers were imprisoned because they did not want to be with them. There were scores of tortures, humiliations and difficulties caused by their imprisonments. continue reading
Some did not want to speak, because they did not want to open that wound. I understand them, there are painful stories, many were not able to have children
Currently, several of those who did not initially give us their stories, after watching the film, have begun to accompany us to activities to offer their testimony to the public. The first one to tell us her story was América Quesada, who was not able to see the finished film, because she died a few days before filming began. From the money that she had raised up to that point for the film, we gave her family the sum necessary for her cremation, because she was having financial difficulties.
14ymedio/Escobar: In the reconstruction of the locations, especially in the outdoor scenes and those inside the prisons, it seems that a contrast was sought between light and shadow, between clarity and gloom.
Vilaplana: Each space has a specific mood. It is something that we were very clear about from the beginning. The light, the sound, the camera shots, the art of each space was worked with very few resources, but with great accuracy and care. We were clear that there must be a marked difference in these environments.
14ymedio/Escobar: Among the protagonists are several faces of the Cuban women who have recently emigrated to the United States, who were indoctrinated while in Cuba to view political prisoners as mercenaries. Was it difficult for them to embody those prisoners?
Vilaplana: It was a very interesting mix of actresses and actors with experience and long exiles, and others who have been in the diaspora for some time. Among them were several newcomers who, until recently, had starred in films with the ICAIC [Cuban Art Institute and Cinematographic Industry]. It was very interesting, because they adapted.
Everyone knew the movie Plantados. They had seen it in Cuba and here, they met with many of those male prisoners and also with the female political prisoners. They asked them for advice, they asked them questions, and that way they learned the story firsthand, that is a luxury for any actor. They were able to understand the events that occurred in Cuba and regretted so many years of useless indoctrination.
14ymedio/Escobar: Every film project has that moment when it seems like it’s not going to go ahead. Did Plantadas have that too?
Vilaplana: No, Plantadas did not go through that process. Those involved in the project trusted that it would be done, we had the support of a few politicians, some businessmen, townspeople and exiles who contributed what they had so that the movie could be achieved. They also gave us food, offered a location and donated vintage objects, proposed to build whatever was necessary or positioned their vintage cars, depending on the project. Vilaplana Films made available production elements to the film, many costumes, set pieces, prop weapons and filming equipment for free, to lower costs and be able to finish the film with the little money raised. We didn’t have the budget of Plantados, but we already had the experience of that first film.
I anticipate that another film with Cuba’s prison’s theme is coming, because we are working on a new project
14ymedio/Escobar: Are you worried about being pigeonholed as the director who addresses the Cuban political prison?
Vilaplana: It doesn’t worry me, because my work refutes that statement. I have many different titles in my career. I have been a director of internationally successful drug trafficking series such as El Capo (I directed four periods), Perseguidos, La Mariposa and Dueños del Paraíso. As director, I have also participated in other international series such as Lynch, Mentes en Shock, Sin Retorno, Tiempo Finaland Zona Rosa. I have directed soap operas: La Dama de Troya, Por Amor, Un Sueño Llamado Salsa, The Past Doesn’t Forgive, You Will Love Me in the Rain, La Traicionera and Portraits… among many others. In addition, I have been the director of short films such as La Muerte del Gato, La Casa Vacía, Los Ponedores, to which were added series of docudramas in the style of Arrepentidos, Siguiendo el Rastro, Expediente, Unidad Investigativa and Leyendas del Exilio.
I anticipate that another film is coming with the theme of Cuban prisons, because we are working on a new project to tell what happened in the concentration camps that the communists called UMAP [Military Production Assistance Units]. We have won several awards with many of our productions.
14ymedio/Escobar: They say that making films is very similar to the work of a craftsman. Where do you start to shape a film?
Vilaplana: Creation has unsuspected paths and one process is never similar to the other. Sometimes you have the movie and other times the movie looks for you. Plantadas was a dream that Reinol Rodriguez and I had, together with my son, Camilo Vilaplana, as director. We made it come true, with a great production team, technicians, artists and an exile who has supported this process by appropriating a piece that deals with human rights abuse.
14ymedio/Escobar: Just a few days ago, activist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca arrived in Miami. He was taken to the Havana airport, forcing his departure practically from prison. It seems that 60 years later, for opponents in Cuba the options remain the same: prison or exile. Doesn’t that discourage you?
