Translator: Norma Whiting – Page 4

The Bureaucracy of Death in Cuba, a Nightmare for Families of the Deceased

With its doors closed and an empty outdoor entrance, the funeral home remains abandoned and without hope of resuming its functions. (14ymedia)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 18 July 2023 — The residents of the Luyanó neighborhood in Havana have been without funeral services for two and a half years. Complaints have already begun to materialize in posts and comments on social media. However, with its doors closed and an empty outdoor entrance, the funeral home remains abandoned and without hope of resuming its functions.

“The deceased are sent to San Miguel del Padrón or La Víbora,” a neighbor — who witnesses how, and how often, someone comes by the premises to ask about the restart of services — tells this newspaper.

“Since the pandemic began, they announced that they would no longer be accepting deceased. But the pandemic is over and the funeral home is still completely closed,” she laments.

In funeral homes in other neighborhoods of the capital, the situation is very reminiscent of the times when health restrictions prevented more than two people from attending a burial. The explanation? The transportation crisis. “It is very difficult to go to a wake at a funeral home that is not the one in your neighborhood, if you have no transportation. People are very limited, especially older people. Now everyone has to settle for offering their condolences to the family, while the mourners are left practically alone in the room with the deceased.” continue reading

In funeral homes in other neighborhoods of the capital, the situation is very reminiscent of the times when sanitary restrictions prevented more than two people from attending a funeral

A Facebook post by a group of Luyanó residents questioned the measure of having the memorial services for the deceased held in other centers, if the neighborhood has its own funeral home. “They always have a different problem. When the bathrooms are backed up, leaks appear; they must be repaired, painted, or the cafeteria has no water. It’s all a lie,” commented an enraged user.

“It is our funeral home, where we have always watched over our relatives, friends and all our people from Luyanó, why can’t we have this funeral service available?” lamented another Internet user.

It is not the first time that the population has complained about the lack of funeral services on the Island. From corpses that must wait hours –sometimes days– for a hearse to transport them, to the shortage of coffins to bury them, the bureaucracy of death in Cuba becomes increasingly suffocating for those who must deal with it.

In the Sancti Spíritus province, the construction of a crematorium has been expected for at least two years. With an investment of just 5 million pesos, the project could ease the burden of the relatives who transport their deceased to Ciego de Ávila or Villa Clara to comply with the wishes of the deceased to be cremated.

However, so far, the project has seen two location changes, several complaints from architects and no facility has been built.

“This is about advanced technology that requires two gas burners: one at the bottom, which is where the first cremation of the deceased is carried out, and a second, located in the tower where the gases that can rise into the atmosphere can be burned, so that only vapor comes out,” Yoel Aquiles Martínez, director of the province’s Provincial Unit of Necrological Services, told the Escambray newspaper.

Now everyone has to settle for sending their condolences to the family, while the mourners are left practically alone in the wake room with the deceased

The crematorium would also provide incineration services for medical and biological waste derived from hospital care, such as surgical remains and chemical and biological products. The managers do not say, however, what has been the fate of this waste so far.

The facility, initially projected to be built in an area chosen by specialists and architects on the border with Jatibonico, is now planned to be built 300 meters from the La Rosita residential area, because this would reduce construction costs.

Although the director of Public Health in the province has already authorized the new location, it has been rejected by the Hygiene area, which alleges that the expulsion of toxic gases derived from the cremation processes could harm the health of the residents of the area.

While Sancti Spíritus remains one of the four Cuban provinces that lacks a crematorium, institutions extend the timing with their internal confrontations. However, official sources, once again, point to the embargo as the culprit.

Translated by Norma Whiting
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Cubans Will Be Without Hot Dogs until August

Maintenance work at the Sancti Spíritus factory forced the production of sausages to stop. (Escambray)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 July 2023 — Hot dogs, the great lifeline of the Cuban family table, will decrease in stores in the coming weeks after the temporary closing at the Sancti Spíritus sausage factory, the only one of its kind in Cuba. The industry stopped the engines in order to carry out “extensive” maintenance, which will last until the beginning of August, the director of the Business Unit, Luis Ignacio Sariol Maceda, told the Escambray provincial newspaper this Friday.

The official explained that since the inauguration of the plant, in 2019, machinery imported from Italy had not received maintenance and the deterioration was already reflected in production volumes. Initially, the technology had a capacity to produce eight tons, a figure that had been reduced to just two due to “technical problems”.

This problem had already been exposed in September 2022, when the plant managers indicated that they barely worked part-time due to the lack of spare parts for the machinery. The official press then assured that the necessary parts to restore capacity to factory levels had already been imported and that the only thing left to do was “resolve” the supply of meat in the face of the livestock debacle.

Nine months later, Sariol Maceda has indicated that they already have the “advice of Italian specialists” to review the production line of one of the foods most in demand by Cubans. The official explained that they have allocated 500,000 euros to obtain most of the pieces, “many of which are already in the UEB Perros Calientes de Sancti Spíritus itself and the rest are in the process of arrival”. The importing of the cooling shower and the purchase of special bearings for the vacuum pump are still pending. continue reading

Although national production depends on a single factory, American brands and, to a lesser extent, Brazilian brands, enter the market

The shutdown of this plant represents a hard blow to Cubans’ diet, who largely depend on this sausage, which can be obtained at relatively affordable prices. Nor does it require special conditions for its conservation, apart from refrigeration, and it can be prepared using several recipes.

Although national production depends on a single factory, American and Brazilian brands enter the markets, the latter ones to a lesser extent. The latest presentations shipped from the US are more similar to sausages, in larger packages of up to three kilograms. However, they are only available in networks of freely convertible currency (MLC) stores, or online sales sites designed for Cubans residing abroad to buy food for their relatives on the Island.

We are hoping that no setbacks occur, added the director, so that the repair schedule is not interrupted and the plant is reactivated at the end of July or the first days of August. To date, the work on the refrigeration system has been completed and the materials have been changed to meet the temperature requirements in the sausage manufacturing process.

At the moment, the factory is dedicated to the preparation of other foods, including salami and 60 tons of ground beef per month destined for medical and children’s diets and for the rationed ‘family baskets’.

