A Cuban truck driver faces charges for migrant trafficking in Texas (USA) / Telemundo
14ymedio, Havana, 15 August 2024 — A Cuban man, Enrique Nerey Valdivia, was found guilty on Monday for the crime of “migrant trafficking” in the state of Texas. Federal prosecutor Alamdar Hamdani dismissed the evidence presented by the defendant’s defense lawyer, considering it “not very credible.” Judge David S. Morales, who presided over the trial, set sentencing for November 6.
Nerey Valdivia, 50, faces a sentence of up to five years in federal prison, in addition to a possible fine of up to $250,000, according to a statement from the Texas Southern District Attorney’s Office. The Cuban was allowed to remain free on bail pending sentencing.
The Cuban, a resident of Odessa, Texas, was arrested at the Border Patrol checkpoint near Falfurrias, after being discovered transporting five undocumented migrants in the back compartment of the truck.
During Monday’s hearing held in a court in Corpus Christi, the defense lawyer tried to convince the jury that Nerey Valdivia “had no knowledge of the people who were in the cabin of his truck.” continue reading
Nerey Valdivia “had no knowledge of the people who were in the cabin of his truck”
Upon arriving at the inspection point, agents of the U.S. Border Patrol inspected the truck when they noticed strange movements inside the cabin. Upon entering, they found five people covered with blankets in the bunk area.
This is not the first time that coyotes of Cuban nationality have been captured. Last March, two Cubans living in the United States were accused of migrant smuggling by the Border Patrol after being captured in the city of Las Cruces, New Mexico, while transporting 23 undocumented migrants inside a truck. According to Jason Owens, head of the police force of the small community near Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, after being prosecuted, they could “be expelled from the United States.”
In August of last year, Nahara Candelaria Milán, 26, was brought to justice for smuggling migrants. A traffic violation in Eagle Pass (Texas) and his nervousness when documents were requested betrayed the Cuban, who was inspected by the authorities. In his van he carried seven undocumented migrants.
In the same month, the Cuban Julio César Aspiazu Gómez was prosecuted for trying to take five undocumented migrants to Texas, who were later deported to Mexico.
Cubans Rainel Lázaro Silies and Lima Gálvez González were also intercepted in April 2023 for the crime of migrant smuggling in Kinney County, Texas, United States. The couple’s arrest took place in the town of Brackettville, when five undocumented people were transported in a vehicle with a license plate from the state of Kentucky.
According to the Kinney County office, the couple came from Louisville, a “Cuban settlement active since the 1990s,” which has doubled its population in the last decade.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Acosta was received by President Boric at the Palacio de La Moneda / Team Chile / X
14ymedio, Mexico City, August 14, 2024 — The images of Chilean President Gabriel Boric adjusting the microphone of the Cuban Olympic medalist Yasmani Acosta, who competed in Paris with the flag of the South American country, have gone around the world. His warm reception at the Palacio de la Moneda contrasted with the gloomy one that the athletes of the Island received in Havana; they had to settle for an airport in the dark and a rally without an audience.
Boric celebrated the athlete from Mantanzas, as one of the Chilean delegation also applauded Acosta, a silver medal winner in the 130 kg category of Greco-Roman wrestling. Along with the applause from his teammates, the Cuban hugged Boric too intensely. “And that’s why they didn’t give him a key,” immediately joked the gold medalist in skeet shooting, Francisca Crovetto.
Acosta stressed in his speech that he felt “welcomed” by the Chileans, without whose support he would not have been able to compete in the Olympic Games. “I felt indebted, and I wanted to give a medal to the country,” said Acosta in the Plaza de la Constitución at the end of the ceremony. continue reading
Boric celebrated the athlete from Mantanzas as one of the Chilean delegation
Jokes aside, it was the money earned by Acosta that most impressed Cuban fans in their home country. With the medal comes $46,000, Chile’s prize for its triumph in Paris. In addition, the Government will grant him a monthly scholarship of 2,692,303 Chilean pesos – about $3,000 – until the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles 2028.
“What a joy to see how the people of Chile are thanking Yasmani (…) They can’t imagine how our chests swell with pride when we see our athletes, and everyone, our entire Olympic delegation,” Boric said.
In Paris, Acosta was shot down by his fireproof compatriot Mijaín López, famous not only for his triumphs – five consecutive Olympic golds – but for dedicating them to Fidel Castro and other authorities of the regime. Miguel Díaz-Canel’s speech never explained how Cuba will reward its most loyal five-time champion. In the absence of money, there was talk of “patriotic pride,” and he announced that López will go “from champion to teacher,” by now dedicating himself to training young fighters.
In Spain, the Olympic medalists received a total of 2,892,000 euros divided among all, and part of the sum corresponds to the Spanish nationalized Cuban triple jumpers, Jordan Díaz and Emmanuel Reyes, who will receive 94,000 and 30,000 euros respectively.
The Spanish nationalized Cuban triple jumpers Jordan Díaz and Emmanuel Reyes will receive 94,000 and 30,000 euros respectively
Spanish President Pedro Sánchez congratulated Díaz on social networks after he won the triple-jump gold medal. The Cuban exiles, along with the rest of the medalists, have been honored without hesitation by the Spanish press, which calls them “Spaniards of Cuban origin.”
On the other hand, the absence of a mention of The Prophet, as Reyes is known, in Sánchez’s congratulatory messages has not gone unnoticed, and several Spanish media speculate that there could be an ideological motive behind it. Reyes is very critical of boxer Imane Khelif, the Algerian protagonist of the great gender controversy, after her victory over the Italian Angela Carina in 46 seconds.
In Poland, the Cuban volleyball player Wilfrido León, who guided his team to win the silver medal, will be awarded with 107,000 zlotys – which is equivalent to $27,000 – in addition to a diamond, a painting that he can choose to his liking and a vacation voucher, according to the Lublin ESKA radio station.
Despite the fact that the Santiagan Pedro Pablo Pichardo said he was “unmotivated” after obtaining the silver by falling in the triple jump final against Jordan Díaz and announcing his retirement, in Portugal, his host country, the press reports that on Monday the Olympic medalists had a welcome “apotheosis” at the Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, in Porto.
In addition, more than 800,000 people watched the Cuban win his medal at the Olympic Games on public television. It was the most watched broadcast among the medalist athletes according to an audience analysis.
In Poland, the Cuban volleyball player Wilfrido León, will receive money, a diamond, a painting and a paid vacation
Andy Díaz, the other Cuban who mounted the triple jump podium, was greeted with applause at the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome for his bronze medal. Upon his arrival, people approached to greet him and ask him for a photograph, while he was escorted by a group of carabineros (gendarmes). “I promised Italy that I would get this medal, for everything they did to help me become an Italian citizen,” he told the press.
Meanwhile, the bronze medalist in boxing, Javier Ibáñez, said that he feels the affection and recognition of Bulgaria, his adoptive homeland. “Many people write to me and approach me on the street and say that they are proud of me. My family had mixed emotions,” he said at a press conference upon his arrival from Paris.
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.
Karel Poort recalls the frantic minutes when he ran out of his room, with his Nikon F301 in hand
Poort was not aware of the magnitude of what he saw until a Cuban explained it to him. / Karel Poort
Juan Carlos Espinosa/EFE, La Habana, 4 August 2024 — During his vacation in Cuba, the Dutch photographer Karel Poort began to take photos of a demonstration outside his hotel without knowing that, some time later, they would become some of the most iconic images of the Maleconazo, the first major anti-government protest since 1959, which marks its 30th anniversary this Monday.
In his first interview for these events, granted to EFE, Poort recalls the frantic minutes when he ran out of his room, with his Nikon F301 in hand, after hearing a riot on the street. It was the afternoon of August 5, 1994 in the central Galiano Street.
