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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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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The main event of the International Workers’ Day will not be held at the Plaza de la Revolución to save on fuel
The Anti-imperialist Platform, which is completing remodeling works that began in 2019, is just over 13,000 square meters. / Cubadebate
14ymedio, Madrid, 15 April 2024 — The celebration of May 1, international workers’ day, once again dispenses with what was its usual venue for decades and moves to the Anti-imperialist Platform in Havana. The news was given by Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, general secretary of the Cuban Workers’ Union (CTC) this Sunday, who pointed out fuel savings as the reason for moving the event.
He indicated that, “There, we will ratify that the Cuban working class will continue to pay particular attention to everything related to the recovery of the economy, efficiently taking advantage of the resources we have to increase the supply of goods and services, as a way to rescue the purchasing power of salaries and pensions.”
The leader of the CTC, also a member of the political bureau of the Communist Party, explained that the intention this year is to celebrate the date “with gatherings in squares, towns and work centers that do not require massive use of transportation”. For this central event in Havana, the authorities are counting on the assistance of 200,000 workers and their families, residents of the municipalities of Plaza, Old Havana, Centro Habana, Cerro and the closest areas of Playa. continue reading
The CTC leader explained that the intention this year is to celebrate the date “with gatherings in squares, towns and work centers that do not require massive use of transportation.”
“This is another scenario in which we have demonstrated the spirit of unity, rebellion and struggle of the Cuban Revolution,” he stressed in relation to the location of an event which, in most countries of the world, serves for workers to demand from Governments the labor rights that they do not yet enjoy.
This is the second consecutive year in which the authorities renounce the traditional celebration at the Plaza de la Revolución for economic reasons, after last year’s event transformed into a march along the Malecón and small events in other municipalities and cities. On that occasion, Guilarte de Nacimiento attributed it to “the complex economic situation (…) and, in particular, the limitations of fuel assurance.”
A year ago, the leader called to “reformulate the celebration, maintaining its commemoration, but in conditions of rationality and maximum austerity”, but it is not the only problem that is resolved with these changes. The Anti-imperialist Plaform’s size is just over 13,000 square meters, compared to the 72,000 square meters of the Plaza de la Revolución, one of the largest in the world. Reducing the stage to a fifth of its former size makes it possible to overshadow the lackluster nature of an event in which there are fewer and fewer attendees, despite that the vast majority have been transported to the capital.
In 2016, about 600,000 people attended the event, according to official data, of which 200,000 (the same total number expected for 2024) were self-employed. Even in 2018 there were about 800,000 participants.
But just a year later, the event had visibly deflated and the cancellation of bus routes used to carry the marchers did not go down well with the population. On that occasion, to make matters worse, there was not even a speech: Díaz-Canel, already President, did not speak; nor Raúl Castro, dressed in a military uniform and saluting; nor even Guilarte de Nacimiento, head of the only union allowed in the country. The only thing that was heard was a speech by the deceased Fidel Castro played through a loudspeaker.
The arrival of the pandemic forced the day’s celebration to be suspended in 2020 and 2021, until its return in 2022, when an attempt was made to recover its lost brilliance without achieving much, despite having mobilized all the buses, which Cubans had not seen in months.
For this year’s event, Guilarte de Nacimiento foresees “a moment of reaffirmation of the unrestricted support of the vast majority of the people for their social project”
For this year’s event, Guilarte de Nacimiento foresees “a moment of reaffirmation of the unrestricted support of the vast majority of the people for their social project.” In addition, he wants it to be used to “denounce the criminal nature of the [US] blockade*, the main obstacle to Cuba’s economic and social development.”
The Anti-Imperialist Platform, where an event in support of Palestine was also recently held, is about to wrap up remodeling works that have been dragging since 2019. The renovations have undergone a myriad of calamities, among them, a shortage of cement. Last week, TV’s Canal Caribe dedicated a brief report explaining that the project is in its final phase, after native plants have been added and having completed the last modifications, though the exact day of the project’s completion is not known.
*Translator’s note: There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the US embargo. Originally imposed in 1962, the embargo, although modified from time to time, is still in force.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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María travels to Guyana, Russia, Peru, Colombia or Venezuela to sell Cuban products and buy as cheaply as possible for her store in Camajuaní
Cubans who travel to Caracas look for shops that offer good prices / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Yankiel Gutiérrez Faife, Camajauní (Villa Clara Province, Cuba), 13 April 2024 — At age 42, María does not allow herself to waste one second. She gets up at 7:30 am, prepares breakfast for her children and runs to open her store, “L & B”, on Camajuaní Boulevard. With the trips she makes as a mule to different countries – bringing clothes, shoes and perfumes to Cuba and carrying rum, tobacco and wines to other destinations – she has managed to set up a business that she tries to keep well stocked.
Her years of experience as an entrepreneur have earned her a reputation as one of the best business people in the area and she has gained a fairly loyal clientele, who trusts her to purchase quality products.
Before her apparent success, however, María had to make many sacrifices and work very hard. A few years ago, she found the opportunity to travel to several countries and buy wholesale merchandise to resell in Camajuaní. This idea came accompanied by her desire to start her own business, and she had to save every penny for months to pay for tickets and have money for purchases.
