Translating Cuba – Page 116 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Without Water, the Main Hospital in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, Is ‘A High-Risk Place for the Sick’

The center is sinking into filth and services are closed while an unbearable stench spreads throughout the building

The hospital was recently the target of criticism for the lack of medical personnel at night. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 19 January 2025 — “There is no water,” warns a sign in the cafeteria of the Camilo Cienfuegos Provincial Hospital in Sancti Spíritus. The sign, which hangs at an angle from a blackboard, adds that only “products to take away” are being sold, and its presence is just a small sample of what is happening inside the medical center. Several operating rooms remain closed, specialist consultations are limited and the bathrooms are covered in excrement.

“We can’t even clean the floor because the water hasn’t come on for days,” an employee who works in the emergency room told 14ymedio. “This has affected everything, from the emergency services to the laboratory where the tests are done and the hemodialysis room, which is one of the rooms that has the most problems right now because there are patients in a very delicate state.” The worker believes that in these conditions “the hospital becomes a high-risk place for the sick.”

In the cafeteria a sign warns that there is no water in the center and products are only sold for take-away. / 14ymedio

In the Emergency Room, the smells coming from the bathrooms fill the waiting room. The doctors and nurses seem to have gotten used to the stench after days of it being present, but the patients who have just arrived feel it like a punch in the face. “I came with my husband who is having an asthma attack and as soon as we entered we were stunned. How can a health center be like this?” After waiting for half an hour, the couple decided to return home. “We’ll see how we resolve it, but this is unbearable.”

The hospital, which was recently the target of criticism for the lack of medical personnel at night, has been defended in the official press as a place that “despite the energy contingency” works 24 hours a day and provides excellent service. Last October, a photo report published in the local Escambray newspaper showed surgeons in an impeccable room performing a complex operation, maintenance technicians analyzing samples and a nephrology specialist calibrating modern dialysis equipment. If these images were repeated now, they would not be able to capture the main protagonist of these rooms and consultations: the stench that the lack of water has spread everywhere.

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Distressed Families Say Goodbye to Their Children Summoned for Military Service in Manzanillo, Cuba

Recruits say goodbye to their families from the bus / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Manzanillo (Granma Province), 19 January 2025 — Before the official information was issued about the death of nine young people and four officers in the explosions of January 7 in the Melones military unit in Holguín, other parents, this time in Manzanillo, said goodbye to their children in a forced march towards the Army. From Monday the 13th and for a week, the headquarters of the Combatants Association in the Gulf City became a launch pad for more than a hundred boys who left to fulfill the controversial Active Military Service.

To Yanaisa, her son’s farewell reminds her of her father’s stories about the Army. “He was not an internationalist, but he was often mobilized when I was a child. He told my brother that the Army would make him a real man. Now, with everything that has happened, he hardly talks about it. He just says that he has to know how to take care of himself. I don’t want my son to become a ’man.’ I just want him to get out of there soon,” she explains to 14ymedio.

For 45 days, the young recruits are subjected to basic training and then transferred to the planned regular units, which vary according to the needs of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. In Granma Province, after the initial stay in Jiguaní, they are transferred to units such as Managua, in the west, or Los Guineos, in the municipality of Guisa, in the same province. However, the greatest fear of families is not the distance. continue reading

In Granma Province, after the initial stay in Jiguaní, they are transferred to units such as Managua or Los Guineos / 14ymedio

“Being a soldier is not like having a scholarship. There are people who think it’s almost the same but it’s not like that. No one really knows what’s going on there. Now everyone is surprised by the explosions in the tunnels, but they happen everywhere in Cuba. In addition to the mistreatment by most officers, they also spend bad nights, there is hunger… If someone likes it and wants to dedicate themselves to the military then it’s not a problem, but they give the rest of us more work and to a large extent, at least for me, it was a waste of time,” recognizes Rody, who accompanied his family to say goodbye to his cousin.

The resistance of family members and young people themselves to joining the army despite the perks offered them is increasingly evident. “Now they are boarding the bus, but the bad side comes quickly. I try to encourage my sister… but it’s hell” says Rubén, 53, annoyed, to another man sitting next to him in the park while they wait for his nephew’s bus to leave.

“I myself know a guy who came out partly unhinged. It was in the early 90s. We were cleaning the rifles on one of those long tables and one fired a shot because no one had checked the chamber. We weren’t sitting face to face, but in zigzag, but the bullet buzzed near his head. It affected his hearing for a while, but especially his mind. He started thinking about what had happened and almost went crazy. Although it was almost time for them to discharge us, they didn’t discharge him, they just changed his position,” the man recalls.

The resistance of family members and young people themselves to join military service is increasingly evident / 14ymedio

In the past, one of the most attractive options for military service was to be selected as a firefighter. However, after the catastrophe at the Matanzas Supertanker Base and the fire shortly after in the local Fishing Combo, the dangers of that work were exposed.

Rebeca, who does not hide her anger, speaks in front of the group of parents and recruits waiting for the buses: “I don’t care what others say and I told them so. They can call him soft, criminal… What matters to me is that he take care of himself. This is mandatory, but if they send him to do something strange, don’t do it. He can sit on the floor and be imprisoned. I prefer him in prison and alive than in a little box. I don’t even want to think about that. Look at those mothers in Holguín, who have not even been able to bury their children. I’ll die if something like that happens to me!”

In 2022, one year after the 11J protests, the regime declared to the United Nations that “children are not recruited and will not be recruited in Cuba.” The words of the Foreign Ministry official echoed in the minds of many parents, who know that the affirmation and replacement of “Compulsory Military Service” by “General Military Service” or “Active Military Service” are just euphemisms. Under the acronyms hides the forced incorporation into a military entity that is increasingly rejected by the population.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Félix Navarro Celebrates the ‘Battle’ of Three Ladies in White Still Imprisoned by the Cuban Regime

Félix Navarro (2nd from R) and his family, shortly after his release from prison was announced this Saturday. / OCDH

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 18 January 2025 — Opposition leader Félix Navarro has been in prison since 11 July 2021 (11J). Almost four years later, as part of a deal between the Cuban regime and the Vatican to release 553 prisoners, he was granted conditional release this Saturday. He left the Agüica prison in Matanzas with the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen to his daughter Sayli Navarro, imprisoned for also participating in the mass protests.

Among the “many visits” and calls that besiege him to celebrate his release, he spoke to 14ymedio. “If I didn’t have this family and the brothers who have surrounded me in Cuba and around the world, I wouldn’t have been able to leave prison,” he says. “I found the family to be very well and very united.”

As of November 2022, he was allowed to see his daughter Sayli, a prisoner in the Matanzas Women’s Prison, who was transferred every 45 days to meet her father in the Agüica prison – almost 100 kilometers away – for two hours. There she had to talk to her in front of her guards, in an office.

As of November 2022, he was allowed to see his daughter Sayli, a prisoner in the Matanzas Women’s Prison,

“I always see her thin. The food situation [in Cuban prisons] is always bad. But [she has managed to mitigate it] thanks to friends and brothers in the struggle, with visits every 15 days,” he says. At first, when his jailers continue reading

suggested he call his daughter, Navarro rejected the offer. “You put her in jail,” he told them. Finally they decided to take him to her.

Navarro believes that his daughter, as well as other political prisoners such as Sissi Abascal and Tania Echevarría – all three of whom are Ladies in White – “have fought the battle that they have fought.” “We would not have wanted to go through this situation, but we are amazed at how these three women have behaved.”

In prison, only two other people could visit him at a time and every 50 days. His family and friends had to rotate. “There was always one of my brothers or nephews there. Anyone with the surname Navarro or Rodriguez could go in, that was the way,” he says.