“I was in the shower and I heard people screaming and ringing their bicycle bells on the street. I immediately took my camera, an extra roll of film and ran down the stairs,” says this 78-year-old photographer.
“I was in the shower and I heard people screaming and ringing their bicycle bells on the street”
The tumult led him to the Deauville hotel, about 400 meters from his hotel and right in front of the Havana Malecón. There, as he recalls, people shouted at the top of their lungs: “Cuba yes, Castro no!” and “Freedom!”
Poort, who at that time worked as a photographer and freelance sound engineer on Dutch television, didn’t know it, but the outburst was the result of weeks of tension.
On July 13, the ’13 de Marzo’ tugboat* sank after its occupants hijacked it to emigrate to the United States. Thirty-seven people died, including 10 children.
What Poort remembers is that people shouted at the top of their lungs: “Cuba yes, Castro no!” and “Freedom!” / Karel Poort
The survivors blamed the coast guard for purposefully ramming the boat, while the Cuban government said it was an accident.
In 1994, the Island was in the middle of the Special Period, the economic crisis that hit the country hard after the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the fall of the socialist bloc in Europe.
The rumor of a significant departure of people to heading to the coast of the United States led the authorities to establish a maritime blockade in front of the Cuban capital.
Angry, Cubans demonstrated in numbers that had not been seen since the triumph of Fidel Castro’s revolution.
Angry, the Cubans demonstrated in numbers that had not been seen since the triumph of Fidel Castro’s revolution
When the Dutchman arrived at the hotel in front of the Malecón, a Cuban approached him and said: “Keep taking photos and show your country the disaster here.”
“While that was happening, a group of police officers dressed in civilian clothes arrived at the Deauville hotel and started shooting madly,” he recalls.
Among the 30 photos that Poort gave to EFE can be seen several of a man with dark glasses, white shirt and khaki pants, holding a pistol.
In one of them he is in front of the hotel, pointing upwards; in another he points directly towards Poort, and in others he is seen running to where the protesters were.
The rumor of a major departure of people to the North American coasts led the authorities to establish a maritime blockade / Karel Poort
Half an hour after those events, a patrol stopped behind the photographer: “Three police officers ordered me to give them the rolls and the camera. They grabbed me and, miraculously, I managed to get away and ran as fast as I could to my hotel (…) I was able to take more photos from the window of my room,” he adds.
The next day, he captured a paper with the words “Viva Cuba Libre” on the pavement of the semi-empty road.
A week later, Fidel Castro ordered that Cubans be allowed to leave by sea. That led to the so-called Rafters’ Crisis: more than 30,000 left on makeshift boats for the United States.
Accustomed to protests in the West, the Dutchman was not aware of the magnitude of what he saw until he heard the explanation of a Cuban.
“While that was happening, a group of police officers dressed in civilian clothes arrived at the Deauville hotel and started shooting madly”
When the demonstrations broke out, Poort was in the second week of his first vacation in Cuba. He visited the Island nine other times until 2002.
Years later, he shared some of his photos on social networks, having printed them in a darkroom at home. He prefers to remember what happened as the anecdote of a historic moment that, by a fluke, he was able to capture even before many international media already on the Island.
“I was the only one there. There were no cell phones at that time. That’s why those photos are so special,” he says.
When the Dutchman arrived at the hotel in front of the Malecón, a Cuban approached him and said: “Keep taking photos and show your country the disaster that is here” / Karel Poort
Translated by Regina Anavy
*Translator’s note: Often confusing to “foreign” ears, many names of things (tugboats in this example), and places (schools are common) are named after dates that commemorate historic events. The “13 de Marzo” tugboat’s name commemorates a pre-Revolutionary attack on Cuba’s Presidential Palace.
He says that the approach “was a model example of how the tides of history have changed and where a normal civilization of the international community is heading”
Ri Il-gyu, former North Korean diplomat in Cuba / Capture / Infobae
14ymedio, Havana, 1 August 2024 — “Establishing relations with Cuba was the best thing that South Korea did,” said the former North Korean diplomat Ri Il-gyu, who defected from his position at the North Korean Embassy in Havana in 2023. As he revealed in an interview with Reuters, one of his functions as a diplomatic representative on the Island was precisely to boycott the negotiations with Seoul. “I did everything possible to prevent it,” he acknowledges, but says that the approach “was a model example of how the tides of history have changed and where a normal civilization of the international community is heading.”
That may be the case perhaps for South Korea, which seeks, among other objectives, to fracture the link of the North with one of its greatest historical allies. But for Havana, in serious financial trouble, the opening of a South Korean headquarters on the Island is something more than a door through which the investments of one of the world’s leading technology countries can pass.
“It was a model example of how the tides of history have changed and where a normal civilization of the international community is heading”
Seoul has also declared its interest in the goods that Havana has to offer. “Cuba has a considerable source of key mineral resources for the production of electric vehicles, such as cobalt and nickel,” the South Korean Presidential Office said last February.
Ri, however, did not approach the international press just to review his functions as a diplomat on the Island, something he had already done this July, when he gave an interview from Seoul and talked about his disagreements with the North Korean regime and his reasons for deserting: the “harassment” of his colleagues and Pyongyang’s refusal to allow his cervical injury to be treated in Mexico. After the pandemic, “when they began (in North Korea) to reopen and summon those who worked abroad at continue reading
the beginning of 2023, they asked them to bring back home anything from used toothbrushes to spoons, saying that there was nothing there,” he recalls.
Now, from Seoul, the former official asks to meet with Donald Trump if he wins the U.S. elections, to discuss North Korea’s plans, which, he says, place Washington, Moscow and Tokyo among its priorities.
Trump’s rapprochement with North Korea during his term was a battle that Pyongyang lost, explains Ri, who blames North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un for his inexperience in international relations, in addition to sending “inexperienced and clueless” military commanders for nuclear negotiations.
“This time, the Foreign Ministry would definitely gain power and take the reins, and it will not be so easy for Trump to tie North Korea hands and feet again for four years without giving anything (in return)” as happened in 2019, he explains.
Ri maintains that Pyongyang would find a greater benefit in avoiding future sanctions from the United States and eliminating the current ones
For Ri, the strengthening of ties with Russia – which included Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea last June – in matters of security and military aid – is a symptom that the United States has lost part of its negotiating capacity against the North Korean regime. “The Russians got their hands dirty by participating in illicit transactions, and thanks to this, North Korea no longer needs to depend on the United States to lift the sanctions, which essentially means that they have stripped the United States of a key negotiation tactic,” he believes.
Even so, Ri maintains that Pyongyang would find a greater benefit in avoiding future sanctions from the United States and eliminating the current ones, so one of Kim’s government’s plans is to resume nuclear negotiations if Trump is in the White House. “The diplomats of Pyongyang were drawing up a strategy for that scenario, with the aim of lifting sanctions on their weapons programs, eliminating their designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and obtaining economic aid,” the former official says.
If these agreements are reached, only Japan stands in the way of Pyongyang and its plans. Japan is another uncomfortable neighbor that in recent weeks has strengthened its military ties with the United States to curb North Korea’s intentions.
According to Ri, Kim still has an opportunity with Tokyo, which has been interested on numerous occasions in resuming talks with North Korea, but tensions remain over the alleged 17 Japanese kidnapped by Pyongyang during the 70s and 80s, of which only five have been able to return.
Kim Jong-il, the father of the current North Korean leader, denied the kidnapping of Japanese citizens, but Kim Jong-un was willing to discard that policy in order to obtain economic aid. “They are saying that the matter was resolved, but that is only to increase his negotiating power until he makes concessions at a summit,” Ri evaluates.
