Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 55

The Sharp Drop in Cargo Transport Reflects a Cuban Economy in Clear Recession

The import and export of cargo, mainly in ports, has decreased by 44% in recent years. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 5 July 2023– Among all the nefarious data of Cuba, those of cargo transport are not spared. According to a report published on Tuesday in the official press, of the 24.7 million total tons of products of all kinds that should have been transferred in the first quarter of the year, only 14.5 million have been transported.

The figures make the Ministry of Transport fear that by the end of the year less than 36 million tons will have been moved in the country.

By rail, for example, the data specifies that 162 fuel tanks were moved weekly, less than the 220 that were transported before 2022, which is reflected in the problem of gasoline shortages.

As for import and export cargo, “mainly in ports,” it was reduced by 44% in recent years, from the 4.5 million tons recorded in 2018 to 2.5 million in 2022. continue reading

The principal responsibility for the situation is the usual one for the Cuban authorities: “the intensification of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the US Government on our country,” in addition to the “effects” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report recognizes that “the population is dissatisfied” with the quality of international parcel distribution and delivery service, but the government assures that “work continues on its improvement.”

The objective, they say, is “to reduce the delivery time to seven days, with higher levels in the quality of service, and to have a computer system will allow people to track their packages from the origin.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubans Outraged by the Procedures To Be Spanish Call for a Protest in Havana

Line at the Consulate of Spain in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 4 July 2023 — A group of Cubans who want to take advantage of the new “law of grandchildren” of Spain to obtain that country’s nationality has called for a peaceful protest for this Wednesday, July 5 at 9:30 am in front of the population service office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on H Street between 5th and Calzada, in Havana’s El Vedado neighborhood.

The problem, they explain to this newspaper, is that the process of legalizing the documents, which previously took a month, now takes up to almost four months. “The appointments are through the Ticket application, and there are 2,000 people or more on the waiting list to get an appointment for legalization,” they complain.

According to details, each stage of the process now takes between 20 days and a month: “pending” one month; “accepted at reception” between 20 and 30 days; “legalization” 20 days; “signed” 5 days; and “delivered” between 20 and 30 days. continue reading

In order for the process to be shortened, they propose two measures to the ministry: to create “temporary offices for the legalization of documents in the capitals of the provinces,” so that “there is less volume of documents in Havana,” and hiring more staff. “We just want to have our documentation ready in the fastest possible time and be Spanish; it is our right,” they say in an email sent to the 14ymedio Editorial Office.

The group has also created a Telegram channel to disseminate the call, signed by the Ombudsman’s Office of the Community of Spanish Descendants.

Cuba is the country where the most people have obtained Spanish nationality under the new Law of Democratic Memory, which offers the option of obtaining it to a wide range of descendants of Spaniards.

As of January 31, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain, 24,729 applications had been submitted at the 179 consular offices around the world, most of them in Latin America. Cuba, Argentina and Mexico, in this order, totaled 14,610 applications received and 4,774 registered nationalities.

Of this total, half, 12,862, have already been approved while 6,653 have been registered in the Civil Registry.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Chinese Wholesale Website Offers To Supply Cuban ‘MSMEs’

Those in charge of the platform describe it as “an essential connection” between Cuban merchants and the international market. (Nihao 53)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 June 2023 — A labyrinth of obstacles, verifications and absences makes it difficult to buy on the Nihao 53 digital platform, with which the Chinese conglomerate Leke Holding Group hopes to consolidate its presence in Cuba. With the intention of supplying the wholesale market on the Island, the site offers food, furniture, construction materials and countless items to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), but the products are not always available for sale or cost crazy amounts of euros or dollars.

The obstacles also assault the buyer from abroad, leaving little room for doubt about who can receive the services of Nihao 53: Cuban “entrepreneurs” within the country, with accounts in foreign banks and the ability to store orders in a warehouse reserved by the Leke group.

Its clients, summarized the directors in a recent report by the Sputnik news agency, seek “access to raw materials that are almost impossible or very difficult to find” in the economic context of the Island.

The platform is described as “an indispensable connection” between Cuban merchants and the international market. Its general manager in Havana, Yeline Ramos, says that Nihao 53 works by sales categories, which range from “machinery and products of the automotive industry” to “construction products, raw materials, toiletries and gastronomy.”

She said they have everything to succeed: the support of the Cuban Government, its unbeatable relations with China and the fact that they began operating at a lucky time and date, 11:00 in the morning of November 11, 2022. As for the name, it responds to the “hello” greeting in Mandarin Chinese – ni hao – and the Cuban telephone code, 53.

Ramos explained that the company wants to improve its distribution “strategy” for the next quarter. In addition to picking up the products in the warehouse, the owners of micro-SMEs will be able to access Nihao 53 products in other provinces of the Island. It will be a way to alleviate the “very undersupplied market” in the interior of the country.

The director of Business Development for Nihao 53, Mario Ríos Vidal, criticized the sphere of possibilities for wholesale sales on the Island as “insufficiently exploited.” The coronavirus pandemic, he said, was an incentive for China to decide to promote that market modality in Cuba.

“We analyzed the competition, what we could offer to the Cuban market, and what its fundamental needs are,” Ríos explained, although he did not describe what “competition” he was talking about in an economic context like the Cuban one.