His jailers were inflexible with this rule. Opposition member Iván Hernández Carrillo, for example, was not allowed in even though Navarro considers him his “blood brother” because – political activism aside – he did not have his last name. “However, he accompanied my family many times,” he says. “I told Iván: ’My brother, I need you not to let yourself be provoked in the street so that they don’t take you to jail.’ If they had put Iván in jail, what would be lost would be an army.”

In 2016, Navarro was diagnosed with diabetes, a disease that caused him to endure difficult days in prison.

In 2016, Navarro was diagnosed with diabetes, a disease that caused him to endure difficult days in prison. Now, he says, he has “low blood sugar levels,” although he does not consider that he is going through a critical moment. “Sometimes I lose consciousness, I can’t get out of bed. Diabetes knocked me out once at midnight and other times at dawn. I don’t remember anything that happened during that time.”

He has been unconscious for one to two hours. In prison, his diet contributed to the worsening of his illness and did not meet the requirements to maintain his sugar level. “The last visit I had was on December 6. Since then I have gained five kilograms and I have not had any more lows. However, this Sunday I ran out of medicine and I could not talk to my family either.”

Navarro thanked his “brothers in exile” for the visibility given to his case, in particular the Rescate Jurídico Foundation and its president, Santiago Álvarez Fernández-Magriña, a “Cuban patriot,” Navarro describes. He also thanked the Cuban American National Foundation. He celebrates the release on Thursday of José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, whom he describes as “a lion, a great man.”

At midday on Saturday, the organization Prisoners Defenders reported 89 releases, “the vast majority of which were conditional releases that had been due to them for some time and had been denied.” The government, for its part, said on Friday that it had already released 127 inmates , a figure that has sparked controversy and indicates – if true – that there are a large number of common prisoners who have been discreet about their release. Of these, only about 50 were political prisoners.

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The Opening of the Hotel in the Controversial K Tower in Havana Is Delayed

As ’14ymedio’ confirmed, the works are not yet finished.

The scene that ’14ymedio’ found this Thursday showed the building, scaffolding and cranes closed and workers lying on the sidewalk. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Jose Lassa, Havana, 17 January 2025 — The opening of the Iberostar Cuba Selection, which occupies the controversial new skyscraper at 23 and K, in Havana’s Vedado, did not occur on January 15, as announced by Havanatur, which promotes the hotel managed by the Spanish firm. Nor did it take place on the 16th, since on Thursday the building remained closed, with scaffolding, cranes and workers lying on the sidewalk, as 14ymedio was able to confirm.

Asked when the work will be finished, the workers shrugged their shoulders: “We only know that the opening has been delayed, they say it will be on the 20th or so.” Although neither the Iberostar website nor that of the state agency Havanatur indicate a date, some tourist reservation sites do: starting on February 1, they are offering rooms from $483 to $959 per night.

Meanwhile, Cubans are increasingly criticizing the state’s investments in five-star tourist facilities. The latest thing that has provoked this is the hydraulic works that have been going on for weeks on Boyeros Avenue, without any government information, heading towards the neighborhood where the new luxury hotel is located, and about which the official press finally made a statement two days ago. continue reading

Although neither the Iberostar nor Havanatur websites indicate a date, some tourist reservation sites do: this coming February 1st. / 14ymedio

The new ‘Marino Palatino’ pipeline, was created, Cubadebate explained, and is intended to “replace a network of aging pipelines that has caused constant breaks and leaks, affecting approximately 72,250 inhabitants of the Cerro and Plaza de la Revolución municipalities.”

Without mentioning the K Tower – something that some commentators do, however, mention at the bottom of the article – the media acknowledges, speaking of the “population increase in the area” on “an already weakened system, increasing the need for drinking water”: “The hotel development planned in the area poses a challenge by further increasing demand.”

The building, first popularly known as the “López-Calleja Tower” – named after the late head of the military conglomerate Gaesa, owner of the facilities through one of its subsidiaries, Grupo Gaviota – and then as Torre K, has been surrounded by controversy since the moment its construction was announced in 2018. It represented, from the start, a waste of resources in an impoverished country.

As the building was being built, and with tourism at its lowest levels, technical criticism also began. Several architects pointed out the “mistakes” of the project, including the “pretentious gigantism,” the “insulated glass” that is dazzling in a tropical country, and the poor orientation of the hotel, with no views to the north, which would have been the best façade to orient the rooms so that they do not suffer from “that Caribbean sun that costs a lot of energy and money to cool.”

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No Cuban Received US Humanitarian Parole in December and Almost 1,000 Are Waiting for a US Travel Permit

A total of 970 Cubans have not yet been processed to travel to the United States / Mario Vallejo

14ymedio, Havana, January 16, 2025 — In the last two months of 2024, no Cubans arrived in the United States through the Humanitarian Parole Program. Four days after Republican Donald Trump takes over the presidency, the program that came into force in 2023 and authorized travel for 110,970 citizens of the Island seems to be experiencing its sunset. Of that total, 970 people have not yet been processed to travel.

The figures offered by the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are overwhelming: in December 10 Cubans received travel authorization, however, they have not been able to finalize their transfer due to the lack of available commercial flights and logistical problems.

For about two years, the program has facilitated the legal arrival in the US of 531,690 Cubans, Haitians (213,150), Nicaraguans (96,270) and Venezuelans (120,760), but their stay in the country is temporary; that is, they are granted parole for two years. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Univision that these migrants “have 24 months to change their permanent status to any other available legal program, including asylum.”

The DHS stressed that “those who are not granted asylum or other immigration benefits will have to leave the United States at the end of their authorized probation period or, generally, will be placed in deportation proceedings after the probation period expires.” continue reading

Among those who were able to travel in December were 10 Venezuelans. In November, 10 Venezuelans, 10 Nicaraguans and 30 Haitians arrived in the United States.

In almost two years the program has favored the legal arrival in the US of 531,690 Cubans, as well as Haitians (213,150), Nicaraguans (96,270) and Venezuelans (120,760)

The decrease in the numbers came after the accusations of fraud reported between last July and August. On July 6, the program was suspended for Venezuelans and, days later, for other nationalities, until introducing the necessary changes to avoid irregularities. Among those detected were blank forms in the system, false phone numbers, postal codes that did not exist, social security numbers of dead people, repeated texts in thousands of applications and people who presented their documents more than once.

In August, the delivery of sponsors’ fingerprints and a more thorough review of applicants became mandatory, which reactivated the mechanism. However, for the US Congress, the program promoted by the Biden Administration is a “disaster plagued by fraud.”

In terms of CBP One application figures, almost 44,000 people were processed at ports of entry in December. From January 2023 to the end of December 2024, more than 936,500 people successfully scheduled appointments, mainly Venezuelans, Cubans and Mexicans.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Energy Collapse in Cuba Has Its Origin in Fidel Castro’s Commitment to Generators

The same mistake is now being made with Chinese photovoltaic parks, which are doomed to failure.

14ymedio, Especialista Zea, Havana, 13 January 2025 — When the Island was plunged into the first total blackout last year on October 17, both the population and the technicians of the National Electric Union (SEN) wondered if the collapse could have been avoided. The negative answer, after decades of technological carelessness, has its roots in the so-called Energy Revolution, whose promises of stability were never fulfilled.

In obedience to the penultimate utopian idea of an elderly Fidel Castro, the country was “remotorized” in 2006. The generators, newly installed to cover the demand, briefly supported the National Electrical System (SEN). This solution lasted five years, the same time period as the warranties on the equipment.

One by one, the generators began to present problems. The collapse was coming, and for anyone who had technical knowledge of the matter, it was more than predictable. It was a support technology for a system that – mortally wounded after the fall of the Soviet Union and the Special Period – entered the new century in conditions of maximum precariousness.