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 200 Cuban specialists were received last Friday at Felipe Angeles International Airport
14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, 4 August 2024 — Last Friday, a contingent of 200 Cuban doctors crowded into the corridor of the migration area at Felipe Ángeles International Airport in the state of Mexico. The group, said Ambassador Marcos Rodríguez Costa, will be distributed in 19 states with the “noble work of saving lives.”
The diplomat did not offer more details. This group joins one that on July 20 arrived, with hardly any media coverage, at the same air terminal and was taken to a high-specialty hospital in Veracruz, where they are given courses for incorporation into the Imss-Bienestar program, which has been raised by the Government of Mexico as the free health agency implemented in 23 states of the country.
The arrival of these health contingents from the Island are part of the second group contracted by Mexico in March 2023, to have 1,200 doctors. In July of last year, the director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (Imss), confirmed that until that time there were 950 Cubans who had already been integrated into the health services. continue reading
A group of Cuban specialists was sent to the state of Baja California (Mexico) this Saturday / Facebook/Médicos Cubanos, Baja California Sur, Mexico
For these physicians, Mexico pledged to pay $1,308,922 per month to Neuronic Mexicana, which depends on Neuronic S.A. Cuba. Since 2018, this company has been the representative of the products and services of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries of the Island, under its president, Tania Guerra.
Mexico has been discreet about the distribution of the Cuban specialists and the functions they perform in the hospitals where they have been sent. However, a source confirmed to 14ymedio that the doctors began to be rotated this year through different parts of the territory. “The rotation is designated by the people in charge of the Cuban delegation with the consent of Imss-Bienestar. We don’t know the reason, but it could be that they detect too much friendliness with the inhabitants, and they don’t like that at all. They are afraid that they will run away [decide to stay in Mexico],” said the official.
Two Cuban internists, two pediatricians and a radiologist were sent to the rural hospital of the Veracruz municipality of Las Chopas last February, and a week ago they were informed that they would be sent to another clinic, which generated uncertainty among the local authorities. Mayor Marisela Hernández García reported on July 31 that together with the director of the hospital, Dr. Pedro Coronel Pérez, steps were taken to cover those spaces with “Cuban or foreign doctors so that service is not interrupted.” According to official figures, 25 doctors from the Island work in the state of Veracruz.
A doctor in Colima explains the rotation of Cuban doctors and the termination of contracts / Image capture / Entérate Ixtlahuacán
In the state of Colima, where the arrival of 86 specialists was reported, patients demonstrated on July 31 over the absence of doctors in the General Hospital of Ixtlahuacán. One patient complained about the lack of medical attention for not having a doctor. “They told me that I have to wait until August for an appointment, so where are the Cuban doctors?”
The woman was told that the hospital was not informed of the length of stay of the Island’s doctors. “It’s a federal provision,” they stressed. “These doctors have contracts, but when they leave, they don’t all come back; that was the case of a psychiatrist who did not return to the state for health reasons and two others who were relocated to other health centers.”
They informed her that in September they are terminating the contracts of pediatricians, a psychologist, surgeons and an internist. “Their last months will be spent in other states.”
The rotation of doctors takes a few days after the director of Imss, Zoé Robledo, confirms the hiring of another 3,800 Cubans. With the arrival of additional health workers – which will bring the total to 5,000 – they intend to complete the staff of specialists in those areas where there are facilities that “have an operating room, but don’t perform surgeries” or that have outpatient consultation areas, “but no doctors.”
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.
Five distributors, chosen by Fidel Castro himself, monopolize the world market. They organize auctions with the promise of sending the money to the dilapidated Public Health system of the Island.
In the center of the photo are Jemma Freeman, manager of Hunters & Frankau, and Luis Sánchez-Harguindey, co-president of Habanos S.A.
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 4 August 2024 — Escorted by two British red coats and surrounded by millionaires from all over the world, the managers of the Hunters & Frankau house had some news: last month during the cigar auction to promote the Trinidad Cabildos, whose organization had been invited by the Havana regime, 5,150,000 euros were collected in a single night. The president of the cigar company, Jemma Freeman, promised to send the money – most would be missing – to the dilapidated “Cuban Public Health system.”
Hunters & Frankau, the exclusive distributor of the Cuban monopoly Habanos S.A. in the United Kingdom, thus closed the first face-to-face edition of World Cigar Days. Similar – but much more luxurious – at the Cigar Festival of Cuba, the event was hosted by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Between Rafael’s Renaissance canvases and a humidor signed by Fidel Castro in 2002 – which was not for sale – the aficionados bid on limited editions and numbered boxes of Trinidad, a brand that turns 55 and is “loaded with symbolism” for being the favorite of the Cuban dictator.
It is enough to explore the official website of Habanos S.A. to verify that premium cigars continue to give great benefits to the regime. The news section attests to the luxurious network of Cuban cigars internationally and its distribution partners. From Russia to Beirut, from Madrid to Geneva, from Havana to Qatar, the “friends of the cigar” network has been consolidating its power with millionaire sales for decades. A Cuban tobacco planter would need a lot of mental effort to process that a single cigar made by his hands is auctioned for thousands of dollars in the great capitals of the world.
Luis Sánchez-Harguindey, co-president of Habanos S.A. and head of the Cuban cigar empire / Cigar Aficionado
Habanos S.A. would be nothing without Spain. The ethnologist Fernando Ortiz wrote that whoever rules in Cuba rules over the cigar. That phrase is illustrated like no one else by Luis Sánchez-Harguindey, co-president of the monopoly since 2012, although on his social networks he describes himself simply as a president and an expert in “international business management.”
Premium cigars continue to give great benefits to the regime
It is Sánchez-Harguindey who calls the shots for Habanos S.A. and who presents his results annually during the Cuban Cigar Festival. His counterpart in Spain is Fernando Domínguez, president of Tabacalera S.A., which distributes Cuban cigars to every tobacconist in Spain. Sánchez-Harguindey and Domínguez’s dream was to take the American market by storm, but Cuban cigars were banished. In 2015, in the midst of the thaw in diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington, both businessmen salivated over a commercial opportunity that never came.
Heinrich Villiger, director of 5th Avenue Products Trading, exclusive distributor of Habanos S.A. in Germany, Austria and Poland / Cigar Aficionado]
Habanos S.A. soon recovered from its disappointment and strengthened its sales in Europe. The key man of that expansion was Heinrich Villiger, director of 5th Avenue Products Trading, who is in charge of the distribution of Cuban cigars in Germany, Austria and Poland.
At the age of 94, Villiger, a member of one of the most prominent families in Switzerland – his brother Kaspar was president of the country – opened factories in Nicaragua and Brazil this year. He boasts of directing his “empire” – he employs 1,700 people – based on letters that come out of his typewriter. As a young man, Villiger traveled to the United States and then to Cuba, Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico to gain experience. When the Cuban cigar business collapsed in the United States after the Missile Crisis – before which, supposedly, President J.F. Kennedy bought all the cigars available – Villiger took the opportunity and approached Castro.
One of the least known sales niches of Habanos S.A. in Europe is Andorra. One company – Maori Tabacs – takes advantage of the tax exemptions offered by that country, advertises as a paradise for “luxury hunters.” José María Cases and his son Ricardo, who preside over Maori, know it well. Cases is famous for initiating the practice of wrapping cigars in cellophane so that, in the absence of tropical humidity, they survive the European climate.
Mohamed Zeidan, president of Phoenicia Trading and partner of Habanos S.A. for distribution in the Middle East, Africa and part of Europe / Beirut Duty Free
Using that “trick,” José L. Piedra began to import cigars and developed his business. In 1975 he opened an office in Cuba and, after the fall of the Soviet Union, he began to help Castro by sending him products that the country requested, not necessarily linked to the world of cigars. He befriended Villiger and Nicholas Freeman – father of the current manager of Hunters & Frankau – who were already close to the dictator.
