English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
EFE (via 14ymedio), Washington, 22 January 2025 — The Trump administration has cancelled the flights of some 10,000 refugees who had already been approved to travel to the United States after a process that can take years, according to a State Department memo obtained by CNN.
14ymedio, Havana, 22 January 2025 — Cubans who entered the United States irregularly and received I-220A status have not, for the moment, been mentioned by Donald Trump in his crusade against migration, which includes the cancellation of the CBP One Mobile App and the suspension of Humanitarian Parole. Although they have not yet had their status legalized, they have hope.
This Caribbean island offers the discretion they need to protect themselves from Helms-Burton
14ymedio, Havana, 23 January 2025 — To sustain business with the Cuban regime, the Canadian mining giant Sherritt International uses multiple ways to evade Washington’s sanctions. With real business acrobatics performed from Switzerland to the Cayman Islands, the company protects itself from the Helms-Burton Law, the U.S. tool of choice to hinder Havana’s financial movements.
Registered in Barbados, the subsidiary company known under the acronym Sicog (Sherritt International Cuba Oil & Gases Limited) is one of the tools used by both parties to preserve the secrecy of their transactions, as businessman William Pitt explains to 14ymedio. Pitt is an observer of the regime’s mining businesses, whose family was expropriated multiple properties of oil value in 1960.
The Official Gazette published on October 25, 2023, referred to Sicog as a “Barbadian company.” Sherritt’s name is omitted in all the articles of the section, which renewed the authorization for the company to remain registered in the National Registry of Foreign Commercial Representations.
The text also defined – with great ambiguity – Sicog’s competencies: “the commercialization and exploitation of oil in Cuba, as well as the management of investments in the areas of oil, nickel, tourism, agriculture, sugar and financing, practically all the areas that bring hard currency to Cuba, except the commercialization of medical services. continue reading
The regime does not allow Sicog to “import and export directly on a commercial basis…”
The regime does not allow Sicog to “import and export directly on a commercial basis, nor to distribute and transport goods within the national territory.”
Although Sherritt is not mentioned in the section dedicated to Sicog, in the same Gazette authorization is granted to another subsidiary of the Canadian company: Sherritt International Investments Limited, also based in Barbados.
According to the Gazette, Sherritt International Investments Limited has similar powers to those of Sicog: “to attend to investments in Cuba in the areas of oil, nickel and electricity.” However, it is prohibited from importing and exporting, as well as “issuing commercial invoices.”
“Barbados is a tax haven,” notes Pitt, although the country has recently amended its legislation with the creation of a corporate tax – very low, with a maximum of 5.5% – seeking its exclusion from the tax haven blacklist. “In that country, there are no requirements for an annual general meeting, no reporting, accounting or auditing requirements for companies. All that is required is a shareholder and a director who don’t even have to be residents. In fact, they can be the same person or entity.”
Although Sherritt is obliged – by Canadian stock exchange regulations – to report certain data, companies like Sicog contribute to the mining giant limiting its public disclosures and operating with little transparency.
The advantageous discreetness offered by Barbados to the regime and Sherritt is unparalleled. “All private information, such as the register of directors and offices, or the register of shareholders, is kept away from the public. Corporate documents related to the company can be stored anywhere in the world,” adds the businessman.
Sicog has only one shareholder, which, according to Pitt, entitled the company “not to conduct any work or annual meetings.
Sicog has only one shareholder, which Pitt says entitled the company “not to conduct work or annual meetings. It can also easily change its name, another mechanism to avoid sanctions, without consulting other parties.
Sherritt is interested in three types of business with Cuba: energy, oil and gas, and mining, Pitt lists. The company has been withdrawing from other sectors in which it used to have interest, such as hotels and other tourist centers. The island has millions in debt to the Canadian giant that is paid through the so-called “cobalt swap” of 2022, which allows it to exploit this mineral in its plants in Moa (Holguín).
Sherritt built the Varadero, Boca de Jaruco and Puerto Escondido power plants – three jewels in the energy crown in western Cuba – in which it has a 33% share in partnership with state-owned Energas.
In Varadero, Pitt explains, Sherritt and Energas operate a plant connected to an electricity substation with a capacity of 173 megawatts (MW). “The plant has two mutually integrated facilities that process gas obtained from oil wells near the plant into clean, dry gas that is used to fuel the turbines.”
Puerto Escondido, on the other hand, consists of “two crude gas processing plants, a gas turbine, and electric generator with a power capacity of 20 MW.” Finally, Boca de Jaruco, 50 kilometers from Havana, is the largest of the three facilities and the plant that produces the fifth most electricity in Cuba. Its structure is similar to Varadero’s and its capacity is 313 MW. “This plant sends natural gas produced by the wells through pipelines to Havana to supply the natural gas used as fuel for cooking by more than 280,000 families and restaurants in the Cuban capital”.
Puerto Escondido, on the other hand, consists of “two crude gas processing plants, gas turbine, and electric generator.
Despite Sherritt’s efforts to keep its interests afloat in Cuba, the island has proven to be a difficult and fruitless project.
With two hurricanes and a comprehensive crisis that affected the entire industry, 2024 was a catastrophic year for the facilities operated by the Canadian giant in Cuba. With constant outages already happening since the beginning of the year – the expected deficit for this Wednesday was 1,270 MW – it does not look like 2025 is going to be much different.
Translated by LAR
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14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 23 January 2025 — Cuba had been removed from the United States’ list of countries sponsoring terrorism for just six days. This Monday, after Donald Trump took office, the island’s regime was once again on a list that carries serious diplomatic and financial restrictions. Havana has barely had time to react to a see-saw that, in less than a week, has caused official spokespeople to go from declaring victory to cursing Washington.
