Translating Cuba

Cuba: Acopio Will Pay Successful Tobacco Growers in Sancti Spíritus Partly in Hard Currency

The State only has 1,962 acres secured of the 5,607 that it planned to exploit for tobacco

The farmers had already warned that planting tobacco was not profitable / Granma

14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2024 — Exactly one year ago, with hands on their heads, the authorities of Sancti Spíritus wondered what to do to revive tobacco production. Whatever the methods were, they didn’t work, and this August, almost at the end of the process of hiring the vegueros (tobacco growers), the State has only 1,962 acres secured of the 5,607 that it planned to exploit.

The figure is equivalent to just 35% of the plan, which will provide, according to estimates, 948 tons of tobacco if the land yields 1.1 tons per 2.5 acres. The original plan, however, was to end the campaign that begins this September with more than 2,569 tons of tobacco, Isidro Hernández Toledo, director of the state company Acopio in the province, told the newspaper Escambray.

“There is a delay; the tobacco should have been contracted between March and April, but by waiting for an incentive to be offered to the planters, the contracting for the new campaign is behind,” regrets the official, who explains that the State finally gave and offered the vegueros a stimulus in MLC (freely convertible currency). However, it is still to be seen if this will increase production. continue reading

It is hard to understand why the regime gives so little to a sector that generates a large part of the foreign currency income that the Island obtains

It is hard to understand why the regime gives so little to a sector that generates a large part of the foreign currency income that the Island obtains. In fact, the farmers themselves announced the debacle a year ago, when the Sancti Spíritus campaign was “the worst in history,” and they did it again last March, when they declared to the official press that planting tobacco at the price paid by Acopio no longer gives results.

However, the State, now with a financial rope around its neck, has taken it for granted. “We think that a recovery can begin, which pleases the vegueros, because today in national currency, the sun-cured tobacco does not have good profitability and has been one of the biggest reasons producers stopped sowing,” Hernández confessed to Escambray.

The incentive, however, is not for all the vegueros, but will be paid according to the quality of the tobacco delivered, in addition to other requirements. “The producers have the right to sell the tobacco for hard currency, applying 2% to the value of the quality that determines the price, and deducting the cost of imports and national productions that have a component in MLC. Among the requirements are complying with the contracted planting plan and obtaining an agricultural yield of at least 1.2 tons per 2.5 acres in irrigated areas, and one ton in dry areas (which depend on rain),” he clarified.

This is a variation of the production incentive implemented in October 2023, when they promised to deliver to deliver to the growers 50% of what was used in fertilizers and pesticides

In summary, this is a variation of the production incentive implemented in October 2023, when they promised to deliver to the growers 50% of what was used in fertilizers and pesticides, it they managed to surpass the 1.4 tons per 2.5 acres plan. As for the state of sowing this year, it is clear that the measure didn’t work either.

“In addition to the low profitability of the crop lately, there is a lack of sheds to cure the tobacco, many sick and elderly producers who held the land in usufruct [a form of leasing] and then abandoned it, and places where there is no guarantee of water – something vital to achieve high agricultural yield. Hernández also added to the list the deficit of workers in many areas, mainly because not all vegueros can pay what the day laborers ask,” Hern.

While the growers are concerned about the profitability of the product, the Havana cigar is a symbol of luxury anywhere in the world. Of the billions raised annually by the industry, however, only the minimum is reinvested to keep the business afloat.

While the growers are concerned about the profitability of the product, the Havana cigar is a symbol of luxury anywhere in the world

Last July, at an event in London, the Hunters & Frankau house auctioned off Cuban cigars to all kinds of international celebrities who did not hesitate to offer large sums for them. In a single night, Habanos SA raised 5,150,000 euros, barely a small sum in its coffers, but with which the Cuban growers could rescue the industry.

However, the chance of this happening is as unlikely as Sancti Spíritus being able to revive its current tobacco campaign at this point. Hernández knows it very well, and he described the coming production – without using big words – as “discreet.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Drama of Deported Cubans Who Leave Their Family in the United States

When Cuban deportees return fromthe US to the Island, they are taunted by the immigration authorities at José Martí airport

Vivian Limonta and her husband Osmani Pérez before she was deported / Video capture / Univision

14ymedio, Havana, August 30, 2024 — “I’m happy about everything you’ve been through,” blurted out a José Martí International Airport officer to Vivian Limonta, one of the 48 Cubans deported by the U.S. last Wednesday. The mother of a hyperactive child with attention deficit, not even her marriage to an American saved her from forced return. The authorities of the Island, to rub salt in the wound, added: “See how bad that country is, look: they bring you like dogs.”

Limonta was a beneficiary of the Migrant Protection Protocols that Washington initiated in 2019. However, due to a setback, she could not attend the appointment scheduled in the Court in 2020, so she was given the probation form I-220B, for which they have deported dozens of Cubans. Her words, interviewed this Thursday by Univision, attest to the effect that deportation had on her: “I’m devastated. I’m speechless.”

Limonta had been detained since last July at the Broward Migrant Detention Center of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE). The appeals filed by her lawyer were dismissed. The evidence of the distance between her and her family on the Island, who consider her “counterrevolutionary” for publishing statements on social networks critical of the regime, were not mitigating. Her son and her husband were left behind. continue reading

Osmani Pérez went to the office of Congressman Carlos Giménez but could not prevent his wife’s deportation / Video capture / Univision

“I never thought that the United States Government would separate me from my son like this and deport me,” she lamented.

Limonta’s husband, Osmani Pérez – who has lived in the United States for 31 years – tells how his wife “collapsed emotionally” after her arrest. He feels “disappointed” by the resolution of the case, because he assumed that Washington would defend the family unit above all else.

In an attempt to stop Limonta’s deportation, her husband went to the office of Congressman Carlos Giménez, who pointed out in a statement that his office fights tirelessly for the rights of all residents “despite the bad decisions of this Administration (of Joe Biden), including those of admitting Castro repressors to our country while punishing victims, as in this case.”

In this “fight” to avoid being returned to Cuba are Olga Díaz, 84 years old, and her daughter Nilda Cordero, who arrived in Florida the last week of August along with 19 other rafters. All migrants were given a deportation order.

Díaz was allowed to stay with her family until the situation is resolved, but her daughter is detained in Broward. “We arrived with the hope of a new life, but now I’m here without my daughter and that hurts me deeply,” the elderly woman told Telemundo 51.

In this “fight” to avoid being returned to Cuba are Olga Díaz, 84 years old, and her daughter Nilda Cordero, who arrived in Florida along with 19 other rafters

Immigration lawyer Eduardo Soto, who took over the case, explained that the situation “is complicated,” although they hope that “justice will prevail” and that both women will be able to remain in the United States.

The governments of Havana and Washington have a bilateral agreement so that all migrants arriving by sea to US territory are returned to Cuba.

Since June 5, stricter measures against irregular migration have come into force. Among them, that rafters could “face criminal charges,” in addition to the usual measures. “They will not be eligible to apply for asylum,” and they will be “prohibited” from entering US territory for at least five years, according to the US Embassy in Havana.

Between January and August 29, Cuba has received 1,046 deportees from different countries. The most recent return was that by Bahamian authorities of 16 rafters (9 men, 4 women and 3 minors) from Villa Clara.

In April 2023, deportation flights resumed, mainly for people considered “inadmissible” after being held on the US border with Mexico.

