Translator: Norma Whiting – Page 3

The Other Cuba: Luxury, Good Taste and Outrageous Prices from the Hand of a Successful Italian

The new Home Deli store in El Vedado, Havana, is a magnet. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez and Olea Gallardo, Havana, 26 June 2023 — The new Home Deli food store on Calle 12, between 21 and 23 in the heart of El Vedado, Havana, was inaugurated at the beginning of June and is not like the ones you usually see in Cuba. Clean and stocked, decorated with a certain European “rustic” style, it became a magnet days after it officially opened its doors. The emotion waned when checking the prices of the products, almost all imported.

A bag of bread, with six pieces costs 800 pesos, a small bag with washed and cut lettuce, 70 pesos, and 2,100 pesos for a small cheese. The cost of the meat was stratospheric: 20 pork skewers for 1,400 pesos, 4,500 pesos per kilogram of beef, 2,000 for chicken breast, 2,000 for ground beef, 3,000 for Italian sausage.

The powdered milk bag, similar to the one sold in other places, looked repackaged, unbranded, and cost 1,900 pesos for a kilogram and 950 pesos for half a kilo. As a curiosity, they had “artisan” pasta for sale, pumpkin and moringa, at 450 pesos a bag.

Home Deli looks clean, stocked, and decorated in a certain European “rustic” style. (14ymedio)

Promoted as a store specializing in Italian products, they offer Arioli oil (3,600 pesos a liter), Balocco and Mulino Bianco biscuits, De Nigris vinegar, De Cecco pasta, Lavazza coffee or Scotti rice. Also, other import labels, such as the Spanish Vima or Carbonell and the Japanese Kikkoman.

The store employees, all young and good-looking, are lavish with attention and kindness towards any possible client, although they do not stop watching the slightest movement and discourage taking photographs with a severe gesture. continue reading

Most of those who entered the store, dazzled by the variety and quality of the products, left discouraged after a tour of the shelves. “It’s very pretty and well put on, but this is the most expensive market I’ve seen so far,” said one woman as she left empty-handed.

Arioli brand olive oil is 3,600 pesos per liter. (14ymedio)

However, the law of supply and demand is implacable even in Cuba: if they set those prices, it is because someone pays them. This newspaper is aware that Home Deli has a large clientele among diplomats stationed in Cuba, in addition to emigrants who, through pages such as Katapulk or TSO, buy food for their relatives in the country in hard currency.

Those who can shop at the store are happy, despite the costs. “It’s the only place where I can get the products that a true Italian recipe requires,” says Lucía, a Cuban who lives in Milan and is on vacation in Cuba visiting her parents.

In addition, she praises her loyal clientele, “they make really tasty and unique spinach tarts in Cuba, not to mention the desserts. It’s not like other private companies, who live by reselling products.”

Homemade pumpkin and moringa pasta sold at Home Deli for 450 pesos a bag. (14ymedio)

The success of Home Deli has been amazing. Not only does it have that new store in El Vedado, but another in the municipality of Playa (19 avenue between 74 and 76) and a third in Cerro (318 Daoiz street, between Colón and Pizarro). In addition, they have a point of sale at the 3rd and 70 market. An efficient home delivery system makes it as modern a business as any in a country where the free market rules.

The company, however, does not only operate with that brand. Directed by the Cuban Diana Sainz and her husband, the Italian Andrea Gallina, as they appear on their social networks, is registered under the name of Mercadiana in the list of micro, small and medium-sized companies (MSMEs) and with the purpose of “gastronomic services”. In Italy, they have the company Gainz SRL, a name that combines the surnames of Gains the owners and that at the time is the provider of Home Deli.

Café Bohemia, adjacent to Estancia Bohemia, is a meeting place for cultural officials. (14ymedio)

Together, they also run the Café Bohemia and the adjacent hotel, Estancia Bohemia, in Old Havana, as well as the Paseo 206 Boutique Hotel and the café on the ground floor, Ecléctico, in El Vedado. It is not uncommon to see them in one of these places, serving the clientele with exquisite treatment, as this newspaper has verified.

“The word standard does not exist for us,” Gallina declared for a report published in “OnCuba” about his establishment on Paseo 206, which they define as “a place with its own stamp, born from the combination of both cultures” and “a warm hug between Cuba and Italy”, and where luxury and good taste are evident.

The same is observed in Estancia Bohemia (San Ignacio 364), where a one-night stay costs 187 dollars, according to the reservation pages. The Café Bohemia is, moreover, a meeting place for culture officials, ostensibly from the Office of the Havana Historian, according to its own publications on networks.

Since they began to proliferate in the streets of Havana, more than a year ago, private businesses generate, in the first instance, mistrust. The fact that some of these (MSMEs) operate in state premises without any type of announcement or public tender, only increases suspicion.

Diana Sáenz, at her Café Bohemia. (14ymedio)

If we add to this the agreements between Cuba and Russia, the last of which were ratified last month at a business forum between the two countries in Havana and which show that Moscow wants to play a leading role in the imminent economic opening of the Island, doubts are difficult to dispel.

On the other hand, especially in all private and successful businesses in the country, since self-employment was allowed, they always raise questions: “They don’t let just anyone do this, what influential figure will be behind it?”

It is not uncommon to see both Diana Sáenz and Andrea Gallina serving their premises with exquisite kindness, (14ymedio)

In the case of Home Deli, its owners have never hidden themselves, on the contrary, they boast of their achievements both in their networks and in business forums and even official media. “Diana is a Cuban entrepreneur who has established important guidelines in the leisure and food sector in Cuba,” they extol in an Instagram post.

The firm has given sensible capitalist advice: “Mercadiana, a food marketing and production MSME, emphasized the need to eliminate bureaucracy when managing business procedures, as well as a review the high tax amounts that go with how prominent they are, since it could jeopardize the survival of companies”, indicated as an example Cuba en Resumen last year.

However, Diana Sainz has not said why she suddenly decided to change the surname that she inherited from her father, Ricardo Sáenz, one of the founders of the Prensa Latina agency and the Bohemia magazine.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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The Endless Ordeal of Retirees in Matanzas, Cuba, to Collect their Pensions

Those affected are elderly people, many of them already with health problems. (Girón)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 May 2023 — The lack of workers is once again in the news on the Island. On this occasion, the protagonist is the shortage of professionals in the Post Offices, causing serious problems in the collection of pensions, according to the Matanzas newspaper Girón on Tuesday. The official media initially attributes the chaos to an employee who has been sick long-term and whom it has been impossible to replace permanently, but the branch director hints that the problem is not isolated.