Every time a new president arrives at the Oval Office, speculation about his role in the downfall of Castroism is high. In Trump’s case, there is a fairly unanimous consensus that his four years in office will be a real time in the wilderness for Miguel Díaz-Canel. In the midst of the greatest economic crisis of this century, the dictatorship finds itself in a state of extreme material fragility. The presence of Marco Rubio, son of Cuban exiles, as Secretary of State will be one of the most bitter pills that the Plaza de la Revolución will have to swallow.
With an absolutely unequivocal stance against the regime that has controlled the Island for 66 years, Rubio will be a tough obstacle on the international stage.
With an absolutely unequivocal stance against the regime that has controlled the island for 66 years, Rubio will be a tough obstacle on the international stage, where Havana has long experience in manipulation, buying loyalties or silence based on diplomatic favors, and presenting itself as a victimized David in the face of the disproportionate force of the Goliath of the North. The resentment of the new leader of the US State Department towards Nicolás Maduro will also have repercussions on the island, which is dependent not only on Venezuelan oil but also on the political support provided by the Miraflores Palace. continue reading
In a region where attempts at unity have been marked more by ideology than by the search for the well-being of its residents, a US administration more focused on Latin America could shake up the continent’s alliances and loyalties to a very large extent. The process of Havana’s loss of influence in this hemisphere, which has been ongoing for years, could accelerate starting this January. It is not surprising that some current allies of the Cuban regime prefer to rush to have their photo taken with Trump rather than to continue courting a failed and bankrupt system tied to the designs of the nonagenarian Raúl Castro.
The haste with which Trump cancelled Joe Biden’s decision to remove Cuba from the list of nations sponsoring terrorism seems to indicate that new penalties may rain down in the coming weeks. Within the Island, ordinary people are debating how to position themselves in the face of the pressure that is coming. The oldest remember that the dictatorship has shown signs of closing ranks and becoming more dangerous when cornered. Among those who are not yet graying, however, there is the illusion that the erosion of the model is so great that a push is enough to make it fall like a house of cards.
Nobody knows what will happen, but there is a new deck of cards on the table. More specifically, the cards on one side of the political battle are now different, while on the side of official Cuba they are the same worn-out scraps as always: repression, voluntarism and diplomatic hullabaloo.
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Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Deutsche Welle in Spanish.
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Pork tops the list with a 93.2% drop; even lobster and honey are seeing substantial losses
14ymedio, Madrid, 22 January 2025 — The agricultural data from the 2023 yearbook, published this Tuesday with a one-year delay, reflect a dramatic situation whose real scope will only be known when the Cuban authorities dare to release the numbers for 2024. For the moment, the indicators for the vast majority of products confirm that the Island is going through an unstoppable food crisis.
This is demonstrated, fundamentally, by the abrupt fall in the pig population, which in just one year went from 2,677,000 pigs in 2019 to just 116,500. In October 2023, the Minister of Agriculture had already revealed a sharp decline (92%) in the tonnes of pig meat produced on the Island, and estimated the reproductive mass at 35,892 head in 2022, compared to 96,200 in 2018, a loss of 60,308 animals. The current figure in the yearbook is surprising because of its abruptness. According to the table, in 2020 there were 1,120,700 pigs. In 2021, 1,075,500 and in 2022, 1,456,200, meaning that in just one year, according to official statistics, 93.2% of the pig population was lost.
Among the most anticipated data was that of the harvest, but once again we will have to remain in the dark. The document does not include data from the State’s sugar group Azcuba’s for the 2022-2023 harvest, much less those for the last completed harvest, 2023-2024. The most recent data provided by the official press was the 1.2 million metric tonnes of 2021 and, since then, the numbers had to be calculated using the available references. Today we know that the 2021-2022 period closed with only 700,000 tons and, after that, another void is entered.
The document does not include Azcuba’s data for the 2022-2023 harvest, much less those for the last completed harvest, 2023-2024.
The results in sugar are not particularly striking, given the complete ruin that the once star industry of the island has become, although it is dizzying to see the data year after year, which show a pitiful evolution from the almost eight million tonne produced in 1990 – of which 6.5 corresponded to the state sector and 1.5 to the private sector – to the paltry amount at the continue reading
It is no secret, and it is once again made clear in the 2023 yearbook, that the privileged socialist state enterprise, classified by the Government as the principal engine of the economy, is highly inefficient when it comes to food. This is again made clear in the comparative table offered in the agricultural yearbook. The private sector is responsible for 92% of fruits, 87% of citrus fruits, 83% of beans, 82% of bananas and root vegetables, 81% of tubers and 67% of rice, the latter being only main production in which the State sticks its head up and, even so, it remains at 32%.
All this, taking into account that land ownership remains predominantly in the hands of the State, which has three times as much agricultural land, although these figures are very outdated, as they correspond to 2017. Of landholders 68% are tenants, compared to 24% owners and 8% “dispersed” campesinos. Tenants account for only 0.3%, a very low figure considering the amount of idle land owned by the State, most of it in Camagüey, which also has a huge amount of uncultivated land (not in vain is it the largest of the Cuban provinces).
By crop, all experienced declines in the last five years, the most noticeable being bananas, from 1,036,176 tonnes to 438,125; and cereals, from 702,147 to 208,685. Among them, rice stands out, one of the basic products in the daily diet of Cubans, which fell from 426,228 tonnes to just 58,766.
Other products also stand out, such as fruit in general (from 283,950 tonnes in 2019 to 86,605 in 2023) and onions (from 71,557 to 13,686), malanga (167,202 to 89,445) and grapefruit (22,987 to 1,840), to name just a few examples. In addition, it is striking that even the most pampered agricultural product, to which some resources are specifically allocated, such as fuel, does not cushion the falls either: tobacco decreased from 28,584 tonnes to less than half that, 12,248 in five years.
Not a single agricultural product has improved its comparative data in recent years, and livestock has fared even worse, as already mentioned. But the same fate has befallen other products of animal origin, such as milk, one of the most promised to the Cuban population since the beginning of the Revolution. Production fell from 512,000 tonnes in 2019 to 230,800 in 2023, which is not surprising if one takes into account that the cattle herd went from 312,900 head to 217,000, and less well fed, as seen in the performance graph, where it can be seen that it fell from 1,636 kilos per year per milking cow to 1,064.
