Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 19

Migrants Pay Up to $40,000 for Amparos – Protection Orders – To Reach the Northern Border of Mexico

The amparos (protection orders) do not exempt illegal travelers from being arrested by the immigration authorities. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Tijuana, 27 January 2024 — Authorities on the northern border of Mexico warn that at least 8,000 migrants a month pay up to 40,000 dollars to coyotes (traffickers) for a “package of amparos” (protection orders) with the promise to protect them from deportation for free transit through the country.

David Pérez Tejada, head of the National Institute of Migration (INM) in Baja California, said in an interview with EFE that the number of people who arrived with these amparos rose in the last quarter of 2023, with a monthly trend of 8,000 on average; that is, about 300 people per day.

The representative of Migration in the state, bordering California, explained that these amparos are usually promoted in Tabasco, Veracruz and other cities in the center of the country.

There, the coyotes trap them with the idea of an “all-inclusive” package to reach border cities, such as Tijuana, and from there to cross irregularly to the United States. continue reading

He explained that some people, after crossing the southern border of Mexico, “already have this kind of package, as if it came from a travel agency.”

“They now fly them from their country of origin to a jungle they must pass through and promise that they will protect them when they cross the border irregularly,” he said.

These packages include a plane ticket from Tapachula or from Mexico City to Tijuana

He added that these packages include a plane ticket from Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala, or from Mexico City to Tijuana.

Once they arrive at this border city, he said, they show the protection order for their free transit to an “alleged taxi or Uber driver, who takes them to a safe house or somewhere else to accommodate them for 24 hours or less. The next day they are already on their way to the United States.”

Investigations show that “each package has a different cost depending on the situation of the migrants.”

“If it is a family nucleus, if they bring minors, if they come alone, depending on this and the place of origin, the method and rate change. For example, those from Uzbekistan pay up to 40,000 dollars, the Chinese 20,000, those from Central America 7,000 dollars and the Ecuadorians 10,000,” he said.

Pérez Tejada pointed out that those who most come to Tijuana with these amparos are the Uzbeks and the Chinese.

But the representative of the INM warned that, although they have this legal instrument, that does not exempt them from an administrative procedure if the agents intercept them, in which they must comply with a maximum of 36 hours detention before their release.

Even if they have this legal instrument, that does not exempt them from an administrative procedure

For the INM delegate, this situation represents “a problem” because it complicates the work of the immigration authorities.

“They are the ones who are crossing irregularly (to the United States) and we want to know how to approach them with the help of lawyers, legal associations and research institutes so that we can see how to deal with this protection order,” he said.

The arrival of migrants under amparos had its peak in November last year, when the INM in Baja California registered 13,600 protected migrants. The number has decreased in this January.

Nicole Ramos, director of the organization Al Otro Lado (To The Other Side) in Tijuana, responded to EFE in writing that “it is questionable for the delegate (of Migration) to send the message that the only way to cross (to the United States) is through CBP-One,” the official American application for migrants.

“We all know that it is used to limit the number of asylum seekers who can cross and that CBP (the Office of Customs and Border Protection) refuses to prosecute asylum seekers when they arrive without an appointment, regardless of the person’s circumstances,” he said.

He added that “telling immigrants to use CBP-One, while actively helping the United States to violate the law, is a bit dishonest.”

“We wouldn’t see unscrupulous lawyers in Mexico or organized crime profiting from the desire of migrants to have safe transit to the border to seek asylum if Mexico didn’t act as a watchdog for the U.S. Government,” he said, accusingly.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Jose Marti, in the 21st Century

The statue located in the Central Park of Havana, was the first erected in Cuba in honor of José Martí. (Trabajadores)

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 28 January 2024 — To mark an anniversary of the birth of the most notable of all Cubans, Jose Martí (January 28, 1853), many of us who honor that gentleman do everything possible to remember such a great date, based on an unwritten commitment that we have contracted.

That tradition was partly carried out by the Pen Club of Cuban Writers in Exile, chaired by the writer Luis de la Paz, celebrated with the participation of Santiago Cárdenas and Emilio Sánchez, two notable intellectuals who have a profound knowledge of Martí’s work. Both were assisted by two other great admirers of the apostle, Julio Estorino and Sara Martínez Castro, who read Martí’s poems.

Martí’s first action in his struggle for independence is not associated with war, as happened with most of our heroes. His activities began by publishing writings against Spain and by calling a fellow student who had enlisted in the Spanish Army to fight the Mambises of the Ten Years’ War a traitor. For that reason he went to prison and was later exiled to Spain.

It must be recognized that most of the notable personalities who fought for the independence of Spain, members of a glorious and abundant heritage in which Simón Bolívar and Jose de San Martin stand out, patricians of strong continue reading

national convictions, leadership and indisputable military talent, left indelible traces by establishing the foundations of several republics in the hemisphere.

Martí, we all know, was not a warrior but, by far, the most important promoter of Cuba’s independence from Spain

That glorious group is mainly made up of men of arms. However, we must include other heroes who, although they did not stand out for their talent as warriors, were great thinkers and efficient organizers, capable of cementing new republics, as was the case of José Martí, a hero whose life’s work led Cuba to independence.

Martí, we all know, was not a warrior, but, by far, the most important promoter of Cuba’s independence from Spain and the most notable organizer of the “just and necessary war,” an expression which shows that he conceived of military conflict as the only way to achieve emancipation of the homeland.

He fell in his first fight, facing the sun, as he had requested in his Versos Sencillos, contrary to the most distinguished military leaders in the hemisphere who did not die in the heat of the battle. His death in Dos Ríos, at only 42 years old, left the Cuban independence fighters orphaned by their most lucid thinker, the only man, as history has shown, capable of working in a republic “with everyone and for the good of all.”

Despite his early death, he left a vast and profound work that remains current and valid. Reading Martí in the present is to access a fresh and contemporary knowledge. All his work exudes sensitivity and neighborly love, as he wrote in another simple verse: “I cultivate a white rose in July as in January, for the sincere friend who gives me his hand freely, and for the cruel one who tears out the heart with which I live, neither thistle nor arugula do I grow, I cultivate a white rose.”

Reading Martí in the present is to access a fresh and contemporary knowledge, which is that all his work exudes sensitivity and neighborly love

Martí’s thought is deeply human. “There is no better homeland, Cubans, than the one that is won with one’s own effort. The foreign sea is made of blood. No one loves or forgives if not our country,” he wrote.

Martí’s work retains relevance and validity. It has not lost strength; it has not aged; it remains as vibrant as ever. “Whoever wants a secure homeland must fight for it. Whoever doesn’t will live under threat of whip and banishment, considered a wild beast, thrown from one country to another, smiling before charity, earning the disdain of free men and the death of his soul.”

