Category: Translator: Regina Anavy

‘We Will Have To Wait Until April 1 for the Resumption of Remittance Services to Cuba’

The Metropolitan Bank made a statement on Tuesday about the suspension of remittance services, but without any details. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana/Miami, 6 February 2024 — Western Union plans to resume the remittance service to Cuba on April 1. That is the date they gave to 14ymedio in calls to two offices in the United States. The employees did not know how to answer why it will take so many months to restore the transfers. “There are problems with the banks in Cuba, and that has caused us to stop sending money; they are still working to solve the problems,” they said.

The Metropolitan Bank made public on Tuesday a statement that alludes to the suspension of remittance services, bur without details. “If you have been sent money (from abroad) through a remittance agency, we suggest you contact Fincimex, an agency that manages that service in Cuba,” reads the short text disseminated on their social networks.

Last Thursday, the same banking institution warned of “technical difficulties that affect branch services and those associated with technological payment channels,” without referring to transfers from abroad. continue reading

By telephone, a Fincimex employee told this newspaper that “the breakdown is still being worked on but there is nothing yet”   

These cannot be done, as this newspaper verified, at least as of January 29, although some comments on the bank’s Facebook post this Tuesday allude to the impossibility of doing them earlier.

On Wednesday the 31st, a day before the main economic measures agreed by the Government last December came into force, the authorities decided to cancel them. The reason given was “a cybersecurity incident in computer systems for the selling of fuel, whose origin has been identified in a virus from abroad.”

The widespread suspicion about the hacking, which, according to official sources, has affected the marketing system of Cimex, a corporation belonging to the Gaesa military conglomerate, increased among Cubans when the Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil Fernández, was dismissed last Friday.

Although at Western Union they provide a clear date to normalize remittances, the same does not happen with Fincimex. By telephone, an employee of the state financial system told this newspaper that “work is still being done on the breakdown but there is nothing yet.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

While the Euro Reaches 300 Cuban Pesos, the Government Keeps Going in the Same Direction

The MSMEs (micro, medium and small-sized enterprises) will no longer be exempt from paying taxes at the beginning of their creation. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 6 February 2024 — The regime’s concern about the current crisis has led the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba to once again publish the Economy section, which will appear in Granma on a weekly basis.

Its first article, signed by Joel Ernesto Marill Domenech, author of several texts with proposals to stabilize the economic and financial situation of the country last September, is nothing more than an exhibition of what needs to be improved – everything – without the concrete steps to do it. This contrasted with the brainstorming launched last night by the also Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, focused on taxation and the structure of the private sector.

Marill Domenech opens the new section by describing the well-known panorama that remains at the dismissal of the former Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil. In summary: year-on-year inflation that exceeds 30% in the formal market, depreciated wages, exports 30% lower in 2022 than in 2019, imports 25% more expensive, four consecutive years of double-digit fiscal deficits with respect to gross domestic product (GDP) and devastated national production. continue reading

The production of the agricultural and livestock sector was, in 2022, 37.2% lower than in 2019, the manufacturing industry 32% lower, and electricity generation 25% lower, according to official data

A few brief brushstrokes are enough: the production of the agricultural and livestock sector was, in 2022, 37.2% lower than in 2019, the manufacturing industry 32% lower, and electricity generation 25% lower, according to official data.

How to solve it? “With internal efficiency,” says Marill Domenech in a simplistic text that contrasts with his previous articles by being more concrete. In this case, the economist speaks of two groups of “distortions” that exist in the Cuban economy and includes high fiscal deficits, dollarization and the lack of exchange rate unity.

In his opinion, that is the first of the areas that must be addressed, since a fiscal deficit of more than 147 billion pesos such as the one planned for 2024 is being solved with monetary issuance – obviously, without support – that increases the money in circulation and, in turn, raises prices in the free market due to the insufficiency of the supply of goods.

That spiral continues because the national currency has lost value in the face of currency competition. The consequence is a tremendous lack of incentives for domestic production in the face of the attractiveness of export. From there we reach the situation of the informal foreign exchange market – triggered today, when the euro reached 300 pesos – that “conditions unequal access to the currencies that enter the country via remittances and tourism, privileging non-state economic actors many times with low added value, while excluding access to state companies and all their installed productive potential,” the expert summarizes.

According to his balance sheet, it is an urgent matter to correct this distortion, but his proposal of how to do it is not very concrete, although it supposes a call to the Central Bank of Cuba to take real command of economic policy and stop responding to political decisions.

“The recovery of the official foreign exchange market should be a first step in a more substantive and comprehensive exchange transformation, which sets its final objective in the definitive exchange unification, and, together with fiscal stability and de-dollarization, allows finally making the national currency the center of the country’s economic and financial system,” he says.

His proposal to address macro changes rather than microeconomic changes clashes again with the ideas that Pedro Monreal puts on the table, focused on the taxation of small and medium-sized enterprises

His proposal to address macro changes rather than microeconomic ones clashes again with the ideas that Pedro Monreal puts on the table, focused on the taxation of small and medium-sized enterprises. While Marill Domenech talks about transforming the “regulatory schemes, incentives, functioning of the markets and the business fabric” to boost productive activity, Monreal asks for tax incentives for private individuals just when one of them, the main one enjoyed by the MSMEs – exemption from the payment of taxes for two years – comes to an end.

The official argument for eliminating it is, in the opinion of the independent economist, questionable, based on political demands and not on the criteria of officials of the Ministry of Economy. “The explanation that two years have passed since the exemptions for the benefited companies were adopted does not deny that new companies should not be helped, nor that this is not beneficial for the national economy. Does any data prove otherwise?” he asks rhetorically.

Monreal asks for the stimulation of the newly created MSMEs with initial exemptions and reduced rates, as is done in other countries, in addition to taxing net profits and not income, an anomaly in the international panorama. The economist also puts his finger on the sore point of a specific sector: food production, which if it is really the priority, as the Government has stated, should retain tax privileges, at least temporarily.

“It is striking that, despite recognizing the need to increase the percentage of MSMEs with internal resource processing activities, exemptions are not applied, even if they were limited to those activities,” he highlights in his analysis on social network X.