The SEN already operated with less than half of its total generation capacity, and the authorities, against all logic, made the generators assume much of the country’s consumption needs. Once the warranties on the equipment expired, without economic means to buy new parts or carry out the essential maintenance, the Energy Revolution followed the same path of failures and improvisations as the other Revolution. continue reading

The obsolescence of many generators and the total loss of others caused the greatest alarm in the western region, the one with the highest demand

All equipment suffers wear and tear. Without maintenance and with sustained operation, any system goes down. While the generators were carrying national demand, the thermoelectric plants – whose condition can be followed every day in the UNE reports – also deteriorated more and more.

The obsolescence of many and the total loss of others caused the greatest alarm in the western region, the one with the highest demand. The typical example is the Otto Parellada, known as Tallapiedra, although the breakdown of the Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas has also been emblematic and was the official cause of the collapse of the SEN in October.

Faced with the debacle of its two energy pillars, the authorities created the illusion that the problem – a daily deficit that exceeds 1,000 megawatts (MW) – could be solved by installing solar panels supplied by China. As in 2006, it was possible to predict that the generators would not last long without maintenance or spare parts, and we can now see the failure of the photovoltaic parks coming.

To generate a single MW, between 3,000 and 4,000 optimal quality solar panels are needed. It would be necessary to cover 20,000 square meters of surface to reach that figure and have battery banks – an additional cost that Cuba has not mentioned – so that the stored energy is usable when the hours of sunshine pass, which coincide with those of higher consumption. In the current economic conditions of the country, a project of that caliber is not viable.

It is true that photovoltaic energy is ecological and does not depend on the use of fossil fuels, but it involves constant maintenance of the sites, which the Cuban authorities have shown, historically, unable to sustain.

Improvisation and the lack of long-term planning remain the slogan, despite the fact that without a stable SEN Cuba will not have a functional industry or a break from the blackouts. While the Energy and Mines authorities always allude to a strategy to get out of the quagmire, the reality speaks for itself.

On January 7, for example, the State newspaper Granma announced that China had come to the rescue of 38 diesel generators by sending “aid” in the form of spare parts: “radiators, motors and other necessary components to be able to recover the equipment that is damaged.” However, the repair will not be effective until February, nor will it provide the 58 MW that, in theory, it is capable of generating.

The only possible truce does not come from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, but from the climate, more benevolent in these first two months of the year

The shipment was not enough for all the provinces. Ciego de Ávila, Artemisa and Mayabeque will have to wait for the next aid package to repair their generators. Hua Xin, China’s ambassador to the Island and architect of the rapprochement between the two countries in recent months, assured that his country’s goal is for the SEN to “recover” the 400 MW lost from the deterioration of the equipment.

To what extent does this “aid” solve the Cuban energy problem? Will it end the blackouts? The answer is again negative. The country needs 3,000 MW per day to meet its demand, avoid collapse and put an end to the blackouts. The only possible truce does not come from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, but from the climate, more benevolent in these first two months of the year.

When this period of low temperatures ends and the tropical heat returns, the use of air conditioners and fans will again cause blackouts. The SEN needs fuel and spare parts, two pending issues that the Government has not resolved. The generators that run on fuel oil could also be reactivated and recovered, but everything has a high economic cost that the authorities are not willing to pay.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, but to turn on that light it is necessary for the country to manage to sustain 50% of its generation capacity, while recovering – with maintenance and new equipment – the other half of the SEN.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Leaving Prison in Cuba Does Not Mean Being Free

“They have left the small prison to enter the big prison,” said an elderly woman on Thursday

Dariel Cruz García, with his mother, Yaquelín Cruz García, this Wednesday, after his release from prison 1580 in Havana. / EFE/ Ernesto Mastrascusa

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 17 January 2025 — In the last few hours, more than thirty Cuban political prisoners have been released. The number is just a small part of the 553 people who will be released from their cells after the agreement between the Havana regime and the Vatican which led to the United States removing the island from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism. On this side of the bars, the prisoners are awaited by their families but also by a country where dissent continues to be a crime.

Among those who have left the cells are internationally recognized opponents such as José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, citizens who only protested peacefully in the streets such as Luis Robles, known as “the young man with the placard,” and very poor people from the Havana neighborhood of La Güinera who on 11 July 2021 (11J) demonstrated demanding change and chanting the word “freedom.” It is expected that in the coming days more locks will be removed and other dungeons will be opened.

The joy, however, has been dampened. Organizations that have been working for years on a database of political prisoners warn that there are more than a thousand people convicted of these crimes on the island. To these alarming numbers we must add that the current releases are not full freedoms but a partial measure with serious limitations on rights. If those who benefit from this decision incur in any “indiscipline,” they can be returned to prison. Hanging over their heads is the return to the locked cells, the meager rations of food and the mistreatment of the guards. continue reading

For those less known and therefore barely protected by international visibility, everything will be more difficult.

The lives of these prisoners will also be very difficult in a nation that has experienced an intensification of controls and official intolerance in recent years. With an economic crisis that seems to have no end, a mass exodus that also does not stop and a ruling elite anchored to ideological continuity, walking through Cuban streets is not very different from spending the days in a prison. “They have left the small prison to enter the big prison,” said an elderly woman on Thursday standing in one of those endless lines to buy food. The rest of those waiting in line nodded in silence.

For those less known and, therefore, barely protected by international visibility, everything will be more difficult. For example, Yaquelín Cruz García, mother of Dariel Cruz García aged 23, told me this Thursday how she experienced the first 24 hours after the release of the young man, convicted for the 11J protests. The woman says that she is happy to finally have El Bolo, as his friends also know him, at her side, although she fears that “something will happen and they will want to put him back in jail.”

Cruz García feels that the anxiety continues. “He is under a conditional release regime and he has to follow the rules imposed on him,” explains the mother. “If my son had been given total freedom and could leave the country, I would do everything possible to get him out of Cuba as soon as possible, even if it were to go to Haiti,” she says. Her fear is not exaggerated. An invisible shackle surrounds the ankle of all the released prisoners.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Deutsche Welle in Spanish.

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Of the 127 Prisoners Released by the Cuban Authorities, Only About 50 Are Political Prisoners

Sosa Ravelo clarified last Wednesday that the measure is neither an amnesty nor a pardon / Televisión Cubana

14ymedio, Havana, 17 January 2025 — The Cuban government has so far released 127 prisoners of the 553 who, after a negotiation with the Vatican, they promised to release on January 14. The number was provided by Maricela Sosa Ravelo, vice president of the Supreme Court, to the spokesman for the regime, Humberto López, and is much higher than the 50 political prisoners registered up to Friday by the Prisoners Defenders organization. It is expected that there will be a significant number of common prisoners who have been discreet with the news of their release.

Interviewed at the Court’s headquarters, Sosa Ravelo explained that, of the 127 released between Wednesday and Thursday, 121 are on conditional release and six have extracriminal leave. The former are subjected to “a trial period” in which former inmates must meet certain conditions, maintain “good behavior” and be linked to a workplace or school, until the time of the sanction ends.

The six extracriminal licenses, on the other hand, were granted “for illness” and other reasons that prevent the inmate from staying in prison, although Sosa Ravelo did not give more details about the cases.

The six extracriminal licenses were granted “for illness” and other reasons

There have been releases “in all Cuban provinces,” López said. Each person has had a meeting with an enforcement judge who has explained their legal situation during their “trial period.” “The process will continue in the coming days,” López said. The Prosecutor’s Office will have to offer its opinion on each case raised, said Sosa Ravelo, “and it can be favorable or unfavorable.”

