Category: Translator: Regina Anavy

The complaint is added to that of the European Parliament this Thursday, which, as in 2019, again demanded that the Regime release Ferrer immediately and unconditionally

“The repression must end,” said the members of Parliament, who asked the European Union to sanction “those responsible for the persistent violations of human rights” on the Island.

On September 7, the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Dionisio García Ibáñez, and the priest Camilo de la Paz, in charge of the Penitentiary Pastoral of the diocese, visited Ferrer in prison. The meeting was announced by Nelva Ortega Tamayo, wife of the political prisoner, in statements to Martí Noticias.

Although the opponent is mentally and physically “stable,” the archbishop and his companion were worried about his health, she reported. “To be precise, his health is not good,” Ortega told the media, and she clarified that Ferrer told García Ibáñez and De la Paz that he suffered from heartburn, stomach pain and “a practically paralyzed” arm.

Similarly, on September 12, Amnesty International, in a message on X, expressed concern about Ferrer’s life

Similarly, on September 12, Amnesty International, in a message on X, expressed concern about Ferrer’s life, since “his family could not visit him for months and found that his health has seriously deteriorated under the prison’s inhumane conditions.”

Ferrer García was one of the prisoners of the so-called Black Spring of 2003, when he was sentenced to death. Then, his sentence was commuted to 25 years in prison thanks to the efforts of the Vatican and the mediation of Spain.

During his current conviction – for trying to join the ’11J’ protests of 11 July 2021 – his family, especially his wife, has denounced the Regime’s constant refusal to let him receive family and conjugal visits. On numerous occasions, due to his forced isolation, Ferrer’s family and some independent institutions have requested a proof of life for the political prisoner.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

From the Movement for Cuban Certification in Spain there is talk of an arbitrary paralysis of the applications for a year

Cuban doctors need to provide four documents to have their degrees certified in Spain: their degree, a certification of their grades, their work career and a certificate that guarantees that they are qualified to continue practicing their profession, all legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, health workers complain that the Cuban government systematically denies them the reference for their professional career, which extends the deadlines. In the Facebook group Cuban Doctors in Spain, the members advise starting to process the approval before living in the European country and “looking for a lawyer,” because the State is obliged to deliver everything that is asked of them.

Among them circulates the rumor – supposedly based on the officials of the Ministry of Universities – that Spain is considering no longer demanding the document in light of the Regime’s deliberate delays, but officially nothing has been said. From the Cuban Certification Movement in Spain, on the contrary, there is talk of an arbitrary shutdown on applications for Cuban doctors for a year, alluding to “a background check” by the Ministry.

“This selective and systematic discrimination not only harms the professional rights of these doctors, but seriously affects the Spanish health system, which currently faces challenges in the coverage of medical personnel and long waiting lists, which directly impacts patients and their families,” they denounce in a statement.

Cubans, like other non-EU workers, can join the national health system in two ways, either by taking the Medical Resident Intern entrance exam or through temporary contracts if the country’s different autonomous communities – which have health competitions – allow it. However, in both cases it is strictly necessary to have their degree certified.

According to the Community of Madrid, in that region alone there are more than 7,100 foreign doctors

According to the Community of Madrid, in that region alone there are more than 7,100 foreign doctors, most of whom are Cubans, Venezuelans and Argentinians, so the Minister of Health Fátima Matute has urged the Government of the nation to shorten the procedure. “Likewise, we ask you to help solve the situation of Cuban doctors residing in Spain who have an approved degree but who cannot practice because they lack the qualification certificate that the Cuban government denies them,” she wrote in a letter addressed to Mónica García, the Minister of Health.

The Ministry of Health approved this year an extraordinary call to approve non-EU specialists through specific exams that were held in the first quarter of the year, although they still had to have their degrees in general medicine validated.

In 2020, the worst year of the covid-19 pandemic in Spain, the Ministry of Universities certified the degrees of 134 Cubans – one of the nations with the most complete files, after Venezuela and Colombia – 82 of them during the state of alarm that was in force between March 15 and May 9 of that year, according to the department’s statistics provided to 14ymedio. A year later, in 2021, 564 doctors and 39 nurses of Cuban origin joined the Spanish health system after obtaining the relevant certifications, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Both groups expressed their condolences to the adult son who survives, Hernández Puerto, as well as to other relatives and friends

The groups insist on the importance of the Cuban government declaring a “state of emergency for gender violence,” and they advocate for a comprehensive law against sexist violence.

