Cervantes was 29 years old at the time of her death. (Facebook/Diana Rosa Cervantes Mejías)
14ymedio, Havana, January 5, 2024 — The femicide of Diana Rosa Cervantes Mejías in Camagüey, which occurred on January 2, was confirmed this Thursday by the independent journalist Henry Constantín, who interviewed a relative of the victim and provided more details about the crime. The murder of Cervantes is the first case of violence against a women resulting in murder recorded by the independent media in 2024, after the previous year’s figure of 87 femicides on the Island.
According to a note published on Facebook by La Hora de Cuba, a media outlet directed by Constantín, Cervantes met her ex-partner last Tuesday in the house where they used to live together before separating, located “near the factory known as La Baldosera, in the Juruquey neighborhood” in Havana.
The 29-year-old victim was brutally beaten by the alleged aggressor, whose identity responds to the initials C.A.G. The man, said Constantín, who interviewed Cervantes’ mother, was on bail and awaiting trial at the time of the murder for having assaulted a co-worker “with a machete.”
Likewise, an anonymous source consulted by ’La Hora de Cuba’ characterized the alleged killer as “an abuser”
Several social media posts in recent days alleged that Cervantes had been beaten with a bat “out of jealousy.” Likewise, an anonymous source consulted by La Hora de Cuba characterized the alleged killer as “an abuser.” The aggressor “is now imprisoned,” this media confirmed, adding that Cervantes “left behind a nine-year-old boy.”
This Monday there was also news of the femicide of Nurisbel Guerra, a nurse resident in the Granma municipality of Cauto Cristo, who was serving on a medical mission in Venezuela. After returning to the Island for a few days on December 24, she was killed by her husband, who committed suicide after cutting her throat. The man, identified as Oreste Tamayo, from whom she intended to separate, was a worker at the Electricity Company of the province, as several media reported at the time.
The name “Guerra” was the last one added to the 87 femicides – more than double those quantified a year earlier (34) – that occurred on the Island in 2023, as confirmed by independent platforms and media.
This type of crime, which is not classified in the Criminal Code, has managed to attract the attention of the Island’s population, who demand a response from the authorities in the face of the “wave of violence” in the country that has claimed the lives of dozens of women.
For their part, both the official press and the authorities keep their distance from femicides, and their promises to prevent and quantify cases of violence against women in real time remain unfulfilled.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A battalion of engineers has been training at the University of Computer Science for several years. (Facebook/UCI)
14ymedio, Havana, January 6, 2024 — The Cuban communications monopoly, Etecsa, revealed this Saturday that its cybersecurity experts recorded 2,600 incidents from January to September 2023, including numerous attacks and “complex intrusions” into banking and government servers, which are characterized by “the use of unauthorized systems and devices to share data that are of a confidential nature.”
Daniel Ramos, Business Director of Etecsa, said that most of the attacks have to do with “the sending and receiving of spam, malicious traffic generated by malicious codes, service scans and exploitation of vulnerabilities that have compromised websites and other computer elements.”
However, the official said he felt reassured about the future of cybersecurity in the country: a battalion of engineers has been training at the University of Computer Sciences (UCI) for several years, with a course plan that will train them to become the digital elite, with one goal: to make war on “cybercriminals” with a spoonful of their own medicine, Artificial Intelligence (AI), among the other tools used by “criminals,” Ramos said. continue reading
“Human error is one of the main causes of cyber incidents in State entities,” Ramos said
“Human error is one of the main causes of cyber incidents in State entities,” Ramos said. The cause: “violations of information security policies by those responsible for computer security and users of these technologies.”
In addition, he pointed out, in “work devices” – computers and the industrial phones of cadres and workers, subsidized by the Government – “weak passwords” are used, and it is common for “staff to visit unsafe websites.”
Some 8.4 million Cubans have an Internet connection, which also makes them vulnerable to threats, Ramos alleged. Some 70% of the cybersecurity “incidents” counted by Etecsa refer to “cyber harassment, identity theft and scams through digital social networks and electronic payment channels” such as Transfermóvil and EnZona, Ramos said.
Etecsa considers cybersecurity as an indispensable condition for the banking process set up by the authorities in August 2023. Without “high levels of security in the technological organizations involved” there will be no banking, the official warned. Ramos also asked for a “permanent update” of the telecommunications laws in Cuba.
The director of Etecsa, who alluded to Cuban servers as victims of “cyber enemies,” did not say a word about the complaints of international cybersecurity companies, which have warned about the intensification, since 2019, of the information manipulation campaigns that several Governments – including that of Cuba – have put at the center of their political agendas.
The proliferation of anonymous profiles, the generation of images and videos with AI and the dissemination of false content are some of the activities that characterize the work of these Internet groups
The proliferation of anonymous profiles, the generation of images and videos with AI and the dissemination of false content are some of the activities that characterize the work of these Internet groups, related to the Island’s regime and the governments of Russia, China, Iran, Mexico, Argentina, El Salvador and, in addition, organizations in Ethiopia, Indonesia and Ecuador, according to the American company Mandiant.
Although Mandiant does not reveal to what extent the Cuban regime is involved in the financing of these groups, its report takes as an example one of the false profiles created by a group related to the Government of Havana. The technique, they say, is the recreation of a digitally altered face so that it looks like the profile of a real person.
For more than a decade, activists have pointed out the ICU as the origin of these campaigns. Even the testimonies of graduates of that center confirm the hypothesis that students, among their teaching tasks, must carry out hacking and denial-of-service attacks on dissident sites, techniques that are now learned professionally, as Ramos explained, in the recent Cybersecurity major of the ICU.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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After half an hour, the driver gave his diagnosis: the transmission belt broke and, worst of all, he didn’t have a spare. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, 4 January 2024 — The trip from Ciego de Ávila to Havana by bus is neither short nor cheap, but Maidelys is already used to it. This habanera has been traveling that road by public transport for ten years every time she has a vacation, to visit a sister in the central province. Although the distance is about 400 kilometers, or 250 miles, the trip between the two cities by road takes almost eight hours. That is, if there are no unforeseen events like those that happened this Wednesday, which caused her to arrive three hours later.