Millionaire and decadent, Cases has a collection of 400 humidors and imports more than 200 cigar bands from the Island. In addition, he is a cigar cop: Maori Tabacs’ monopoly prevents counterfeit cigars from entering Andorra and France, where he is also in charge of the market.
On the American continent, Max Gutmann has been selling Cuban cigars in Mexico for almost 40 years
Castro met the Lebanese Mohamed Zeidan, president of Phoenicia Trading and partner of Habanos S.A., in the Middle East, Africa and part of Europe, in 1999 during a Havana Festival. Castro “became fond of him” after the auction of a signed humidor for which he gave $230,000. Zeidan, whom he nicknamed “the Phoenician,” re-auctioned the humidor on the spot to win over the dictator even more: the money was used to pay the lawyers who represented Havana in the dispute over the custody of Elián González.
On the American continent, Max Gutmann, president of Importer and Exporter of Cigars and Tobacco, has been selling Cuban cigars in Mexico for almost 40 years. Of Austrian origin, Gutmann bought the first humidor signed by Castro and opened the first Casa del Habano in Cancún in 1990.
When a group of businessmen with no connection to Cuba opened a store of the same name in Paris, Gutmann received a call from the president of Cubatabaco – the name of the Cuban state monopoly at the time. They asked him to give the Cuban regime the “Casa del Habano” brand completely free of charge. In return, they would give him the exclusive rights to distribute cigars in Mexico.
Max Gutmann, in the center, with two of his partners at the Casa del Habano de México / Cigar Aficionado
Gutmann accepted. Castro admitted him into his circle, and he managed to be one of the 200 guests at the first cigar gala dinner – there were still no festivals – in 1995. He returned to his country with a humidor signed by the caudillo and the writer Gabriel García Márquez for which he paid $5,000. Gutmann believes that his company also captures the U.S. market, which cannot negotiate with Habanos S.A. That Americans and Canadians travel to Mexico to buy Cuban cigars, he says, was the idea of Castro, who allied with Gutmann “knowing that they would surely end up there,” he said in an interview.
Domínguez, Villiger, Freeman, Cases and Gutmann, considered the pentarchy of the Cuban cigar worldwide, were summoned by Fidel Castro during the Special Period to stir up their clientele before the first Cigar Festival.
Called to the international cigar event par excellence, the millionaires who meet in Havana once a year – and also personalities such as Jeremy Irons, Paris Hilton and Tom Jones – also travel to the “twin” events that the five houses hold around the world, and which have been joined by other potential tycoons from Russia, the United Arab Emirates and – the client of the future – China.
Each dinner is more exclusive than the last, and more and more expensive and extravagant cigars are being sold. As an afterthought that, for any Cuban, is more than ironic, the millions collected are promised to Cuban Health. Without the slightest modesty, Habanos S.A. publishes the photos of each event.
At the end of the night, the “friends of the Cuban cigar” are photographed with the humble Cuban farmers, and they give a toast – cigar in hand and dressed in a tuxedo – for the dictator who made their businesses prosper.
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.
Russian and Cuban experts are studying the Oropouche virus in Havana
Since 1994, the EU has spent more than 107.5 million euros on humanitarian projects for Cuba / 14ymedio
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 6 August 2024 — The European Union (EU) has allocated 500,000 euros of humanitarian aid to Cuba to finance the most urgent health needs of children, adolescents and women of reproductive age, the Department of Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid of the European Commission (ECHO) reported on Monday in Havana. “With these funds we intend to support the local capacity to provide health services and improve access to medications and medical equipment that help meet essential needs,” said the EU ambassador to Cuba, Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa.
Humanitarian aid will benefit almost 30,000 people, including high-risk newborns, children, adolescents, pregnant women and women of reproductive age, according to an ECHO statement. The Maternal and Child Program (PAMI) is going through a bad time: so far this year, the infant mortality rate stands at 7.4 per thousand, the results for the 34,648 live births and 258 deaths for the year up to July 11.
In theory, the European funds will make it possible to acquire medications, supplies and medical equipment, and improve access to essential sexual and reproductive health services. The statement also specifies that this funding will be given to the provinces of Havana, Sancti Spíritus and Holguin, and will be implemented by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). continue reading
Since 1994, the EU has financed more than 107.5 million euros in humanitarian projects for Cuba to respond to emergencies and catastrophes, as well as to strengthen the preparation of the most vulnerable communities and their institutions for new contingencies.
Cuban Healthcare has hit rock bottom and makes use of all the international aid offered
Cuban Healthcare has hit rock bottom and makes use of all the international aid offered. Specialists from Russia working with several Cubans are conducting updated studies on tropical diseases this week, including Oropouche fever, which this summer has spread to the 15 provinces of the Island, state media reported on Monday.
The visit to Havana by experts of the Federal Service for the Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare of Russia will last until August 8, in the context of bilateral cooperation in “guaranteeing the health and epidemiological well being of the population.” Its objective will be to “update the research on tropical infections” and carry out “a series of studies of similar infections” that are recorded in the Caribbean, according to Prensa Latina.
For the research, high-tech testing systems developed by Russian specialists will be used. These joint studies take place at a time when the cases of Oropouche, which is transmitted through the mosquito bite of the culicidae and culicoid species (or jején, as it is popularly known), circulate for the first time in the country.
This illness is characterized by fever, headaches, muscle and joint pains; sometimes vomiting and diarrhea are also reported. The first cases were confirmed at the end of May in two municipalities in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba. Two months later it had been detected in all 15 provinces.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The Island bought 127,000 tons of chicken in the first half of 2024 for a value of 150.9 million dollars
Chicken is one of the main sources of protein for Cubans / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 8 August 2024 — The export of chicken from the United States to Cuba in the first half of this year reached 127,000 tons, 8.6% less than what the Island bought in the same period of 2023 (139,000 tons). However, due to the increase in its price, spending increased by 7% in the same period: from 141 million dollars in 2023 to 150.9 million this year.
In summary, the Island is receiving much less chicken than in the first half of 2023, but the cost is greater. A kilo of poultry meat, which this month is at $1.23, fell by almost 9% compared to May, when it cost 1.34.
As for the monthly data, this June, Cuba bought 20,000 tons of chicken, which represents a decrease of 25.9% compared to June 2023, though an increase of 15% compared to last May.
However, if the data for this June are equated with those of January of this year, when the Island imported more than 30,000 tons of chicken – the highest figure this semester – the amount of meat for the sixth month of the year drops by a scandalous 30%. continue reading
This June, Cuba bought about 20,000 tons of chicken, which represents a 25.9% drop compared to June 2023 / USDA
According to the Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, these numbers are nothing more than a clear representation of “the usual oscillating trajectory of monthly exports of chicken meat from the United States to Cuba,” he explained on the social network X.
The professor also noted that chicken imported from the United States is “the most consumed source of animal protein in Cuba and compensates for the acute national agricultural crisis.”
Chicken is one of the six “essential” foods whose price the Government set last July at 680 pesos per kilo. The popular response, especially on private platforms and SMsEs, was to make the product vanish. According to 14ymedio at the time, many merchants preferred to lose the merchandise or sell it “on the left” to lose money.
Although, in addition to chicken, the Government also exempted powdered milk, vegetable oil, pasta, detergent and sausages from import taxes, spirits did not calm down. On July 6, in some markets in Sancti Spíritus and Havana, a kilo of poultry meat – in packages of thighs – exceeded 850 pesos, according to this newspaper.
Likewise, a report made a few days ago in Cienfuegos revealed that chicken, milk and oil, the most essential and expensive among regulated foods, were still missing from the stalls and SMSEs. “Some sellers still have the old prices on the signs, or products that they sold regularly have simply disappeared. It is likely that many have decided to sell on the informal market and recover the investment,” said a cienfueguero at the time.
