Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 74

Colombian President Gustavo Petro and His Officials Have Traveled More Than 70 Times to Venezuela and Cuba in Two Years

The data was released by Congressman Hernán Cadavid in a report denouncing the “toxic leadership” of the president

The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro / Europa Press

14ymedio, Madrid, October 16, 2024 — The Colombian Government of Gustavo Petro has made more than 70 trips to Cuba and Venezuela in two years without revealing, in many of those cases, the reasons. The data was released by congressman Hernán Cadavid, of the Democratic Center opposition party, in a report on his social networks, in which he denounces the president’s “toxic leadership.”

In his report, Cadavid points out the “governability crisis” and “instability” within the Executive, through which “more than 124 deputy ministers have passed since August 7.” This is one of the causes of “the very low budget execution and the very high inefficiency” of the current Administration in Colombia.

Cadavid also states that the highest officials of the Executive have traveled abroad more than 855 times, including 50 trips to Venezuela and 21 to Cuba. “What is their purpose with those dictatorships?” the politician wonders in a video on X. He also says that he made 123 formal requests in order access the information; even so, the reasons for many of those trips are unknown.

Cadavid points out the “governability crisis” and the “instability” within the Executive, through which “more than 124 deputy ministers have passed since August 7”

Most of them have been carried out by the Colombian president himself, by the vice president, Francia Márquez, by members of the Ministry of Commerce and the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace. continue reading

Petro’s trips to Cuba have been known because of the peace talks with the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN), in which Havana acts as a mediator. This is also one of the reasons, according to Blu Radio, why the Colombian president has traveled to Venezuela; for example, in January and November of last year.

Recently, in addition, Colombia reached an agreement with Cuba to provide eggs, one of the most expensive and scarce foods on the Island.

On the other hand, Petro has tried to mediate in the crisis in Venezuela after the presidential elections, in which Nicolás Maduro proclaimed himself a winner and which have been denounced as fraud by the opposition and much of the international community. Last month, the Colombian president said that neither his country nor Brazil would recognize Maduro’s victory if the detailed polling place results of the July 28 elections are not presented.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The IAPA Denounces the Increased ‘Offensive’ Against Independent Journalism in Cuba

The report points to the case of Mayelín Rodríguez, who was sentenced in May to 15 years in prison for “interviewing and broadcasting videos about two girls beaten by agents of the Ministry of the Interior.”

The document points out that “the dictatorship tries to manipulate civil society, especially the limited and battered independent journalism” / 14ymedio

EFE (via 14ymedio), Córdoba (Argentina), 18 October 2024 — A report presented at the 80th General Assembly of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), still pending approval, denounces the recent increase in the “offensive” against unofficial journalism in Cuba through “psychological harassment,” arrests of journalists and summons from State Security.

“The umpteenth offensive against independent journalism (in Cuba) has been unleashed in September in the form of summons, preceded by different measures of psychological harassment by the authorities,” says the report presented at the meeting that is taking place these days in Córdoba (Argentina).

The document points out that “as before every new election in the United States, the dictatorship tries to hobble civil society, especially the limited and battered independent journalism.”

It denounces the case of Mayelín Rodríguez, who was sentenced in May to 15 years in prison for “interviewing and transmitting videos about two girls beaten by agents of the Ministry of the Interior” during a protest against the blackouts in Nuevitas. continue reading

The IAPA, founded in 1943, also mentions in its report that the Cuban digital media El Toque, based in Florida, was the subject of a “discredit campaign by the government propaganda apparatus” that blames it for being behind the depreciation of the Cuban peso against the dollar and the euro in the informal market.

El Toque reports daily on the value of the Cuban currency based on the buying and selling offers published on social networks.

“The umpteenth offensive against independent journalism has been unleashed in September in the form of summons, preceded by different measures of psychological harassment by the authorities”

While the dollar is currently listed at 325 Cuban pesos according to this media, which has become a benchmark for the street and economists, the official exchange rate is still fixed at one dollar for 24 pesos (for legal entities) and one dollar for 120 pesos (for individuals).

The document also denounces the arrests, assaults and interrogations of unofficial journalists such as Camila Acosta, José Luis Tan and Julio Aleaga, as well as the closure of the digital music magazine Magazine Am/Pm due to “harassment by State Security.”

The IAPA report on Cuba also criticizes the Social Communication Law, which came into force in early October, because it “strengthens the repression of press freedom.”

The aforementioned regulation, the first of its kind in Cuba in 70 years, ignores the unofficial press, allows commercial advertising for the first time since the triumph of the revolution, sanctions the political alignment of authorized media and regulates digital phenomena (including influencers), among other issues.

The law has been harshly criticized by NGOs and media outside the State orbit, who argue that it censors content contrary to the official narrative and leaves independent digital newspapers adrift.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A US Report Illustrates the Magnitude of the Economic and Social Crisis in Cuba

Hunger is not only due to the country’s inability to buy food, but also to its own productive inefficiency / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, October 18, 2024 — The origin of the current economic crisis in Cuba has its roots in 2016, and the country received a mortar blow in 2019, the prelude to the pandemic. This year it has bottomed out. The Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture has written a report that expresses, with numbers and data from the last decade, the accelerated deterioration of the Island in production, import capacity, tourism, quality of life and food security.

The text arrives at an appropriate time if it is about understanding the multiplicity of factors that have led Cuba to the “bottomless pit” that the Government denies, despite the paralysis of schools, cultural activities and much of the services decreed this Thursday. The collapse was seen coming and is felt more intensely – in addition to the energy situation – at the level of food. The drastic reduction in imports in 2023 led, according to the report, to 1.4 million Cubans lacking the 2,100 daily calories essential for a correct diet.

Development of Cuba’s Gross Domestic Product in recent decades / Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture

The number – which represents 12.8% of the Cuban population – is trivial if compared to the number of Cubans who suffer from food insecurity. The document, despite the difficulties in collecting data and making estimates, says that there are 4.2 million, 37.8% of Cubans, who are going hungry. Hunger is due not only to the country’s inability to buy food, but also to its own productive inefficiency. The balance between imports and production has been broken for years, and the consequences for the state coffers have been disastrous.

The report takes into account Washington’s embargo on the regime but keeps a detailed record of the increase in Cuba’s dependence, since it has received more and more inputs from the United States for three consecutive years. However, it warns, Havana has concentrated its purchases on a single product: chicken, the protein that – after the almost total extinction of pork and beef – has become an emblem of the crisis. continue reading

Export of various US products (chicken, soy, corn, wheat and others) to Cuba since 2001 / Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture

The fall in crops, of which the independent press has been warning for years – 14ymedio is, in fact, one of the sources cited by the report – also presents alarming numbers. Hit by hurricanes and floods, corn production decreased from 404,000 metric tons in 2016 to 250,000 last year. Wheat fell from 335,000 metric tons to 140,000 in those years, and sugar – former coat of arms of the Cuban economy – fell to 110,000 metric tons from the 1.1 million that were exported in the past.

With no products to export, the country ran out of money to import. The price has been paid by Cuban households, whose purchasing power has diminished considerably, due to inflation and the increase in the cost of living.

