Translating Cuba – Page 113 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Official Ceremony at José Martí’s House and Police Operation at Otero Alcántara’s House, in the Same Havana Neighborhood

At number 41 on Paula Street, the little house that has been drawn by every Cuban child celebrates a century as a museum this January

On the 172nd anniversary of the birth of José Martí, a hurried official ceremony shook up the routine of the San Isidro neighborhood. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Jose Lassa, Havana, 28 January 2025 — The huge sound systems and a stage, placed in the street, clashed on Tuesday with the narrow and almost childish façade of the house where José Martí was born in Havana. On the 172nd anniversary of the birth of the Cuban national hero, a hurried official ceremony, with some local authorities, shook up the routine of the San Isidro neighborhood, an area where the crisis and lack of investment have left deep wounds.

At number 41 on Paula Street, the little house that has been drawn by every Cuban child, described in songs and photographed to the point of exhaustion, celebrates its 100th anniversary this January as a museum. In the place, where Martí spent only three years of his life, there are photos of his adolescence, images of his time in New York, snapshots with his son, countless documents protected behind glass and some personal objects.

The impeccable yellow facade, the windows with their retouched blue and the red roof form a striking contrast with the surroundings.

The impeccable yellow facade, the windows with their blue touches and the red roof form a striking contrast with the surroundings. While the house, built in 1810, seems to resist the passage of time, other nearby houses are on the verge of collapse or turned into mere rubble. A few meters from the museum, of a neoclassical building from the beginning of the 20th century, only the arches remain. Through the gaps where its doors once stood, mountains of bricks, twisted iron and rubbish now emerge. continue reading

Around the corner, on Avenida de las Misiones, another building abandoned after its roof collapsed “greets” visitors who approach the place where, in 1853, the cry of a baby announced a life as brief as it was prolific. Beyond the short fragment in front of the entrance to the sanctuary, reality becomes harsher and more neglected. The sidewalks full of holes, the balconies on the verge of collapsing on passers-by and the anguished faces of residents looking for food clash with the soft tone of the guide who details the occurrences of that restless child born to a Canarian mother and a Valencian father.

Unlike the immaculate façade of Martí, the one in Otero Alcántara looks like it has been exposed to the elements for centuries. / Juliette Isabel Fernández Estrada/Facebook

If you turn right onto the street that gives the neighborhood its name, the journey then becomes a descent into a poorer, more forgotten Havana. Garbage piles up, abandoned animals search for something to eat among the waste, and a father drags a wheelbarrow with buckets and containers full of water to use in his house. Another turn, also to the right, and you end up on Damas Street. There, around number 955, there was a police operation this morning. A call today to visit the house of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and see his work Campesinos felizes 1938-2024 ended with threats against the organizers and several artists with their mobile service cut off.

Unlike the immaculate façade of Martí, the Otero Alcántara façade seems to have been exposed to the elements for many centuries. On its walls, you can hardly make out the blue tone that once covered them. A tangle of cables runs across the top and the door that gives access to the artist’s home, imprisoned since July 2021, has some poorly nailed boards to prevent it from collapsing. A few daring people arrived there on January 28 after reading the call on social media, but they only found poverty and abandonment. There were no platforms with microphones, no officials making speeches and much less tourists taking photos. Nor could you hear the voice of those diligent guides who explain the details of each piece on display, of each photo hanging on the wall. None of that, but rather contempt for the young artist who shouted “Homeland and Life.”

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The ELN, Linked to Cuba, Initiated a Bloodbath in Colombia To Control the Cocaine Trade

Archive photograph of soldiers of the Colombian Army before a day of peace talks between the Government and the Estado Mayor Central, the main dissident faction of the FARC, in Tibú (Colombia) / EFE / Mario Caicedo

14ymedio, Madrid, 27 January 2025 — There are 60 to 80 dead and about 50,000 displaced in 11 days, after clashes in the Catatumbo between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the 33rd Front of the dissidents of the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC), according to estimates of the Ombudsman’s Office and the Government of Norte de Santander. However, the situation in that territory is such that the authorities have only been able to collect the bodies of 41 victims, since they cannot access certain areas.

As a report published a few days ago by Bloomberg explains, the Catatumbo mountains “are so dangerous that the police and the army do not usually go far away from their barracks for fear of snipers.” The reason for this peak of violence, the most intense of the last decade, lies in the offensive launched by the ELN against its rival group to take control of the cocaine business, from which both are financed. In the border area, not only does smuggling to Venezuela take place, but there are also laboratories and clandestine airstrips.

The ELN are proponents of Marxist ideology who emerged in the 1960s with open sponsorship by the Cuban regime, which provided them with training and weapons for decades, before recently becoming a “guarantor” of the peace negotiations, currently suspended. In recent days, the ELN has been spreading terror by going door to door “with death lists of local peasants suspected of supporting their enemies,” according to Bloomberg. continue reading

Among the fatalities are six former FARC guerrillas who signed the peace agreement with the Government

Among the fatalities are six former FARC guerrillas who signed the peace agreement with the Government. In addition, 12 other former FARC members are missing, accused by the ELN of belonging to the 33rd Front, a dissident FARC faction that has not laid down its arms and is fighting for control of the coca crops and drug trafficking routes.

In a statement issued on Monday, the ELN assures that it has not carried out actions against the civilian population or people just for “being signatories of peace,” but that it has attacked those who are armed and are “active under a military command in plans against the ELN and the communities of Catatumbo.”

It also said that “we will never accept either submission or surrender as a policy of peace.” Colombian President Gustavo Petro suspended peace talks due to the violence unleashed by the ELN after January 16 and decreed, on Friday, a state of internal disturbance. This will last 90 days and will extend to 16 municipalities in the department of Norte de Santander, including the 11 of Catatumbo affected by the violence. The decree includes Cúcuta, the departmental capital, and two municipalities in the department of Cesar, which is receiving displaced people.

The Government considers that “there is an extraordinary disturbance of public order in the Catatumbo region, resulting from armed confrontations, threats, massive forced displacements, effects on the exercise of the fundamental rights of the civilian population, alteration of security and damage to protected property and the environment.”

Petro’s claim to achieve “total peace” through dialogue seems to be an illusion

In this context, Petro’s claim to achieve “total peace” through dialogue seems to be an illusion Moreover, it could favor the conservative candidates for the Presidency and Congress in 2026, according to what analyst Sergio Guzmán told Bloomberg. “The worsening of security throughout the country and the extension of criminal gangs to areas that were previously peaceful have made many Colombians impatient with attempts to negotiate with groups that extort, kidnap and traffic cocaine,” the agency said.