“There is a shortage of workers, that is why we, the managers, are moving to make the corresponding payments. The solution depends on who we can hire”, says Ismary Hernández, director of the Post Office Unit in the Versalles neighborhood, in the city of Matanzas, to which the office of the old Medical Center belongs. The more than 200 retirees attached to this headquarters denounce that they have not been able to collect in a timely manner for months, as have the 130 people who receive social assistance at the same location.

Those affected are elderly people, many of them already with health problems, and who bitterly lament the difficulties it means for them to stand in line for days. Because the worst thing, they agree, is when the money runs out and the office closes, leaving them unpaid.

“There is a shortage of workers, that is why we, the managers, are moving to make the corresponding payments. The solution depends on who we can hire”

“It’s been happening for months,” says an 89-year-old retiree interviewed by the outlet. They show up at 10 or 11 in the morning. It’s not right to keep old people, including me, waiting here for so many hours. Yesterday at one in the afternoon they said the money had run out. We had to leave and come back today to stand in line again, when the compañera arrived at 11:30 to make the payments,” he says. continue reading

All the testimonies coincide in pointing out the negligence and bad manners with which the workers, when they are there, treat the pensioners. “It’s illogical for all in this town to come here at six-odd in the morning to stand in line, and it’s already 11:30 and no one shows up, not even to give us an explanation. Is it that, when someone retires, he no longer deserves consideration, doesn’t have value?” laments a retiree who worked for 49 years during his life.

“I have never gone through so much work to get paid as I do now. We are here without having breakfast, without eating anything”, protests another who, at 76, feels relieved for not being among the oldest and tells that an 89-year-old friend had to be helped by her children when she collapsed while waiting in line.

“They calmly tell you: ‘We ran out of money’, another says “I’m leaving.” Those who are working go home, and often the little old people don’t even have enough for a soda. “It’s a lack of respect to us” protests another one.

Having managers there has allowed things to go better this month, although everyone knows that it is not the solution. “This month was better, everyone was paid on time and the payment was quite fast”, says Hernández. “What happens is, and this has been explained to the clients on another occasion, that she, as an employee, has other responsibilities. Within these functions, she has been interspersing the payment to the assisted-retirees,” Bárbaro Ortega Araujo told Girón Ediesky, deputy director of the Post Office in Matanzas.

The service requires, he adds, some training, but not only that, you have to be selective because of the large amounts of money that are handled

Yaneysi Remón Suárez, the company’s Director of Operations, maintains that she has requested personnel from the Ministry of Labor, but “so far no one has appeared.” The service requires, she adds, some training and, not only that, you have to be selective because of the large amounts of money they handle. “In greater quantity as a result of the Ordering Task and these salary increases. The institution manages millions of pesos,” she argues.

“Correos moves even more money than a bank on a given day,” she adds, but the salaries that are offered are not very attractive. The official states that a postman currently earns 2,600 pesos. “Anyone in another entity – such as a bank, Etecsa, new economic players – earns much more than a postman, who spends eight hours in the sun, pedaling and offering the service,” she explains.

As if that were not enough, there are no tires for bicycles, which makes traveling to deliver the mail impossible.

There are no short-term solutions either, acknowledge the managers. The official who has been multiplying her duties for three months must help with the payments, and although they affirm that “the negotiations do not stop” and that they are trying to increase salaries, one of the most advanced proposals is to mobilize those in the military service.

“When the borders were closed and the large avalanche of packages from international parcels ceased and people opted for shipments by sea, the Ministry of the Armed Forces helped us. We made a contract with them, with young men who were serving in the Military Service. We are calling for that too to resume,” Ortega Araujo states.

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The Trotskyist Solution for Cuba

What sensible Cuban, after sixty-odd years of all kinds of Marxism, with all kinds of “making do” Marxist measures, by all kinds of Marxist leaders, would ask for “more Marxism”. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Jorge Hernández Fonseca, Miami, 15 May 2023 — I have just finished reading in the independent Cuban press a piece of news that fills me with astonishment because of its peculiarity: some communists (Trotskyists) criticizing the Cuban communist dictatorship (which they call “the government”) for its poor performance at the head of the country, which could provoke, they say, a “capitalist military coup”, asking for a return to pure Marxism. Very good diagnosis (the military coup that will come to return to capitalism), but a solution that is, more than wrong, catastrophic!

What sensible Cuban, after sixty-odd years of all kinds of Marxism, with all kinds of “resolving” Marxist measures, by all kinds of Marxist leaders, would ask for “more Marxism?” Enough of Marxist experiments, none of them work. Who can assure us that the Trotskyist who wrote such an outrage is going to do something different from what was done before, by Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl, Díaz-Canel¹, Nicolás Maduro², Daniel Ortega³, Nicolae Ceausescu⁴, Pol Pot⁵ and a long list of detestable unsuccessful Marxists?

The problem, dear Trotskyists, is that Marxism is wrong. Communist China already demonstrated this by going to capitalism, although it continues with the “dictatorship (against) the proletariat”, but without a long-term future, because Marxism-Leninism establishes that the dictatorship is so that “capitalism does not return”. Once capitalism returns (as in China) what purpose does the dictatorship serve?

Capitalism is the “cream of the crop” that human society, in long years of trial and error, has developed to produce goods and services.

Capitalism is the “cream of the crop” that human society, in long years of trial and error, has developed in order to produce goods and services. This is because in every society, just as there are exceptional athletes, singers with golden voices, or sensational artists, there are people whose innate ability is to know how to generate employment and income, investing time and capital (which makes them rich) so that the economy grows. The capital generated by these entrepreneurs is not in a chest under the beds of each one of them. It is in a bank, available to all of society that requests capital to set up other businesses. That is capitalism. Of course, this money is not available for anyone to ask for so they don’t have to work.

There is good faith in the Trotskyists who are opposed to Castroism, but please, do not make us suffer more by asking for “real Marxism”. I know that there is fear of capitalism because there have been selfish and ambitious capitalists. The wrong human factor is common to socialists and capitalists. There are also egotistical communists. I, for one, (and all the people of Cuba) have suffered the sacrifice of our personal future from Fidel Castro’s selfishness, just to satisfy his Amazonian ego.