According to a recent report by US Customs and Border Protection, in June 17,563 Cubans arrived in the United States, the lowest figure during a calendar month of the current fiscal year 2024 that began last October.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Political Prisoner Yilian Oramas Obtains the Revocation of a Sanction, Thanks to Her Hunger Strike

For arriving late from her leave, the authorities threatened to move her to a harsher regime.

Oramas had to be treated by prison health personnel after her hunger strike/ Facebook / Yilian Oramas García

14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2024 — Political prisoner Yilian Oramas García ended her hunger strike at the Cuba Panama prison for HIV-positive prisoners on Tuesday. The woman from Villa Clara had been punished with a change of regime from less to more rigorous after arriving late from leave on August 13. Oramas, who lives more than 250 kilometres from the prison in Mayabeque, initiated the protest to ask for the measure to be revoked. The authorities finally agreed this week after changing the sanction to two home-visit suspensions.

In addition to having HIV, Oramas, 43, is also diabetic and after the strike she had to be treated by prison health staff. “She was very weak because she is diabetic, they gave her IVs in the little hospital they have in the prison,” her mother, María Josefa Oramas, told Martí Noticias.

According to the woman, Oramas “ended the strike, because the head of Mayabeque Prisons and Jails (Yunior Lázaro Santana), together with State Security, cancelled her revocation, which was for two years and, instead, they took away two of her home visits.” continue reading

The mother breathes a sigh of relief since a change to a more severe regime would mean that her daughter must serve the entire sentence.

Although she considers the measure unjust, her mother breathes a sigh of relief, since a change to a more severe regime would mean that her daughter must serve the entire sentence without the right to an early release. “You don’t win against the dictatorship, but the revocation meant she had to serve the three years,” she said.

Oramas was sentenced to six years in prison for participating in the August 15, 2021 protests in front of the funeral home in the city of Santa Clara, where she lives, to demand better health care amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Her husband, Geobel Manso, was also arrested on that day and is currently incarcerated. The court charged Oramas with the crimes of attack and resistance.

Worse off is the political prisoner Loreto Hernández García – arrested after the protests of 11 July 2021 (11J) in Placetas (Villa Clara) – who is serving his sentence in the men’s prison of Guamajal. According to what his daughter Rosabel Sánchez told Martí Noticias after visiting her father and his wife Donaida Pérez Paseiro – also a prisoner of conscience – Hernández is in a bad physical condition.

“During this visit, we were able to talk, we were able to observe, we were able to visualize for ourselves the situation that my father’s health presents. My father, every time we go to see him, he loses more weight,” Sanchez explained. “He often gets a pain on his left side, a pain that radiates to his left lung. He is getting shortness of breath, his diabetes is unbalanced (…) He explains to us that on several occasions he becomes weak and tired. As for his health, we saw that he has not improved at all, he is getting worse and worse, he is in very bad shape,” she denounced.

According to Sánchez, prison authorities use her father’s poor health condition to coerce him.

According to Sanchez, prison authorities use her father’s poor health condition to coerce him and promise him a transfer to a less severe regime where he can be cared for and serve a shorter sentence. “State Security has approached him and has proposed he take advantage of the benefits to give him the minimum sentence and move him to the camp to start granting him leaves and things like that, and both he and his wife refuse these benefits,” said Sanchez, who assures that the couple “is standing firm.”

Hernández and his wife, at the time of the protests, presided over the Asociación Yorubas Libres de Cuba, in Placetas, and were sentenced to seven and eight years in prison respectively. Organizations and institutions such as Amnesty International, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Cuban Prison Documentation Center and Christian Solidarity International, as well as the U.S. State Department, have included them in their reports and records as political prisoners and have demanded the Cuban regime to release them.

Last June, prisoner of conscience Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca arrived in the United States after the authorities forced his departure. He was emaciated and ill as a result of the ill-treatment he suffered at the hands of his jailers. “I have been tortured a lot,” stressed the journalist, who served three years in Havana’s Combinado del Este, the country’s largest prison.

Translated by LAR

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‘The Only Thing Moving On Wheels in the Cienfuegos Terminal is the Inefficiency’

Those who did not manage to board during the day are condemned to sleep in the facility.

After 5pm it’s very difficult to travel to Cienfuegos’s municipalities / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 17 August 2024 – It’s after 8pm in the only bus terminal in Cienfuegos and despite the fact that dozens of people are gathered at the departure gates or are sleeping on the benches in the waiting room, the route board is not displaying a single destination. Anyone who didn’t manage to travel during the day is condemned to sleep in the building, along with those who, on a waiting list, are trying to travel to other provinces of the country. Outside, the private taxis hawk their services but the waiting passengers don’t listen to – or don’t want to hear – the price they’d have to pay for an almendrón shared taxi ride.

On the second floor of the terminal, in the gloom, there are only two lights working, beneath which sits one of the few employees – with a pile of crumpled papers – who are still in the station at this time to keep a note of the names of passengers. The darkness attracts people who, being exhausted, resign themselves to sleep in the corners or on the benches. “I’ve been sleeping here for three nights, trying to get to Holguín”, Nereida tells 14ymedio – a health worker whose salary won’t stretch to a more expensive means of transport.

According to her, having options available but no money to pay for them is what keeps her tied to the terminal: “If you speak to the duty manager he’ll get you on the first bus that arrives but that conversation will cost you between 1,500 and 3,000 pesos, on top of what you’ll have to pay later to the driver”, she says. continue reading

The room for those on the waiting list is in half-darkness with people asleep on the benches / 14ymedio

Spending time in the way that she has until now in this terminal has not exactly been comfortable either. She and Ana, who lives with her four-year-old daughter in San Fernando de Camarones, Palmira, have decided to join forces to look after each other and each others’ luggage. The young mother has only spent one night in the terminal but the abandonment that she’s made to feel, especially having to carry her child around on piggyback, is very real.

“I have to visit my sick mother in Gibara and I don’t have anyone I can leave the child with. We have to stay in here until we can depart”, she says. Ana explains that it was impossible for her to book a ticket on the Viajando app because, “when there’s no capacity it doesn’t allow you to buy a ticket for a minor; or you find the connection with the server is down”, she complains.

“Its lucky that I brought a little bit of lunch and dinner for us. The only thing that they had in the cafeteria today was instant hot drinks and pasta with stale bread. To top it off, when I went past there at four o’clock in the afternoon it was already closed”, she adds with disgust. What’s on offer in the private shops opposite the station is also inaccessible for most of the travellers: the cheapest, a sandwich, is 150 pesos and a simple shared meal 1,000 pesos.

The majority of inter-municipal routes are cancelled due to lack of vehicles or fuel / 14ymedio

With her daughter asleep in her arms, Ana laments the poor state that the terminal is in, and that the authorities’ lack of concern, and necessity, have attracted a number of beggars, who are sleeping in the building long term. The semi-darkness doesn’t help the situation either, she says. “It doesn’t even matter if there’s a power cut, ’cos you can’t see anything anyway”, she adds sarcastically.

On a board with various crossings-out you can read the origin, destination and time of departure for all of the different bus routes to the municipalities of the province. “That board is just there for decoration, because almost none of the routes are operating and those that are don’t leave at the time advertised”, she says, pointing to the black notice board fixed to the wall. Apart from Havana and Santa Clara, it’s rare for a bus to have a daily departure to other destinations, so that the number of travellers can build up easily at any hour of the day.

“At this hour the terminal appears quieter, but the reality is that everyone is outside to escape the heat. As soon as a bus arrives it’s full in here”, she explains.