On the international stage, the loss of financial prestige by Cuba, a country accustomed to debts and non-payments, has also skyrocketed. Between 2017 and 2022, the Island frantically imported what it needed from the European Union, the United States and Brazil, while exporting a modest amount of products to Europe, China and Switzerland. In 2023, Russia – which gave its Caribbean partner about 25,000 metric tons of wheat – rose to the top of the list. The rapprochement was not without political overtones, but business with Moscow has not been running smoothly either.

Countries which have exported agricultural products to Cuba since 2001 / Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture

The United States, a key partner for the country’s survival, in 2020 sent products to Cuba worth $157 million. From that year on, the amount increased: 299 million in 2021, 319 million in 2022 and 337 million in 2023. Of these shipments, 89% were chicken, which the report considered a “moderate” increase.

The United Nations World Food Program has also sent food to the Island, and in 2022 provided 3,142 tons of food to Cuban schools, benefiting 510,000 people. The aid came after Hurricane Ian, which wreaked havoc that the Government continues to invoke to justify food shortages. Last February, in addition, Havana asked for unprecedented help from the UN to guarantee the consumption of powdered milk to children under seven years of age.

The Department of Agriculture insists that in order to comprehensively calibrate the Cuban “multidimensional” debacle, it would be necessary to have data from important allies of the Island – Russia, Venezuela and Vietnam – traditionally hermetic when it comes to providing them. Cuba is not the only communist economy monopolized by the oldest state in the region, but its central planning has led to numerous “distortions” that the regime intends to correct, with strategies hitherto ineffective.

Countries that have exported products to Cuba since 2002 / Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture

Havana’s administrative inability – obsessed with a tourism sector that has not taken off and with the export of medical services – has also led to the waste of key resources such as nickel and zinc, whose mines have been overexploited by companies such as the Canadian Sherritt International and the Australian Antilles Gold, to whom Cuba also owes millions of dollars.

The document also makes a kind of “history of rationing” on the Island, from the appearance of the “libretas” (ration books) in 1962 to the successive cuts during the mandate of Miguel Díaz-Canel. While in 2010 these “subsidized” products cost the State – according to official figures – about 14.1 billion pesos, in 2020 that figure had dropped to 8.9 billion, almost half. Since then, the report regrets, the official discourse does not stop talking about “late deliveries” or “delays in imports.”

There is ample evidence that tourism, another sector in which the Government quantifies its chances of acquiring foreign currency, does not contribute enough to stabilize the country’s pocketbook. In 2019, US restrictions affected – discreetly, because tourism continued to represent 10.4% of Gross Domestic Product – the flow of visitors. But it was during the pandemic that the debacle reached its critical point, falling from the 4.3 million visitors reported in 2019 to the 1.1 million received in 2020, and only 356,000 the following year. The recovery has been slow: last year only 2.4 million tourists were received.

The Cuban tourism industry since 2001, when the decrease in visitors after the pandemic was remarkable / Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture

The use of “mules” and the tendency to personally bring foreign currency to the country in cash, says the report, complicate the study of remittance behavior. As of 2019, according to researcher Emilio Morales, the figure experienced a radical drop of 45%. Only 9.18 billion dollars arrived in the country that year, which is interpreted as a change of the diaspora’s intention: if before emigrants tried to help their relatives on the Island, now their main objective is to get them out of the country.

Indeed, according to the report, 1.3 million Cubans live in the United States, and the number, since 2020, has increased dramatically. If we add the Cubans who entered the country between 2022 and 2023 – about 435,000 – and those who have requested asylum in Mexico between January 2022 and November 2023 – about 36,000 – there are arguments to affirm that Cuba has lost approximately 4% of its population, although independent studies suggest that the percentage is even higher.

Although the relationship – at the migratory, family and economic level – between Cuba and the United States has continued to get closer after the vicissitudes of recent years, there has been no total rapprochement between the two countries. Complicated neighbors throughout history, a greater link would seem “logical,” the report concludes. However, the stagnation of a regime that seems to enter its final phase every day distances the country from wellbeing and precipitates it towards almost irreparable levels of misery.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Dengue Patients Die in Cuba While Honduras Now Has a Vaccine

A woman with dengue died in La Benéfica in Havana “for lack of medical care”

Miguel Enríquez Surgical Clinical Hospital, known as La Benéfica, in the Havana neighborhood of Luyanó, where Days María Jiménez died / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, 18 October 2024 — The case of Days María Jiménez, who died last Monday at the Miguel Enríquez Surgical Clinical Hospital, known as La Benéfica, in the Havana neighborhood of Luyanó, gives the measure of the dengue situation on the Island. The woman, her son Yasmanis said on social networks, “was not treated by a doctor or a nurse” since the time she arrived at 10:30 pm on Sunday at La Benéfica, by ambulance from a polyclinic in Guanabacoa, until she died the next day, at 5:30 am.

As Raysa Juan Delgado, a friend of the victim, emphasized on Facebook, Jiménez died “for lack of medical attention”: “She was taken twice by the neighbors to the nearest polyclinic. Even vomiting blood, with fever, without tasting food and with many headaches, they return her to the house, because they told her there is no medication. Upon arrival she lost her balance and fell to the ground, hitting her head. When they took her [to La Benéfica hospital] there were no nurses or doctors to take care of her, and by the time her neighbor arrived, she was already dead.”

Jiménez’s son, who was on Isla de la Juventud and immediately purchased a ticket to go to Havana, says that his mother’s neighbor informed him of the death and that no doctor would answer his call. “I wanted to die on the boat. I arrived at the terminal at almost three in the afternoon and from there I went to the hospital, and they didn’t let me see her until the forensic examiner arrived. At eight o’clock at night I was finally able to see her on a bare iron stretcher, without sheets or anything.” continue reading

“My mom has been dead for 38 hours, and these sons of bitches want money to process my mom because they say there are no cars

From there, they sent him to a precarious funeral home in Guanabacoa. Despite the fact that at six in the morning he was told that she was cremated at 12 noon, at seven in the evening they had not yet picked up the body. “My mom has been dead for 38 hours, and these sons of bitches want money to process my mom because they say there are no cars [hearses],” he said angrily, begging for help and asking for justice.

Although on Wednesday the Government declared, through the national director of Epidemiology, Francisco Durán, that 17,000 admissions for dengue had been registered on the Island, including 3,400 hospitalized and a number (not mentioned) in intensive care, experts estimate a considerably higher figure.

This is confirmed by several Cuban doctors cited by Martí Noticias. “There are hundreds of thousands of cases, and the health infrastructure is extremely disadvantaged, to say the least,” Eduardo Cardet said from Velasco, in Holguín. “They advise people to isolate at home, and conditions at home are even more difficult, and the lack of medication is critical.” For this doctor, both the dengue and Oropouche viruses are “out of control,” and “the authorities and the health system do not have a contingency plan to reduce such a terrible impact.”

Roberto Serrano, a doctor in Santiago de Cuba, also thinks that the official figures fall short: “There are countless numbers of people who do not even take the trouble to go to hospitals, and for those who do go there is nothing; nor are there reagents to do a test, so they simply send them home.

Miguel Ángel López Herrera, from Guantánamo, told Martí Noticias that “only the most serious cases are being admitted, with danger to life.”