In the Cuban Penal Code, femicide is not classified as a crime, and the terms “femicide” or “sexist crime” are not used

The official Cuban Observatory on Gender Equality stated at the beginning of August that the courts identified a total of 110 women over 15 years of age murdered by their partners or ex-partners, who were tried in 2023.

A recent report by the Attorney General, Yamila Peña, reflected that 72% of the victims are between 25 and 59 years old; 84% of the perpetrators were the partner or ex-partner, and 31% had criminal records of violent acts.

Information about femicides in the Cuban press is scarce, but in recent months the ruling party has publicly recognized the dimension of the problem.

At the end of July, the government approved a national system of “registration, attention, follow-up and monitoring” of sexist violence on the island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

On May 11, 2023, a second agreement was signed, through which Mexico promised to pay 1,636,308 euros a month. In July, a third was closed; for five months the López Obrador Administration disbursed a total of 8,181,544 euros.

The editorial staff of this newspaper was informed in August 2022 that the payments were deposited to an account of Banco Internacional de Comercio, S.A., with a tax address in Inmobiliaria Monte Barreto, Jerusalén building, ground floor, 3rd avenue, e/ 78 and 80, Miramar, Playa, Havana, Cuba.

The president of the Prisoners Defenders association, Javier Larrondo, denounced in that same month that there were “State Security agents” among the doctors hired by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Despite the report, Mexico has continued to hire Cuban doctors.

Since last August, Mexico has accelerated the arrival of Cuban specialists. The goal is to have 5,223 doctors “as soon as possible,” an official confirmed to 14ymedio. The new stage foresees the “arrival of 4,023 health workers,” a figure higher than the 3,800 that the director of the Mexican Social Security Institute, Zoé Robledo, had announced last July.

Doctors with various specialties are arriving in groups of between 198 and 200 at Felipe Ángeles International Airport (Aifa), where, according to the official, “there are scheduled flights.”

As part of the relationship with Cuba, 14ymedio confirmed that the agency in charge of the logistics of the Island’s doctors in Mexico is Neuronic Mexicana, which depends on Neuronic S.A. Cuba. This company has been the representative of the products and services of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry of the Island since 2018; its president is the Cuban Tania Guerra.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

“After 5:00 pm, this place has no security, and we are located in a very complex neighborhood”

One could think that what happened to Daisi Aguilera is excessive bad luck or an isolated case, but the confessions of the employees of the necropolis themselves – who have given up secrecy in the face of the situation – say that it is not. “After 5:00 pm, this place has no security, and we are located in a very complex neighborhood, constantly attended to by the structures of the Government and the Party,” is the first thing that Jorge Gordales Reyes, manager of Vicente García since the beginning of this year, tells Periódico 26.

The manager assures that, until recently, “many people lived in the cemetery.” He says there were “more than five workers” who have had to be separated from their positions, some “with more than 15 years of work,” for “violations and crimes.” “I can assure you that this place has not been like that for a long time. You can walk through it and not see any debris; it is clean, and we are very severe with indiscipline,” he says, although his own workers deny some of his statements.

Not only are most of the niches and graves dilapidated with slabs torn off, but two large bee hives hang from the back wall, and, faced with the problem of lack of space, the guardhouses have become depositories for the remains. “They removed the windows of the internationalists’ pantheon (guardhouse), closed it, and it’s full, because there’s no room for all the skeletons,” complains Ramón Nicolás Delgado, head of the group of custodians who also suffer from the place’s poor condition.

When the cemetery closes, the guard on duty is not only left without a place to rest but is also plunged into darkness. “The head of the sector has asked us not to have women guards at night for fear of what may happen to them. It’s totally dark here. There was a tower with spotlights focused on several perimeters, but not anymore,” he explains.

“The pantheon of the combatants, to give an example, has a 200-volt switch and can’t be used because there is no breaker. The main entrance is dark because it has not been possible to get a cable for the custodian to have light,” he summarizes. In difficult situations, such as a downpour, “the custodian takes down the flag, picks up the phone and asks the neighbors to give him shelter. And then the cemetery is unguarded, with no one here,” he says.