People gather when they see a bus arriving, hoping it will take them home / 14ymedio

Inside the hall, a group of men, women and children who are sitting on the broken metal benches jump up like coil springs when they see a vehicle appear – and bring them back some hope. “Here there are people who are travelling to any municipality, like Cartagena or Abreus, but at this hour it’s unlikely that anything will arrive”, comments Nereida, noting that the 9.30 Lajas bus is “running late or won’t arrive at all”.

She explains that some time ago she gave up trying to get any information about the bus timetables. “No one’s able to give any information to anyone who is desperate to get home. Some employees even get shirty if you ask them for the schedule, or whether the bus you’re waiting for is operating”, she adds.

The poor level of hygiene in the toilets, the careless and unreliable treatment of passengers’ belongings – “they don’t even put labels on the suitcases”, she says – all make the whole travel experience a real ordeal. Nereida’s and Ana’s opinion, like every other passenger’s opinion of the level of service in the terminal, is solemn: “The only thing moving on wheels here… is the Inefficiency”

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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With the Beginning of the School Year, Cuban Families Fear the Spread of the Oropouche Virus

Official data minimize the presence of the disease and admit only a few severe cases of the Oropouche virus

The population fears the expansion of Oropouche fever in a context of constant unhealthiness, with the presence of stagnant water

14ymedio, Madrid, 29 August 2024 — There is concern on the Island after the director of Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health, Francisco Durán, spoke on Wednesday of a “considerable increase” in cases of Oropouche fever. Since the detection of the first patient in May, 506 cases have been diagnosed, “the lowest figure in the Latin American and Caribbean region,” the doctor said. But the situation on the ground does not reflect the official optimism.

“In 99 municipalities?” questions one of the thousands of users who have reacted on networks to Durán’s statements. “I would say that in all the houses and state hotels of Cuba there is no one left who has not been sick with either dengue or Oropouche. Having it diagnosed is not worth the five pesos since there is a lack of reagents, even for a minimal leukogram, which makes it difficult. How can we expect a confirmation of antigens?

“If they don’t count those who have not gone to the doctor, the figure remains very small. At least where I live even the dogs have caught it,” says a reader of Cubadebate.

Durán, who mentioned the presence of fever in all the Cuban provinces, added that “so far no serious cases or deaths have been reported, and 80% of the people who have been suspected of contracting the disease without testing positive have recovered at home.” How? continue reading

“If they don’t count those who have not gone to the doctor, the figure remains very small. At least where I live even the dogs have caught it.”

Agustín has been in bed for 21 days, confined to his home in El Globo, in Calabazar. Although his friends consider him a very healthy man, he points out that the virus left him “fried,” and only after these three weeks has he been able to talk.

Durban insisted that at first it was thought that the virus had no complications, but recent studies – especially in Brazil – have revealed serious cases “with encephalitis, meningitis, maternal-child transmission, abortion, fetal death, four newborns with microcephaly and two deaths.” In Cuba, he boasted, there have only been “clinical conditions with meningitis, with satisfactory recovery.”

Meningitis as a complication associated with Oropouche has made parents tremble, fearful of contagion. Although arbovirosis is only transmitted by the bite of the mosquito, the networks have been filled with messages in which fear is expressed about the possibility that meningitis – which is transmitted by contact and through the air – will circulate in schools. The fear is, for now, unfounded, but that has not mitigated the tension as the school year approaches.

“I hope that measures are taken – at least the obligatory mask at school and hand gel. People send their children with everything,” says a mother. “Likewise,” another replies, her face showing concern, “I am upset with that story of meningitis, with the children going to school now.”

Durán’s words about how to prevent the disease have also irritated the population. The official stressed that the most important thing is “the sanitation of the environment, since Oropouche is transmitted by the bite of the mosquito of the genus Culex and the culicoid (jején, or gnat), which breed in dirty water.”

“With the greatest respect, don’t scare the people anymore,” a man said on Facebook. Drinking water runs in the streets, the little that comes in. The sewers are a joke; garbage overruns the streets of any municipality; the heat is infuriating due to the lack of power, and the mosquitoes and jejenes have a good time. Nothing is fumigated, for God’s sake, Dr. Durán.”

The sewers are a joke; garbage overruns the streets of any municipality; the heat is infuriating due to the lack of power, and the mosquitoes and jejenes have a good time

The minister described the epidemiological situation in general as “complex,” since influenza and dengue are circulating simultaneously.

Oropouche was first detected in 1955 near the river from which it inherits its name, in Trinidad and Tobago, and is also known as “sloth fever,” since the first researchers discovered it in a three-toed sloth.

In 2024, Oropouche arrived in Cuba and other countries in which there had never been a precedent, such as Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Brazil. To date, there are more than 8,000 cases, and the Pan American Health Organization issued an epidemiological alert in July 2024. Several cases have already been detected in Europe, most of them in Spain (16), imported by travelers arriving from Latin America.

On Tuesday, U.S. health authorities said they have identified 21 cases of Oropouche fever among people returning from Cuba, three of whom had to be hospitalized.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Fuel Crisis in Cuba Gets Worse and the Lines Lengthen at the Hard Currency Gas Stations

“When I got to the service center I had 300 cars ahead of me”

Fuel is for sale at the Vista al Mar service center in El Vedado, but only in dollars

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 29 August 2024 — Havana seems to have returned to the worst days of the fuel crisis. Piled up and bored, since the beginning of the week the drivers wait daily for hours in line and often don’t manage to buy. On a tour by 14ymedio through several gas stations in the city, even those that charge in dollars, usually empty, had lines this Thursday.

“It’s not just today. Yesterday I went to all the service centers of El Vedado, Guanabacoa and Miramar and only found gasoline on the Puente de Hierro, near the bay tunnel,” Yoel, driver of a private Moskvitch, tells this newspaper. “Even at Infanta and San Rafael, where I always buy, there wasn’t a drop,” he says. Finding a place with fuel, as expected, is not enough: “When I got to the gas station I had 300 cars in front of me.” He left without buying.

Piled up and bored, since the beginning of the week the drivers wait for hours every day

This Thursday, Yoel took to the streets again in search of gasoline. This time the tour took him through the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, where “not a single service center had anything.” Finally, at the Tángana, in El Vedado, the driver joined a line no less long than the previous day’s line to refuel. continue reading

“They told me that here and the 25 and G service center are the only places where they are selling gasoline, but I don’t want to risk going there and find the same number of people or more than here. It’s better to wait, and if I don’t make it today either then I’ll have to try again,” he sighs, resigned.

Cars have been in line at the Tángana in El Vedado since early morning / 14ymedio

To top it off, he says, several drivers in the line have told him that the cards to buy fuel are failing, which delays the line and makes the drivers more nervous. “Those who don’t even have Fincimex cards have to look for where to recharge, because that’s the only one that’s working now. With the others the connection fails,” he explains.

The lack of fuel is also noticeable in state transport, says Yoel. “Today I haven’t seen a state bus pass by all day,” he says.

“That station is for the privileged who can pay in dollars,” Yoel complains. “The rest, we have to endure here under rain, sun and clouds.”

A few blocks from Tángana is the Vista al Mar gas station, which has been selling fuel exclusively in dollars since last June. The place was the last in the capital to be transformed into a service center collecting “hard currency,” and, although some cars are clumped together in line – mainly almendrones – the short line is far from those that have formed in front of the neighboring premises – one to refuel and another to fill jerricans – that already go around the block.