Vilaplana: That is what the Castro Regime wants, to discourage the fight. But we will always be facing the dictatorship, with the hope that, one day, this nightmare will end. I will never be part of works that discourage struggle. Knowing that men like Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca, José Daniel Ferrer and so many female political prisoners do not give up, gives hope.
14ymedio/Escobar: What are you going to do with all those hours of interviews with political prisoners that were conducted to bring into line the Plantadas story? Is there a documentary coming?
Vilaplana: For now, the Plantados and Plantadas interviews will all be at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora. I want all those who want access to this treasure to have it. If with my films I manage to evoke these dark stages of the Castro dictatorship in Cuba so that it is never repeated again, and for that reason alone, it will have been worth making these historical films.
If with my films I manage to remember these dark stages of the Castro dictatorship in Cuba so that it is never repeated again, and for that reason alone, it will have been worth it.
14ymedio/Escobar: It is one thing to reach the Cuban public and another to reach viewers who are further removed from the Cuban reality. How has the film fared in festivals and platforms?
Vilaplana: Reaching the Cuban public is important, but reaching the world is a challenge. The movie Plantados, for example, always packs the theaters when it is shown. But it is absolutely curious how the Castro regime manages to have tokens and accomplices who try to prevent these issues from reaching festivals and platforms where they almost always claim that if it is a “politics issue” they are not interested.
“Politics” refers to when The Castro Regime is denounced. If it is a product financed by tyranny, they accept it and change the terms. I don’t understand how such a macabre system has so many accomplices. In any case, a lot of work has been done and we have won four awards at different festivals, in addition to being on the billboards of cinemas in Miami and many cities in the United States for 10 weeks. Plantadas has also been screened in Puerto Rico and in several countries such as Canada, Colombia, The Dominican Republic, The Bahamas and others. Now, thanks to the work of our VIP 2000 distributors, we are on the largest Spanish language streaming platform, and in the first week it placed among the four most viewed films, competing with the big productions from Hollywood and other strong countries in the market. Plantadas is available throughout Latin America and the US on the VIX platform and has already been dubbed into English. We are working with platforms in Europe to continue spreading this message.
14ymedio/Escobar: Within Cuba, watching Plantadas has become an act that practically has to be carried out in secret. What efforts have been made to reach the public in Cuba?
Vilaplana: The public in Cuba has its own link to see the film, and we have several friends who distribute it. I also send it to everyone who asks me for it. Sometimes groups get together and show it and discuss the film.
14ymedio/Escobar: The Yara Cinema, La Rampa, the Chaplin or the Payret? In which of these rooms do you think Plantadas will be screened for the first time in Havana?
Vilaplana:Plantadas is going to be screened in a free Cuba and will one day be studied in Cuban universities, just like Plantados, because history is the memory of the people and the political prisoners who have given years of their lives confined for their homeland to be free, democratic and prosperous must be remembered, as their sacrifice deserves. Carrying out historical justice comforts me and alleviates the pain of this family separation, of the many who’ve been shot, killed and murdered because of a system that should never have been installed in Cuba.
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The place intended to preserve health is, paradoxically, a source of potential infections for neighbors
Down the slope, a dark river with greenish parts carries waste from the Public Health department / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 18 June 2024 — Where there was hygiene, sewage remains. Those who walk in front of the Héroes del Moncada University Polyclinic on 23 Street, between A and B, in El Vedado, Havana, have been repeating the same ritual for days: go down the sidewalk, take risks among traffic on the avenue and avoid a spill through which flows waste from the health center’s bathrooms. The place intended to preserve health is, paradoxically, a source of potential infections for neighbors.
“At first, the stench didn’t let us live, but now I don’t even feel it,” admits a neighbor from A, where a dark river with greenish chunks drains downhill, carrying waste from the Public Health Department. “Children can no longer play on the sidewalk, and in many houses, people have had to put damp blankets with bleach by the door to clean their shoes before entering.” The grass in the nearest flowerbeds has grown “fed” by the sewage and a trash can seems about to float in the dark lake that has formed around it.
The disgusting current knows no limits or locks. It passes under the stately fence that surrounds the polyclinic, extends along the most important avenue of the modern center of Havana and sticks to the wheels of the shopping carts of those who await in line at the nearby rationed market warehouse. Everyone who passes by takes away something of its essence, be it part of the stench, some fragment of waste carried by the current, or the look of disgust on their face. continue reading
“At first the plague didn’t let us live, but now I don’t even feel it anymore” / 14ymedio
“In the mornings, people who come to get their blood drawn for some lab analysis line up right here”, says another resident nearby. “There are pregnant women, children, people with chronic illnesses and old people who can barely lift their feet to walk and they carry all of that stuff stuck to their shoes. Anyone who falls into those waters will come out with an infection, for sure.”