On the contrary, Monreal maintains that the privileges that should end are those of foreign investment companies: “More taxes would be collected than those that will be obtained by eliminating exemptions to new MSMEs.” In his opinion, it is not even proven that tax exemption is effective to attract foreign investment, nor is it debated.

Monreal maintains that the privileges that should end are those of foreign investment companies: “More taxes would be collected

Monreal’s concreteness is diluted in the text of Marill Domenech, who also talks about incentives and regulatory rigidities without pointing out proposals, and launches ideas on what to do, but not about how to do it. Among them he cites “transformations in the socialist state enterprise, especially its governance mechanisms, incentive schemes, organizational structure, as well as bankruptcy and reorganization procedure, up to modifications in the planning mechanisms, which contribute to a true decentralization in access to resources through the establishment of formal and orderly markets of currencies and inputs that gradually replace centralized distribution as a fundamental allocation mechanism and help a true financial and economic autonomy of the business fabric.”

The text has, ultimately, suggested measures similar to those proposed by Monreal but something invites us to think that there is fear when verbalizing the proposals – “on the way to recovery it will undoubtedly have to assume difficult moments,” he warns – and it is not surprising. The latest economic reforms proposed in the National Assembly in December – and to which the text itself refers – have remained stuck, allegedly due to cybersecurity problems.

Nothing has been revealed about that alleged external virus that attacked the Fincimex system and forced, according to the official version, the postponement of the rise in fuel prices without setting a date for implementation. However, Cubans do not doubt that there is something more behind the forced departure of former minister Alejandro Gil. There is talk of a struggle between the two “souls” (factions) of the Communist Party – the reformist and the orthodox. For the latter, the changes that had to be made in 2024 were inadmissible. As long as this dispute is not settled, Cuba is condemned to immobility and the unstoppable degradation of the standard of living of its population.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Even Cuban Dogs Arrive Illegally in the United States

A cargo airline called Estafeta is in charge of sending pets from Mexico to the United States. (Cortesía)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 6 February 2024 — From Santa Clara to Havana, from Havana to Cancun, from Cancun to Miami. The trip of Brandy, a five-year-old Creole dog, was not very different from the one its owners made twelve months ago. But the reunion had a price: tensions, bribes to process the documentation and $3,000 in expenses.

“We left Brandy in Cuba with some friends, and I promised them that it would not take me more than a few months to bring her to the United States. It ended up being a year, but now she’s here with me,” Lorena, a 52-year-old from Santa Clara, tells this newspaper. “We became very fond of her after taking her off the street, and although people think I’m crazy to spend so much money on a pet, I decided to bring her to Miami,” she says.

There are many people who perform this service and charge between 2,100 and 2,800 dollars, depending on the size of the animal and the price of the plane tickets

The procedures were quite cumbersome, says the Cuban. “While I was saving, I was investigating ways to bring the dog. I discovered that there are many people who perform that service and charge between 2,100 and 2,800 dollars depending on the size of the animal and the price of the plane tickets at the time,” explains Lorena. At almost 30 pounds, Brandy is considered medium weight. continue reading

By the “legal” way, she resumes, the United States requests the internal and external deworming of the pet and several vaccines, including rabies, which must be given. Then you have to wait a month and take blood from the animal, centrifuge it and send it frozen to a laboratory in Kansas, which is the only one capable of doing that type of analysis. Then you must wait a few months for the institution to respond and only then, with the vaccination card ready, can pets travel to the United States.

“These requirements are from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) in the United States, which lists Cuba among the countries at high risk for canine rabies. Cubans, however, have already found ways to circumvent those controls,” says Lorena.

The first trick, she continues, “is to send the pet to a third country. Mexico, because of its proximity and how easy it is to then send the animals to the United States, has been the perfect stopover. The Mexican authorities don’t know the origin of the pets or whether the veterinarians in charge of examining them have been paid to falsify the vaccination certificates. This procedure has become a business that all Cubans use, which circumvents the several months of waiting imposed by the lab in Kansas.” For Brandy, she says, they even put on vaccine labels dated 2020. “They have everything ready, you just have to pay.”

“The total amount I paid for the trip, including the papers, was $2,600, since Brandy is a medium-sized dog and had to travel in the hold of the plane. For a small dog, which can sit with its owner, the cost is $2,500. That price also includes the ticket of the person who took her to Mexico, which I had to pay here by Zelle. For the rest of the money, they came to get it in Miami at my house,” Lorena explains.

Once Brandy got to the airport she was put on the plane in a crate and sent to Cancun with the Viva Aerobus airline

Lorena had to add the purchase in Miami of a crate to transport Brandy and its shipment to Cuba through the parcel agencies. She also  purchased a leash and other accessories and paid for Brandy’s trip to Havana in the company of its temporary caregivers. “All that came out to about 550 dollars, because I sent some extra for them to eat something on the trip to the airport. The car cost 40,000 Cuban pesos, and the snacks, ham at 400 and a soft drink at 150,” she says.

Once Brandy arrived at the airport, she was put on the plane in a crate and sent to Cancun with the Viva Aerobus airline. “Not all companies allow you to travel with pets,” says Lorena.

After a night in Mexico, Brandy boarded a second flight to Miami through the cargo airline Estafeta. An hour later, her owner picked her up at one of the warehouses at the Fort Lauderdale airport. “All the airport workers stopped to see me take Brandy out of the crate and how happy she was to see me. It was an exciting moment and made me think about how much animals are loved in the world, unlike in Cuba, where some went so far as to suggest that I kill the dog, and others abandon their pets on the street as soon as they can leave the country. It’s a shame that even Cuban dogs have to arrive illegally in the United States,” Lorena laments. “In that they’re like us.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Trafficking Networks Trap Cubans, Colombians and Venezuelans Through Emotional Bonds

Cubans and Venezuelans have worked In beer halls and bars such as La academia del padrino, located in Tapachula. (Facebook/Tapachula City Council)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio/EFE, Mexico, 5 February 2024 — “Violations, sexual abuse, kidnappings and trafficking” is what thousands of migrants are exposed to as they pass through the border between Guatemala and Chiapas, in the south of Mexico, lawyer José Luis Pérez tells 14ymedio. On the way, some women are “kidnapped by drug cartels and forced into prostitution,” he adds.