According to UN data, the potential production of pure cocaine in Colombia rose by 53% between 2022 and 2023, and the hectares of coca leaf planted in its territory reached the historic record of 253,000. Ceasing to fumigate crops – the Colombian government considered drug trafficking a source of financing for guerrilla groups – was, in 2016, one of the conditions of the FARC to sit down to negotiate with the Government, under the argument – supported by the World Health Organization – that fumigation harmed legal farmers and caused serious health problems to the poorest population.

One of the consequences of the peace agreement was the overproduction of cocaine that has flooded the market ever since, and control of the trade is still disputed by guerrilla groups that have not laid down their arms.

The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office reactivated, last week, the arrest warrants for 31 members of the ELN, including the members of its leadership, alias Antonio García, Pablo Beltrán and Aureliano Carbonell, who had been peace negotiators. Guerrilla leaders have been traveling for years between Venezuela and Cuba, the country that hosted those dialogues between 2018 and 2019, the year in which they were frozen.

The potential production of pure cocaine in Colombia rose by 53% between 2022 and 2023

The relationship between Havana and the leadership of the ELN is, in fact, at the origin of the inclusion of Cuba on the US list of countries sponsoring terrorism in 2021, during the first Trump Administration. It was at the request of Colombia, because Cuba refused to extradite members of the group who were on the Island. The talks had stalled after a guerrilla attack against the Police School in Bogotá in January 2019, where 23 people died and 100 were injured.

None of this – neither the causes of the bloodbath in the Catatumbo nor the role of the regime in the negotiations with the guerrillas – has been echoed by the official Cuban press, which has limited itself to giving news of the displaced people and extolling the “solidarity of Venezuela with Colombia.”

For his part, Petro was confident on Monday that his government can consolidate control on the border with Venezuela. “Today there will be a meeting of the entire cabinet in the area to issue the decrees of internal disturbance that will give life to the social pact in the Catatumbo and the financing of the military operation to consolidate State control at the border,” he said on X.

The Colombian president will hold his usual weekly council of ministers meeting in the municipality of Ocaña, which, like the Catatumbo, is located in the department of Norte de Santander and is one of the main recipients of the more than 48,000 displaced people left by guerrilla violence. Specifically, 9,272, according to figures from the Ministry of Defense. The rest of the displaced went to Cúcuta (21,300) and Tibú (13,313).

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Swiss Airline Edelweiss, Which Cancelled Its Flights in Cuba, Is Leaving for the Dominican Republic

The last flight on the Zurich to Havana route will depart February 27th. / Edelweiss/Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, January 26, 2025 — Gravely wounded in recent years, Cuba’s tourism industry is facing a new problem: airlines rerouting flights that they previously flew to the Island, but now prefer to land at its largest Caribbean competitor, the Dominican Republic.

That happened this week. David Collado, Minister of Tourism of the Dominican Republic, told the press during the International Tourism Fair (Fitur) under way in Spain, that Swiss airline Edelweiss is redirecting several of its Cuban routes.

“We signed agreements with several different operators and airlines today, and tomorrow we will continue signing with Iberia, Air Europa, and Edelweiss, bringing five additional flights to the Dominican Republic, flights that had gone to Cuba and are being transferred to the Dominican Republic,” said the minister, who affirmed that his country has made a successful effort to secure new air routes and commercial partners.

“Today, Air Transat and Air Canada informed us that they will also increase the number of flights from Canada as well, Collado added.”

The rerouting of flights came a few days after Edelweiss announced the suspension of its route from Zurich to Havana, which will make its last flight on February 27, the company explained to 14ymedio. continue reading

The Swiss media outlet Twenty Minutes, which initially reported the suspension of the routes, stated that “the decision is based, on the one hand, on decrease in demand and, on the other, on the current conditions of the José Martí International Airport in Havana. An on-site review conducted by Edelweiss has revealed difficulties in guaranteeing stable and reliable long-haul operations in the long term.”

The company pledged to refund the price of tickets to those who had purchased tickets after the deadline.

A month earlier, the German company Condor also announced the suspension of its flights to the Island for the summer season for the first time since 1990 (other than during the pandemic). The company served three destinations: Havana, Holguín, and Varadero.

Since Cuba was added to the list of states that sponsor terrorism, European citizens visiting the Island can no longer benefit from the ESTA visa waiver program for entering the United States, which, in the opinion of the Cuban Government, had damaged its destination in the European market.

The company pledged to refund the price of tickets to those who had purchased tickets after the deadline.

Travelers from Spain, previously an important market for Cuba, showed the most worrying drop: Up to November in 2024, Spain contributed 26.8% fewer travelers than in the first eleven months of 2023. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Cuban Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, arrived at Fitur stressing that his Government is working in the face of “difficult, complicated scenarios” in the tourism sector.

The promise of the Ministry of Transport to repair airports has also not been carried out. Last July, Minister of Transport Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila said that planned improvements at José Martí Airport in Havana (a new air conditioning system and facilities expansion) for terminal 3, dedicated to commercial flights, had never happened. “In reality, that airport has been at its limit for a long time. We have tried to make investments, and the Havana airport is the one that receives more than 50% of passenger arrivals,” he lamented then.

Translated by Tomas A.

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Concern Over Possible Suspension of Release Process for Political Prisoners in Cuba / Cubalex

January 21, 2025

Cubalex expresses its deep concern over the possible suspension of the release process announced by the Cuban government on January 14, in which it promised the gradual liberation of 553 sanctioned persons, generating expectations among the families of persons deprived of liberty for political reasons.

However, following the U.S. administration’s recent decision to revoke Cuba’s exclusion from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, we have not received any new reports of people being released from prison. In addition, the Cuban government has not officially informed us whether the release process will continue, which increases uncertainty and concern among those affected and their families.

Commitment to the Vatican and Proclaimed Humanism

In its official statement, the Cuban government affirmed that this measure had been taken “in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025” and as part of “the close and fluid relations” with the Vatican. In light of this, Cubalex urges the Cuban state to honor its public commitment and demonstrate the “humanism” that it claims characterizes its criminal justice framework and penitentiary system.”

The uncertainty surrounding the continuation of the release process generates deep concern and highlights how the lives, freedom, and integrity of those deprived of liberty are being used as pawns in a political game between the Havana regime and Washington.