The most promising area so far, he said, has been what is known as “sublimation”: the personalization of objects and garments with the brand that the client wants. This is “a virgin sphere” on the Island, in which Nihao 53 is a pioneer, celebrated Ríos.

“We not only place the merchandise on the website but we also follow up on the purchase. We intervene in the process and the after-sales because we want feedback. We want to know the users’ feelings, if they are satisfied or pleased, and we cover their expectations or any problem they have in order to reinvent ourselves and improve,” he added.

One of the Cuban MSMEs that systematically accesses the services of Nihao 53 is KeDetalles, a company that sells personalized gifts “through the sublimation technique.” “This alliance has been of vital importance,” its owners told Sputnik, since the Chinese portal “leads them by the hand” in the purchase process.

Another “pleased” company is Manualidades María, which also sells products with its “sublimated” brand. “Until now there was no company that gave us the possibility to buy here, without the need to import, a very cumbersome process for our small business.”

However, Nihao 53 cannot be congratulated for much more. Outside the category of small items and printing – the only things well-stocked – the offer is poor. Although they promise “new lines” of chicken, sausage and flour, the least attractive thing on the platform is, precisely, the gastronomy.

Mostly canned products, sweets and some foods are the only things for sale. In addition, you have to buy them in large quantities and at unreasonable prices: a pallet of small juice boxes costs $1,166.

The company offers the “star product” of the shops that sell to Cuba and the MSMEs: beer. For 52 cents a can, a very competitive price, it offers the Belgian product but, of course, you have to buy it by the pallet for more than $1,200.

The most striking prices are those of construction materials. A crate of transparent acrylic slabs is $3,700; 60 slabs of glass 4 millimeters thick cost more than $4,100, and the same amount, 6 millimeters thick, exceeds $5,500.

Other categories, such as machinery, textiles and furniture, are completely empty, while cleaning products are sold in excessive quantities if you’re not thinking about resale.

Despite the low supply and the poor viability of the platform, Nihao 53 receives the client with an optimistic voluntarism: “Cuba dreams, undertakes and grows.”

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Universities of Cuba and Spain Sign Collaboration Agreements in Havana

Staircase of the University of Havana. (14ymedio)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 4 July 2023 — Universities of Cuba and Spain signed more than 15 collaboration agreements during the meeting of rectors and higher education authorities initiated this Monday in Havana to strengthen bilateral academic and scientific cooperation.

The participating rectors presented the portfolio of activities, courses, scholarships and possibilities for collaboration between Cuban and Spanish institutions, with a tradition of academic exchange, as reported by the Ministry of Higher Education of Cuba on social networks.

The meeting is spearheaded by the Cuban Minister of Higher Education, Walter Baluja, and the president of the Ibero-American Postgraduate University Association and rector of the University of Seville, Miguel Ángel Castro Arroyo.

During the Cuba-Spain university meeting, the Ibero-American collaborative program of doctoral training in artificial intelligence will also be presented. “Invigorating the internationalization of higher education is a priority of the sector in Cuba,” the Ministry said.

He also indicated that the meeting of the Cuban and Spanish rectors “values new opportunities for bilateral collaboration” and is “a space conducive to agreements, agreements, mobility, joint projects, double degree programs and doctorates, among other expected results.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With 30 Percent of the Expected Cane Sown, Another Disastrous Sugar Harvest Is Coming in Cuba

View of the Agroindustrial Sugar Company [Azucuba] November 30, in Artemisa. (El Artemiseño)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 June 2023 — The sugar cane planting campaign in Cuba makes us fear the worst, again, for the next harvest. In Sancti Spíritus, only 30% of the harvest plan for the spring campaign – which runs from January to June – was fulfilled, said Aselio Sánchez Cadalso, director of Coordination and Supervision of Azcuba, the state sugar company.

In statements to the official press, the official said that work in the field was difficult due to the intense rains of recent months, mainly in March, when it is “decisive” to start planting.

Sánchez Cadalso recognizes that they can take advantage of soil moisture for seed germination, especially since 95% of the sugarcane areas of Sancti Spíritus depend on rain, not having irrigation systems. However, he insisted that due to the rainfall in June, it was impossible to make progress in the work.

He acknowledged that there are delays in “almost all areas of attention to the cane,” which is also obstructed by the lack of agricultural inputs due to the “difficult economic situation that Cuba faces,” which has hindered the import of fertilizers and herbicides. This has forced producers to look for alternatives in agro-ecological techniques, the official said.

The Sancti Spíritus sugarcane fields exceed 123,553 acres, including recovered areas that were previously covered by marabou weed. The director of Azcuba explained that in these areas today, varieties of Cuba 86/12, CP 52/43 and Barbado 80/250 seed are sown, genetically improved to have high sugar yield, adaptation to the climate and early maturity. continue reading

On the other hand, the production process has been disastrous in every way. In March it was reported that the Majibacoa mill, the main one in Cuba located in Las Tunas, had ground 56% of the cane planned for the harvest, and now the results from Artemisa have come to light. Pablo Valdés Amador, director of Informatics, Communications and Analysis of the November 30 Agroindustrial Sugar Company, detailed the poor results of the 121 days of the struggle: 58.4% of the planned raw material was ground, and only 44.9% of the planned sugar was produced, equivalent to 8,306 tons.