TAK-003 vaccines, developed in Japan, will begin being applied in Honduras next week

Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey are precisely the provinces most affected by the disease, according to Francisco Durán. The epidemiologist insisted on the importance of going to the doctor when you think you have the disease, although he implicitly admitted that it may not be determined with an analysis. “It’s not that they do an analysis and tell you it’s this or that [but] it’s good to go and have them do a clinical assessment, especially for children,” he urged.

Asked about the reasons that make the assessment for minors more necessary, the doctor said that it is an arbovirus that worsens at great speed at those ages. “We all have to go, but children, generally, need to be admitted even if they are not serious, because their cases get complicated much faster. Dengue has the particularity that, at a certain moment you are well, the warning signs begin and, if at that moment you are not hydrated – which is the medicine, the hydration – unfortunately you die,” he said.

This is what happened, for example, in the case of journalist Magda Iris Chirolde López, editor-in-chief of Canal Caribe, who died at only 33 years of age from dengue complications, while waiting to be treated in a hospital in Havana.

In contrast, and in the meantime, Honduras, governed by Xiomara Castro, an ally of Havana, received this Thursday a batch of 52,000 vaccines that will allow it to mitigate the onslaught of the same arbovirus, which has left at least 194 dead in that Central American country so far this year.

The TAK-003 vaccines, developed in Japan, will begin to be administered in Honduras starting next week in educational centers with higher rates of dengue incidence. Health authorities reported in a meeting with journalists that they plan to immunize at least 25,000 minors between the ages of 5 and 16 years old.

Honduras’s Deputy Minister of Health, Nerza Paz, explained that her agency has invested around 25 million lempiras (one million dollars) in the purchase of these vaccines, about which there is no news, for the moment, in Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Baseball Player Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Is Nominated for the Golden Glove of the US Major Leagues

Although he has been selected on several occasions for the award, this year could be historic for the player from Sancti Spíritus

Lourdes Gurriel Jr., jugador de Arizona Diamondbacks / Facebook

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 15 October 2024 — Despite the fact that he suffered an injury that took him away from the field for almost a month, and that his team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, failed to get into the final phase, the Cuban baseball player Lourdes Gurriel Jr. has been nominated for the Golden Glove 2024, for best left fielder in the National League. The announcement was made this Tuesday by the MLB.

Gurriel Jr. is the only Cuban to be on that list, in a campaign in which 33 players from the Island were active and where other compatriots such as Yordan Álvarez, Raisel Iglesias and Andy Pagés also stood out.

Standing out in the best baseball in the world has led to sacrifices for Gurriel. To develop the talent he showed since he was 16 years old, when he debuted in the National Baseball Series with the Sancti Spíritus team, in 2010, Yunito, as the 31-year-old athlete is known, had to flee the Island.

Gurriel Jr. represented the Cuban national team during the 58th edition of the Caribbean Series, held in the Dominican Republic

In February 2016, the year he left Cuba, Gurriel Jr. represented the Cuban national team during the 58th edition of the Caribbean Series, held in the Dominican Republic. His brother Yulieski was also on that team and was considered its best player in the tournament. Both were coveted by teams from the United States and, after their participation in the competition, they decided to flee to try to reach the Major Leagues. The regime considered it “a frank attitude of surrender to the merchants of rented and professional baseball,” according to the State newspaper Granma at the time.

Yunito’s first Major League contract was as a rookie. The Toronto Blue Jays paid him a base salary of one million dollars a year. continue reading

His father, a Cuban baseball legend, recalled in an interview with the Mexican newspaper Excelsior last year that it is not easy to make the decision. “The path is not easy. If it were, everyone would be leaving Cuba and becoming a star. But no, there is a lot of sacrifice and a very long process of adaptation,” he said.

Before escaping , the brothers, then 31 (Yulieski) and 22 (Lourdes) were the greatest prospects among the first beneficiaries of a pact between the Major Leagues and the sports authorities of the Island that would facilitate a safe and legal passage for the players. The agreement was finally signed in 2018, but a year later Donald Trump, then president of the United States, eliminated it. The reason: the payment for the hiring of the players could contribute to the financing of the Cuban Government and, therefore, violated the US trade embargo on the Island.

Yunito’s first Major League contract was as a rookie. The Toronto Blue Jays paid him a base salary of one million dollars a year

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is now in his seventh season in the big tent, where so far he has met expectations. He first wore the Toronto Blue Jays uniform, from 2016 to 2022, and then arrived in Arizona, on the team where he currently plays with a fielding percentage of .980; on offense of .279, with 18 home runs, 75 assists and seven stolen bases. The Diamondbacks finished in third place in the western division of the National League, with 89 wins and 73 losses.

Although he has been nominated on several occasions for the Golden Glove, this year could be historic for the player from Sancti Spíritus. “He has a good chance of taking the award home for the first time in his seven-year career in the best baseball in the world, a period where he was once included in the All-Stars,” said Swing Completo.

The Gurriel family is famous in Cuban baseball. In addition to his brother and father, another one who has joined the list is Luis Enrique Gurriel, a cousin of both players, who, at just 12 years old, fled Cuba in January of this year to try to reach the MLB.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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One of Cuba’s Most Promising Basketball Players Arrives in the United States

Bexy Yelena Claro Viset, from Holguín, broke off relations with Cuban sports in 2023. /Instagram/@negrasambay

14ymedio, Havana, 15 October 2024 — The Holguinera Bexy Yelena Claro Viset, who disassociated herself from the Cuban Basketball Federation last year, arrived this Monday in the United States. She did not return to the Island after ending her contract with the Salvadoreñas B.C.team from El Salvador, the runner-up in the Apertura tournament.

Claro Viset moved to Mexico after finishing the Salvadoran tournament. On Aztec soil with the support of the Basketball Association of Mexican Clubs, she joined the Musas Jalisco club for the 2024 season. Last Friday, her team was defeated by the Aztks of the State of Mexico, earning them the runner-up position.

The athlete, who turned 23 on October 6, shared images of her arrival in the United States. “I am resilient and can overcome life’s challenges. My well-being is a priority, and I am committed to taking care of it,” she wrote on her Facebook page a day before her birthday. She already knew that she would fulfill her American dream.

As recalled by the Sports CHAGO page on Facebook, the athlete had played several seasons with the Mambisas de Santiago de Cuba. During her stay on the Island, she was pointed out by the official media ¡Ahora! as one of the continue reading

key players of the team.

Indeed, the center player was fundamental to the national team during the 2022 Caribbean Championship, which took place in Havana. In addition to her participation in the XXIII Women’s Centrobasket of 2022, held in Chihuahua (Mexico), she also excelled in the 2023 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup in León (Mexico), the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games (El Salvador) and the 2023 Pan American Games (Chile).

Photo of Bexy Yelena Claro, in Mexico with the runner-up Musas Jalisco team/ Instagram/@negrasambay

Her case adds to the unstoppable exodus of athletes in search of a better future. In February of this year, Sergio Machado took advantage of the early morning to leave the hotel where he was staying in Orlando, Florida.