Persistant Omissions and Fundamental Concerns

Denial of the existence of political prisoners: Despite repeated statements from international organizations such as the Committee Against Torture, the Universal Periodic Review, and CEDAW, which recognize actions that criminalize and penalize the exercise of fundamental rights such as freedom of expression, assembly, and association as repressive, the Cuban government continues to deny the existence of political prisoners. This official discourse attempts to delegitimize international complaints, minimize the impact of human rights violations, and avoid international accountability. This generates fear that most of the people released from prison include those punished for common crimes, while the victims of political repression continue to be unjustly imprisoned.

Generating expectations without guarantees: It is unacceptable and macabre to create false hopes in the families of persons deprived of liberty. Cubalex has recorded cases in which the benefits granted in this process are not new concessions, but rights previously denied even though they met the legal requirements. continue reading

Lack of transparency: Monitoring conducted by Cubalex has identified troubling patterns in the releases. To date, we have recorded 172 beneficiaries, with an average age of 32 years, including 24 women, 147 men, and one person belonging to the LGBTIQ+ community. Among the beneficiaries, only three are over 60 years old. The complete and verified list is available on our website. Similarly, it is important to note that we do not know the total number of people who have been released due to the lack of transparency from the Cuban government. On January 16, the authorities announced that 127 people were released between Wednesday and Thursday, but without providing specific details or verifiable information.

Exclusion of civil society and victims: The process has not included the participation of civil society nor mechanisms to support the physical, psychological, and social rehabilitation of the released individuals. These measures are essential for those who have suffered inhumane detention conditions, which in many cases constitute torture.

Cubalex demands that the Cuban government fulfill its compromise to release all individuals detained for political reasons and ensure full respect for their fundamental rights. Likewise, we urge the international community to adopt a critical stance towards these actions, demanding concrete guarantees to protect the individuals who have been released.

Freedom should not be used as a bargaining chip or presented as a humanitarian gesture after years of unjustified suffering. Cubalex reaffirms its commitment to continue monitoring the process and denouncing any human rights violations.

The post Concern over the possible suspension of the release of political prisoners in Cuba appeared first on Cubalex.

Translated by Gustavo Loredo

“If Their Intention Is To Threaten Me With Going Back to Prison, They’re Wasting Their Time”

Cuban opponent José Daniel Ferrer refused to appear in court after receiving an official summons
The US representative in Havana, Mike Hammer, visited the family of political prisoner Sissi Abascal

Other released prisoners like Ferrer have also been cited / José Daniel Ferrer / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 28 January 2025 — Cuban opponent José Daniel Ferrer, released on January 16 after spending three and a half years in prison, refused to appear before a judge in Santiago de Cuba on Tuesday, after receiving a summons. “You don’t have to be a fortune teller to know that this is a threat to return me to prison if I do not stop my political and social activism in favor of freedom,” he said in an audio. Ferrer is also the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), which has its headquarters in his house, where two policemen arrived to deliver the summons.

Ferrer did not take long to display the piece of paper on social networks along with a text that said: “I’m not going anywhere. If their intention is to threaten me with going back to prison, they’re wasting their time.” Then he sent out an audio message that reached 14ymedio: “Save those threats. I am not going to appear before any execution judge, I have never committed any crime, and the many times I have been imprisoned is for defending human rights.”

The opponent added: “If they are going to return me to prison, to those dens of evil and terror, where political prisoners die, where common prisoners die, where conditions for the criminal population in general are very similar to a concentration camp, they must keep in mind that for the well-being and freedom of my nation I am willing not only to go to prison, but also to give my life.” continue reading

The summons to appear in court did not arrive just at Ferrer’s house. “Today all the political prisoners released from Villa Clara were summoned to the courts of the respective municipalities where they reside, to begin the harassment, blackmail and repression,” journalist and former political prisoner Carlos Michael Morales denounced on X.

The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, of which he is also president, stood in solidarity with the leader of Unpacu

The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, of which he is also president, stood in solidarity with the leader of Unpacu. It published a video of the opponent Manuel Cuesta Morúa warning about the regime’s harassment of Ferrer. “You want to commit an injustice against a person who should have been liberated, not just released from prison,” he said.

Ferrer’s post on social networks was also shared by the US Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, which said that “the Cuban dictatorship is again attacking and persecuting the brave pro-democratic leader” after “the regime made a deal with the Catholic Church to ’free’ political prisoners.”

“We will not be fooled by their games or participate in them. The illegitimate regime is directly responsible for its treatment of Ferrer and all the political prisoners that it continues to detain unfairly,” the Office added in its publication, which was replicated shortly after by the US Embassy on the Island.

Mike Hammer, the new US representative in Havana, has held meetings in recent days with relatives of Cuban political prisoners and activists, such as the academic Alina Bárbara López.

Annia Zamora, Sissi Abascal’s mother, arrested for demonstrating during the protests of 11 July 2021, also received the representative in her home. In conversation with 14ymedio, Zamora said that Hammer’s visit was “very pleasant. Everything flowed very well. He is very interested in knowing the situation of our prisoners and about my daughter. The family is very grateful for his concern, his interest and for visiting us,” she said.

She also explained that the meeting helped Abascal’s family to feel that they are not alone and that there are “people fighting for our prisoners.”

Since the prison authorities communicated this to Abascal last week, her mother has not heard more news

Both Sissi Abascal and Sayli Navarro, who is also a Lady in White and daughter of the opponent Félix Navarro, were two of the names expected to be on the regime’s list of released prisoners. Far from it, the regime has been cruel to them, forcing them to adhere to a “severe regime” and denying them even the prison benefits to which they are entitled because of their “negative attitude.”

Since the prison authorities communicated this to Abascal last week, her mother has not heard more news. “I haven’t known anything about Sissi since Thursday. On Monday she was allowed a call, but there was a blackout and it was impossible for her to communicate with us,” says Zamora, who clarifies that “Sissi was denied the 120 days of reduction [in sentence] that they do every year. They told her that in 2024 she didn’t have a single day of reduction, it was zero.”

Regarding Navarro, the woman explains that she was denied a less severe regime for another six months, when she will be evaluated again. “Sissi had already been denied in September,” she adds. In a previous interview with this newspaper, Zamora explained that this is the fourth time that the prison authorities have rejected the transition to a less severe regime. “The situation of my daughter and all the political prisoners is worrying. The repression against them is very strong,” she said at the time.

According to Zamora, the conditions in which both opponents find themselves in the La Bellotex prison, in Matanzas, continue to worsen. “They are given water only at night. There is little food, poorly prepared,” she says, and adds: “When Sissi and Sayli call they have a high-ranking officer monitoring them.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Havana: Cubans ‘Didn’t Talk Much About José Martí, the Torch March Was About Trump’

As every January, detours and road closures caused chaos in Havana’s traffic

With a large number of military personnel marching, the predominant color in the ceremony was the olive green of the Armed Forces. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Jorge Lassa, Havana, 28 January 2025 — A wave of olive-green caps flooded the steps of the University of Havana on Monday night. At the foot of the famous statue of the Alma Mater – once a symbol of education and civility on the island – Army officers and cadets shouted their way through the crowd, which was preparing to begin the Torch March.