¹Díaz-Canel, current Cuban president appointed in 2019
²Nicolás Maduro, current Venezuelan president since 2013
³Daniel Ortega, current Nicaraguan president since 2007
⁴Nicolas Ceausescu, Romanian president 1974-1989
⁵Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge 1963-1997. Revolutionary, dictator and Politician who ruled Cambodia 1976-1979

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Food Consumption in Cuba Has Fallen by 66.9 Percent in 2022 due to Inflation

The resounding drop in consumption is reflected even more strongly in foods such as bread, rice or sugar. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 1 May 2023 — According to Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, official retail trade data on the island for 2022 offer a “devastating” panorama and remove “any vision of an alleged economic recovery underway”. The expert has analyzed the collection from the sale of food discounting inflation and the result could not be more discouraging: the drop is two-thirds compared to the previous year, a 2021 that was not exactly a good year.

Monreal focuses exclusively in a thread of messages published this Monday on Twitter on food sales, and he does so precisely because, as he explains, “they are ‘inelastic’ goods, which in the language of economists means that demand tends not to be affected significantly due to price variations”, since people cannot stop eating and continue to buy, albeit in smaller quantities, whatever the price of the products.

“A two-thirds annual drop in ‘real’ retail food sales is no small matter […] and reveals an important dimension of the brutal ‘adjustment’ of consumption and aggregate purchasing power in Cuba”

At first sight and without discounting inflation, pasta, fish products, bread and a few other items seem to obey the “inelasticity” rule, since sales of the first item (pasta) have risen 85.5%, the second 14.8% and the third 2.9% in 2022, compared to the previous year. On the other hand, consumption of other products has suffered declines of up to 25.8% in the case of sugar or, even worse, 28.4% for milk derivatives. continue reading

The reality, however, is different and much more worrisome. When official inflation of 63% registered in 2022 is taken into account, we see that the value of pasta sales, which seemed to be in good health, have collapsed 31.4%, and this indicates an equivalent fall of real consumption by Cuban families. This resounding drop in consumption is reflected even more strongly in other foods: fish products (-57.5%), bread (-61.9%), rice (-63%), meat products (-69.8%), sugar (-72.5%) and milk derivatives (-73.5%).

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Political Police Interrogates Activist Yasmany Gonzalez for Graffiti Against the Cuban Regime

Yasmany González Valdés earns a living as a self-employed bricklayer. (Twitter/@CubaODC)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 April 2023 — Activist Yasmany González Valdés was arrested this Thursday at his house in Central Havana and transferred to the State Security headquarters in the capital, Villa Marista. His wife, Ilsa Ramos, confirmed this on Friday to 14ymedio.

Hours earlier, the Observatory for Cultural Rights (ODC) had reported in a Twitter thread that the arrest of the young man, also known as Libre Libre, took place after a “violent search”. Ramos specified that “around 15 people” participated, taking with them “a mechanic’s overalls, a brush and a mobile phone”.

The Observatory had recalled in its networks that González Valdés was summoned at the beginning of April to the Zanja police station, where he was accused of being involved with the group that calls itself El Nuevo Directorio (END), which claimed a new action against the regime, writing “No to the PCC” this Thursday, on the facade of the emblematic building at 7 Humboldt Street.

“They tried to leave keep in custody for non-payment of fines that he had already paid”

“On that occasion, they tried to frame him and link him to the Nuevo Directorio Group“, continues the ODC, “for which they did graphological tests”. In addition, “they tried to leave him in custody for non-payment of fines that he had already paid”. continue reading

The Observatory denounces that, in recent months, González Valdés has been “summoned, detained, fined and threatened” for his publications on social networks, accused of violating Decree Law 370. “On several occasions, the threats have been made on the promise of jail if he keeps posting”.

This is not the first time that Yasmany González, who works as a self-employed bricklayer, has had problems with the Cuban political police. Last year, after being detained for four days in Villa Marista, the activist declared that he would stop posting on his social networks.

“I’m already at home with my family (…) I’m going to get out, guys, because nobody knows what happens to a family member when you’re in there”, he wrote then on his Facebook account, a few hours after his release.

Shortly before, he had been fined in the application of Decree Law 370 for his publications on the internet, in which he denounced human rights violations in Cuba and demanded the release of those sentenced for the 11 July 2021 protests.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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In Cuba, Rumors are the Counter-Narrative of the Official Version of Events

Many users disclosed not only the “traps” of the Government to attract voters or force them to go to the polls, but also the possible consequences of abstaining. (14ymedio)

14ymedio/Yucabyte, Havana, 19 April 2023 — Irregularities during the parliamentary elections, the drastic increase in crime and the precarious situation of prisons have dominated the flow of rumors about Cuba on social networks during the month of March. However, despite the fact that it is fragmentary data and not always verifiable, it forms a fabric of “underground” concerns that in the long run –as a recent report by 14ymedio and Yucabyte demonstrated– tends to become real information in Cuba.

The general tension during the elections for deputy candidates in Parliament had its correlation in the digital environment. Many users disclosed not only the “traps” of the Government to attract voters or force them to go to the polls, but also the supposed consequences of abstaining.

It was even stated that whoever attended the polling station after applying for a visa or parole at the US Embassy would automatically lose their right to access this service. The spread of this rumor was so alarming that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself claimed that it had contacted the US immigration authorities to deny the information.

Although no independent observers were allowed to verify the transparency of the voting, thousands of users left their impression on Twitter and Facebook. Many denounced what was jokingly called “Operation Tun-Tun”: the electoral authorities not only forced children to guard the ballot boxes, but sent them, house to house, to carry out reminders to guarantee broad participation. Despite this, users on the networks commented that many had avoided the polls. Others recounted that they had voted “a la cañona”, (by force) fraudulently representing several relatives, or that they had found their forged signature on the list of participants. continue reading

A clandestine group began to claim responsibility for several anti-government posters. These ‘graffiti’ contained offensive messages directed at the régime

In the heat of the elections, a clandestine group began to claim responsibility for several anti-government posters. These graffiti, reported by the independent press, contained offensive messages directed at the regime such as “Down with the dictatorship” and “No to the Communist Party”, signed by the organization identified as El Nuevo Directorio.