The plant is the great meat consumer in Sancti Spíritus, leaving popular markets and even informal commerce without supply. However, due to the fall in the sector, they have sought raw materials to manufacture sausages, previously made with pork, minced chicken or beef. Last September, they detailed that the formula for this sausage includes 50% of these types of meat, plus 50% starch and water.

Translated by Norma Whiting
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Cuba Closes the Semester with More Than 2,300 Protests in all Provinces

The residents of the town of Guatemala, in the municipality of Mayarí (Holguín), took to the streets to demand the restoration of the water service. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 July 2023 — The Cuban Conflict Observatory (OCC) counted a total of 414 public protests on the island in June. In total, there are 2,337 demonstrations in the first half of 2023. The index for June, which constitutes an increase of 60.46 % compared to the same month of the previous year, also exceeded the average of 384.6 monthly protests for the first records of the year, and increased by 22 events compared to May.

In Havana, a province designated by the Observatory as the most active territory, 172 “rebellious expressions” were found (ten more than the previous month), among which the Miami-based organization includes a musical staging of Los Misérables, on June 25 at the Martí Theater in the capital. However, although the work includes a song to freedom, it was not a demonstration, as reported by this newspaper.

The platform also assures that the conflicts spread throughout the 15 Cuban provinces and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, this being a sign of widespread disagreement with the state administration and “the abandonment of the population by the Government”. continue reading

Of the more than 400 events, 229 –55.3% of the total– were related to economic and social rights

Of the more than 400 events, 229 –55.3% of the total– were related to economic and social rights, 95 were generated by citizen insecurity and the rise in violence (robbery, begging, femicides), 44 were related to food insecurity and another 47 to deficiencies in health, water and electricity services.

The report includes, as an example, the complaints of the population after the heavy rains in the eastern part of the country due to landslides and power cuts, the so-called “downed rudders” strike in Havana –when the government tried to limit the prices of private carriers despite the scarcity of fuel and its high price in the informal market– and the “empty pallets” strike by vendors in agricultural markets in Sancti Spíritus.

For their part, protests related to civil and political rights totaled 188 events (45.4% of the total). Of these, 124 were triggered by repressive actions against opponents, independent journalists, and activists.

The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, registered in its monthly report at least 291 repressive actions in the month of July

The Observatory registered within this category, in addition to the staging of Les Misérables, the protest of the Assembly of Cuban Filmmakers for the unauthorized transmission on Cuban Television of Fito’s Havana, by director Juan Pin Vilar.

Another organization, the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, recorded in its monthly report at least 291 repressive actions in the month of July on the island. Nearly 80 were arbitrary arrests, according to the platform, and 211 were carried out against the civilian population, among them those that include common prisoners and relatives of opponents and activists.

The figure for June, grouped with the rest of the reports for the first five months of the year also written by the platform, documents a total of 1,940 government repression events in the first half of 2023 alone.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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The Other Cuba: Luxury, Good Taste and Outrageous Prices from the Hand of a Successful Italian

The new Home Deli store in El Vedado, Havana, is a magnet. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez and Olea Gallardo, Havana, 26 June 2023 — The new Home Deli food store on Calle 12, between 21 and 23 in the heart of El Vedado, Havana, was inaugurated at the beginning of June and is not like the ones you usually see in Cuba. Clean and stocked, decorated with a certain European “rustic” style, it became a magnet days after it officially opened its doors. The emotion waned when checking the prices of the products, almost all imported.

A bag of bread, with six pieces costs 800 pesos, a small bag with washed and cut lettuce, 70 pesos, and 2,100 pesos for a small cheese. The cost of the meat was stratospheric: 20 pork skewers for 1,400 pesos, 4,500 pesos per kilogram of beef, 2,000 for chicken breast, 2,000 for ground beef, 3,000 for Italian sausage.

The powdered milk bag, similar to the one sold in other places, looked repackaged, unbranded, and cost 1,900 pesos for a kilogram and 950 pesos for half a kilo. As a curiosity, they had “artisan” pasta for sale, pumpkin and moringa, at 450 pesos a bag.

Home Deli looks clean, stocked, and decorated in a certain European “rustic” style. (14ymedio)

Promoted as a store specializing in Italian products, they offer Arioli oil (3,600 pesos a liter), Balocco and Mulino Bianco biscuits, De Nigris vinegar, De Cecco pasta, Lavazza coffee or Scotti rice. Also, other import labels, such as the Spanish Vima or Carbonell and the Japanese Kikkoman.

The store employees, all young and good-looking, are lavish with attention and kindness towards any possible client, although they do not stop watching the slightest movement and discourage taking photographs with a severe gesture. continue reading

Most of those who entered the store, dazzled by the variety and quality of the products, left discouraged after a tour of the shelves. “It’s very pretty and well put on, but this is the most expensive market I’ve seen so far,” said one woman as she left empty-handed.

Arioli brand olive oil is 3,600 pesos per liter. (14ymedio)

However, the law of supply and demand is implacable even in Cuba: if they set those prices, it is because someone pays them. This newspaper is aware that Home Deli has a large clientele among diplomats stationed in Cuba, in addition to emigrants who, through pages such as Katapulk or TSO, buy food for their relatives in the country in hard currency.

Those who can shop at the store are happy, despite the costs. “It’s the only place where I can get the products that a true Italian recipe requires,” says Lucía, a Cuban who lives in Milan and is on vacation in Cuba visiting her parents.

In addition, she praises her loyal clientele, “they make really tasty and unique spinach tarts in Cuba, not to mention the desserts. It’s not like other private companies, who live by reselling products.”

Homemade pumpkin and moringa pasta sold at Home Deli for 450 pesos a bag. (14ymedio)

The success of Home Deli has been amazing. Not only does it have that new store in El Vedado, but another in the municipality of Playa (19 avenue between 74 and 76) and a third in Cerro (318 Daoiz street, between Colón and Pizarro). In addition, they have a point of sale at the 3rd and 70 market. An efficient home delivery system makes it as modern a business as any in a country where the free market rules.