In the La Hoyada market you can buy cheap clothes such as overalls, coats and shorts for 5 dollars each / 14ymedio
After going once to Guyana (in 2017), twice to Russia (in 2018), three times to Peru (in 2019) and two more times to Colombia (in 2022), this year she left for Venezuela with a detailed list of what she was looking for: blouses, pants, shirts, perfumes, appliances and everything that is difficult to find in Cuba or is in high demand. continue reading
Through Facebook groups she found accommodations for the four nights she was in Caracas and, although the place was not in very good condition, she decided to stay with a Cuban residing in Venezuela who rents rooms and offers an affordable rate.
At 20 dollars a night for a room, the price also covered breakfast, lunch, and shuttle service to and from the airport was available to her. However, those days she had to take the nine-kilometer journey by buseta, the Venezuelan bus, to go to the stores.
María knows that on this type of trip she must moderate her expenses and not waste money, since the increase in the price of the dollar in Cuba reduces the economic benefit that the merchandise she acquires gives her. However, she always looks for attractive items that are not on her list and that might interest her clients.
In Caracas, she explored shops and markets in search of the best deals, which are not difficult to find. The shops that offer good prices, and where Cubans go, are often managed by Chileans, Colombians, Chinese, Turks and Arabs. Each seller has their own trick, and travelers like María create their own map of the places that can be approached and which ones will try to overcharge.
At the La Hoyada market, for example, she can buy cheap clothes: overalls, coats and shorts for $5 each, or three sweaters for $10. On Sabana Grande Boulevard, however, it is better to buy shoes. There you can find brands popular among young people, such as Jordan, New Balance, Nike and Adidas at bargain prices, between 15 and 35 dollars, while the originals can cost up to 200 dollars.
Those days, María had to travel nine kilometers from the stores to the rental at her expense in a ‘buseta’ / 14ymedio
One goes to Arab stores in search of fragrances. Perfumes that are popular among customers, and that are highly valued in Cuba, can be found for up to a dollar. On the other hand, in Chinese stores it is better to buy cosmetics and jewelry.
In the streets surrounding the Cemetery Market there are also many different things to buy: sets of sheets for 8 dollars, mixers for 15, Reina-brand pots for 50, fans for 12, hair dryers for 10, irons for 20, and they are sold by Turkish merchants.
After the last search, and after loading the merchandise into two 23-kilogram suitcases, María does not know if she will ever repeat the journey again. The trip back to Cuba is full of anxiety and stress, especially when passing through the eyes of airport officials and customs restrictions. At times, she recounts, she has been mistreated, or, in addition they have made her lose part of the merchandise.
Once the controls have been cleared comes the “hardest” part: selling the products in Camajuaní. Arranging the goods on display, making calculations and examining the goods – which sometimes arrive in poor condition – do not always guarantee success. María knows that she competes with mipymes (MSMEs) and other Camajuaní merchants who, like her, travel and sell for a living.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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Manuel Piñeiro died in strange circumstances while preparing his autobiography
Comandante Manuel Piñeiro, known as ‘Barbarroja’ / La Pupila Asombrada
14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, 26 March 2024, Havana — This Tuesday, not a single official newspaper alluded, in the eulogies dedicated to the anniversary of State Security, to its most famous founder, Commander Manuel Piñeiro, known as Barbarroja. On the other hand, there are many tributes to the “true heroes of silence” – such as centenarian Julio Camacho Aguilera and Abelardo Colomé Ibarra, two incombustibles – and reports of numerous awards to active agents in various provinces.
This was the case of a group of ten G2 officers in Sancti Spíritus who received medals for their work as “outstanding combatants” in surveillance at the local level. Of those decorated, only three colonels “with high responsibilities” in State Security allowed themselves to be photographed and identified. In a speech by Julio Jiménez, from the provincial bureau of the Communist Party, there were quotes from Fidel and Raúl Castro, in addition to Ramiro Valdés, but Piñeiro was also omitted.
Crossed out of official history and having died in suspicious circumstances – an alleged accident while driving his own car– in 1998, Fidel Castro’s spy chief also did not find his place in the delirious history of the regime’s counterintelligence published by Cubadebate and the official state newspaper Granma, which seeks its antecedents in none other than the War of Independence of 1895. Back then, a certain “agent Luis” received instructions from José Martí to develop “original methods” to outwit Spanish intelligence.
Having the Military Leader leave the Sierra Maestra unharmed was “the most important mission” of a group of agents who, in the long run, constituted the Rebel Intelligence.
After multiple historical ramblings – which also turned Julio Antonio Mella and Carlos Baliño, among others, into spies – Cubadebate insists that State Security meant, in its origins, the security of one man: (Fidel) Castro. That the leader left the Sierra Maestra unharmed was “the most important mission” of a group of agents who, in the long run, constituted the Rebel Intelligence and its “peasant observation service,” in charge of interrogating guajiros (rural farmers) suspected of collaborating with Fulgencio Batista. continue reading
Although Barbarroja – who was part of the column led by Fidel Castro himself and then by his brother Raúl – had a leading role, before and after 1959, in the creation of Cuban espionage bodies, the regime’s role in the infiltration of Batista’s troops.
The Cubadebate text alludes to other “protagonists” of the State Security foundation, such as René de los Santos Ponce, Camilo Cienfuegos – to whom it attributes the dismantling of Batista’s espionage bodies – and Ramiro Valdés, Prime Minister of the Interior, of whom Piñeiro was vice minister.