As for the second source of rumors, reports of robberies, assaults, rapes and adolescent gangs in the Cuban peripheries are already common on social networks. In the face of police inaction, reporting from digital profiles is one of the few alternatives in the hands of the population to make visible the wave of crime that is spreading through Cuba.

The ravages of a youth gang known as C39, which operates in Las Tunas, presumably under the command of an adult woman, has kept the country folks in check. The local Police, they say, are sitting idle and it is said that they even grant impunity to delinquents.

The agents did arrive on time, several users say, when two men tried to rape a male child in the city of Nuevitas, Camagüey. However, in this case too, the action of the local residents, who began to act on their own, was decisive in stopping the crime.

Platforms most used by users and format of the content collected. (14ymedio/Yucabyte)

Also unprotected, according to multiple reports, remain the residents of the capital’s Altahabana neighborhood, who suffer frequent assaults in their own homes. Under the guise of “messengers” who have come to deliver a package, they break into homes to rob residents, threatening them with bladed weapons.

Others are not so lucky and, after the encounter with the criminals, they end up getting murdered. This is what happened, says a user, to a rural resident from San Juan de los Yeras, in Villa Clara, who was stabbed after his horse was stolen.

Although it is rare that the official media or the Ministry of the Interior offer an official version of the facts, some institutions often expose various details. This was the case with the death of a baby abandoned by his mother, a student at the Villa Clara Sports Initiation School. It was the directors of the center who, in a brief Facebook statement and during a meeting where recorded conversations were leaked, commented on the seriousness of the event.

The most difficult rumors to verify are those that refer to the most hermetic environments monitored by the regime, such as prisons. The conditions in which the prisoners live had traditionally been one of the best kept secrets by the Government. However, the increase in the prison population in the Country, and the media attention that, since the protests of July 11, 2021, has focused on prisons, have helped to clarify how the inmates live.

The harassment and manipulation suffered by the relatives of political prisoners by jailers or State Security has also been exposed on social networks

A common prisoner, identified as Kevin, was allegedly beaten to death by his jailer, Yulieski Montero, at the Quivicán prison in Mayabeque. Those who shared the event charged that other inmates throughout the country have suffered mistreatment at the hands of the police officers who guard them, or by other prisoners, whom the guards incite to punish the “troublemakers”.

The harassment and manipulation suffered by the relatives of political prisoners by jailers or State Security agents when they go on regular visits has also been exposed on social networks. However, it is rare for the relatives of common prisoners to air events like these, for fear of reprisals and the consequences that the complaint could have for the inmates themselves.

This type of situation results in that, although a large part of the rumors collected become, in the long run, sources of verified information – or end up being denied – there is other information that cannot be verified. This “informal” flow of data runs parallel to the regime’s press and often becomes a counter-narrative of the official version of events.

However, there is also the case of rumors that remain static, without being able to be verified or denied, and that have become a constant in the collection. This is the case of the illness and death of Raúl Castro –and also of other leaders, such as Ramiro Valdés–, a rumor repeated throughout 2022 which has also been registered in the first months of 2023. Or of the reports about a “fraudulent transition” or “fraud change”, which describe a sort of conspiracy by the regime’s leadership to fake a transition to democracy from the seat of power itself, without compromising the interests of certain military clans historically linked to the Castros.
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‘El Enjambre’ and the ‘Podcast’ Challenges in Cuba

From left: Camilo Condis, Maykel González Vivero, Lucía Marcha and Yadira AlBet. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 2 April 2023 — On this first Saturday of April, colleagues of El Enjambre [The Swarm] podcast celebrated the end of its sixth season and the announcement that, no later than in a couple of weeks, the seventh season will begin.

This weekly space was inaugurated in October 2019 as part of El Toque project and became independent in October, 2022. Under the constant threat of censorship, the program discusses political, economic and social issues seriously, and at times lightheartedly.

Seated in front of a group of followers in the main hall of La Marca, in Old Havana, filmmakers of this podcast recreated anecdotes, answered questions and offered statistical data on the composition of their audience, which is mostly young and based in Cuba. Resembling themselves, there were debates, live music and a nice amusing moment about what the elections in Cuba would be like in 2077.

Under the constant threat of censorship, the program discusses political, economic and social issues seriously, and at times lightheartedly

Asked about the future of El Enjambre, Camilo Condis told 14ymedio : “We know that it will be hard to continue because the difficulties that are coming are those that creators in Cuba, not working under an official institution, have to face. They are the same limitations that all of us face, but we’ll carry on.”

Maykel González Vivero, who joined the team in its fourth season, is a promoter of balance. He says that “it’s very boring when everyone is discussing something they agree on”. On the other hand, in contrast to Camilo Condis, “so pragmatic and clinging to the facts, to the numbers”, Maykel chooses to present himself as “more qualitative”.

El Enjambre is seen in official circles as too critical and, at the opposite end, as too trivial. The truth is that behind each installment there is painstaking professional work and the intention of opening a gap to expose and debate the main events of each week and the long-term problems that the country is suffering.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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The Christmas Pine on Galiano Street, a Sad Reflection of the Misfortunes Cubans Suffer

Its appearance is unfortunate and is not fitting with winter, the residents of Galiano street comment. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 1 April 2023 — It took three months for the Christmas pine planted in the Fe del Valle Park, in Centro Habana, to deteriorate. The tree, which last December was filled with lights – the first public New Year’s decoration that Cubans had seen in six decades – is now withered, with dry leaves and fallen branches.

Its appearance is unfortunate and is not fitting with winter, commented the residents of Galiano street, the same ones who took photos next to the conifer during Christmas, which the Government hastened to strip of all spiritual symbolism. The pine was part, they said, of a “comprehensive initiative” of the Avenida Italia project, with which the European country wanted to thank the presence of Cuban doctors during the pandemic in various locations on its territory.

So, the pine was not a Christmas sign but a very socialist “Friendship Tree”, as the Cuban press renamed it. Once that purpose was fulfilled, the trunk is barely holding up and is in need of three props, ribbons and cords to prevent it from falling on those who walk through Galiano. continue reading

El tronco grisáceo y el escaso follaje, de un color impreciso, son sintomáticos de la mala salud del ejemplar. (14ymedio) — The greyish trunk and the sparse foliage, of an imprecise color, are symptomatic of the specimen’s poor health. (14ymedio)

The greyish trunk and the sparse foliage, of an imprecise color, are symptomatic of the poor health of the specimen, whose survival seems unlikely to those who pass by. “Is the pine tree dying?” A boy asked his mother, who was trying to avoid the area so as not to run the risk that the tree, which looked weak and sickly, might fall on them.