In Miguel Díaz-Canel’s Havana, very little remains of the Martí symbolism that inspired the first march in January 1953. At that time, a group of university students, including Fidel Castro – who claimed the idea of the candles came from the future cultural commissioner Alfredo Guevara – and his brother Raúl, invented a ceremony with religious overtones to remember José Martí on his centenary.

Now, Havana residents are clear that the focus of the March is on the North. “They didn’t talk much about Martí, they talked about Trump and the list of countries sponsoring terrorism,” a disappointed young woman from the Federation of University Students (FEU) told 14ymedio, as she joined the rapid exodus at the end of the ceremony. The slogan for this occasion says it all: “always anti-imperialist.”

At the foot of the famous statue of the Alma Mater, officers and cadets of the Army shouted their way into the crowd. / 14ymedio

Instead of the torch with sharp nails that Raúl Castro supposedly held that night – they were expecting Fulgencio Batista’s repression, which never came – what was waved this Monday was a puny Cuban flag. It is enough to look at photos of past marches to see the decline of the nonagenarian general, as consumed by decades in power as Ramiro Valdés or José Ramón Machado Ventura, who escorted it yesterday. This is the 72nd march that he has attended. continue reading

The March turned Havana into total chaos for several hours. “There was too much traffic detour. I think they went too far,” another of the young people who had a hard time getting to the university esplanade told this newspaper. “From Boyeros and Carlos III there were already caballitos (police cars) directing traffic. When you went down G you couldn’t turn right at either 25th or 23rd. It was almost when I got to Línea that I was able to turn right. They had ‘reserved’ several blocks.”

As usual, shoes and shirts remain from the march, burned by the fire that falls to the pavement. / 14ymedio

In a country that has been mired in a worrying fuel crisis for over a year, there was no shortage of means to transport the students who were going to participate in the event. The caravan of vehicles stretched along 23rd Street in El Vedado.

Since this was, in theory – and despite the strong military presence – a university event, the main attendees were students from the University of Havana, the Sports Institute (Inder), the Technological University (Cujae) and the University of Computer Sciences (UCI). A student from the Rosalía Abreu pre-university in Cerro told this newspaper that he attended because he was one of the “five who ‘got hooked’ for each classroom.”

“A friend of mine came too,” he added. “At least we went out, bought a bottle and walked around after the march.”

The piles of torches used during the march end up in the streets and landfills of Havana. / 14ymedio

The students were greeted on the esplanade by a heated atmosphere in which the usual voices predominated – through loudspeakers: Buena Fe, Silvio Rodríguez, Sara González, Pablo Milanés. The voice of Annie Garcés – the singer who, despite the sponsorship of the regime, does not connect with Cubans – frightened many of those who were waiting for the start of the march.

Cadets from the Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior – some of them completely disregarding their uniforms, to emphasize the “informality” of the call – cordoned off the area, whose buildings had been recently painted, even those that are in danger of collapse.

Cadets from the Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, some of them completely disregarding their uniforms, cordoned off the area. / 14ymedio

Until the speeches, the scene was that of a party, with dancing and drinking. The media speak of “thousands of young people” in the march, but the escapes in every street or corner quickly decimated the procession. “There were people who left on L Street,” near the university itself, one of the “escaped” confessed to 14ymedio.

“In the past, at 7:00 pm there was not room for a single person more in the square,” he added. “Now, nobody cares that Raúl and Díaz-Canel were there.” As usual, there are burnt shoes and shirts from the march, which accidentally fell on the pavement. There are also piles of cans strung on sticks, stinking of gasoline, thrown into the streets of El Vedado. These are the remains of the “Martí torches.”

Between blackouts and shortages, the general mood is not one for ceremonies. So much so that the headline on the front page of Granma this Tuesday – which shows Havana illuminated with powerful LED lights, through whose streets the top brass of the regime marches – sounds like a joke or a protest: “The light that Cuba always needs.”

Prison ‘Devastated Me’ says Brenda Díaz, a Cuban Trans Woman Released from Prison

Diaz was sent to a men’s prison where she spent four years, for protesting during 11J

Díaz is aware that her case has made her a symbol. / EFE

EFE (via 14ymedio), Güira de Melena (Artemisa), 26 January 2025 — When she learned that she would be released, Brenda Díaz, a Cuban trans woman sentenced to more than 14 years in prison after participating in the anti-government demonstrations on 11 July 2021 (11J), she could not pick up the phone to call her mother. Díaz, one of the beneficiaries of the release process recently announced by the Cuban government, was in “shock” when the prison management gave her the news. She had spent almost four of her 30 years in a men’s module and suffered all kinds of “physical and verbal abuse,” she claims in an interview with EFE.

“It was incredible. I couldn’t believe that after three years and seven months in prison, without being able to see the light of the street, without being able to be free, as I have always been, I was going to find everything again. She (her mother) was crying and so was I. I didn’t sleep that night. I made a thousand inventions to sleep and I couldn’t,” she says while holding the hand of her mother, Ana Mary García.

At 6:00 a.m. on January 18, Díaz was reunited with her mother outside the prison. “Today I am a different person. I am not the Brenda I used to be, I feel it inside me,” she says with a serious expression and a look she focuses, from time to time, on the ground.

“I was with eighty men. I was never treated (by the guards) as a trans person”

Diaz sadly reviews, in a withered tone, the list of humiliations she experienced: “I was with eighty men. I was never treated (by the guards) as a trans person, they treated me like ’the inmate, the prisoner’. I said I was a trans woman and they said no: ’You’re a man’. They shaved my head. They didn’t leave a single hair on my head. Not one. And that shocked me greatly. After so much time of being with my feminine image, seeing myself like continue reading

that… that devastated me,” she says. She was also not allowed to wear women’s underwear, she says.

García, who led a media campaign for the freedom of her daughter, as well as the rest of the prisoners of the 2021 protests, sheds a few tears when she remembers the moment she received the call from Díaz. The entire neighborhood, she says, was scared when they heard her cries of emotion. “The neighbors came thinking that something had happened to me. It was the most emotional moment of my life because I couldn’t see the day when she would be free,” she explains.