The line at the Tángana service center goes around the block / 14ymedio

“This service is for the privileged who can pay in dollars,” complains Yoel. “The rest of us have to endure it here in rain, sun and calm.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Mexico López Obrador Administration hired 5,223 Cuban Doctors; Another 198 Arrived on Tuesday

A flight with 198 Cuban doctors arrived last Tuesday in Mexico

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, August 29, 2024 — The Government of Mexico accelerated the arrival of Cuban doctors for one month before the end of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s mandate. The goal is to have 5,223 doctors “as soon as possible,” an official confirmed to 14ymedio. The second stage provides for the “arrival of 4,023 health workers,” a figure higher than the 3,800 that the director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (Imss), Zoé Robledo, had announced last July.

“In October, the López Obrador Administration ends, and the plans are to have almost the total number of doctors. However, the incorporation into hospitals will be delayed because an introductory course is required, in addition to confirmation of the documents needed to practice,” the source stressed.

The doctors, who are specialists in several disciplines, are arriving in groups of between 198 and 200 at Felipe Ángeles International Airport (Aifa), where, according to the official, “there are scheduled flights.” Another 200 are expected this Friday or Saturday. continue reading

A group with 12 specialists from the Island was sent to the state of Sonora / Facebook/Imss Bienestar

Four groups have arrived in Mexico between August 2 and 27, making a total of 800 doctors. The first group of 200 doctors arrived on August 2, and two other groups, with 200 and 199, respectively, landed on August 8 and August 23 at the Aifa terminal.

The Cuban ambassador to Mexico, Marcos Rodríguez Costa, shared images last Tuesday, of 198 Cuban specialists who will join “hospitals and centers in 12 states, located in distant and highly marginalized communities.”

This newspaper received data on the arrival of two Cuban specialists at the Cupuan Health Unit, in the municipality of Zirándaro, a town with less than 1,000 inhabitants. Another two were sent to Yerba Santa, in the municipality of Acatepec, with 825 inhabitants. Both sites are located in Tierra Caliente, in the state of Guerrero, the site for which 600 physicians were hired in 2022, arguing a “deficit of specialists.”

The official said that another important group of specialists concluded their training this Wednesday at the hospital of the Guerrero community of Zumpango del Río, where an introductory course in rheumatology and child psychiatry was provided to treat bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adolescents.

Twelve Cuban specialists arrived in the state of Sonora this Thursday to provide care in hospital and first-level medical units that are difficult to cover.

In the state of Guerrero there is another group of Cubans who have just completed an introductory course / Facebook/Jos Santy

The deployment of Cuban doctors has accelerated due to the proximity, on September 1, of the sixth government report of López Obrador. “The president will discuss the hiring of the Cubans, as well as the purchase of the Abdala vaccine against Covid as part of the agreement with the Island. He will also cover the continuity that Claudia Sheinbaum’s government will offer,” says the official.

The Cuban doctors are part of Imss-Bienestar, the free health organization created by the current government to replace the Popular Insurance, in force until last year. However, the official could not confirm the payment they will make to the company Neuronic Mexicana, a subsidiary of Neuronic S.A. Cuba, which since 2018 is a representative of the products and services of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry of the Island, under the presidency of the Cuban Tania Guerra.

However, it is known that Cuban specialists connected to Imss-Bienestar will receive salaries of 50,000 pesos ($2,732 per month), in addition to a bonus of 10,000 pesos ($545), for a total of $3,277. Of that amount, the total that will end up in the hands of the Island’s doctors and what will remain in the government’s coffers is unknown.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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CELAC Maintains a Complicit Silence One Month After the Venezuelan Elections

The organization’s stance is a way of adding fuel to the fire of the conflict, abandoning the victims of government violence and prolonging the suffering of millions of people.

Nicolás Maduro with Lula at the CELAC summit held in March. / EFE

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 29 August 2024 — A month has passed since Venezuelans went out to vote en masse on July 28. Since that Sunday, demands have grown for Nicolás Maduro to show all the electoral records, but the voice of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is missing from that broad chorus demanding transparency. The regional entity has not published any document addressing what has happened during these four weeks in the South American country.

CELAC’s silence comes as no surprise. The attempts to reach a consensus among its members on a declaration regarding Venezuela are doomed to fail. On the one hand, the block of those who unconditionally support the current tenant of Miraflores, with Cuba at the head, would block any document that questions the result published by the National Electoral Council (CNE) which proclaims Maduro the winner of the elections.

For their part, Brazil and Colombia are betting on a negotiated solution that includes calling new elections, something that would allow the government party to gain time, tighten the repressive screws and stay in power. A band more in line with Chavismo, including Chile, Uruguay and Argentina, has tougher words and positions against what has already become the most blatant electoral fraud in the recent history of Latin America.

On the one hand, the block of those who unconditionally support the current tenant of Miraflores, with Cuba at the head, would block any document that questions the result.

Seated at the CELAC table, it is unlikely that a message will emerge from this conglomerate that puts the interests of the Venezuelan people above the quarrels between factions. After all, the entity was born mainly from the push of leaders like Hugo Chávez, obsessed with taking ground from the Organization of American States (OAS) and with creating a regional organization that is more docile and silent in the face of human and civil rights violations by the continent’s authoritarian regimes, in the style of the one implemented by his political leader, Fidel Castro. From those gags these complicit silences were born.

Ten years ago, CELAC proclaimed the region a “zone of peace.” In a declaration signed by the presidents of the member countries, its members committed themselves, among other things, to respect equal rights and “the self-determination of peoples.” The document, read by an octogenarian Raúl Castro who was never voted in as a leader at any election, recalled the “principles of peace, democracy, development and freedom” that inspired the creation of the Community. But, in essence, it was a document to avoid foreign demands when, within the borders of a territory, a party or an ideological group imposed a political model on the rest of its fellow citizens, by force and without peaceful paths for a change of course.

The promoters of CELAC thus protected their backs. They spoke of sovereignty, but only understood it at the level of nations, never of individuals.

The promoters of CELAC thus protected their backs. They spoke of sovereignty, but only understood it at the level of nations, never of individuals; they appealed to the commitment of “not intervening, directly or indirectly, in the internal affairs of any other State” to silence any international demand when the leaders cut off civil liberties, hijacked the voice of their people and usurped the representation of an entire population. From those verbal tricks also emerged the current omissions.

CELAC will not speak out in favor of publishing all of Venezuela’s election records, nor will it call on Maduro to listen to the voice of the streets, step down from the presidential chair, and take steps toward a democratic transition. The organization that boasted of having contributed to creating a “zone of peace” has remained silent. Sadly, its silence is a way of adding fuel to the fire of conflict, of abandoning the victims of government violence, and of prolonging the suffering of millions of people.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on DW and is reproduced under license from the author.

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Machado to Venezuelan Military: ‘You Know What You Have To Do at This Time’

The opposition leader leads a protest in Caracas against “Maduro’s fraud”

Maria Corina Machado led a demonstration in Caracas against Maduro’s reelection / Twitter

EFE (via 14ymedio), Caracas, 28 August 2024 — You “know what you have to do at this time,” Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado called on the country’s military on Wednesday, one month after the presidential elections, whose official result – which favored Nicolás Maduro – is fraudulent according to the former deputy, as well as for a large part of the international community.

“They know the truth, which is what they must do in compliance with the Constitution. That is what Venezuela and the world expects: respect for the Constitution, for their sacred oath to the flag,” said the former deputy in front of thousands of supporters in Caracas, where she led a demonstration against Maduro’s reelection.