Basketball is one of the sports most affected by the unstoppable migratory exodus from the Island, according to Yunier Valdivia Rodríguez, provincial deputy director of sports in Ciego de Ávila. The crisis has worsened due to the lack of coaches. Of eight that the School of Sports Initiation had to count on, at that time there were only six, one of them “hired by the hour.” The casualties are, he said, because they “migrated” or “looked for a source of employment that pays more.”

In October 2023, the Most Valuable Player of the last Superior Basketball League, Joan Carlos Gutiérrez, told Play-Off Magazine that the lack of “a decent court, better training equipment and the absence of international competitions” are some of the obstacles faced by the players.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Medalist Javier Sotomayor Doubts the Future of Cuban Athletics

El campeón olímpico cubano en Barcelona 1992 y plata en Sídney 2000, Javier Sotomayor. Instagram/@245sotomayor

14ymedio, Swing Completo, Havana, 14 October 2024 — “The facilities are in poor condition; there is a lack of equipment, specialized shoes, shortage of gyms and no competitions.” The Cuban Olympic champion in Barcelona 1992 and silver in Sydney 2000, Javier Sotomayor, expressed himself forcefully this Saturday in the WhatsApp group Athletics Without Borders about the current crisis of athletics on the Island.

“The future of Cuban athletics for me is in doubt,” said the athlete, who lives between Guadalajara, Spain, where his son trains, and Havana, where he runs a bar, the 2.45, named after the world record he set in 1993 in high jump. “We have established athletes and young people with a lot of talent, as well as trained coaches, but the infrastructure is not adequate, most of all at the base,” he stressed.

Sotomayor also regretted that there is no infrastructure on the Island for the discipline in which he excelled. “For the practice of technique, it is necessary from an early age to make corrections. That’s why they reach the national pre-selection with almost incorrigible defects.”

In the past Olympic Games in Paris, Luis Enrique Zayas could not overcome the high jump score of 2.27 meters established as a requirement by the organizers for the qualifying phase. At the end of his participation, he continue reading

confessed that he had only had “ten weeks of training, the first even without being one hundred percent.”

Sotomayor also regretted that the Island does not have infrastructure for the discipline in which he excelled / Instagram / @245sotomayor

The exodus is another of the problems that afflict Cuban sport, and athletics is no exception. The crisis was revealed last year by the national athletics commissioner Rolando Charroo, after the failure at the XIX World Championship in Budapest.

On that occasion, the official regretted the lack of “runners capable of sustaining themselves in the elite tests such as the 400 and 800 meters and the 100, 110 and 400 with fences, in which we have had proven success.”

The terrible conditions for the preparation of athletes has forced several to emigrate. One of those was Roger Valentín Iribarne, who in 2021 asked for leave for “lack of motivation.” He found in the Benfica club of Portugal the conditions for his sports development, and last July he won the gold medal in the 110 meter hurdles in the Diamond League held in Silesia, Poland.

Reynier Mena, like Valentín Iribarne, took refuge in the Benfica club. In one year in Portugal he improved his numbers. In July 2022, in La Chaux de Fonds, this sprinter went down from the 10-second barrier in the 100 flat meters with a score of 9.99 seconds, and in the 200 meters he recorded 19.63 seconds.

In Paris, the podium in the long jump event was dominated by Cubans in exile. Jordan Díaz, who represents Spain, took the gold. The silver and bronze went to Pedro Pablo Pichardo (Portugal), with 17.84, and to Andy Díaz (Italy), with 17.64.

In the absence of figures, the Cuban authorities had to “reinsert” the jumper Juan Miguel Echevarría with a view to the Olympics in the French capital. However, the Olympic runner-up in Tokyo 2020 was left out of Paris for not having appeared in any competition that allowed him to achieve the minimum score required to attend the event.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Activists Tell the UN That the Number of Femicides in Cuba Could Be Double

The organization Prisoners Defenders submitted a report to the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

The document was created by PD and the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory / Alas Tensas / Archive

14ymedio, Havana, October 15, 2024 — The organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) has once again brought the human rights situation in Cuba before the UN. In the 89th session of the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) this Monday, they presented two reports: one on femicides on the Island and the other on the conditions suffered by women political prisoners.

From Geneva, where other civil society organizations and some affiliated with the regime also met, Javier Larrondo, president of the PD, said that there is a “dark figure” in the number of femicides on the Island, which doubles the official count.

“While the Cuban Government claims that they do not have a problem of femicide, civil society organizations verify almost 100 femicides a year, ten times the rate in Spain. Documents from the State itself lead to the conclusion that the real figure could be double,” Larrondo said during his speech at the CEDAW session.

A report made by PD in conjunction with the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory presented to CEDAW, entitled “The Reality of the Current Femicide Crisis in Cuba,” says that on average 195 women are killed annually because of “intra-family” or “passional extra-family” violence, euphemisms with which the regime tries to hide the real number of continue reading

femicides. This comes after an investigation based on deductive work that uses international official sources in addition to official data from the regime in its crusade to hide the truth.

“While the Government claims that they do not have a problem of femicide, civil society organizations verify almost 100 femicides a year, ten times the rate of Spain”

“Everything points not only to hiding the real number of femicides in Cuba, made evident by the work of independent NGOs, but also to the fact that we are facing a problem of critical magnitude, which has been going on for years in Cuba, at least since 2019,” reads the document.

If the situation of women on the Island is overshadowed by silence or insufficient data, that of women prisoners is deplorable, especially those who suffer from an illness. In addition to the usual harassment to which the regime subjects dissidents, Prisoners Defenders explains, they must endure a whole series of humiliations just because of their gender.

For prisoners of conscience in Cuba, the days go by very slowly, because in addition to the usual harassment to which the regime subjects its detractors, they also have to endure extra humiliations because of their gender, as documented by the Prisoners Defenders organization in a study. In addition, the physical and sanitary conditions for women in Cuban prisons are deplorable and unhealthy, especially for those who suffer from a chronic disease or are about to give birth.

According to Prisoners Defenders records, the provinces with the most women prisoners of conscience in Cuba are Havana (25.21%), Matanzas (15.97%) and Mayabeque (12.61%), followed by Artemisa (9.24%), Camagüey (7.56%) and Santiago de Cuba (7.56%). The current ages of the 119 political prisoners range from 20 to 67 years.

The figure of 119 political prisoners that PD has documented includes women who were arrested as minors and trans women. All trans women have been and are imprisoned among men, suffering horrible situations of abuse, including rapes by other inmates.

The NGO estimates that up to 70.59% of political prisoners suffer from systematic deprivation of medical care

Once locked up in an unhealthy cell, women are victims of physical, psychological and sexual abuse. If they require a doctor, they must get used to the idea that they will not receive adequate care, much less obtain the necessary medications to cure themselves or at least make their condition more bearable, says Prisoners Defenders in a report entitled “The Reality of Human Rights Violations for Women of Conscience in Prisons in Cuba.”

The NGO estimates that up to 70.59% of political prisoners suffer from systematic deprivation of medical care. Specifically, it has managed to document 31 prisoners of conscience who suffer from serious diseases such as pneumonia, epilepsy, asthma, diabetes, hypertension and some psychological disorders, mainly linked to depression and suicide attempts.

Among the mistreatment documented by PD for political prisoners, the deprivation of any type of communication with family, defense attorneys and relatives stands out at 94.12 percent. Other forms include verbal abuse (88.24%), torture (70.59%) and physical aggression (58.82%).