And in these times in which the fragmentation of our rights and the respect that both minorities and majorities deserve are appreciated, what is better than this: “Man does not have any special rights because he belongs to one or another race; call him a man and all his rights are already given. The black man, by being black, is not inferior or superior to any other man: the white man who calls me a black man sins by being redundant; the black man who calls me a white man sins by being redundant. Everything that divides men, everything that specifies, separates or encloses them, is a sin against humanity.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Police Dismantle an Illegal Sale of Fuel a Few Steps From a Gas Station

Photo of the police operation released by State Security. (El Cubano Fiel/Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, January 28, 2024 — The sale of fuel has become a picturesque business in the Havana municipality of Guanabacoa but, above all, an illegal trade that, in plain view, has grown. This Saturday, a “Cupet house” was dismantled by State Security and the police. An individual, identified as Ángel, was engaged in the resale of gasoline and diesel. The arrest happened a few days after 14ymedio pointed out multiple irregularities in the management of the gas stations.

“He thought he had a gas station in his house and could continue to profit from the needs of the people, but the police pounced on him,” El Cubano Fiel (the Faithful Cuban) published on his Facebook page, managed by State Security, and this was later reposted by the Council of the Municipal Administration of Guanabacoa.

“Neighbors on San Francisco Street between Máximo Gómez and Corral Falso commented that Ángel wanted to continue selling the fuel illegally, and when he loaded the fuel as usual in a vehicle, the police arrived and stopped him.” continue reading

Ángel “was wheeling and dealing for a while, selling fuel ’on the left’ without standing in the annoying lines at the gas stations like other drivers,” says State Security. The post also shows photos of police officers in the home of the reseller, who had “a large amount of fuel and plastic containers for storage.” You can also see some sealed boxes guarded by police officers, but no more details of the arrest have been offered.

Ángel “was wheeling and dealing for a while, selling fuel ‘on the left’ without standing in the annoying lines at the gas stations like other drivers”

The text, in addition, was shared on Telegram by Esther, the boss of the Guanabacoa gas stations, in charge of organizing the fuel line and the subject of several 14ymedio reports. The drivers, in order to buy fuel, must be noted down on a detailed list that the local government ordered prepared during the June 2023 crisis, she said.

For Esther herself, as for the hundreds of Guanabacoa customers, Ángel’s arrest is not a surprise. On the same Telegram channel, several customers complained that the workers at the gas station ignore the endless line of drivers, and that “they have accepted money even from tourists, mocking those who stay there” night and day said one customer last week.

But the illegalities start from the same list that Esther manages. For example, in the document that collects the more than 3,600 customers of the Los Paraguas gas station, on January 11, this newspaper found that 114 are repeated up to four times and 77 do not have a license plate – a requirement that the woman always demands. In the case of the Corral Falso service center, where almost 3,000 names were registered, there are 168 that are repeated up to four times and 40 without a plate. About 1,003 customers appeared on both lists.

According to Esther herself, days later, “the government of Guanabacoa took control of the line” after there “were too many profiteers, plus no one denounced them.” The organization was reactivated shortly before the announcement of the increase in fuel prices, which will come into force next week.

The price of gasoline and diesel on the Island will be five times greater from February 1. The cost of premium, gasoline will go from 30 pesos per liter to 156 ($1.30, at the official exchange rate) while the diesel will rise from the current 27.5 pesos to 150 ($1.25). Vicente La O Levy, Minister of Energy and Mines, said that the new measures will “gradually achieve a stable supply,” although he added that “it cannot be insured from the first day of implementation.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Only One of the 20 U-15 Cuban Players Who Won Silver in the 2022 World Cup Remains in Cuba

Yordan Rodríguez traveled to the Dominican Republic with the purpose of signing with the MLB. (Facebook/Francys Romero)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 January 2024 — With the departure from Cuba on January 26 of the prospective pitcher Yordan Rodríguez, only one of the members of the under-15 baseball team that attended the World Cup of that category in 2022, held in the State of Sonora, Mexico, remains on the Island.

According to journalist Francys Romero, the athlete traveled to the Dominican Republic where he seeks to sign a contract with a Major League Baseball organization [MLB]. Rodríguez, a native of the province of Guantánamo, has an excellent physical condition: a height of 6 ’4″ and pitches that reach 89 mph.

Yordan Rodríguez, in the last U-15 Championship in Cuba, offered a no-hitter, and some time after the World Cup he led the pitchers of his category in strikeouts (58). In addition, he averaged 2.66 effectiveness. continue reading

The massive exodus of the members of the team that won the silver medal in the 2022 event deals a hard blow to the future of national sports in Cuba

The massive exodus of the members of the team that won the silver medal in the 2022 event deals a severe blow to the future of national sports in Cuba, by directly undermining its reserve of young players. Just three days ago, 14ymedio published the departure from the Island of outfielder Maikol Rodríguez, also to the Dominican Republic.

Romero explains that the figures for this team represent “something unprecedented.” In just 14 months, 95% of the roster has left the country (19 out of 20 players). “Previously, almost all the national teams had players in lower categories who left, but not in such a short period of time or in such a high percentage as that of this Cuba U-15 of 2022,” adds the sports journalist.

In the text The dream and reality. Stories of the emigration of Cuban baseball (1960-2018), Romero says that every year the average age of the baseball players who leave the Island decreases. The average age was 24.4 years in 2015; three years later it was reduced to 17.9.

Romero explains that the figures for this team represent “something unprecedented”

With his departure from the Island, Yordan Rodríguez joins the list of former members of his team who left Cuba with the aspiration to enter the MLB and thus improve their economic and professional training conditions.

Until the 25th, in addition to Maikol Rodríguez, the following members of the U-15 team had left Cuba: Alejandro Cruz, Mailon Batista, Robier Hernández, Alex Santiago, Pedro Danguillecourt, Jaider Suárez, Dulieski Ferrán, Ernest Machado, Yosniel Menéndez, Roberto Peña, Segian Pérez, Alejandro Prieto, Danel Reyes, Ronald Terrero, Jonathan Valle, Yunior Villavicencio and Cristian Zamora. Only the catcher, Yaidel Ruíz, has remained in the country.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Taxes Triple on Imported Tobacco and Alcohol in Cuba

Cubans believe that national tobacco will be scarce, and it will not be possible to cover demand with the increase in the tax on imports. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 26 January 2024 — The Cuban Government announced on Thursday the increase in tariffs for the import of cigars, cigarettes, rum and other alcoholic beverages. For all these products, the general rate becomes 30%, while for countries considered a “favored nation” it will be 15%. In both cases, the percentage is tripled, since before it was 10% and 5%.

These increases were announced by the ministers of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil, and of Finance and Prices, Vladimir Regueiro Ale, in a Round Table program at the end of December.