She said that the candidate of the largest opposition alliance, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), former foreign minister Edmundo González Urrutia, won the presidential elections on July 28 even in the voting centers that were set up inside prisons and military barracks.

That is what Venezuela and the world expect, respect for the Constitution, for its sacred oath before the flag

“Faced with this evidence, the regime opted for two strategies: one, to try to save face and seek legitimacy through the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ),” she said, referring to the validation that the Court, controlled by magistrates close to Chavez, gave to Maduro’s reelection. continue reading

“The other (strategy) was the repression that began that same night,” Machado continued, referring to the arrests made amid post-election protests and police operations that left more than 2,400 people detained.

In her message, she also stated that “not a single democratic government in the world has recognized” Maduro’s reelection.

“Not a single democratic government in the world has recognized Maduro’s fraud. Venezuela voted for change and Edmundo González Urrutia is our elected president,” she insisted

Under the slogan ’acta mata sentencia’ [’The record kills the judgment’] the opposition gathered to defend the voting records published by the PUD – according to which González Urrutia won the Presidency by a wide margin – against the TSJ ruling.

“They believed that with this decision, which cannot even be called a ruling, they were going to deceive some countries or give them excuses so that with this vagabondage someone would recognize the fraud of the CNE (National Electoral Council). Nobody accepted this trick,” continued the opposition figure, who described the support given by the court to the Chavista leader as an “aberration.”

Opponents gathered to defend the voting vouchers published by the PUD

“They made the TSJ an arm of repression and political persecution,” she stressed.

One month after the accusation of electoral fraud, and while Maduro has the support of all institutions, despite international criticism, Machado reiterated that the PUD has “a robust strategy” that “is working,” without giving details in this regard.

“We are going to make the government (which is defending Maduro’s victory) yield, and yielding means respecting the will expressed by the people on July 28,” she stressed

Numerous countries and international organizations have refused to recognize Maduro’s victory and have asked the CNE to publish the disaggregated results, as established in the election schedule. In contrast, Chavismo claims that more than 60 nations “have welcomed Maduro’s victory,” including China, Iran and Russia, as well as Cuba and Nicaragua.

Although the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro the winner, it has not published the disaggregated results of the elections, as established in the schedule, while the PUD released “83.5% of the voting records” collected by witnesses and table members on the night of July 28, which, they claim, demonstrate the victory of their standard-bearer, which has the support of several countries and various national and international organizations.

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A Santa Clara Baseball Coach Escaped Cuba During the U-12 World Series in Pennsylvania

Coach Carlos César Martínez with a baseball team / Facebook/La Tijera

14ymedio, Havana, 28 August 2024 — Baseball coach Carlos César Martínez was not on the plane that returned to Cuba on Monday with the delegation that attended the World Series of Minor Leagues, held in Williamsport. After his escape during the competition in Pennsylvania, the Villaclareño met with his brother, who already lived in the U.S..

Martínez was one of the three coaches of the Santa Clara U-12 team that represented the Island in the World Series. His escape was confirmed this Tuesday by the Pelota Cubana media, which said that he had not returned to Cuba, unlike his colleagues, Everaldo Pedroso and Andy Zamora. Martínez was presented with “a unique opportunity and knew how to make the most of it,” summarized journalist Miguel Rodríguez.

“The relief pitching couldn’t hold out.” With that phrase, for its part, the official media Jit described the elimination of the Santa Clara team against Mexico in the tournament on August 20. They did not explain, however, that those led by Everaldo Pedroso reached the sixth and last inning with a 4 to 1 advantage. Two home runs by the Mexican athletes defined the game, which was 4 to 6.

“The weak point was the relief pitchers,” said Rodríguez, although he recognized that in the last challenge, “the Cuban opener Deivy Hernández did great mound work for four and two-thirds innings, allowing one score and striking out five batters.”

The Santa Clara team with coach Carlos César Martínez / Facebook/Carlos César Martínez

A year ago, José Pérez, one of the coaches of the Bayamo team that competed in the Minor League World Series, left his delegation under “cover of darkness” in the Grove area, also in Pennsylvania, where the Island team stayed, according to a report from North Central PA.

The escapes have fatally wounded Cuban sport. This Tuesday it was reported that, after touching down on Spanish soil, the goalkeeper of the soccer team, Leonardo Hierrezuelo, separated from the rest of his teammates in the departure lounge.

The team that is preparing for the Futsal World Cup in Uzbekistan, which will take place between September 14 and October 6, thus suffered its second escape in five days. Last Friday, one of its leaders, Harold Aguilera from Camagüey, escaped to Portugal. The sports authorities on the Island have not yet reported any of these escapes.

Nor is there any talk of the definitive departures of athletes. The most recent was that of the 21-year-old baseball player Xian Vega, who has been in Nicaragua since last Monday and is training at the International Baseball Academy of Central America. His goal: to convince some US talent scouts and sign a contract with a Major League team.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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More Than 115 Repressors of the Cuban Regime Have Established Themselves in the United States in the Last Year

The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba has identified more than 1,000 former Cuban officials who have settled in the United States

Florida legislators Carlos Giménez and Ana María Rodríguez, with Rolando Cartaya of the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba / X

14ymedio, Havana, 28 August 2024 — More than 115 repressors who joined the ranks of the Cuban regime have entered the United States in the last year. The figure is five times higher than that reported in February 2023 by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, based in Miami, which manages a program to identify those who, having contributed to the repression on the Island, intend to settle in a democratic country.

The information was revealed at a press conference this Tuesday. Tony Costa, director of the organization, reported that they have “identified more than 1,000 repressors of the Cuban regime (living in the United States) and more than 115 who have entered this country in the last year, many of them lying.”

Accompanied by Florida Republican legislators Carlos Giménez and Ana María Rodríguez, and activists such as Samuel Rodríguez – who manages an economic fund to help prisoners from the protests of July 11, 2021 – Costa indicated that these former officials “have abused the immigration system to come to the United States.” Attorney Santiago Alpízar explained that the humanitarian parole program that has accepted many of the repressors is plagued by “abuses.”

Communist Party members, State Security agents, prosecutors and judges are among the Cubans who have recently arrived and who have been identified in the Cuban Repressors digital project. continue reading

It is illegal to give an immigration status to a person who is part of the Communist Party or who is linked to it. It’s against the law

“It is illegal to give an immigration status to a person who is part of the Communist Party or who is linked to it. It’s against the law. These people, who are linked to the regime, who have been repressors in Cuba, have no right to be here,” said Congressman Giménez.

He mentioned cases such as that of prosecutor Rosabel Roca Sampedro, who asked for years in prison for young people who participated in the massive protests on 11 July 2021 in Cuba – for “attack and contempt” – and that of Manuel Menéndez Castellanos, former secretary of the Communist Party in Cienfuegos, who arrived on August 16 in Miami, where part of his family resides.

At the press conference, some testimonies of the repression carried out by these former officials in Cuba were presented. Activist Samuel Rodríguez, exiled in Florida, spoke of Rafael Reyes: “He was in charge of my imprisonment when I was only 18 years old. That man is retired here, in Homestead. He searched houses for religious material to imprison elderly people,” he said.

He also mentioned the case of Judge Melody González Pedraza, responsible, among other cases, for sending to prison four young people accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at the property of regime officials in November 2022. All of them were sentenced by the Popular Municipal Court of Encrucijada, Villa Clara, with González Pedraza presiding, for the crime of attack. The first three received four years in prison, and the fourth, three years.