The property’s employees are also at risk. In the morning, they dodge the stinky puddles to get to their jobs and in the afternoons, they gain momentum again and jump so as not to take the detritus home.
On the bright green façade of the building, a sign warns that it is a University Polyclinic, a reference location for training new doctors in direct patient care. In addition to preparing them for clinical diagnoses, the place is designed to train them to practice the profession in the midst of hygienic and epidemiological chaos.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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Faced with permanent harassment on his farm in Cárdenas, Ernesto is almost thinking of selling his animals and abandoning the country
If you start to do the math, Ernesto has dedicated almost 20 years to a fa that is not actually his / Radio 26
14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, 5 June 2024 — Ernesto has had Spanish nationality since 2008 and in recent years he has traveled to Spain a few times, but he always returns. InCuba, specifically in Cárdenas, Matanzas, he manages a livestock farm in which he also cultivates some land with vegetables which would be very difficult for him to part with. Until now, as a producer, he had been able to get by – although he acknowledges that “it has not been easy” – but the situation that the peasants are experiencing has led him to consider selling his animals and permanently leaving the country.
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Faced with the dilemma between complying with the rules or surviving and saving their business, many ranchers end up making deals outside what is legal / 14ymedio
Ernesto interrupts the conversation for a moment to answer a phone call. He is contacted by a seller who has obtained fencing wire for 1,200 pesos per meter. “Who supports those prices doing everything through the state channel?” But they are expenses that he must incur, since his animals could end up in the hands of an illegal slaughterer.
“This is getting as dark as a pitch. In all these years I have been robbed twice and the worst thing is that, when it happens, the authorities blame the farmers for not having the land fenced and letting the cattle roam. But if you are going to cut wood to build a fence, the Agroforestry Company delays your permit or denies it. If you file a report for theft, the Police are likely never find the criminals,” claims the guajiro.
If you start to do the math, Ernesto has dedicated almost 20 years to a farm that is not actually his, since the land belongs to the State, and the State can take it from him at any time. “I am exposed to shortages and problems of all kinds, including thieves who constantly try to do their own thing. I have grown tired of meetings that solve nothing and bureaucrats who live off the sacrifice of others,” he says. “Sometimes they make me feel likegetting rid of all this and going to another country. That would be my biggest sacrifice.”
Translated by Norma Whiting
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The judges evaluated this event held on ‘Cuban Son Day’ / EFE
14ymedio, Havana, 6 May 2024 — Cuba broke the world record this Sunday by bringing together the largest number of people simultaneously dancing casino style and surpassing the number of choreographic wheels, dancing in unison to the beat and cadence of the son, a musical genre with origins and tradition in Cuba.
More than 1,500 people successfully passed the casino dancing test for nine minutes in squares and parks in the provincial capitals and municipalities throughout the country, according to preliminary data from the judges who evaluated this event held on Cuban Son Day.
The international project ‘Returning to the Son Dancing Casino’- coordinated through the Ministry of Culture – led to this initiative which finally met the goal of replacing Venezuela in the world record of popular and sports dances that country has held since 2022. continue reading
La Piragua, an emblematic site for the Havana dancers, was the epicenter of the capital’s event that brought together hundreds of casino dancers
La Piragua*, an emblematic site for Havana dancers, was the epicenter of the capital’s event that brought together hundreds of casino dancers (casineros) with a white and blue dress code.
The months-long preparations for the casino dancers represented long hours of rehearsals, visits to dance academies, as well as training of the people in charge of their organization.
The dance competitions were also recorded. From the west: Artemisa, Pinar del Río and Matanzas, from the eastern side: Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Guantánamo and Granma, and the central cities of Cienfuegos and Camagüey.
The casino arose spontaneously in Cuba at the end of the 50’s during the last century as a form of entertainment for the couples dancing together or in a collective circle with a mixture of steps, variants and figures from an entire chain of Cuban ballroom dances that preceded it, such as urban Havana son and chachachá.