Chiapas ranks eighth in the crime of trafficking in Mexico. In 2020, 681 victims were registered in the state; the following year it rose to 753, and “in 2022 it shot up to 936 cases,” says the lawyer. In “the first half of 2023, there were 488 people affected by this crime,” he adds.

The lawyer emphasizes that “despair over the lack of money” and the delay of up to six months in immigration processes, “which many times” have a negative result, has also led Cubans, Venezuelans, Colombians and Haitians, for the most part, to offer “sexual services” in bars, canteens and nightclubs.

Genly, a Honduran migrant in Tapachula (Chiapas), worked in one of these bars that was closed on January 11 because it operated illegally. This 20-year-old migrant carried out her procedure before the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (Comar) in December last year and was given an appointment for next March 27, so she was not handed over to the Migration agents. continue reading

This cartel hooked many of the foreigners in the ADO bus terminal with the promise of giving them work and helping them reach the border with the United States

It was not the case of Yalim, 29, and Anadelys, 42, “two Cubans who were waiting for their appointment for CBP One, but because they were illegal they were taken to the Siglo XXI immigration station,” located in Tapachula. Genly affirms that during the time he was working there, some armed men arrived in vans and took some of the women, especially young Venezuelans and Colombians. “They gave them money, cell phones and clothes and told them that they could process their documents.”

On January 14, 25 women were rescued in the state of Quintana Roo – including Cuban, Venezuelan, Colombian and Mexican – who were forced to prostitute themselves. According to the investigations, the Vaider bar, located at number 500 Isla de Capri Street in the municipality of Othón P. Blanco, in Chetumal, was controlled by the Caborca cartel.

“This cartel hooked many of the foreigners in the ADO bus terminal with the promise of giving them work and helping them get to the border with the United States,” Officer Alfredo Poot García told this newspaper.

The organization Caminantas, which serves migrants who cross through Mexico, reported last Saturday an increase in cases of trafficking of Colombians, Cubans and Venezuelans. The victims, activist Laura Cortés told the EFE agency, are caught through the same modus operandi: an acquaintance on the internet “who supports them financially at a distance, buys them tickets for the trip and sends them money for the family.” Once in Mexico they are raped.

Activist María Ángel Vielma said that many women also come to this country with the promise of a job and other false commitments. “The rapist is seeing what they need in order to manipulate them; the trap is disguised as love,” she said.

There is a selective xenophobia, we say, because if you are Central American, the treatment and pejorative comments are very ugly

Vielma explained that these cases are common among women who come from countries with economic crises or with nationalities about which there are stereotypes of female beauty. “There is a selective xenophobia, we say, because if you are Central American, the treatment and pejorative comments are very ugly. In contrast, if you are Colombian, Cuban or Venezuelan you are a sexy girl, the bomb, what they see on television that they think is a woman from these countries,” she stressed.

This could explain why of the 227 foreigners killed in Mexico from 2015 to 2023, 32 were Colombians and 29 Venezuelans, according to the National Public Security System.

According to figures from the National Institute of Migration, between 2018 and 2023 there were 160 victims of trafficking registered, of which 89 women and 35 men were victims of sexual exploitation.

Migration’s numbers on trafficking are “deceptive,” says lawyer José Luis Pérez. “They account for the cases that are reported, but there are many more victims who do not report out of fear.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Cuba: Even if the ‘Libreta’ Arrives There Is Nothing To Buy in the Bodegas

This February, there is nothing in the bodegas (ration stores) in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, February 2, 2024 — At the end of January, only six Cuban provinces and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud had received the libreta (ration book), the official press acknowledged on Thursday. For the population, however, it is not the libreta that worries them, but the fact that the food isn’t arriving on time at the bodegas (ration stores).

According to the official Tribuna de La Habana, due to delays in printing and the low availability of raw materials, the Ministry of Internal Trade has only managed to distribute 69% of the more than 4 million libretas required on the Island, despite the fact that since last September it had the budget for their manufacture.

The December 20 deadline imposed for the libreta could not be met, something that the company Ediciones Caribe had warned from the beginning

The December 20 deadline for the  libreta could not be met, something that had been warned from the beginning by the company Ediciones Caribe, contracted for the printing. They could only prepare the booklet but not the pages with the list of products for each member of the household and their official registration address (Oficoda). With these delays, the authorities said, the deliveries of the libreta could not be done in time.

To the citizens, however, the libreta “doesn’t matter.” Manuel, a retiree who lives in Central Havana, told this newspaper that “with the delay of food in the bodega, it doesn’t matter if they give us the libreta or not, because there is nothing to buy anyway.”

According to Manuel, the gossip in the bodega predicts a February similar to the previous month, when “on the 20th we still did not have rice, and other continue reading

products from December were missing. Even the bodeguero is worried because he has not been given indications from above and has nothing to sell. If we continue like this, it’s better to buy everything in the inforrmal market, although there will be those who do not eat, but that is already happening,” he says with conviction.

Mirta, another resident of Luyanó, says that “people don’t even worry about whether it’s day one, because they know that nothing will come to the bodega.” Meanwhile, she says sarcastically, “people eat spirituality and patience.”

In other provinces such as Artemisa and Holguín, food has not arrived at the ration stores either, as this newspaper has verified.

An article in the local newspaper Venceremos announced this Thursday the delivery in Guantánamo, “in the first days of February,” of seven pounds of rice and four pounds of sugar per month per person, in addition to the beans of the month of January and the “coffee corresponding to December.”

“In the case of preserves, the ninth and tenth deliveries of last year are underway. It is also guaranteed that February will begin with milk for children up to 6 years old, who will receive chicken in place of beef; this same change will happen with medical diets,” the newspaper adds.

As for rice, “distribution to the bodegas is carried out as it is unloaded in the port of Santiago de Cuba.” However, for sugar, which depends on the production of the power plants, “the delays could continue,” Venceremos admitted.