“A lot of sewage water and too much humidity in that substrate”, diagnosed one of the old people sitting in the park. “Pines need semi-sandy soils, not the muck from Centro Habana”.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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The Production of Gas Suffocates the Cuban Population of Puerto Escondido

The installation of concrete reinforced piles for a gas pipeline in the town’s only baseball field has exhausted residents’ patience with the Energas company. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 March 2023 — Residents of Puerto Escondido, in the province of Mayabeque, Cuba, no longer know who to turn to, or how else to report what they are experiencing. Constant gas leaks, deterioration of the vegetation due to hydrocarbon contamination and, finally, the installation of concrete reinforced piles for a gas pipeline in the only baseball field in the town, have exhausted the residents’ patience with the Energas company.

“Until a few years ago, one would say the name of this town, and what came to mind were natural beauties, the sea and fun, but Cupet has taken part of that away from us,” laments Dayamí, who agrees to tell 14ymedio what they are living with in the town, although her name was changed for fear of reprisals. “The stench of oil in the air is constant,” she adds.

In Puerto Escondido there is a plant managed by the mixed Cuban-Canadian company, Energas S.A., which is managed by the official companies Cupet and Unión Eléctrica, together with the Canadian company Sherritt. It is a raw gas processing plant and a turbine, to which is added an electrical generator with a power of 20 megawatts. The energy stability of various hotel facilities in the area depends on the latter.

“They have driven through the baseball field with concrete piles supposedly for the construction of an elevated pipeline in the air.” (14ymedio)

“This used to be a paradise, but now even the grass is dying, the lemon trees are dying and the leaves of the trees get covered with spots and stay looking as if they were burned. If that happens to the plants, imagine what will be happening to our lungs?” Complains Dayamí, 32, who has two small children, one of them, asthmatic “who is constantly having crises because one can no longer breathe clean air around here.” continue reading

Gas production from oil from the Energas plant is transferred through a pipeline between Puerto Escondido and the Boca de Jaruco plant, both of which supply manufactured gas to part of the city of Havana. At the beginning of this year, a pipeline breakdown caused a leak and left part of the Cuban capital without service. For the residents of Puerto Escondido, that kind of incident seems like a “daily occurrence,” the woman denounces.

“Some of the gas treated in the Boca de Jaruco and Puerto Escondido facilities is sent to Havana to cook food for around 280,000 families. Likewise, the Energas plants produce other fundamental components for the national economy, such as LPG, naphtha and sulfur,” Edel Andrés Alfaro Pérez, economic manager of Energas, recently strutted.

But Dayamí does not see the operation of the plant with such optimistic eyes: “People feel this stench of gas everywhere when there is a leak, but we live surrounded by that smell. When we leave here and move to other municipalities, we carry that plague with us. When I visit my mother, who lives in La Lisa, I always have to take off all my clothes and shower when I get there because I smell of burning oil.”

“As if that were not enough, what they have done in recent days is an unprecedented insult,” adds another resident of the municipality, who sent a complaint to the newsroom of 14ymedio. “They [Energas] have taken the right that nobody gave them to cross the only baseball field, where the town’s adults and children play”.

Outdoor space for practicing sports is “the only thing that exists in the town because they have never built anything in the last decades, they have not even paved the only dirt road that exists in Puerto Escondido… They have crisscrossed the baseball field with concrete piles supposedly for the construction of an elevated pipeline,” she explains, and accompanies her testimony with images where the structures that rise from the ground which will support the pipeline can be seen.

“This used to be a paradise but now even the grass is dying, the lemon trees are dying and the leaves of the trees are covered with spots.” (14ymedio)

For this local resident, it is an outrage that no one consulted the residents about the new work. “No one spoke to anyone or took the realization of said pipeline to a vote. It is disrespectful,” she stresses. “They are practically the owners of everything and they do what they want without counting on anyone, without respect for anything or anyone. They took away our clean air and now they have also damaged the ball field.”

“They have to stop this work because, in this batey*, there is nothing else for the children to have fun. We need them to be able to continue playing baseball,” claims the neighbor, whose parents and grandparents were also born in Puerto Escondido. “Here there is no park, or computer center or anything. Young people and adults enjoyed this ball field.”

It was recently announced that the Cuban Government, as part of the payment of a debt of 368 million dollars to the Canadian Sherritt, approved a 20-year extension of the contract of the mixed company Energas, until March 2043, so that the extraction of gas in Puerto Escondido it is far from being something temporary, and the residents of the town are seeing how the industrial works continue to gain ground.

“Two weeks ago, they began to extract soil and lay the foundations for these piles, they have crossed our town from one side to the other and also the ball field” details the neighbor who wrote to this newspaper. “The pipe will remain in the open air, elevated on those columns. People are afraid of accidents, leaks, and they are also very upset, sad, and humiliated.”

“Here, even the Royal Poincianas, also called flamboyán trees, are dying, because wisps of gas are constantly coming out of the [oil] plant,” explains the resident. “This was a very natural town; we had several popular campsites but most of them are already closed. Who is going to be interested now in coming to a town with the stench of oil and with a gas pipe running through it?” he asks.

*Translator’s note: Batey was the name given to a special plaza, around which the Caribbean Taíno Indians built their settlements. It was usually a rectangular area surrounded by stones with carved symbols (petroglyphs). The Batey was the area in which ceremonies, ball games, etc.) took place.

Translated by Norma Whiting
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‘In the Hospital, in Las Tunas Cuba, the Light Bulbs and Even the Window Panes Have Been Stolen”

Almost all the benches in Plaza Calé have lost their slats. (Newspaper 26)

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 7 March 2023 — Based on the robberies and vandalism, the inhabitants of Las Tunas are “dismantling” the city’s public spaces. The list of “reprehensible” acts, as the official press called them this Monday, is extensive: garbage dumps, destruction of buildings, theft of furniture and corruption in state establishments.