“We are increasing tariffs for these products that are similar to national production, which we must continue to stimulate and protect, favoring exports and the greater presence of our products in the national market,” Regueiro explained. continue reading

Although finished products in general were mentioned, in the Official Gazette published yesterday, tobacco and alcohol are the only ones included

Although finished products in general were mentioned, in the Official Gazette published yesterday, tobacco and alcohol are the only ones included. We will have to wait to see if the measure extends to other products and if there will be shortages because of the increased tariffs.

The Gazette also includes another resolution about tariffs on the import of raw materials, inputs and intermediate goods. They are reduced by half “for production processes, with a special focus on food and agricultural production,” the text reads.

The objective of these measures, as announced by the authorities on television, is to stimulate domestic manufacturing. “At the end of November, imports made by non-state economic actors exceeded $1 billion. It is an important figure, and those imports are generally characterized by being finished products. That does not bring added value to our economy,” said the minister, who admitted the complexity in some cases where the product can be finished or intermediate depending on how it is used.

Regueiro gave as an example the case of flour, which can be sold in a store or bought to make bread, although the case is extended to others, such as oil. On the other hand, it is not the case of tobacco and alcohol, which were the obvious candidates for the application of higher tariffs. As for imported food, everything seems to indicate that the Government has chosen to wait, since a tax increase would seriously affect the supply of basic food through the private enterprises, which do not yet have the capacity to transform raw materials into products for national consumption.

The first reactions have not been positive, as expected. Although some users have admitted in the official press that these are not basic necessities, so the case is not so serious – which predicts the effect it will have when the rule is extended – most express their fear that it will mean the lack of capacity of the Cuban industry to cover that demand.

“It matters because the national industry is very far from meeting national demand,” says a reader on Cubadebate. “But how nice it would have been if they had taxed tourists for bringing in products that can be bought in the country.”

Some pointed out that the increase in the exchange rate — dollar to pesos — which goes from 1×24 to 1×120, and causes, in reality, the tariffs to increase 2.5 times, although others refute it

“I do not doubt that with the announcement, tomorrow those who sell beer will increase the price and say that they do it because of the increase in the tariff. They can also hide the beer for a few days so that the demand grows and then take it out with a higher price, despite the fact that they have it in the country before this publication,” says another, calling the sellers “scoundrels”.

It could be expected that the reaction to the lowering of the tariff to import raw materials would be more positive, but the initial comments do not report a great reception. Some pointed out that the increase in the exchange rate, which goes from 1×24 to 1×120 — dollar to pesos — and causes the tariffs to increase 2.5 times, although others refute it.

“But the increase in the exchange rate also applies to the import of finished products, it is for everything. Although the exchange rate increases, the tariffs for intermediate products will be 50% lower than for the finished ones, which is the intention,” one reacts.

The feeling, after so many years of failures, is not one of optimism. “Of course there is no reduction. Well, yes: of words. We are an educated people, you don’t have to be an economist. Hopefully this new improvisation will give the expected results or at least come closer.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Beginning February 15 the Sale and Slaughter of Livestock in Cuba Will Be Banned

The Cuban Government will ban the sale of livestock beginning February 15 until the end of the mass count. (Invasor)

14ymedio, Madrid, 26 January 2024 — The Ministry of Agriculture has ordered the cessation of purchase and sale of livestock from February 15, with exceptions to slaughters authorized for emergency health reasons or for sale to the State. The objective is to begin, on March 1, a special control to quantify the existing livestock in the country and thus “have a characterization of the current situation of the livestock sector in Cuba.”

The news has been disseminated in the official press by the general director of Livestock, Arián Gutiérrez Velázquez. The official stressed that they will not be making “surprise visits” to detect illegalities and that livestock owners will be notified in advance of the day the Commission will pass through their farm.

According to their data, there are more than 200,000 people in the registry, natural and legal, who own cattle and buffalo, and about 167,000 who own horses. The ministry will visit producers, owners and hired workers within the sector and aspires to have an adequate account of stocks, diminished by the alarming increase in theft and slaughter. continue reading

According to their data, there are more than 200,000 people in the registry, natural and legal, who own cattle, and about 167,000 who own horses

Livestock holders must update their data in the registry before February 29, since there will be a comparison of that figure to the one found in person. “The producers must have their herds updated in the livestock registry and have them branded,” Gutiérrez Velázquez told Granma.

Thus, farmers must declare births, deaths, thefts and slaughter.

According to the last Statistical Yearbook, published in 2023 with the data of the previous year, there were 947,300 horses on the Island and 3,516,400 head of cattle, a figure that contrasts with the six million that were counted in 1958. The numbers in the next census, without a doubt, will prove to be even worse than last year’s.

In the sector’s parliamentary commission, held in December ahead of the second ordinary session of the National Assembly, a report revealed that in 2023, more than 155,000 head of livestock were lost solely by theft and slaughter, and an unknown number of deaths are added due to the lack of replacement. There are not enough cattle due to “deterioration of the food base and the delay in the incorporation of the female into reproduction.”

In 2021, 33,690 head of cattle were lost for the same reason and in 2022, 82,445, which meant 22 million fewer pounds of meat

The damage to livestock mass was evident in that report, which indicated that in 2021, 33,690 head of cattle were lost for the same reason and in 2022, 82,445, which meant 22 million fewer pounds of meat. The document clarified the “accelerated” deterioration, with a mass that “decreases for years, and all indicators have alarming results.”

Ramón Aguilar Betancourt, president of the Agri-Food Commission, stressed that the animals do not have enough food and water, and frequent irregularities are repeated — not declaring births or registering changes in sex and category, among others.

At this time, the so-called “special control action” is being organized, according to Gutiérrez Velázquez, and working commissions have been created at the municipal and popular council levels. The first farmers visited will be those who raise cattle, while those who have horses will be the second. Finally, the Ministry indicates, “the change of ownership will be made to update the possession of larger livestock.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With the Felton and Guiteras Power Plants Out of Combat, a New Season of Blackouts Arrives in Cuba

The Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, in Matanzas, is the most important in the west of the Island. (ACN)

14ymedio, Madrid, 26 January 2024 — In just two hours, a storm of indignant comments has fallen on the Facebook page of the Electric Union of Cuba (UNE), which announces for this Friday a deficit of 1,010 megawatts (MW) during peak hours. The figure is one of the highest that can be remembered, after November 12, 2023, when it predicted an “affectation” of 1,000 MW. The enormous deficit in electricity is more than double that of yesterday (482 MW), when some provinces reported power outages and internet failures to this newspaper.

As warned by the UNE, the situation is due to breakdowns in unit 6 of the Maximo Gómez power plant in Mariel; a unit of the Antonio Guiteras in Matanzas; the 5 of Diez de Octubre in Nuevitas; unit 6 of Antonio Maceo in Renté and unit 2 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez in Felton. continue reading

It is only two days since the UNE announced the shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant for 72 hours due to maintenance

Although the report places the breakdown in the Antonio Guiteras, the main power plant in the West, it is only two days since the UNE announced the shutdown of the thermoelectric plant for 72 hours for maintenance. Today’s UNE announcement indicates that Mariel’s unit 8 is also undergoing maintenance.