Currently the picadillo and the December sausage are distributed, the newspaper continued, which did not clarify for which dates those deliveries for the first months of the year are expected

Currently the picadillo (ground meat) and the December sausage are being distributed, the newspaper continued, but it did not clarify when they are expected to arrive. Cleaning products, they added, are guaranteed.

Both the delivery of products purchased on the international market and those of Cuban manufacture present considerable delays in their arrivals to the Island’s bodegas, because, in part, the government only has what is necessary on a month-to-month basis. This is the case of the production of the Ecuador sugar mill, in Ciego de Ávila, which since January 17 has been producing 1,300 tons of sugar that must be distributed in the province this February.

The authorities did not say, however, what they plan to do in March, when the annual sugar harvest is over and sugar will stop being produced in the country for several months.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Tania Diaz Castro, an Official Journalist Before Becoming a Pioneer of Free Journalism, Has Passed Away

Tania Díaz Castro, at home with two of her pets, in a photo dated January 4 on her social networks. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, February 5, 2024 — The poet and journalist Tania Díaz Castro passed away this Sunday in Havana, at the age of 84, according to Periódico Cubano, which does not specify the cause. The independent newspaper CubaNet, where she has worked since 1998, does not offer more details about the circumstances of her death.

Considered a pioneer of independent journalism on the Island, she was born in Camajuaní, Villa Clara, in 1939. Her father, José Felipe Díaz – a communist at the time of Gerardo Machado and an anti-communist after Fidel Castro came to power – was also a journalist. He worked at the National Library of Cuba and died in exile in New York.

This was not the case with Tania Díaz Castro, living in Havana, who at first embraced the Revolution. Founder of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) in 1961, and the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC) in 1963, in those years she began to work as a reporter for different official media and published her first books. In the seventies, she also worked as a radio screenwriter.

However, at the end of the eighties, she began to oppose the Regime. She was part of the group that created the Cuban Committee for Human Rights in 1987, which would give rise, a little later, to the Party of the same name.

A little later, through blackmail, they forced her to publicly “retract” her work as an independent journalist and to speak ill of colleagues who were dedicated to that activity

“Suddenly, as a matter of fate, in house number 365 on Calle Lealdad, the voices of friends began to rise, speaking a different language, without any fear, as if they really had the right to say what they thought, in the middle of a quiet, frightened people, despicably deceived by so much naivety,” she herself said in a chronicle for CubaNet, which continues: “That day, our opinions were expressed in press conferences, written on paper for the world to see, attended to by journalists from foreign agencies – France Presse and Reuters – and by Cubans. Everyone was amazed by what was happening in Havana for the first time in more than 30 years.”

Her dissent soon led to harassment and repression from State Security. Between 1989 and 1990, she was imprisoned for having signed a document that asked Fidel Castro to hold a plebiscite.

A little later, through blackmail, they forced her to publicly “retract” her work as an independent journalist and to speak ill of colleagues who were engaged in that activity.

Her articles can be read on CubaNet up to 2022.

In April 2023, the feminist project Casa Palanca organized a fundraiser to “improve the quality of life” of an elderly Tania Díaz Castro, who lived alone with her pets in the neighborhood of El Roble, in the coastal municipality of Santa Fe, Havana.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Cuban Rancher: ‘For a Bull of 1,000 Pounds They Gave Me 47 Dollars, Less Than for a Piglet’

Rancher José A. Casimiro, owner of the Finca del Medio, in Siguaney (Sancti Spíritus). (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 5 February 2024 — With milk at 20 pesos, “I have to sell 4.5 gallons to make a dollar,” and the transport to take it to the destination costs the equivalent of 6.6 gallons, says rancher José A. Casimiro, owner of the Finca del Medio, in Siguaney (Sancti Spíritus), where he practices agroecology and permaculture. In a brief interview on Facebook, he describes the desperate situation of Cuban farmers in the face of the siege of the bureaucracy and the lack of decision by the authorities.

The prices of milk and cattle are almost humiliating for the small farmer, he adds. “Where in the world do you find milk with that value? In addition to the cost of transport, to take it to the State collection centers, which is 500 pesos. That means that just to cover the cost of transporting milk you have to sell almost seven gallons.”

Casimiro explains that there is no way to make a profit, either by selling the animal or by selling the milk. The State buys a bull of 1,000 pounds, after the animal has been fattened for two or three years, with all the expenses (transport, health, taxes and travel to do paperwork) and implications for its commercialization, for less than what a 47-pound piglet costs. The farmer ends up receiving the equivalent of 47 dollars for such an animal, at 14 pesos per pound. “Where is the profitability?” he asks. continue reading

The ranchers continue to be threatened by excessive controls, low prices and the obligation to sell a good part of their productions to the State

 The rancher says that he has been in the same circumstances and conditions for 30 years, facing bureaucratic obstacles and fighting against the lack of serious decisions for the development of the countryside and productive opportunities that allow the upward social mobility of Cuban farmers. “If I buy an 11-ounce tin of canned meat [in foreign exchange stores], it costs [the equivalent of] 500 pesos. It is not possible to develop agriculture, livestock or tobacco, under these conditions. This system has been broken for so long, and I don’t see the light,” he concludes.

That reality largely explains the deficit of 29 million gallons of milk with which the sector closed 2023 on the Island. For the official press, the problem lies in those responsible for the dairy industry, but as Casimiro explains, it is the underlying structure. Farmers continue to be tied up by excessive controls, low prices and the obligation to sell a good part of their productions to the State.

Marina, a 61-year-old woman who receives milk on a medical diet, said “the situation is even more serious than the authorities reveal… They create the illusion that they are handing out milk when in reality they are giving us only a drop. To top it off, milk is getting more and more watered down. You put it on the stove and it doesn’t boil. It evaporates because of the water.”