The lack of security has brought the consequent robberies. “The flower boxes, the little books, the little boxes that people buy for the remains of the family member are stolen. Many are worth 3,000 or 4,000 pesos. They empty them and resell them,” he says.

Periódico 26 also says that the workers don’t receive snacks, gloves or other basic tools for their work, and they’re not the only ones whose lives revolve around the cemetery. A neighborhood has sprouted there, full of people who live with the fetid odors and let their children play in the cemetery as if it were natural. In fact, one of the workers of the necropolis attributes the place’s destruction in part to the residents in the area.

“The children fly their kites; they start running around and when you step up and scold them, the parents fall on top of you as if you were the one invading a sacred space,” he says. He knows, however, that this is not the only reason. The Vicente García lacks maintenance, space and workers, but the employee confesses that “no one wants to work for 2,527 pesos in the midst of so many shortcomings, without lighting and in a diverse and complicated community.”

Periódico 26 reports that, not so many years ago, the provincial authorities announced the construction of another cemetery and an incinerator plant. The plans, however, never materialized despite the promotion they had then, something that the newspaper attributes to the “excess enthusiasm” of the leaders.

The land that had been planned to expand the necropolis, where the earthworks had already begun, was given to some individuals

At the moment, the Vicente García Cemetery lacks space to deal with the amount of remains, and the overexploitation of the cemetery is another reason for the poor condition of the facilities. As for the new projects, “the work on the crematorium is stopped due to lack of materials; the incinerator is already there but has not been installed, and the land planned for expanding the necropolis, where “the first earthworks had already begun, was given to some individuals,” regrets Eiser Prieto Pons, deputy director of Hygiene and Obituary in the province.

In Las Tunas, Vicente García Cemetery is not the only one in that situation. “In Puerto Padre, for example, whose main cemetery is equally overexploited, the work has stopped for bureaucratic reasons. It’s a shame, because we could comply with the rule of building this site next to the garbage dump with the distance it requires,” says the manager, without explaining the reason for the decisions that come “from above. ” However, he adds, the Party has favored the manufacture of coffins, and they will soon be able to add four hearses to the six they have for the entire province.

However, that is not enough to stop the deterioration of the province’s cemeteries like the Vicente García, which serves, according to its neighbors, as a warehouse for remains that are then sold for thousands of pesos to be used for santería rituals, depending on “which bone it is and the dead in question. If it is a child, a foreigner or a combatant, the price goes up.”

The anecdotes about fugitives and criminals who take refuge in the necropolis, the “harmful” policemen and the debacle of the cemetery, were a final point in the official chronicle, which closes without a direct allusion to the negligence of the State that has led to that environment. However, the reminder that, in one way or another, anyone can end up being part of the template of lost and dislocated remains of the cemetery does not go unnoticed in the article: “Death is the path we all take.”

Translator’s note: Cemeteries in Cuba with limited room require that families disinter remains after a given time period, and deposit them in a mausoleum to make room for new burials.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

The bread rolls are not only tiny but are also transported in dirty boxes surrounded by flies

Bread is another of the great problems of the small towns of the eastern province. The images themselves were eloquent: the rolls are not only tiny but are also transported in dirty boxes surrounded by flies. The Muñoz bakery, in addition, leaves much to be desired due to the precariousness of the facilities.

Soon the microphone returned to Marrero, who thanked the villagers for their “support for the Revolution” even though their situation was critical. “We have to end the shoddiness, the bureaucracy,” he insisted, appealing to the people themselves to make an effort. “We have to know all the problems, which are many.” The solution is another story.

To top off the “high expression of socialist democracy,” according to Cuban Television, the prime minister went to a rural school, where the Pioneers* were trained and in uniform. It was a “frank and pleasant” dialogue with the humble communities of the Cuban East, the reporter summarized, while focusing in the foreground on an old man from Gibaro with a shiny US Marine cap.

At one point on his journey, Marrero confessed that he made those exchanges as a kind of model for the accountability assemblies formerly held. Suspended since 2021, these meetings return to Cuban neighborhoods as proof – says the official press – that the Government is willing to listen to the people in the midst of the crisis. “The people need things to change, but with the Revolution that Fidel and Raúl made,” was Marrero’s mantra.