The same is true for cattle for delivery, which fell from 475,000 to 299,700 and, as has already been mentioned on previous occasions, for poultry, which fell sharply from 35,356 to just 5,589. In detail, there are also reductions of almost 50% in both laying hens and replacements as well as in breeders, a catastrophe that leaves its mark on eggs, of course. Total production fell from 196,020,000 to 94,410,000.
Economist Pedro Monreal certified that Cuba is facing a “major food security crisis” and noted that the reality is even worse
The number of fish in the country has sunk for another year, leaving very poor figures for a country with a fishing fleet in tatters. The total has gone from 45,654 tonnes to 26,239 in five years, and only one product is holding up, snapper, and one is growing slightly, grouper, from just 27 to 32 tonnes. These are ridiculous amounts, but they are almost the only section of the 36-page report showing growth, along with the also modest growth of carp. The most prized products of the sea did not fare any better, and lobster went from 3,278 tonnes to 2,625, while shrimp fell from 672 to 426 and, in its broadest sense, shrimp farming plummeted from 6,656 tonnes to just 931 last year.
Finally, another of the exportable items that is most closely watched by the authorities has another interesting fact. The number of beehives has grown in the last five years, from 204,900 to 231,400. However, both honey (9.9 tonnes to 6.7) and total wax (148.2 to 114) have fallen visibly.
With these figures, economist Pedro Monreal certified that Cuba is facing a “major food security crisis” and noted that the reality is even worse, since the authorities declared in October 2024 that the worsening that year was even greater than in previous years.
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14ymedio/Agencies, Madrid, 22 January 2025 — The United States Coast Guard announced on Tuesday “immediate actions” in the Strait of Florida to comply with the executive orders of the new president, Donald Trump, against illegal immigration. In a statement, Admiral Kevin Lunday, interim commander of the corps, explained that the number of “ships, aircraft, boats and specialized forces” in the Strait of Florida “to deter and prevent massive maritime migration from Haiti and Cuba” will be increased.
In addition to the maritime border between the Bahamas and southern Florida, the southwest maritime border with Mexico in the Pacific and the maritime border between Texas and Mexico in what they already call “the Gulf of America,” surveillance will also focus around Alaska, Hawaii, the US territories of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa – the latter three in Oceania – Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
The surveillance will also focus on Alaska, Hawaii, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
“Together, in coordination with our colleagues from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, we will detect, deter and intercept illegal migration, drug smuggling and other terrorist activities.” continue reading
The announcement coincided with the dismissal by Donald Trump, this same Tuesday, of Admiral Linda Lee Fagan as commander of the Coast Guard. In a brief statement, the acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Benjamin Huffman, confirmed that Fagan – the first female head of a branch of the Armed Forces in the United States, appointed to her position by Joe Biden in 2021 – had been relieved of her duties after a “long and illustrious career.”
However, a senior official of the Department of Homeland Security told Reuters anonymously that the admiral’s dismissal was due to “leadership deficiencies, operational failures and inability to advance the strategic objectives of the United States Coast Guard.” According to this same source, one of the reasons was Fagan’s “excessive” attention to the “DEI policies” (diversity, equity and inclusion).
Trump reinstated yesterday in its full scope the “immediate expulsion” of migrants
Trump reinstated yesterday in its full scope the “immediate expulsion” of migrants, a policy that allows the rapid deportation of undocumented migrants without a hearing, which had been eliminated during Biden’s mandate.
Created in 1996, the measure had already been applied during the first Trump Administration (2017-2021) to undocumented migrants who had been in the United States for less than two years. It is again being implemented.
Before the first Trump Administration, immediate expulsion applied only to undocumented people who had entered the United States in the previous 14 days and were within a radius of 100 miles (161 kilometers) of the border.
In cases of immediate or accelerated expulsion, due process is minimal and no immigration judge can intervene. Even federal judges do not have the power to hear an appeal. In most cases, the person subject to an immediate expulsion order cannot return to the country for a period of five years.
In cases of immediate or accelerated expulsion, due process is minimal and no immigration judge can intervene
The application of immediate expulsion peaked during the 2013 fiscal year, when 193,000 people were deported under this policy, a figure that accounted for 43% of the total expulsions in that period, according to the US Immigration Council.
This rule is in addition to the series of measures adopted by the Republican Administration against immigration; among others, the elimination by executive order of the right to citizenship by birth in the case of children of parents who are undocumented or have temporary immigration status.
That order, signed by Trump just hours after taking office, has already been the subject of a lawsuit filed by a group of 18 states with Democratic governors, who claim that it is “illegal” and unconstitutional. Opponents point out, in fact, that Amendment 14 of the US Constitution establishes that every person born on American soil automatically obtains nationality, regardless of the immigration status of their parents.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Since the guerrillas began attacks against the 33rd Front of the FARC dissidents, some 80 people have been killed in Catatumbo
EFE/14ymedio, Bogotá/Madrid, 22 January 2025 — The Colombian Attorney General’s Office has decided to reactivate the arrest warrants against peace negotiators from the National Liberation Army (ELN) after Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered the suspension of talks due to the “war crimes” that the guerrilla group is committing in Catatumbo.
“Failure to comply with the conditions for the suspension of arrest warrants and, in particular, the commission of new crimes by members of the ELN, gives rise to reactivating the arrest warrants suspended at the time at the request of the president,” states a resolution issued by the Attorney General, Luz Adriana Camargo.
The Prosecutor’s Office had lifted the orders against 31 members of the ELN, including members of its leadership, alias Antonio García, Pablo Beltrán or Aureliano Carbonell, so that in November 2022 peace negotiations with the Petro Government would resume. The guerrilla leaders have moved in recent years between Venezuela and Cuba, a country that hosted these talks between 2018 and 2019, the year in which they were frozen.