Incomprehensibly, the UNE made the decision to continue with the maintenance of the Guiteras at the same time that the Felton thermoelectric plant, which is the most important in the east of the Island, had just broken down. The failure at the Felton occurred on Sunday, a day after there was no deficit, and only a week after its most recent synchronization with the National Energy System (SEN), on January 15.

In August 2022, at the time of the biggest crisis of the electricity system in the last two years, Raúl Castro and Miguel Díaz-Canel visited the plant. The Felton is a mirror in which the state of energy in Cuba is reflected. That day, the president uttered a phrase that haunts the plant. “Felton 1 decides today on the course of the recovery strategy, and its start is vital for the fulfillment of the objectives set, in the first order, to minimize or eliminate the blackouts by next December.”

If the situation depends on the state of Felton, the infinity of breakdowns it has suffered since then highlights the panorama, aggravated by the (apparently planned) shutdown of the Guiteras, the most important power plant in the west of the Island.

The UNE has pointed out that, for peak time, “the entry of 6 engines in the Patana de Melones with 90 MW is estimated

The UNE has pointed out that, for peak hours, “the entry of 6 engines in the Patana de Melones with 90 MW and the entry of unit 6 of the CTE Mariel with 100 MW is estimated,” which will bring little relief. Indignation is already spreading among customers, who in just a month will see the bill for “big consumers” rise.

“Those 1,000 MW are consumed by Havana and paid for by the other provinces,” a user writes, with capital letters that denote his indignation. Most, however, were ironic, knowing that it would be of little use to bother. “That’s great, I’m very happy. New season of the blackout poster. We will see how this season ends and a new one appears. Long live the Ministry and its mysteries,” another mocks.

Minister Vicente de la O Levy, who replaced Liván Arronte after the catastrophe of 2022, is now in the crosshairs, and a few days ago his ministry reported that in 2023 there were 70% fewer blackouts than the previous year. But not everyone supports him. “The minister is going too far with his fantastic strategy. The other guy was better,” says another commentator.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Two Fishermen Missing Five Days Ago in Southern Cuba Are Found Alive

The cienfuegueros went fishing last Sunday from Punta de Tamarindo, near Rancho Luna beach. (Facebook/Edmundo Dantés Junior)

14ymedio, Havana, January 26, 2024 — Cienfuegos fisherman Jacinto Octavio Rivero Li and a teenager who accompanied him, Alexander Turiño Nualla, were found alive this Thursday in a key on the southern coast of Cuba, after missing at sea for five days. The authorities have not offered details, but several publications on social networks claim that, after going fishing early last Sunday, their boat was dragged out to sea by a storm.

The versions of the rescue of Rivero, known as “El Chino” Li, and 14-year-old Turiño, differ in the place where they were found. While some locate the key to the west of the Isla de la Juventud, others claim that they were found in Cayo Sigua, an islet in Matanzas near the Cienfuegos coast. A third version – impossible because of the distance and for being in the north of Cuba – says that both had ended up in the Bahamas. continue reading

The images of the rescue of Rivero and Turiño show two uniformed men of Search and Rescue of the Ministry of the Interior

The images of the rescue of Rivero and Turiño show two uniformed men of Search and Rescue of the Ministry of the Interior, who allegedly answered the call of a fishing boat that located the cienfuegueros on the islet where they were found.

The physical change of the teenager is notable. In the rescue photos he appears much thinner and emaciated compared to the images disseminated during the search.

According to the publications, on January 20, the teenager, a resident of the Cienfuegos neighborhood of Tulipán, went fishing with Rivero on an aluminum boat from Punta de Tamarindo, near the beach of Rancho Luna. Several users indicated on Facebook that both had been seen for the last time at 4:00 in the morning on Sunday the 21st, when the light of the boat could be seen from the coast.

From that moment on, nothing else was known, and both relatives and people close to Rivero and Turiño began to report their disappearance on social networks. Some even point out that they both decided to go fishing despite the fact that they had been warned about the bad weather.

The family, according to the same sources, also notified the Cienfuegos police of their absence, and ground searches were even carried out.

An insistent comment in the publications that narrate the rescue has been the surprise that both were found alive

An insistent comment in the publications that narrate the rescue has been the surprise that both were found alive, something that has not happened in many of the disappearances that have been reported in recent weeks.

This is the case of Yorjelguis Bolaños Fernández, a 41-year-old Cuban living in the United States who disappeared on January 7 in Madruga (Mayabeque) and was found dead 10 days later. According to unconfirmed information, his body was found buried near the Institute of Animal Science (ICA), in San José de las Lajas, and the cause of death was stabbing.

On December 28, the independent press also reported the violent murder of Eugenio García, a 25-year-old who had been missing for days. García had left his house carrying 1,300,000 pesos with him to buy foreign currency on the informal market. Two days later, the young man was found dead “under a bridge,” apparently killed by a “beating” to steal his money.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘Fidel Castro Had to Know’ Says Former Colombian Drug Dealer Carlos Lehder

“I imagine that Fidel Castro was aware of everything, but I don’t know, because I didn’t see them talking together.” (Collage)

14ymedio, Madrid, January 25, 2024 — Former Colombian drug trafficker Carlos Lehder, who has just published his memoirs under the title Life and Death of the Medellín Cartel, continues to reveal details about the relationship of the criminal organization with Cuba. In a telephone interview with journalist Vicky Dávila on Semana magazine’s television program, the former criminal reiterates that “obviously Fidel Castro had to know about the cocaine trafficking; he was the conductor of the orchestra.”

When asked about the veracity of this assertion, he says: “I imagine that Fidel Castro was aware of everything, but I don’t know, because I didn’t see them talking together. I know that Raúl Castro was the commander of that operation, the leader, and I emphasize that they, although they did not know how to traffic cocaine, immediately tried to control the entire business.”

Beyond the book, where he tells about his meeting with the youngest of the Castros, then Minister of Defense, Lehder revealed that being imprisoned in the United States, where he was extradited in 1987, and cooperating with authorities, he learned that the U.S. government tried to file federal charges against Raúl Castro for “cocaine trafficking.” continue reading

They never brought federal charges against Raúl Castro although they had mountains of evidence, and a number of boatmen had been caught with cocaine coming from Cuba

The U.S. security and surveillance forces, says the former drug trafficker, “had fully monitored the shipments and boats that arrived with cocaine directly from the port of Mariel and other Cuban ports to the coasts of Florida.” He also says that “they were accumulating evidence” at the time when President George Bush, the father, lost the election to Bill Clinton. “There was, of course, a change of prosecutors and whatever, but they never brought federal charges against Raúl Castro although they had mountains of evidence, and a number of boatmen had been caught with cocaine coming from Cuba who were cooperating with the U.S. government.”