Some organizations, such as Justice 11J, doubt the “relatively high number of people” that the Supreme Court claims to have released. The NGO claims that it has documented 39 releases, “all political prisoners.” continue reading

Sosa Ravelo was interviewed for the first time last Wednesday by López himself about the implementation of the measure. In her speech she clarified that it is not an amnesty nor a pardon, since they “entail the total extinction of the sanction,” which will not happen in these cases. If they don’t meet their “obligations,” she warned, they could go back to prison.

Those on the list were prosecuted for “dissimilar” crimes

Those on the list were prosecuted for “dissimilar” crimes. These, she said, are “real crimes such as theft and robbery with force. There are threats, there are injuries, there are disorders. There are also some people who were punished for sedition, but sedition is not a political crime.”

Among those released this Thursday was José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), locked up in the Mar Verde prison, in Santiago de Cuba, since the day of the nationwide protests on 11 July 2021.

Ferrer, in his first speeches, said that he refused to sign a document that was presented to him before his release: “I was kicked out of prison because I do not accept conditional release.” In addition, he said that he would not accept impositions of any kind by the regime, and said he felt “embarrassed for other people” about the agreements that allowed the prisoners to leave.

Another of the most anticipated releases was that of Luis Robles Elizastigui, known as “the young man with the placard” for having protested with a sign on the Havana boulevard of San Rafael, in December 2020. Robles, 20, was serving his sentence in the maximum security prison of the Combinado del Este, in Havana, and he received a brief pass in February last year.

Dariel Cruz García, 23 years old, is on conditional release for participating in the La Güinera protest on July 12, 2021

Dariel Cruz García, 23 years old, is on conditional release for participating in the La Güinera protest on July 12, 2021, and his mother told 14ymedio that she fears for her son’s future: “In this neighborhood anything can happen, because here in Cuba the situation is very bad and they want to put him in jail again.” “If my son had been given total freedom and could leave the country, I would do everything possible to get him out of Cuba as soon as possible, even if it is for Haiti,” she added.

Only through the interviews with Sosa Ravelo has the Cuban regime given the little official information that exists about the released. Humberto López, in fact, has downplayed the impact of the issue and has said that the releases occurred “systematically” in Cuba and that this process is “one more.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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José Daniel Ferrer Challenges His Jailers: ‘You Will Be Prosecuted in the Future’

José Daniel Ferrer, after his release, with his family: his wife, Nelva Ortega, and his children Daniel José and Fátima. / 14ymedio/Courtesy

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 17 January 2025 — The phone has not stopped ringing all afternoon. Yesterday, José Daniel Ferrer was released from the Mar Verde prison in Santiago de Cuba, and he has not stopped giving interviews. Finally, I hear his voice on the other end of the line. He has the same firm and kind tone that I remember. Dungeons and mistreatment do not seem to have taken away either his energy or his sanity. We started talking as if just yesterday we had to pause this conversation that I now share with you.

“Right now I feel a bit sad because I have not been able to attend to everybody who has wanted to talk to me,” he acknowledges, overcome by the many phone calls. Leaving prison is an overwhelming experience. The sounds cease to be just the squeaks of the bars and begin to be familiar voices. The light changes and thee are no longer shadows but blinding flashes of light, and one’s body still does not know how to move, although the space is as small your own house. The veteran opponent has experienced those sensations many times, but they still affect him.

Ferrer has been welcomed not only by his relatives and neighbors but also by the blackout. “Now I have a rechargeable lamp because shortly after I arrived the electric power went out.” The Cuba that he has found on this side of the prison walls is a much more economically deteriorated country with fewer hours of electricity. “Even so, despite everything, I have already been able to hug some brothers in the struggle, physically and virtually, through the internet,” says the untiring leader of Unpacu. continue reading

Although the days in captivity were full of bad moments, Ferrer also tells how humor served him to deal with his jailers

Although the days in captivity were full of bad moments, Ferrer also tells how humor served him to deal with his jailers. “I once heard on the Round Table [State TV program] that the Minister of Agriculture wanted to improve egg production with more political and ideological work for the workers in the sector.” When the guards approached him that day, he could not miss the opportunity: ’By now you’ve heard that the chickens have to understand that they must work harder to lay eggs.’ They didn’t even crack a smile.

Every moment of this conversation, the voice of a small child is heard on the other side of the phone. Ferrer’s son, Daniel José, demands the attention of a father with whom he has spent very little time due to the rigors of prison and the isolation to which the political prisoner was subjected. “I’m coming now,” the father tells him, continuing to intersperse sentences about his time behind bars while attending to the little one’s demands. You can imagine him with the cell phone in one hand and a toy in the other, trying to distract his son.

His daughter Fátima, 20 years old, has also arrived from the community of Palmarito to see her father. He has been able to speak with part of his family exiled in the United States and talked to his sister Ana Belkis Ferrer, who during this time kept an updated report on what Ferrer was going through in prison, the denied family visits and the deterioration of his health. “I still need to talk to my brother, my mother and my other children, but I’ll do it, I’ll do it,” he says.

“When I got home I had such a rush of adrenaline that I felt I was 18 years old”

“When I got home I had such a rush of adrenaline that I felt I was 18 years old,” he admits, although he also remembers that he must avoid those bursts of enthusiasm because he has problems with blood pressure and needs to medicate himself with Enalapril to keep it from rising. “The adrenaline has already returned to its place and I’m 54 years old again,” he says. His body, suffering from the confinement, poor diet and lack of sunlight, now sets the tone, marks the pace.

In the book that Commander Huber Matos wrote after leaving prison, where he spent 20 years denouncing the communist drift of the Fidel Castro regime, he describes a scene in which he got up to go to the bathroom and came across, for the first time in two decades, a mirror that showed him his full body. In the pages of Cómo llegó la noche [How the Night Came], the former political prisoner described the surprise of seeing a graying and aged man who looked into his eyes. Ferrer also is now rediscovering his image, specifying the contours that the dungeon blurred, visually recomposing his anatomy.

Despite the mistreatment, for his jailers he had words loaded with future projections on his last day in prison. “The democratization of Cuba is also good for you,” he told them before leaving, with a knowing and ironic wink that the guards did not expect: “Vote for me for the presidency because I know that your salary is not enough and you are going through hard times.”

“I know that you have to deal ‘on the left’ in order to survive,” the opponent continued to explain to them

“I know that you have to deal ’on the left’ in order to survive,” the opponent continued to explain to them, while making with his hand the gesture that in the Cuban streets is used for the act of stealing and diverting resources from the State. In a prison, the boss, the jailers and even the workers lower on the scale take home food and other resources intended for the prisoners in order to support themselves day to day. That truth, as big and solid as the walls of a prison, cannot be denied, so there was a prolonged silence after Ferrer’s words.

“Just go home,” the officers almost begged him before the dissident’s diatribe. An annoying prisoner must be worse than a stone in the shoe for some guards who are not used to being warned that the regime they defend with their weapons and uniforms can fall like a fragile house of cards at any time. The henchmen must believe that their impunity is eternal, because imagining a future in which they are accountable puts them in front of another mirror, that of responsibility.

“The days they were going to beat me up, they took the highest-ranking officer of Mar Verde out of the environment, so that later I could not say that he was aware of that mistreatment,” he recalls. “Yesterday he told me to just go home to my wife and son and stop protesting.” But Ferrer took it calmly and wanted to make it clear that he did not accept any blackmail linked to the release of political prisoners after the talks between the Cuban regime and the Vatican, in parallel with the announcement made by the Biden Administration to remove Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

“I want my things, my books, my writings, my verses,” the prisoner claimed. “I was writing quatrains. A few days ago I finished the first part of one that was about braggarts, those people who claim to have a courage that they don’t have: ’Juan, in a bar in Havana / under the effect of rum / without a weapon, kills a lion / on the African savannah’.” The night before the release Ferrer had finished the last verse: “Juan, without the drunkenness / just by seeing a mouse / his heart stirs / and the whole of Havana runs.”