The relationship between Havana and the ELN leadership is, in fact, at the origin of Cuba’s inclusion on the United States’ list of countries sponsoring terrorism in 2021.
The relationship between Havana and the ELN leadership is, in fact, at the origin of Cuba’s inclusion on the United States’ list of countries sponsoring terrorism in 2021, during the first administration of Donald Trump. Inclusion on the list was at the request of Colombia, because the island refused to extradite members of the guerrilla group who were on its continue reading
Negotiations were formally suspended on Friday by order of Petro, after the ELN launched an offensive against a FARC dissident group in Catatumbo the day before, which has left more than 80 dead, including social leaders and peace signatories, and has led to the displacement of 32,000 people, as well as kidnappings and confinements.
The revocation of the benefits of suspension of arrest warrants, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, responds to “the seriousness of the criminal acts” perpetrated by the guerrillas.
“The violence unleashed since January 16, which led to the current humanitarian tragedy and multiple crimes, in addition to putting at risk the lives and integrity of the civilian population, social leaders, signatories of the peace agreement and their families, was attributed on social network X to the ELN through one of its top leaders, Eliécer Herlinto Chamorro Acosta, alias ’Antonio García’,” the prosecuting agency explained in a statement.
The ombudsman, Iris Marín, said yesterday that the number of displaced people after six days of offensive rose to 32,000
The ombudsman, Iris Marín, said yesterday that the number of displaced people after six days of offensive rose to 32,000, with half of them in Cúcuta, the capital of the department of Norte de Santander, to which Catatumbo belongs.
Since the ELN began attacks against the 33rd Front of the FARC dissidents, some 80 people have been killed in Catatumbo, according to figures from the Government of Norte de Santander, including at least six of the signatories of the 2016 peace agreement.
However, Marín said yesterday that the Institute of Legal Medicine has received only 35 lifeless bodies, of which two have not yet been identified.
This is because the situation in many rural areas remains uncertain due to the fact that access is not possible, even by the Military Forces, who are limiting themselves to delivering humanitarian aid and rescuing injured or at-risk people.
The humanitarian and security crisis in Catatumbo was announced by various authorities, including the Ombudsman’s Office, which on November 15, through its early warning system, warned of “the risk situation” for the civilian population due to the presence and threats of illegal armed groups.
Given the situation, the president announced on Monday that he was going to declare a state of internal unrest and an economic emergency, measures for which he has not yet issued the decrees.
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Together, the participating media created the #TODOS platform, a tool based on data journalism that makes releases visible
14ymedio, Havana, 21 January 2025 — A coalition of independent Cuban media outlets is making the #TODOS [ALL] platform available to its audiences, a tool based on data journalism that highlights the releases of political prisoners starting in January 2025.
This website complements and amplifies the monitoring of the process carried out by participating media, activists and civil society organizations such as the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, Prisoners Defenders, Justicia 11J and Cubalex.
The reports of those released are recorded in a database that includes confirmed information from the monitoring civil society organizations have been methodically carrying out for years. The number of political prisoners documented after comparing the records of different civil society organizations so far totals 1,396 people. The list is considered an under-registration, since there may be prisoners who have not made their complaint public. The organizations are constantly working to update this continue reading
The resulting support allows for the generation of statistical analyses that reveal trends and audit the official account of releases.
The resulting support allows for statistical analyses that reveal trends and audit the official narrative on releases.
The first conclusion that emerges is that the 553 people that the Cuban regime assured its foreign interlocutors it would “release” were not all prosecuted for political reasons. It was suspected that this would be the case when the official statement referred to the beneficiaries of the measure as “prisoners for various reasons”; but this independent record will allow us to see to what extent those detained for political reasons are included, in scenarios before, during and after the social outbreak on 11 July 2021.
The data compiled also show that this is not a “release” but rather a process of leaving prison under legal figures such as “conditional release” and “extra-penal leave,” which oblige those convicted to maintain what the authorities consider “good conduct” as a guarantee of their not being returned to detention centers.
Citizen support is also important to identify released prisoners who do not appear in the records.
It is possible to appreciate that the great majority of those released had served more than half of their sentences, and therefore were entitled to benefits such as those now presented by official propaganda as an exceptional humanitarian act. Likewise, one can observe the frequent use of crimes such as contempt, disobedience and sedition to politically channel citizens who participated in public protests or actively opposed the Communist Party.
#TODOS takes its title from the way in which hundreds of Cuban citizens demand on social media that all politically prosecuted persons be released, and not just a small group. Citizen support is also important in identifying those released from prison who do not appear in the records, which can be done through a form included on the website.
The initiative, initially composed of 14ymedio, Alas Tensas , Árbol Invertido, CiberCuba, El Estornudo, El Toque, Havana Times, La Hora de Cuba, Periodismo de Barrio and Rialta, extends its invitation to other media and projects that wish to join and contribute to the expansion of this tool, which will be relevant as long as there is one person imprisoned in Cuba for their political ideas and actions.
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The president of the state monopoly paints a bleak picture of the deterioration of its facilities
14ymedio, Havana, 19 January 2025 — Despite the precariousness of the facilities, mobile telephony and internet access are essential services for millions of customers in Cuba. However, according to an assessment made by its directors, the state monopoly Etecsa does not have the means, much less the budget, to deal with the increase in network traffic or the breakdowns in its equipment.
Etecsa’s first problem, said its president Tania Velázquez at a press conference last Thursday, is its radio base stations. Of the 5,600 that exist in the country, which are responsible for replicating the telephone signal, half do not have generators. That is, when there is a power outage, they stop working and, due to the traffic overload in the rest of the bases, the connections slow down.
As if that were not enough, 10% of these systems “have faulty parts and components, which have not been able to be repaired or acquired due to a lack of financial resources,” the company said in a statement.