According to an article in the provincial newspaper El Artemiseño, the sugar mill started the grinding after 30 days of delay, which results in a lower yield and low use of the factories. Valdés Amador listed the string of problems they faced this year, including difficulties in harvesting and delays in the transportation of raw material to the plant due to the lack of fuel.

Wilfredo Moreno, the Azucuba director of harvest, said that the company must find a way to capture income to meet the payment obligations with the producers, since this also delays the harvests. For him, between July and August “we can’t waste time on equipment maintenance and repair,” prior to the start of the 2023-2024 season.

Although Azcuba has not yet given the final data of production for the 2022-2023 harvest, last May the Government warned that production had barely reached 350,000 tons, well below the 400,000 required for domestic consumption.

Two months earlier, Ángel Luis Ríos Riquenes, an engineer from the state sugar company, said that some sugar mills would finish the harvest in April and others in May, but warned that there was a risk that climatic conditions will affect the schedule again.

The 2022-2023 harvest started at the end of last November with a target of 455,198 tons after the meager results of the previous agricultural year, when production closed at its lowest level of the last century, and only 68% of the planned 1.2 million tons was met.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Diaz-Canel Resumes His Visits to the ‘Potemkin Villages’ To Learn About Cuba’s Successes

Díaz-Canel visited a successful farmer and the Rafael Freyre School Sports Initiation School. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 30 June 2023 — Early this Thursday, Cubadebate announced the visit of Miguel Díaz-Canel to Guantánamo, one of the most forgotten provinces on the Island but one that has recently been on the tips of everyone’s tongues. First for the resounding protests against the Government — followed by the corresponding arrests — last May, in the municipality of Caimanera. In recent days, a UN report has urged the United States to close its prison on the naval base, where prisoners continue to suffer “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” something that the regime has not wasted in order to reclaim that territory.

“They are going to take Díaz-Canel where things are a little better, because we don’t have anything,” said a commentator on the news. It wasn’t hard to predict. The president visited a successful farmer and then the Rafael Freire School of School-Sports Initiation, which the official press describes – accepting its slow construction – as a place “with teaching buildings, dormitories, sports facilities and other essential infrastructures for its operation in perfect condition, beautiful and very well maintained.”

The space had everything, including a little house for the children of workers and athletes, although its capacity is not anything to rave about, since of the 20 places available, only six children have been able to be accommodated. “At the time of the President’s visit, they were taking a nap, so they walked into the cozy space almost on tiptoe and spoke very quietly,” explains Cubadebate.

From there, Díaz-Canel went to the Manuel Simón Tames Guerra Polytechnic Agricultural Institute, built thanks to international collaboration (the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the United Nations Development Program). There, the president also had time to speak about the importance of these schools, “inspired by Marti’s teaching and Fidel’s idea of combining study and work.”

He also spoke with Jorge Fernández, the farmer at his first stop in Lajas de El Salvador. At 32 years of age, the young man abandoned his dentistry career and “turned to the land,” where he now manages 445 acres under cultivation. Cubadebate praises the attitude of the producer, who had already met with Díaz-Canel on a previous visit to ask for more land, “certain that he could use it to support the demand for food in his municipality and the provincial capital and also contribute to lowering prices.” continue reading

It is left to the reader’s imagination to know why he left a prestigious university career in the second year, but it does explain how he obtained 297 acres of bananas and fulfilled his commitments, being able to incorporate his production into the ’family basket’ [in the rationing system] of the inhabitants of El Salvador for three months. Soon he will plant this fruit again – with seeds from Villa Clara – and plans to grow corn, soy and sweet potato. The leader asked him if the intermediaries paid him on time, if he had supplies and if he adequately remunerated his workers.

“You are still young and it is very important to continue learning,” Díaz-Canel urged the producer, who “promised him that he would think about it, but ’after I manage the farm, which is large and needs a lot of time and effort.’” And with this dialogue the president left, happy to have found a farmer who is doing well and who can serve as an example for him “to encourage others.”

The result of the visit went as planned. Also, hours before, another reader described what was going to happen without missing a beat: “It’s a shame that these visits are ’guided’ because visitors don’t see the reality of ordinary Cubans. If visitors want to meet a farmer, they are taken to the best one who has all the resources to produce, who does not complain about anything. Many times these farmers are even reinforced with inputs, like cattle from other properties, so that visitors see what the leaders want them to see. If they go to a community, they take them to the improved, painted one. If they go to a market, they supply it one or two days before and do not sell the products until the day of the visit. So there are plenty of examples to show that this type of visit is not a faithful indicator of the reality at the base, because our problems are the same as always and are increasing.”

The Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, had a more cumbersome role on the Guantánamo tour. He visited the town of Cayamo, in the rebellious Caimanera, which suffers from drought, shortages and a housing supply with 40% of the homes in regular or bad condition. He also met a group of citizens who expressed their concerns and problems.

Marrero endured the barrage as if it were not his fault and asked that they look for help and “different solutions. The Government’s policies for that are approved,” he said. In addition, he asked the citizens for patience: “It will not be from one day to the next, but surely you have seen that agreements have been made with other countries that will give us new opportunities.”