The Communist Party newspapers reproduced on Saturday similar scenes in all provinces

The Communist Party newspapers reproduced on Saturday similar scenes in all the provinces, with lower-ranking leaders. In Sancti Spíritus, for example, they have achieved a curious sample of “patriotic virtues”: the creation of an official commission to “supervise the quality of the bread for the basic basket,” which soon became the main concern of the meeting.

In Villa Clara, on the other hand, people talked about the multiple problems of garbage collection and the proliferation of crime, but Vanguardia did not offer too many details about the debate. There, the delegates also gave scoldings and celebrated their own willingness to “listen to the voters.”

The 5 de Septiembre digital news source gives the chronicle of accountability the tone of an epic. It reports that the delegates “are moving heaven, sea and earth,” and don’t accept “unfinished or unconvincing answers” from those who “harm their people,” and they should “begin the task” – the kind of war cry attributed to Antonio Maceo – every day. In every town there are “dark minds longing for blackouts” for the meeting to be suspended but, they warn, not even that can prevent the leader from being there.

As for the municipality of Segundo Frente, according to Sierra Maestra, the delegates have asked for trust in the “influence of the Party” and its first secretary in Santiago de Cuba – Beatriz Johnson Urrutia – for a solution to their problems. An undated solution, of course, because now the Government only intends to “listen.”

*Translator’s note: In 1961, the José Martí Pioneer Organization for Cuban youth was created to replace the banned Association of Cuban Scouts.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

The diplomats celebrated that emigrants related to the Government have sent “food donations” this year

“All those who want to contribute are welcome,” Fraga said and began shouting slogans against the blockade, which the attendees chanted en masse. Only at the end of her speech – recorded from a cell phone and transmitted on the official profile Nation and Emigration, are some of the faces of the attendees seen, applauding the official.

The meeting was also attended by the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, who in a brief post on X reported his attendance and said he was “happy” with what was discussed there. In addition, other senior officials of the Foreign Ministry, such as Carlos Fernández de Cossío, took the floor during the meeting.

Fernández de Cossío’s intervention left a phrase that the Cuban Consulate in New York – headquarters of the event – underlined: “The objective of the new Migration Law is to ensure that Cubans find prosperity in Cuba.” The reality of the country, hit by blackouts and shortages, is diametrically opposite.

Both in Havana and in Washington or New York, the regime has been organizing meetings for several years with those who are willing to be invited

Both in Havana and in Washington or New York, the regime has been organizing meetings for several years with those who are willing to be invited. They are, according to exiled opponents, old agents planted by the Government in the United States or businessmen who, despite their departure from Cuba – the typical case is the tycoon Hugo Cancio – consider it appropriate to invest in businesses on the Island.

Last November, while the country was going through one of the worst moments of the migration crisis, Havana carried out a large logistical deployment to receive dozens of emigrants. The conference La Nación y la Emigración – the binomial that the regime coined to allude to those who left – aimed to achieve greater investment in the country through SMSEs.

After a flourishing of small and medium-sized enterprises, the Government has been putting a stop to initiatives and increasing control for months. This Saturday’s meeting in New York, along the same lines, was limited to discussing the consequences of the new laws, but left the interest in investing in the background.

The first edition of this kind of conferences took place in 1978. The official press remembered that date again last month, with a long reflection by the regime’s spokesman Elier Ramírez Cañedo.

The conversation with Cubans living in the United States has become a habit every time a senior Cuban official visits the US capital or goes to the United Nations headquarters. The objective: not to lose sight of and to “forge ties” with those in tune with the regime within the Cuban community in the United States. Havana considers them “a priority,” Fernández de Cossío said last April.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

The Banco Popular de Ahorro de Bayamo has not paid the doctors since October 2023, claiming low availability of foreign currency

Saborit Oliva and Miguel Ramos, who say they need the money to become independent, have run out of options, because as residents of Granma they can collect foreign currency only in that province. Meanwhile, their colleagues from other territories received their salaries long ago.

“Nor do they plan strategies for sending monetary aid, after almost a year of waiting to extract the cash in hard currency that is ours for having made money for the country, for representing our nation with dignity and for surgically saving lives, in adverse conditions of tuberculosis, hepatitis, HIV, malaria and Covid-19, with the sacrifice of abandoning our daughter and the rest of the family,” says the couple, who do not see their efforts being repaid.