So how does Etecsa deal with the more than 8 million Cubans connected to the network, of whom 95% have internet access? The answer is not known even by the executives themselves, who assure that “in 2024, income from abroad was barely 10% of what the company needs” to stay afloat. continue reading
“In 2024, income from abroad was barely 10% of what the company needs”
In fact, Nauta Hogar’s home internet service has been installed in just 30,000 homes in the last four years. “Despite having plans to expand internet service to homes, the lack of financial resources prevented progress in the investments necessary for the growth and maintenance of the network,” the company justified.
Fixed telephony is not going through its best moment either. By the end of 2024, more than 28,000 customers were suffering from “interruptions in service and the delay in their resolution, due to the lack of resources and technological obsolescence.” However, Etecsa says that the responsibility does not fall entirely on its shoulders: there are “other damages to the public network, whether due to vandalism or actions by third parties.”
The company even goes a step further and blames the low foreign currency earnings on foreign websites that profit from their mobile data and call-minute offers. “Although investments have been significant in the last decade, their pace of execution has decreased since 2022 due to the decrease in foreign currency earnings, directly related to the evolution of the illegal exchange rate,” it alleges.
“Since this fact, fraud channels have proliferated that allow payments to be made in dollars from websites located outside Cuba, which clone Etecsa’s offers and which are then converted into pesos taking advantage of the difference in the currency exchange rate,” explains the company, which estimates its losses due to these sites at “hundreds of millions of dollars.”
The millions that are escaping also have an impact on the “sustainability of the company and the contributions it makes to the country”
The millions that are escaping also have an impact on the “sustainability of the company and the contributions it makes to the country.” Recently, following a fine received by the telecommunications company for not using the entire budget in Cuban pesos allocated by the State for 2024 – a defunct fund when it comes to investments and the purchase of equipment in dollars – the executives found the solution to all of its problems: dollarizing part of its services .
“We were fined because when last year’s accounts were done, millions of pesos remained unused. The problem is that there was no way to use them, because you can’t buy anything with them that is needed to make repairs or new installations,” Moisés, an Etecsa administrator in Old Havana, told 14ymedio.
The surplus was distributed as profits to the workers, and, to avoid falling into the same problem, Etecsa has begun to plan the way to sell certain services in “hard currency.” “Several scenarios have been evaluated, and so far the one that will probably be implemented is to limit the number of recharges that the same client can make in national currency; after a certain amount or monthly quantity they will have to buy the telephone recharge in dollars,” the administrator clarified. “Along with the modality that we already have of recharges from abroad, the purchase in national territory will be enabled, directly in dollars or with a Classic card.”
Officially, the company has not yet announced any changes, but customers have already been warned: “We are working on creating the conditions for the start of these actions, which will be reported and explained when they are ready,” Tania Velázquez added without further details on Thursday.
Officially, the company has not yet announced any changes, but customers are already warned
The few lines that define Etecsa’s future plans are buried by the few achievements that the company considers positive from 2024: greater use of payment platforms such as Transfermóvil and Monedero, the increase in mobile phone users and ensuring connection in scientific, educational, health, domestic trade and banking institutions.
Regarding the submarine cable installed by the French company Orange in Arimao (Cienfuegos), the development of which has become a sort of state secret, Velázquez limited himself to saying that “it is a well-executed and well-functioning project, through which not only the increase in internet access capacity has been guaranteed, but also the diversification of Cuba’s international connection routes.”
This is not in line with the perception of users, who have noticed a deterioration in internet access and a reduction in speed since the protests of 11 July 2021 [’11J’].
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14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 18 January 2025 — Cuba granted parole to professor and activist Pedro Albert Sánchez, named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. He had received a five-year sentence for contempt and public disorder after participating in the July 2021 protests, the NGO Justice 11J reported this Friday. The dissident, who since the end of 2024 had a license to serve his sentence at home because of his state of health – he suffers from cancer and is almost 70 years old – said on social networks that he refused to sign the notification about his conditional liberty.
Sánchez said that an agent visited him on Thursday at his home in the capital to let him know about the change. “It would be accepting that I committed a crime, and that didn’t happen,” he said.
Pedro Albert Sánchez is one of the Cubans declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International (AI), who have been released or have obtained some penal benefit after Washington’s decision to remove the Island from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. The leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), José Daniel Ferrer, and activist Donaida Pérez have also been released from prison.
14ymedio also confirmed the departure from Agüica prison, in Matanzas, this Saturday, of political prisoner Félix Navarro. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) had already reported that the authorities contacted his wife, Sonia Álvarez, to announce his release. continue reading
“Félix is on his way home,” Annia Zamora, mother of political prisoner Sissi Abascal – sentenced to six years in prison – and close to Navarro’s family, told this newspaper. Zamora also said she had no news of the opponent’s daughter, Sayli Navarro Álvarez or of Abascal, who share a prison, but said she was excited about the release of her “guide” and friend from prison.
Navarro and his daughter were sentenced to nine and eight years in prison, respectively, just for going out to demonstrate on 11J in Matanzas, where he lives.
Brenda Díaz, the trans protester sentenced to 14 years in prison for her participation in the protests of July 11, 2021 and forced to remain in a men’s prison, was also released. In an image shared on social networks by journalist Luz Escobar, Díaz appears with her mother, Ana Mary García, who during her daughter’s years in prison demanded her release and denounced the unfair treatment of the authorities.
Most of the prisoners who have been released participated in the spontaneous demonstrations of 11J, according to the OCDH. The Cuban government has publicized the names of all 553 prisoners but announced that their releases will be progressive. However, it affirmed that 127 Cubans have been released so far. The figure contrasts with the six political prisoners registered by the OCDH.
According to Justicia 11J and Prisoners Defenders, all the beneficiaries were given a conditional release from prison, instead of being pardoned, something that they perceive negatively because the sentence is not extinguished. These two NGOs, as well as the OCDH and Cubalex, regretted that the measure did not include all the political prisoners, in addition to considering the way they were released as a double-edged sword.