The authorities have started a campaign against the “unscrupulous” who continue to sell at abusive prices
For their part, the authorities have started a campaign against the “unscrupulous” who continue to sell at abusive prices. However, the reports of millions of pesos in fines, the deployment of an army of inspectors and threats to remove licenses and close businesses have not managed to change the landscape.
According to Monreal, these “problematic” measures for the Island’s economy – in frank crisis – are based on the “official assumption” that it is possible to “stabilize low prices” in the domestic market by exerting pressure, without considering the low supply.
As always happens, when chicken imports decrease, the entry into the country of portions such as thighs and drumsticks, cheaper in the international market, is privileged. Other parts of the bird, like the breast or even whole chickens, are relegated because they are more expensive. There is less internal demand for them, though private restaurants like them for their versatility
The cooks must then become real surgeons, as happened this week in the El Biky restaurant branch on the outskirts of terminal 3 of Havana International Airport. For 2,600 Cuban pesos, the customer receives a dish with rice, a small portion of potatoes and a surprising chicken thigh turned, due to the crisis, into steak.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Banks make retirement payments with mountains of worn-out bills that the shops reject
Just by seeing the image printed on a rectangle of paper, merchants know that the ten-peso bill has little value and many associated complications / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 8 August 8, 2024 — “We don’t accept ten-peso bills,” warns a merchant on Galiano Street, in Havana, to a customer who extends 30 ten-peso banknotes to pay for a container of descaling liquid for bathrooms. “Later we can’t use them; that’s why we only take 100 pesos and up,” the seller concludes with a gesture of displeasure. The face on the paper that the buyer waves is no small thing, no more and no less than one of the patricians of national independence, Máximo Gómez. With a controversial past in his native Dominican Republic, the warrior ended up becoming one of the main faces of Cuba in arms against Spain, and he earned the designation of “Generalísimo.”
Now, just by seeing his image printed on a banknote, merchants know that the ten-peso bill has little value and many associated complications. “Do you see anything here that costs ten pesos?” asks an entrepreneur in a didactic tone, indicating his stock of pizzas, beers and cookies on Ayestarán Street. The merchant argues with a customer who wants to give him 20 Máximo Gómez bills for a purchase.
If in the past the one or five cent coins were considered small change destined for religious offerings and children’s piggy banks, now the bar has risen
“It’s just that those bills are very mistreated and they all stick together,” argues the merchant, barricaded behind bars that surround the entire portal of an old house converted into a passing bar and cafeteria. Even without a place to sit, the cafeteria takes in thousands of pesos every hour. Located in an area of confluence between two municipalities, it has “the cheapest prices in Havana for beer, soft drinks and juices,” boasts the man behind the counter. continue reading
Precisely because he isn’t short of customers, the proprietor can afford certain rules when it comes to paying. “Bills in good condition; we don’t accept anything under 50 pesos, and before electronic payment, it’s better to have cash in hand,” says the seller, aware that these restrictions limit his clientele. He doesn’t seem to care very much, because for hundreds of meters around there is no other cafeteria with an offer that matches his, not even close.
Other sellers have been more transparent and have left a message on the facades of their premises, as a warning about which bills they don’t accept / 14ymedio
For their part, banks seem to contradict the orders of private businesses. In the branch of the Metropolitan Bank on Conill and Tulipán Street, in Plaza de la Revolución, ATMs have not been working for days, and the only possibility of withdrawing money is at the window. Of course, “you can only get 5,000 pesos and only in ten-peso bills,” warns the custodian of the premises.
Joaquín, 77, was waiting this Tuesday to withdraw two-months of his pension, which had accumulated due to the problems of the ATMs and the long lines at the bank. Although his eldest son, a resident of Germany, recently sent him a few euros “to survive,” the former employee of the state-owned Taxis Cuba planted himself in the front to collect his retirement.
Two hours in line and a lot of patience ended with a bag full of ten-peso bills that, stacked on the outer wall of the bank branch, looked like an insurmountable mountain. “I don’t know if it’s better to jump over them or turn them around because either way, all these bills take up a lot of space,” he said ironically.
[[The deterioration of paper money also influences the rejection of low-denomination banknotes]]
A few meters further on, Joaquín set out to spend part of those bills, all with the face of the grim Dominican, who, in Cuba, is a symbol of the utmost political stubbornness. He held out a pile of deteriorated banknotes, used over and over again, where one barely could see the image of a man with round eyeglasses and a goatee.
“Oh, old man, we’re not accepting small bills; from 50 up if anything!” the saleswoman stopped in her tracks when she saw the package that was extended to her for three beers. Next to him, another client was even worse off, because he was carrying a package with more than a hundred bills with the image of Antonio Maceo that was immediately rejected. “No, not that,” the woman exclaimed about the five-peso banknotes.
Others have been more transparent and have put it in writing: “We do not accept purchases over 200 CUP with five- and ten-peso bills,” reads a sign on the facade of a business managed by a mipyme in Central Havana. If before the one or five cent coins were considered small change, destined for religious offerings and children’s piggy banks, now the bar has risen, and the banknotes with the heroes of Cuban independence are no longer welcome in shops.
The deterioration of paper money also influences the rejection. “It’s not that they are worth little; it’s that it disgusts me to have to touch one of those bills: they are old, greasy, and you can hardly read what they say,” argues a young employee of another MSME, this time located in El Vedado. “Here the customer is measured by the bills he brings; the best thing is hard currency, but if they are pesos, it’s only worth it if he starts taking out 200-peso notes and up.”
“The counting machine doesn’t read them well because they are old,” justifies the waitress of a private restaurant on San Lázaro Street. “Every bill of five, ten or twenty that we accept is money that stays here, that no one wants it.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The structure is an original work by the Italian architect Alfredo Fontana Giugni / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 10 August 10, 2024 — Each city on the Island with a certain economic accommodation had a Ten Cent store during Cuba’s Republican years. Built many times to order, designed by foreign architects and managed by American chains, those retail stores used to be the center of boulevards and shopping avenues. What has become of them after 1959 would horrify their former owners.
The Ten Cent of Cienfuegos is no exception. Two floors in an eclectic style and with monochrome stained glass windows, the old shop, located on the city’s boulevard – formerly San Fernando Street – is now a danger for pedestrians who pass by. The store, which has gone through several names, from Variedade Cienfuegos to the current Variedades Cimex, has been surrounded for months by a metal fence that prevents people from approaching the building, which is in danger of collapse.
Built in 1912, the former Ten Cent was owned by the American company F. W. Woolworth Company, dedicated to the sale of retail items. Since its nationalization after the coming to power of Fidel Castro, the centenary building has undergone very little, if any, maintenance. When the facade began to lose pieces and the humidity was already eating away the walls, Cimex tried to carry out a repair in 2017, with a view to the city’s bicentennial, and invested two million pesos. continue reading
The old Ten Cent was owned by the American F.W. Woolworth Company, dedicated to the sale of retail items at a low price
“That great restoration they promised came to nothing. The little they did was of poor quality, either because the resources were stolen, or because the materials were not good enough, or both. Everything is very beautiful in theory, but when they put it into practice, they ruin it,” complains Ramón, a resident of the area who remembers the years when his father, a textile worker, bought him candy for 20 centavos at the store.
Since its nationalization after the coming to power of Fidel Castro, the centennial building has not received maintenance / 14ymedio
Ramón recalls that around 2000, the building devised by the Italian architect Alfredo Fontana Giugni was the victim of another “restoration.” “They spent a long time working in the Ten Cent, and in the end they were only able to restore a part of the ground floor,” he says. When walking on the boulevard, many pedestrians move away from the ruinous structure. Although the facade seems firm, the windows reveal holes in the ceilings and some destroyed areas. The ornaments or a piece of wall that fell have brought more than one scare to the Cienfuegueros. “They waited too long to pay attention to it and now, if there’s not a lot of money, there’s no remedy. I hope they don’t lose it completely, like so many other buildings of that period,” Ramón says, wistfully.