Lehder reports that he made two trips to Cuba and didn’t want to do any more. “I already saw the maneuvers they were doing, very dangerous maneuvers for me,” he says, without giving more details, and he criticized the Cuban regime: “They had their boots on the necks of the Cuban people.” Considering the Cuban government a “dictatorship,” he says, “that’s too kind a word; it’s barbaric,” an “affront to every human being and an insult to Latin America and God.”

Without specifically mentioning the famous drug trafficking case that led to the execution of General Arnaldo Ochoa, Tony de la Guardia, Jorge Martínez Valdés and Amado Padrón Trujillo in 1989, Lehder tells journalist Vicky Dávila about the “debacle” of the deal with the Colombians: “The Cubans ended up killing each other for the cocaine business.”

Faced with the suspicion raised by his testimony, which accuses numerous leaders of having accepted bribes from the cartel, Lehder argued: “The honesty of my word gave me my freedom. Pablo Escobar trusted my word for many years; the American government, with which I have no pending accounts, trusted my word and gave me my freedom. The Prime Minister of the Bahamas trusted my word, and we negotiated with him and I paid him monthly. It was unfortunate, but that was the code of conduct among international drug traffickers, who have to bribe the authorities to get protection.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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For the Scavengers, the Building Collapses in Havana Are Good News

With rebar in hand and dodging surveillance cameras, a scavenger decides to enter the danger zone. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, January 24, 2024 — The scavengers of Havana are happy. A mass of debris, bricks, iron and garbage has extended, since Monday, in the area of the facade of the old Vía Blanca hotel at 505 Zulueta Street. It took three months since this newspaper’s last visit to the property – then converted into a nest of thugs and drunks – for the collapse to be total.

Now, iron bars surround the collapse zone and prevent passage through the streets that surround it. The residents of the neighborhood, standing on the sidewalk of the neighboring police station on Dragones Street, launch their hypotheses: “They put the fence there in place of yellow tape because people would just lift it, duck under and keep walking.” Others, such as scavengers and criminals, continue to “explore” the ruins, trying to dodge the station’s surveillance cameras.

The decline of 505 Zulueta has accelerated in recent weeks. “The building began crumbling, and a part was closed, but finally the facade fell on the structure and destroyed it,” says one of the masons who works in the buildings on the street. Now you can’t walk there, and the neighbors complain that the ruins prevent them from going through the passage.

The decline of 505 Zulueta accelerated in recent weeks. (14ymedio)

For the scavengers, however, the building collapses are good news. Dedicated to dismantling buildings in poor condition to reuse what is possible – rebar, sticks, bricks, nails and even dust for concrete – the craft has proliferated in a city that is falling apart. A door knocker from the 50s or continue reading

the Soviet era can end up in a tenement building or in a slum on the periphery of Havana.

Any corner of the city can attest to their feats. In front of a mutilated wall on Hospital Street, a neighbor describes the scavengers: “They take anything that serves them in a particular construction. They sell anything. The walls disappear as the bricks are taken away.”

He is not wrong. On Hospital Street the plaster on the wall has been scraped away and you can see the bricks – whole and in pieces. Towards the corner, the iron structure is naked and wobbles over a gigantic garbage dump. “It won’t take long to fall,” the neighbor says.

The portals of the building located on the corner of Monte and Egido were once spacious and stately. (14ymedio)

The scavengers can be recognized by a piece of rebar or wood in their hands. Not infrequently they are, in addition, beggars or dumpster divers – digging in the garbage cans to look for food. The portals of the building located on the corner of Monte and Egido were once spacious and stately. The property functioned as an office of the state-owned Medicuba company and was abandoned a few years ago. Now, its entrance is carpeted by a formidable garbage dump.

Rummaging through the garbage, a “predator of ruins” – they are also caled “pirañas” and “termites” – explains to 14ymedio the tricks of his trade. Because of the pile of garbage and a “steel fence” that the State placed there, he cannot go inside as he would like. The mammoth building, he continues, has many useful materials, but taking them out will cost work. Rebar in hand and dodging two security cameras, the scavenger decides to enter and goes through a door whose threshold is, despite the debacle, a work of art.

In the heart of Havana, the notable buildings – almost all built during the Republic – are a species in danger of extinction. The inaction of the State and the incursions of the scavengers are destroying them until, eventually, they collapse.

A formidable pile of garbage carpets the portals of the building located at Monte and Egido. (14ymedio)

The damage is irreversible in most cases. It was denounced on Tuesday by the documentary filmmaker Jorge Dalton, when he learned of the collapse of 505 Zulueta. “The painful and unhappy landscape of that area is just a small sample of the 65 years of a model more defeated than an old and patched spring mattress, useless and rusty, where everything is laziness, hopelessness, destruction and desolation,” alleged the creator, who lived for many years in Havana and now lives in El Salvador.

In 1995, Havana Historian Eusebio Leal promised the neighbors of 505 Zulueta a transfer to better houses in Alamar and Habana del Este. It took 25 years for the nine families who lived there – including children – to be relocated in 2020, in the face of the imminent collapse.

When this newspaper visited the area, in September last year, the neighbors considered it as a kind of sanctuary for criminals. Not even the police from the Dragones station dared to cross the scaffolding barrier to look for the thieves who used the ruins as a hiding place.

However, the Way of the Cross of 505 Zulueta – and of multiple buildings in Havana – has many stations left, “loose stones” that collapse on the people and garbage that now has to be collected with the help of several trucks. But in the no man’s land that Havana has become, the scavenger is king.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Italy Hires 158 Cuban Health Workers To Work in Medical Centers in Sardinia

Some 500 Cuban health workers have arrived in the Calabria region. (Facebook/Roberto Occhiuto)

14ymedio, Madrid, 24 January 2024 — After Calabria, another Italian region will receive a group of Cuban doctors soon. According to the Sardinian press, 128 doctors and 30 nurses will arrive in Sardinia very soon – without specifying a date – since the permits are about to be delivered. At the moment, the financial content of the contract, which ends on December 31, 2025, has not been revealed and contains a clause for an eventual renewal.

The news was disseminated a few days ago by the media L’Unione Sarda, to whom the regional Minister of Health, Carlo Doria, confirmed that Cubans are currently receiving Italian lessons. The measure provides a solution to the urgent lack of medical personnel on the largest island in the Mediterranean.

The agreement, concluded at the Cuban Embassy in Rome between the Doria municipal government and Cuban Minister of Health José Ángel Portal Miranda, responds to months of demands from the inhabitants of Sardinia, in particular the SOS Barbagia-Mandrolisai committee.