García killed a pig to prepare a meal for all the people who came to celebrate her daughter’s release

Since then, reunions with friends, family and acquaintances have not stopped. García killed a pig they had at home to prepare a meal with all the people who came to celebrate her daughter’s release. She also took advantage of the opportunity to indulge in all those little treats and details that she couldn’t do in prison. Like getting her nails done, long and well painted, as she always had them before her incarceration.

She is aware that her case has made her a symbol for a group that believes it continues to be discriminated against in its own country, despite the approval in 2022 of the Family Code, a package of measures that legalized, among other things, marriage and adoption for same-sex couples. “That (the media coverage of her case on and off the Island) has given me more strength. I think that, in those places, each person should be treated as they are and as they want. That term (trans) is not respected. If I am a trans person, treat me as such,” she says.

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‘Granma’ Denounces the “Unscrupulous People” Who Steal Solar Panels Throughout Cuba

Thieves steal the cables and pumps from the water supply panels

The crimes occur in isolated communities / Granma

14ymedio, Havana, 26 January 2025– So much enthusiasm over the installation of photovoltaic parks, which the press mentions as the solution to all the energy ills of the Island, has made the Cuban authorities look for a pretext to wash their hands of the project if it fails, like so many other projects have. The thefts of panels and electrical components that, according to the government, destroy photovoltaic parks, have become the perfect excuse.

The main objective is the solar panels that guarantee the supply of water in “isolated communities of the nation” and the perpetrators are “unscrupulous people who steal electrical installations and even solar panels, in order to obtain certain economic gains, without stopping to think about the damage they cause to the residents of those sites,” reports Granma, the official organ of the Communist Party.

The State newspaper adds that, just in Holguín, “at least three pumping systems have been affected by robberies. One occurred in the town of Pedernales, near the city of Holguín, where solar panels were stolen on two occasions.” continue reading

The authorities have concluded that “the rate of acts against the equipment of photovoltaic pumping installations has been increasing”

The “inquiries” of the authorities have concluded that “the rate of acts against the equipment of photovoltaic pumping facilities has been increasing. These are technologies that are not in large parks, but in isolated places, in the vicinity of communities, which makes them vulnerable to harassment by unscrupulous people, who try to profit from collective goods,” said Alexander Valdespino, president of Cubasolar, which promotes the use of renewable energies.

The company is especially involved because it is their equipment – donated or financed many times by foreign governments and entities – that ends up in the hands of thieves. The managers no longer know what to do about the criminals, and the list of robberies continues to grow, Valdespino claims.

“In Manantialito, belonging to the community of Rejondones de Báguanos, they installed one of those pumping systems, but after a while, they stole the cables,” says Granma quoting the manager. The same happened in Tacámara Cuatro, where the thieves took “two pumps and the cables,” and in Playa Girón, where they looted a pump and “other components.”

In Desembarco del Granma, in Banes, the thugs were not so lucky: “They were close to taking the pump, but when they were detected, they withdrew in a hurry with the cables,” said the media, which attributed to the thieves the failure of the “extraordinary effort made by Cuba to improve the quality of life of the population.”

In recent years Cuba has installed dozens of solar parks financed by China, Russia and the European Union

In recent years, Cuba has installed dozens of solar parks financed by China, Russia, the European Union and even international institutions such as the United Nations. During that time, the propaganda about the benefits of the use of clean energy has not stopped in the official press, which forgets that despite the installation of the equipment, the Island has been reporting an energy deficit of around 1,000 megawatts per day for months.

However, the thefts that have occurred reveal that Cubans have an interest in the panels that is far from the wishes of the Government, and it is not the first time that Granma has tried to defend the Government by alleging “crimes.” In December, the newspaper published information that revealed that the panels installed four months earlier to supply energy to a multitude of pumping stations in Las Tunas had already suffered “eight criminal acts, specifically theft.”

A few days earlier, a fire in the Alcalde Mayor solar park in Abreus alarmed the Cienfuegos Electric Company. The fire originated in an area where some solar panels were stacked, waiting to be installed, but “no other equipment was affected,” Granma reported at the time.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Useful Idiots

It is sad, but also evident, that 66 years later there are plenty of idiots who continue to yearn for the regime’s scraps.

To clarify, I’m not talking about the nostalgia for Cuba felt by Cubans, an open wound for many of us. I am writing about the people who defend the sinister Cuban government / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 26 January 2025 — Many years ago, at the dawn of Castro’s tyranny, people in Cuba often heard about those described as “useful fools” or “fellow travelers,” for defending Marxist proposals and their spokespersons, without being part of that horde that has done so much damage to humanity.

I met several of those people, including family members, men and women of good faith who believed all the stories of Castroism for a period of time and then joined the armed struggle against the regime. There were also those who, without any good faith, lent themselves to the dictatorship’s game until they feared being burned themselves and decided to emigrate.

Some of these, despite being abroad, never stopped serving Castroism, either by spying for it or by simply white-washing the face of the regime and organizing, in other countries, particularly from the United States and Puerto Rico, trips and conferences to Cuba. continue reading

Others created institutions with the aim of making totalitarianism palatable to foreigners willing to fulfill the role of useful idiots in favor of Castroism, a function in which the intelligence and diplomatic services of Cuba have played an important role by providing resources to those who have served them from abroad.

There were also those who, without any good faith, lent themselves to the dictatorship’s game until they feared being burned themselves and decided to emigrate

Castroism, to expand that influence, founded the Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), an entity that is dedicated to attracting politicians, social leaders, intellectuals and anyone who, as a result of their frustration, is willing to serve in hell. The ICAP and La Casa de Las Americas (House of the Americas) were instruments that provided great services to the Cuban dictatorship, because they could cover up its subversion and its spying.

The Castro leadership quickly realized that it wasn’t only Cubans who supported dysfunctional and tyrannical governments. They became aware that, in all countries, including the most advanced in law, there are useful idiots and fellow travelers ready to serve them over the years.

A few weeks ago, my friend Luis Rolle, a retired captain of the United States Army, told me that he was convinced that the Biden Government was preparing to take measures in favor of the Cuban regime. I listened to his comment very carefully, so it was not surprising that Cuban totalitarianism, an eternal threat to the security of the United States, was once again favored by those who some consider the continuation of Barack Hussein Obama’s policy towards Cuba.

It is incomprehensible that those who promote policies favorable to regimes of force, despite the accumulation of failures of those autocracies, still enjoy public favor and can continue to provide violators of civil rights with coverage that favors them, which, at the least, makes them “fellow travelers.”