The company, however, does not only operate with that brand. Directed by the Cuban Diana Sainz and her husband, the Italian Andrea Gallina, as they appear on their social networks, is registered under the name of Mercadiana in the list of micro, small and medium-sized companies (MSMEs) and with the purpose of “gastronomic services”. In Italy, they have the company Gainz SRL, a name that combines the surnames of Gains the owners and that at the time is the provider of Home Deli.

Café Bohemia, adjacent to Estancia Bohemia, is a meeting place for cultural officials. (14ymedio)

Together, they also run the Café Bohemia and the adjacent hotel, Estancia Bohemia, in Old Havana, as well as the Paseo 206 Boutique Hotel and the café on the ground floor, Ecléctico, in El Vedado. It is not uncommon to see them in one of these places, serving the clientele with exquisite treatment, as this newspaper has verified.

“The word standard does not exist for us,” Gallina declared for a report published in “OnCuba” about his establishment on Paseo 206, which they define as “a place with its own stamp, born from the combination of both cultures” and “a warm hug between Cuba and Italy”, and where luxury and good taste are evident.

The same is observed in Estancia Bohemia (San Ignacio 364), where a one-night stay costs 187 dollars, according to the reservation pages. The Café Bohemia is, moreover, a meeting place for culture officials, ostensibly from the Office of the Havana Historian, according to its own publications on networks.

Since they began to proliferate in the streets of Havana, more than a year ago, private businesses generate, in the first instance, mistrust. The fact that some of these (MSMEs) operate in state premises without any type of announcement or public tender, only increases suspicion.

Diana Sáenz, at her Café Bohemia. (14ymedio)

If we add to this the agreements between Cuba and Russia, the last of which were ratified last month at a business forum between the two countries in Havana and which show that Moscow wants to play a leading role in the imminent economic opening of the Island, doubts are difficult to dispel.

On the other hand, especially in all private and successful businesses in the country, since self-employment was allowed, they always raise questions: “They don’t let just anyone do this, what influential figure will be behind it?”

It is not uncommon to see both Diana Sáenz and Andrea Gallina serving their premises with exquisite kindness, (14ymedio)

In the case of Home Deli, its owners have never hidden themselves, on the contrary, they boast of their achievements both in their networks and in business forums and even official media. “Diana is a Cuban entrepreneur who has established important guidelines in the leisure and food sector in Cuba,” they extol in an Instagram post.

The firm has given sensible capitalist advice: “Mercadiana, a food marketing and production MSME, emphasized the need to eliminate bureaucracy when managing business procedures, as well as a review the high tax amounts that go with how prominent they are, since it could jeopardize the survival of companies”, indicated as an example Cuba en Resumen last year.

However, Diana Sainz has not said why she suddenly decided to change the surname that she inherited from her father, Ricardo Sáenz, one of the founders of the Prensa Latina agency and the Bohemia magazine.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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The Endless Ordeal of Retirees in Matanzas, Cuba, to Collect their Pensions

Those affected are elderly people, many of them already with health problems. (Girón)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 May 2023 — The lack of workers is once again in the news on the Island. On this occasion, the protagonist is the shortage of professionals in the Post Offices, causing serious problems in the collection of pensions, according to the Matanzas newspaper Girón on Tuesday. The official media initially attributes the chaos to an employee who has been sick long-term and whom it has been impossible to replace permanently, but the branch director hints that the problem is not isolated.

“There is a shortage of workers, that is why we, the managers, are moving to make the corresponding payments. The solution depends on who we can hire”, says Ismary Hernández, director of the Post Office Unit in the Versalles neighborhood, in the city of Matanzas, to which the office of the old Medical Center belongs. The more than 200 retirees attached to this headquarters denounce that they have not been able to collect in a timely manner for months, as have the 130 people who receive social assistance at the same location.

Those affected are elderly people, many of them already with health problems, and who bitterly lament the difficulties it means for them to stand in line for days. Because the worst thing, they agree, is when the money runs out and the office closes, leaving them unpaid.

“There is a shortage of workers, that is why we, the managers, are moving to make the corresponding payments. The solution depends on who we can hire”

“It’s been happening for months,” says an 89-year-old retiree interviewed by the outlet. They show up at 10 or 11 in the morning. It’s not right to keep old people, including me, waiting here for so many hours. Yesterday at one in the afternoon they said the money had run out. We had to leave and come back today to stand in line again, when the compañera arrived at 11:30 to make the payments,” he says. continue reading

All the testimonies coincide in pointing out the negligence and bad manners with which the workers, when they are there, treat the pensioners. “It’s illogical for all in this town to come here at six-odd in the morning to stand in line, and it’s already 11:30 and no one shows up, not even to give us an explanation. Is it that, when someone retires, he no longer deserves consideration, doesn’t have value?” laments a retiree who worked for 49 years during his life.

“I have never gone through so much work to get paid as I do now. We are here without having breakfast, without eating anything”, protests another who, at 76, feels relieved for not being among the oldest and tells that an 89-year-old friend had to be helped by her children when she collapsed while waiting in line.

“They calmly tell you: ‘We ran out of money’, another says “I’m leaving.” Those who are working go home, and often the little old people don’t even have enough for a soda. “It’s a lack of respect to us” protests another one.

Having managers there has allowed things to go better this month, although everyone knows that it is not the solution. “This month was better, everyone was paid on time and the payment was quite fast”, says Hernández. “What happens is, and this has been explained to the clients on another occasion, that she, as an employee, has other responsibilities. Within these functions, she has been interspersing the payment to the assisted-retirees,” Bárbaro Ortega Araujo told Girón Ediesky, deputy director of the Post Office in Matanzas.

The service requires, he adds, some training, but not only that, you have to be selective because of the large amounts of money that are handled

Yaneysi Remón Suárez, the company’s Director of Operations, maintains that she has requested personnel from the Ministry of Labor, but “so far no one has appeared.” The service requires, she adds, some training and, not only that, you have to be selective because of the large amounts of money they handle. “In greater quantity as a result of the Ordering Task and these salary increases. The institution manages millions of pesos,” she argues.