Another citizen echoed the complaints that suggest that “they are adding cassava flour to the milk. I don’t know what they are mixing it with, but my wife and I decided not to buy it anymore,” despite the need. “I won’t risk giving that to my children.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture ordered the cessation of transactions of purchase and sale of livestock from February 15, with exceptions of slaughters authorized for emergency health reasons or for sale to the State. The regime intends to start on March 1 a “special control” to quantify the existing head of livestock in the country and thus “have a characterization of the current situation of the livestock sector in Cuba.”

According to official figures, there are more than 200,000 people, natural and legal, who own cattle and buffalo, and about 167,000 who have horses. The last Statistical Yearbook, published in 2023 with the data from 2022, indicated the existence of 947,300 head of horses on the Island and 3,516,400 of cattle, which contrasts with the 6,000,000 that were counted in 1958. This year’s census is not any better than that of 2023.

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

Cuban Police Announce the Arrest of the Killer of Dr. Ivan De Prada in Las Tunas

Ivan de Prada was the victim of an assault intended to steal his motorbike and money. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 4 February 2024 — The Ministry of the Interior has announced, this Sunday, the arrest of the alleged murderer of Dr. Iván de Prada Silva, which occurred in Las Tunas on January 27. In an official statement published by the official site Tiempo21, the authorities indicate that a 21-year-old man confessed to being the perpetrator of the crime.

In addition, the victim’s motorcycle and his cell phone were recovered. The doctor, Iván de Prada Silva, a specialist in pediatrics, was assaulted on January 27 in the municipality of Puerto Padre, and his body was found the next morning in front of the cooperative.

Doctor Iván de Prada Silva, a specialist in pediatrics, was assaulted on January 27 in the municipality of Puerto Padre 

A few days ago, the independent media CubitaNow revealed that the police had arrested a suspect. However, until the publication of the official statement, the Cuban authorities had not said anything about it. continue reading

De Prada Silva, in addition to his work as a pediatrician in Puerto Padre, was dedicated to delivering money from remittances that residents abroad send to their relatives in that territory. The day the crime occurred, according to CubitaNow, he had gone out to make several deliveries.

Iván de Prada served as deputy director of municipal health in Puerto Padre and had carried out “internationalist” missions.

De Prada Silva, in addition to his work as a pediatrician in Puerto Padre, was dedicated to delivering remittance money sent to local families from their relatives abroad

In June 2023, Dr. Pablo Corrales Susi was murdered in Havana, allegedly to steal his motorcycle. it took the police several days to find his body.

More recently, in December, another pediatrician was killed in the municipality of San Cristóbal, in the province of Artemisa. After strangling him, they hid his body and stole several items from his home. The doctor, identified as Efrén Padrón, worked at the Comandante Pinares hospital.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

A Storm Knocks Down Poles, Roofs and Water Tanks in Havana

Several fallen poles are the worst damage so far from the heavy rains in Luyanó. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 4 February 2024 — The heavy rains and strong winds have caused serious problems in different areas of the Cuban capital. As 14ymedio has witnessed in the Calzada de Luyanó in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, the gusts knocked down several poles of the power line and the roof of a house.

This roof fell from a terrace at the top of a building. (14ymedio)

According to reports from residents between Luco and Villanueva streets, some water storage tanks placed on the roofs even flew off. At the same time, power outages have increased as weather conditions worsen.

Communications have also been affected, and the internet connection is down in large areas of the city. The forecasts indicate that Sunday and Monday mornings will be especially difficult for western Cuba.

The collapse of the electric and telephone lines has caused the interruption of these services in the area. (14ymedio)

The strong winds, rains and tides will especially affect Pinar del Río, Artemisa and Havana. On the south coast, in the Batabanó area, the neighbors closest to the sea have begun to evacuate on their own, according to reports collected by 14ymedio.

Traffic remains stalled by the fallen poles and the cranes that have come to repair the damage. (14ymedio)

This Sunday in the Diez de Octubre district in Havana, the neighbors remembered January 2019, when a hurricane hit Luyanó leaving three dead and more than 170 injured. The area, several of the residents say, has not yet recovered from that experience.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

An Advisor From the U.S. State Department Met With the Cuban Government in Havana

Sara Minkara is a special advisor to the U.S. State Department for the International Rights of Persons with Disabilities. (Capture)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Washington/Havana, 2 February 2024 — The special adviser to the U.S. State Department for the International Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Sara Minkara, met this week with the Cuban Government in Havana, during a visit to the Island, the U.S. embassy in Cuba reported on Thursday. Minkara was in Cuba from last Wednesday to this Monday, the diplomatic delegation said in a statement, without making it clear with which  Cuban authorities – and from what ministry – she met.

During her stay, she held meetings with “representatives of the Government of Cuba, independent Cuban businessmen, alumni of programs sponsored by the Embassy and students of educational institutions in Havana.”

The American official, in office since 2021, “advocated for greater inclusion of Cubans with disabilities in all aspects of society,” added the U.S. embassy

The U.S. official, in office since 2021, “advocated for greater inclusion of Cubans with disabilities in all aspects of society,” added the U.S. embassy. So far, neither the Department of State nor the Government of the Island has reported on her visit.

The team of the Special Advisor for the International Rights of Persons with Disabilities is responsible, among other things, for the “promotion of continue reading

accountability and capacity building; the promotion of the inclusive democracy of disability; the promotion of the human rights of people with disabilities in countries experiencing crises; and the interruption of the narrative about disability that marginalizes people with disabilities.”

On the same day that the news broke, Cuban dissidents and opponents announced the launch of a “space of activation, action and articulation” to promote and disseminate human rights within the Island, as well as freedoms contained in the country’s Constitution of 2019.

As reported to EFE by its promoters – located on the Island – the initiative is called the Permanent Human Rights Forum and seeks to raise awareness among citizens to demand the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms to which they are entitled by the International Charter of Human Rights and Cuban legislation.

The forum, they add, seeks to be a tool of “public communication between civil society and citizenship,” as well as “the organic and systematic connection of citizenship with the issue of human rights.”

They consider that it is a “pending subject in Cuba” to disseminate and, educate about “each and every one of the rights,” from below, from the citizens and in the communities.” They also believe that the “institutional defense” of rights is fundamental.