As has been customary for a long time, another brother, an emigrant, had given her the ticket, which cost 28 euros, buying it on the Viazul website, where payment is only accepted with foreign cards. Very few can afford these prices, so the vehicle, coming from Santiago de Cuba, was full of foreign tourists, many of them Cuban-Americans, with very few domestic travelers.
The bus left at six in the morning from Ciego de Ávila, and Maidelys fell asleep right away, until they reached the next stop, Sancti Spíritus. “Fortunately it was one of the comfortable buses, because in some Astros [National Bus Company] I can’t get a wink of sleep,” she says. “Once I traveled in one that had no floor in front of my seat, and I spent the whole trip thinking that if I fell asleep I would fall through the hole.”
“There’s a goldmine here,” is how Maidelys described the atmosphere of Las Palmas restaurant. (14ymedio)
Another advantage of going in a “tourist” vehicle is that they have hot food at the stops. “With the bus of the proletariat, there’s only sugar and more sugar,” Maidelys jokes, referring to the soft drinks and cookies sold at the government stops.
At kilometer 139 of the National Highway, after passing Santa Clara, the bus stopped for breakfast. “There’s a goldmine here,” is how Maidelys described the atmosphere of the Las Palmas restaurant, a “grill” where the meat dishes cost 2,000 pesos, the sandwiches go from 600 to 1,200, and a continue reading
malted milkshake costs 500. They also sold boxes of cigars for 120 dollars, although some foreigners haggled until they got them down to 110.
Everything seemed to be in order – they had already passed through the provinces of Cienfuegos and Matanzas – when with just under an hour and a half left to reach the capital, at kilometer 72 on the highway, at the height of Nueva Paz in Mayabeque, the vehicle stopped.
“At first you only heard the driver and someone else, like a baggage handler, and no one worried,” says Maidelys. “But then the air conditioning turned off, and people began to protest, saying it was a lack of respect, what with the cost of the ticket.”
An almendrón — a classic American car operating as a shared taxi — stopped to help, but they didn’t have the right part, and then a Transgaviota bus, which didn’t have any spare parts either.” (14ymedio)
After half an hour, the driver gave his diagnosis: the transmission belt broke and, worst of all, he did not have a spare. He did not say if they would have to wait for another vehicle or if the company would send help. “There is a review department that is supposed to handle all breakdowns,” Maidelys says. “It shouldn’t happen because they’re charging you up the nose, and none of these buses have the comfort they’re supposed to have.”
The driver himself, she says, acknowledged his impotence before the travelers who complained about the breakdown: “He told us that the rule said that after five years the buses should be renewed, but that Viazul has not had new buses for at least 15 years.” The laughter of those present testified to the lack of credibility of the driver’s excuse for such precariousness: “the blockade.”
Soon, as the minutes passed and there was no solution, the good mood gave way to restlessness. “There were people with flights at two in the afternoon, another with a ticket for 1:00 pm, but he already knew it was lost,” says Maidalys. The most dramatic case was that of a young mother who was traveling with her daughter to get to Nicaragua — from where she would probably make the journey to the United States: she cried when she saw her money for the bus tickets wasted.
Those who did not have a plane to catch were the most resigned, and they spread out on the ground. (14ymedio)
Those who did not have to catch a plane were the most resigned, and they spread out on the ground, like Maidalys. From a mound she saw how the bus driver desperately stopped other vehicles to ask for help. “An almendrón [a 1950s American car operating as a shared taxi] stopped, but they didn’t have the right part, and then a Transgaviota bus, which didn’t have spare parts either,” she says.
And she continues with the surreal parade that soon populated the place: “A pastry seller appeared and then someone who sold preserves, to get us to buy a kilo, but the worst thing was that an old woman who got on in Santa Clara began to hyperventilate. I don’t know if it was from anxiety or fatigue, but they said that there was no ambulance to pick her up.”
It was more than an hour after being stranded that they began to call the passengers whose final destination was terminal 3 of the José Martí International Airport, to get them into another vehicle. “But they were warned that they had to stand up,” Maidelys says. With that bus, a fan belt also arrived, but it didn’t solve the problem either.
“We had to wait almost three hours for another bus to come and pick us all up.” (14ymedio)
“We had to wait almost three hours for another bus to come and pick us all up,” says Maidelys, who finally arrived at her destination, the bus terminal near the Plaza de la Revolución, at the end of the evening. “I had a piece of meat in my suitcase. It was frozen but I was already afraid that when I arrived in Havana it would be cooked. Rather than Viazul, they should call it Viacrucis [the Way of the Cross].”
The only happy person during the trip, she indicates, was a passenger who, in the middle of the journey, learned that she had received Spanish citizenship: “She started screaming like crazy, and it’s no wonder. She’s not going to have to put up with the things of this country anymore.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Customers will be able to buy packages of 14 and 21 days to be treated on the Island, beginning in January. (Invasor)
14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, January 4, 2024 — Ready to take out the artillery in the face of the tourism crisis in Cuba, the ministries of Public Health and Tourism returned this Thursday to their strategy to make the Island a paradise for the sick traveler. The Cayería Norte of the province of Ciego de Ávila will be converted into an enclave of “oriental and western therapies, along with therapies with dolphins,” where “ancestral energies” will have as much weight as “the use of Cuban medicines.”
The Medical Services Marketer (CSMC) explained to the official press that the “traditional” Cuban sun and beach tourism is already medicinal in itself, but that they plan a whole package to contribute “to the well-being and improvement of the quality of life” of those who relapse, afflicted by any ailment or a desire for relaxation on the beaches of Seville.
Agnerys Cruz, director of the state company in Ciego de Ávila, pointed out to Invasor that the services will include all kinds of innovative “therapies”
Agnerys Cruz, director of the state company in Ciego de Ávila, told Invasor that the services will include all kinds of innovative “therapies,” as well as “the consumption of healthy food and drinks” and direct interaction with the dolphins of Cayo Guillermo, which offer proven benefits to the mental health of patients.