“Correos moves even more money than a bank on a given day,” she adds, but the salaries that are offered are not very attractive. The official states that a postman currently earns 2,600 pesos. “Anyone in another entity – such as a bank, Etecsa, new economic players – earns much more than a postman, who spends eight hours in the sun, pedaling and offering the service,” she explains.

As if that were not enough, there are no tires for bicycles, which makes traveling to deliver the mail impossible.

There are no short-term solutions either, acknowledge the managers. The official who has been multiplying her duties for three months must help with the payments, and although they affirm that “the negotiations do not stop” and that they are trying to increase salaries, one of the most advanced proposals is to mobilize those in the military service.

“When the borders were closed and the large avalanche of packages from international parcels ceased and people opted for shipments by sea, the Ministry of the Armed Forces helped us. We made a contract with them, with young men who were serving in the Military Service. We are calling for that too to resume,” Ortega Araujo states.

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The Trotskyist Solution for Cuba

What sensible Cuban, after sixty-odd years of all kinds of Marxism, with all kinds of “making do” Marxist measures, by all kinds of Marxist leaders, would ask for “more Marxism”. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Jorge Hernández Fonseca, Miami, 15 May 2023 — I have just finished reading in the independent Cuban press a piece of news that fills me with astonishment because of its peculiarity: some communists (Trotskyists) criticizing the Cuban communist dictatorship (which they call “the government”) for its poor performance at the head of the country, which could provoke, they say, a “capitalist military coup”, asking for a return to pure Marxism. Very good diagnosis (the military coup that will come to return to capitalism), but a solution that is, more than wrong, catastrophic!

What sensible Cuban, after sixty-odd years of all kinds of Marxism, with all kinds of “resolving” Marxist measures, by all kinds of Marxist leaders, would ask for “more Marxism?” Enough of Marxist experiments, none of them work. Who can assure us that the Trotskyist who wrote such an outrage is going to do something different from what was done before, by Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl, Díaz-Canel¹, Nicolás Maduro², Daniel Ortega³, Nicolae Ceausescu⁴, Pol Pot⁵ and a long list of detestable unsuccessful Marxists?

The problem, dear Trotskyists, is that Marxism is wrong. Communist China already demonstrated this by going to capitalism, although it continues with the “dictatorship (against) the proletariat”, but without a long-term future, because Marxism-Leninism establishes that the dictatorship is so that “capitalism does not return”. Once capitalism returns (as in China) what purpose does the dictatorship serve?

Capitalism is the “cream of the crop” that human society, in long years of trial and error, has developed to produce goods and services.

Capitalism is the “cream of the crop” that human society, in long years of trial and error, has developed in order to produce goods and services. This is because in every society, just as there are exceptional athletes, singers with golden voices, or sensational artists, there are people whose innate ability is to know how to generate employment and income, investing time and capital (which makes them rich) so that the economy grows. The capital generated by these entrepreneurs is not in a chest under the beds of each one of them. It is in a bank, available to all of society that requests capital to set up other businesses. That is capitalism. Of course, this money is not available for anyone to ask for so they don’t have to work.

There is good faith in the Trotskyists who are opposed to Castroism, but please, do not make us suffer more by asking for “real Marxism”. I know that there is fear of capitalism because there have been selfish and ambitious capitalists. The wrong human factor is common to socialists and capitalists. There are also egotistical communists. I, for one, (and all the people of Cuba) have suffered the sacrifice of our personal future from Fidel Castro’s selfishness, just to satisfy his Amazonian ego.

¹Díaz-Canel, current Cuban president appointed in 2019
²Nicolás Maduro, current Venezuelan president since 2013
³Daniel Ortega, current Nicaraguan president since 2007
⁴Nicolas Ceausescu, Romanian president 1974-1989
⁵Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge 1963-1997. Revolutionary, dictator and Politician who ruled Cambodia 1976-1979

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Food Consumption in Cuba Has Fallen by 66.9 Percent in 2022 due to Inflation

The resounding drop in consumption is reflected even more strongly in foods such as bread, rice or sugar. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 1 May 2023 — According to Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, official retail trade data on the island for 2022 offer a “devastating” panorama and remove “any vision of an alleged economic recovery underway”. The expert has analyzed the collection from the sale of food discounting inflation and the result could not be more discouraging: the drop is two-thirds compared to the previous year, a 2021 that was not exactly a good year.

Monreal focuses exclusively in a thread of messages published this Monday on Twitter on food sales, and he does so precisely because, as he explains, “they are ‘inelastic’ goods, which in the language of economists means that demand tends not to be affected significantly due to price variations”, since people cannot stop eating and continue to buy, albeit in smaller quantities, whatever the price of the products.

“A two-thirds annual drop in ‘real’ retail food sales is no small matter […] and reveals an important dimension of the brutal ‘adjustment’ of consumption and aggregate purchasing power in Cuba”

At first sight and without discounting inflation, pasta, fish products, bread and a few other items seem to obey the “inelasticity” rule, since sales of the first item (pasta) have risen 85.5%, the second 14.8% and the third 2.9% in 2022, compared to the previous year. On the other hand, consumption of other products has suffered declines of up to 25.8% in the case of sugar or, even worse, 28.4% for milk derivatives. continue reading

The reality, however, is different and much more worrisome. When official inflation of 63% registered in 2022 is taken into account, we see that the value of pasta sales, which seemed to be in good health, have collapsed 31.4%, and this indicates an equivalent fall of real consumption by Cuban families. This resounding drop in consumption is reflected even more strongly in other foods: fish products (-57.5%), bread (-61.9%), rice (-63%), meat products (-69.8%), sugar (-72.5%) and milk derivatives (-73.5%).

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Political Police Interrogates Activist Yasmany Gonzalez for Graffiti Against the Cuban Regime

Yasmany González Valdés earns a living as a self-employed bricklayer. (Twitter/@CubaODC)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 April 2023 — Activist Yasmany González Valdés was arrested this Thursday at his house in Central Havana and transferred to the State Security headquarters in the capital, Villa Marista. His wife, Ilsa Ramos, confirmed this on Friday to 14ymedio.