The casino emerged spontaneously in Cuba at the end of the 50’s during the last century as a form of entertainment for couples dancing together or in a collective circle
The casino wheel appeared when couples began to interact with one another, even swapping partners during the dance, made up of two or more duets that perform choreographic evolutions under the orders of a leader.
It was danced for the first time on the circular floor of Havana’s Club Casino Deportivo, and that is where the name of this style of social dance comes from, which has maintained its popularity and preference among Cubans, and the reason it is considered a contender to form part of the nation’s cultural heritage.
The international boom of this dance since the late 70s was a determining factor in the spread of casino dancing outside Cuba’s borders, where it has thousands of followers in the Americas, the Caribbean and other areas of the world where it is recognized as “Cubansalsa”.
*Translator’s note: La Piragua is a large plaza-type open space along Havana’s Malecon overlooked by the Hotel Nacional.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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Only 8 of the 23 boats Las Tunas counts on are in operation due to the lack of spare parts to start engines and batteries.
Las Tunas fishing fleet problems have resulted in the city’s shortage of seafood products / Radio Habana, Cuba
14ymedio, Havana, 4 May 2024 — Of the 23 boats that make up the fishing fleet in Las Tunas, only eight are currently working, that is, 65% of the available boats are out of service due to not having enough spare parts to start motors and batteries.
This was revealed by the investment specialist of the state company, Xiomara Concepción, in an interview with Periódico 26, where it explained that the lack of fisheries in the city has resulted, among other things, in a shortage of seafood in the local commercial network.
The shortage of fish in Las Tunas is a reality that, for some years, can be corroborated by the supply shortages of derived foods such as croquettes, sausages and minced meat. The situation has forced suppliers to obtain their fish from neighboring provinces such as Holguín and Camagüey, according reports.
Last March, the Government permanently eliminated the obligation to sign a contract with a company authorized for marketing, which was an obstacle for non-state fishermen to obtain a license.
However, in the little more than a year and a half since the resolution, which also does not consider lobster among its plans, no positive effects have been seen, and in places like Las Tunas the absence of boats adds to the deficit. continue reading
According to data from the Ministry of the Food Industry, fish consumption fell in Cuba from an annual average of 18 kilograms per person thirty years ago to around 3.8 kilograms in 2022. So far, the figures corresponding to 2023 have not been made public, but nothing indicates that they will be any better.
Fishermen from Las Tunas struggle to do their work due to lack of resources / Periódico 26
Faced with this panorama, Yordan Rueda Paz, technical director of Pescatun – the fish marketing company in the province – explained to the Cuban News Agency that an investment exceeding 16,370,000 pesos is already being prepared to strengthen the Las Tunas fishing industry, which is also working to obtain engines and other equipment for the fleet.
The project includes the creation and rehabilitation of centers for young fry, the ‘dynamization’ of the industry and obtaining resources for the capture during 2024 for the Empresa Pesquera de Las Tunas [Las Tunas Fishing Enterprise] , commonly referred to as Pescatun.
“During the next few days, we must complete the assembly of the electrical and hydraulic networks and the false ceiling”
According to the official media, this is not the only project to boost food production in the area. There are others linked to the agricultural sector that are being developed in the province of Las Tunas, and through these projects tractors, irrigation systems and other material resources have been received.
The digital newspaper also reports on the training of private and state producers to dedicate the acquired machinery to the most appropriate uses, and convert them into food, grains, fruits, vegetables, meats and other items destined for the population.
Diametrically opposed to the situation in Las Tunas are the results of the Santa Cruz del Sur Fishing Company, in Camagüey, which on November 6 was proud of having captured the 250 tons of lobster of its annual plan and is continuing in search of more seafood to exceed the plan targets.
To this industry, destined mostly for export and hotel food, the regime allocates the resources that it says it does not have when it comes to fishing for national consumption.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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• In the first trimester of the year, only a quarter of the international travelers expected for 2024 arrived, far from the 32% needed to meet projections.
• The United States has denied 300,000 electronic visas to European citizens for having visited Cuba before.
Marrero opened the FitCuba event, in which the Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, was also present / Invasor
14ymedio, Madrid, 3 May 2024 — Prime Minister Manuel Marrero announced the establishment of an electronic visa that will replace the traditional tourist card as of May 6. The document, whose purpose is to facilitate international visits to Cuba, is called E-visa and can be obtained on a website created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“With the electronic visa, tour operators and end users will be able to manage their application in a simplified way from any device connected to the Internet,” said the executive this Thursday at the inauguration of the International Tourism Fair, FitCuba 2024. Its 42nd edition is being celebrated in Jardines del Rey (Ciego de Ávila).