“To this is added the possibility of attention to different disorders, from the autism spectrum, in all its varieties, to others that hinder socialization,” Cruz added, without going into details. continue reading
The limits of the program are only imposed, judging from the announcement, by the imagination. “The possibility of visiting cities and rural areas is added, including agricultural farms and local development projects, where they can enjoy ecological walks, farmers’ lunches, traditional Cuban drinks, tropical fruits and fresh vegetables. These proposals reinforce the initiative to travel to Cuba to receive well-being and quality of life services,” the director said.
On a more practical note, Cruz offered customers packages of 14 and 21 days, beginning in January, although she did not delve into the costs. “The experience will be wonderful for both tourists and therapists,” she said.
Both the state facilities and the hotels of Jardínes del Rey will be involved in the new program, which already includes the Canadian Blue Diamond Resorts as one of its partners. “These offers are added to the existing ones at the Starfish Cayo Guillermo hotel, but the purpose is to extend them to other facilities,” the director explained.
However, the CSMC plans an ambitious expansion in its services and is already targeting other audiences. “The Grand Muthu Rainbow hotel, destined for the LGBTIQ+ segment, develops specific therapies that meet the demands of that market and make the stay more pleasant,” Cruz celebrated.
Also inaugurated, in the capital city of the province, was a medical office at the Rueda hotel, “with the aim of ensuring healthcare for those who engage in city tourism in hotel facilities, rental houses or are passing through the province,” she added.
The staff will promote the use of Cuban drugs such as vaccines against covid-19 and Heberprot-P
The office will promote the use of Cuban drugs such as vaccines against covid-19 and Heberprot-P, the latter described as a “stimulant and accelerator of the healing of diabetic foot ulcers” that reduces the risk of amputation.
“In the same way, the medical office staff will promote services aimed at guaranteeing the well-being and quality of life of tourists, such as massages and cosmetic dermatology,” Cruz said.
The initiative, Invasor alleges, is based on data from the World Tourism Organization, which assures that this year health tourism will be a “trend,” since it “increased the number of travelers eager to regain their energies, take a ’breather’ and feel comfortable with themselves.”
It is not the first time that the regime has tried to create a “favorable climate” to attract this type of traveler. After the coronavirus pandemic, the authorities offered foreigners a trip to the Island to recover or receive treatment. The controversy was not long in coming from the population, who feared an increase in the number of infections with the arrival of thousands of tourists.
To this is added, today, the health debacle that the country faces, unable to offer treatment or perform a surgery without the patient’s emigrated relatives sending everything from the simplest supplies, such as needles and thread, to the most expensive drugs. The situation has reached the point where the Government has had to extend again and again the tariff exemption for food, toiletries, medicines and even generators that travelers can bring to the Island for non-commercial purposes.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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After nine days of walking, the “Exodus from Poverty” caravan was dissolved. (EFE)
14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 4 January 2024 — The Mexican Refugee Aid Commission (COMAR) processed documents for 18,386 Cubans during 2023. All of them were part of the 140,982 migrants who requested documents for visitors for humanitarian reasons, which includes asylum cases. This is a “record figure,” the coordinator for COMAR, Andrés Ramírez Silva, told 14ymedio.
Migrants from the Island were the third largest group to which they provided assistance, behind Haitians, with 44,239 applications and Hondurans, with 41,935. Ramírez Silva stressed that despite the fact that the figure is considerable, between “November and December” they observed a decrease in the number of irregular foreigners who went to their facilities.
“Since October it has been agreed with the Ministry of the Interior to give priority to migrants who request asylum and want to remain in Mexico,” the official also explained, who attributed the collapse suffered during the year to the misinformation among foreigners who came to obtain transit permits so as not to be arrested. continue reading
“Not to be confused with those who continue to arrive in Mexico. The flow has been very large and that is why the meeting took place between Mexico and the United States”
Ramírez Silva clarified that this decrease refers to migrants who approach COMAR: “Not to be confused with those who continue to arrive in Mexico. The flow has been very large, and that is why the meeting between Mexico and the United States took place.”
Guillermo wants to reach the United States, but he distrusts the Mexican authorities who have offered the almost 5,000 migrants who make up the so-called “Exodus of Poverty” caravan a “humanitarian visa” to be able to transit to the northern border. “They are going to return us to Tapachula and put us in prison,” he fears.
This Cuban tells 14ymedio that neither he nor nine other Cubans are going to get on the buses that Migración sent to the municipality of Mapastepec to transfer them to the custom facilities of Cerro Gordo, located on the Huixtla-Villa Comaltitlán section. He says that they will get the documents, but they will continue walking.
Zuselmi García López and the other 12 Cubans whom Migración tried to extort, charging 1,500 Mexican pesos (88 dollars) each, have left the caravan. “The same day of the complaint they took advantage of the night to continue in a van,” says Guillermo.
A group of the so-called “Exodus of Poverty” caravan in the municipality of Mapastepec (Chiapas). (Facebook/Girasol TV)
The coordinator of the Center for Human Significance, Luis Villagrán, told this newspaper that Migration committed to provide special attention to the vulnerable groups of the caravan (minors, women, the elderly). These will be attended to through the DIF (National System for the Integral Development of the Family) and will be provided with “assistance and services to meet their family needs.” The remaining migrants will be transferred to other parts of the country, but he did not specify where.
While the procedures are being carried out for the members of the caravan, the Secretary of the Interior, Luisa Alcalde Luján, reported the rescue of 31 people who were kidnapped in the state of Tamaulipas.
Without breaking down the figures by nationalities, Migration said that last year 135,382 documents were issued for visitors for humanitarian reasons, of which 97,545 were refugees, 25,402 were victims of persecution and 9,103 were given documents for humanitarian reasons.