“Yesterday he told me to just go home to my wife and son and stop protesting “

“When I got up this Thursday, one of my sources inside the prison warned me that Mar Verde was full of officials from all over Santiago de Cuba. ’There are also some from State Security, and it is being said that you are going free, that they are making preparations’.” Shortly after they informed him that it was a “conditional freedom,” which Ferrer refused: “I do not accept conditions; they can give me all the warnings they want but I’m not complying with them.”

The prisoner sent them a defiant message: “You will be prosecuted in the future and you will be convicted of all this, but I can assure you that you will not have to face the hunger, bedbugs or tuberculosis that we political prisoners have to suffer in Cuba.” Finally “they threw me out of there. They didn’t let me pick up my toothbrush, family photos or my books, nothing.”

Outside, his wife Nelva Ortega Tamayo and their little son were waiting for him. For her he has only words of gratitude. “She has gone through very difficult times while I was in prison: she lost her mother and recently her grandmother also died,” Ferrer adds. “It’s one of the hardest things about being in prison, that helplessness of not being able to be there for loved ones in the most complicated moments to encourage and support them.”

Now, Ferrer plans a visit to Havana, where he has a daughter he hasn’t seen since before the pandemic. The last part of the conversation is to remember our time of meeting as friends. A pizza eaten in company, a hug given in a hurry, a few laughs between personal testimonies. “See you, my brother,” he says in closing, as if we had paused our conversation a few hours before and only resumed it to catch up with the latest details: the news to which anecdotes, future projects and even verses are always added.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Opposition Leader José Daniel Ferrer Released From Prison After Negotiations Between the Cuban Regime and the Vatican

José Daniel Ferrer’s release from prison, like that of Luis Robles, was one of the most anticipated since the Cuban regime’s announcement on Tuesday

The opponent José Daniel Ferrer, in an image shared this Thursday, the day of his release, on social networks. / X/@jdanielferrer

14ymedio, Havana, 16 January 2025 — José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), was released from prison this Thursday. “I don’t know the conditions, if it was under extracriminal license, if it was parole, I don’t know, but they say he’s going home,” Carlos Amel Oliva reported in a video broadcast by the Prisoners Defenders organization, and confirmed by the opponent’s sister, Ana Belkis Ferrer.

The dissident’s wife, Nelva Ortega, had been called the day before by the authorities to appear this morning at the Mar Verde prison, in Santiago de Cuba, where the opponent had been imprisoned since July 11, 2021.

In his first statements after his release, to Martí Noticias, Ferrer said: “I was kicked out of prison because I don’t accept conditional release.” The authorities, in any case, warned him that “if he does not comply with the rules of socialist society” they will “try him in court again.

I was kicked out of prison because I don’t accept conditional release”

The leader of Unpacu said that, although he has health problems, none affects his “desire to continue fighting for democracy and human rights.” “I’m ready, I’m going to continue doing what I’ve always done,” he said, while asking the opposition to “be more united than ever.”

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Ferrer said he felt “embarrassed over this agreement, for the way in which the Biden administration and the Vatican have handled it.” And he continued: “According to the terms of the statement published by the regime, it seems that they have just defeated them in three rounds, as if by chance they decided to give freedom to the 553 prisoners.”

“If Biden and the Vatican don’t deny this, they are playing the game of a bully similar to Pablo Escobar, who does what he wants, an ally of Nicolás Maduro and Vladimir Putin. They [the Regime] boast that both Washington and the Pope have done what they wanted. They have no respect.”

In the same way, he estimated: “If the regime has not eliminated me like Oswaldo Payá, it is thanks to the solidarity of the European members of Parliament and the good press of the free world.” continue reading

For its part, the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, of which Ferrer is president, celebrated this Thursday, in a statement, the release of the opponent, and “deeply thank the role of the Vatican in its mediation for this important step.” However, it clarified that other prisoners, such as Félix Navarro, 71, should also be released.

“The current releases are no more than a form of imprisonment without bars”

“We reiterate our urgent call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and the decriminalization of dissent in Cuba,” they insist in their text. “Freedom cannot be conditioned. The current releases are nothing more than a form of imprisonment without bars, where rules of ‘good behavior’ are imposed.” “In reality, this means that anyone who exercises their right to freedom of expression will be sent back to prison to serve the rest of their sentence.”

In any case, the release of Ferrer, like that of Luis Robles Elizastigui, also this Thursday, was one of the most anticipated since the Cuban regime announced, on Tuesday night, that 553 people would be released from prison as part of a negotiation with the Vatican.

An hour earlier, President Joe Biden’s order to remove Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism had been made public, in addition to other measures, which the Island has done everything possible to dissociate from the release of prisoners.

Ferrer had been locked up in Mar Verde prison, without trial, since 11 July 2021, when he was arrested before being able to join the massive demonstrations of that day. His situation in prison, subjected to all kinds of abuse and harassment, has been denounced on numerous occasions not only by his family and by non-profit organizations such as Amnesty International and Prisoners Defenders, but also by international governments, including the United States and the European Union.

On November 18, the opponent had to be admitted to the hospital of the Santiago de Boniato prison after being beaten in Mar Verde

On November 18, the opponent had to be admitted to the hospital of the Santiago de Boniato prison after being beaten in Mar Verde by prison staff. His wife, Nelva Ortega, was able to see him in early December, for the first time in more than 20 months, during which he had been systematically denied a marital visit.

However, they did not give him access to the food that his family had brought, and he declared a hunger strike.

The dissident leader, part of the group of prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003, with a death sentence commuted to 25 years in prison, was released after eight years thanks to the efforts of the Vatican and the mediation of Spain. Since then, he never left his dissident work at the head of the Unpacu or, as a consequence, stopped being harassed by State Security.

For his part, Luis Robles Elizastigui, called the “young man with the placard” and arrested for holding up a sign on the central Boulevard San Rafael in December 2020 calling for the release of rapper Denis Solís, was serving a five-year sentence in the Combinado del Este maximum security prison, in Havana.

The 30-year-old activist has suffered several health problems since he entered the prison.

His mother, Yindra Elizastigui, one of the most active in demanding the freedom of her son and all political prisoners, expressed her bittersweet feelings on her social networks. “Today inside, from the sadness and consternation that my family is experiencing, taking into account the unjust confinement that my son Lester and my son-in-law Alejaime Lambert Reyes are still suffering, and the hospitalization of the father of my children, who is in intensive care due to a cerebral infarction, a ray of light has come to us,” she wrote about the release of Robles. She indicated “that he is only four months and days away from his total release” and apologized for not being “as expressive as usual.” “I need you to understand our pain,” she explained.

Just in February of last year, long after what he was due, Robles received his first prison pass and was able to return home to visit his family. The 30-year-old activist has suffered several health problems since he entered the prison, which have been reported by his mother, in addition to mistreatment, and ophthalmological and gastric complications. He has also been denied appropriate medical assistance.

#ExcarcelacionesCuba Luis Robles Elizastigui, llamado el “joven de la pancarta”, cumplía una condena de cinco años en la prisión de máxima seguridad Combinado del Este. En este video reflexiona sobre la forma en que fue excarcelado👇🏼 Crédito: Martí Noticias-Facebook pic.twitter.com/Bk4lds6qWx

— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) January 17, 2025

Little by little, without much official information and through, above all, social networks, the names of those released from prison have come to light. The Cuban government did not give further details about them, nor for what crimes they were convicted, nor if they are, effectively, political prisoners.

Dariel Cruz García, another of those released from prison on Wednesday, belongs to the latter group. His mother, Yaquelín Cruz García, tells 14ymedio how he has spent these first 24 hours in freedom. The woman says that she feels “good and happy” to finally have El Bolo by her side, as he is known in the neighborhood, although she fears that “anything can happen, because here in Cuba the situation is very bad and they want to put him back in jail.”