Marrero opened the event, at which the minister of the sector, Juan Carlos García Granda, was also present, as well as the governor of Ávila, Alfre Menéndez Pérez, and the regional director for the Americas of UN Tourism, Gustavo Santos, who offered the support of the organization for the consolidation of the sector’s recovery in Cuba, which has yet to be completed. continue reading
On April 19, the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei) provided the official number of tourists who arrived in Cuba in the first quarter of the year. The number was 809,238 international travelers, just 56,807 more than the previous year during the same period. This figure threatens to wreck, once again, the authorities’ annual aspirations of 3,200,000 tourists this year, since the number represents only 25.2% of the objective. In 2023, as of April, 21.4% of the projected 3.5 million had been achieved and the final figure was only 2.4 million.
Cuban economist Pedro Monreal already warned at that time that Cuba needs to achieve around 32% of the forecasts in the first trimester if the goal is to be met
Cuban economist Pedro Monreal already warned at that time that Cuba needs to achieve around 32% of the forecasts in the first trimester if the goal is to be met.
This Thursday, Marrero did not hesitate to blame the United States for the debacle, to which he attributes a “subversive and diversionary policy, aimed at destroying our Revolution, which makes the management and conduct of recovery and development plans difficult.” Cuban authorities have made it their most recent objective to overturn the US rule that prevents tourists who have visited Cuba or any other country on the list of sponsors of terrorism from entering its territory with ESTA (an electronic document that exempts travelers from several countries from visa requirements).
“We are the only country in the world in which US citizens, the main issuing market to the Caribbean, are prohibited by law from traveling freely to Cuba as tourists. Also, as part of the extraterritorial application of the blockade, 300,000 electronic visas were denied to European citizens for having visited Cuba before”, claimed Marrero, citing data published this week by the American press. The measure does not prevent entry into the country, although it does require a tourist visa to be processed, which means more processing time and expenses for the applicant.
The prime minister also referred to the cancellation of the route to Buenos Aires due to the refusal of the Argentine company that supplied fuel to Cubana de Aviación to continue supplying it.
Marrero had, however, good news in store for that day. According to what he revealed, the Spanish Justice System definitively closed the case opened in Mallorca against Meliá Hotels Internacional, the Gaviota group and the Cuban State.
“We recently learned of the definitive victory in the lawsuit against the Meliá Hotel chain, the Gaviota tourism group and the Cuban State in Mallorca, Spain. “Justice triumphed!” wrote the leader on his X account.
“We recently learned of the definitive victory in the lawsuit against the Meliá Hotel chain, the Gaviota tourism group and the Cuban State in Mallorca, Spain. Justice triumphed!”
The lawsuit, which has been open since 2019 and has had countless twists and turns, was filed by the Sánchez Hill family, residing in the United States, who requested compensation of about 10 million euros for the lands located in the current province of Holguín, which were expropriated by Fidel Castro in 1960 and from which Meliá benefits by managing several hotels built there by the Cuban military.
The CEO of Meliá, Gabriel Escarrer – who has been banned from entering the US since 2020 due to the Helms-Burton law – told Cuban Television News this Thursday that he is proud that, for the third time, the Spanish justice system has granted them the point in the lawsuit. “Our commitment to Cuba is unconditional and we have been demonstrating it since 1989,” said the businessman.
Meliá, which manages almost 40 hotels in Cuba, announced a new investment: the Gran Marena Cayo Coco, which will open under the name Meliá Costa Rey and is owned by the Gran Caribe Hotel Group. The Balearic hotel company will manage this establishment, which was the last hotel that operated with a 5-star category under the Accor brand in Cuba, as Pullman Cayo Coco.
FitCuba 2024, which will receive more than 600 participants from airlines, tour operators, travel agencies, hoteliers, transporters and related professionals and will run starting from this Thursday until Sunday, May 5, awarded Meliá, Iberostar and Blue Diamond hotel chains for “their support for the development of the leisure industry.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The sale of medicines and the purchase of foreign currency, all informal, happens in full view of the police and despite the operatives
“Policemen have to solve their problems too, that’s why they are in La Cuevita buying their things” / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 14 April 2024 – The market known as La Cuevita, in San Miguel del Padrón, on the outskirts of Havana, is not larger than the one that spreads under 100 and Boyeros in the capital, but it does have a greater impact. “The stall space for the self-employed is small, but the informal sales around them are huge, and that is where the majority of buyers go.”