“We have made three trips to Havana, with letters from the Council of Ministers, and the matter was transferred to the Central Bank of Cuba, which has the same answer: there is no availability,” say the doctors. They explain that they still “don’t have the money, after several complaints processed at the central banking level, without a date for delivery and without the possibility of buying a house.”

“The low availability is real, but we can’t understand, after almost one year, why they haven’t been able to resolve our demand,” the couple concludes, in their underlying criticism of the Cuban banking system.

Health workers are obliged to deposit the hard currency obtained during their missions abroad in Cuban banks, a policy implemented to try to avoid the desertion abroad of these professionals

Health workers are obliged to deposit the hard currency obtained during their missions abroad in Cuban banks, a policy implemented to try to avoid the desertion of these professionals. If they leave the mission, the health workers lose their wages, which pass to the State coffers.

This aspect of medical missions, as well as the withholding by the State of between 70% and 95% of the amounts paid by other countries for each Cuban health worker, has been pointed out by several organizations as a form of modern slavery.

Some of the health workers have even broken their silence and complained that the part of the money that Cuba leaves them to live on while they are on a mission is barely enough for basic needs. In 2023, one of the doctors of the more than 600 sent to Mexico that year told the newspaper Reforma that instead of a salary, he and his colleagues received a “stipend.” His salary, he added, minus the percentage taken by the regime, was in Cuba.

For its part, despite having a devastated health system – where there is a lack of supplies and medicines for the professionals themselves – Cuba insists that part of the money that other countries pay for Cuban doctors is reinvested in the Public Health sector of the Island.

“Doing away with this income means preventing Cuba from buying or manufacturing medicines, repairing hospitals, importing medical technology or, simply, the economic improvement of cooperating personnel and their families,” claimed Cubainformacción, a pro-Castro portal based in Spain, last February. The truth is that, as the Government of Cuba itself reports, more than 33% of the State budget goes to investments in tourism. This is reflected in the public accounts of 2023, where it is stated that the Health sector receives less than 2% of the State budget.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

“Both the 13 de Marzo Tugboat sinking and the shooting down of the Brothers to the Rescue planes were ambushes with premeditation and treachery from intelligence information previously provided to the Cuban government by its agents and informants. They were not actions of war, but planned homicides. Both acts constitute crimes against humanity that do not expire,” the organization believes.

In the opinion of Cuba Siglo 21, those who boarded the Mig fighter jets – including González-Pardo, who was in number 22 – “left that day ready to kill.” In the recording of the radio communications of the attack, it argues, the former pilot reports that one of the Brothers to the Rescue planes was “in his sights” and that he was waiting for instructions to proceed. This action “leaves no doubt about the intentions that morning of the migrant who now lives peacefully in Jacksonville, Florida.”

“It’s not about intolerance, revenge or resentment, nor about ’settling the score’ with that pilot. What is actually urgent is to bring to trial in this case the very concept of ‘due obedience’ to criminal orders that are almost without exception raised by human rights violators in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and other similar regimes,” summarizes the statement.

This Monday, the independent journalist Mario Pentón tried to communicate with the pilot

This Monday, when independent journalist Mario Pentón tried to communicate with the pilot, González-Pardo claimed that much of what had been said about him in the media was “false.” Then, however, he hung up the phone and deleted his WhatsApp number. He had described his situation as “very difficult.” After a lifetime in the service of the Regime – first as a military pilot and then in civil aviation positions, as director of Terminal 2 of the José Martí International Airport – he had accepted the Humanitarian Parole offered by the United States. “I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do, or if I’m going to give interviews or not, mainly because of some additional situations that I have and that can affect me,” he said.

Pentón also shared this Tuesday an internal document from the US Department of State, obtained by Martí Noticias and dated 2016 – in the midst of the thaw initiated by then-President Barack Obama – in which González-Pardo asks to speed up the US consular interview to grant him a tourist visa for being a “facilitator” of high-level travel and a “key diplomatic contact” when organizing exchanges between the two countries. His visit – to “observe firsthand American culture” – was considered of interest by Washington, so his consular interview was moved up twice.