“Beyond its rhetoric, the Government contradicts, with its systematic violations, the fundamental issues that have to do with human rights,” says a statement from the promoters of the forum. It emphasizes that “with the exception of the will of the Government, the social, political and institutional conditions to complete this subject are created.”

The statement is signed, among others, by groups such as Diverso, the Council for the Democratic Transition of Cuba (CTDC) and Plataforma Femenina. Its organizers estimated that there were between 100 and 120 of their activists in Havana.

Beyond its rhetoric, the Government contradicts, with its systematic violating practices, the fundamental issues that have to do with human rights

The forum, which claims to learn from the experience of organizations such as the Cuban Committee for Human Rights and the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, points out that the 2019 Constitution “recognizes and supports” the “possession, enjoyment and exercise of human rights.”

It intends to work for the dissemination of human and identity rights in the communities and against violence, as well as in the articulation of “legal and constitutional initiatives.”

The forum does not give details about specific actions or how it proposes to carry them out, nor about the means they have to articulate these actions.

The initiative mentions that Cuba has been an almost constant member of the UN Human Rights Council and that in 2008 it signed – although it has not yet ratified – the Covenants on Civil and Political, Social, Economic and Cultural Rights of the International Charter of Human Rights.

It also points out that the Cuban Government made a commitment on this letter by initialing the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (ADPC) with the European Union (EU) in 2016.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

While Cuba Runs Out of Fuel, Four Tanker Trucks Arrive at Esther’s Gas Station Over Three Days

Paraguas has received four fuel trucks since February 1, a real prize. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 3 February 2024 — Few gas stations in Havana escape the fuel crisis that prevails in the country, stirred up by the postponement of the new rates for its purchase. Among the exceptions are Los Paraguas and Corral Falso, the two gas stations managed on Telegram by Esther Lilian Pérez Trujillo, the organizer of the line, “by decree” of the government of Guanabacoa.

Judging by Esther’s reports to the group members of both gas stations, Los Paraguas has received four tanker trucks of gasoline since February 1, a lot compared to other gas stations in the capital, like the San Rafael in Central Havana, which didn’t have any to sell this Saturday.

“One thousand five hundred eighty five gallons of premium gas and 1,849 of regular” arrived at noon. This newspaper was among the first summoned to Los Paraguas, at 1:00 in the afternoon. Few cars waited in line, close to the scheduled time, but the tension was still in the air.

“Is it coming today or not?” asked a customer. “We are on the list and have to buy but the tanker truck hasn’t arrived yet,” he explained to an employee at the gas station. The Cupet trucks, like ships loaded with water and food that are sighted by hungry castaways, were photographed along their way, and people passed on the information of their whereabouts on Facebook. continue reading

List in hand, Esther’s lieutenant sat on a plastic chair next to the starting point of the line. (14ymedio)

“One already went by, I think it was going to La Rotonda,” said the troubled driver of a Lada who was waiting in line at the Los Paraguas gas station when he saw a truck with the Cupet logo heading along the Via Blanca in the direction of the other service center. The drivers lined up on a street next to the pumps where the road was once covered with asphalt but now has only potholes, piles of stones and dust. The entrance to Los Paraguas itself is full of puddles of accumulated water, and the vehicles must bypass the holes to access the refueling area.

On a motorcycle, punctual and with camouflage pants, one of Esther’s lieutenants appeared at 1:00 in the afternoon. List in hand, she sat in a plastic chair next to the starting point of the line and finally began the sale.

The desperation to obtain fuel has been gaining strength in recent days, not only because of the political ups and downs and the fear of the implementation of a price increase, but also because of the possible deterioration of the weather that has been announced for the next few hours, which has the people of Havana running in search of supplies to cope at home until the storm passes.

The black market, where one can buy a bottle of cooking oil the same as a washing machine, hurried its transactions this Saturday but was hanging by a thread on the supply in the gas stations. “The kitchen is here, listening to the conversation, but we can’t take it away until the courier manages to fill the tank of the truck,” an informal seller with a wide assortment of appliances explained to a customer.

The drivers lined up in a street next to the pumps where asphalt once covered the road. (14ymedio)

This Saturday, in addition, the Electric Union predicted a deficit of 800 megawatts for the night, which will translate – as has been happening for several days – into long blackouts. A litany of breakdowns keeps the National Electric System in check, according to the official media, including the breakdown of unit 6 of the thermal power plant of Mariel, unit 3 of Santa Cruz and unit 2 of Felton. In addition, there is maintenance being done on three other units in Mariel, Santa Cruz and Cienfuegos.

The new rates for the purchase of fuel, which were already listed this Wednesday at the gas pumps, were removed after the announcement that “a virus from abroad” had destroyed the computer system of Cimex.

“The Cimex de Gaesa corporation was dropped from the entire management system, and they had no backup. They are doing  a general inventory to be able to have some control,” said Cuban influencer Manuel Milanés at the time. This newspaper toured several gas stations to take the pulse of the incident, and the question was: “What’s wrong with these people?”

The response came this Friday, when the official press reported that they had rolled the heads of three ministers, including the one of Economy, Alejandro Gil. This unforeseen “movement of cadres” was survived, however, by two leaders who have a lot to do with the energy debacle: Vicente de la O Levy, Minister of Energy and Mines, and Eduardo Dávila, the Minister of Transport.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Cuba: ‘In Manzanillo Those Who Died From COVID-19 Were Buried in Mass Graves, up to 200 in a Single Day’

The San Francisco cemetery was too small and they had to expand it. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Matos, Manzanillo (Granma Province), 2 February 2024 — In the San Francisco cemetery complex, fifteen minutes by car from the municipal necropolis of Manzanillo (Granma), up to 200 dead were buried in a single day in mass graves during the worst time of the pandemic. Mobilized by order of the authorities, the gravediggers were unable to cope and had a clear instruction: three hours after death they had to remove the body.

The mounds, the large expanse of removed land and the precarious wooden crosses in the cemetery of San Francisco still attest to what happened in those days. “The cemetery was very small and they had to expand it. They had to prepare the area for the pandemic deaths,” one of the local employees explains to 14ymedio. “All the people buried there were from Manzanillo.”