From there, and after promising new homes thanks to the community’s brick-producing company – which allocates 24,000 units a month to subsidized construction – he went to the Frank País salt plant, where the workers told him about the problems of distributing the product. In the company there are 3,000 tons stopped due to lack of transport, and 700 more waiting to be delivered.

According to the director, Darlyn Elisástegui Columbié, the poor state of the railroad has complicated the situation, but there are already several containers on their way to the provinces “most affected” by the lack of distribution.

“I am worried about the abandonment of the company. No dry salt is produced, and there is a lack of quality in the manual packaging process,” Marrero said after seeing the workers who deal with this phase. But at the end of his visit, the recipe was the same as always: “The blockade is going to continue, let’s unblock ourselves, let’s open ourselves. Let’s not look for so many explanations for the problems and find more solutions,” he exhorted.

It was another one of the readers’ prophecies fulfilled. “So far I don’t see that the advisory and directed government visits have yielded any results. It’s the same thing over and over again, and things are getting worse every day.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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General Lopez Miera Arrived in Belarus To Negotiate Military Cooperation With Cuba

Jrenin and López Miera exchanged views on the global security situation, as well as the military and political situation in Europe. (Reformation)

EFE/14ymedio, Minsk (Belarus), 30 June 2023 — The Minister of Defense of Belarus, Víktor Jrenin, and Álvaro López Miera, head of the Cuban Armed Forces, met today in Minsk and studied ways to develop military cooperation between the two countries, according to a press release from the Belarusian side.

At the meeting, the ministers “addressed in detail the current state of bilateral military cooperation and ways to continue developing it,” the article adds. In addition, Jrenin and López Miera exchanged views on the global security situation, as well as the military and political situation in Europe.

“At the end of the talks, the ministers reiterated their mutual interest in intensifying military contacts,” the article concluded.

López Miera arrived in Minsk from Russia, where he was on Tuesday with the aim of discussing the realization of “a series of joint projects in the technical-military field.” The Cuban was the first senior foreign official to visit Moscow after the uprising of the Wagner mercenary group against Vladimir Putin.

The Russian head of Defense, Sergey Shoigu, was the official who received López Miera at the headquarters of his ministry. According to the Russian news agency Sputnik, Shoigu proposed to his counterpart “to address in detail all existing and promising cooperation projects in the military field.” The minister assured that there was “a wide variety of issues” in which Russia could support Cuba, including “technical” aid to the Island’s Army. continue reading

He praised Cuba as “an important partner” that demonstrated “a complete understanding of the reasons” that led Putin to invade Ukraine, although he did not allude to the cautious silence maintained by the Havana regime during the tension with Wagner’s troops. The bilateral dialogue, Shoiguu summarized, is in the best of states, and they “are taking measures” to “protect their cooperation” against international sanctions.

“Russia is willing to provide assistance to Cuba,” the soldier promised López Miera, although both Sputnik and other media that reported on the visit avoided defining the exact content of that “strategic” aid.

On June 13, Putin decorated López Miera with the Order of Friendship, for his “important contribution” to the “strengthening of military and technical-military cooperation between the two countries,” Prensa Latina reported.

Born in 1943 and Minister of the Armed Forces since 2021, López Miera was part of Cuba’s military interventions in Angola and Ethiopia. He is one of the senior Cuban officials sanctioned by the U.S. Government “for his involvement in human rights violations.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Complaints in Ciego de Avila, Cuba, That All the Pink Shrimp Goes for Export

The shrimp boats of Ciego de Ávila hope to take advantage of the lucky streak and exceed the total production planned for the first half of 2023. (Invasor)

14ymedio, Havana, 1 July 2023 — It had been five years since the shrimp fleet of Ciego de Ávila – six heavy ferro-cement boats – did not meet the semi-annual goal of 94 tons of pink shrimp. However, nowhere in the long report in the local press about them this Saturday is it guaranteed that this food will arrive, even in minimal quantities, at the Cuban table. The goal is the same as always: export.

Local leaders admitted that the money to buy food for the entire state fishing sector depends on the success or failure of the fishermen and the subsequent sale of the product abroad. That the shipment was complete by the end of May is a good sign: it was still possible to work in June and make an additional profit.

The passage of Hurricane Irma in 2017 marked the beginning of bad luck for the shrimpers, who usually celebrate the fulfillment of the plan with a small party in the port of Júcaro. With timidity, the director of operations of the Industrial Fishing Company of the province, José López Calderón, said that the sale of cargo in the international market “favored” the consumption of seafood for the people for the rest of the year. However, the leader did not explain what part of the 94 exportable tons the people of Avila will receive.

Judging by Invasor’s report, the only fishermen who benefit from the work do so during working hours. A boat “goes on a cruise for 20 days, and a good part of the food expenses for the crew can be provided by the shrimp, and, to a lesser extent, by the aquaculture productions,” López explains. continue reading

As for the money from the sale of the shrimp, says the head of finance of the Fishing Company, Neyci López, it is destined – although not in its entirety – for “spare parts, repairs to the industry and paint for the boats.” But you can’t be “categorical” when it comes to calculating profits, he warns, since shrimp prices “float” on the world market.