According to several sources, González-Pardo was the man who was at the controls of the Mig 29 that chased José Basulto

According to several sources, González-Pardo was the man who was at the controls of the Mig 29 that chased José Basulto – the leader of Brothers to the Rescue – to the north of the 24th parallel, in the Straits of Florida. Basulto himself confirmed this information to the military pilot Orestes Lorenzo, who escaped to the United States in 1991 and returned, despite the risks, to pick up his family.

After it became known that Washington gave the go-ahead to the former pilot, a barrage of criticism and questioning about the Cuban migrant has fallen on US authorities.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

The main task is for the electric generators to relieve the blackouts; that’s why the INRH has increased its supply capacity from 36% to 72%, but, he says, there is not always fuel for them to work

In this context and after a deficit of more than 1,000 MW reported yesterday at peak hour, the authorities announced that the Communist Party of China had donated ten generators that will go to Sancti Spíritus and Cienfuegos, although they will barely provide 18 MW, and only as long as they have the required fuel.

As for the pumping equipment, the data are devastating. There are 3,674 pumping stations of which 3,381 work. There are 1,200 that are more than 10 years old, 229 that are not “in position” [due to lack of a pumping source] and 209 that “do not meet the technical requirements of expenditure and load, but they are the ones we have and that are working,” he said.

They are joined by 481 reserve pumping stations, of which only 127 work, an added problem because that prevents maintenance to the equipment with its consequent deterioration. “By not having spare pumps when the main one breaks, until we comply with the transfer cycle and take them to the workshops and repair them, all that time we have to try to supply those who receive water with the “pipas,” and we know the difficulties we have with fuel,” he stressed.

As a result, the whole country is suffering from a lack of drinking water and sanitation, with Pinar del Río, Havana, Las Tunas and Holguín in the lead, according to the Institute’s data.

Rodríguez, however, has the same hope as his partner in the battle, the Minister of Energy and Mines, and he has trust in solar power. This Tuesday he reported that between 2023 and 2024, 1,200 pumps have arrived in the country, of which 866 are “for the change in the energy matrix,” he said, referring to photovoltaics. There are 200 of them that have not yet been assembled, almost all of this type.

The whole country is suffering from a lack of drinking water and sanitation, with Pinar del Río, Havana, Las Tunas and Holguín in the lead

There are 1,312 pumping stations that need less than 10 kilowatts. There are 866 on the Island, among which 678 are in place but only 91 provide service. However, Rodríguez congratulated himself because 350,000 people are supplied thanks to them, “especially in isolated communities.”

In addition, there are 300 that use hybrid technology (fed by the National Electric Service and by solar). “Eight stations are planned for the first stage in Pinar del Río, 15 in Sancti Spíritus, 16 in Holguín and 9 in Cienfuegos. For the second stage, 15 are planned for Villa Clara and Aguas Turquino in Santiago,” he added.

The evening broadcast had a specific section dedicated to Havana, the province that concentrates not only more inhabitants but also more economic activity and political power, and, most worryingly for the regime, where protests are more easily ignited.

“On the night of 21 July 2024, an electrical failure occurred in the high tension lines that connect the Cuenca Sur reservoir with the Central System. This caused a sudden stop and, as a result, several hydraulic valves malfunctioned, which broke the driver and caused breakage in four pumping stations from the well field. This was the beginning of a complex period in the water supply service to the capital,” Rodríguez said to explain the nightmarish weeks that the capital is experiencing.

According to his calculations, there have been more than 199,000 inhabitants affected by the hydraulic network, in addition to 12,500 who receive water from “pipas,” whose cycles have lengthened due to the shortage of vehicles and fuel. “Today, the affectation from networks is 67,295 people and from lengthened “pipa” cycles, 7,551 inhabitants, for a total of 74,846 affected inhabitants,” he said. The west (La Lisa and Marianao) is the most affected part, but just this Tuesday the problems spread to East Havana, “which belongs to another system.”

According to his calculations, there have been more than 199,000 inhabitants affected by the hydraulic network, in addition to 12,500 who receive the water from “pipas”

Of the 279 stations in the capital, 22 do not have pumping equipment, and 77 do not meet the necessary requirements. Despite this, Rodríguez announced equipment installations that, he promised, will improve the situation in the very short term, in addition to medium-term investments for the same purpose. “Due to the blockade*, many times, even if we have the equipment in the ports, it is difficult for us to ship it,” he said, although Cuba has “a line of credit for the acquisition of new equipment for Havana this year.”