Translated by Regina Anavy

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China Points Out ‘The Unwillingness of Cuban Leaders To Adopt Market-Oriented Reforms’

Havana owes hundreds of millions of dollars to Huawei and Yutong

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Cuban counterpart, Miguel Díaz-Canel, during the latter’s official visit to Beijing in November 2022 / EFE

14ymedio, Madrid, 14 October 2024 — Cuba owes large Chinese companies, such as Huawei and Yutong, “hundreds of millions of dollars each,” says a foreign businessman who trades with the Island. The prestigious British economic newspaper Financial Times (FT) published this Monday a devastating article on the economic relations between the Asian giant and Cuba, which makes it clear that, beyond the rhetoric, Beijing is not willing to gamble money on such an unproductive partner.

“The shortage of raw materials and an unproductive economy leave the Island with little to export to China, while imports have decreased in recent years, as the tightening of US sanctions seriously aggravated Havana’s chronic default problems and exhausted credit lines,” says the Financial Times.

One of the unknown facts so far is that the sugar export contract from Cuba to China, through which the Island sent more than 400,000 tons, has been canceled due to lack of production. Apart from that, only nickel, zinc and luxury cigars remain to sell to China, in addition to doctors sent to numerous countries – “in exchange for hard currency,” the FT points out – and cooperation in biotechnology.

On the other hand, although Cuba continues to import from China, the data show that acquisitions have fallen. While in 2017 the amount was worth 1.7 billion dollars, in 2022 – with the latest available data – it was only 1.1 billion. Cuban economist Omar Everleny Pérez said that the amount that China invests in the island – despite being unknown – is an “absurdly low” amount when compared to the 160 billion dollars that Beijing has invested continue reading

in Latin America and the Caribbean since 2005. China’s main allies in the region are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, all of them important exporters of raw materials.

“China is not Cuba’s sugar daddy,” Fulton Armstrong, former US intelligence officer for Latin America, told the British newspaper

“China is not Cuba’s sugar daddy,” Fulton Armstrong, former US intelligence officer for Latin America, told the British newspaper. “It is mainly a relationship of declarations of solidarity, not a strategic partnership for either one of them.”

According to the article, although Beijing publicly spouts declarations of solidarity with Havana, in private it is appalled at the “lack of will of Cuban leaders to decisively implement a market-oriented reform program, despite the obvious dysfunction of the current situation.” Chinese officials have insisted many times to Cuban peers that the economy turn to a version close to that of the Asian country, with no result.

The article points out that China has contributed significantly to the “energy revolution” promoted by Fidel Castro at the end of the 20th century, as well as to the infrastructure reform in recent years, with special emphasis on cybersecurity, digital technologies and transport infrastructures and equipment. This was not in vain, the text points out, since Beijing is still Havana’s second largest trading partner, only behind Caracas.

“But Chinese imports have decreased a lot in general,” says a Western businessman in Havana. “Exporters are moving away from the credit lines between China and Cuba and are moving towards the private sector.”

William LeoGrande, an expert on Cuba and professor of Public Policy at American University, told the FT that China is a country that is not very inclined to give donations. “Cubans right now are in a position where they need charity and don’t have much to offer in return,” he says. Although Beijing promised to send 20,408 tons of rice to the Island throughout 2024, Cuba needs 36,000 tons every month, a fact that exposes the low importance of the crumbs thrown to Cuba by that agreement.

The Chinese president also gave 100 million dollars after the visit of Miguel Díaz-Canel on his 2023 tour through several friendly countries, but it is not significant in relation to what Beijing could contribute if it had Cuba as a relevant economic partner.

The article also refers to the possible rapprochement on intelligence issues and addresses the report about an expansion of Chinese espionage operations in Cuba. According to LeoGrande, this information is more a “story” than a real cause for concern. “It serves the interests of conservative Cuban Americans, who are always looking for reasons not to improve relations between the US and Cuba, and in the wider political community it serves the interests of those who think that China is a global threat.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With Fewer Than 40% of Buses in Service, the Transport Situation in Cuba is a Source of ‘Anxiety’

Bohemia magazine points out that of the 1,000 State buses, 397 are unusable, and 230 are under repair or without fuel

For officials, the causes of the debacle are always the same: the blockade, lack of fuel and deterioration of the vehicles. / Bohemia

14ymedio, Havana, 11 October 2024 — Traveling is a nightmare in Cuba, but few official media translate the problem into numbers. Bohemia did it this Friday, publishing devastating figures after an interview with the head of the National Bus Company, Aidel Linares. Of the 1,000 buses owned by the entity, only 603 work. There are actually 128 that are leased, so that makes only 475. To top it off, between breakdowns and lack of fuel, about 230 remain in the terminals.

A country that can have 245 buses a day on the roads, in addition to the 128 leased ones, can only describe its situation – and so Bohemia does – as a source of “anxiety.”

Precise in the numbers, Linares gets lost when it comes to assigning guilt and does not allude even once to Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, the charismatic Minister of Transport who has earned some popularity on social networks denouncing the problems of the sector, but without stating what he will do about it. For his subordinate, the causes of the debacle are the usual: the blockade*, lack of fuel and deterioration of the vehicles.

According to Linares, about 9,500 people travel on State interprovincial buses every day. Five years ago, when the situation was nothing to be continue reading

celebrated either, 17,500 were transported. In addition, the company faces a radical decrease in its routes. Now it has only 114 active routes, when years ago it operated 409.

According to Linares, the country’s priority is to never miss routes that are backbones, such as Havana-Batabanó, Pinar del Río-Santiago de Cuba and, by rail, the train from the western capital to the eastern one.

According to Linares, the country’s priority is never to miss routes that are backbones

Bohemia illustrates the situation with several testimonies. One is Roberto’s, 63 years old, who must travel 800 kilometers from Havana to Santiago de Cuba to see his daughter and grandchildren. The case is typical, but it has complicated life for the man, who has been watching for weeks how the tickets escape him every day in the Tulipán and Factor agency, in the Havana municipality of Plaza de la Revolución.

Nor has Roberto had luck with the Viajando (Traveling) application, difficult to handle for young people and impossible for people his age. Bohemia explains that the collapse of Viajando is due to the lack of capacity of national servers, excessive demand and problems when paying and finalizing the procedure.

The Viajero Company – which manages the application – has ignored customer suggestions, says Bohemia. It has been asked to “market the tickets in a staggered manner, at different times, separating routes of greater and lower demand, and types of transport” — in vain. Rodríguez Dávila has complained about the situation but has not pressured Viajando either.

For several months, another problem has worried customers: buses that circulate with empty seats, pass by the stops and keep going. “When the bus goes by, doesn’t the GPS detect it?” protests Michel, one of the passengers interviewed by the magazine. There is, obviously, “complicity with the checkers and shift bosses,” which is the best evidence that there is “a criminal group in charge of the already diminished ticket reservation system.”

Even dead people buy tickets, according to Bohemia. Those dedicated to the business of reselling them have started using the identities of deceased people to access a ticket, a piece of information that Rodríguez Dávila had already revealed during the recent ordinary sessions of Parliament.