The regime describes Havana’s Columbia Camp as an “idyllic residence surrounded by trees” where Castro’s spies set up their headquarters, later moved to the centrally located Fifth Avenue in the Miramar neighborhood of Havana, under the command of Colomé Ibarra.
After multiple historical ramblings, Cubadebate insists that State Security meant, in its origins, the security of one man: (Fidel) Castro
In the eyes of Granma, the Army and State Security are “twin brothers” of the regime, “under the direct attention of Fidel and Raúl.” It asserts that 108 Cuban spies have died in the exercise of their profession and that thousands more have neutralized “terrorist plans” and “subversive activities” within the Island.
The writing concludes with a warning. State Security currently remains “vigilant”, especially on social networks and “especially” around young people. Infiltrators, alleges Granma, quoting Fidel Castro, “have the very bitter task of passing themselves off as counterrevolutionaries to serve the Revolution.”
This past February 8, Cuban Television very discreetly premiered a documentary by Rebeca Chávez dedicated to Piñeiro. The audiovisual piece, titled I’m Still Barbarroja, was not published – as is usual with the content of its programming – by the Educational Channel on YouTube.
Chávez, to whom Cuban counterintelligence has previously offered unpublished recordings (those of the self-incrimination of poet Heberto Padilla, for example), used fragments of an interview that Barbarroja gave to CNN in 1997, shortly before he died. The material describes Piñeiro’s role in the kidnapping of several US Marines – the so-called Anti-Aircraft Operation of 1958 – and alludes to the time he received training from the KGB, under the false name of Celestino Martínez, in the Soviet Union.
State Security continues “keeping a close watch” currently, above all on social networks and “especially” near young people.
Videos of the former head of the DepartmentoAmérica of the Communist Party had not appeared on national television since 2023, when cultural commissioner Iroel Sánchez tried to rehabilitate him on his program La Pupila Asombrada for the 25th anniversary of his death. His biographical sketch published by the official encyclopedia Ecured – another Sánchez project – suggests that he stepped away from political life in 1997 to undertake “with great intensity and enthusiasm” an autobiography that has never been published.
The son of wealthy Galicians – his father was the manager of the Bacardí Rum Factory – he studied at Columbia University, in New York, and collaborated with Castro from the beginning of the July 26 Movement. Bloodthirsty during the trials against former officers of Batista’s Army, starting in the 1960s he took to sowing guerrilla movements throughout Latin America and Africa, devised from Havana.
He was close to senior officials of the German Stasi and the Soviet KGB, whose structure inspired the Cuban State Security. The official version of his death states that he “crashed into a tree while driving to his house, in the middle of an episode of diabetes.” The “loss of consciousness” occurred while he was returning from a reception at the Mexican Embassy in Havana, although Ecured omits the party, and insists that he had previously participated “in a tribute and commemoration” to the second Eastern Front.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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González Martínez, a hairdresser by profession, is not new to this, but she is noticing a recent change among those around her. / Yasmary González Martínez/Facebook
14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 21 March 2024 — A State Security agent on a motorcycle arrived at the small town of Las Tosas, 11 kilometers from Sancti Spíritus, to ask what was happening. The reason? A simple blue house appeared full of huge white graffiti that made the text stand out even more.
“Miguel Díaz-Canel, get out of Cuba”, “Down with the dictatorship”, “No to Cuban communism”, “Freedom”, “No more hunger”, “No more blackouts”, “Freedom for Cuba”. There is barely a gap in the façade and at the entrance to the home of Yasmary González Martínez, who did not hesitate to take her photograph drawing with her fingers the symbolic L for ‘libertad’, with which activists demand freedom.
“Last night,” she told 14ymedio this Wednesday, “a State Security agent came on a motorcycle. He threatened me, the same as always. He said to remove the posters painted on the walls of my house and we argued. The neighbors, upon hearing my voice, came out to ask me what was happening and the guy left.”
González Martínez, a hairdresser by profession, is not new to this, but she is noticing a recent change among those around her. “My neighbors comment that I am right, although they do not express it themselves,” she explains to this newspaper. “So far, they have not carried out acts of repudiation*. My neighbors are not willing to do that, since when State Security comes to my house, they go out into the street, and, if they as much as touch me, my neighbors will defend me.” continue reading
The Sancti Spiritus resident argues that she painted the walls of her house to express that she is not “afraid of the dictatorship, that there is a future.”
According to González, the Cuban government “plays with the people’s pain” and is not interested in their survival. “The hatred that this misgovernment has sown in the heart of every Cuban is so great that we want them to leave power,” she maintains.
The Sancti Spiritus resident argues that she painted the walls of her house to express that she is not “afraid of the dictatorship, that there is a future.” She says that she is tired of children being poorly fed, that the elderly do not have medicines and that there are political prisoners. “We want no more brothers killed by Cuba’s implanted communism, it is time to break the chains that have bound us for more than 60 years,” she cries.
González has compromised her own house to give precise voice to the people of Sancti Spiritus, but her poster is not the only one against the Government found in Cuba in recent days. One of the ones that has achieved the most popularity is the one that appeared on the beach El Tenis, on the viaduct in the city of Matanzas, on which you could read “Díaz-Canel singao**”.
For this type of graffiti against Díaz-Canel or the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), there have been arrests and prison sentences in Cuba recently. This is the case of Yasmany González Valdés, who was prosecuted in February for enemy propaganda and for whom the Prosecutor’s Office requested 6 years in prison, of the eight that this type of crime can entail. In his case, the activist acknowledged being the author of several posters in Havana that simply read, “No to the PCC (Communist Party of Cuba).”