They also delivered 136,235 documents for temporary residents, 83,529 to applicants for permanent residence, 69,517 to regional visitors and 6,637 for border workers.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Domínguez, in the center, analyzes his game against his Indian rival, Pranav, and his coach, Vladimir Chuchelov, in Sitges. (ChessBase)
14ymedio, Havana, 2 January 2024 — The unexpected departure of Leinier Domínguez in the Sunway Sitges tournament (Barcelona) last December did not prevent the Cuban from starting the year as the eighth best chess player in the world, according to the International Chess Federation (FIDE). With 2,752 Elo* and playing under the American flag, it is not the most notable score of the great master, but it is his best mark in the international ranking.
The Cuban has been one of the top ten of FIDE on three other occasions, always with a better score than this year and in 10th place. In May 2014, he had 2,768 Elo; in August 2019, 2,763, and in October of that same year, also 2,763.
Domínguez – who at 40 is the oldest member on the list – was in seventh place for several weeks and had his sights set on the Candidates Tournament, which will be held in April in Canada. However, on September 16, in Barcelona, he agreed to a draw with the young Indian chess player Anand Pranav and withdrew from the tournament for health reasons. continue reading
His participation in the Sitges contest responded to a FIDE requirement that participants in the Candidate Tournament win in a competition outside the country they represent
His participation in the Sitges contest responded to a FIDE requirement that participants in the Candidate Tournament win in a competition outside the country they represent. According to the Spanish journalist Leontxo García, the measure – which has generated great controversy – forced Domínguez to “fly urgently” to Spain, with a view to complying with the Federation and guaranteeing the points he needed.
It couldn’t be. García himself, in his comment on the Cuban’s performance in Sitges, where he was the great favorite, concluded that Pranav – a 17-year-old prodigy and with only 2,520 Elo – had “embittered” the day.
In fact, after 43 moves and playing with white, Domínguez could only reach a draw with his opponent. The Cuban started with a Spanish opening and built a solid defense, but from the 23rd move he made a series of mistakes that cost him the victory. When they agreed on a draw, Pranav kept his rooks and a bishop, and Domínguez his queen and a knight.
Two days later he appeared on television talking about his departure from the tournament. “I had all the desire in the world to fight for a spot in the Candidates Tournament,” he said. “I’m simply risking too much if I continue. I could have played better. I don’t regret it.”
The FIDE world ranking included this January, in addition, the Camagüeyan Carlos Daniel Albornoz in the group of chess players with more than 2,600 Elo. The Cuban, towards whose career the official press remains vigilant, was the winner of the Carlos Torre in Memoriam tournament, held last December in Mexico. Until February, when FIDE updates its results again, Albornoz will occupy 186th place in the world.
None of the successes of the so-called ’Idol of Güines’ is echoed by the official Cuban press, which this Tuesday celebrated the results of Albornoz
At the top of the list remains the Norwegian genius Magnus Carlsen, with 2,830 Elo, followed by far by one of Domínguez’s traditional rivals, the Italian-nationalized American, Fabiano Caruana, with 2,803. Below 2,800 are the Japanese Hikaru Nakamura, the Chinese Liren Ding, the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi, the French Alireza Firouzja and the Filipino Wesly So, who is followed by Domínguez.
None of the successes of the so-called Idol of Güines is reported by the official Cuban press, which on Tuesday celebrated the results of Albornoz and reviewed the list up to Nepomniachtchi, without daring to allude to Domínguez.
The Cuban Chess Federation, of which Domínguez was the most valuable asset until he left for the United States, invited emigrated chess players to play in Cuban national championships if they left the foreign federations with which they had affiliated. In the best of his world game, Domínguez did not react to the measure or to the statements of the ruling party, who promised to make an “exception” if he requested it.
The person who was definitively ruled out, because he was “disrespectful” of the regime, was the great master Lázaro Bruzón. Following his critical position against the Government, Bruzón did not refrain from commenting on the draconian conditions of the Cuban authorities. “They have the Cuban people sunk into the utmost misery and despair and they know what they have to do, which is a radical change of the system,” he said at the time.
*Translator’s note: The Elo rating system calculates the skill level of chess players.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Among other predictions is a decrease in the birth rate and more marital breakdowns. (EFE)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 1 January 2024 — The Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba fortells for 2024 an increase in disease, crime, alcohol and drug use, and it drew attention to the increase in “abuse of women” on the Island, according to its predictions released this Monday.
A group of priests from the Cuban Santería or “babalawos” met on New Year’s Eve at the headquarters of the Association in Havana, as is tradition, and on January 1 they published the well-known Letter of the Year, one of the traditions rooted in practitioners and believers on the Island.
The predictions of the oracle of Afro-Cuban religions foreshadow, among other things, a decrease in the birth rate, an increase in criminal activities and more marital breakdowns.
Priests advise “to take precautions with belongings during national trips
Also diseases of the lower abdomen, genetic ailments, the increase of neurological ailments and skin conditions. continue reading
The priests advised Cubans “to pay more attention to agricultural productivity and the use of land” and “to take precautions with belongings during national trips,” in addition to asking the “corresponding authorities for preventive work on the intake of alcoholic beverages and the consumption of narcotics, especially among young people.”
In Santeria, one of the most widespread syncretic cults in Cuba, each letter or sign includes a history of the deities or the “orishas” of the Yoruba pantheon, who speak for it and implicitly carry a teaching or a general recommendation.
In 2024, among the recommendations are to ” not leave children in the care of anyone, as they can be harmed, and be careful with them even in your own home
In 2024, among the recommendations are to “not leave children in the care of anyone, as they can be harmed, and be careful with them even in your own home” and to “be respectful of the differences between human beings to avoid conflicts and unnecessary disagreements.”
The syncretic cults arrived in Cuba with the African slaves in the colonial era, and their practices are transmitted by oral tradition from one generation to another through prayers, rites, spells, magic formulas, sayings, dances, songs, sacrifices and liturgies.
Santería uses divination as one of its main practices, and among its elements are snail shells for the act of consultation and the use of the so-called “foundation necklaces,” made with beads of the colors that characterize each deity.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Headquarters of the Miguel Febles Padrón Independent Commission, in Diez de Octubre, Havana. (Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana | 2 January 2024 — Devoid of the critical tone against the Regime that characterized it in another era, the Letter of the Year of the independent Cuban Yorubas, published this Tuesday in Havana by the Miguel Febles Padrón Commission, focuses on international trade and on requesting “the prompt sanitation of the country.” After the announcement ceremony, presided over by the priest Gaspar Mesa, the organization insisted that its prediction – contrary to the one signed this Monday by the ruling Yoruba Cultural Association – is the legitimate Letter.