The collective is named after two regions located in the center of Sardinia, where the lack of doctors is more noticeable than in the two large tourist areas of the country, the north (with the exclusive Emerald Coast) and the south, where Cagliari, the capital, is located. Outside these two privileged continue reading

areas – where the public healthcare network also does not have a large endowment – the shortage is alarming.

According to data from December, there are only three emergency doctors, who cannot cover the calls

According to data from December, there are only three emergency doctors, who cannot cover all the calls, and the ambulances do not have any doctors on board. In one of the health centers, the head of emergency is moving soon, leaving the place with only one permanent and three temporary doctors; that is, four of the seven that should be there. Surgeries are in danger, workers warn, having already been limited to being performed only four days a week, and with only two radiologists, it is impossible to cover holidays and vacations.

In addition, the air ambulance does not work at night either. It’s an essential transport on a very undeveloped island with precarious roads that triple the time to travel long distances.

“There is very little left of what was there a few years ago,” Manuel Tanda, head of a medical center in the area, said last month. “The situation is aggravated by the fact that 118 (emergency) operates without doctors and the air ambulance does not work at night, in case of adverse weather conditions or when other interventions are carried out. We request compliance with Ministerial Decree 70 and the law of redefining the hospital network of 2017,” he said, without mentioning other shortages like the lack of pediatricians and psychiatrists.

SOS Barbagia-Mandrolisai contacted the Doria municipal government and other health authorities in April to request an immediate solution, “invoking the hiring, ultimately, of Cuban doctors,” according to the letter, in which the detail about the lack of doctors was exhaustive and alarming.

“The health situation in Sardinia is rapidly worsening, both in terms of primary and hospital care. We note the lack of coverage at the level of essential assistance, the abnormally long waiting lists, the use of private healthcare (for those who can afford it) and the flight of hospital staff due to extreme working conditions,” they wrote, specifying that the problem already existed before the pandemic and that the hospital in the worst situation (San Camilo di Sorgono) was already qualified in a decree (the aforementioned 70) as “particularly disadvantaged,” without anything having been done to remedy it.

After listing the missing positions, the committee launched its emergency proposal, the hiring of Cuban doctors as an urgent measure

After listing the missing positions, the committee launched its emergency proposal, the hiring of Cuban doctors as an urgent measure in the face of the realization that everything else had failed: “The administrative process could be the same as that followed by the region of Calabria, with a cooperation agreement with the Cuban Medical Services Marketer (CSMC), which requires that Cuban health workers possess the necessary qualifications and skills for the exercise of care activities and the possibility of replacing them with equally qualified personnel if necessary.”

In the summer, the regional government began to accept that this was the only immediate solution. “It was necessary to proceed with the activation of a collaboration agreement with the Cuban government to provide specialized services in the branches of the healthcare system that lack workers,” it stated. It also specified that “an endowment fund of 5 million euros per year would be available for their coverage, including food, accommodation and training.” The local Italian press said that for each of the doctors of Calabria, the region would pay 3,500 euros in salary and 1,200 euros for maintenance, accommodation, travel and training.

The reaction of the national unions was not long in coming. In August, Luciano Congiu, regional deputy secretary of the Italian Union of Physicians, convened a meeting with the region to “address the content of the Complementary Regional Agreement on general medicine and discuss the pay for doctors willing to work in disadvantaged areas of Sardinia. The compensation can also double the salary, as happens in other areas of Italy, to work in a more complex environment.”

The unions say they have better proposals to restructure health in a complex region such as Sardinia without the need to resort to hiring overseas or using private companies, which they have also denounced for months. “We have to respond to the lack of health services in the territory, intervene in the bureaucratic tasks that burden the work of doctors and decisively aim for a salary adjustment to respond to the crisis,” they said.

Italy was the first European country to open the door to the hiring of Cuban doctors through the State

Italy was the first European country to open the door to the hiring of Cuban doctors through the State. It did so in an emergency, during the 2020 pandemic, when there was a virulent breakout of Covid-19 in the regions of Piedmont and Lombardy (north of the country). Calabria (in the extreme south) then signed a contract to cover structural needs and hired 500 health workers from the Island. “The idea arose from despair,” said Roberto Occhiuto, president of the Calabria region, but there are complaints in some European sectors about the CMSC operation.

Cuban doctors work in semi-slavery conditions in dozens of countries, since the government appropriates between 70% and 90% of their salary, and, in addition, they cannot interact with the local population and must publicly support the Cuban regime. Many health workers, however, continue to resort to these “medical missions” in order to facilitate their departure from Cuba or, at least, to receive a salary higher than they would earn on the Island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Little Homeland, Too Much Death

Fidel Castro’s fatal prophecy of “Homeland or Death” is being fulfilled. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 24 January 2024 — The Homeland, or what remains of it, is in danger of extinction, and the data prove it. It is not a campaign of the regime’s enemies; their own statistics say it clearly, even if they try to hide them, delay them or cover them with clumsy makeup.

In 2021, the same year that people took to the streets to shout “Homeland and Life,” 167,645 people died in Cuba, about 55,000 more than in the previous year. An average of 459 Cubans died every day, and it is even worse if we compare ourselves with other countries. That year alone, the gross mortality rate in Cuba was 14.65 per thousand inhabitants, one of the highest in the world. In the United States it was 10.40; in Brazil, 8.33; in Colombia, 7.74. Cuba was even higher than Haiti, where the mortality rate was 8.68.

It is evident that the regime concealed the real number of deaths from Covid-19, but it is also obvious that it was not difficult to die of anything in a collapsed country, without medicines, with poor food and with terrible hygienic-sanitary conditions.

Nor is there optimism about total births. In 2021 this fell to less than 100,000 for the first time. It was even worse in 2022, with 3,693 fewer births

Unfortunately, the situation did not improve much after that year. The National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei) published the figure of 120,098 deaths in 2022, well above the number before 2021. And it is continue reading

suspicious that the second head of that Institution, Juan Carlos Alfonso Fraga, admitted a much higher figure shortly before during an interview with the AP agency: 129,049 deaths. In four months, almost 9,000 numbers of that statistic disappeared.
Nor is there optimism about the birth rate. In 2021, total births were less than 100,000 for the first time. It was even worse in 2022, with 3,693 fewer births. The Regime pats itself on the back, bragging that Cuba has birth rates similar to that of developed countries. Another lie! People don’t want to have children in Cuba because of the misery and insecurity they experience. Even Cubadebate has had to admit that there has been no generational replacement since 1978.

And then there is the migratory phenomenon. The country does not want to include in its statistics the hundreds of thousands of Cubans who have left without returning in the last three years. They hold on to the fact that the population continues to be more than 11 million inhabitants. They have extended the allowed time of stay abroad again and again. They say they do it because of the pandemic and its effects, they are so good! In reality, they do it so as not to have to admit the tremendous gap that the Island has suffered. Cuba is, on top of that, the country with the lowest proportion of immigration worldwide.