Judging by the data offered by Rodríguez, the economy is not at this precise moment a problem for the medium term, although the lack of workers is. “The average salary here is only 3,500 pesos, but there are four companies with salaries below 3,000 pesos, which deprives us of people who know how to operate the drivers. We are working to find a solution to this issue.”

The situation of the three factories on the Island that make water pipes is good: “We have enough raw materials and pipes for the investment program and the maintenance works,” he said, “although we have to import supplies for large drivers, mainly steel.”

“This year we have a plan of 3.2 billion pesos for investments and maintenance. At the end of August we have 119 percent compliance, and we have now received approval for 600 million pesos to add to these works. However, these plans are costing us up to 30% more than in previous years, due to the increase in the prices for products and services,” he explained.

The Island has installed 181 kilometers of water mains so far and has completed 204 works, he stressed, and he added that “there is no province in the country where we do not have some kind of action, but the problems are great.”

Rodríguez displayed the water balance with graphs showing the amount of rainfall and the filling of reservoirs on the Island, which is not a real obstacle at the moment. Authorities estimate that there are about 39,000 people affected by the drought, a small number in relation to other causes. He did consider problematic the loss of water from leaks, more than 5,000 in the country, of which 2,000 are in Havana.

*Translator’s note: 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.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

He’s not wrong. According to the State’s daily report, the national electricity system (SEN) gave only 45 minutes of relief yesterday. “At 7:48 a.m. yesterday morning the service was restored, and from 8:33 a.m. the service began to be affected again due to a generation capacity deficit, which it has not been possible to restore,” the UNE indicated.

If on Monday the maximum “affectation” in the peak hours – the early hours of the night – was 973 MW, this Tuesday the deficit will be 960 MW (there will be an availability of 2,240 MW compared to a maximum demand of 3,200 MW), which will finally affect a total of 1,030 MW.

The UNE also reminds the population that five units of the thermoelectric power plants are stopped due to breakdowns: unit 8 of the Máximo Gómez, in Mariel (Artemisa); unit 5 of the 10 de Octubre, in Nuevitas (Camagüey); unit 2 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez, in Felton (Holguín); unit 5 of the Renté, in Santiago de Cuba; and unit 1 of the Ernesto Guevara, in Santa Cruz del Norte (Mayabeque). However, it reports that the latter will enter the SEN in the “peak hour” with 70 MW.

Likewise, they report that 59 distributed generation plants are out of service due to lack of fuel.

With this scenario, social media users have not held back either, and this Tuesday they flooded the daily report of the UNE with almost 400 comments, most of them negative and even against the Government. “There is no fuel for thermoelectric plants, but there is fuel for [Prime Minister] Marrero’s, [President] Canel’s and [Raul Castro’s grandson] El Cangrejo’s* cars. The yachts and fleets of cars of the Castros do not lack fuel either,” said Raúl Eduardo Rojas, from Pinar del Río.

“Now all we need is the breakdown of the Guiteras plant to see how they run to get the fuel that suddenly appears,” says Amado Amed Díaz Seijo from the same province. And he wonders: “I would like to know what they have done with all the dollars for fuel collection, because it’s been a while now, and everything is the same or worse.”

Dainy Ramos has power from eight to twelve at night, and they shut it off again until after four in the morning: “What child can get up for school or what person can get up with encouragement to go to work? They are killing us,” the young woman lamented.

Bobby Cabanas, retired, also expressed himself: “They are abusing the people; it’s as if they hate the people.”

Others, for their part, called for a true, radical change: “The highest leadership of this country must resign. They have been running this country for 65 years, and there is no progress of any kind. Don’t let them cling to power; let’s have a popular referendum.”

Off the internet, at street level, the inconveniences also multiply. “There is no light anywhere,” complained a taxi driver who had spent the morning in the capital driving through large areas, such as Marianao, El Vedado and Diez de Octubre. At street crossings, the extinguished traffic lights were a sign of the crisis, with the consequent danger of accidents.

*Translator’s note: El Cangrejo, “The Crab” is the popular nickname for Raúl Castro’s grandson, who apparently is clumsy, and is also his grandfather’s bodyguard.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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