As in 2023, the text came out a day late with respect to officialdom’s Letter. Faced with the claims of the believers, the commission asked for patience and assured that the predictions would be revealed this Tuesday morning, during a press conference in the Yoruba temple of the municipality of Diez de Octubre.
Among the advice of social interest, the independent santeros [priests of the Santería religion] asked to “respect trade agreements” and “increase imports,” and announced an “increase in foreign financing,” although they avoided specifically alluding to the regime’s allies, such as Russia, which have marked the Island’s trade in recent months. Hence, the year, they explained, is consecrated to Elegba, an Afro-Cuban orisha or deity that protects “shopkeepers and merchants.”
However, they devoted several points of the Letter to commenting on the unhealthiness of the country and predicted “an increase in insect and rodent pests.” In addition, there will be “an increase in homicides,” robberies, divorces and disagreements among couples. The santeros predict continue reading
multiple child abandonments and call for a higher birth rate.
The containment of disease, on which the commission is thorough, will depend on removing the piles of garbage
The containment of disease, on which the commission is thorough, will depend, they add, on “removing the piles of garbage: cerrestravascular, bacterial and parasitic, respiratory and infectious diseases, and diabetes with danger of mutilation of the extremities.” Finally, they recommended going to the “godparents” in search of “specific guidelines,” which the brief message cannot offer.
This Monday, the Yoruba Cultural Association – to which a militant complicity with the regime is attributed – also published its Letter. Focused on the increase in “abuse of women,” the consumption of alcohol and drugs, and crime, the text was more incisive with the situation of the Island than that of the independents.
The Letter of the Year, a tradition that orthodox believers resort to as much as the occasional ones, faces once again the schism in the leadership of Cuban Santería. The division between officials and independents results in the issuance of two texts, with different series of advice, prophecies and ruling divinities.
Inside Santería, the divided loyalties of their babalawos or priests and the emigration of thousands of religious Cubans – who aspire to take their practices with them, adapting them to the country of emigration – causes, in practice, a serious confusion among practitioners, who prefer to go to their personal “godfathers.”*
*Translator’s note: In Santería, the “godfather” (or “godmother”) is the one who initiates and guides the new devotee.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Roberto Occhiuto, president of the Calabria region in Italy, with the first contingent of 50 health workers who arrived in January 2022. (Facebook/Roberto Occhiuto)
14ymedio, Havana | 2 January 2024 — On Tuesday, the organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) announced a letter signed by the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Contemporary Forms of Slavery, in which several governments are denounced for hiring, under “dubious conditions,” workers from Cuba. According to the text, signed by Tomoya Obokata on November 2, Spain, Italy, Qatar, in addition to the cruise company MSC Malta Seafarers, received a request from their office to clarify the situation. So far, none has responded.
According to PD, for months it has secretly helped the Rapporteur’s administration in the collection of information on the cases of exploitation of Cubans by the Government of Havana and the level of complicity of the countries mentioned in these contracts. The document was also sent to the authorities in Doha, Rome and Madrid, who were asked to respond within 60 days.
What is new is the accusation against the Spanish Government, which the Rapporteur indicates for hiring, at the local level – through companies, municipalities or autonomous communities – “athletes, artists, musicians, dancers and other Cuban professionals” in “precarious working conditions and exploitation.” The document also alleges that a part of their salaries is retained by companies on the Island that mediate the hiring.
For its part, PD says that many of the testimonies it managed to gather in Spain involved Cubans. It explains that they ended up applying for asylum, and Madrid had to grant it for “the conditions of slavery and evidence they presented.” One of these stories that was made public was that of the Basque handball player Lisandra Lima, who abandoned her delegation while competing in 2018 in Barcelona. continue reading
The Government of Spain has not taken measures to control the working conditions of the workers and the artistic, technical and sports personnel who arrive in the country
“However, the Government of Spain has not taken measures to control the working conditions of the workers and the artistic, technical and sports personnel who arrive in the country through intermediaries from the Cuban Government and its companies,” says PD.
In the case of Calabria, an Italian region that hired Cuban health workers in 2022 through the state Commercialization of Cuban Medical Services, the complaints revolve around the “insufficient” salaries of the professionals. “It is stipulated that the total salary amount per medical person is 4,700 euros, but 3,500 euros are transferred from the Government of Calabria to the Marketing Company (…). Only an amount of 1,200 euros is given to each medical worker. That gross income is considered insufficient to survive in Italy,” the Rapporteur stressed.
In similar conditions are the health workers hired in Qatar, who are only given 10% of what the country pays for them (between $5,000 and $13,000 per person). The salary, the letter alleges, is not enough for them to live, so “many of the Cuban professionals who work in the country depend on a subsidy called an ’Index’, granted by the Government of Qatar.”
The report also denounced that Cubans hired in this country work an average of 64 hours a week and are closely monitored by their supervisors, to whom they must report each romantic relationship they establish, in addition to their movements outside their homes and intentions to travel or meet family and friends.
MSC Malta Seafarers Company Limited, one of the largest maritime tourism companies in the world, was also accused of exploitation by the Rapporteur. The company, based in Geneva (Switzerland), hires sailors through the Cuban state-owned Selecmar and takes away their passports “during the trip and in the countries where they touch port, to prevent the Cuban workers from ’escaping’.” According to the document, Selecmar receives up to 80% of the salaries paid by the Maltese for the Cubans, while the foreign company has the power to fine those who are “absent” up to $10,000.
A similar case came to light in Cuba years ago, when Alexander Morales, from Havana, complained that the Greek company Northsouth Maritime owed him 60,000 dollars as compensation
A similar case came to light in Cuba years ago, when Alexander Morales, from Havana, complained that the Greek company Northsouth Maritime owed him 60,000 dollars as compensation for injuring himself on one of their ships while doing excessive work. Selecmar then mediated his hiring with the foreign company, which continues to withhold the payment.