In this regard, the vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court (TSP) of Cuba, Maricela Sosa, confirmed that these prisoners have not been pardoned or given amnesty, but, technically, they were released from prison for meeting certain criteria. Also, if they do not fulfill some requirements until the end of their sentence, such as “good behavior,” “they can return to prison.”
Compared to the 553 people that the Cuban authorities are going to release from prison, Prisoners Defenders registered at the end of 2024 a total of 1,161 political prisoners in Cuba. Justice 11J computes the sentenced 11J demonstrators at 549.
This is the first release of prisoners in Cuba since 2019, when the authorities pardoned 2,604 prisoners. The previous release occurred in 2015, when a total of 3,522 prisoners were released as a “humanitarian gesture” before the visit of Pope Francis.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Trump announced in his inaugural address his plans to carry out mass deportations and militarize the border
EFE/14ymedio, Washington/Madrid, 20 January 2025 — The CBP One mobile application, which allowed migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti to enter the United States through Mexico, stopped working this Monday, according to the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on its website.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, who took office on Monday, had already advanced in his inaugural speech his plans to carry out mass deportations and militarize the border.
Through CBP One, migrants who were in Mexican territory could fill out a form with their data and request an appointment to present themselves at an entrance post on the southern border.
The announcement on the CBP website, which refers to migrants in transit in Mexico as “undocumented foreigners,” also warned that the “scheduled” appointments have now been canceled.
Through this application, which started working in January 2023, more than 930,000 people presented themselves at the ports of entry
Through this application, which began operating in January 2023, more than 930,000 people presented themselves at the ports of entry for the authorities to process their cases, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In December, the last time official data were published, about 44,000 people entered the United States under this process, although no Cubans. Since the program was established, a total of 110,970 citizens of the Island have accessed US territory through the application, which allocated 1,450 spaces every day for seven ports of entry at the border. continue reading
The program was created by Joe Biden’s government as a strategy to control migration across the border, as well as to stop irregular crossings, although in recent months they have been declining. The collapse 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 the necessary changes were introduced. Among the irregularities detected in the system were blank forms, phones that did not work, postal codes that did not exist, social security numbers of dead people, repeated texts in thousands of requests 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. For the US Congress, the program promoted by the Biden Government was a “disaster plagued with fraud.”
The process was in turn harshly criticized by human rights organizations, who pointed out that the application restricted access to asylum on the southern border and forced migrants to wait in Mexico, exposed to the violence of the cartels.
“We will begin the process of returning the millions of foreign criminals back to where they came from”
Among other measures, Trump promised on Monday to invoke the law of “foreign enemies” that was enacted in 1798, declare a national emergency on the southern border of the United States and designate Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.
These measures pave the way for Trump to fulfill his electoral promises to carry out the largest campaign of migrant deportations in history and prevent the passage of migrants and asylum seekers on the border with Mexico.
“We will begin the process of returning the millions of foreign criminals back to where they came from,” the Republican said in front of legislators, politicians and businessmen of technology companies who were present during his inauguration at the Capitol.
During his presidential campaign, Trump stigmatized the migrants who arrived in the United States in recent years, calling them “criminals,”
despite the multiple studies that have shown that people born abroad break the law in a lower percentage than those born in the United States.
The Foreign Enemies Act, enacted in 1798, allows the Government to expel outsiders without due process of law and was used during the Government of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) to create internment camps for citizens of Japanese origin in the United States.
“I will send troops to the southern border to end the disastrous invasion of the southern border”
In his speech, Trump promised to use this law so that his government “uses all federal and state forces” to eliminate “the presence of foreign gangs and criminal networks that bring devastation to the United States.”
Regarding the border with Mexico, Trump indicated that he will declare a state of “national emergency” to stop the irregular entry of migrants and restore the policy known as “Stay in Mexico,” established during his previous administration, which forced asylum seekers to wait in the neighboring country while their cases were being processed.
“I will send troops to the southern border to end the disastrous invasion of the southern border,” said the president, adding in turn that he plans to declare the Mexican cartels “terrorist organizations.”
Trump is expected to sign almost a hundred executive orders this afternoon, including several focused on migration management
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The investment fund sent a letter to Cuban President Díaz-Canel with a proposal to stagger payments
14ymedio, Madrid, 20 January 2025 — Until last Saturday, it was not known that the National Bank of Cuba (BNC) had appealed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom the ruling in favor of the investment fund CRF I Limited, which is claiming a debt of more than 72 million euros. The Miami channel Telemundo 51 announced on Saturday that the appeal was filed on December 18 and that the creditor sent a letter to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel in which it proposed an agreement – whose deadline for acceptance expired this Sunday – to settle the matter, renouncing the judicial route.
“We write with disappointment to note that your legal representatives are continuing to pursue this matter before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom,” the document begins. In the letter, the fund states that so far the courts have ruled in its favor and that, while the appeal is clearly legitimate, “it appears to serve little purpose, beyond prolonging the process, increasing costs for all parties and leaving Cuba’s access to international financial markets severely restricted.”
“It appears to serve little purpose, beyond prolonging the process, increasing costs for all parties and leaving Cuba’s access to international financial markets severely restricted.”
In order to satisfy the claim, CRF is making an offer to settle the claim quickly – although stressing that it is confident that the courts would again rule in its favor – which appears in an attached document. According to Telemundo 51, the agreement basically consists of the immediate payment of 40 million pounds into a British account determined by the fund and the creation of a new loan mechanism that will allow the remaining amount to be restructured without interest for five years.
In the letter, CRF warns that with the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States “the global panorama is likely to change, potentially closing the current window of opportunity for a negotiated agreement.” The fund asked Díaz-Canel to reflect on the proposal and, if he considers it appropriate, to make a counteroffer as part of a negotiation to continue reading
“We are confident that a mutually beneficial solution is within reach, one that resolves CRF’s claims while signaling to the global financial community Cuba’s willingness to engage constructively with its creditors,” the document insists.