According to the Ministry of Public Health, the first cause of death is related to heart disease. It is fatally ironic that the Regime’s slogan was precisely: “On Cuba, put a heart.” It would seem like black humor in another context, but in this one it sounds like premeditated cruelty. The constant stress to which they subject a people who no longer know what the next order or package will be has the country at permanent risk of a heart attack. It is also alarming that, among the top 10 causes of death, suicide is found, even if they use the euphemism “self-inflicted injuries.”

In a country with destroyed roads and obsolete cars, how can we expect accidents to go down?

When all the statistics for 2023 come out, it will be hard not to cry for Cuba. If we add to all of the above the sudden increase in violence, femicides, drug use among young people, machetes, stab wounds… God!

In a country with destroyed roads and obsolete cars, how can we expect accidents to go down? In a country that gives combat orders against its own people and plays dice with the economy, how do they expect young people to stay? In a country that has made an apology for violence, where its officials hand out slaps, how can they expect young people from the slums not to pick up knives?

If the Regime does not fall soon, do not imagine that they will be there for 62,000 millennia; at this rate, the population will become extinct in ten years. This will fulfill Fidel Castro’s fatal prophecy when he said “Homeland or Death.” There is very little left of the homeland, and what is left is unrecoverable. Death is the one equalizer, from Punta de Maisí to Cabo de San Antonio.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Exile Leaders and Musicians Unite Against Communism and for Freedom on the Island

The Freedom and Unity campaign, for democracy and against communism, took place at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora. (Capture)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 24 January 2024 — The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC), a platform of opposition organizations from inside and outside the Island, presented this Tuesday in Miami a campaign to promote freedom with the premiere of the video of the song La Marcha Anticomunista (The Anticommunist March), recorded by Paquito D’Rivera and Frankie Marcos & Clouds.

The Freedom and Unity campaign, for democracy and against communism, which took place at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, brought together a large audience and leaders of the exile community, in addition to 20 musicians who were given an award in recognition of their defense of freedom.

This meeting “goes beyond our geographies and latitudes and calls on all of us to work in favor of freedom and democracy and against communism

This meeting “goes beyond our geographies and latitudes and calls on all of us to work for freedom and democracy and against communism,” Sylvia Iriondo, president of Mothers and Women against Repression, one of the member organizations of the ARC, told EFE. continue reading

As the “shocking” video of the song says, the objective of this campaign that has just begun is to warn society that “communism is the cancer of humanity,” a chorus that La Marcha Anticommunista insistently repeats with “images and testimonies of people who are victims of that evil,” said Iriondo, one of the speakers at the event.

The premier of the video, in Spanish and English, was attended by musicians from inside and outside the Island and from other countries, including Amaury Gutiérrez, Marisela Verena, Carlos Oliva, Luis Bofill, El Funky, Marichal, Los 3 de la Habana, El B de los Aldeanos and Greg Jackson, an American, among others.

The ARC, made up of 50 Cuban groups, received multiple messages of solidarity during the event from deputies belonging to the European Union, Latin America and different political parties.

It is an international effort for “freedom, the unity of democratic forces and against communist regimes such as Cuba,” added the leader of the exile.

This campaign is a “step in the right direction, because this evil that plagues humanity (communism) is the responsibility of all of us,” to achieve the “solidarity that the Cuban people and others deserve,” he said.

The official video of the song points out that its message is aimed at “a confused world, exposed to socialist and leftist propaganda

The official video of the song points out that its message is aimed at “a confused world, exposed to socialist and leftist propaganda, as well as at those who have been influenced by the deceptive promises of these ideologies.”

“Ultimately, our goal is to provide support to those people who defend human rights, political freedom and global justice on a daily basis,” says the text of the song by Frankie Marcos & Clouds, Paquito D’Rivera and Greg Jackson.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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The Central Bank of Cuba Admits That the Country Is Not Ready for Electronic Payment

The Central Bank of Cuba admits that many of the Island’s ATMs are in poor condition. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 24 January 2024 — The Central Bank of Cuba’s (BCC’s) report on the banking process was explained this Wednesday by Cubadebate. The conclusions are not optimistic: the country is not prepared to have electronic collection devices in all businesses, state and private.

The fiasco is even more visible in the case of the MSMEs (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) and other private businesses, which have been perfecting strategies for months to avoid the obligation to deposit their money in the banks and pay taxes. In fact, they insist, the amount of cash circulating on the Island increased in 2023 compared to the previous year, although inflation is also responsible.

“The growth and emergence of new economic actors has led to more entities to deal with and more monetary circulation. At the same time, a greater number of people go to the bank to deposit and withdraw cash,” explains Cubadebate, but the intention to enable ATMs for the population has not had the desired effect, as banking institutions are not able to absorb the growing volume of transactions.

However, the report points out, at the end of 2023, the BCC noted a decrease in cash withdrawals and an increase in the use of electronic channels by 21.1% in December, compared to September. In the same period, 595,005 digital operations were carried out for a value of 1,745 million pesos. continue reading

Likewise, at the end of the year, operations in accounts associated with payment cards that do not involve cash were 68.3% of the total, 4.9% more than a year earlier.

Of the 364,705 “economic actors” that exist in the country, only 67.8% have been trained

Cubadebate says that the government has implemented bonuses of 6% and 10% for each electronic operation carried out, depending on the service they pay, and has created an extra cash service – the possibility of extracting cash from a bank account in a state ration store. The government has also trained workers and companies in the implementation of digital payment systems, which has contributed to the greater use of that method. However, the media acknowledges, the efforts remain insufficient.

Of the 364,705 “economic actors” that exist in the country, only 67.8% have been trained, and every day new MSMEs arise (there are already about 10,000) that increase demand. There is no cash availability either, as most ATMs are in poor condition and banks are experiencing a serious shortage of employees. “Havana is feeling the largest impact, with a 26% turnover of workers,” the newspaper added.

In 2023, the National Assembly of People’s Power set up commissions to evaluate the service in the banking and financial systems and found it deficient. The worst part, the report indicated, pertained to farmers and the elderly, who do not have the means or the time to get around the banking bureaucracy.

“The farming cooperative sector is still not in a position to face banking at the level that the country need”

The same conclusion was reached by Rafael Pridas La O, president of the National Association of Small Farmers in the municipality of Nueva Paz, in the province of Mayabeque: “The farming cooperative sector is still not in a position to face banking at the level that the country needs.” The main cause, in addition to the advanced age of many, he argues, is that most people have cell phones that are good at capturing coverage in precarious service areas but are not modern enough to make electronic payments.