The anxiety over her son continues. “He is on probation and has to follow the rules imposed on him,” she explains. “If my son had been given total freedom and could leave the country, I would do everything I could to get him out of Cuba as soon as possible, even if he goes to Haiti,” she says. “Today they already summoned him to the police station, and until the moment his sanction ends, he has to walk the line so they don’t put him back in prison.”

“He is on probation and has to follow the rules imposed on him”

Cruz García, now 23 years old, was arrested on July 16, 2021, after participating on July 12 in the demonstrations that took place in La Güinera, in the Havana municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, where the only death of the 11J recognized by the authorities, Diubis Laurencio Tejada, took place at the hands of the police, who went unpunished. With a prosecutor’s request for 15 years in prison for sedition, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison, and managed, through a cassation trial, to be temporarily released with a change of sanction to correctional work with internment. Finally, he received a sentence of 5 years of correctional work with internment.

On Wednesday, the vice president of the People’s Supreme Court, Maricela Sosa Ravelo, clarified on state television that the measure is not an amnesty or a pardon, words that, in fact, do not appear in the statement issued on Tuesday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the official’s explanation, amnesty and pardon “entail the total extinction of the sanction,” something that does not happen in these cases.

In an interview with the spokesman for the regime, Humberto López, Ravelo said that, on the contrary, these prisoners have been given “benefits from early release.” If they do not fulfill the “obligations,” he warned, they could go back to prison. Those on the list were prosecuted for “dissimilar” crimes, which he listed: “Historic crimes such as theft, robbery with force. There are threats, there are injuries, there are disorders. There are also some people who were punished for sedition, but sedition is not a political crime.”

The crime of sedition, for example, was the one charged against the 11J demonstrators who received the highest sentences, up to 20 years in prison (later reduced in some cases).

Los excarcelados conocidos hasta el momento son:

The released prisoners, as of now, are:

Reyna Yacnara Barreto Batista
Lisdani Rodríguez Isaac
Mailene Noguera Santiesteban
Yessica Coimbra Noriega
Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro
Dariel Cruz García
Donaida Pérez Paseiro
Liván Hernández Sosa
Katia Beirut Rodríguez
José Miguel Gómez Mondeja
Jorge Gabriel Arruebarruena León
Magdiel Rodríguez García
Rogelio Lázaro Domínguez Pérez
César Adrián Delgado Correa
Liliana Oropesa Ferrer
Endris Fuentes Zamora
Javier González Fernández
Arturo Valentín Rivero
Randy Arteaga Rivero
Luis Robles Elizastigui
José Daniel Ferrer García
Jorge Luis Salazar Brioso
Lisdiany Rodríguez Isaac
Orlando Pineda Martínez
Marlon Brando Díaz Oliva
Ciro Alexis Casanova Pérez
Juan Yanier Antomarchi Núñez
Frank Daniel Roig Sotolongo
Yandier García Labrada
Eduin Rodríguez Fonseca
Andro Ledesma Prieto
Iris Belkis Oduardo Rodríguez
Carlos Manuel Pupo Rodríguez
Yunior Rodríguez Rivero

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Venezuela: Democracy Versus Dictatorship

Maduro and his criminal associates are aware of the wide popular support that González and Machado have earned with their perseverance, boldness and decorum.

Nicolás Maduro during his swearing-in as president of Venezuela on January 10, 2024 / @DiazCanelB/X

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 12 January 2024 — January 10 was a turning point for Venezuela. Regardless of the results of that day, the country will not be the same. The victory of democracy would be an invaluable benefit for everyone, but even if this does not take place, the constant effort and willingness to risk both life and freedom for a just cause are signs of an edifying patriotism.

In the face of an eventual triumph of democracy, which will be an uphill battle, the supporters of the dictatorship will create chaos. Castrochavism does not rest, unless it is absolutely defeated.

The display of dignity and courage of President-elect Edmundo González, María Corina Machado and their allies give impetus to their supporters and makes their enemies tremble. They demonstrate that it is possible to resist and get close to victory, an example that must reinvigorate those of us who suffer from these dictatorships.

Venezuela has historically been one of the protagonists of the continent since the time of the Liberator

After January 10, it is expected that the contenders will assume roles that are even more antagonistic. The confrontation between repression and resistance will become more acute, and I do not think, to the detriment of the country, that the hostility will be switched off and extinguished. continue reading

Both the autocracy led by Nicolas Maduro and Diosdado Cabello, and the democratic proposal of elected-president González and María Corina Machado mean that Venezuela is at an unprecedented crossroads for the country itself and for the hemisphere. The country has historically been one of the protagonists of the continent since the time of Simón Bolívar, the Liberator.

The situation of Venezuela is unique. It suffers from a dictatorship that calls for elections, loses them for not having the support of the people and, despite controlling the electoral machinery, cannot appropriate the voting records. Meanwhile, they face an opposition capable of resurrection after being practically deceased, thanks to the electoral feat of González and Machado, who restored the hope of change in the people, a feat almost as important as the restoration of democracy.

All Venezuelans – the opposition, the Government and people in general – are risking their future. The parties have a great responsibility, which is why we must all take sides in the trench we have chosen. We must fight hard; concessions cannot be made, and the factions in conflict must be convinced that there is no second chance.

González and María Corina Machado must be strong in their proposals. There is no room for hesitation or concessions to the enemy. The fight will be very difficult, and they must be prepared to confront the evil of Castrochavism, which, with the loss of power at risk, can resort to its entire criminal arsenal.

Maduro and his criminal associates are aware of the broad popular support that González and Machado have earned with their perseverance, boldness and decorum. They know that if they respect the popular will they must leave the Government, whatever the consequences.

The people elected González and repudiated the continuity of Castrochavism, which has caused vast and profound destruction Venezuela

There is no doubt that González has justice on his side. The people elected him and repudiated the continuity of Castrochavism, which has caused vast and profound destruction in Venezuela, but we should all be aware that good intentions by themselves do not lead to the materialization of our ideals. Many tools are needed, and González has shown he is alert by sending a message to members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, asking them to comply with their constitutional duty and reject any attempt at usurpation of power by the dictator, Nicolás Maduro, alluding to the 1999 Constitution, promoted by the autocrat Hugo Chávez Frías.

Edmundo González has completed an international journey of awareness in democratic countries. He has met with many other leaders who will hopefully tell their diplomatic representatives accredited in Venezuela to accompany him in the presidential ceremony, while María Corina Machado and her supporters have mobilized the people so that they can ratify the vote they cast on July 28.

However, we know that Maduro will not lack puppets, that he will have anti-democratic allies from Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Colombia, Brazil, Honduras and Mexico, among others, which is why freedom is in danger.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘I Breathe Through Memory’, Gastón Baquero’s Letters to Lydia Cabrera

The poet went into exile in the Spanish capital, and Cabrera in the United States. Both were part of a Republic that had gone down the drain.

’Slave Ship’, by Manuel Mendive (1976). / National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 28 December 2024 – How could Lydia Cabrera and Gastón Baquero speak to each other except as two Napoleonic marshals after Waterloo, or as two old gods banished by new gods? Reconstructing at least a segment of this conversation, as Ernesto Hernández Busto has done for the publishing house Betania, is not just philology: it is a profession of faith.

The presence of the exile in any era is silent. One wants to exist quietly and not attract attention. Baquero broke that myth with his correspondence and with the Creole lunches that he presided over in Madrid – “topped off with a tamarind drink” – which ended up becoming a tradition for his disciples.