What has become of the Ten Cent stores after 1959 would horrify their former owners
Nor does he expect a future repair to bring the building back to its old glory. “If they were to restore it, everyone knows that they won’t have access to most of the products, because of how expensive everything is. Then we’ll start calling it the ’Ten Dollar,’” he mocks.
The store remains surrounded by a metal fence, to avoid possible accidents in the face of the danger of collapse / 14ymedio
At 78 years old, Ramón is able to remember the majesty of the republican buildings that adorned the city in his adolescence. “The most elegant mansions, the shops with the best style, all were capitalistic,” he says. The Revolution soon got rid of the “smell of Yankees,” of “capitalism. Now there are only mansions converted into leaders’ homes, convents transformed into schools and some fragments of that time that people don’t even recognize,” he says. The Ten Cent, at least the ones that are still standing and have not become MSMEs, are the last to survive that “dispossession.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The former diplomat resided in Cuba from 2011 to 2016, and then, in a second period, between 2019 and 2023 / BBC
14ymedio, Havana, 9 August 2024 — With a salary of 500 dollars and being the second man of the North Korean Embassy in Havana, Ri Il-gyu – who escaped from his country last November – managed to smuggle Cuban cigars into China. The business, with which he financially supported his family during his mission on the Island, was one of the most picturesque pieces of information that the former diplomat revealed this Friday to the British network BBC, about his highs and lows in reaching Seoul, where he now resides. Ri was considered part of the 1% of the population of North Korea that can be considered “rich.” However, he stated, his standard of living was still below that of a middle-class family in the South. Hence, he did what was necessary – including the sale of cigars – to improve the lives of his family.
He lived in Cuba from 2011 to 2016, and then, in a second period, between 2019 and 2023. The Island became a strategic ally for North Korea because of its geographical proximity to the United States, and Kim Jong-un recognized Cuba’s place in the tensions between the two countries.
With cigar smuggling he was able to support his family during their time on the Island
On the issue of nuclear weapons, for example – a common subject when discussing North Korea – Ri considers that Kim “will never give up his nuclear weapons” no matter how much he seems to be in favor of Donald Trump, who could once again be the leading voice in Washington. continue reading
He admits, however, that Pyongyang could reactivate the negotiations, paused in 2019, to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of the U.S. sanctions that weigh it down. The North Korean regime “will not negotiate in good faith,” stressed Ri, who warned against the “tricks ” and “100% deceptions” that Kim could be plotting.
About Russia, another variable in the international equation, Ri believes that its invasion of Ukraine is “a blessing for Pyongyang,” because the North Korean regime has been able to sell millions of dollars worth of ammunition to Moscow to support its incursion. In return, North Korea has received all kinds of basic necessities such as food and fuel, which are scarce throughout the country, in addition to Russian military technology.
He also explained that Russia created a “legal vacuum” through the agreement it signed with Pyongyang, which allows North Korea to “freely develop its nuclear weapons and missiles” with the intention of strengthening its military defenses, without having to “ask the United States” to reconsider the sanctions.
“North Korea understands that the only way to survive, eliminate the threat of invasion and develop its economy is to normalize relations with the United States,” said the former diplomat.
“He will not negotiate in good faith,” stressed Ri, who warned against the “tricks” and “100% deceptions” that Kim Jong-un could be plotting
Ri personally knows Kim, with whom he met seven times face to face, “trembling and nervous.” He remembers him as a “normal and ordinary person” in his dealings with others. He is interested in “guaranteeing his survival, at all costs,” says Ri. “He could have been a good person and a good father. But they molded him into a monster. The myth turned him into a monster,” he says.
Ri said last July that his desertion occurred after he was frustrated by the corruption and repression in his country. After the coronavirus pandemic, he had been summoned, like the rest of the officials abroad, to return home carrying in his luggage all kinds of second-hand items from used toothbrushes to spoons, to be able to cope with the shortages that persists inside their borders.
Eight months after turning his back on Pyongyang, the former diplomat lives all the time accompanied by a group of bodyguards assigned to him by the South Korean police and two intelligence agents, who protect him and his family from possible reprisals from the North Korean regime.
“Kim Jong-un knows very well that people’s loyalty is decreasing and that people are changing, which is why he has intensified his reign of terror,” Ki said after reflecting on the cultural war that is being waged between the north and the south with the smuggling of movies, television series and music that cause, little by little, his compatriots to ask a radical question: “Why do southerners live the life of a first world country and we live in poverty?”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The Police and State Security detected 1,644 undeclared calves and 4,463 “disappeared” animals
They searched for “fingerprints, the smell of burnt palm trees, footwear and textile fibers,” and they found “possible suspects” / Sierra Maestra
14ymedio, Havana, 10 August 2024 — The official press spared no detail this Saturday to describe, with the tone of a detective novel and warnings from the Ministry of the Interior, the situation of theft and slaughter of livestock in Santiago de Cuba. After numerous raids, it was discovered that in the province there are 1,644 calves whose births were not declared, 818 illegal sales of cows, 200 unmarked, 719 animals killed without notifying the authorities and 4,463 “disappeared,” whose owners did not report the loss.
The Police have released – literally – their dogs in the pastures of Santiago so that they can find the remains of slaughtered cows, and they have opened files on the farmers who violated the law, to fine them or impose any “other accessory sanction” that corresponds. In total, the authorities say that the province has 110,448 animals, whose owners have their papers in order.
Sierra Maestrainterviewed an anonymous farmer – he did not want to reveal his name “for fear of becoming an enemy with some of my acquaintances” – who shed light for the agents on the most common method of Santiago farmers and their complicit “clients”: “You introduce yourself to them with a sack of pesos, and they will let you sacrifice a cow from their herd, making it look like a theft of which they had no knowledge. There are not just a few who are in that business. Here everyone has to take care of their own and is responsible for what they have.” continue reading
The police have released their dogs in the pastures of Santiago so that they can find the remains of slaughtered cows
The Ministry of the Interior wasted no time. Invoking article 410.1 of the Criminal Code – on theft – and other similar laws, the agents said that “some farmers want greater speed on the part of the agencies and their effective cooperation to catch those responsible,” and have begun several investigations on their own.
The police computers – says Sierra Maestra – began by registering the “narration” of each farmer, and immediately, “the operational guard acted.” Insisting on the efficiency that, in the opinion of the newspaper, the agents showed, the text describes that the head of each sector, the Criminalistics experts and the detectives of the Technical and Investigative Directorate were added to each case. They searched for “fingerprints, the smell of burnt palm trees, footwear and textile fibers,” and they found “possible suspects.”
In difficult cases, they used dogs, “to follow the traces of those involved” and any other evidence of slaughter on the ground. They even used – underlines Sierra Maestra – agents of State Security.
Such a deployment was necessary, the newspaper alleges, because of the economic situation that the Island is experiencing, which elevates all minor theft to the level of a major crime. It is a “national exercise” prioritized by the Government, they say, over the 16,689 ranchers in the province, visited one by one since last March.
“Since the first months of the year, the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, in general, declared to this media that an increase in events had been generated against livestock in the territory,” says the newspaper. “There have been a high number of breaches of the provisions of the Livestock Promotion Law.”
There were “unreceptive attitudes” and “doubts about the seriousness of the task,” admits Sierra Maestra when describing that many farmers refused to collaborate with the investigation. They were punished with 496 fines that collected seven million pesos. About 787 farmers will be “analyzed” by Agriculture in the province, and another 246 received accusations for “breach of the duty to report.”