Translator’s notes * More examples of “acts of repudiation” can be seen here. **This epithet rhymes; ‘singao’ is commonly translated as ‘motherfucker’.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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Banners with photos of Cuban women prisoners during a press conference in Miami, Florida, on May 16, 2023. (EFE/EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH) 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 15 March 2024 — One month after being diagnosed with a five-centimeter uterine fibroid, Lizandra Góngora, a political prisoner for participating in the Island-wide protests of 11 July 2021 and sentenced to 14 years, remains in Los Colonos prison, on the Island of Youth. Although neither the hospital of the special municipality nor the prison’s medical services have the supplies or personnel to treat her, the authorities are still reluctant to send her to Havana for medical treatment.
Góngora’s situation, who was also imprisoned far from her province of origin (Artemisa) and her husband and children, reflects just one aspect of the circumstances of the 56 women who remain in detention since 11 July 2021 (commonly referred to as ’11J’) onwards, due to the protests in Cuba. Of the 56 prisoners, 30 are mothers and two are awaiting sentencing after being tried. Only one, Leydiana Cazañas, detained in March 2023 without protest, remains awaiting trial.
According to the NGO*Justicia 11J database, since the 2021 protests and to date, a total of 314 women have been detained for political reasons. Of that total, 40 were released and 171 were sentenced to house arrest, mobility restriction, correctional work, or fines and bail, so they did not serve time in prison. Another 30 women live in exile. continue reading
The NGO has requested help to find out the statuses of 15 other women. It is not known whether they remain in prison or have been released
Alina Bárbara López, a Matanzas professor who has been arrested on several occasions for her activism, has been banned from leaving the country and was tried and sentenced to pay a fine of 7,500 pesos after refusing to attend a police summons that she considered illegitimate.
The situation of the transsexual woman Brenda Díaz, imprisoned in a male prison for AIDS patients, has been one of the most widespread outrages. Last January, Ana María García, mother of the political prisoner, complained to prison authorities about the constant abuse that the inmate, a participant in the 11J protests, is being subjected to.
As she explained, Díaz was locked in a punishment cell after being unfairly linked to alcohol trafficking within the prison. After clearing up the misunderstanding she was released, but when she reported her mistreatment, she was returned to her cell.
The case of Díaz, sentenced to 14 years and seven months – to which were added another seven months last April 2023 for “contempt” – even caught the attention of Mariela Castro, Director of the National Center for Sexual Education and daughter of Raúl Castro, who assured the EFE agency that García’s story is an “overblown tale full of fantasies.”
The NGO has requested help in finding out the statuses of another 15 women whose situations are unknown, whether they remain in prison or have been released.
After the July 11 explosion, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets in several of the country’s provinces, the regime began a repressive wave that ended with the arrest of 1,580 protesters, of which 676 remain detained. Protests such as those of November 15, 2021 and those of the summer of 2022, added other names to the list, which, according to several organizations, now records the arrest of 1,900 people, of which 1,067 remain imprisoned.
There are 663 protesters out of prison, but serving some type of sentence. Only 18 of those who were convicted for taking to the streets on June 11 are free and continue living in Cuba. Another 80 went into exile.
*Translator’s note: NGO: a non-governmental organization that operates independently of any government, typically one whose purpose is to address a social or political issue.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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Vicky Gil singing at Rodair’s Café in Havana, during her most recent visit to the Cuban capital /Facebook/Raúl de la Rosa/Screen Capture
14ymedio, Havana, 17 March 2024 — María Victoria Gil Fernández, Alejandro Gil’s sister, continues to cry out to the heavens from Spain through her social networks. This Saturday, two days after reproaching the independent press for statements that she denied having given – “I beg the media to allow us to be in peace” – it was the regime’s turn at scolding, specifically against the TV program Con Filo, which dedicated its latest transmission to shooting down the reputation of the ousted Minister of Economy.
“I cannot forgive the Cuban press and those profiteers and opportunists who launch a cruel smear campaign from Cuba against my brother Alejandro Gil Fernández and against my family,” attacks Vicky Gil, who warns Michel Torres Corona, presenter of the official program, that “defamation is a crime indicated and sanctioned in the Cuban Penal Code, that I am a registered lawyer in the Republic of Cuba and that the presumption of innocence is mandatory.”
“If my brother has been chosen as a scapegoat, I will also ensure that all the accomplices and truly corrupt people fall with him”
The former Cuban Television presenter remembers that “at no time has my brother been accused of corruption or other crimes.” Therefore, she continues, “if his innocence is proven in this process, of which I am absolutely sure, I will appear as a private accusation against [Michel Torres Corona] and against the referenced program.” And she ends her text: “I will personally ensure that the full weight of the law falls on them for insults and slander. If my brother has been chosen as a scapegoat, I will also ensure that all the accomplices and truly corrupt people fall with him.” continue reading
Until last week, Vicky Gil was visiting Havana, where she was caught at various times, one of them singing in a venue, and where, as she publicly stated, the regime authorities did not bother her “at any time.”
However, the reference to the former Minister of Economy in Con Filo is the only mention from an official source since the Government reported that he was being investigated for “serious errors in the exercise of his functions.” Rumors have spread since then, including that the former top official and his wife, Gina María González, are in custody while authorities investigate them.