Telemundo 51 consulted with an expert, economist Luis R. Luis, a contributor to 14ymedio, who questioned whether the Cuban government would accept this path to conciliation. “Knowing that they have a low availability of foreign currency and assets, and also the fact that, in general, they do not give in very easily, I imagine that they will not agree to negotiate this offer. It is simply speculation, but I would say that this will probably not advance in that direction,” he indicated.
“Knowing that they have a low availability of currencies and assets, and also the fact that, in general, they do not give in very easily, I imagine that they will not agree.”
The case between CRF and the Cuban regime stems from loans taken out in 1984 with Credit Lyonnais and Istituto Banco Italiano and then transferred to ICBC Standard Bank (the British subsidiary of the Chinese bank ICBC). CRF, a fund created in 2009 in the Cayman Islands, acquired this debt, valued at more than 72 million euros, in 2019 and attempted to contact the Cuban side to collect it.
The version defended by the Cuban State is that CRF, which it calls a vulture fund, obtained the debt in an invalid manner, since the then director of operations of the BNC, Raúl Olivera Lozano, signed the operation without following the “appropriate internal processes,” which is why he is in prison.
The BNC also argued that it did not receive the notice required by contract for the reallocation of the debt and, consequently, rejects that CRF is the legitimate owner of the debt.
The legal process began in January 2023 in London, and the first ruling, issued by Judge Sara Cockerill in April, determined that the BNC was responsible for the debt. The entity is currently a commercial bank, but until 1997 it acted as the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) and continued to be responsible for the registration, control and service of the debt it had placed until the creation of the BCC, for which it was sued.
The judge concluded that CRF could claim payment not from the State, but from the BNC, a decision that was presented as a victory by the regime but which, in practice, meant the same thing, since ultimately the entity is state-owned. In addition, the ruling indicated that CRF was a legitimate creditor.
The BNC appealed the ruling to an appeals court, but in November 2024 the British court again ruled in favor of the fund. “This unanimous decision is a fundamental milestone in our efforts to achieve justice and enforce contractual rights,” said Jeet Gordhandas, a representative of CRF.
Havana remained silent for several days, and finally the BCN issued a statement stating that it was analyzing “its defense position for the next steps to follow,” in addition to ratifying “its firm will for dialogue and unwavering respect for the debts that have been contracted legitimately.”
Havana remained silent for several days and finally the BCN issued a statement stating that it was analyzing “its defense position for the next steps to follow.”
The entity now, unless – unlikely – it has accepted the agreement, hopes that the Supreme Court will rule in its favor in a trial that could take a long time to be held. “The facts are clear: Cuba borrowed these sums and did not comply with its payment obligations, a constant pattern in its dealings,” CFR said last November, before attempting to collect through its proposal without exhausting, like the other party, the legal route.
This weekend it became known that Cuba has managed to renegotiate its debt with the Paris Club, the amount of which – in the latest report from 2022 – amounted to 4.827 billion dollars.
In addition, the island also has a debt of approximately 2 billion euros with Spain, the collection of which is “difficult to resolve,” according to Israel Arroyo, Secretary of State for Economy and Business Support, speaking this November. The regime has reached several agreements in recent years to reduce the amounts, including that owed to China, which in 2011 forgave 6 billion dollars; Mexico, 487 million forgiven in 2013; and Russia, which in 2014 reduced the island’s debt by 90%, leaving the 35 billion it owed to just 3.5 billion that it had to pay in agreed installments.
According to the latest official debt data, corresponding to 2020, Cuba has 19.743 billion dollars of external debt, of which 11.202 correspond to official debt, 2.737 to bank debt and 5.804 to debt with suppliers.
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14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguin, 20 January 2025 — Employees of state-owned companies in Holguín are going through uncertain times. The successive staff reductions seem to have no end and another cut is expected in the month of February. The most affected entities are those linked to food production and processing, hit by low agricultural and livestock production, sources in the sector confirmed to 14ymedio.
“Every time I go to work I think that it will be the last day I will go.” With more than 20 years at the Felipe Fuentes Fernández Meat Combine, belonging to the Holguín Meat Company, Gerardo, age 45, is one of the most veteran employees of the state entity. However, his permanence in his position hangs by a thread. “Last year there was a staff reduction and they already announced another one for February. Right now we are about 200 workers and that number could be halved.”
The reason for the staff cuts is “the low number of animals to process,” Gerardo says. “We spent almost all of last year with our arms crossed because we weren’t getting any cattle. During that time, they put us to mow green areas and do beautification work in the surroundings, but the meat itself, we hardly touched it.”
In 2023 alone, more than 7,400 heads of cattle were lost in the province due to theft and illegal slaughter
The company receives mainly cattle farmers from Holguín must deliver as part of their commitments with the state monopoly Acopio. Although the quantity is agreed upon at the beginning of each year, it is increasingly continue reading
In 2023 alone, more than 7,400 heads of cattle were lost in the province due to theft and illegal slaughter, according to data provided by the local newspaper ¡Ahora!. In total, taking into account other factors such as terrain conditions, diseases and feed, of the 307,053 heads that the province had in January of that year, 38,319 were culled in just eleven months.
Of these cattle “discounted” from the provincial inventory, 19% corresponded to crimes of theft and illegal slaughter, while 52% were classified as deaths due to different factors. This resulted in the loss of almost three million tons of meat and more than 4.5 million liters of milk that could have been dedicated to the population’s consumption.
“Our company supplies tourists, maternity homes and hospitals,” Gerardo continues. “When the animals arrive, they are separated into ’prime cattle’ for hotels and those for social orders, but now we lack cattle for both destinations, so most of the hotels in this province are stocking up on imported products that give them more stability in supply and higher quality, while we cannot meet our social commitments either.”