Something remains, the leaders said, for the people. “We add about 28 tons each month; of them, 8.9 go for [people with prescribed] ’medical diets’, in addition to contributions to educational centers and Public Health.” It was not clear if they deduct that amount from the 94 tons planned for export or if it would come out of a surplus.

Among the factors that allowed the plan to be fulfilled this year, the authorities point out, is the repair of the boats, cabins and implements above the waterline of the ships. The most serious repairs, they say, have to be done in national shipyards, and this has not been possible.

Another negative factor has been the fuel crisis that affected the entire country and prevented greater movement of the boats. The profit, they say, could have been greater. However, they celebrate the triumph: “Júcaro reinvented itself,” is the slogan.

Invasor concludes its report with a voluntarist comment on the infinite possibilities that the sale of the precious shrimp will provide the Cuban State. However, it cannot avoid a bitter note: “We could not avoid the temptation, not at all culinary, to echo the popular voice when it inquires: what purpose do exports serve?”

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Cuba Eliminates the Controversial Repatriation Requirement for Athletes Residing Abroad

With the elimination of the repatriation requirement for athletes on the Island, baseball player Yasmany Tomás, “The Tank,” will be able to play with the Industriales team. (Facebook/Yasmaní Tomás)

14ymedio, Havana, 29 June 2023 — Among the controversy over the desertions, this Thursday Cuba’s National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder) announced the elimination of the repatriation requirement for Cuban athletes residing abroad. The demand was an impediment for those who decided to emigrate to another country and wanted to participate in an event organized on the Island.

The official media Jit recognized that this requirement had been the generator of the greatest debates in baseball. It was indicated that it will be up to the different national commissions to update the regulations of their competitions, and this decision takes effect immediately.

The most recent case is that of Yasmany Tomás, “The Tank,” who had expressed his interest in returning to Cuba and playing with the Industriales team, but the repatriation requirement prevented him from doing so.

This player, who played four seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks and also joined the Mexican team of Los Mochis, was informed that with the elimination of the controversial measure, he will be able to play with the Industriales in the playoffs.

“Havana has just informed Tomás’ family that he is authorized to play in the 2023 playoffs,” Por La Goma posted on Facebook.

The repatriation process, which was authorized in 2013, has been used by emigrants who want to buy a home on the Island, reside in the country after retirement or regain access to certain social services, but it also implies that the person can be “regulated” with a ban on going abroad, tax obligations and legal duties. continue reading

On the other hand, Denilson Milanés, one of the four soccer players who left the Cuban soccer team in Miami, was accused of “treason” by his father Adilson Milanés, who under the auspices of Inder, works in Costa Rica as a coach of beach and court volleyball.

Adilson Milanés said he was “betrayed” by the escape of his son Denilson along with three other soccer players in Miami (USA). (Facebook/Adilsón Milanés)

“My son betrayed me and his grandmother,” said this native of Cienfuegos on his social networks. “Please Denilson, come back,” he asked. Adilson’s words, along with his studies at the Camilo Cienfuegos Military School, generated controversy and seemed to emanate from officialdom, from a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Since his desertion, Denilson Milanés has not offered any comments. In the face of Internet attacks, he clarified that his reaction had to do with politics. “In my post I said that I was betrayed,” he emphasizes. “You don’t know why. They want to politicize everything.”

So far, there are 33 dropouts of Cuban athletes in 2023. The figure does not surprise Raiko Arozarena, the brother of the naturalized Mexican baseball player Randy, who arrived in Mexico on a raft in June 2015. “It’s something we see as common,” the athlete said in an interview for the media covering the Gold Cup. “It has happened with several sports teams, that players arrive in foreign countries and stay,” he said.

Raiko Arozarena said that in the morning they trained, and at breakfast they began to tell people. “We saw that the boys were missing, that they stayed” at the place of practice. “When we had to travel to Houston, we noticed that Roberney Caballero, Denilson Milanés, Neisser Sandó and Jassael Herrera were not there.”

This Wednesday it was also confirmed that the former baseball player and director of the Island’s team, Roger Machado, arrived in the United States a month ago. The journalist Yordano Carmona specified that his arrival took place through humanitarian parole. “With the shortage in Cuba right now, they are even left without the dictatorship’s figureheads. Indeed, Roger Machado has been in West Palm Beach for more than a month through humanitarian parole. How great you are USA!”

Machado, the reporter said, is remembered for celebrating the Communist Party and the “90th birthday of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The United States and Mexico Discuss a Refugee Program That Could Benefit Cubans

The United States could benefit Cubans and other migrants with a shelter program. (EFE)

14ymedio, Mexico City, 2 July 2023 — The United States might extend the legal avenues for migration to Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. The plan, according to Reuters, will allow people who meet the requirements to obtain refugee status to do so through the U.S. “refugee resettlement” program that is only available to applicants from abroad.

Unlike those migrants who apply for asylum after arriving in the United States under the condition of “refugees,” with this variant people receive authorization to enter the country, obtain work immediately and receive benefits such as housing and employment aid. Another benefit is that they can apply for permanent residence within a year, which offers more stability than other options.

Four officials confirmed that the governments of the United States and Mexico are discussing the plan. This program will be available to those migrants who prove that they suffer “persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership of a certain social group or political opinion.”