Melody González Pedraza traveled to the United States and remains detained by immigration authorities while awaiting a political asylum hearing

González Pedraza traveled to the United States and remains detained by immigration authorities while awaiting a political asylum hearing.

Journalist Roberto Quiñones, whom the Cuban government imprisoned for trying to cover a trial of a religious couple who wanted to educate their children at home, also spoke about his case. A judge, Amalio Alfaro Matos, “denied me the amparo (protection order), despite the fact that I made an appeal, which was maintained but never judged, a right of all defendants to prove that there was a due process,” he said. He even mentioned that he had known the judge since before 1999, when he was imprisoned for the first time. Now Alfaro Matos lives in Tampa, Florida.

Another victim, Elixir Arando, said that two of the people identified by the foundation harassed him when he lived in Guantánamo: “It is unheard of to know that these people who repressed us, who beat us, are living and enjoying freedom in this great country.”

The number of repressors is equivalent to about 10% of all those reported in the database of the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, which “reveals the worrying reality that people involved in human rights violations continue to arrive and settle in US territory,” the NGO warned in a statement.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Isla de la Juventud Has Only One Means of Transport in Service, Called ‘Perseverance’

The ’Río Júcaro’ and ’Río Las Casas’ ferries have reached the limit of their “water periods”

The ’Perseverance’ ferry is overexploited and requires “extreme care in its operation” / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 28 August 2024 — “Is the Isle of Youth isolated?” The question of Cuba’s Minister of Transport this Wednesday, more than doubt, sounded like a joke. The situation, however, is serious, and Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila himself diagnosed it: the plane that covers the Havana-New Girona route is out of service due to technical problems; the Río Júcaro and Río Las Casas ferries – used in the Batabanó-Nueva Gerona-Cayo Largo del Sur circuit – are under repair, and the Perseverancia ferry, the only one that operates, is overexploited.

The panorama is that of an imminent collapse, and Rodríguez Dávila recognized it on his very active Facebook profile. In his message, he pointed out that the ferries have already been operating for more than 20 years and have reached the limit of their “water periods” – the normal life of a boat – with a serious lack of maintenance. The fault, he justified, is “the timely unavailability of convertible currencies for the acquisition of materials, inputs and basic pieces.”

Currently, he said, work is going at full speed on the repair of the Río Las Casas ferry, which went out of service on August 10, and, “if it is restored, it could return to the traffic with limitations.” The situation is even more complex, because only when they finish fixing this boat can the work on the Río Júcaro begin. continue reading

The panorama is one of imminent collapse, and Rodríguez Dávila recognizes it on his very active Facebook profile

The boats are unusable, and without flights to the territory, the Perseverancia ferry – which began operations a year after it was announced with great fanfare – is now the only means of transport for passengers since August 11. The minister warned that the boat is being overexploited and asked for “extreme care in its operation.” The ticket, at 200 pesos, is expensive for those who have to travel frequently and is one more limitation.

In addition, the ferry, which was built “somewhere in Asia” in 2018 – the authorities did not specify – and which Cuba bought for a “millionaire” amount from an unknown manufacturer, will work for two and a half years before being taken for maintenance, a date that is still far away, if you take into account that its first test trip was in July 2023. The boat’s workload could accelerate that process and leave the inhabitants of the special municipality without a means of transport.

Another transportation problem in the area is that the ferry cannot dock in Cayo Largo del Sur, since it has a greater draft than what is allowed. In addition, Perseverance now has some problems with air conditioning equipment, according to Internet user Sheila Pray, who responded to the minister’s post saying that “in these hot times, the Batabanó-Gerona crossing is infuriating.”

Another transportation problem in the area is that the ferry cannot dock in Cayo Largo del Sur, since it has a greater draft than what is allowed

While many comments thank Rodríguez Dávila for his analysis – his interaction on Facebook has given him a popularity that his colleagues in the Council of Ministers lack – others were critical of the isolation of the Isla de la Juventud. “Today we live with the fear of climate change and breakdowns, of ’I believe’ and ’I hope’, and that’s without counting the outrageous loss of quality in care for the traveler. Efforts to solve the situation do not appear to be coming in the near future,” commented Oscar Arteaga.

“We are also human beings, and, unfortunately, geography did not help us, and the Government never did anything to construct a road, as was done in the Cayería Norte,” commented Damaris Ramos.

For many others, the solution to get out of the crisis is obvious: let several “private or foreign companies” take care of creating a route that, traditionally, has had trouble operating .

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘Killing Castro’: Getting Inside the Skin of the Dictator

The actor Diego Boneta watched every existing video that showed the tyrant in his youth and looked through dozens of photos and testimonies

Promotional poster for the film ’Killing Castro’ directed by Eif Rivera / Imdb

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 27 August 2024 – Last year a young and very talented Mexican actor invited me to dinner in Madrid. He was Diego Boneta, known mainly for bringing Luis Miguel to life in the successful biographical series, although he had also worked with Tom Cruise and Arnold Schwarzenegger on Hollywood productions. The motive for his invitation was to talk about Fidel Castro. He was interested in my take on him as dramatist and actor, but also as an opponent of the regime. Diego was facing the most difficult role of his career to date: to play the Cuban dictator.

I was really surprised by how much he had already researched his role. He’d watched every existing video that showed the tyrant during his youth, and had looked through dozens of photos and testimonies. But beyond mastering the voice and the gestures of his character, Boneta wanted to understand his soul, his ambitions, doubts, weaknesses and frustrations. And he’d already begun to grab that by the balls. When I asked him, ’what do you think was his ideology during the period of time covered by the film?’, he replied, ’his only ideology, at that point and, I believe, until the end of his life… was power’.

The most interesting thing, for me, wasn’t the disastrous planning and execution of the event but rather the reactions to it

Firstly, we talked about the letter that an adolescent Fidel wrote in English to President Roosevelt in 1940. In the missive he addressed the most powerful man in the world as “my good friend”. He wrote that he was willing to reveal the location of the best iron ore mines in the country for a payment of ten dollars. But also, he lied about his age, saying he was 12 when in fact he was 14. continue reading

The second theme was the attack on the Moncada Barracks. The most interesting thing, for me, wasn’t the disastrous planning and execution of the event but rather the reactions to it. Because, for a narcisist like Fidel Castro Ruz, the most important thing wasn’t the action itself but the high profile impact that it created. Actual communists at the (New York) Daily Worker condemned the action, branding it a putsch committed by bourgeois gangs. And they wrote off the so called gangs’ leader as a mere irresponsible adventurer. To top it all, an ultra-left Chilean newspaper even declared that it was the CIA that was behind the events of 26 July in Cuba.

Much has already been speculated about what was Castro’s ideology during those years. His first speeches and writings would seem to indicate that he’d read more fascists and falangists than Marx or Lenin. Also, his declarations, in English and in Spanish, denying any link between the Revolution and Marxist ideas, are very well known. “A despicable campaign” was how the emerging dictator described accusations that he was a communist.

Nikita Kruschev himself consulted with the socialists in Havana, interested in the bearded one’s ideology. But the people of the Cuban PSP (People’s Socialist Party) at that time considered him a simple nationalist petit bourgeois. The big question is: ’was he deceiving everyone?’ If we are to be guided by that letter, written when he was 14, pretending to be 12, we could presume that yes, the guy was an uncontrollably compulsive liar. But if one delves a little further into his narcissism and his obsession with power, we could say that he was ready to adopt any ideology that would guarantee his clinging onto that power. And in this, the United States was the key.