Other violations denounced by the UN were the prohibition of entry into the country for eight years to Cubans who leave missions abroad, the conditions of harassment or sexual violence to which they are often subjected and the label of “traitors” and “deserters” that is given to those who breach the contracts.
So far, none of the governments cited by the Rapporteur has responded to the complaints. Dita Charanzová, vice president of the European Parliament, did express her concern about the report: “This United Nations accusation brings to light very serious violations, from forced labor, contemporary slavery, harassment, sexual violence and threats, to physical violence. Once again, it is evident that the Cuban regime systematically and with impunity violates the human rights of its people,” said the MEP.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Migrants cross the Turquesa River, in the Darién (Panama), in an archive photograph. (EFE/Bienvenido Velasco)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Panama, 2 January 2024 — Panamanian authorities said on Monday that 2023 closed with 520,085 migrants having crossed the Darién jungle, of which 120,000 were minors, a record figure compared to the 248,283 migrants in 2022, who followed this dangerous route to North America in pursuit of better horizons.
Venezuelans, 328,667; Ecuadorians, 57,222; Haitians, 46,558; and Chinese, 25,344, “were the most recurring nationalities this year to cross” the jungle border with Colombia and arrive in Panama, the Panamanian Ministry of Public Security (MINSEG) reported on its social networks.
Similarly, the report provides figures that report a “significant decrease” in the entry of migrants through the dense Darién jungle in the months of October, November and December 2023, with 49,256, 37,231, and 24,626, respectively.
The report provides figures that show a “significant decrease” in the entry of migrants through the dense Darién jungle in the months of October, November and December
The new registration of transit of migrants by Darién to North America at the end of 2023 leaves behind that of previous years: in 2020 8,594 immigrants crossed the Dariíen jungle; in 2021, 133,726; and 2022, 248,283, according to MINSEG. continue reading
Thus, this year the record of more than 500,000 migrants in transit through the Darién, the jungle that connects the isthmus and South America, has been broken, a figure that doubles last year’s record and includes a marked increase in minors.
This 2023 “has been a year in which a record has been broken. More than 100,000 children and adolescents have passed through, 50% of whom are under 5 years old,” the gender-based expert of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Johana Tejada López, told EFE in mid-December.
Most of the families that migrate are from Venezuela, Haiti, Ecuador and Colombia, Tejada López explained in the Lajas Blanca shelter which, as in Bajo Chiquito, is the scene of numerous families with children and adolescents.
The UNICEF expert also warned of an increase in the arrival of minors separated from their parents during the crossing and of adolescents who were traveling “alone.”
The migrants arrive first in Bajo Chiquito after crossing the jungle, where the authorities record their data and they spend the night. The next day they take canoes (paid for by them) that take them on the Tuquesa River to one of the two existing hostels in Darién.
There are several organizations that offer humanitarian and medical aid as well as the Panamanian authorities, which provide food assistance in an operation in which they have invested about 70 million dollars in recent years
There, known by migrants as ’the UN,’ there are several organizations that offer humanitarian and medical aid as well as the Panamanian authorities, which provide food assistance in a single operation on the continent in which the Government has invested about 70 million dollars in recent years, according to official data.
From the Darién, the migrants must board a bus – at their own expense – to neighboring Costa Rica.
The restrictions announced by several of the transited countries, such as the deportations of irregular migrants with a criminal record by Panama, or by the United States, which has put in place more obstacles to accessing asylum, do not stop the migratory flow.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Raúl Castro, 92, wanted to support his successor this Monday, the 65th anniversary of the Revolution. (Cubadebate)
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 2 January 2024 — Former President Raúl Castro reappeared this Monday to lead the celebrations of the 65th anniversary of the Revolution in Santiago de Cuba, in one of his most important public speeches in months. He called for unity within the Communist Party (PCC) and confidence in the new generation of leaders who have succeeded the historical leaders.
The former leader, 92-years-old, closed the annual ceremony commemorating the triumph of the guerrillas who came to power on the Island led by the late Fidel Castro (1926-2016), who was also presented, through technology, at the event. “No thieves, no traitors, no interventionists. This time it is the Revolution,” the deceased Commander was heard saying through a hologram.
His younger brother and successor in office made a speech in which he reiterated the need to close ranks within the ruling party as the “main strategic weapon” of the Revolution and the PCC. “It has allowed this small island to succeed in facing challenges. Let’s treat unity as something to be cherished,” he advised.
Fidel Castro was omniprsent through screens this Monday, in an event in Santiago de Cuba (Cubadebate)
Against that unity, “all the subversive plans of the enemy will fail once again,” he added.
“Today I can affirm with satisfaction that the Cuban Revolution, after 65 years of existence, far from weakening has strengthened, as I said a decade ago, on a day like today and in this very place, [and has done so] without continue reading
commitment to anyone at all, except to the people,” the former president claimed.
“I know that I express the feeling of the historical generation by ratifying confidence in those who today occupy leadership responsibility in our party and Government,” he said, in clear allusion to the current administration, led by his successor and current president of the country, Miguel Díaz-Canel, who is also the first president on the Island who was not part of the armed struggle in 1959.
Castro also emphasized that “there are no generational contradictions within the Revolution, because there is no envy or desire for power among its children,” a quote he attributed to Fidel Castro.
He also asked leaders who “because of insufficient capacity, lack of preparation or simply because they are too tired to be at the height that the moment demands,” to step aside.
Díaz-Canel spoke before Castro and was full of praise for the Revolution: “It was a libertarian act of continental projection, which not only freed the country from a servile, repressive and corrupt dictatorship, but very soon untied the knots of economic dependence on Yankee transnationals and liquidated the cruelest expressions of human exploitation that had been naturalized in the bosom of Cuban society, such as child labor, prostitution and the semi-slavery of Haitian emigrants.”