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.
Posters with photos of Cuban women prisoners during a press conference in Miami, Florida, on May 16, 2023. (EFE/EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH)
14ymedio, Havana, 15 March 2024 — One month after being diagnosed with a five-centimeter uterine fibroid, Lizandra Góngora, a political prisoner for participating in the protests of 11 July 2021 and sentenced to 14 years, remains in Los Colonos prison, on the Island of Youth. Although neither the hospital of the special municipality nor the prison’s medical services have the supplies or personnel to treat her, the authorities are still reluctant to send her to Havana for medical treatment.
Góngora’s situation, who was also imprisoned far from her province of origin (Artemisa) and her husband and children, reflects just one aspect of the circumstances of the 56 women who remain in detention since July 11, 2021 (’11J’) onwards, due to the protests in Cuba. Of the 56 prisoners, 30 are mothers and two are awaiting sentencing after being tried. Only one, Leydiana Cazañas, detained in March 2023 without protest, remains awaiting trial.
According to the NGO* Justicia 11J database, since the 2021 protests and to date, a total of 314 women have been detained for political reasons. Of that total, 40 were released and 171 were sentenced to house arrest, mobility restriction, correctional work, or fines and bail, so they did not serve time in prison. Another 30 women live in exile. continue reading
The NGO has requested help to find out the statuses of 15 other women. It is not known whether they remain in prison or have been released
Alina Bárbara López, a Matanzas professor who has been arrested on several occasions for her activism, has been banned from leaving the country and was tried and sentenced to pay a fine of 7,500 pesos after refusing to attend a police summons that she considered illegitimate.
The situation of the transsexual woman Brenda Díaz, imprisoned in a male prison for AIDS patients, has been one of the most widespread outrages. Last January, Ana María García, mother of the political prisoner, complained to prison authorities about the constant abuse that the inmate, a participant in the 11J protests, is being subjected to.
As she explained, Díaz was locked in a punishment cell after being unfairly linked to alcohol trafficking within the prison. After clearing up the misunderstanding she was released, but when she reported her mistreatment, she was returned to her cell.
The case of Díaz, sentenced to 14 years and seven months – to which were added another seven months last April 2023 for “contempt” – even caught the attention of Mariela Castro, Director of the National Center for Sexual Education and daughter of Raúl Castro, who assured the EFE agency that García’s story is an “overblown tale full of fantasies”.
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.
Samantha Heredia was 22 years old and lived with her aggressor, Pedro Carmenate, in a district known as “El Salao” / Facebook
14ymedio, Havana, 3 March 2024 — Samantha Heredia, a 22-year-old nurse, was murdered in Santiago de Cuba by her husband, Dr. Pedro Carmenate. An employee of the Juan Bruno Zayas Clinical Surgical Hospital in the eastern capital, where the victim and aggressor met and the latter worked as a resident doctor, confirmed the news to 14ymedio. Likewise, she declares that many of Heredia’s acquaintances came to the hospital after reading the news on Facebook.
According to a source from independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, the young woman was “brutally beaten and then drugged” and Carmenate turned himself in to the Police. The couple resided in the Micro 1B subdivision of the Abel Santamaría district, known as “El Salao.”
Heredia, a graduate from the School of Nursing and Health Technology in Santiago de Cuba just two years ago, worked as a nurse at the Josué País García Polyclinic. continue reading
So far, independent platforms have not confirmed the femicide of Heredia, who will be buried this Sunday afternoon.
So far, the independent platforms Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo, both in Cuba, have not confirmed Heredia’s femicide, who will be buried this Sunday afternoon. Her death represents the eleventh femicide on the Island so far in 2024.
On February 24, Yanelis Coca, 40, was murdered by her ex-husband in La Conejera, in the town of El Caney, also in Santiago de Cuba. The femicide occurred at the victim’s home in the presence of her 7-year-old grandson, who lived with her.
A day later, on February 25, Raquel Arriera Álvarez, 22 years old, was murdered in the town of Guayacanes, in Majagua, Ciego de Ávila. The young woman was killed by her husband, a former police officer and father of their two children, who were orphaned after the event.
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.
Dining room of the Family Care System (SAF), La Guantanamera, on Miró Street between Agramonte and Morales Lemus in the city of Holguín
14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 25 February 2024– This Friday, Tomás, 81 years old, felt lucky. “Today they did offer a strong course, a boiled egg, and there was pea soup that I brought home. With this cold weather, the body is asking for something like that,” he lists the food he bought at the dining room of the Family Care System (SAF) from the Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood in the city of Holguín. A subsidized trade network especially hit by the economic crisis that Cuba is going through.
“Normally, at the end of the month, there is always a shortage of protein and it is a miracle that there are still eggs”, explains Tomás to 14ymedio. For the price of 2.60 pesos per egg, the old man bought a boiled egg and also added a portion of white rice for 2.65 pesos, a portion of boiled cassava for 14.00 and a thin pea soup for 1.65. To accompany the menu, he added a soft drink, made with syrup, for 5.00 pesos.
“I don’t like to eat there, I prefer to bring food home and decide at what time to eat what,” he explains. In his humble kitchen, Tomás places the pots with the food he has bought at the SAF and decides what will be served for lunch and what he will save for dinner. He knows that he won’t have anything else to put in his mouth during the day, so he tries to organize himself.