The Castro leadership quickly realized that it wasn’t only Cubans who supported dysfunctional and tyrannical governments

Unfortunately, we find many personalities who enjoy being fellow travelers of autocrats. We see them in the entertainment industry, academia, powerful corporations and in US politics, as demonstrated by the exclusion of the Cuban regime from the list of terrorist states, fortunately reinstated with that designation by President Donald Trump the same day he assumed the leadership of the country.

It is painful, but also evident, that 66 years later there are plenty of idiots who, despite having abandoned Cuba, continue to long for scraps from the regime, letting themselves be manipulated in different ways by the Castro authorities, always ready to fish in their troubled waters in order to make money, even if it is stained with the blood of their compatriots.

Let me clarify, I’m not talking about the nostalgia for Cuba felt by Cubans, an open wound for many of us. I am writing about people who, despite having made the decision to leave their country, defend the leaders of the nefarious Government that forced them to leave. I suggest that both terms, “useful fools and fellow travelers,” be summarized in “useful idiots,” because after so much devastation, we should be more categorical in these qualifications, which show that thousands of years of evolution do not prevent some human beings from still having the genes of rats.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Chinese-Backed Wind Farm in Las Tunas to Provide Only 33 of the Promised 50 Megawatts of Power

Construction on Herradura 1 began in late 2018 with financial backing from China.

14ymedio, Havana, 16 January 2024 — When construction began six years ago on the Herradura 1 wind farm in Las Tunas, it was supposed to be completed within a few months. On Wednesday, however, the Cuban communist party newspaper Granma announced with great fanfare that, though the facility “is soon to be finished,” it will still not be complete. Of the 34 wind turbines that the facility was supposed to have ready, only 22 will be put into operation.

“The only thing left to do is to certify that certain items such as the electrical substation —the facility that will handle electricity generated by the complex — as well as the maintenance and operations center are ready,” Granma quotes Carlos Arias Sobrino, general director of Las Tunas Electric Company, as saying.

Herradura 2 — its sister complex, which is also located near the coastal township of Jesús Menéndez — will have twenty generators providing 50 megawatts (MW) to the National Electrical System (SEN). Granma did not indicate when it will begin operations.

However, it did report that a 5 MW photovoltaic solar farm is under construction in the township of Puerto Padre. Together with two others already in operation in Manatí, it should provide 16 MW. continue reading

A 5 MW photovoltaic solar farm is under construction in the township of Puerto Padre. Together with two others already in operation in Manatí, it should provide 16 MW

“With the completion of these two projects, the province will generate almost 50 MW of renewable energy, a step forward in its goal of meeting regional demand and contributing to the national electrical grid,” Granma said. This ignores the fact that the amount of power to be generated by these facilities is insignificant compared to the country’s overall demand for electricity.

Construction on Herradura 1 began in late 2018 with financial backing from China. However, the project soon ran into several obstacles that delayed its completion. Chinese turbine manufacturer Goldwind, German shipping company BBC Chartering and Danish logistics company DSV Panalpina were sued under the Helms-Burton Act in 2020 by North American Sugar, the company that owned Puerto Carúpano before it was expropriated in the 1960s.

The sugar company claimed that these firms owed $291 million for using its confiscated property. In the suit, it is seeking $97 million for use of the plus interest and court costs. Also named in the suit were several U.S. subsidiaries of the European companies. These include DSV Air & Sea, BBC Chartering USA and BBC Chartering Singapore.

Despite the obstacles and the Cuban government’s frequent failure to abide by contractual agreements, China continues to finance the installation of renewable energy generators in Cuba. It is also providing a shipment of spare parts to repair SEN generator sets.

“The Chinese government’s Equipment and Spare Parts for Distributed Electric Generators for Cuba is the result of the consensus reached between Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic of Cuba and the leader of the Asian giant, Xi Jinping and includes multi-sector cooperation,” state media reported at the time.

The minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, also announced two contracts with Chinese companies in March of 2024

The minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, also announced two contracts with Chinese companies in March of 2024 to “gradually” provide SEN with more than 2,000 MW from the construction of 92 solar farms on the island, with approximately three in each province.

The aim of the agreement is to save the country 750 tons of imported fuel, a drop in the bucket given that the country buys about three million tons a year from abroad. The problem is deadlines. The first one must be completed by May of this year and the second, in May of 2028.

While the press claims, as it did on Wednesday, that the construction of these projects is moving forward, Cubans still face ongoing blackouts like the one the Electric Union scheduled for Thursday. According to the state-owned company’s daily briefing, a 1,300 MW shortage is expected during peak hours, a third of the national demand.

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‘Apolitical 2.1’ with Unpublished Works by Cuban Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara

In the photo, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, leader of the San Isidro Movement. / EFE/Yander Zamora

Location: Librería Arenales. Calle de Vallehermoso 110, Chamberí, Madrid

Apolítico 2.1 is the name of the event that will bring together several artists to present the work Campesinos Felices and other unpublished creations by the renowned Cuban activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. Among the guests are María Matienzo, Julio Llopiz-Casal and Yanelys Núñez.

The exhibition includes “unpublished pieces that reveal a more intimate and visually striking side of the author, reinforcing his ability to combine art with political activism,” according to the organizers.

Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, leader of the San Isidro Movement, is currently serving a five-year prison sentence in the maximum security prison of Guanajay, after being accused of insulting national symbols, contempt and public disorder.

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The Coffee that Makes Coffee Pots Explode Is Back in Cuban Stores

The stress test for the these appliances is the coffee sold at ration stores / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 24 January 2025 — Like a fisherman in a rushing river, Suanny thrives in an environment that is frightening to others. He specializes in repairing Italian-style coffee makers — both electric or stovetop — that have exploded or become clogged.

“These days I’m constantly busy because the coffee sold at local stores is dangerous,” says the 32-year-old from Sancti Spiritus resident. “I clean them, change their filters, replace the tops and even add new wiring and bases.”

When he first opened his shop in the city’s Kilo 12 neighborhood, Suanny was repairing rice and pressure cookers. He later worked on rechargeable lamps, the kind used to provide some light during the country’s frequent power outages. Now he focuses on coffee makers.”I always have work to do because, for better or worse, a little bit of the stuff sneaks into every house in the city every day.” Some customers show up with models that are “more than 50 years old,” notes the repairman, who is skilled at figuring out when something can be fixed and when it is time to get rid of it altogether.

“I replace the handles, the knob on the lid and the rubber seals. I’ll even polish the outside if the owner wants that”

“I replace the handles, the knob on the lid and the rubber seals. I’ll even polish the outside if the owner wants that,” he says. “A lot of people who come in have heated the coffee maker over wood or charcoal, which melts the handle and turns the whole thing black.” continue reading

In recent years, however, electronic models have become popular. “They are very convenient. You don’t have to worry about whether the coffee has finished brewing or not because, when it’s is ready, the machine automatically shuts off. They also keep the coffee hot and are safer.”