The current president highlighted what, in his opinion, have been the great pillars of Cuba after 1959: agrarian reform, education and public health. “These were works of profound and sustained social escalation that in a few years transformed a poor and backward country into a world benchmark in education, health, sports and culture,” he said.
Díaz-Canel with Raúl Castro in Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Park, in Santiago de Cuba. (EFE)
With that in mind, he emphasized “the makers” of the Revolution who “have brought it undefeated” and, therefore, “deserve the greatest recognition,” the main one being that the following generations will be “loyal to the history,” he added.
“This is the Revolution that after having lost 3,000 doctors due to a politically induced exodus in the 60s of the last century built one of the most formidable and prestigious health systems of our time and today has half a million workers at all levels who guarantee universal coverage and free assistance for all Cubans. At the same time, during these six decades, 600,000 Cuban health professionals have collaborated in 165 countries,” he said, with no mention of the health workers who are currently in exile due to low wages and poor working conditions in Cuba.
Cuba enters 2024 plunged into a serious economic crisis, after a fall in 2023 GDP of 1% to 2% and a fiscal deficit of 19%, in addition to a shortage of basic products such as food, medicines and fuel.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Nurisbel Guerra was a nurse and worked on a medical mission in Venezuela. (Facebook/Nurisbel Guerra)
14ymedio, Havana | 2 January 2024 — Although the year has ended, the number of women killed in 2023 continues to grow after the confirmation, this Monday, of the femicide of Nurisbel Guerra, allegedly perpetrated by her husband on December 24 in the province of Granma. There are now 87 victims counted by the independent media and observatories.
The Guerra’s murder was initially reported by YouTuber Niover Licea, who shared on his social networks details about the case, which occurred in the Granma municipality of Cauto Cristo, halfway between Bayamo and Holguín.
Her husband, identified as Oreste Tamayo, a worker of the Electric Company of the province and from whom she intended to separate, murdered her
Guerra, whose age is unknown, served as a nurse on a medical mission in Venezuela, from which she had returned for a short period. Her husband, identified as Oreste Tamayo, a worker of the Electricity Company of the province and from whom she intended to separate, murdered her. After cutting her throat, the alleged murderer committed suicide.
This December, the official press broke its usual silence to report on the femicide of Ohanis Soto in the town of Lincoln, in the province of Artemisa. During a “domestic fight,” which occurred at 6:00 pm on December 28 and “ended fatally,” Soto was stabbed several times by her partner, Osmar Frómeta. continue reading
According to the newspaper El Artemiseño, after killing Frómeta, he surrendered to the police to avoid an alleged “settling of accounts” by Soto’s family.
A recent report published by the EFE agency uses the independent records of femicides in 2023 to draw up a profile of the victims of violence against women on the Island. A 37-year-old woman, mother and resident in a rural area is the most common image of victims of femicides. In most cases, the women were killed by their former partners.
The data also revealed that this year an average of one woman was killed every four and a half days. That is to say: on the Island there were just over seven victims of gender-based violence every month.
The data also revealed that this year on average, a woman was murdered every four and a half days
The figures are even more terrifying if we consider that, due to the lack of information and the refusal of the Government to reveal official figures, many cases of femicides are not known. This is a reality denounced by platforms such as Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba, which are still trying to verify several femicides that allegedly occurred in 2023, so it is likely that, if information is obtained during the first days of 2024, femicides will continue to be added to last year’s record.
For its part, the Government’s promises to establish policies to protect against violence against women have fallen apart. Months ago, the authorities announced that a recently created Observatory would be in charge of monitoring this type of situation in the country in real time. However, so far they have not begun to perform the task.
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 December 31 dinner is an opportunity to get together with family and close friends. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, December 31, 2023 — The common denominator of exiles and emigrants is to have left behind their country of birth and, most likely, to share the longings for the past, which for both can be overwhelming, although different. It’s worth saying that I learned this a very short time ago.
Nostalgia is one of the most personal and complex feelings. I experienced it a year ago, in a restaurant where I had dinner with my wife and with my brothers Morera and Xiomara and their wives, Kemel and Cristina.
I assimilated my nostalgia with difficulty. A Castro singer-songwriter had just died. I call him that because his songs, as Jose A. Albertini wrote, helped to silence the firing squads who were executing people. The music of this notable artist is admired by many compatriots, and one of those fans proposed to the entertainers that they perform a song in his memory.
It is worth saying that I was very upset, although I understood the situation when everyone told me, “those are his memories of that singer, try to understand, what you remember as bitter can be sweet for someone else.” This is the irreducible truth, because sometimes you remember something as charming until it becomes dangerous. continue reading
Art in general, along with sports, have been used by Island totalitarianism to manipulate the population and spread a smokescreen over the events in Cuba. In addition, artistic manifestations have been used to repress authors, as happened to Meme Solís. The performers I remember the most are Los Cinco Latino, The Platter and Luis Aguilé, a very Cuban Argentinian.
Art in general, along with sports, have been used by Island totalitarianism to manipulate the population and spread a smokescreen over the events in Cuba
Terror devoured us. The political situation was so demonic that a song entitled Adiós Felicidad (Goodbye Happiness) by Ela O’Farrill was considered counter-revolutionary. The author was arrested and humiliated, denounced by a communist professor, a friend of the family, for having composed a counterrevolutionary ballad, an accusation that determined her exile.
Christmas, from the 1960s, began to take place very discreetly. People stopped congratulating each other, or they did it privately. At the same time, there was very little to give away, and groceries were conspicuous by their absence or their prohibitive prices. However, the worst thing was that Christmas celebrations were politically incorrect, but not New Year’s Eve, which heralded the advent of the New Man.*
On January 6, the Three Kings Day celebration also went to jail or into exile. Toys, according to government propaganda, were regulated so that all children had them. The regime replaced customs and traditions. It transformed everything so that Fidel Castro could take over the collective imagination. More than a government, a new creed was imposed in Cuba.
I admit that, at Christmas, the homesickness is more severe. It is a period that, without being religious, imprisons me and puts me in a time machine that leads to sharing again with those who are no longer there in place and time and who will never return.