The poet went into exile in the Spanish capital; and Cabrera in the United States (“a country she never really liked”). Both were part of a Republic that had gone down the drain, not only as a political project but also as a possibility. For Hernández Busto, Cabrera is “the great loner of Cuban literature.” A staunch anti-communist, what place could she have in Castro’s new order? She survived thanks to the jewels she had taken out of Cuba. continue reading

“Both lived long lives, with somewhat sad old ages, which revolved around those two poles of Cuban exile: Madrid and Miami”

“Both lived long lives, with somewhat sad old ages, which revolved around those two poles of Cuban exile: Madrid and Miami,” Hernández Busto sums up in his prologue. The originals of the Letters are among the Lydia Cabrera Papers of the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami library. The book is available for free download at this link.

In the first letter, which Hernández Busto estimates was sent around 1978, Baquero comments on the literary “perversity” that Alejo Carpentier’s The Rite of Spring represents for him . “It is the book that Castro had been demanding for a long time to consider it complete,” he says.

Between anecdotes and gossip about friends and enemies, Baquero outlines several ideas about the past. The first, about the demonization of the Republic promoted by Castroism, is precisely what Carpentier’s book does not forgive. “Scoundrelisms like this one by Alejo help Castro a lot, who justifies all his crimes by painting a country that, according to that painting, deserved to be destroyed,” he writes.

The cult of the frustrated nation takes on, in the letters, an almost religious flight

The cult of the frustrated nation takes on an almost religious dimension in the letters. “Lidia: you did very well to be born on May 20,” he says in 1982. “You are prenatal ready. You were born on the day of the birth of the Republic, and you and I know how marvelous the word Republic tastes, the Republic.”

Another idea is the distinction between the exile and the dissident. “A dissident is, for example, Carlos Franqui, he of Revolución,” he tells Cabrera that same year. “I don’t know how I would feel in that meeting with people, compatriots yes, but at a distance, who are here in Madrid and we have never met. They consider themselves the great democrats, betrayed (very late, in some cases, by the way) by the bonísimo fidelito.”

Years and years of correspondence leave unforgettable scenes and comments. Lydia and Eugenio Florit dancing a danzón; more of Carpentier’s mischief; Lorenzo García Vega’s “son of a bitch”; Nicolás Guillén’s “comemierdería*”; mutual friends, lost, quarreled or dead.

In 1978, Baquero had been in Madrid for almost 20 years, an exile that had not extinguished his “creoleness,” he warned his correspondent. That year he obtained Spanish citizenship, but he remained in the imaginary territory of the Island: “I live in memory, I breathe through memory.”

*Translator’s note: comemierdería: literally (one could say), shit-eating-ness. The dictionary offers: mediocrity, pedantry, stupidity, dipshit.

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In Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, Private Sector Proposals To Restore a 19th Century Hotel Are Rejected

The Colonial Hotel is on the verge of collapse due to local authorities

Neighbors are concerned about the poor condition of the hostel. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 28 December 2024 — With a board advertising scarce products and a table with wonky legs to sell food, the El Colonial hotel in Sancti Spíritus has more of the air of a wine cellar than a hostel. The old house, built in the 19th century, is barely standing and, although they no longer let passersby in to look at the architecture of the time, the neighbors know well what happens inside the walls: “at any moment it will collapse.”

According to Yasmany, a resident of the Parque popular council, where the building is located, the building has a long history. It went from being a residence to a secondary school, then a law firm and even a mechanic’s workshop that included a gas station. Converted into a hotel, it received thousands of clients until the 1970s, when, with the construction of the Zaza dam, the authorities decided that it would be the shelter for the workers on the construction site. It was not until the project was finished, years later, that El Colonial reopened to the public.

“Since then, the building has not recovered, either as a property of historical value or as a hostel,” explains Yasmany. Having lived near the house for thirty years, the man from Sancti Spiritus remembers the numerous times that attempts were made to give it a new lease of life. “I myself went to several gatherings that were organized, but the investment and the scope were never large enough to revive the clientele.”

“You only have to walk around the block to see the peeling back walls of the hotel.” / 14ymedio

In recent years, local authorities have lost interest in the building despite its incalculable heritage value, criticize the neighbor. “The last thing Deivy Pérez Martín, the provincial secretary of the Communist Party, did was to continue reading

order the façade to be painted when Sancti Spíritus won the venue for the 26th of July events this year,” he says.

Only a few months have passed and the building, a garish yet faded blue, looks as if it hasn’t been touched up for years. “The façade isn’t that bad, but you only have to walk around the block to see the back walls of the hotel, peeling and about to fall down. The neighbors are nervous because they know that one of these days there will be a collapse,” he says.

Yasmany laments the local government’s lack of will to preserve the building and, he claims, they will end up losing the roof and the classic structure of a house in the colony, which are very valuable. “I know at least two businessmen who have presented projects to the government to take over the house and to restore it. One of them, a friend of mine, even told me that he could take charge of all the repairs to turn it into a bar-restaurant if the State assured him that it would not be taken away from him afterwards,” he says.

The businessman even handed over the plan to the authorities, “but everything was left up in the air,” Yasmany explains. “It seems that they do not have the means to repair El Colonial, but they nor are they interested in giving it to someone who can save it.”

The establishment has been relegated to selling melted cheese and rum by the ounce. / 14ymedio

In mid-2023, the establishment received an investment to rescue the restaurant and bar areas, two of the most iconic areas of the building, but “that never bore fruit.”

As he lived in the city itself, the man from Sancti Spiritus never stayed at the hotel, but that doesn’t stop him from saying that the clientele has decreased in recent years. “Before, around this time, when the Lunas de Invierno street art and theatre festival starts, people came from other municipalities and stayed at El Colonial. It wasn’t the best in the world, but it was an affordable and comfortable hotel,” Yasmany adds. Now, as things are, almost no one rents rooms at the place.

The establishment has been relegated to selling melted cheese and rum by the ounce. “They sell other products too, depending on what they have, on a table they put at one of the gates.” Of the old El Colonial hotel, only a few doors eaten away by termites, some peeling walls and a crooked sign remain.

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Cuba Has the Third Highest Rate of Femicides in Latin America

ECLAC gives, for the first time, figures of femicides on the Island, but they are much lower than those reported by independent sources

“Violence leaves marks, ignoring them leaves femicides.” At least 3,897 women were victims of Femicides in the region in 2023 / YoSíTeCreo en Cuba

14ymedio, Havana, 22 November 2024 — The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has included Cuba for the first time in its annual report on femicides in the region. The study, published Friday, indicates that the island registered 60 murders due to male violence in 2023.

The figure, however, from “records provided by the official agencies of each country,” is much lower than those compiled by NGOs and independent media. This newspaper, in particular, reported 87 femicides in 2023, 45% more than the official figure. In any case, they are a novelty, since the Cuban government had not provided information on femicides to ECLAC until now.

With the 60 gender-based, man-committed murders reported by ECLAC, the rate of femicides per 100,000 women is 1.1 (taking into account that the commission uses 6,000,000 women to calculate the number of femicides). However, if we take the 87 verified by 14ymedio and a population, more adjusted to the latest official figures, of 5,000,000 women, the rate rises to 1.74. This is the third highest rate in the region, behind Honduras (7.2) and the Dominican Republic (2.4).

This newspaper, in particular, reported 87 femicides in 2023, 45% more than the official figure.

At a regional level, ECLAC reported that at least 3,897 women were victims of femicide in the region last year, which represents “at least 11 violent gender-related deaths every day.”

The commission explains that the majority of these deaths occurred in the context of current or terminated relationships. Out of 10 countries and continue reading

territories in Latin America and the Caribbean that provided information on the existing links between the victim and the perpetrator, it was more than 60% in eight of those countries. In the case of the island, it reported 83.3%.

Most of the victims (56.4%, that is, 404 cases) were between 30 and 59 years old; 20.3% (145 cases) were young women between 15 and 29 years old, while 3.4% (24 cases) were girls 14 years old or younger.