The real test, however, is the coffee sold in ration stores. “They were out of it for months. Then it suddenly reappeared in January, in a white plastic envelope that doesn’t let you see what’s inside,” he says. Apparently, the mixture has a more compact texture, which expands as it’s heated and clogs the coffee maker’s filter. “Explosions happen all the time,” says Suanny. “It’s rare that I don’t get one or two coffee makers with this problem every day.”

Just this Wednesday, the handyman found himself helping a distraught customer. “I poured some coffee out of the package, but not very much because I had already been warned that it would clog the machine,” says the woman. “My son told me to leave the kitchen while he brewed it. We were in the living room when we heard the explosion. It was all over the kitchen. The ceiling was stained and the top of the coffee maker broke in half,” she explains. The machine — an electric model with a top made of heat-resistant plastic — did not survive the explosion, which occurred when the dark powder came into contact with the boiling water.

“What can I do? I have to drink it because be good coffee is 1,400 pesos for a tiny package”

“What can I do? I have to drink it because good coffee is 1,400 pesos for a tiny package,” the woman complains. Suanny explains to her the risks of these crudely made packages and their unpredictable contents. “Normally, they mix it with peas but now it seems that they have increased the proportion of grain. I have even seen pieces of toasted wheat inside,” he adds. “My advice is, if you are going to drink this, you have to make it using a strainer or a sock like the ones our grandparents used. Italian coffee makers are not designed to handle this stuff. Nobody really knows what’s in it.”

In a show of dexterity, Suanny quickly changes out the rubber gasket, swaps the top of the coffee maker for another one he has in his tiny workshop, replaces the cable damaged in the explosion and cleans the base of the device, which was covered in a sticky liquid that smelled like burnt peas. The final bill for the repairs comes to more than 3,000 Cuban pesos. In the choppy waters of Cuban coffee, there are always those who manage to make a catch.

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The United States Demands the Return of a Terrorist Given Asylum by Cuba in 1988

Born in New York in 1950, Morales was arrested in 1979 for possession of explosives / latinamericanstudies.org

14ymedio, Havana, 25 January 2025 — Those responsible for an attack perpetrated 50 years ago by a Puerto Rican terrorist organization in the historic Fraunces Tavern in New York still live in Cuba. This Friday, several US authorities – including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the US Embassy in Havana – demanded that the regime hand over the fugitives.

On January 24, 1975, members of the Puerto Rican Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) detonated a bomb in what is now a museum and restaurant. The explosion left more than 50 injured and caused the death of four people: Alejandro Berger, Frank Connor, James Gezork and Harold Sherburne.

Rubio recalled the names of the victims in an official statement on the 50th anniversary of the attack and said that “to this day,” the regime protects those responsible, in addition to other “fugitives and terrorists” wanted by the United States. The Secretary of State points in particular to William Morales, leader of the terrorist group for whom “dictator Fidel Castro provided a safe haven,” in 1988.

Rubio recalled the names of the victims in an official statement on the 50th anniversary of the attack / CC

“Today, we remember the lives lost on that tragic day,” Rubio said. “We must also commit once again to demanding that the fugitives wanted by the US and under the protection of the Cuban regime be brought to justice. We owe the victims and the American people our unrestricted commitment to holding the Cuban regime accountable.” continue reading

The 1975 attack on the Fraunces tavern, he added, is a reminder of the “devastating impact of terrorism and the pain it inflicts on families and communities.” The US Embassy in Havana endorsed and reproduced Rubio’s message.

Last May, when the Biden Administration decided to remove Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, Joe Connor, the son of one of the victims, asked the government to reconsider this decision. “My father was murdered by terrorists sponsored by Cuba,” he wrote to the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

Morales with the terrorist Assata Shakur, former member of the Black Liberation Army, who was also given asylum in Havana / latinamericanstudies.org

“I bring this matter to your attention so that the United States Government will take the necessary measures to return this convicted terrorist to a US prison to serve out his sentence. I thank my government in advance for Morales’ return,” he said. The extradition “would provide a certain closure to this open wound that our family has suffered all these years,” he added.

Just before leaving the White House, Biden removed Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Reversing that decision was one of the first executive orders of President Donald Trump.

Connor, along with the children of the other victims, participated this Friday in a tribute in New York. There, Connor recalled that the place chosen for the attack was not just by chance: that was where the banquet was held after General George Washington negotiated peace with the British after the War of Independence, in 1776.

The FBI is offering 100,000 dollars to anyone who provides information leading to his capture / latinamericanstudies.org

“There the hero also offered a banquet for his soldiers, ‘sons of freedom’. This is the kind of symbolism that the FALN could not tolerate,” added Connor, again demanding a negotiation for the capture of Morales.

Born in New York in 1950, Morales was arrested in 1979 for possession of explosives and managed to escape, first to Mexico, then to Cuba. He is credited with making all the bombs that the FALN used during its activity. In fact, he lost an eye and nine fingers during the unintentional detonation of a bomb in his own home. He was sentenced to 89 years in prison, but he escaped thanks to a doctor who was a member of a communist organization.

The FBI and other agencies, Rubio recalled, tried in vain to find the terrorist, who had been involved in other attacks during the 1970s. When they tried to arrest him in Puebla (Mexico) before his escape to Havana, two policemen died. In the Cuban capital he married and had children, although no more details are known about his current life.

The Clinton Administration denied him amnesty in 1997, and he did not return to the United States after the restoration of diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington, when several media predicted that both he and the terrorist Assata Shakur – former member of the Black Liberation Army – would be handed over by Cuba.

The FBI is offering $100,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to Morales’ capture.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Former Officer Insists That 13 Soldiers Died in Melones Because “Protocols Were Violated”

“Those children were ordered to be killed because the correct thing to do is to evacuate immediately” in the face of the risk of explosion

A still from a documentary for Russian television about the underground facilities of the Armed Forces. / Screenshot/Zvezda

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguin, 25 January 2025 — Of the Cuban Army arsenal that exploded in Melones, Holguin, on January 7, only a few structures remain standing. The shock wave and the fire consumed everything, from the barracks to the war material whose detonation caused the death of 13 soldiers, nine of them young recruits. The conclusion is clear: “Protocols were violated there.”

Speaking is a retired captain of the Armed Forces, interviewed on condition of anonymity by 14ymedio. His assessment of the case, as a former officer and in charge of weaponry in an Eastern Army unit, is that Melones is one of the most costly recent episodes of negligence for the Cuban people.