The most alarming situation is going on at the provincial hospital, which, according to its directors, treats more than 7,000 patients daily. “The light bulbs, the screws for the window panes and the panes themselves have been stolen,” denounced Carlos Pérez Santiesteban, deputy clinical-surgical director of the center.

The people who accompany the patients take advantage of their stay in the hospital, according to the doctor, to get hold of what they find, from a piece of metal to the chair braces. To make matters worse, the doctor complains, “stretchers and wheelchairs are abused, mattresses are unprotected, food is eaten on the beds and liquids are spilled.”

Pérez, who describes the ability to control the situation as “difficult,” also regrets that people steal or destroy the installation’s switches, and that they intentionally dump waste in the corridors, bathrooms and gutters of the building. In addition, they habitually scratch the walls, smearing them with grease and damaging the paint. continue reading

According to the press, the “fury” of the people from Las Tunas has an explanation: they behave “as if they were bothered” by the good condition of public spaces. It is no longer a question of neglect, but of vandalizing what cannot be transported to homes, such as park benches or the walls of a building.

“In a bakery, for example, flour and oil are stolen and sold in the same neighborhood.” Nobody has scruples when it comes to “taking advantage” of public goods

Las Tunas, the report states, “has large bills” related to “collective property,” and attributes it to a “a training problem” to young people that later in life affects their adult behavior. However, it does not mention at any time the deficiencies and shortages – common throughout the country but exacerbated in the eastern provinces – that have triggered crime rates in Cuba, although they]se do not justify other behaviors such as dirtying and vandalizing hospital facilities.

There are people who even steal marble pieces “to make a grinder for spices and meat,” an astonished citizen of Las Tunas said. He was recently interviewed by the official press, which also publishes photographs of the “ragged sites” of the city. Almost all the benches at the Plaza Calé are missing their slats, while the metal railings of the Colón Street bridge –whose potholes are a danger to traffic– have been sawn off and stolen.

The fence of the Hermanos Ameijeiras Airport is in the same sorry state, whose wires and poles, already damaged by rust, have been cut and “recycled” in homes.

“Everyone here ‘struggles’, cautiously states one of the interviewees in the official report. “In a bakery, for example, flour and oil are stolen and sold in the same neighborhood.” No one has scruples when it comes to “taking advantage of” public goods, it doesn’t matter if they are food or construction materials –rebar, stones, bricks– that are already part of some structure. That notion, he admits, is even “accepted.”

Another problem is the city’s state of hygiene, to which the local newspaper has referred on other occasions. The amount of garbage in the streets, the puddles of urine in squares and parks, and the fact that almost all the garbage transportation of the waste depends on horse-drawn carts – for which Community Services pays little and late – increase the population’s discomfort.

The “latest fashion,” the newspaper claims, is breaking bottles and leaving the glass shards on the streets, which are already littered with excrement, paper and potholes. At the height of the problem, the text devotes several paragraphs to giving lessons in “socialist morality” and civility to the people of Las Tunas, whose attitude cannot be explained and who will end up, he insists, by leaving only “bits and pieces” of the city.

Translated by Norma Whiting
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Infanta Street in Havana, Where all the Miseries of Cuba Come Together

“There is no other option, to fill the tank you have to get cooked over slow heat,” complains a driver who, at the stroke of noon, had already been in line for two hours.

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 4 March 2023 — The sun itches, although the Lenten winds blow over Havana and ruffle the hair of passers-by. Inside a vehicle, in the long line to buy fuel at the corner of Infanta and San Rafael this Friday, the temperature is similar to what is experienced in the purgatory of May, or even a high that’s reached in the hell of August. “There is no other option, in order to fill the tank you have to get cooked over low heat,” laments a driver who at the stroke of noon had already been in line for two hours .

The cars almost touch. There’s a garish red Lada that a few years ago would have targeted its owner as a vice-minister or colonel; a tricycle to transport goods; several modern Citroëns that seem older than any almendrón* from the last century and even a taxi that demands 30 dollars to shuttle travelers who have recently arrived at the José Martí airport to the city. It doesn’t matter the year of manufacture, the state of the body, or the pedigree of the driver. They are all scorching equally under the sun.

“I no longer go around in circles. I come directly to gas stations on the main avenues, which are the best supplied ones,” the driver of a Russian-made Moskvitch with nickel-plated wheels, interior air conditioning and other amenities, though manufactured, as he admits, “in times of the CAME [Council for Mutual Economic Assistance], so it was not designed for savings,” he laments. The owner perceives the fuel supply in the city as a “see saw”: “One day they tell you that there is no problem and you can fill the tank, and the next you can only add a certain number of liters.” continue reading

It’s common for people to come to blows when the line slows down or when an employee yells that they’re out of diesel or hot dogs

In addition, several lines converge at the gas station at the popular corner of Centro Habana. The place has a small store that sells frozen products, across from it there is a property belonging to the Rápido chain, an attempt by the Cuban regime to emulate the reviled, by official discourse, McDonald’s and Subway, but it ended up capsizing due to the lack of raw materials and inflation and joined the network of regulated trade. When the day begins, in this nodal point of Centro Habana it is difficult to know who is there for a package of frozen chicken, a bag of detergent or a liter of gasoline.

The avenue, named in honor of Princess María Luisa Fernanda, youngest daughter of King Ferdinand VII and sister of Isabel II of Spain, is lacking in monarchy and has a surplus of misery. It’s common for people to come to blows when the line slows down or when an employee yells that they’re out of diesel or hot dogs. That’s when, in one of the most “royal” of Havana streets, people take off their flip-flops, shout obscenities and seem to be ready for anything. Then the March winds blow and everyone goes home.

*Translator’s note: Almendrón, from the ‘almond shape’ of the vehicles, is a term that refers to mid-20th century American cars, still plying the streets of Cuba, primarily as shared taxis for Cuban customers, and as ‘nostalgic’ tours for foreigners.

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A Wave of Bedbugs Invades Santiago de Cuba’s Schools, Hospitals, and Prisons

Smiles to the World Day Care, in Santiago de Cuba. (Facebook/Provincial Directorate of Public Health)

14ymedio, Francisco Herodes Díaz Echemendía, Santiago de Cuba, 28 February 2023 — A source close to the health centers assured 14ymedio that the plague mainly affects the Materno Norte Tamara Bunke and Infantil Sur hospitals, traditionally known as La Colonia Española, and community polyclinics 28 de Septiembre and Camilo Torres Restrepo.