His first speeches and writings would seem to indicate that he’d read more fascists and falangists than Marx or Lenin

The biggest blow to his ego came about in Washington. His April 1959 visit there was marked by various gaffes of protocol. First, he’d travelled without invitation from the White House. As a result, President Eisenhower refused to see him, excusing himself with a game of golf. Castro explained that he hadn’t come to beg for anything, although fifteen days later he would send an emissary to do just that. Then vice President Nixon agreed to meet him for two and a half hours. But Nixon too was inept. During their meeting he took it upon himself to make the bearded one see that he had no idea about economics and that he was naive about the USSR. Fidel returned from that visit humiliated. And Soviet analysts took note, drawing up a plan that would attract Cuba, inevitably, into their orbit.

Castro’s following visit to the country to the north was already on the agendas of both the KGB and the CIA. And it is precisely this visit upon which the plot of ’Killing Castro’ is based. The film is now complete and will be released at some point this year. Also in the cast is Al Pacino, as well as the virtuoso Cuban actor Héctor Medina. We await the film’s premiere. I’m sure it’s going to generate much debate, most of all amongst Cubans.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Offers ‘Sandinista Fighters’ to Venezuela if a ‘Counterrevolution’ Is Mounted

María Corina Machado says that “the end of the regime of horror is approaching”

rchive photograph of an act of protest against the results of the presidential elections. / EFE/Latif Kassidi

EFE (via 14ymedio) San José/Caracas, August 27, 2024 — The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, offered this Monday to his ally and Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, to send “Sandinista fighters” in case a “counterrevolution” is mounted in Venezuela.

During a virtual summit with heads of state of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), Ortega told Maduro not to rule out a civil war in Venezuela, like the one fought in Nicaragua in the 1980s of the last century, in the middle of the Cold War.

“I want to alert Nicolás, and I’m sure you already have thought, analyzed and prepared (…), as they (the Venezuelan opposition) have already failed at this maneuver (of reversing the electoral results), and there is no turning back, no step back ; Nicolás is the legitimate president.” They could now take up arms, as happened here, said the Sandinista leader.

According to Ortega, Colombia could be the scene of a Venezuelan “counterrevolution” because of the extensive border it shares with Venezuela, and where the United States has military bases.

Ortega said that the “battle” in Venezuela “would be much greater” than the one that took place in Nicaragua, “because the Colombian Army is involved”

The Nicaraguan president commented that he does not see Colombian President Gustavo Petro “feeding” that possible “mercenary army,” but he does see other former rulers, among whom he mentioned Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) and Iván Duque (2018-2022).

“There are Yankee military bases (in Colombia), and, therefore, do not rule it out, because imperialism today is more wounded than ever by this victory (in Venezuela). Do not rule out their ability to organize an armed counterrevolution, like those that were organized against us during the first Sandinista Government,” he said. continue reading

In that scenario, Ortega said that the “battle” in Venezuela “would be much greater” than the one that took place in Nicaragua, “because it involves the Colombian Army, Colombian mercenaries, Colombian murderers and Colombian drug traffickers.”

Therefore, the Sandinista leader advised Maduro to “prepare to fight the battle and defeat them, because I am sure that if that battle occurs you will win.”

“And rest assured that if that battle happens, you will have Sandinista fighters accompanying you in that battle,” he offered. “And I am sure that just as thousands of (foreign) fighters joined the battle of Nicaragua against (Anastasio) Somoza (Debayle), thousands of Latin American and Caribbean fighters will also join the defense of the Bolivarian revolution,” he added.

In addition, Ortega says he broke relations with Brazil and called his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, “a lackey,” who wanted to be the “representative of the Yankees” in Latin America.

Lula is one of the presidents of Latin America who had a “brutal and “cowardly reaction” for not recognizing Maduro’s triumph

The Sandinista leader said that Lula is one of the presidents of Latin America who had a “brutal and cowardly reaction” for not recognizing Maduro’s triumph, and that he is part of the other “servile, traitorous, lackey governments. Brazil has presented itself as very progressive and very revolutionary. Now it says that the elections have to be repeated (in Venezuela). I say ’Brazil’ meaning Lula,” he reproached.

Ortega said that Lula “in a shameful way” is “repeating the slogans of the Yankees, the Europeans and the lackey governments of Latin America.”

“You’re a lackey, too, Lula! You’re groveling, too, Lula!” exclaimed Ortega, who also criticized the Brazilian president’s previous government management. He recalled that in Lula’s first Administration, “uproars” of corruption such as “the Lava Jato scandals”* broke out.

“Remember all that (…). Apparently it was not a very transparent Government, not very clean. Remember, Lula, and I could tell you a dozen more things,” he continued. “If you want me to respect you, respect me, Lula. If you want the Bolivarian people to respect you, respect the victory of President Nicolás Maduro and don’t be a lackey,” he added.

On August 8, the Brazilian ambassador to Nicaragua, Breno de Souza Brasil Días da Costa, left the country after being expelled by the Ortega Government, according to the official version, for not attending the celebration of the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution on July 19. In reciprocity, the Government of Brazil decided to expel the ambassador of Nicaragua, Fulvia Castro.

“And since being president of the great country that is Brazil, you have wanted to become a representative of the Yankees in Latin America”

In the past, Lula had a close relationship with Ortega when the Brazilian leader traveled to Managua in 1980 for the first anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, an occasion on which he also personally met the Cuban president, Fidel Castro.

In recent months, however, the relationship has deteriorated, especially due to the “political persecution” that the Government of Managua maintains on former Sandinistas and religious leaders.

Lula himself explained the situation last month, at a press conference with foreign correspondents in Brasilia, in which he revealed that Ortega has not answered his phone since Pope Francis asked him (Lula) to advocate for a bishop detained in Nicaragua.

In this regard, Ortega confirmed that he did not answer Lula’s phone call because to receive a message from the Vatican, which he said is a State “in favor of the Empire,” the Holy See should communicate directly with him. “We don’t need intermediaries. We didn’t ask Lula to be an intermediary. We didn’t answer Lula, and he got upset,” he said.

Lula regretted that this happened with “a guy who made a revolution like the one Ortega did to defeat Somoza,” and said that today he does not know “if that revolution was because he wanted power or because he wanted to improve the life of his people.”

In this regard, Ortega said that if he is a dictator, then so is Lula: “What could Lula say, since he has said this publicly, and how many times has he been in power? Already for two terms. That is, it seems he likes being President.”

“And from the presidency of the great country that is Brazil, you want to become a representative of the Yankees in Latin America,” he added.

Ortega explained by saying, “that’s why we broke off relations with Brazil,” because although Nicaragua is a small country, “we have dignity.”

Ortega sees Gustavo Petro “competing” with Lula to be the “representative” of the United States in Latin America

Ortega sees Gustavo Petro “competing” with Lula to be the “representative” of the United States in Latin America.

“Petro, what can I say about Petro? Poor Petro, poor Petro. I see Petro as competing with Lula to see who will be the leader to represent the Yankees in Latin America,” said the Sandinista leader.

Lula and Petro insisted on Saturday on the need to publish the electoral results, “broken down by polling station,” after the endorsement of Maduro’s victory by the Supreme Court of Venezuela, of which they “took note.”

“Both presidents remain convinced that the credibility of the electoral process can only be restored through the transparent publication of disaggregated and verifiable data,” according to a joint statement from both countries.