My last Christmas in Cuba was in 1980. On the Island it was practically banned. Somes churches discreetly decorated in accordance with the date. I remember a temple that did open its doors, located on Trista Street in the unforgettable Santa Clara.
Castroism arranged that the Christmas holidays were celebrations without devotional connotation for the people. The festivities would take place on July 25, 26 and 27
Castroism arranged for the Christmas holidays to be celebrations without a devotional connotation for the people, something that is spreading a lot today. The festivities would take place on July 25, 26 and 27, as part of its policy of destroying the national roots and transmuting the date of the assault on the Moncada barracks as the focal point of the new religion that was winning over Cubans.
The Christmas I remember the most is that of 1958, a year before the strategy of the Three Cs was put into practice – “zero cinemas, zero purchases (compras), zero cabarets” – and Fidel Castro’s July 26, with its rhythm of bombs and personal attacks that imposed terror, a situation that would drastically worsen months later.
The country was virtually at war. We were all frightened by the extreme violence on both sides. However, no one could imagine the magnitude of the coming disaster. The Republic, the whole nation, was nearing extinction: the work of the Castro brothers.
*Translator’s note: ’Che’ Guevara, in 1964, said that a revolutionary society (based on Marxism) needed to create a New Man with a “revolutionary consciousness” who wouldn’t rely on material incentives.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The import of duty-free food and medicines was approved in July 2021. (Cubadebate)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, December 31, 2023 — The Cuban authorities announced this Saturday a new extension – until March 31 – to the tariff exemption for food, toiletries, medicines and even generators that travelers can bring to the Island for non-commercial purposes.
As a novelty of the measure taken in 2021 and prolonged several times, “the non-commercial import above the value established by the route of air, sea, mail and courier shipments of generators with a power greater than 900 watt-hour,” is allowed, according to the Ministry of Finance and Prices.
For the extension of the measure, “the persistence of the conditions that gave rise, in 2021, to its implementation” has been considered, according to the source.
Therefore, the tariff benefit will be maintained, which authorizes exceptionally, the non-commercial import, without limits in its value and exempt from the payment of customs duties, food, toiletries and medicines, through passengers as accompanied luggage. continue reading
The tariff benefit will be maintained, which exceptionally authorizes, the non-commercial import, without limits in its value and exempt from the payment of customs, food, toiletries and medicines
The import of food and medicines without tariff limits was a measure put into effect after the anti-government protests of 11 July 2021, which had as its main causes the scarcity and shortage of those basic products.
The law in force in Cuba on the import of luggage consists of a complex system of points and weight limits that establishes tariffs on excess items brought by travelers.
In the case of medicines, up to 22 pounds are allowed to be introduced into the country.
The economic crisis in Cuba was aggravated by the pandemic, the economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the failures in internal macroeconomic management.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The first flight of this year with deported Cubans arrived in Havana on April 24, with 123 people. (Cubadebate)
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, December 31, 2023 — A few hours before the end of 2023, the Ministry of the Interior reported that, in the last 12 months, 5,253 Cubans have been deported by air and sea from different countries in the region. Last Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard returned nine rafters to Cuba on the ship Charles David Jr.
Among these deportations are those carried out by the United States. The most recent transfer flight to José Martí International Airport was last Thursday, with 31 Cubans who were arrested at the border.
According to Prensa Latina, in this group, made up of two women and 29 men, there were three people who had left the country illegally by sea. The rest, it reported, did so legally but “then took irregular routes to the U.S. border.”
Under the bilateral agreement between Cuba and the United States to return to the Island those who arrive by sea, eight transfers occurred to repatriate 426 Cubans since last April, when air expulsions resumed. continue reading
This year, Cuba has also received repatriated migrants from the Bahamas, Belize, the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic and Mexico
The first flight with this type of deportees arrived in Havana on April 24, with 123 people. On the last day of November, 37 Cubans were deported. Yoan Enríquez, who had a probation form I-220B, was one of the passengers who had to leave his wife and a three-month-old baby in Florida.
During the current fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2022, more than 6,800 Cubans have been intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard on trips to Florida, according to official data.
This year, Cuba has also received migrants repatriated from the Bahamas, Belize, the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic and Mexico.
According to what was revealed to this newspaper, Cuba accepted the returns of its nationals from the month of October from Mexico, as long as the transfer expenses were covered by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “A cost of 4,000 pesos (237 dollars) is handled for each migrant,” said lawyer José Luis Pérez.
Since Mexico resumed flights to Havana, it used the services of the airline Viva Aerobús. In total, it has transferred 435 Cubans in five connections. “Migration has a budget item for deportations. It’s not a new expense,” the official said.
Mexico also has a bilateral agreement with Venezuela for the deportation of migrants. This Sunday, a group of 122 migrants was returned to Venezuelan territory on the second repatriation flight, for a total of 329 people if you add the 207 who arrived in the early hours of this Saturday.
Since Mexico resumed flights to Havana, it used the services of the Viva Aerobús airline. In total, it has transferred 435 Cubans in five connections
The flight was carried out through the Vuelta a la Patria (Return to the Homeland) plan, a government program launched in 2018 to facilitate the return of migrants who were victims of xenophobia, according to the Venezuelan Government.
On X (formerly Twitter), the Ministry of the Interior, Justice and Peace pointed out that the migrants were received by a “comprehensive care command” in charge of verifying their data and providing medical assistance.
The Mexican government reported this Saturday the renewal of the repatriation flights of Venezuelans who are arrested on their way to the U.S. border.
It also indicated that they are working on the implementation of social programs in Venezuela, which will benefit, among others, repatriated people by linking them to productive projects and paid internships in workplaces.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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14ymedio, Havana, January 5, 2024 — The femicide of Diana Rosa Cervantes Mejías in Camagüey, which occurred on January 2, was confirmed this Thursday by the independent journalist Henry Constantín, who interviewed a relative of the victim and provided more details about the crime. The murder of Cervantes is the first case of violence against a women resulting in murder recorded by the independent media in 2024, after the previous year’s figure of 87 femicides on the Island.