Hours earlier, the Observatory for Cultural Rights (ODC) had reported in a Twitter thread that the arrest of the young man, also known as Libre Libre, took place after a “violent search”. Ramos specified that “around 15 people” participated, taking with them “a mechanic’s overalls, a brush and a mobile phone”.

The Observatory had recalled in its networks that González Valdés was summoned at the beginning of April to the Zanja police station, where he was accused of being involved with the group that calls itself El Nuevo Directorio (END), which claimed a new action against the regime, writing “No to the PCC” this Thursday, on the facade of the emblematic building at 7 Humboldt Street.

“They tried to leave keep in custody for non-payment of fines that he had already paid”

“On that occasion, they tried to frame him and link him to the Nuevo Directorio Group“, continues the ODC, “for which they did graphological tests”. In addition, “they tried to leave him in custody for non-payment of fines that he had already paid”. continue reading

The Observatory denounces that, in recent months, González Valdés has been “summoned, detained, fined and threatened” for his publications on social networks, accused of violating Decree Law 370. “On several occasions, the threats have been made on the promise of jail if he keeps posting”.

This is not the first time that Yasmany González, who works as a self-employed bricklayer, has had problems with the Cuban political police. Last year, after being detained for four days in Villa Marista, the activist declared that he would stop posting on his social networks.

“I’m already at home with my family (…) I’m going to get out, guys, because nobody knows what happens to a family member when you’re in there”, he wrote then on his Facebook account, a few hours after his release.

Shortly before, he had been fined in the application of Decree Law 370 for his publications on the internet, in which he denounced human rights violations in Cuba and demanded the release of those sentenced for the 11 July 2021 protests.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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In Cuba, Rumors are the Counter-Narrative of the Official Version of Events

Many users disclosed not only the “traps” of the Government to attract voters or force them to go to the polls, but also the possible consequences of abstaining. (14ymedio)

14ymedio/Yucabyte, Havana, 19 April 2023 — Irregularities during the parliamentary elections, the drastic increase in crime and the precarious situation of prisons have dominated the flow of rumors about Cuba on social networks during the month of March. However, despite the fact that it is fragmentary data and not always verifiable, it forms a fabric of “underground” concerns that in the long run –as a recent report by 14ymedio and Yucabyte demonstrated– tends to become real information in Cuba.

The general tension during the elections for deputy candidates in Parliament had its correlation in the digital environment. Many users disclosed not only the “traps” of the Government to attract voters or force them to go to the polls, but also the supposed consequences of abstaining.

It was even stated that whoever attended the polling station after applying for a visa or parole at the US Embassy would automatically lose their right to access this service. The spread of this rumor was so alarming that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself claimed that it had contacted the US immigration authorities to deny the information.

Although no independent observers were allowed to verify the transparency of the voting, thousands of users left their impression on Twitter and Facebook. Many denounced what was jokingly called “Operation Tun-Tun”: the electoral authorities not only forced children to guard the ballot boxes, but sent them, house to house, to carry out reminders to guarantee broad participation. Despite this, users on the networks commented that many had avoided the polls. Others recounted that they had voted “a la cañona”, (by force) fraudulently representing several relatives, or that they had found their forged signature on the list of participants. continue reading

A clandestine group began to claim responsibility for several anti-government posters. These ‘graffiti’ contained offensive messages directed at the régime

In the heat of the elections, a clandestine group began to claim responsibility for several anti-government posters. These graffiti, reported by the independent press, contained offensive messages directed at the regime such as “Down with the dictatorship” and “No to the Communist Party”, signed by the organization identified as El Nuevo Directorio.

As for the second source of rumors, reports of robberies, assaults, rapes and adolescent gangs in the Cuban peripheries are already common on social networks. In the face of police inaction, reporting from digital profiles is one of the few alternatives in the hands of the population to make visible the wave of crime that is spreading through Cuba.

The ravages of a youth gang known as C39, which operates in Las Tunas, presumably under the command of an adult woman, has kept the country folks in check. The local Police, they say, are sitting idle and it is said that they even grant impunity to delinquents.

The agents did arrive on time, several users say, when two men tried to rape a male child in the city of Nuevitas, Camagüey. However, in this case too, the action of the local residents, who began to act on their own, was decisive in stopping the crime.

Platforms most used by users and format of the content collected. (14ymedio/Yucabyte)

Also unprotected, according to multiple reports, remain the residents of the capital’s Altahabana neighborhood, who suffer frequent assaults in their own homes. Under the guise of “messengers” who have come to deliver a package, they break into homes to rob residents, threatening them with bladed weapons.

Others are not so lucky and, after the encounter with the criminals, they end up getting murdered. This is what happened, says a user, to a rural resident from San Juan de los Yeras, in Villa Clara, who was stabbed after his horse was stolen.

Although it is rare that the official media or the Ministry of the Interior offer an official version of the facts, some institutions often expose various details. This was the case with the death of a baby abandoned by his mother, a student at the Villa Clara Sports Initiation School. It was the directors of the center who, in a brief Facebook statement and during a meeting where recorded conversations were leaked, commented on the seriousness of the event.

The most difficult rumors to verify are those that refer to the most hermetic environments monitored by the regime, such as prisons. The conditions in which the prisoners live had traditionally been one of the best kept secrets by the Government. However, the increase in the prison population in the Country, and the media attention that, since the protests of July 11, 2021, has focused on prisons, have helped to clarify how the inmates live.

The harassment and manipulation suffered by the relatives of political prisoners by jailers or State Security has also been exposed on social networks

A common prisoner, identified as Kevin, was allegedly beaten to death by his jailer, Yulieski Montero, at the Quivicán prison in Mayabeque. Those who shared the event charged that other inmates throughout the country have suffered mistreatment at the hands of the police officers who guard them, or by other prisoners, whom the guards incite to punish the “troublemakers”.

The harassment and manipulation suffered by the relatives of political prisoners by jailers or State Security agents when they go on regular visits has also been exposed on social networks. However, it is rare for the relatives of common prisoners to air events like these, for fear of reprisals and the consequences that the complaint could have for the inmates themselves.

This type of situation results in that, although a large part of the rumors collected become, in the long run, sources of verified information – or end up being denied – there is other information that cannot be verified. This “informal” flow of data runs parallel to the regime’s press and often becomes a counter-narrative of the official version of events.