“The officers who lost their lives there knew the risk they were running; the soldiers did not,” the military man assures, categorically. “They knew what kind of military equipment was in there and how highly explosive it was.”

When the captain refers to “in there,” he refers to the labyrinth of underground tunnels that the arsenal consisted of. Cubans, accustomed to suspecting that “the mountains are hollow” due to the work and grace of the Army, cannot imagine the attention and resources that have been devoted to the construction of those warehouses, always adjacent to military units, which this newspaper’s source now describes in great detail. continue reading

The door of the Melones tunnels, and those of all the magazines in Cuba, are huge

“The door of the Melones tunnels, and those of all the magazines in Cuba, are huge,” he says. “It’s a big cement arch, an entrance where you can fit up to two war tanks, side by side. The doors are made of a special material, a mixture of lead, sand, iron and concrete.”

In Cuban military jargon, this combination of construction materials has a name that is reminiscent of the most thrilling years of the Cold War: the “anti-atomic league.”

The Melones tragedy took place in this scenario. Explosions screams, commands – negligent and carelessly issued in the heat of the moment, the captain says – and the recruits operating without understanding the caliber of the equipment. “Those kids were ordered to die,” he insists. “The correct protocol is immediate evacuation.”

“The Armed Forces have specialists in weaponry and explosives control, they even have technical forces trained in firefighting. They are what people call ’FAR firefighters,’” he explains. “People were not supposed to go in there, and the order that should have been given was to evacuate the facility and notify the right authorities.”

“Those tunnels were hermetically sealed. When there is a fire, if you open the mouth of the tunnel, you are oxygenating the fire.”

The military staff did just the opposite. “Those tunnels were hermetically sealed. When there is a fire, if you open the mouth of the tunnel – that huge, heavy door – you are oxygenating the fire. They opened the mouth of the tunnel and went in carelessly.” According to some of his former colleagues who were aware of other details of the explosion, with whom he has discussed the case, toxic gases were already coming out of the Melones tunnel.

“They went in there and then the oxygen fueled the flames,” he continues. “There were two soldiers who tried to get in. One came out coughing, asphyxiated by the fumes and smoke. The other was the one who didn’t want to go in and said he would rather go to prison than die. A few minutes later, the tunnels exploded”.

The case is reminiscent of the 2020 explosion in the military unit of La Púa, in the town of Velasco -just 50 kilometers from Melones. What exploded then was also an ammunition warehouse “in poor condition.” Silos with bullets, rifles, various types of machinery. The mushroom of yellowish smoke that rose over the arsenal, photographed by the villagers, was almost identical to that of Melones.

The big difference, the former officer stresses, was that in La Púa the 1,245 inhabitants of the village were evacuated quickly and that, as the official note on the explosion stated, “there was no loss of human lives.” Besides, “that unit had less explosive material than the magazine of Melones.”

The Ministry of the Armed Forces will keep secret how much equipment exploded in Melones and what operation was being carried out there

There are other recent cases, all similar, that point to the obsoleteness of the equipment stored in the subway magazines of the Armed Forces. Almost everything dates back to the Soviet era when Fidel Castro intended to arm the country to the teeth. In 2017, a silo exploded in Songo-La Maya, Santiago de Cuba; in 2011, an ammunition depot exploded in Boyeros, Havana; in 2000, another warehouse blew up 20 kilometers from Matanzas.

Cubans know that, despite the death of the 13 soldiers, the Ministry of the Armed Forces will keep secret how much equipment exploded in Melones and exactly what operation was being carried out in the unit before the incident. “There are still sporadic explosions there,” confirms the former captain interviewed by 14ymedio.

“The government will never admit it, but there was negligence,” he insists. “There would have been material damage, of course, but all those lives could have been saved. Not one would have been lost.”

Translated by LAR

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Numbers or Names? Pact or Unilateral Commitments?

There has not been a pact, but a commitment by Díaz-Canel, at least that the Pope has promised him that he will not be punished for his sins

Image taken during a meeting between the Pope and Díaz-Canel in 2023. / Miguel Díaz-Canel/X

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Desde Aquí, Havana, 26 January 2025 — A young book designer, who is not a specialist in statistics or political mediation, made this comment about the releases from prison promised by the Cuban dictatorship in 2025, the year of the jubilee: “If they announced that they would release 553 inmates from prison, it must have been because a list of names was agreed upon, because if it were a commitment with numbers we would be talking about 500 or perhaps 725, which are the years that have passed since the first jubilee, but 553 is not a number that plays with any Kabbalah.”

In the letter that Miguel Díaz-Canel sent to Pope Francis at the beginning of January, he was informed that on the occasion of the Jubilee of Hope 2025, the decision had been taken to “benefit 553 people convicted in due process of various crimes contemplated by law by granting freedom.”

In the tenth point of the Bull of Invocation for the Jubilee Year 2025, Francis proposed to the governments of the world that “in the Jubilee Year initiatives be undertaken that restore hope; forms of amnesty or forgiveness of punishment aimed at helping people to regain confidence in themselves and in society.”

Seen in this way, it could be said that there was no pact, but rather a unilateral commitment by Díaz-Canel, unless the Pope promised the Cuban dictator that he would not be punished for his sins. But as far as we know, there are only eternal pacts with the devil, and those in literature. continue reading

For it to have been something like a pact we would have had to have a third party, in this case President Joe Biden.

For it to have been something like a pact, we would have had to have a third party, in this case President Joe Biden, in the event that he had made a quasi-parallel commitment, also unilateral, to “free” the Cuban government from the sanction that comes with appearing on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

To take this hypothesis to its extreme, the Pope would then be the intermediary between the two parties, but there is no letter from Biden to Francis nor any allusion to the fact that the withdrawal of this country from the list was due to the celebration of the jubilee year.

One person here vaguely promising one thing under the non-explicit condition that the other person promises the other thing can be described as anything but a pact, where there are supposed to be guarantees. This perhaps explains why there is no public list of names.

That is why Trump was able to put Cuba’s name back on the list and why the dictatorship was able to freeze the release of those who were so unjustly condemned for political reasons. With such a lack of transparency, the regime also had the door open to appeal to the maneuver of adding common prisoners to the list: people who “in the spirit of the Jubilee” will be able to regain confidence in themselves and in society.

The aforementioned Bull of Invocation to the Jubilee speaks of hope and also of patience. Hopefully, we will not have to wait for Francis to close the Holy Door of the papal Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican on January 6, 2026, the moment in which the Jubilee concludes and which would in some way be the deadline to fulfill this supposed unilateral commitment.

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