“It was the hardest moment of my life,” says a former Manzanillo gravedigger, who remembers “as if it were yesterday” piling up the corpses. The situation was extreme. “In Manzanillo there was not, nor is there now, space for so many deaths,” he explains; hence, the leaders transferred several gravediggers to the rural community of San Francisco to take care of the mass burials. “I had been at work for many years and I hadn’t seen anything like it. A lot of people died.”

La tierra removida y las cruces de madera dan fe de lo que se vivió en la pandemia. (14ymedio)
The removed earth and wooden crosses attest to what was experienced during the pandemic. (14ymedio)

Carmen, a health worker who lost her mother a few days after she gave her “a bad cold” remembers how sudden the process was. “In the hospital they gave her the rapid test and then the PCR, and she tested positive. They took her up to a room, and I couldn’t accompany her. They would only give me information about her on the phone. I was desperate.” continue reading

The phone stopped ringing for several days, and Carmen, taking advantage of her contacts, moved heaven and earth to know what was happening with her mother. “I found out that she had been dead for three days and was buried in San Francisco. I wanted to die; they had deceived us, making us believe that she was alive. I never knew the exact place she was buried, and I was so traumatized that I prefer to remember my mother alive. I’ve never been to San Francisco to see her again.”

“I never knew the exact place where she was buried, and I was so traumatized that I prefer to remember my mother alive. I have never been to San Francisco to see her again”

Returning to “normality” since the pandemic was not easy, the former gravedigger says. The cemetery of Manzanillo – his former place of work – where several heroes and mambises of the stature of Bartolomé Masó and Francisco de Céspedes are buried, is in deplorable condition.

“There are more than 1,000 tombs here,” calculates the former employee, many of them with historic value and artistically worked. The general tone of the cemetery, however, is not of the old Republican tombs, with marble statues, angels and crosses, but of the cement niches between the weeds and the burned grass.

The former gravedigger regrets that the staff of the cemetery cannot do more, but with “a little more than 2,000 pesos” – the salary paid by the administration – the payroll is now reduced to two workers, of the 12 who, ideally, would be taking care of a historic cemetery like that of Manzanillo.

Las palabras “Te extraño”, un asterisco para el nacimiento y una cruz para la muerte, raspados sobre el cemento, son el único testimonio que queda de quienes lucharon por Castro. (14ymedio)
The words “Te extraño” [I miss you], an asterisk for birth and a cross for death, scratched into the cement, are the only remaining testimony of those who fought for Castro. (14ymedio)
Not even the Pantheon of the Association of Fighters – the Cubans who joined Fidel Castro’s militias in the municipality – receives attention. Once a year, on October 28, the local authorities pay tribute to Camilo Cienfuegos, who disappeared that day, and in passing they remember the former members of the insurgent army. The occasion is called Operation Tribute. The niches, however, have nothing heroic about them.

Drawn by hand and with paint of any color, the epitaphs of the “dead of the Revolution” are written on sickly tombstones, which barely support the structure of the niche. The words “I miss you”, an asterisk to mark the birth and a cross to indicate death, scraped on the cement, are the only remaining testimony of those who fought for Castro.

“Here are our loved ones. It’s disrespectful,” complains a woman who was visiting and cleaning her family crypt, besieged by grass and enveloped in a plague of smoke. Next to the pantheon are two destroyed coffins on the grass – with rags inside – that have been set on fire. “We have to set fire to the grass because we can’t weed it. There’s too much,” explains the employee.

Dos ataúdes destrozados sobre la hierba, con trapos dentro, a los que prendieron fuego. (14ymedio)
Two coffins smashed on the grass, with rags inside, which were set on fire. (14ymedio)

“There are self-employed in Manzanillo who can be hired for 500 pesos a month to clean the graves,” explains the former gravedigger. “But it is generally the relatives who have to take care of them. The gravediggers don’t have time for anything. The Pantheon of the Fighters, for example, is completely unattended, and that is not their fault. The area should be treated better.”

The situation of the Manzanillo necropolis has reached the official press, which last week urged the authorities to take care of it. Juventud Rebelde claimed it is a place of absolute “patriotic richness, with art deco, inscriptions and an eclectic style; tombs with marble, bronze, iron, cement and glazed tiles,” and an important “decorative style” with numerous sculptures made in Spain, Italy, France and the United States. At the end of the list, the newspaper called on the leaders to raise the miserable salary of the employees.

The former gravedigger knows the place well. In his opinion, the workers have done too much on their own. The niches were built to alleviate the lack of space, where there are often “more than 100 people buried.” The crypts, built with the worst quality materials, tend to break.

“There was a case of disastrous collapses, and we found ourselves in the painful situation of having to collect the human remains,” remembers the former gravedigger. “We did it with a lot of respect, but sometimes we didn’t even know who was who, and we had to put them in other graves.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

The Fall of Fincimex Paralyzes U.S. Remittances to Cuba

A Western Union employee in Miami confirmed that, “for the moment,” deliveries to Cuba are not possible. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Miami/Havana, 1 February 2024 — “At the moment, deliveries to Cuba are not available until further notice,”  is the response of an employee of a Western Union office in Miami this Thursday, confirming to 14ymedio the impossibility of sending remittances in this way, after trying both in the application and in three physical branches. When asked the reason, the worker replied that “the information for security reasons cannot be shared.”

Nor can payments be made to the Island for Cuballama and Cubatel (to recharge telephone cards). In this last application, the message was clearer: “We’re sorry, but money transfers are temporarily unavailable due to problems with Cuba’s destination banks and institutions.”

“Yesterday we had customers with the same problem,” said the Western Union employee. However, a young resident of Florida said an amount he had sent on January 29 was returned to him.

The fact that the remittances have been affected by a problem in Cimex reinforces suspicions about the mysterious firm Orbit

This Wednesday, the Cuban Government decided to postpone the entry into force of the new prices for fuels, citing “a cybersecurity incident in computer systems for the commercialization of fuels whose origin has been identified in a virus from the outside.” The hack, according to official sources, affected the commercialization system of Cimex, a corporation belonging to the all-powerful Gaesa military conglomerate. continue reading

Without linking it to this issue, this Thursday the Metropolitan Bank issued a statement warning that “there are technical difficulties that affect branch services and those associated with payment technology channels” and added that “it is working uninterruptedly to restore the service in the shortest possible time.”