Nelly, who accompanied 14ymedio on a visit to La Cuevita this Friday, lives in Ciego de Ávila, but comes by every month. Before, she used to work as a mule going back and forth to Haiti, but with the uptick in violence in that country, she has changed it to the markets of Havana. She’s not the only one. “We all arrive with suitcases and then we return to our provinces to sell things there.”
“It’s like arriving at the bus station, you know?” says Raniel, who has come to La Cuevita to buy medicine. In legally established self-employed stores, you can find jewelry, watches, clothing, caps or glasses, but it’s the informal sellers who display an infinite arsenal of items of all kinds. Among them, medicines stand out especially.
“They arrive and stand in the hallway, spread a box full of medicines and stand there to sell them,” explains Raniel, who prefers to buy in La Cuevita than on online sales sites, where they are more expensive. It is easy to see that most of them are imported, that is, brought from outside by mules, but quite a few of them are Cuban-made, which indicates that they come from the state market. “Cuban enalapril* costs 250 pesos per blister here, and in Revolico it costs between 300 and 350 pesos.” And in the pharmacy? “Do not even mention the pharmacy! Enalapril is among the missing”, says Raniel. continue reading
Anti-inflammatories, analgesics, diclofenac with paracetamol, antibiotics of all kinds… Anyone would say, visiting these stands, that in Cuba there is no problem with the shortage of medicines that chronically afflicts the health system.
Other striking stands are those for purchasing currency. As with medicines, as if it were a legal activity, huge signs indicate the exchange rate: the euro at 350 pesos, the dollar at 345, and the freely convertible currency (MLC), at 270. “People arrive and, just as if it were a Cadeca [Exchange place], take out their fulas** or take out their euros and sell them there, without hiding anything,” says Nelly, who is no longer so surprised by the activity. And the Police? Because, on paper, this illegality carries high fines. “They have to bribe the inspectors, because there are operatives every day, but they just remain very calm”.
As if it were a legal activity, huge signs in La Cuevita indicate the exchange rate / 14ymedio
During the tour, this newspaper was able to verify, in fact, that there are numerous agents moving through the corridors. “The police have to solve their problems too, that’s why they are here buying their things,” argues Nelly. In the time that she has been dedicated to reselling in the province, she has never been fined, but she has a friend who has not been so lucky. “She already has 8,000 pesos in fines, but she comes back, comes back and comes back, because it is true that we have no other way to make a living in this country.”
If you are in La Cuevita for long enough, you can also see that many surrounding houses are used as warehouses, also informal. It is in these places where small appliances abound, such as pressure cookers, induction cookers and fans.
It is difficult to make your way through the aisles due to the number of people there, who, between jostling, mix with those who shout merchandise: liquid detergent, soap, toothpaste, chicken, oil, medicines, spaghetti, elbows, potatoes… “Even packaged coffee like the one from the bodega [ration store],” says Raniel, who is convinced that many of these are products ‘diverted’ from the state market.
“Informal sales are huge, and that’s where most buyers go” / 14ymedio
The boy takes care of himself among the overwhelming crowd: “Here you take out your wallet, you pay and in the process of putting it in your pocket they take it from you.”
La Cuevita is a place known by Havana residents since the 80s, although it did not begin to gain splendor until the immigration reform of 2013, which allowed Cubans to leave and enter the Island more easily.
But it was with the established rule of eliminating tariffs on food and medicine, after the demonstrations of 11 July 2021, that the market has become crowded.
A mirror seller approaches: “If you buy me the large and medium one, I’ll give you a small one,” he offers, as if he were at a capitalist street market. “There is a very big economic life,” Raniel concedes. “Here people come to fight, to make a living.” And he jokes: “It’s as if capitalism existed in Cuba.”Translator’s notes:
*Enalapril: ACE inhibitor taken to lower blood pressure
**fulas: Cuban slang meaning US Dollars
Translator: Norma Whiting
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 18 November 2024 — El árbol de las Mil Voces extends its branches in the centrally located space and, instead of leaves, displays an endless number of book pages. The collection, loaded with words and measuring 15 meters high, is a hymn to freedom and the power of literature. But its foliage, with fragments of Lorca, Proust or Goethe, takes on another meaning in Cuba, a country marked by censorship and editorial dogma.