However, there is also the case of rumors that remain static, without being able to be verified or denied, and that have become a constant in the collection. This is the case of the illness and death of Raúl Castro –and also of other leaders, such as Ramiro Valdés–, a rumor repeated throughout 2022 which has also been registered in the first months of 2023. Or of the reports about a “fraudulent transition” or “fraud change”, which describe a sort of conspiracy by the regime’s leadership to fake a transition to democracy from the seat of power itself, without compromising the interests of certain military clans historically linked to the Castros.
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‘El Enjambre’ and the ‘Podcast’ Challenges in Cuba

From left: Camilo Condis, Maykel González Vivero, Lucía Marcha and Yadira AlBet. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 2 April 2023 — On this first Saturday of April, colleagues of El Enjambre [The Swarm] podcast celebrated the end of its sixth season and the announcement that, no later than in a couple of weeks, the seventh season will begin.

This weekly space was inaugurated in October 2019 as part of El Toque project and became independent in October, 2022. Under the constant threat of censorship, the program discusses political, economic and social issues seriously, and at times lightheartedly.

Seated in front of a group of followers in the main hall of La Marca, in Old Havana, filmmakers of this podcast recreated anecdotes, answered questions and offered statistical data on the composition of their audience, which is mostly young and based in Cuba. Resembling themselves, there were debates, live music and a nice amusing moment about what the elections in Cuba would be like in 2077.

Under the constant threat of censorship, the program discusses political, economic and social issues seriously, and at times lightheartedly

Asked about the future of El Enjambre, Camilo Condis told 14ymedio : “We know that it will be hard to continue because the difficulties that are coming are those that creators in Cuba, not working under an official institution, have to face. They are the same limitations that all of us face, but we’ll carry on.”

Maykel González Vivero, who joined the team in its fourth season, is a promoter of balance. He says that “it’s very boring when everyone is discussing something they agree on”. On the other hand, in contrast to Camilo Condis, “so pragmatic and clinging to the facts, to the numbers”, Maykel chooses to present himself as “more qualitative”.

El Enjambre is seen in official circles as too critical and, at the opposite end, as too trivial. The truth is that behind each installment there is painstaking professional work and the intention of opening a gap to expose and debate the main events of each week and the long-term problems that the country is suffering.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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The Christmas Pine on Galiano Street, a Sad Reflection of the Misfortunes Cubans Suffer

Its appearance is unfortunate and is not fitting with winter, the residents of Galiano street comment. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 1 April 2023 — It took three months for the Christmas pine planted in the Fe del Valle Park, in Centro Habana, to deteriorate. The tree, which last December was filled with lights – the first public New Year’s decoration that Cubans had seen in six decades – is now withered, with dry leaves and fallen branches.

Its appearance is unfortunate and is not fitting with winter, commented the residents of Galiano street, the same ones who took photos next to the conifer during Christmas, which the Government hastened to strip of all spiritual symbolism. The pine was part, they said, of a “comprehensive initiative” of the Avenida Italia project, with which the European country wanted to thank the presence of Cuban doctors during the pandemic in various locations on its territory.

So, the pine was not a Christmas sign but a very socialist “Friendship Tree”, as the Cuban press renamed it. Once that purpose was fulfilled, the trunk is barely holding up and is in need of three props, ribbons and cords to prevent it from falling on those who walk through Galiano. continue reading

El tronco grisáceo y el escaso follaje, de un color impreciso, son sintomáticos de la mala salud del ejemplar. (14ymedio) — The greyish trunk and the sparse foliage, of an imprecise color, are symptomatic of the specimen’s poor health. (14ymedio)

The greyish trunk and the sparse foliage, of an imprecise color, are symptomatic of the poor health of the specimen, whose survival seems unlikely to those who pass by. “Is the pine tree dying?” A boy asked his mother, who was trying to avoid the area so as not to run the risk that the tree, which looked weak and sickly, might fall on them.

“A lot of sewage water and too much humidity in that substrate”, diagnosed one of the old people sitting in the park. “Pines need semi-sandy soils, not the muck from Centro Habana”.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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The Production of Gas Suffocates the Cuban Population of Puerto Escondido

The installation of concrete reinforced piles for a gas pipeline in the town’s only baseball field has exhausted residents’ patience with the Energas company. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 March 2023 — Residents of Puerto Escondido, in the province of Mayabeque, Cuba, no longer know who to turn to, or how else to report what they are experiencing. Constant gas leaks, deterioration of the vegetation due to hydrocarbon contamination and, finally, the installation of concrete reinforced piles for a gas pipeline in the only baseball field in the town, have exhausted the residents’ patience with the Energas company.

“Until a few years ago, one would say the name of this town, and what came to mind were natural beauties, the sea and fun, but Cupet has taken part of that away from us,” laments Dayamí, who agrees to tell 14ymedio what they are living with in the town, although her name was changed for fear of reprisals. “The stench of oil in the air is constant,” she adds.

In Puerto Escondido there is a plant managed by the mixed Cuban-Canadian company, Energas S.A., which is managed by the official companies Cupet and Unión Eléctrica, together with the Canadian company Sherritt. It is a raw gas processing plant and a turbine, to which is added an electrical generator with a power of 20 megawatts. The energy stability of various hotel facilities in the area depends on the latter.

“They have driven through the baseball field with concrete piles supposedly for the construction of an elevated pipeline in the air.” (14ymedio)

“This used to be a paradise, but now even the grass is dying, the lemon trees are dying and the leaves of the trees get covered with spots and stay looking as if they were burned. If that happens to the plants, imagine what will be happening to our lungs?” Complains Dayamí, 32, who has two small children, one of them, asthmatic “who is constantly having crises because one can no longer breathe clean air around here.” continue reading

Gas production from oil from the Energas plant is transferred through a pipeline between Puerto Escondido and the Boca de Jaruco plant, both of which supply manufactured gas to part of the city of Havana. At the beginning of this year, a pipeline breakdown caused a leak and left part of the Cuban capital without service. For the residents of Puerto Escondido, that kind of incident seems like a “daily occurrence,” the woman denounces.