The epidemic is also found at the Rafael María Mendive Basic Secondary School facilities and the one at the Altamira neighborhood. There are also reports of concentrations of the insect at the Mar Verde prison, where overcrowded conditions enable the spread of diseases among inmates.

Without clearly confirming the presence of the epidemic, Santiago de Cuba’s Provincial Health Directorate published this Sunday on social networks that there had been an “exchange” with parents and educators of the Sonrisas al Mundo Child Care Center to discuss hygiene and sanitary measures in the fight against dengue and bedbugs, as well as to “avoid accidents.”

In the informal market, however, fipronil, a broad-spectrum insecticide, sells for more than 20 pesos per milliliter

While bed bugs spread throughout the province, state pharmacies do not have medications to combat the plague. In the informal market, however, fipronil, a broad-spectrum insecticide, sells for more than 20 pesos per milliliter. This price makes combating the insect more expensive since, in order to eradicate it, surfaces need to be fumigated repeatedly with a solution of the product. continue reading

At the beginning of February, Diario de Cuba published the case of the closure of the Otto Parellada Basic Secondary School for fumigation work due to an outbreak of bedbugs. In that case, a teacher complained about the precarious conditions in the classrooms, lacking mops, chlorine, disinfectant or water in the restrooms. There is also a lack of soap or medications for students.

Bed bugs look for small cracks in homes in order to hide, especially preferring bed mattresses. Their spread is rapid and resistant to extreme weather conditions, so in a matter of days they can infest an entire home, school or even hospitals that should have strict cleaning controls to prevent illnesses among patients.

In 2021, in the midst of the Covid-19 health emergency, Santiago de Cuba was on alert for outbreaks of scabies and lice, while in 2022 the province registered figures not seen in 15 years in dengue outbreaks due to the lack of resources to combat the breeding sites of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.

Alfredo Cintra Guerra, responsible for surveillance and vector control in Santiago de Cuba, acknowledged last year that little can be done to control the spread of dengue due to the scarcity of resources, mainly the insecticide Abate to distribute among homes, and fuel to travel to see patients or fumigate the areas with the highest rates of infection.

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Cuba: Matanzas Shipwreck Survivor is Summoned to Identify the Found Remains

Yaylin Mesa Vázquez said nine people remain missing after the shipwreck in January in Matanzas. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 February 2023 — Almost a month after the shipwreck, around Cayo Cruz del Padre, in the province of Matanzas, three unidentified bodies remain in the Legal Medicine facilities. This was reported on her Facebook account by Yaylin Mesa Vázquez, one of the survivors of the incident that occurred on January 23, who was summoned because “the found body of a woman appeared” to be that of her sister Yamily Triana Vázquez.

Mesa wrote last Tuesday on her social networks that she was able to “confirm” that among the clothes they showed her “are my sister’s belongings.” The young woman said that the garments were found “near a floating corpse,” something that “nobody can explain, but that’s how it was.”

The 27-year-old survivor specified that “it may be a coincidence that the found remains could be her [Yamily], but it is not yet fully confirmed.” She explained that this must require a process to “be certain” that she is her blood relative. “They have to compare everything and then it will be known if she is my sister or not.”

Yaylin has doubts that “the bones found floating in the water” are those of her sister.

“They have to compare everything and then it will be known if it is my sister or not”

Yaylin Mesa spent about 24 hours adrift until a fishing boat carrying foreign tourists rescued her, dehydrated and with sun-burned skin. Her sister, who as of now is still missing, left behind an 11-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl. The family, 14ymedio learned, has been the victim of the siege and repression following the demonstrations on July 11, 2021. Yarelys, another of the sisters of the survivor, was arrested by Black Berets for participating in the protests and sentenced to seven years in prison.

The figure released by the official media was 28 shipwrecked, fewer than the 31 initially claimed by the relatives of the victims who were on the boat on January 23. According to the Cuban authorities, 11 people survived and 12 are missing.

Mesa stressed: “So far, to clarify all doubts, there are 11 survivors, 8 bodies already fully identified” and another 9 are missing.

On the last day of January, the bodies of young people Nayelis Rodríguez, 19, Kevin Medina, Tito González and Yoan Karel Almaguer Tamayo were identified on social networks by their relatives.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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‘The Grandchildren Law is Going to Drive Us Crazy’ Complain the Employees of the Civil Registry in Cuba

The real difficulty in small, sparsely staffed municipal offices is being able to attend to the large number of requests (14ymedio)

Yankiel Gutiérrez Faife, Camajuaní | 14 February 2023 — The peace of a small town like Camajuaní, in Villa Clara, is only disturbed for three reasons: partying, surprise supplies in hard currency stores and the queues at the paperwork offices. The most extensive is the one that is organized every morning in front of the Directorate of Identification, Immigration and Aliens, in the vicinity of the Police unit, although those of the Civil Registry and other dependencies of the Ministry of Justice have nothing to envy.

Spain’s Democratic Memory Law – called the “law of grandchildren” – triggered requests for documents and caused a deficit of stamps at the national level to which Camajuaní was no stranger. But the real difficulty in small municipal offices is being able to attend to the large number of requests that are made with very few personnel and even fewer technological resources.

Located on Raúl Torres Street, the Camajuaní Civil Registry sees applicants arrive almost at dawn. “We cannot serve everyone. There are too many orders and we can only collect ten cards per day,” explains Migdalia, one of the local workers.

Stunned by the accumulated requests, Migdalia tries to calm things down in the queue and expedite the procedures. “If they don’t suspend the ‘law for grandchildren’ soon, we’re going to go crazy or we’re going to ask for a leave. I can’t sleep without taking my nerve pills,” she laments.

The line can be organized first thing in the day or “inherited” from the night before. A calculated business of coleros and “friends” keep turns to have guaranteed entry to the office when morning comes. There are even private “guardians” who ensure order and take turns watching at dawn.

Located on Raúl Torres Street, the Camajuaní Civil Registry sees applicants arrive almost at dawn. (14ymedio)

“Lists until March 18 are already in place to collect the documents in the registry,” says Miriam, a primary school teacher who has to give all kinds of excuses at work to go out and line up. “Those of the corrections, on the other hand, are already organized until April 11.” continue reading

The uproar of the applicants is such that the neighbors have filed numerous noise complaints and, in some cases, have thrown buckets of water from the doorways of their houses during the night to dissipate the noise and be able to sleep.