This situation led the State to call for a “crusade against resellers,” which has borne little fruit. The solution that will be implemented, in the words of Rodríguez Dávila, is to urge the population to take out their Single Citizen Card, but – adds Bohemia – “in the opinion of various customers, this excessive security is frustrating.”

“The blackouts also hit us,” Linares explained. “If we are taking a punch, little or nothing can be done until the electricity is restored.” The percentage of punctuality has fallen, from 99% to 88%, a more than dubious figure in a country where no vehicle leaves or arrives on time at the terminal. Many times the problem is a breakdown “in a remote place.” The usual repair time is three hours. “We often fail to comply,” admits the manager.

At times like this, people get nervous, no matter if they are standing under the sun on the road or waiting in the terminal

At times like this, people get nervous, no matter if they are standing under the sun on the road or waiting in the terminal. “A few days ago we delayed an exit for 45 minutes, Havana-Matanzas, because the bus coming from Pinar del Río was delayed, and five people were on their way to board it. Some understood, but there was a lot of discomfort,” says Linares.

The Union of Railways of Cuba, for its part, says it has experienced “a remarkable advance” in its service, because it has resurrected several routes that were given up for lost. Investments from France and the promise of Russian money have somewhat oxygenated the sector. However, “it’s not enough,” the officials insist.

The biggest problem is the duration of the journey, which on its longest routes sometimes reaches 20 hours without the train being in a good enough condition to go that far. In some of them, after many years of operation, “not even a simple light bulb has been changed since they arrived in the country .”

But vehicles and their deterioration are only part of the problem. The other is the condition of the roads and railways. In Santiago de Cuba, the State newspaper Granma boasted this Friday that 80,000 tons of asphalt have been spread on the streets of the province since 2023. However, there are still “thousands of kilometers in bad condition, and many are totally eroded and impassable.”

This year, they hope to have 27,400 tons of asphalt, a notable decrease compared to 2023. The neighbors in the periphery of Santiago have protested, because the authorities only repair the historic center and have forgotten about “the interior neighborhoods.” There are many “limitations” and “complaints,” says Granma, which promises – with the usual enthusiasm – a “moncadista”** assault” on the most battered streets of Santiago. Better times will come, promises the Communist Party newspaper, in 2025.

Translated by Regina Anavy

Translator’s notes:

*There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.

**A reference to the failed attack on the Moncada army barracks, led by Fidel Castro in 1953.

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A Second ‘Mission’ of 12 Cuban Doctors Arrives in Dominica

The group is made up of specialists, nurses and technicians

Health workers were received at Douglas-Charles International Airport / Minrex

14ymedio, Havana, October 13, 2024 — As if the departure of 5,000 Cuban doctors to Mexico in the midst of the health crisis on the Island were not enough, the regime continues to export health workers to the region. This Friday, a “contingent” of 12 specialists arrived in Dominica, the Cuban Embassy in the Caribbean country announced. A month earlier, in September, another group of Cubans, whose number is unknown, landed in Roseau.

The official reception took place at Douglas-Charles International Airport and was attended by the Cuban ambassador, Miguel Fraga and the chief medical officer of Dominica, Lynora Fevrier Drigo, who praised the presence of health workers and recalled his years of medical training in Cuba.

“The group of Cuban collaborators is composed of specialists, nurses and technicians, who will be distributed in various health centers throughout the island. Their work will be key in strengthening primary care and other essential medical services,” adds the statement from the Cuban Foreign Ministry. continue reading

Fraga, for his part, alluded to the cooperation between Havana and Roseau in “crucial” moments

Fraga, for his part, alluded to the cooperation between Havana and Roseau in “crucial” moments. “The mission of our collaborators is clear: to improve the quality of life and health of the people of Dominica. We fully trust that they will achieve this with the dedication and professionalism that characterize Cuban doctors.”

The news, with a marked tone of protocol, could not be more brief. The secrecy surrounding the sending of doctors to Dominica highlights the regime’s intention to avoid further criticism of its “medical missions,” which have been pointed out on numerous occasions by international organizations as tools of labor exploitation and an example of modern slavery.

No details are known about the group of doctors who arrived in Dominica in September. Composed of specialists in intensive care, general medicine, neonatology, obstetrics, radiography, laboratory, electromedicine and nursing, the contingent was received by the Dominican Minister of Health, Cassanni Laville. Then, Fraga, also present, added that the medical collaboration between the two countries has been longstanding since the 1990s, and that Cuba has graduated 130 doctors from Dominica in its universities.

No details have been given about the group of doctors who arrived in Dominica in September

Havana, however, found a mine of unparalleled benefits in the Mexico of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose Administration hired 5,000 Cuban health workers to supposedly send them to rural areas. According to data published by the local press, the Government pays each foreign doctor more than 5,000 dollars in salary and stipends.

The amount of the total payments that Mexico has made to the Island since the hiring of health workers began a few years ago is unknown, but some data that have come to light offer an estimate. As part of three agreements signed between July 2022 and 2023, Cuba received $25.4 million for just 610 doctors.

The Mexican medical union has also complained on several occasions that the hiring of foreigners, who are offered better salaries and benefits, is detrimental to national professionals. However, it is unlikely that the situation will improve for them because, since her victory in the elections, the newly invested president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has promised that she will continue López Obrador’s agreements with Havana.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘There Is Gas but No Electricity To Pump It’: The Drama of the Service Centers in Havana

All Cubans, without exception, have graduated as electrical engineers, more by necessity than by vocation

This Saturday, although there was gasoline, a power cut forced sales to be suspended / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, October 12, 2024 — Popular discomfort can be measured in decibels in Cuba. The collective cry that erupts immediately when the blackout hits has been increasing in volume and now takes longer to subside. This morning, a roar ran through Infanta Street, in Downtown Havana, from the corner of San Rafael to the vicinity of Zanja. The sound of indignation reached the vehicles waiting to fill up with fuel at the nearby service center. This Saturday, although there was gasoline to dispatch, a power cut forced sales to be suspended.

“Here when it’s not one thing, it’s another: when Juana (who puts order in the line) is not missing then her sister is missing,” roared a customer with neck veins about to burst who had marked his spot in line “before the sun rose” to refuel and make a trip to the province for “a family reunion.” Behind the steering wheel of each car, a story of urgency and despair was heard. “I have to put something in the tank yes, yes, because in my house there is nothing to eat and I live by moving merchandise,” commented the owner of a small van that offers his services to several stores in freely convertible currency.

In the midst of the murmur of dissatisfaction there came worse news. “The Electric Union says that the deficit is again above 1,200 megawatts today,” warned the driver of a Lada with a faded red color due to the passage of time and the lack of retouching. With that figure, very similar to that of recent weeks, those who were waiting to buy fuel understood what would happen. “We know when the blackout began but not when it will end,” said another who had pushed, along with his son, the old familiar Moskvitch until he was in line. continue reading

Every Cuban can recite by heart the names of the most important thermoelectric plants in the country

An improvised workshop on boilers, generators and the generation capacity of the National Energy System then began. Every Cuban can recite by heart the names of the most important thermoelectric plants in the country and predict what impact a hundred kilowatts will have on the already very high national deficit. The people have passed an accelerated course in turbines, valves, fuel transfer from ships, generating plants and consumption during peak hours. All, without exception, have graduated as electrical engineers, obliged more by necessity than by vocation.