“Some of the gas treated in the Boca de Jaruco and Puerto Escondido facilities is sent to Havana to cook food for around 280,000 families. Likewise, the Energas plants produce other fundamental components for the national economy, such as LPG, naphtha and sulfur,” Edel Andrés Alfaro Pérez, economic manager of Energas, recently strutted.

But Dayamí does not see the operation of the plant with such optimistic eyes: “People feel this stench of gas everywhere when there is a leak, but we live surrounded by that smell. When we leave here and move to other municipalities, we carry that plague with us. When I visit my mother, who lives in La Lisa, I always have to take off all my clothes and shower when I get there because I smell of burning oil.”

“As if that were not enough, what they have done in recent days is an unprecedented insult,” adds another resident of the municipality, who sent a complaint to the newsroom of 14ymedio. “They [Energas] have taken the right that nobody gave them to cross the only baseball field, where the town’s adults and children play”.

Outdoor space for practicing sports is “the only thing that exists in the town because they have never built anything in the last decades, they have not even paved the only dirt road that exists in Puerto Escondido… They have crisscrossed the baseball field with concrete piles supposedly for the construction of an elevated pipeline,” she explains, and accompanies her testimony with images where the structures that rise from the ground which will support the pipeline can be seen.

“This used to be a paradise but now even the grass is dying, the lemon trees are dying and the leaves of the trees are covered with spots.” (14ymedio)

For this local resident, it is an outrage that no one consulted the residents about the new work. “No one spoke to anyone or took the realization of said pipeline to a vote. It is disrespectful,” she stresses. “They are practically the owners of everything and they do what they want without counting on anyone, without respect for anything or anyone. They took away our clean air and now they have also damaged the ball field.”

“They have to stop this work because, in this batey*, there is nothing else for the children to have fun. We need them to be able to continue playing baseball,” claims the neighbor, whose parents and grandparents were also born in Puerto Escondido. “Here there is no park, or computer center or anything. Young people and adults enjoyed this ball field.”

It was recently announced that the Cuban Government, as part of the payment of a debt of 368 million dollars to the Canadian Sherritt, approved a 20-year extension of the contract of the mixed company Energas, until March 2043, so that the extraction of gas in Puerto Escondido it is far from being something temporary, and the residents of the town are seeing how the industrial works continue to gain ground.

“Two weeks ago, they began to extract soil and lay the foundations for these piles, they have crossed our town from one side to the other and also the ball field” details the neighbor who wrote to this newspaper. “The pipe will remain in the open air, elevated on those columns. People are afraid of accidents, leaks, and they are also very upset, sad, and humiliated.”

“Here, even the Royal Poincianas, also called flamboyán trees, are dying, because wisps of gas are constantly coming out of the [oil] plant,” explains the resident. “This was a very natural town; we had several popular campsites but most of them are already closed. Who is going to be interested now in coming to a town with the stench of oil and with a gas pipe running through it?” he asks.

*Translator’s note: Batey was the name given to a special plaza, around which the Caribbean Taíno Indians built their settlements. It was usually a rectangular area surrounded by stones with carved symbols (petroglyphs). The Batey was the area in which ceremonies, ball games, etc.) took place.

Translated by Norma Whiting
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‘In the Hospital, in Las Tunas Cuba, the Light Bulbs and Even the Window Panes Have Been Stolen”

Almost all the benches in Plaza Calé have lost their slats. (Newspaper 26)

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 7 March 2023 — Based on the robberies and vandalism, the inhabitants of Las Tunas are “dismantling” the city’s public spaces. The list of “reprehensible” acts, as the official press called them this Monday, is extensive: garbage dumps, destruction of buildings, theft of furniture and corruption in state establishments.

The most alarming situation is going on at the provincial hospital, which, according to its directors, treats more than 7,000 patients daily. “The light bulbs, the screws for the window panes and the panes themselves have been stolen,” denounced Carlos Pérez Santiesteban, deputy clinical-surgical director of the center.

The people who accompany the patients take advantage of their stay in the hospital, according to the doctor, to get hold of what they find, from a piece of metal to the chair braces. To make matters worse, the doctor complains, “stretchers and wheelchairs are abused, mattresses are unprotected, food is eaten on the beds and liquids are spilled.”

Pérez, who describes the ability to control the situation as “difficult,” also regrets that people steal or destroy the installation’s switches, and that they intentionally dump waste in the corridors, bathrooms and gutters of the building. In addition, they habitually scratch the walls, smearing them with grease and damaging the paint. continue reading

According to the press, the “fury” of the people from Las Tunas has an explanation: they behave “as if they were bothered” by the good condition of public spaces. It is no longer a question of neglect, but of vandalizing what cannot be transported to homes, such as park benches or the walls of a building.

“In a bakery, for example, flour and oil are stolen and sold in the same neighborhood.” Nobody has scruples when it comes to “taking advantage” of public goods

Las Tunas, the report states, “has large bills” related to “collective property,” and attributes it to a “a training problem” to young people that later in life affects their adult behavior. However, it does not mention at any time the deficiencies and shortages – common throughout the country but exacerbated in the eastern provinces – that have triggered crime rates in Cuba, although they]se do not justify other behaviors such as dirtying and vandalizing hospital facilities.

There are people who even steal marble pieces “to make a grinder for spices and meat,” an astonished citizen of Las Tunas said. He was recently interviewed by the official press, which also publishes photographs of the “ragged sites” of the city. Almost all the benches at the Plaza Calé are missing their slats, while the metal railings of the Colón Street bridge –whose potholes are a danger to traffic– have been sawn off and stolen.

The fence of the Hermanos Ameijeiras Airport is in the same sorry state, whose wires and poles, already damaged by rust, have been cut and “recycled” in homes.

“Everyone here ‘struggles’, cautiously states one of the interviewees in the official report. “In a bakery, for example, flour and oil are stolen and sold in the same neighborhood.” No one has scruples when it comes to “taking advantage of” public goods, it doesn’t matter if they are food or construction materials –rebar, stones, bricks– that are already part of some structure. That notion, he admits, is even “accepted.”