The lesson: “Respect and comply, and there will be no measures,” an Agriculture official interviewed by the newspaper says clearly.
Several farmers refused to collaborate with the investigation in which even State Security agents participated
To illustrate the moral, Sierra Maestra describes the life of the one who, in his opinion, is the perfect farmer: Hermis Isaac Ferrer, of the Gustavo Moll Credit and Services Cooperative, located in the municipality of San Luis. Ferrer “does wonders” on his Nueva Arena estate and shows that “when you want, you can” be legal.
Ferrer has organized a group of guards whom he calls the “farmer patrol,” to whom the cooperative “provided telephones to communicate in the event of any problem, fact or suspicion.” Predictably, the guards are armed with machetes, but this is not said by Ferrer, who says that when the “patrollers” detect a crime, they call the head of the sector.
But no one is perfect. “In the month of July, as part of the national livestock exercise, several cases were identified for lack of animals, or for not having enough protection for them, which facilitates their theft,” Ferrer confessed.
The farmer is also described as a charitable soul of the area: “He delivers milk to Public Health, in the nursing home, to mothers and the hospital. The big cattle are interspersed, with 10 breeders, six small females and two bulls, in addition to their horses. They collaborate with the neighbors and vice versa, and together they send productions to the market and the fairs.”
This is Ferrer’s “paradise,” concludes Sierra Maestra, free from the “lack of control and negligence” that characterize the province. His slogan, which has the obvious sympathies of the Police, is that “nothing escapes from those who watch.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The craft workshop financed by Alkaria is attended by 50 children every day / Fidel Castro Center
14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 9 August 2024 — “Fidel has done many things for Cuba, but the most important has been to save us.” This phrase – closer to religious catechism than to historiography – was expressed this Friday by one of the 39 children that the Fidel Castro Center has chosen for a special summer course. The objective of the program, for which the Spanish left-wing organization Alkaria, based in Catalonia, has contributed money, is for children to “immerse themselves” in the life and miracles of the caudillo. Since last July 8, the children have been instructed to serve as guides for the museum that houses the center. In images published by Televisión Cubana they are seen offering explanations about the type of weapons, military vehicles and historical episodes in which Castro was involved.
A girl under the age of ten explains to visitors that they are in the Room of the Word, where multiple screens – surrounded by verses of Castro’s speeches – show “Our Commander” haranguing a crowd. Another infant explains who “Fidel’s journalists” are and how they contributed to spreading his image around the world.
One child has the job of showing the K-69 jeep, the dictator’s favorite, and another gives details about the Granma yacht. In addition, they have to stop at images that border on the disturbing, such as the one that shows Castro lying in a blood donation chamber, with doctors and devices around him. continue reading
The head of the “squad” is Elianet Espinosa Chávez, a specialist from the center who is the group’s instructor
The head of the “squad” is Elianet Espinosa Chávez, a specialist from the center who is the instructor of the group, comprised of children between 6 and 14 years old. “They are very small, some have not even been given the History of Cuba,” she admits. Their mission has been to help them discover “how they feel Fidel” in every aspect of their lives.
A craft workshop – also impregnated with Fidelismo – is funded by Alkaria as an adjunct project. In addition to the 39 “guides,” there are 50 children each day. Xavier Barreda, director of Alkaria, personally supervises the development of the workshops, for which he dedicates – he says – “at least 20% of his annual budget.”
Alkaria defines itself as an organization of “developmental cooperation.” It belongs to the myriad of foreign institutions that “help” the Havana regime, not always in a transparent way. In fact, on the Alkaria website there is not a single word about the indoctrination of Cuban children, and the only project they admit to having destined for Havana is aid – in the form of medical donations – to the nursing home of San Miguel del Padrón.
According to his X profile, Barreda brought with him from Spain 660 pounds of sanitary, educational and sports material
According to his X profile, Barreda brought with him from Spain 660 pounds of sanitary, educational and sports material, a donation that he gathered with the help of the City Council of the Spanish municipality of Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, led by the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia.
Since the beginning of the summer, the Fidel Castro Center has put the children of the capital in its sights. Workshops, courses, films and conversations with retired soldiers have formed a detailed program of indoctrination in the “values” of Castroism. “I want to learn what Fidel did,” the children registered in the program repeat, one after another. On July 10, Ramiro Valdés in person went to give a children’s conference on Castro and “his teachings,” with the declared objective of having the children “continue his revolutionary work.”
Directed by historians René González Barrios and Elier Ramírez, the Center has become the mecca of Castro scholars, and its staff has been scrupulously selected. This has not prevented desertions, as told to 14ymedio by Miriam, a former employee of the Center.
“When the center opened, the workers were satisfied, because they sold us a box of subsidized frozen chicken”
“When the center opened, the workers were satisfied, because they sold us a box of subsidized frozen chicken,” she explains. However, a few months ago she left her job. Not only had they taken away “many stimuli,” including the chicken, but the “persistent” pressure exerted by the Center on its employees had reached its peak.
As August 13 – the anniversary of Castro’s birth – approaches, texts begin to proliferate in the official press that aren’t afraid of falling back on the idolatry. The figure of the dictator is approached with a romantic prose, which exaggerates his traits and idealizes his life.
This Friday, an article from Sierra Maestra alluded to Birán – the batey [sugar worker’s town] of Holguín where Castro was raised – as an idyllic place, where the “sweetness of the reeds and the bellowing of the cattle” cradled the birth of the dictator. The journalist then developed a disconcerting argument to demonstrate the “influence of the environment”: if Castro had come to power it was because Birán was impregnated with a revolutionary spirit from the Taino era – for the exploits of a bloody cacique [tribal chief] who decimated the region – until an alleged mambisa post was established in the area.
The reporter admits that Ángel Castro, the dictator’s father, arrived in Cuba – “paradoxically” – as part of the peninsular troops willing to destroy the mambises. The Galician soldier became rich and owned everything important in the batey, from the post office to the private school. Fidel and Raúl, who were born outside Castro’s marriage, grew up on the fringes of the house that now is presented as his family home .
Ángel Castro maintained his farm with cheap labor from Haiti, eastern Cuba and even his native Galicia
The semi-savage life that both boys led – to which Castro’s interviews attest, veiledly – is summarized by the journalist in several paragraphs. Those who met Castro as a young man say that “he would go with the other youngsters to the El Jobo pond, where they bathed, came back and cooked near the house.” Another explains that Fidel was a “friend of the Haitians.” “There were about 60 or 70 here. Almost all the workers here were Haitians,” explains a neighbor, without clarifying that Ángel Castro maintained his finca [estate] with cheap labor from Haiti, eastern Cuba and even his native Galicia.
Dozens of pages about Fidel Castro and his “imprint” will not be missing this August 13. They are written by the self-styled “privileged of the time,” the journalists whom the dictator once admitted to his press conferences and private parties. They themselves testified in a kind of collective hagiography. They plan to sell the book internationally, and the profits from the sale – they promise – will be donated to the “children of Cuba.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Panama reiterates that it is willing to give asylum to Maduro to solve the crisis
Arias regrets that dictators like Maduro are not willing to give up power / EFE
EFE (via 14ymedio), Douglas Marín, San José / Panama City, 9 August 2024 — Nicolás Maduro “leads a narco-state,” a “dictatorship,” and it is difficult for him to surrender power, the former president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize winner Óscar Arias declared this Friday . According to the politician, interviewed by EFE, what happened in Venezuela is something that does not surprise him. “Dictators don’t know how to get out of the presidential chair,” he stated.
The 1987 Nobelist said that the elections of July 28 were “a farce” in which Maduro “stole” the triumph. “The Venezuelan people deserve the Government to be handed over to the winner but, unfortunately, I am very skeptical. It is not easy for a narco-state, knowing that they are going to rot in a dungeon, to hand over power,” Arias said.