Portion of food from a SAF canteen in Holguín this Friday: boiled egg, pea stew, boiled cassava and soft drink / 14ymedio
“Sometimes there is no protein, although in my dining room the workers are quite combative and they fight with the people of the municipality to send them supplies, but one can see that it is becoming more and more difficult for them to achieve this each time”. This month, Tomás has eaten an egg and a sausage similar to blood sausage as a main course. Fruits or vegetables haven’t arrived “for years”, he says. continue reading
“The workers make an effort, they buy the spices, many times out of their own pockets, so that it has some flavor”, adds Tomás, who has been eating at the SAF since 1996, when they began to operate. A physical disability, added to aging, has made him dependent for almost three decades on a mechanism that he prides himself on being the “founder” of, and being familiar with every detail of it: its best moments and its current deterioration.
In the entire province of Holguín there are more than 6,400 people who, like Tomás, receive a food ration through the SAF canteens, according to data published by the official press at the end of 2021, but the number may have grown significantly to the same extent that inflation and shortages increase. In Holguín’s capital, the number currently exceeds 3,500 registered people, distributed through 13 dining rooms.
“A few years ago, they gave us breakfast, lunch and dinner”, recalls the retiree, who has a pension of 1,543 pesos per month (a little more than five dollars at the informal exchange rate) and spends an average of between 20 and 25 pesos a day at the SAF. “They even used to sell snacks in that place, but all that changed when Raúl Castro took power in 2008. They began to slash what was deemed as ‘unnecessary expenses’ and we lost snacks and breakfast, leaving us with only one meal a day”.
Inés, 79 years old, does not remember those first moments of abundance in the SAF, because she only became a user of those canteens about four years ago, with the arrival of the pandemic. “My husband died and my pension is not enough for my meals. Just to get the rice, the oil and the seasonings, all the money would disappear and I would have nothing left for protein”, she says.
A social worker from Holguín noticed Inés’s vulnerability after several reports from neighbors. “They came and filled out a form that is in my file. The form reached the Municipal Administration Council, where they approved me, but it took time. It took almost three months. They enrolled me in the Villanueva dining room, which is where I still am now”.
Inés had to prove that she did not have culinary implements to cook. Only then did she manage to benefit from the SAF canteens. / 14ymedio
The 76,175 people registered in the SAF who attend 445 soup kitchens of this type in Cuba have had to go through this process, with greater or lesser speed. A service that is frequently criticized for the poor quality of its food preparation, which often lacks spices, oil or fats. The deterioration of the dishes is not only due to official shortages, but also to the looting of products carried out by the employees themselves, as this newspaper has echoed in previous reports.
“Everyone has to live, so, amid deliveries of ever-diminishing supplies and the need for employees to have some income, what reaches the plates is less and less,” Inés acknowledges. “I eat it because I don’t have anything else, but the food is not good, I don’t want to eat it, sometimes I even hold my breath while I chew it to avoid tasting it”.
“One requisite to be accepted in the SAF is not having cooking utensils: stove, pots, pans or anything like that. No gas stove or electric stove, you have to show that you cannot prepare the food you are going to consume”, explains the old woman. “You have to prove that you are a critical case, that you cannot work, nor do you have a family to take care of you.”
“Since I started eating there, I have lost almost 30 pounds, because what they sell is very little for each person and, of course, you can only buy one serving. It’s not that I can say ‘give me two eggs’ and I take them home, I get one and that’s what it is”, she points out. “The prices are still cheap, and the fear that other old people and I have is that they are about to raise everything”.
This week, fear has spread among people like Inés and Tomás, because the deepening of the economic crisis and the lack of foreign currency to purchase food abroad are pushing the SAF to the limit. “There was a meeting with an official from the provincial Gastronomy Company to talk about the future of the SAF,” says the woman.
“Since I started eating there, I have lost almost 30 pounds, because what they sell is very little for each person”
The manager warned the canteen employees that the import situation is critical, and the producers’ commitment to deliver food to serve vulnerable people is not being fulfilled. “We are studying other ways through the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) to collect food for the elderly in the area”, she said.
The allusion to involve the CDR’s in the collection of food, grains and other products to guarantee food in the SAF has generated deep concern. “At the moment they are working poorly, but at least they are there, I can’t imagine waking up without being guaranteed at least some watery peas and a little rice”, Inés fears.
“What they sell us now is not even enough for a cat, imagine for a person, but it’s something”, she concludes.
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 store that was a symbol of opulence now displays dirt and destruction everywhere / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 24 February 2024 — Careful!” a woman managed to say this Friday to a child who was rushing along the entrance ramp of the Paseo Galleries, in Havana’s Vedado district. The floor slabs, full of holes, forced customers going to the market, located on the first floor, to walk gently to avoid falling or spraining an ankle. The deterioration of what was one of the consumer palaces of the Cuban capital in the 90’s seems to know no limit.
Everywhere you look you will only find destruction, grime and peeling paint. With barely any lighting at its entrance, the cloudy day was of little help for those who entered the three-story establishment, located right across from the luxurious Cohiba Hotel and a few meters from the ocean-front wall of the Malecón. Most of those who arrived went to the market — which requires payment in freely convertible currency (MLC) — on the first floor, managed by the Cadena Caribe of Cuba’s GAESA* military conglomerate.