Another problem is the city’s state of hygiene, to which the local newspaper has referred on other occasions. The amount of garbage in the streets, the puddles of urine in squares and parks, and the fact that almost all the garbage transportation of the waste depends on horse-drawn carts – for which Community Services pays little and late – increase the population’s discomfort.

The “latest fashion,” the newspaper claims, is breaking bottles and leaving the glass shards on the streets, which are already littered with excrement, paper and potholes. At the height of the problem, the text devotes several paragraphs to giving lessons in “socialist morality” and civility to the people of Las Tunas, whose attitude cannot be explained and who will end up, he insists, by leaving only “bits and pieces” of the city.

Translated by Norma Whiting
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Infanta Street in Havana, Where all the Miseries of Cuba Come Together

“There is no other option, to fill the tank you have to get cooked over slow heat,” complains a driver who, at the stroke of noon, had already been in line for two hours.

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 4 March 2023 — The sun itches, although the Lenten winds blow over Havana and ruffle the hair of passers-by. Inside a vehicle, in the long line to buy fuel at the corner of Infanta and San Rafael this Friday, the temperature is similar to what is experienced in the purgatory of May, or even a high that’s reached in the hell of August. “There is no other option, in order to fill the tank you have to get cooked over low heat,” laments a driver who at the stroke of noon had already been in line for two hours .

The cars almost touch. There’s a garish red Lada that a few years ago would have targeted its owner as a vice-minister or colonel; a tricycle to transport goods; several modern Citroëns that seem older than any almendrón* from the last century and even a taxi that demands 30 dollars to shuttle travelers who have recently arrived at the José Martí airport to the city. It doesn’t matter the year of manufacture, the state of the body, or the pedigree of the driver. They are all scorching equally under the sun.

“I no longer go around in circles. I come directly to gas stations on the main avenues, which are the best supplied ones,” the driver of a Russian-made Moskvitch with nickel-plated wheels, interior air conditioning and other amenities, though manufactured, as he admits, “in times of the CAME [Council for Mutual Economic Assistance], so it was not designed for savings,” he laments. The owner perceives the fuel supply in the city as a “see saw”: “One day they tell you that there is no problem and you can fill the tank, and the next you can only add a certain number of liters.” continue reading

It’s common for people to come to blows when the line slows down or when an employee yells that they’re out of diesel or hot dogs

In addition, several lines converge at the gas station at the popular corner of Centro Habana. The place has a small store that sells frozen products, across from it there is a property belonging to the Rápido chain, an attempt by the Cuban regime to emulate the reviled, by official discourse, McDonald’s and Subway, but it ended up capsizing due to the lack of raw materials and inflation and joined the network of regulated trade. When the day begins, in this nodal point of Centro Habana it is difficult to know who is there for a package of frozen chicken, a bag of detergent or a liter of gasoline.

The avenue, named in honor of Princess María Luisa Fernanda, youngest daughter of King Ferdinand VII and sister of Isabel II of Spain, is lacking in monarchy and has a surplus of misery. It’s common for people to come to blows when the line slows down or when an employee yells that they’re out of diesel or hot dogs. That’s when, in one of the most “royal” of Havana streets, people take off their flip-flops, shout obscenities and seem to be ready for anything. Then the March winds blow and everyone goes home.

*Translator’s note: Almendrón, from the ‘almond shape’ of the vehicles, is a term that refers to mid-20th century American cars, still plying the streets of Cuba, primarily as shared taxis for Cuban customers, and as ‘nostalgic’ tours for foreigners.

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A Wave of Bedbugs Invades Santiago de Cuba’s Schools, Hospitals, and Prisons

Smiles to the World Day Care, in Santiago de Cuba. (Facebook/Provincial Directorate of Public Health)

14ymedio, Francisco Herodes Díaz Echemendía, Santiago de Cuba, 28 February 2023 — A source close to the health centers assured 14ymedio that the plague mainly affects the Materno Norte Tamara Bunke and Infantil Sur hospitals, traditionally known as La Colonia Española, and community polyclinics 28 de Septiembre and Camilo Torres Restrepo.

The epidemic is also found at the Rafael María Mendive Basic Secondary School facilities and the one at the Altamira neighborhood. There are also reports of concentrations of the insect at the Mar Verde prison, where overcrowded conditions enable the spread of diseases among inmates.

Without clearly confirming the presence of the epidemic, Santiago de Cuba’s Provincial Health Directorate published this Sunday on social networks that there had been an “exchange” with parents and educators of the Sonrisas al Mundo Child Care Center to discuss hygiene and sanitary measures in the fight against dengue and bedbugs, as well as to “avoid accidents.”

In the informal market, however, fipronil, a broad-spectrum insecticide, sells for more than 20 pesos per milliliter

While bed bugs spread throughout the province, state pharmacies do not have medications to combat the plague. In the informal market, however, fipronil, a broad-spectrum insecticide, sells for more than 20 pesos per milliliter. This price makes combating the insect more expensive since, in order to eradicate it, surfaces need to be fumigated repeatedly with a solution of the product. continue reading

At the beginning of February, Diario de Cuba published the case of the closure of the Otto Parellada Basic Secondary School for fumigation work due to an outbreak of bedbugs. In that case, a teacher complained about the precarious conditions in the classrooms, lacking mops, chlorine, disinfectant or water in the restrooms. There is also a lack of soap or medications for students.

Bed bugs look for small cracks in homes in order to hide, especially preferring bed mattresses. Their spread is rapid and resistant to extreme weather conditions, so in a matter of days they can infest an entire home, school or even hospitals that should have strict cleaning controls to prevent illnesses among patients.

In 2021, in the midst of the Covid-19 health emergency, Santiago de Cuba was on alert for outbreaks of scabies and lice, while in 2022 the province registered figures not seen in 15 years in dengue outbreaks due to the lack of resources to combat the breeding sites of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.

Alfredo Cintra Guerra, responsible for surveillance and vector control in Santiago de Cuba, acknowledged last year that little can be done to control the spread of dengue due to the scarcity of resources, mainly the insecticide Abate to distribute among homes, and fuel to travel to see patients or fumigate the areas with the highest rates of infection.

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