Also, “it is difficult to leave the farm to spend the whole day lining up in a bank to withdraw cash, even more so with the critical situation of transport and the distance between the popular councils that make up the municipality. Today we have cooperatives with more than two million pesos in their accounts that can’t be withdrawn,” Pridas explained.

Also, with workers who charge up to 1,000 pesos per day and demand cash, “farmers need the money immediately,” he continued. The banks have tried to be flexible and allow withdrawals of up to 700,000 pesos if they are given advance notice, “but I have farmers with 50 workers who must be paid 50,000 pesos every day,” and what the bank allows you to take out, after expenses, makes it “tight,” he says.

Another problem is obtaining raw materials, or foreign exchange to buy them in the MSMEs, when sellers mostly want to be paid in cash. If farmers are pressured to pay with transfers, they will try to look for other ways to obtain physical money “by diverting goods to the black market, which would affect, among other things, the increase in the price of food,” Pridas explained.

“There are economic actors who do not accept electronic payment, not even with low-denomination cash”

In everyday life, paying for food or services is not easy either. “There are economic actors who do not accept electronic payment, not even with low-denomination cash. Others keep the QR code out of sight of customers. Even in some ration stores they don’t know how to use the system and make excuses for not providing the service,” a habanera tells Cubadebate.

Other merchants simply refuse to pay for transfers or set differentiated prices, the cash payment being cheaper. Sending money to personal accounts and not to those of companies is another way for sellers to avoid paying taxes.

In the case of prepaid cards to buy fuel, says a customer, sometimes you arrive at the gas station and there is no connection. The long lines to acquire these cards are also a problem, he adds. “Iinstead of shortening the process, it takes longer.”

In a context in which even the sellers in state companies are reluctant to accept electronic payments, the conclusion of the report is clear: “The infrastructure does not yet have the development required by the process – especially in the interior of the country – and non-state economic actors do not have a formal market where they can acquire foreign currency, so they continue to accumulate cash and demand payment by that route from their customers.” However, banking “continues ahead.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Cuban Bank Offers New Prepaid Cards in Dollars for Cubans and Foreigners

The cards can be recharged in any of the foreign currencies circulating on the Island. (Facebook/Bandec)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 January 2024 — A group of “selected branches” of the Banco de Crédito y Comercio de Cuba (Bandec) will begin selling prepaid cards in dollars for domestic and foreign customers starting this Wednesday. Similar to those already marketed in hotels, the new cards offer advantages over their predecessors: they are valid for five years instead of two and can be used to purchase fuel in the gas stations authorized to sell in foreign currency.

Bandec’s statement, published this Tuesday on Facebook, clarifies that the cards will be available, in addition to bank branches, in the Casas de Cambio (Cadecas) of the Island and, contrary to the previous ones, “they can be acquired by foreign and national natural persons resident or not in the national territory, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), non-agricultural cooperatives, self-employed workers, individual farmers (private)” and “the general population.”

The minimum amount to deposit to acquire a card will be 50 dollars or its equivalent in any of the currencies circulating on the Island, from which the bank will deduct four in terms of payment for the card, only the first time.

“It is rechargeable through cash deposits with the foreign currencies authorized to circulate and by transfers from abroad, with no limit on the amount,” said the bank, which did set a limit for the withdrawal of cash. “The cardholder, at the time of his departure from the country, can be reimbursed for the unused amount up to a maximum of 100 US dollars or its continue reading

equivalent in another available currency, after presenting his boarding pass,” the statement explains.

It is rechargeable through cash deposits with the foreign currencies authorized to circulate and by transfers from abroad, with no limit on the amount

The bank did not clarify, however, whether the cards could be purchased initially at fixed prices, of 50, 100, 200, 500 or 1,000 dollars for example, such as those that are already traded on the Island and that are part of the regime’s strategy to retain at all cost the foreign currencies that enter the country, in any amount it can.

The new option seems to be designed for American and Cuban-American tourists who arrive on the Island and cannot use their bank cards on national territory due to the restrictions imposed by the embargo. For travelers from other countries, such as Europe, Canada and Latin America, the use of their Visa or Mastercard cards continues to be more direct and effective.

Days ago, the Cimex company also announced the launch of a foreign currency card with which fuel could be purchased in the gas stations in dollars, and even to import goods to the Island. Plastic, the corporation said at the time, can be used in all shops on the Island that have a point of sale (POS) terminal, whether in retail or wholesale stores. However, contrary to the card issued by Bandec, the Cimex card obliges customers to extract in pesos the money they have left at the time of leaving the country.

The card can also be requested from abroad, does not require a minimum deposit to be activated – except for its initial cost of four dollars – and will work with a numeric key, so customers will not have to identify themselves when using it.

“And now you’re telling me that I have to pay you four dollars for a prepaid card because the cards that Bandec has given me up to now aren’t going to work?”

Despite the enthusiasm with which the banks shared their “initiative,” customers did not have the same reaction. Several users complained on Tuesday morning, at the bottom of Bandec’s announcement, about the lack of clarity of the institutions and the Government regarding the use of these cards, especially by residents of the Island.

“I’m Cuban and have been a Bandec customer for many years with accounts in different currencies, and now you’re telling me that I have to pay you four dollars for a prepaid card because the cards that Bandec has given me up to now aren’t going to work to cover all my needs?” a reader questioned.

Other customers bombarded Bandec with more practical concerns: Can transfers be made with the new card? Can they be used to buy in wholesale markets? Why can’t I use my MLC card (freely convertible currency) to pay for fuel directly? The only thing that the announcement makes clear, a user said, is that “the MLC is not currency, it is a bonus that depends on products and services,” for which they have forced Cubans to pay despite the fact that salaries are still in pesos.

Nor has it been a good experience for travelers from other countries who bought these cards in Cuba. A report published by this newspaper last November reported on the difficulties of a Cuban-American faced to acquire products and services when he traveled to visit his family on the Island.

Nor has it been a good experience for travelers from other countries who bought these cards in Cuba

“They lose money (the Government), without a doubt, because they are not flexible. The worst thing is that when the tourist learns about the twisted mechanism they have created, now he’s upset,” Yoandy said at the time, referring to the low availability of small denomination cards and the refusal of hotels and establishments to receive foreign exchange in cash.

“She (his wife) could not understand that the hotel restaurant had food, it was full of waiters, the bar full of bottles, and we could not be taken care of because we could not pay in dollars and we refused to be sold an MLC card for 500 dollars,” he complained.

An Infotur employee then told 14ymedio that both he and his colleagues had noticed that customers preferred to buy cards of 50 or 100 dollars that they could then recharge “to the extent that they needed to have more funds.” However, he added, those denominations are always in “search and seizure.”

At this rate and with how difficult it has become to pay for everything, said a resigned netizen in the Bandec publication, “it is better that they dollarize everything.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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