Access to the place through the exterior ramp is the prelude to the extreme deterioration that is exhibited inside / 14ymedio
Inside the store, the floor is in better condition and at least the lamps have most of their bulbs working, but the presentation of products is more reminiscent of a warehouse than a store. “Everything is piled up, in order to find a price sometimes you have to go among the mountains of bags or cans,” complained a customer who came in search of powdered milk. In the back, the meat sales area had a small line.
“This place sucks, but it’s what I have closest to my house and I came here to buy butter,” commented Moraima speaking to 14ymedio; she is a retiree who receives remittances on her MLC card from her son, who resides in continue reading
Sweden. “This small bar [90 grams] costs 1.70 MLC,” the woman criticized. Behind her, the price board announced “baby octopus” at 16 MLC per kilogram; seven units of Asturian blood sausage for 4.25, and 200 grams of smoked salmon for 35.
“Everything is very expensive and the place is depressing. They charge in foreign currency and abuse in Cuban pesos,” said Moraima. “This cart with oil, peas, a package of chickpeas, tomato sauce, flour, butter and a little ham is already costing me more than 50 MLC,” she explained to this newspaper. “With this, I’m spending more than half of what my son sends me monthly; he has to work very hard to send me 100 MLC.”
Access to the place through the exterior ramp is the prelude to the extreme deterioration that is exhibited inside / 14ymedio
“All this is in this condition because they know that even if it is a dark cave, people are going to have to continue coming here to buy,” another customer said out loud while waiting for an employee to appear to open a bag with packages of children’s candy. “They say that until they read the barcode, they can’t tell me how much it costs,” he was losing his patience.
“They don’t sell anything fresh and there is a disgusting smell in the market, it smells like rotten fish, I don’t know how they can be open like this,” questioned another buyer. “I used to come here, I even bought a Spanish pressure cooker years ago that turned out to be very good, but this place doesn’t even look like that anymore, this is in total decline.”
For those who do not want to risk their lives going down or up the access ramp to the supermarket, there is still the risk of taking the stairs with several broken steps on their edges and which has not seen a broom come by in months, perhaps years.
The Jazz Café, located on a mezzanine with a stunning ocean view, now resembles a haunted house, full of dust and cobwebs. “It closed a little before the pandemic and never reopened, a shame because this was always full and it was a unique place in Havana,” lamented a worker who was trying to push a cart full of goods being careful so the wheels wouldn’t fall into the ramp’s potholes.
A meeting place for musicians, national and foreign clients looking for company, the Jazz Café charged about ten convertible pesos (CUC), in the days when the CUC was still in circulation, which included a basic dinner and a musical show. The place remained full past midnight, especially on weekends, and the access staircase became an improvised catwalk of young girls showing themselves to the tourists.
With a careful design and sculptures that imitated jazz players in full improvisation, the Jazz Café became a unique space in the Havana night. “The proximity of the Cohiba Hotel guaranteed that this would be full, but right now there is little tourism and those who come asking if the club is open what they find is this, an abandoned place,” acknowledged a taxi driver who charged 2,000 pesos for a ride to the nearest municipalities to those who left the supermarket this Friday.
For the most empowered customers, Galerías Paseosreserves its boutique shopping area for dresses that exceed 200 MLC and sneakers from famous brands. But even those places of supposed glitz do not escape the dirt and crisis of the environment. Thus, Adidas shoes alternate with stained glass, expensive perfumes with cracked floors, and leather purses with stained walls.
Access to the place through the exterior ramp is the prelude to the extreme deterioration that is exhibited inside / 14ymedio
At least three of those businesses were closed this Friday without explanation. With the lights off inside, the stores, located on the third floor, gave the impression of having been abandoned with the merchandise inside, and no employee of the complex could attest as to when they would reopen. “Come by on Tuesday or Wednesday to see if they are selling again”, a custodian suggested to a teenager who inquired about the shoe shops.
The workers’ faces are also streaked with apathy. What was once a very attractive place to work has ceased to generate interest. “Everything is paid by card, customers almost never leave tips, and when they do, it is in pesos,” acknowledges an employee who this Friday helped a couple carry their purchases to the car.
“Many people have also left because they received their parole visa or left by way of the volcano route,” the man acknowledged. When foreign currency stores opened for Cuban customers in the 90s, working in one of those stores was, automatically, the beginning of starting to be part of a wealthier social class, but now the situation is very different.
“Inspections, hard work and little encouragement,” the employee summarized the situation of the Galerías Paseo workforce. “This has gotten really bad, I’m looking for a job in one of those MSMEs that pay better and where there isn’t as much drama as here, because I might as well have to stay until the next day for an audit than to put up with complaints from a client who is absolutely right, because what they should do with this place is to shut it down, it cannot continue operating in these conditions.”
In the bathroom on the top floor, only the one for women was open, which had three cubicles and at least one of them was out of service. A cardboard over the bowl with a bucket on top prevented the use of the toilet and the smell that came from inside made some of the urgent customers who came to that area give up. There was also no water supply for hand washing or flushing toilets.
The magical world looks faded and opaque / 14ymedio
But the best “surprise” was at the exit. A colorful sign welcomed Mundo Mágico, a place that a few years ago was the children’s store. “No, we no longer sell toys here, now we only sell the ‘basic products module’ [from the rationing system] for the people of this area,” an employee responded grumpily to a clueless customer who was looking for some dolls.
Above the worker’s head, blue, red and yellow letters recalled that period when Galerías Paseo was the consumer palace of a Havana that could afford to go shopping and enjoy the journey.