Above the heads of the improvised gathering on Infanta Street, the blue sky barely had a few clouds this morning. “There is no smoke from the patanas, so today they have not been able to turn them on either,” concluded one of the drivers, pointing up. The patanas — Turkish floating power plants — anchored in Havana Bay, have been able to operate only at night during the last few days due to the lack of fuel to stay on all day. “Last night the noise was deafening throughout Luyanó,” said another frustrated customer, who decided to sit on the sidewalk waiting for the power to return. “So much noise for nothing,” he sighed.

A few meters away, the traffic light at the intersection with San Lázaro Avenue did not have electricity either, and cars ventured to cross without order or traffic police to direct them. The blackout also brings out a wild side of people, returns them in part to the caves, to those times when gas stations did not exist, thermoelectric plants were not even invented and fire was the only source of light that accompanied a human being in the middle of darkness.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba’s Record Number of 226 Graduates in Communication Will Revive the ‘Battle of Ideas’

The Cuban regime needs to reinforce its news media, diminished by emigration

This is not the first time that the Cuban government has placed its hopes on young professionals / UH

14ymedio, Havana, 12 October 2024 — In 2020, when the Communication Law that came into force this month was a remote objective of the Cuban legislature, the 226 young people who graduated this Friday had just entered the Faculty of Communication of the University of Havana. Four years later, they have graduated and are given a mission: to be “protagonists for the integral transformation of the press” and the “implementation” of the new law.

The recent graduates will be sent to official media and institutions decimated by the migratory exodus and the march in search of more lucrative jobs, generally in MSMEs. Cubadebate and Granma have given abundant signals about this crisis and have been launching recruitment campaigns for years. They now have put their hopes on the new batch, who must complete two to three years of social service.

The university graduates in Information Sciences are prepared to be librarians and archive managers. Journalism and Communication graduates will take up careers where indoctrination and “political-ideological preparation” play a primary role. In fact, to further guarantee the loyalty of the candidates, women who aspire to be journalists will have to go through military service, a requirement that already exists for men.

They are a “generation,” emphasized Televisión Cubana, who gave importance to becoming “integral vanguards”

They are a “generation,” emphasized Televisión Cubana, who gave importance to becoming “integral vanguards”; that is, who stood out for their political fervor as well as their academic achievement. This “effort” was recognized at the ceremony. It is, in addition, the “largest graduating continue reading

class,” not only for the year but also in the history of the Faculty of Communication.

The ceremony was held in the Aula Magna of the University of Havana and was chaired by the Dean of the Faculty, Ariel Terrero, and the President of the Institute of Information and Social Communication, Alfonso Noya. Noya’s presence is significant, since the entity he directs, recently created, emerged after the dissolution of the stagnant Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT).

The ICRT, once all-powerful, had the last word on all the content that passed through Cuban Television and responded directly to the Communist Party. It was current Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel who eliminated it, in August 2021, and gave the new Institute the task of “conducting and controlling the Social Communication Policy of the State and the Cuban Government”

A month earlier, the ICRT had failed to contain the impact of the 11 July 2021 protests, and an official journalist, Ana Teresa Badía, had been one of the voices of the regime in pointing out the fiasco. “It could be repeated painfully on July 11 if the ICRT does not communicate better, and I say this with tremendous pain, but it is the truth, and not telling the truth would be an dishonest act on my part,” she warned at the time.

Another note of loyalty to the regime was the presentation of singer Annie Garcés

Along with the head of the Ministry of Truth – the sinister epithet, based on George Orwell’s novel 1984, which not a few Cubans then gave to the Institute – there were several senior officials of the Party. Among them were Liuba Moreno, an official of the Ideological Department, and Liliana Mateu, general secretary of the Party at the University. Another note of loyalty to the regime was the presentation of the singer Annie Garcés, author of countless propaganda pieces and praise for the regime.

Terrero, who gave a final speech, told the students that the panorama is “challenging,” and we must “honor our country” by being useful to the official press. Some students have already done so since they graduated in this career. Several presenters of the propaganda program Con Filo, in addition to the members of several provincial newsrooms, worked there as students.

It is not the first time that the Cuban Government has put its hopes on young professionals, soldiers in the “Battle of Ideas.” The brigades of art instructors, social workers and emerging teachers, today diminished and inactive, have a common factor: high ideological demand and poor education. Lacking experience and preparation, and burdened by indoctrination, many ended up deserting or leaving Cuba.

The new journalists and communicators begin their working life, in addition, with an assigned enemy: the independent press. However, the new Communication Law barely affects that independent press, whose work is illegal in a country that does not recognize basic freedoms. It is already penalized by previous laws, including the Constitution.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The ‘Amarillos’ Have Emigrated, Making Transport Even More Complicated in Camajuaní

“You can spend an hour here without a single car passing,” says Ana, who studies medicine in Santa Clara / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yankiel Gutiérrez Faife, Camajuaní, 9 October 2024 — It’s six in the morning, and at the bus stop in front of the Camajuaní Terminal – one of the busiest, next to that of the extinct Maceo cinema – there is no room for one more person. It has been like this for years, but the transport crisis raises the level of burden a little more every day. As the sun advances, the environment heats up.

The place has its characteristic smell – a mixture of urine, excrement and rotten garbage – but those who have to pass through there daily have lost, or almost lost, their sensitivity. The stop is one of the favorite corners for beggars to defecate, and there is no shortage of night owls far from home, who also arrive to take care of their needs.

At eight, when the sun begins to burn – there is no truce even in the last months of the year – those who can do so crowd under the small roof of the shelter to escape from the heat or, these days, from the rain. Those who can’t enter find another strategic point – a nearby tree, which will complicate the race to get on the bus, if it happens to arrive.

Those who can’t enter the shelter find another strategic point – a nearby tree, which will complicate the race to get on the bus / 14ymedio

There is no shortage of solitary “botellerros” — ‘hitchhikers’ — doctors who display their white coats, pregnant women and the elderly are considered entitled. They prefer to try their luck a few meters beyond the crowd, in case the car of an acquaintance takes pity on them. Few brake, because as soon as someone is picked up, four or five other people will struggle to enter the vehicle, sometimes without the driver’s consent. continue reading

The bus stop is on Independencia Street, which the people of Camajuaní still call – as in the 19th century – Real Street. Officially, the avenue is only a section of the circuit that connects Santa Clara with Camajuaní, Remedios, Caibarién and the Cayería Norte, a tourist corridor where the white buses of the State Gaviota never stop, knowing the situation.

When a mandatory stop is made, tourists look out curiously through the dark windows. The cameras rise behind the glass, and from the stop you can almost hear the click: Cuban poverty is also a tourist attraction.

From the Maceo cinema – where the other important artery of the town, General Naya, ends – to the terminal, a small hill descends, which allows travelers to see the red silhouette of a Transmetro bus from afar. Everyone tenses their muscles. It’s time to run. A frequent strategy of drivers is to stop a few meters beyond the stop. The crowd races, and the line forms in order of agility. There is no shortage of blows, elbows, pushes.