In April, the Biden government said it intended to admit 40,000 refugees between 2023 and 2024. As of May 31, about 3,400 had arrived, which shows that the pace would have to accelerate a lot to reach the goal. continue reading

In order to be eligible for the program, people have to prove that they were in Mexico before June 6. A source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who remained anonymous, confirmed to 14ymedio that there have been several meetings between the two governments on the migration issue, but specified that “so far no agreement has been reached.”

Since January, the US government of Joe Biden implemented the humanitarian parole program. Despite the flood of applications and the difficulties in getting an appointment, as of May, 29,000 Cubans have benefited. The figure was given by Blas Nuñez-Neto, Acting Undersecretary of Border Policy and Immigration of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who also announced that there will soon be new provisions for the family reunification process.

In Mexico, the official of the foreign ministry pointed out that applications for refuge increased by almost 30% in the first quarter of 2023, to a record 37,606, according to the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance. In the figures published in May, there are 4,215 natives from the Island who have joined this program.

The coordinator of the Jesuit and Refugee Service, Karen Martínez, established that Chiapas is the southern state of Mexico with the highest reception of refugee applications, pointing out that in Tapachula there are about 26,000 foreigners this year and, of that number, 40% are refugees.

Chery Agnes, a migrant from Haiti, joined this day of peaceful mobilization against discrimination. This woman was a soccer player in her country, and her dream is to continue playing this sport where she is given an opportunity.

“I like everything, I’m a soccer player and I work with my body because I’m a model,” she told EFE. “I am a lesbian and am a very peaceful person, and I am here to show that we have rights,” she added.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Carlos Alberto Montaner Dies in Madrid Without Having Fulfilled His Dream of Seeing a Free Cuba

Writer and journalist Carlos Alberto Montaner has died after being diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease. (Archivo)

14ymedio, Madrid, 30 June 30, 2023 — The writer and journalist Carlos Alberto Montaner died this Thursday at his home in Madrid, where he lived since October 2022, “peacefully and accompanied by his loved ones after facing a neurodegenerative disease,” according to a statement issued by his family.

In the statement, his wife Linda, his children Gina and Carlos and their granddaughters Paola, Gabriela and Claudia express their gratitude “to the Spanish public health professionals, to the Right to Die with Dignity Association and to all the relatives and friends who showed so much affection to him in the final stretch of a prolific life marked by the defense of individual freedoms.”

Carlos Alberto Montaner was diagnosed in the Madrid public hospital Gregorio Marañón, as he himself said in his last farewell column, of Progressive Supranuclear Paralysis (PSP), a rare disease of the Parkinson’s family that has no cure and whose origin is unknown.

In May, the author made the decision to publish a text in which he reviewed his life, dedicated to the vindication of democracy and political pluralism by writing, the best thing he knew how to do and that, in fact, he did in the pages of some of the best newspapers in America and Europe.

Carlos Alberto Montaner supported the birth of 14ymedio by signing its manifesto of support, and for this newspaper it has been an honor to have his signature on a regular basis. He departs, however, without achieving his dream of seeing a free Cuba. continue reading

His farewell will be an intimate and private act, according to the family, which closes with a phrase from Montaner himself, published in his memoir, Sin ir más lejos [Without going any further]. “The time has come to recapitulate. We have to pack our bags. Disappearing is an ungrateful activity that is only justified because it is the only irrefutable proof that we have lived.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘The Private Company is of the Revolution’, the Cuban Government Tells tothe United States

“Companies that work with independence and creativity promote economic and social development on the Island,” said the U.S. Embassy in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 29 June 29, 2023 — The private company, anathema in Cuba for more than 60 years, has become, from one day to the next, a lifeline of the regime and a new reason for friction with Washington.

In some unusual statements, this Thursday, Johana Tablada, he Cuban Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Director General for the United States, boasted that the private sector “emerges and develops under the policies of the Cuban Revolution, discussed and approved by the citizenry.”

The official’s Facebook post – collected by the Prensa Latina agency – alluded, without saying it specifically, to a tweet two days ago from the U.S. Embassy in Havana, which promoted on its networks an extensive report on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Cuba, published last week by The Miami Herald.

The link was accompanied by the message: “There is a significant growth of the private sector in Cuba! The private sector is on its way to buying more than a billion dollars in goods by the end of 2023. Companies that work with independence and creativity promote economic and social development on the Island.”

On the same subject this Thursday, WLRN, from South Florida, dedicates a chronicle to the incipient Cuban businesspeople, saying that Cuban capitalism is becoming a reality. Cuban capitalists hope that U.S. aid will be real. According to the author, “Cuba’s communist economy is sinking, but its capitalist entrepreneurs are growing, and the United States wants to associate with them before Russia does.”

Faced with this, Tablada lashed out against the United States for “illegal coercive measures of an intensified blockade that hinder income, banking transactions, trade and investments and that torture the Cuban population,” and for “the financial siege and persecution for fraudulent inclusion of Cuba on the terrorist list.” continue reading

Those journalistic notes, however, not only took the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by surprise but also part of the exile, which sees the proliferation of new private companies on the Island as a “fraud,” as Rosa María Payá harshly expressed.