Opening text: We are sorry, but the transfer of money is temporarily unavailable due to problems with the banks/institutions in Cuba. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience.

In a call to the network payment service, an employee told 14ymedio that “the problem is Fincimex” – Cimex’s financier – and she didn’t know when it will be solved. “Keep up to date with the news or visit the bank to ask every day,” was her advice.

Western Union suspended remittances to Cuba in November 2020, due to the sanctions of the Administration of then-President Donald Trump on Fincimex and AIS, because they are managed by the Cuban military. In January 2023, services resumed, this time with a different intermediary: the “non-banking” financial institution Orbit S.A., approved by the Central Bank of Cuba a year earlier.

The fact that the remittances have been affected by a problem in Cimex reinforces suspicions about the mysterious firm.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

A Government Source Confirms Compulsory Military Service for Journalism Students

Until now, military service was mandatory for women only for those in the International Relations career. (X/Embassy of Cuba in Haiti)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, January 31, 2024 — An interview with a young woman on a radio station in Cabaiguán, Sancti Spíritus, is the only official confirmation, for the moment, that women who wish to study journalism in Cuba must pass compulsory military service beginning next year.

The information was reported by the independent newspaper CubaNet last December. This Tuesday, a conversation with the 17-year-old student Carolina de la Caridad Rodríguez López, published by La Voz de Cabaiguán, confirms it.

“Fulfilling one year of active military service, an added requirement for young women who opt for the bachelor’s degree in journalism for the 2024-2025 academic cycle, will challenge Carolina Rodríguez, who is willing to combine her curls with the olive green uniform,” joked the announcer in the audio. continue reading

The requirement illustrates the regime’s control over this profession

The requirement – similar to the one that women who want to study International Relations have to pass – joins the aptitude tests that journalism students exclusively must take and illustrates the regime’s control over this profession.

On December 1, the official media Qva en Directo published a note explaining the obligation to fulfill one year of military service by young women who decide to study journalism. However, hours later that same day, it withdrew the publication, according to Diario de Cuba.

Compulsory military service has been the subject of criticism and denunciations inside and outside the Island. The organization Archivo Cuba, for example, determined in a report that, since the establishment of compulsory service in 1963, it has caused the death of at least 54 young people. Suicides have been especially silenced by the authorities, as evidenced by some reports published by this newspaper. In 2022, several of the fatalities from the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base were young people in military service who performed their duties as firefighters.

Compulsory military service has been the subject of criticism and denunciations inside and outside the Island

The new regulations may have long-term effects on the number of women who decide to study journalism on the Island, which is expected to continue to decline. Last September, Cubadebate reported that they have vacancies for journalists and repeated the offer in January. In addition, since October, the leading State newspaper Granma has offered “job opportunities” for reporters, photographers, design specialists, editorial layout designers, translators, specialists in social studies and experts in document management.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

The First Secretary of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba Is Replaced

Beatriz Johnson during a meeting in Santiago de Cuba in 2019. (Office of the Conservator of the City of Santiago de Cuba/Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, February 1, 2024 — The first secretary of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba, José Ramón Monteagudo Ruiz, was replaced this Thursday after being in office for less than three years. Instead, in front of the party organization, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, who served as governor of the eastern province, was named as his replacement.

The change was announced during the Plenary of the Provincial Committee of the Party attended by President Miguel Díaz-Canel. An official statement announced the decision to “free Monteagudo from his responsibility” and included a recognition for his work in “confronting tasks in the political, economic and social order with urgency and creativity.”

After his departure, the official “returns to the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC),” the text explains. Monteagudo had been appointed secretary of the PCC in the province in October 2021, a time that coincided with the worsening of the economic crisis on the Island and the social deterioration. continue reading

Several sources consulted by this newspaper point to the increase in violence and insecurity in the streets of Santiago de Cuba as part of the reason for the appointment of Johnson, more knowledgeable in the field and with a long history as a political and partisan cadre.

The substitution was announced during the Plenary of the Provincial Committee of the Party attended by President Miguel Díaz-Canel

A chemical engineer graduate, Johnson, age 54, held several managerial and administrative responsibilities at the José Mercerón Allen Cement Factory. Subsequently, she was general manager of the Cemento Santiago de Cuba Joint Venture, belonging to the Ministry of Construction.

Before being elected governor of the province, she served as vice president and president of the Provincial Assembly of the People’s Power of Santiago de Cuba. She has a reputation as an energetic person, absolutely faithful to the guidelines of the PCC and with very colloquial expressions in her public pronouncements.

In August 2022, a demonstration in the Luis Dagnes neighborhood in the People’s Council of Altamira, Santiago de Cuba, was joined by several residents to protest the blackouts and the precarious economic situation of the city. Military forces arrived, and Johnson also showed up to ask the neighbors for “patience.” She told them the blackout schedules in the area were going to be reviewed.

The official is also associated with the organization of acts of repudiation and police operations at the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) where the house of opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer is located. He has been in prison since the popular protests of July 11, 2021.

Johnson now has the difficult task of leading, in the second most populous city in the country, a partisan organization in frank deterioration, with a diminished number of militants and paralyzed by the lack of political reforms. Inflation, popular unrest, growing blackouts and mass exodus complete a rather bleak picture for her mandate.

To that is added the violence expressed in frequent murders, robberies and assaults. Recently, a lieutenant colonel of the Ministry of the Interior acknowledged in public that young people, armed with knives and machetes, and organized into violent gangs, “implant terror” in Santiago de Cuba.

A video of the meeting released at the end of last month shows dozens of residents of the Santiago neighborhood Abel Santamaría listening to the officer’s speech, surrounded by other police officers. Its purpose was to report the arrest of five young members of a gang who, wielding knives, assaulted a cafeteria in the early morning of January 7.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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