When there is no luck, the bus passes by and the travelers, between looks and expressions of absolute despair, observe how it passes the cemetery towards Santa Clara. They will try again.

In the group there are all kinds of people, from students who travel daily to the Central University of Las Villas – just over 20 kilometers from the town – to farmers who live in Santa Fe, Carmita, Vega Alta, Los Paragüitas or the University neighborhood. For many, these names are their daily stations of the cross.

Few brake, because as soon as someone is picked up, four or five other people will struggle to get in the car / 14ymedio

“You can spend an hour here without a single car passing,” says Ana, who studies medicine in Santa Clara. For her, completing the stretch to the ring road of the provincial capital is just the beginning. Then she will have to figure out how to get to the school, another overwhelming segment of the journey. With a little luck, the bus will arrive at the hospital area, but that will not completely solve her problem.

“Things have become very difficult. Many days I don’t get to my classes on time,” she says. Is it better to get a bed in a dorm? Ana thinks – like hundreds of Camajuaní students – that it’s not. The terrible state of the residence, the bad food and the difficult living conditions make it preferable to return home every day, despite the transport situation. Sometimes, she points out, she has to take a taxi to return, and she must prepare to spend.

Many travelers miss the “amarillos” — the “yellows” — individuals in yellow vests — the official “fishermen” of buses and State cars, who flagged down the drivers and forced them to stop.* Their work was far from ideal, since many were lazy and easily distracted by talking to acquaintances without spending time watching the traffic. But they did something. Their absence is the umpteenth effect of the migratory exodus and the search for other jobs, as they have apparently left the country in droves.

For Érika, a Camajuaní nurse employed in Santa Clara, what bothers her most about the situation is not only the wait but also the effect of the crisis on her pocketbook. “With current rates, I sometimes spend more than half of my salary on transportation. I’ve thought about quitting work,” she says. Her daily tour involves getting up before dawn and waiting at the stop, where “it’s a miracle to get a place on the first try.”

Not infrequently the shared ride becomes an “everyone for himself” event, even among acquaintances. It happened recently, Ana says, when the father of a friend – who works at the Party School and has, of course, a car – stopped to pick her up. “We had to leave a colleague behind because there was no room for anyone else,” she says.

The Camajuaní stop – which still has very expensive taxis and electric tricycles outside – is just one station on the arduous path of travelers, perhaps not even the worst. The Santa Clara Los Flamboyanes stop in the hospital area is more crowded, or the demolished intermunicipal terminal, which for more than a year has not seen the emblematic Girón circulating that connected both localities. At night, the wrecked bus had a cabaret name: the Queen of the Night.

Now, each trip translates into numbers: 150 pesos if it is done in a private truck, 250 to Caibarién; 20 pesos in state buses; and 500 pesos if a private vehicle is boarded, a figure that can be doubled if you go to the end of the Caibarien line. It doesn’t matter how much money the traveler has in his pocket: the bill, at the end of the month, doesn’t leave much.

*Translator’s note: It is (or was) supposedly mandatory for government vehicles to stop and fill empty seats, and this was enforced by the ‘amarillos’ in their yellow vests.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Sugar Crisis in Cuba: Hard To Find, Expensive and Puts ‘MSMEs’ out of Business

A pound of sugar sells for up to 500 pesos in private stores

A pound of sugar sells for 400 pesos in an ‘MSME’ (private store) at 10 de Octubre and Santa Catalina, in Havana / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 11 October 2024 — Sugar is once again scarce in Cuba. Its distribution in the rationed market has delays of months and has not reached all the provinces. A small amount can be obtained in private stores for up to 500 pesos a pound.

Thus, the popular phrase that shows the traditional importance of this product for the Island – “without sugar there is no country” – sounds like a macabre joke. Roberto, a resident of Santiago de Cuba, tells 14ymedio, “Here we put sugar in everything, even if it’s not healthy. When you don’t have anything to eat, you can put it on bread or prepare a glass of sugar water.”

However, obtaining it in the current crisis is not easy. “Where I live, for example, you can’t find it. You have to look somewhere else,” he says. After making a pilgrimage through the city, Roberto found a pound of sugar at 400 pesos: “Very expensive.”

The shortage has repercussions not only for consumers, but also for small businesses.

“The candy store in our neighborhood has not been able to reopen because of the high price of sugar”

Maribel, a resident of Nuevo Vedado, in Havana, witnessed a few weeks ago the closure of a private business in her neighborhood due to lack of sugar: “The candy store in our neighborhood has not been able to reopen because continue reading

of the high price of sugar. It was a MSME [private store], but it is already in liquidation. It’s a shame, because its owner, a woman in her 50s, employed at least two young people in the area who now have no income.”

According to the habanera, “people who complained about how expensive the sweets were in that MSME now sigh when they pass by, because it was the only pastry, cake and cupcake business for several blocks around.”

On social networks, Internet users also ask desperately if someone is selling the product at affordable prices, either for the children’s snack or to make a dessert that appeases hunger. “I’ve been trying to find sugar for days, whether white or brown. In the MSMEs near home they sell a kilogram for 950 pesos,” says a user on Facebook, who nostalgically remembers “the country of sugar cane, in the times when even a milordo (sweetened water) was often breakfast, snack and dessert.”

In addition to the high prices, there are failures in distribution through the rationed market, which in recent months has not been fully stocked. In fact, some provinces received barely a part of the food that makes up the subsidized basic basket.

In addition to the high prices are the failures in distribution through the rationed market, which in recent months has not been fully stocked

A kilogram of sugar is now more than two dollars on some Internet sites that sell products to emigrants for their relatives on the Island. At the informal exchange rate, the price is equivalent to 350 pesos a pound. With that, Maribel says, it was impossible for the candy store in her neighborhood to stay on its feet: “The lack of sugar buried it.”

A similar disappearance of the product was reported by 14ymedio in November last year. The emblematic Coppelia ice cream parlor, in the heart of El Vedado in Havana, closed because there was no “milk or sugar” in the factory that supplies it.

The natural medicine industry has also been a victim of the collapse of sugarcane production. Among the problems for generating these medications is not just a lack of some plants. Up to 15 imported raw materials are needed, in addition to alcohol – to extract the active metabolites of plants – and sugar, basic for the production of syrups.

Likewise, Cuban rum makers fear that this year the production of the drink will be diminished by the failure of last season’s harvest and the foreseeable fiasco of the current one. Executives of the export brands – Havana Club, Ron Santiago and Ron Vigía – point out that “the blow is felt” in the industry because of the shortage of sugar.”

Now Cuba has been forced to import much of the sugar needed for the population and is unable to comply with export contracts

Traditionally, Cuba consumed 700,000 tons of sugar and exported the rest, but with current production, the panorama has changed radically. Now Cuba has been forced to import much of the sugar it needs for its population and is unable to comply with export contracts.

Since at least 2020, each sugar harvest carried out on the Island is listed as the worst of the last 100 years. The amount projected for 2024-2025 is not yet known, but the authorities expect production to exceed the 350,000 tons of sugar obtained in 2023, a figure barely greater than half of what was produced in the same period (600,000 tons) by the Republic of Mauritius, an island of 2,040 square kilometers east of Africa that is 50 times smaller than Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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