*Translator’s note: Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA) is a Cuban military-controlled umbrella enterprise with interests in the tourism, financial investment, import/export, and remittance sectors of Cuba’s economy.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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Castro Ochoa had been treating his patients with “alternative” treatments for years. (Facebook/Carlos Castro Ochoa)
14ymedio, Havana, 26 January 2024 — Carlos Miguel Castro Ochoa, a rural healer from the Mexican municipality of Ixmiquilpan, in the state of Hidalgo, faces trial after the death of a patient whose cancer he had promised to cure with blue scorpion venom from Cuba. The “naturopathic doctor,” as he presents himself, charged about 17,000 pesos in advance – about 1,000 dollars – for the treatment with Escozul, a product manufactured in Cuba.
According to the Mexican press, Castro Ochoa supplied his patient with “large bottles with homemade printed labels,” whose doses were applied orally using a dropper. It was “a substance coming from Cuba without the necessary Mexican health permits.” Although the note does not reveal the name of the medicine, it publishes an image of its label, which corresponds to the old format of Escozul bottles.
Castro Ochoa had been treating his patients with “alternative” treatments for years and “dozens of people came to the improvised office inside his home” on Calero Street in the rural town of El Nith. Last December, the relatives of the patient – who died in the emergency room of a hospital in Ixmiquilpan – demanded money from Castro Ochoa and he “responded with threats” and claimed that “the authorities could not do anything to him.”
It is not the first time that Castro Ochoa has faced problems with the Justice Department, but – according to the newspaper Milenio – he is spared because “he is of foreign origin.” The healer promised those who came to him to be treated for advance stage cancer and diabetes, leukemia, epilepsy, sexual dysfunctions, kidney stones and other ailments, always having to pay in advance, they clarify. continue reading
A municipal ruling from Ixmiquilpan, published in 2007, prohibited “healers and fortune tellers” from operating in any of its locations.
A municipal ruling from Ixmiquilpan, published in 2007, prohibited “healers and fortune tellers” from operating in any of its locations and expelled repeat offenders, the newspaper claims. However, Castro Ochoa evaded the law due to his “alleged foreign origin.”
Facebook and Telegram groups that sell both “drugs” as a cancer cure are common in Mexico. One of these groups, attended by a user who identifies himself as “Doctor Alejandro CR,” sells Vidatox as a “general homeopathic treatment” and disqualifies Escozul as “a very expensive treatment.”
“I bring Vidatox directly from Cuba,” explains Alejandro CR bluntly. “Bringing it to Mexico is difficult, sometimes it gets confiscated. That is why you will find other people on the Internet who, like me, sell it here.” Escozul, which is less affordable, he adds, requires “going to Cuba, where they do a study and personalize the doses according to the type of cancer. Treatments with Escozul can last for years.”
The “doctor” warns against “advertisements that say that Vidatox does not work” and explains its reason for being: “It is a commercial competition”, lies launched by Escozul because “they do not agree that Vidatox exists with a much lower price than what they charge.” Next, Alejandro CR tells his potential clients to contact him privately for more information.
The mind behind Escozul is the microbiologist Alexis Díaz, the same scientist who in 2011 began selling Vidatox
Escozul is one of the two compounds derived from the venom of the blue scorpion (Rhopalurus junceus) that Cuban Public Health promotes and sells at a high price abroad. Manufactured by Lifescozul Laboratories – which has several branches in the region, including Mexico – the product is presented as “the most advanced formulation of blue scorpion venom.”
The mind behind Escozul is the microbiologist Alexis Díaz, the same scientist who in 2011, when working for the State-owned Labiofam, began selling Vidatox, to which he attributed “proven antitumor, analgesic and anti-inflammatory efficacy.” Since then, Cuba has insisted on the healing properties of scorpion venom and has published numerous “scientific” articles attempting to demonstrate its effectiveness and promote its purchase.
The Lifescozul team, very active on social networks and with headquarters in the expensive international clinic La Pradera – founded by Fidel Castro in Havana in 1996 – offers very expensive treatments to its patients. In order to be treated in Cuba, you will have to pay $1,200 or more. If you want the medication to be sent to your country, you have to pay between $80 and $110 per month for the duration of the treatment.
In 2021, Escozul signed two contracts in Mexico with the companies Pharmométrica and Research Pro. In 2022, they closed a deal with the Tecnológico de Monterrey
In 2021, Escozul signed two contracts in Mexico with the companies Pharmométrica and Research Pro. In 2022, they closed a deal with the Tecnológico de Monterrey, to give more scientific weight to Escozul’s work. Dr. Díaz’s ambition: to obtain the Health Registration of the product, which would allow its authorized sale throughout the world.
Apparent rivals in the public sphere, Escozul and Vidatox have a common origin in Havana and the improvised merchants who sell them – such as Castro Ochoa and Alejandro CR – do not distinguish these nuances when it comes to profiting from a product whose origin is unknown.
The medical reality, however, is clear: it is not scientifically proven that scorpion venom can cure cancer. The prestigious Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer research center – founded in 1884 in the United States – has explained that the benefits attributed to Escozul or Vidatox “are largely based on anecdotes, testimonies and experiments that may not have been correctly carried out.” And he adds that “in Cuba, where these products originate, the Government rejected the use of Escozul in 2009 for not having enough information.”
Translated by Norma Whiting
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