For her part, businesswoman and activist Saily González responded with a long thread to the “various inaccuracies” and “some fallacies” which, in her opinion, the Herald report incurred. “A country in transition? Where to? Towards an economic model similar to the Russian oligarchy, I suppose,” she tweeted, echoing one of the phrases of the report and alluding to the growing fear of an opening of the Cuban economy to the Russian one, given the latest agreements between Havana and Moscow.

Inside the Island, as this newspaper has noted, the distrust of these new businesses comes from the high prices and the fear that they will be managed by people close to the regime.

Interviewed in this regard by the Herald, Catholic activist Dagoberto Valdés, founder of the magazine Convivencia, stated that although he understands that “the economic actors closest to the circle of power” may be those who arrive at the “caramel” in a “piñata effect,” he says that it is “mathematically impossible” that the almost 8,000 private businesses “are directed by relatives of government officials.”

Reinaldo Escobar, editor-in-chief of 14ymedio, also referred to a “piñata” in the gathering of Radio Martí, Las Noticias como Son, saying that the private company has been “kidnapped” by those who rule, “in a very easy way: as they have all the power, they are those who tell someone yes and someone no, who allow thing and not another.” However, he said that it was “a conquest of the people who are critical of the Government” and a demand “that did not come from above, but from below.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Hemispheric Front Criticizes the Pope for Receiving Cuban President Diaz-Canel and Treating Him With ‘Obvious Affection’

Pope Francis with Miguel Díaz-Canel, during his meeting in the Vatican. (Twitter/Cuban Foreign Ministry)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 27 June 2023 — The Hemispheric Front for Freedom (FHL), composed of parliamentarians, academics, political leaders and human rights defenders from several Latin American countries, criticized Pope Francis for receiving the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, last week and for treating him with “an obvious affection that offends” the victims.

“It pains us as Catholics and Christians that you receive the criminal (Díaz-Canel) and other representatives of the Castro dictatorship while the Vatican ignores the true representatives of Cuban civil society,” the FHL said on Tuesday in a letter sent to the Pope.

The group says in the letter that it does not intend to question papal decisions but reminds the pontiff that the Cuban president “is charged with crimes against humanity” and that “his victims cannot be ignored, much less by you.”

“With what merit have you received the current dictator of Cuba?” asks the FHL, after saying that the reception of the Cuban leader “has painful and very questionable implications.” continue reading

Díaz-Canel was received on June 20 by Pope Francis, at the first audience held in the Vatican between the two. They talked for 40 minutes, according to Vatican sources.

After the meeting, the Cuban president met in the Secretariat of State with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and issues such as the request for the release of prisoners were discussed.

For the FHL, an organization committed to “promoting the values of freedom in the region and in the world,” the concession of the meeting “should have been conditioned, publicly and at the very least, on the release of Cuban political prisoners.”

It said in the letter that Díaz-Canel “unleashed a fierce repression that included shootings and beatings against the people who took to the streets, peacefully, to demand freedom” on July 11, 2021.

The Cuban government, it added, “does not respect women or children. Over 1,400 people were imprisoned, and 784 were sentenced to between 5 and 25 years in prison, including minors.”

The FHL reminded the Pope that “half a century of efforts, at the highest levels, have not produced an iota of moderation or tolerance in the communist regime, not even mercy for the innocent.”

The letter ends, signed by Dragos Dolanescu and Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, president and secretary general of the FHL, by saying that the Cuban regime will not change its attitude because “its ideology is based on hatred of everyone who does not think like them.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Minister of the Army Is the First Foreign Visitor in Moscow After the Wagner Group’s Mutiny

Wearing in a full-dress uniform, reminiscent of the Soviet era and currently worn by the Russian military, López Miera was received this Tuesday with all protocol. (Moskvichmag)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 June 2023 — The parsimony of Havana in the face of the armed rebellion of the Wagner mercenary group against Vladimir Putin does not seem to have embittered the Island’s alliance with the Kremlin: the Cuban Minister of the Armed Forces, Álvaro López Miera, is the first senior foreign official to visit Russia after last Saturday’s tension, with the aim of discussing the realization of “a series of joint projects in the technical-military field.”

Wearing a full-dress uniform, reminiscent of the Soviet era and currently worn by the Russian military, López Miera was received this Tuesday, with all protocol, by the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, at the headquarters of his ministry. The Cuban press has not yet said a word about the general’s visit to Moscow.

According to the Russian agency Sputnik, Shoigu proposed to his counterpart “to address in detail all existing and promising cooperation projects in the military field.” The minister assured that there was “a wide variety of issues” in which Russia could support Cuba, including “technical” aid to the Island’s Army.

He praised Cuba as “an important partner” that demonstrated “a complete understanding of the reasons” that led Putin to invade Ukraine, although he did not allude to the cautious silence that, during all the tension with the Wagner troops, the Havana regime maintained. The bilateral dialogue, Shoiguu summarized, is in the best of states, and they “are taking measures” to “protect their cooperation” against international sanctions.

“Russia is willing to provide assistance to Cuba,” the soldier promised López Miera, although both Sputnik and other media that reported the visit avoided defining the exact content of that “strategic” aid. continue reading

On June 13, Putin decorated Lopez Miera with the Order of Friendship, for his “important contribution” to the “strengthening of military and technical-military cooperation between the two countries,” Prensa Latina reported.