“Unfortunately, what is going to happen with six more years of Maduro is that those people, already miserable, suffering from hunger, are going to become more and more impoverished. It is impossible, given the chavista ideology, for that country to move forward, to consider foreign or domestic investment, to diversify the economy and end inflation,” he said.
Arias, who is 83, regretted that Mexico, Colombia and Brazil have not been emphatic when referring to the Venezuelan elections, although he clarified that it may be understandable if their intention is to be mediators. “I believed that Mexico, Colombia and Brazil were going to tell Maduro: ’your choice was a robbery, you stole the election of the Venezuelan people and disrespected the will of that people expressed at the polls, you committed a fraud that cannot be hidden’, but I was wrong, they didn’t do that. I understand that if their role is to mediate, they can’t be that blunt,” he said. continue reading
Arias stated that all the exit polls gave the opponent Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner, supported by the leader María Corina Machado, in a context in which there is “a very great discontent” with the Maduro Government and with chavismo in general. “The rulers of Venezuela (Hugo) Chávez and Maduro, have done a lot of damage. In Venezuela, killing a person is called homicide, but starving an entire people is called chavismo, and that’s what has happened. The best proof is that more than 7 million Venezuelans have left (emigrated),” he said.
Arias stated that all the exit polls showed the opponent Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner
The Government of Venezuela, for its part, continues to attack the Democratic United Platform (PUD) on several fronts, trying to discredit it. The Executive insisted again this Thursday in front of several ambassadors that the electoral records released by the opposition are false and intend to “ignore the results” of the presidential elections.
In addition, the Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office has initiated criminal proceedings against the opposition leaders for disseminating, on its website, the results demonstrating that it was González Urrutia who won in the presidential elections.
The international community has also tried by various means to negotiate a way out for Maduro. In addition to the talks held with Venezuela by Colombia, Mexico and Brazil, and the guarantees offered by the United States, the president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, reiterated this Friday that he would be willing to give political asylum to Maduro.
“If that is the quota of cooperation that Panama must make to get out of all this, offering our own country [as a place] for this man (Maduro) and his family to leave Venezuela, Panama would do it, without any doubt,” Mulino said in an interview with CNN, in which he maintained his position of offering Maduro asylum in order to facilitate the resolution of the crisis.
Nor did the president rule out the option of offering political asylum to other members of chavismo, if necessary. “In any way Panama can cooperate (it will). And if that is the quota of cooperation (extending asylum) that we have to do, I would do it,” added the Panamanian president, who has been a strong critic of the Venezuelan elections.
Mulino “transmitted” to the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, through the Foreign Ministry, Panama’s willingness “to be the bridge” to a third country
Mulino “transmitted” to the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, through the Foreign Ministry, Panama’s willingness “to be the bridge” to a third country, because, he added, he does not believe “that (Maduro) can stay in Panama,” since that “would be hard to sell to the population, but it is not the first time that Panama has helped in a crisis of this nature.”
Mulino pointed out several times during the interview that “this is not the first time that Panama has faced this type of problem with politicians on the run” and that “there have been other leaders who have landed here, with the idea of Panama contributing to a solution to internal political problems.”
The head of state recalled the cases of former Argentine president Juan Domingo Perón in 1956, Guatemalan Jorge Serrano Elías (1990-1993) and former Haitian coup general Raoul Cedrás (1991-1994), to whom the country granted asylum.
Panama was one of the countries that recognized Edmundo González as the president-elect of Venezuela, after considering the elections fraudulent. Both countries have suspended diplomatic relations and closed their airspace.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A public health alert goes out for domperidone, a counterfeit drug against pain and inflammation]
14ymedio, Havana, 9 August 2024 — At least three counterfeit drugs circulate in Cuba without health control, the Island’s authorities have warned. The 20-milligram Domperidone tablets and two other anti-arthritis products – which caused alarm in 2018 and 2023 in Colombia – are on the blacklist of the Center for the State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (CECMED).
The Domperidone tablets, from the Canadian company Apotex Inc., advertised as “analgesic and anti-inflammatory,” circulate illegally. They have been detected on the Island because they are not listed in the Canadian health system, where they supposedly originated. The complaint was made based on “photographic evidence,” thanks to which CECMED concluded on July 6 that the DIN code 01940309 that is on the Domperidone package “does not exist.”
“It is a counterfeit drug, so its quality, safety and efficacy cannot be guaranteed,” stressed the Cuban agency.
The 10 mg S-ARTRIT Plus and DolorEnd 10 mg pills are also sold without authorization. Both products are attributed to Homeopathic Natural Laboratories of Cuba. However, CECMED warned on July 24 that these “drugs” against arthritis are not registered in their database, in addition to the fact that “there is no pharmaceutical laboratory with that name” on the packaging. continue reading
In 2018, the National Institute of Drug and Food Surveillance (INVIMA) of Colombia denounced the fraudulent commercialization of that same drug in the country, under the name of DolorEnd Forte.
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Data on the box of the 10 mg DolorEnd for arthritis, which disproves the claim that it is made domestically/ Facebook/CECMED
The same occurs with the S-ARTRIT Plus anti-arthritis product. Invima warned on August 1, 2023 about the illegal marketing of Sin Artrit Forte – formerly Artrit LX – a product “without health records,” whose “active principle is procaine hydrochloride,” which is not recognized for use in Colombia. It arrived in Cuba with the name of S-ARTRIT Plus.
The sale of fake medicines and alternative products once again show the shortage of drugs that plagues the Island. The black market has become the main unlicensed supplier of Cubans, and now even virtual stores that supply Cubans with products purchased in the United States in dollars, offer medications. Some even request a prescription issued on the Island to deliver the products, not because they are admitted in that country, but to avoid of the risks of selling powerful drugs like antibiotics without a prescription.
Last July, the Ministry of Public Health admitted that, due to obstacles in the import of raw materials and already prepared medicines, the country lacks 70% of the basic medications needed by Cuban patients. The figure is imprecise: of the 651 products that should be sold in pharmacies, only 292 are available, and intermittently at that.
The pharmaceutical company 8 de Marzo resumed the production of oral antibiotics. / Granma
The regime, which has one of its main foreign exchange inflows in the medical-pharmaceutical industry, has sought help abroad to revive the sector, which was battered after dedicating all its funds to the development of vaccines against COVID-19. Last Thursday, the Government of India delivered 10,000,000 euros to Cuba, which were destined for the purchase of “active pharmaceutical ingredients.”
This Friday, the ‘March 8’ pharmaceutical company resumed the production of oral antibiotics and increased the capacity for injectables, reported director Xenia Madrazo Sagre. With the restart of those operations, “amoxicillin, cephalexin and cefixime will be produced, the latter in capsules and in suspension, and the injectables ceftriaxone, cefuroxime and ceftazidime,” the director confirmed. However, the first delivery will take 45 days, since the raw materials must go through a physical, chemical and microbiological analysis and then enter production, the official stressed.
The production of these drugs will cover the demand of the National Health System for six to 12 months, depending on the assortment.
14ymedio has documented that, due to the lack of drugs, Cubans constantly turn to the black market in search of antidepressants, tranquilizers and analgesics in improvised pharmacies on all kinds of premises. In these places, which range from a restaurant to a clothing store, the cost per blister pack can reach 1,000 pesos.
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.
14ymedio, Havana, 15 August 2024 — A Cuban man, Enrique Nerey Valdivia, was found guilty on Monday for the crime of “migrant trafficking” in the state of Texas. Federal prosecutor Alamdar Hamdani dismissed the evidence presented by the defendant’s defense lawyer, considering it “not very credible.” Judge David S. Morales, who presided over the trial, set sentencing for November 6.