In theory, all the necessary documents can be requested electronically. The Ministry of Justice provided a digital form which should facilitate the process. But the reality is quite different.

“Civil Registry forms have been available on the Ministry of Justice website for a year,” explains Yanet, a shop assistant at the nearby freely convertible currency (MLC) store. “At the time, this measure managed to speed up the process and stop the queue. However, today it’s one more obstacle. Everything is slower. What I could solve in three or four days before, now I can’t even do it in a week”, she points out.

“People are already very upset. The situation is the same in all offices. Very slow, and when they finally give you the documents, they always have errors and you have to start the process all over again. It’s a never-ending story”, complains Anabel, a housewife. “The most common justification is to say that this whole situation with the ‘grandchildren’s law’ is unforeseen, since they did not plan it. But people are not to blame for that.”

“People are already very upset. The situation is the same in all offices. Very slow, and when they finally give you the documents, they always have errors

Jamikel, a young man from Santa Clara, had to request paperwork in Camajuaní for his father, who spent a week lining up, but to no avail. He intended to request a verbatim copy of certain documents. When it was finally his turn to pick up the papers, and after a twenty-mile drive and seven-hour wait, the officials told him that he had done everything wrong and that he had to reactivate the application. His son then helped him complete the online process. “We’ll have to see if he’s got better luck this time,” says Jamikel.

In Vueltas, in a period of a month or two, they print the documents and call the interested party to mark their turn in line to pick them up. (14ymedio)

The other option the elderly and those who do not have smartphones have is to go to the Youth Computer Club of the town, where a technician will help the interested party when requesting documents. Even if the effort does not produce results, the 10 pesos fee for each request is still due and payable.

Some have suggested that the Ministry of Justice offer the option of reviewing the document in PDF format before picking it up. The applicant could then verify it and, if there is an error, request the correction by e-mail. “But no. They prefer for everything to have obstacles and to complicate everything”, says Alicia, Yanet’s partner at the MLC store.

To make matters worse, the delivery of documents follows a rigid but inefficient order: Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays are for regular processing, Wednesdays for corrections, and Thursdays for those who need documents related to agriculture. Altogether, they only deal with thirty collection requests per week, while on Wednesdays ten additional files are received for corrections, and on Thursday another ten for procedures related to agriculture, which are resolved more quickly, for a total of fifty.

“Then one has to hear Díaz-Canel talking about eliminating bureaucracy, but they create more. Everything is hypocritical and disrespectful”, Alicia insists. “It seems unbelievable that the Ministry of Justice is one of the main defaulters of delivery deadlines.”

Miriam, a woman from Santa Clara who tried to evade mistreatment and bullying at the Santa Clara Civil Registry, finds herself in a similar situation and has not been able to process a document that she has been looking for since October. “The birth registration is supposed to be in Colón, Matanzas, but that civil registry is not even in the digital application system”.

The situation of the Civil Registry offices in other towns in the province is just as precarious. Vueltas, a few kilometers from Camajuaní, is part of its jurisdiction. The workers review the procedure code, previously assigned by the website of the Ministry of Justice. Then, within a month or two, they print the documents and call the interested party to get their turn in the queue to pick them up.

As for Remedios, a neighboring municipality of Camajuaní, the stagnation is similar. Both the list to carry out the procedure as well as the list of corrections will not be complete until the month of April.

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With a New Femicide, There Have Been Ten Women Murdered in Cuba So Far This Year

The murder of Mercedes Vasallo Herrera took place in the town of Carlos Rojas, municipality of Jovellanos (Matanzas). (Mapcarta)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 February 2023 — Mercedes Vasallo Herrera, 51, is the most recent victim of femicide in Cuba, according to the unofficial count kept by the Cuban Women’s Network. Its activists, Marthadela Tamayo and Annia Zamora, have warned of the discovery of her body this Saturday, February 11, in the town of Carlos Rojas, in Jovellanos (Matanzas).

The victim, who was found under her bed by her grandson, was killed with a knife and had a strong blow to the head, according to Tamayo’s Facebook profile. The activist has added that the alleged murderer is the husband of the victim, who has been detained by the authorities. Vasallo was buried this Sunday morning in the local cemetery.

With Vasallo, the number of femicide victims recorded so far this year in Cuba has increased to ten, a number that could be higher, since there is no official count. Last Friday, when the murder of two more women became known, the official press published an extensive note in which, among many other things, pondered if there really were more victims or if now the cases are being made known, an inexplicable inaccuracy, since the Ministry of the Interior is the only body that has strict control of all violent deaths that occur in the country. continue reading

The activist has added that the alleged murderer is the husband of the victim, who has been detained by the authorities. Vasallo was buried this Sunday morning in the local cemetery

Cuban officials have kept statistics of murders, robberies and violence of all kinds hidden for decades, preventing the importance of these problems, as well as mapping the crimes and addressing the solutions.

The associations Red Feminina de Cuba and Yo Sí Te Creo [Cuban Feminine Network and I Do Believe You] have been monitoring femicides since 2019, which is allowing these cases to be brought to light, some of which reveal gross negligence by the authorities, such as that of Neisa López, a 29-year-old, allegedly killed by a former police officer convicted of killing his wife and attacking his sister-in-law. The man was on probation, since he was a cancer patient and stabbed the young woman, who was his nurse.

The previous femicide occurred on February 3 in Camalote, Camagüey, an event that generated great commotion among Cubans due to the conditions and the escalation of violence in the province. Leidy Bacallao Santana, 17, sought refuge at the police station after threats from her ex-partner, Elesvan Hidalgo, a 50-year-old man, but he chased her and ended up killing her with a machete in the police unit.

The alarm generated by the multiple known femicides in barely a month has reactivated the request of the Women’s Network in Cuba to promote a comprehensive law against sexist violence. The group ensures that it’s essential to classify the crime or consider it as part of an aggravating circumstance, but also that there are transversal measures that involve police officers, judges, communicators, health workers or educators, in raising awareness of this specific phenomenon.

In addition, they consider that a transparent record of the victims should be kept, and solutions should also be provided for relatives, particularly minor children of the murdered individuals. In the last three years, 102 women have died as victims of male violence in Cuba.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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