Lula and Petro agreed on a common position on the Venezuelan electoral process after telephone conversations held on Friday and Saturday, according to information released by the Brazilian Presidency.

The two heads of state reaffirmed that “the political normalization of Venezuela” must acknowledge “that there is no lasting alternative to peaceful dialogue and democratic coexistence in diversity.” They also called on “all those involved to avoid resorting to acts of violence and repression.”

“Today I can’t tell you the exact moment in which we are going to achieve victory, but yes, with absolute conviction, I tell you that the destiny of this fight is the liberation of Venezuela”

On the other hand, Lula and Petro “took note” of the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela to validate Maduro’s victory in the presidential elections of July 28, questioned by much of the international community. In this sense, they reiterated that they “are still waiting” for the publication, by the National Electoral Council (CNE), of “the tally sheets, broken down by polling station.”

The CNE proclaimed Maduro the winner without having published the disaggregated results, while the largest opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), said that Edmundo González Urrutia won the contest by a wide margin.

The declaration of both countries was expected after the statement released on Friday by eleven American countries (Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United States, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic and Uruguay), in which they rejected the Supreme Court’s endorsement of Maduro. The governments of these eleven countries questioned the ruling of the Venezuelan court and warned of its “lack of independence and impartiality.”

However, Brazil and Colombia did assess the Supreme Court’s ruling and instead insisted that they “keep their channels of communication with the parties open,” and they reinforced “their willingness to facilitate understanding between them.”

“Our tactics are so diverse that they will not be able to contain them, and we will act with precision so that they cannot prevent our advance”

For her part, the anti-Chavista leader María Corina Machado said on Monday that “the end of the regime of horror is approaching” in Venezuela, where “a new phase of the opposition strategy” has begun, in order to “substantiate the victory” obtained by Edmundo González Urrutia.

“Today I cannot tell you the exact moment in which we are going to achieve victory, but yes, with absolute conviction, I tell you that the destiny of this struggle is the liberation of Venezuela, the construction of a luminous country where we can live well, with dignity,” she said in an audio published on YouTube.

In that sense, she called on Venezuelans to prepare for “a new way of organizing and mobilizing in the street” that, she explained, will be “highly” effective to run “the least possible risk.”

“Our tactics are so diverse that they will not be able to contain them, and we will act with precision so that they cannot prevent our advance,” said the former deputy, who again denounced a “criminal repression,” especially after the last elections.

She added that Maduro and “his criminal environment,” after the “overwhelming and indisputable victory” of González Urrutia, sought to “justify their fraud” through the TSJ, whose Electoral Chamber validated the re-election of Maduro for a third consecutive six-year term in power.

“Nicolás Maduro reached the end of his path, he lost all contact with reality, they do not understand anything that is happening in Venezuela,” said Machado, the main champion of González Urrutia.

The PUD called for a demonstration on August 28, a month after the elections, against electoral “fraud” and to insist on the triumph it grants its standard bearer based on “83.5% of the tally sheets” collected the night of the vote by witnesses and poll workers, documents that the Government describes as “false.” Later, the Government also called for street events that same day, but to celebrate the controversial re-election of Maduro.

“We have witnessed a conspiracy of the public authorities to hatch a plot of complicity to prevent public access to the results”

Meanwhile, the traditional leaders of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) warned on Monday about what they consider a conspiracy of state institutions – “openly controlled” by the Government – against the will expressed in the July 28 elections, whose official result gave the victory to President Nicolás Maduro.

The PCV, a group influenced by the TSJ, pointed out that the Court is not impartial, and, therefore, its confirmation of Maduro’s re-election does not clear doubts or resolve complaints about transparency made to the CNE.

The validation issued by the TSJ “is a new demonstration of the existence of a conspiracy woven from the high spheres of political and economic power against the Constitution and popular sovereignty expressed in the vote,” the Party said in a press release.

In this way, they reiterated their demand for the CNE to publish the disaggregated results that confirm Maduro’s victory, as expected in the election schedule, although the TSJ ruled last Thursday, that it will keep the voting records under protection.

“We have witnessed a conspiracy of the public authorities to hatch a plot of complicity that, through pseudo-legal processes, prevents public access to the results printed in the tally sheets and to the boxes where the physical vote of each voter is protected,” the communists continue.

In addition, they condemned the fact that the TSJ ruling “is used as a justification to expand the repression,” in reference to the protests and police operations after the elections that have left a total of 25 deaths and more than 2,400 detainees, according to State sources.

For all of the above, the PCV asks the Prosecutor’s Office to carry out “the relevant investigations to determine the responsibilities of the electoral body,” since it “did not fulfill its functions by refusing to publish the results broken down by table and by suspending subsequent audits.”

*Translator’s note: Operação Lava Jeto, or Operation Jet Wash, investigated corruption in Brazil’s government in 2014. Lula was convicted of money laundering and spent 580 days in jail. His conviction was nullified in 2021 by the Supreme Court. Lula ran again for President in 2022 and was granted a third term.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Baseball Player Xian Vega Leaves Cuba and Hopes for a Professional Contract in the United States

Baseball player Xian Vega trains at the International Baseball Academy of Central America / Facebook/Gustavo Mederos

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 27 August 2024 — Cuban baseball player Xian Vega, 21, has been in Nicaragua since last Monday. Born in Havana, his goal is to reach the United States to look for a job opportunity in a Major League professional team. Meanwhile, he trains at the International Baseball Academy of Central America, according to sports journalist Francys Romero.

It will be in September, at the academy facilities and under the gaze of the talent scouts, when Vega will show his skills. Talent, according to Romero, is not lacking: he was one of the members of the list of best Cuban U-18 baseball players drawn up by the reporter.

Vega was a key piece in the Cienfuegos team, in charge of the director Jorge Rodríguez, and he stood out for his level of play in the last three National Series. Last season, he had a batting percentage of .268/.333/.351, four home runs and 25 RBIs. continue reading

In addition, he was part of the national team that represented the Island in the Pan-American U-23 Championship that took place in Nicaragua in 2023.

Baseball player Bryan Ramos rejected Cuba’s invitation to join the team that will participate in the Premier 12 / Facebook/Francys Romero

Son of actor Herón Vega and grandson of one of the great figures of Cuban cinema, Daisy Granados, the young baseball player emigrates in a moment of weakness for the Cuban Baseball Federation, which is struggling to form a team of Cuban emigrants, who play in the Major Leagues, to participate in the international Premier 12 contest, which will be played from November 9 to 24 in the cities of Guadalajara and Tepic (Mexico).

The Federation received a resounding no from Chicago White Sox player Bryan Ramos, who in 15 games recorded an outstanding batting average. Ramos claimed that he is focused on his work with the team that in 2018 hired him on an entry bonus of 300,000 dollars.

The Federation’s invitation was also rejected by pitcher Denny Larrondo, who plays in the Minor Leagues as part of the Arizona Diamondbacks sports franchise. According to journalist Yordano Carmona, the “Villaclareño told them no, that he did not agree to play with them.”

Julio Robaina, Omar Estévez, Yosver Zulueta, Edgar Quero, Michel Baez and Elian Leyva are also on the list of players who have been invited and have declined.

The players who have accepted so far are Ronald Bolaños, Lázaro Armenteros, Yadir Drake, Darién Núñez, Ernesto Martínez Jr., Yusniel Padrón-Artiles, Yoan López, Roberto Sulivan Baldoquín, Alexei Ramírez and Yadil Mujica.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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