Born in 1943 and minister of the Armed Forces since 2021, López Miera was part of Cuba’s military interventions in Angola and Ethiopia. He is one of the senior Cuban officials sanctioned by the U.S. Government “for his involvement in human rights violations.”

The resignation of Shoigu and Valeri Gueràsimov, head of the Russian General Staff, was one of the demands initially defended by the Wagner group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who blamed both soldiers for the “chaos” that the battlefront had become in Ukraine. After the mercenaries advanced in the direction of Moscow and took – without resistance – the city of Rostov, Prigozhin stopped the march on the pretext of avoiding the “spilling of blood.” The president of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, mediated between the Kremlin and Prigozhin, who ended up stopping the uprising 24 hours after starting it.

Later, when everything was over, Miguel Díaz-Canel issued a tweet expressing his “total conviction” for Russia’s ability to maintain “unity and constitutional order.” The Cuban ruler added: “I express the solidarity of the people and government of Cuba to the esteemed President Putin and the brotherly people of the Russian Federation, in the face of attempts to provoke an armed rebellion in the nation.”

The Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, limited himself to sharing Díaz-Canel’s message while the official press was slow to publish the news of the rebellion, in total agreement with the version of state media such as Russia Today.

Other Russian allies in the region, such as Venezuela and Nicaragua, quickly spoke out in support of the Kremlin. Nicolás Maduro sent an “arm of solidarity and support” to Putin during an event with the military, while Daniel Ortega said that his government will be “always aware” of what happens with Russia and with the “brother president, comrade and comrade Vladimir Putin.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Dying in Cuba is No Longer Free

The “basic” coffins that the Cuban State will continue to cover in Sancti Spíritus. (Escambray)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 June 2023 — Funeral services that have been largely free in Cuba since the 1959 Revolution are beginning to be charged, and others that were already charged will increase in price.

In Sancti Spíritus, according to an article published on Tuesday in Escambray, “the structure of Comunales [community services]” is reordered, the agency dedicated so far to these tasks, and a unit of obituary services has been created to “improve the funeral homes and chapels of the province.”

The provincial newspaper offers an interview with the new director of that unit, Yoel Aquiles Martínez, who explains with the usual official jargon, “We have already begun with the monetary reimbursement for the payment of certain activities associated with deaths” due to “the need to free the State from some expenses and to increase the efficiency of certain services.”

So far, the article continues, it has charged for the cremation of corpses and the transfer of the deceased to other provinces, but from now on the transfer of the deceased from one municipality to another within the same province will also be paid, as well as the “vigil at home.” continue reading

In this case, “the funeral home provides the services related to the wake, and the family would pay on the basis of the approved price rate.” It is a variant, says Escambray, which “is already applied in the capital of the country” but in Sancti Spíritus “is in the process of approval.”

They will continue at no cost “the delivery of a coffin, the transfer from the house or the hospital to the funeral home or chapel with the provision of the funeral car, the fuel for that activity and the arrangement of the corpse, and within these benefits, those that are related to the wake in the premises enabled as such,” clarifies the newspaper, “but if the family wants another type of service, such as carrying out the burial in another place, outside the municipality or province, then they would be charged for that.”

From the Escambray’s interview, it appears that the State will offer citizens who can afford them “extra” services, such as amphorae for ashes, “other types of coffins of a better design” or “fine flowers.”

“Our purpose is that the obituary services are gradually self-financing, and with that income we can improve those that remain free of charge, including the constructive improvements of the funeral homes and chapels, as well as the technical status of the cars, something that has been worked on, but, due to the degree of deterioration they presented and the long time of usage, it has been impossible to carry out this activity efficiently,” the official acknowledges.

Yoel Aquiles Martínez also says that they have just received two hearses “of Chinese origin,” valued at 1,800,000 pesos each, “and another delivery of this type of transport to the province is expected.”

Faced with the question, which reflects the discomfort of the population due to the frequent delay of the funeral cars, the manager excuses himself by saying that they have “up to two hours to carry out the transfers, but the car can’t arrive until the legal documentation procedure is completed.”

“This is a province with a high degree of population aging,” he continues, “and the number of deaths has increased, to the point that, in recent times, with an average of 200 and more deaths a month, today we are above 400, and usually 50 percent of these happen between Friday and Sunday, which makes the obituary activity in the territory more complex.”

The announcement comes at a time when funeral services have hit rock bottom. The funeral homes have been deteriorating and lack sufficient staff for cleaning. Many times they have a single glass to use during the wake to see the face of the deceased in the coffin, so families must wait for other mourners to finish using it to get one.

The traditional cup of coffee, inherent in Cuban wakes, has also disappeared due to the lack of the product in state funeral homes. Flower wreaths sold to relatives have more tree leaves than flowers and have been smaller and more expensive every year. The amphorae for ashes are crude and fragile.

However, the worst criticisms fall on the coffins or “boxes of the dead,” as they are popularly called. Made of flimsy wood, these coffins lost the metal trim years ago, and the slats have been replaced by strips of wood and cardboard. As a result, it is common to hear that the body of the deceased falls out in the middle of the funeral or during the transfer to the cemetery.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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