Likewise, seven countries – including Cuba, according to the report – also provided information on indirect victims, “defined as sons, daughters and other dependents of women victims of femicide.” A total of 488 were recorded; of these, 38 are from the island, below Argentina (205), the Dominican Republic (93), Paraguay (71) and Chile (45).

In the report, ECLAC offers comparative data for each country since 2015, except for Cuba because there are no recorded data since officially femicide did not exist in Cuba. In fact, to date, it has not been classified as a specific crime.

There are “low percentages of victims of this type of violations of rights who resort to public authorities, as well as of those who lodge complaints to have access to justice.”

In this regard, ECLAC showed that there are eight countries, besides the island, that lack systems to measure crimes of gender violence. The organization pointed out that these countries “are working on the coordination and capacity building necessary to implement integrated or single systems of administrative records for cases of gender-based violence.”

Although the commission sees “progress” in public policies to “confront the global pandemic of violence against women and girls,” it points out that “there is a large gap between the severity and persistence of the problem and the quality of the public response. It adds that there are “low percentages of victims of this type of rights violations who turn to public authorities, as well as of those who lodge complaints to access justice.”In this area, there is no data on the island.

The report calls on the governments of the region to “ double their efforts to improve recording and information systems, to increase budgetary resources to design public policies that respond comprehensively to victims and survivors, and to invest in the effective prevention of gender-based violence”.

So far in 2024, 45 femicides have been recorded in Cuba, according to the count carried out by this media. Of these, at least 37 were committed by a partner or ex-partner. Last October was the month with the highest number of cases, with seven, surpassing the number in January, when six cases were verified.

Translated by LAR

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While the Cuban Regime Announces the Release of 553 Prisoners, Sentences for Crimes of Opinion Continue

Prisoners Defenders fears that these are actually releases, but without cancellation of the sentences

Three mothers of 11J prisoners demanding their release. / Facebook

14ymedio, Madrid, 15 January 2025 — All eyes are watching to see who will be the 553 prisoners on the island who will benefit from the agreement between the Cuban regime and the Vatican to obtain, in exchange, the removal of Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism dictated by the president of the United States, Joe Biden. There is no clue as to their names for now, but neither is there any clue as to another, no less important issue: the conditions under which they will leave prison.

The organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) warns that the ambiguous vocabulary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs invites fears that there will be no liberations, but rather releases, two words that appear to be used as synonyms in the government statement, without being so. “If this were confirmed, the news would not be as positive as the Cuban regime wants to make it seem. To release, in Cuba, is not to free. In that case, some would obtain conditional freedom, others perhaps extra-penal licenses, and others a series of subsidies of sentence, including forced labor without confinement,” says a text released by the NGO after the news became known.

PD celebrates, in any case, the future release of these prisoners, but notes that this December alone there were 16 new political prisoners, as well as 58 in the last quarter, for a total of 1,801 since July 1, 2021, for a total of 880 at this time. “A total of 1,219 political prisoners have been on the list in the last 12 months, all of them tortured,” underlines the document, which regrets at the same time that, even in the impossible case that all the beneficiaries of the agreement were prisoners for political reasons, “hundreds of people would remain behind bars, imprisoned only for expressing their opinion or demonstrating.”

“A total of 1,219 political prisoners have been on the list in the last 12 months, all of them tortured”

Just hours before the agreements were made public, a new and severe sentence was announced for two young Cubans who received four and five years in prison respectively for calling on social media for a protest against the government that never even took place, but which the Santiago de Cuba court considered a crime of “propaganda against the constitutional order.” continue reading

Felix Daniel Pérez Ruiz received the longest sentence for a post on the social network Facebook in which he said – using “rude words,” according to the sentence – that he was “fed up” with the Government and called for a “demonstration against the Cuban political system.” Cristhian De Jesús Peña Aguilera shared his friend’s call on social media and will now have to serve four years in prison, while two others investigated for the same activities were acquitted.

The sentence was condemned by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, which stressed that the regime is “on the hunt for any dissent.” Its executive director, Alejandro González Raga, who was exiled to Spain in 2008 after almost five years in prison, has called for all political prisoners to be “released immediately, without any conditions of any kind and without the obligation to leave the country.”

Justicia 11J also reacted to the announcement of the releases with fear, given the doubt that they will be forced to leave the country, as happened with the majority of those belonging to the group of 75, imprisoned during the Black Spring. In that case, also mediated by the Vatican and Spain, all those who agreed to leave Cuba in 2010 were released, and a year later those who refused to leave were also released.

“We denounce the Cuban regime’s inhumane practice of using people’s bodies and dignity to obtain political and economic concessions,” wrote the NGO, which noted that the benefit obtained in exchange for Cuba’s removal from the US blacklist represents “just relief for prisoners and their families,” but does not diminish “the repressive nature of the Cuban regime, which has often re-imprisoned dissidents who do not submit to it.”

“We denounce the Cuban regime’s inhuman practice of using people’s bodies and dignity to obtain political and economic concessions”

For its part, the Council for the Democratic Transition of Cuba welcomed the release of those who “should never have been in prison,” but regretted that the human rights agenda is being subordinated “to the foreign policy of the United States.” The group advocates a general amnesty and that the “conflict” returns to its “main origin, that which exists between the Cuban government and its society.”

The Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP) also spoke out on the matter, flatly rejecting the fact that the regime did not mention in its announcement of the releases the obvious link with the removal from the US blacklist. The NGO considers the regime’s discourse to be an “insult when presenting the gradual release of 553 political prisoners as part of the just and humanitarian nature of Cuba’s penal and penitentiary systems, when thousands of families have been separated for the simple fact of thinking differently and physical and psychological repression, lack of medical attention and murder are common in prisons.”

Specifically with regards to Biden’s decision, and on a personal level, there is division among some well-known opponents of the regime. Radically opposed points of view are held by Guillermo Coco Fariñas, who has described the measure as “a betrayal of the Cuban people and the freedom of all peoples of the world,” and Alina Bárbara López, who sees it as correct — if the releases do not translate into forced exiles — although incoherent. “If there were no reasons to include it, why was it there? The sanctions have affected the entire Cuban society, not just those responsible,” she points out in a Facebook post in which she also considers the suspension of Chapter III of the Helms-Burton Act to be positive, although she finds it “inexplicable that those people and institutions directly responsible for repression of Cuban citizens are not sanctioned.”

“It is inexplicable that those individuals and institutions directly responsible for repression of Cuban citizens are not punished.”

’11J’ prisoner Angélica Garrido, released in 2024 and with her sister Cristina still in prison, welcomed the possible releases “but they are negotiated for something that the world knows, that Cuba not only sponsors terrorism, but that Cuba exercises state terrorism against its own people.”

Ángel Moya, a former prisoner of the Black Spring and, therefore, affected by a release similar to this, also gave his opinion on both the announced releases and on Biden’s measure. “The communist regime of Cuba obtains a temporary certificate of good conduct with benefits included,” he said in conclusion. The husband of the Lady in White Berta Soler made it clear that the regime has always “taken advantage of Cuban political prisoners by using them as bargaining chips and achieving benefits.” However, he added: “except in the previous four years of the Trump government, neither the embargo nor any other measure to strengthen it worked. And if they have ever worked, it is at half speed, there are plenty of examples.”

The families of some of the prisoners most in the spotlight, such as Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Maykel Osorbo Castillo, the father and daughter duo Felix and Saily Navarro and José Daniel Ferrer, are keeping quiet for now. Meanwhile, on social media, a group of activists has launched a campaign to accompany the publication of a photograph of a political prisoner with the hashtag #todos to promote the fact that no political prisoners remain in Cuban prisons.

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