“During that time without animals, we painted, we did maintenance, we looked like a construction brigade”
“During that time without animals, we painted, we did maintenance, we looked like a construction brigade instead of workers from a place where pot roast, mincemeat, ribs, steaks and even bones are produced.” Towards the end of last year “a few animals came in, all quite thin, because the guajiros say they have almost no food to give them. On the days when we received the most, there were 15 or 20 cows, when a few years ago there were more than 100 each day.”
The discontent over the cuts in the workforce is worsening at the Combinado because “they are not reducing the administrative and management staff equally, here they are removing workers from the corrals, refrigerators, slaughterhouse and packing plant areas but in the offices no one has been touched. The bureaucrats will remain in their chairs and those of us in the production area are the most affected.”
Another of the state-owned companies that is failing on all sides and preparing to cut staff is the main poultry slaughterhouse in the province, located in San Rafael Adentro, at kilometer 5 and a half on the Mayarí highway. “This company never had 15 workers,” says Yaquelín, one of the employees who expects to be removed from the workforce in a few days, when the new layoffs are announced.
“We belong to the Ministry of Agriculture and we are among the companies where workers have the lowest salaries,” the employee explained to this newspaper. “Here, most salaries do not exceed 2,500 pesos a month, and you cannot even buy a carton of eggs* with that money.” “They are going to reduce positions and the equipment, such as the executives’ cars, and they will be moved to the main headquarters of the Provincial Poultry Company.”
“We were told that 50% of the workers would stay, now there are about 60 of us so maybe 30 will stay.” So far, the workers have received the offer to be relocated as security personnel in other companies linked to the poultry sector. “I have already done several night shifts, as preparation, in an egg warehouse belonging to Acopio, but I am not going to stay in that position because it is dangerous and at night you can’t even see your hands.”
In the middle of last year, the slaughterhouse was in the news because at least 54,000 laying hens had to be slaughtered on the premises due to the impossibility of keeping them because of the lack of animal feed. “Before, you would pass by these sheds and the sound of the animals would barely let you hear what another worker was saying,” Yaquelín says. Now silence spreads, and with that calm fear also spreads among the workers. “This is going to end up dismantled if it continues like this.”
*Translator’s note: This is literally true. Eggs are sold in cartons of 30, which currently cost about 3,500 pesos.
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Terrorist groups, such as Hamas, learned from the Cuban dictatorship the art of kidnapping in order to always have prisoners from whom they can profit.
14ymedio, Mario Félix Lleonart Barroso, Washington, 18 January 2025 — The release of prisoners in Cuba in January 2025 as part of a negotiation with the Biden Administration makes me think of the one in October 1980. Then, the United States was swinging between Carter and Reagan, now between Biden and Trump. And in Cuba, as Augusto Monterroso said in his shortest story: “When I woke up, the dinosaur was still there.”
It’s been 45 years. In the United States, presidents and administrations change, and in Cuba the same banana dictatorship remains clinging to power, with its same vices and tricks, specialized in the business of using people as bargaining chips. Terrorist groups like Hamas learned the art of kidnapping from the Cuban dictatorship: always hold hostages to get the best deal.
In 1980, 3,900 political prisoners were released, many of whom had been behind bars since 1959. This was the result of months of negotiations between the Cuban government and the Carter administration. This time they have promised only 553 prisoners, and the swindle of the Cuban Government is evident, accustomed to passing a cat for a hare in one blow, such as releasing renowned prisoners José Daniel Ferrer and Pastor Lorenzo Rosales.
Some had served or were about to complete their sentences; others were already at home under extra-penal license
Some had served or were about to complete their sentences; others were already at home under extra-penal leave and were offered conditional release to be included on the list. This happened with Professor Pedro Albert Sánchez, who, at the risk of returning to prison, did not accept the proposal to exchange his legal status, which for serious health issues allows him to be at home, for a conditional release.
In total, what does 553 mean for the Cuban dictatorship, if those released are still imprisoned under extra-penal licenses or conditional release? Capturing another 553 is mere sport for the regime. continue reading
These supposed amnesties are frequent but are far from really being so. The prisons will always be full of hostages to gain an advantage. More recently there were others, such as the one requested by Pope John Paul II as part of his visit to Cuba in January 1998. Among those released from prison, I had a relative, my maternal uncle, Irelio Barroso, a hero for me, who had been sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1994, and who upon the arrival of the Pope declared a hunger strike. If he had not been released from prison he would have died.
Then came the 2010 amnesty with 126 released , after the death of prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, and that of 2012 during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI, and that of 2014 (53 released) after the announcement of the re-establishment of US-Cuba relations, and that of September 2015 during the visit of Pope Francis.
It’s sad to see how some prisoners are kept as bargaining chips to prolong the negotiations. This is the case for Miguel Díaz Bouza (more than 30 years in prison) and Ernesto Borges Pérez (27 years in prison). They have survived many such amnesties and against all hope have remained in prison.
It’s sad to see how some prisoners are kept as bargaining chips to prolong the negotiations
In some cases, they have also imprisoned nationals of foreign governments as valuable bargaining chips. Thomas White and Mel Bailey were released in the negotiations with Carter in 1980, and Alan Gross in the negotiations with Obama in December 2014.
If a Cuban has to think twice before going out on the street to call for freedom, an American will have to think about it 10 times. The Regime will not hesitate to use them to its advantage in a negotiation.
Nicolás Maduro, an apprentice of the Cuban dictatorship, like guerrilla terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, in recent months has used several Americans to gain an advantage in future negotiations. There are several detention centers full of hostages, such as the fearsome Helicoide prison in Caracas, where the guards have been trained in torture by Cuban soldiers.
One of the most reported cases of foreigners recently kidnapped by Maduro in Venezuela is that of the Argentine gendarme Nahuel Gallo, who since December 8, 2024 has been a cause for concern for the government of Javier Milei.
It is not surprising then that José Daniel Ferrer, one of the most internationally recognized opponents, was quoted in The New York Times. I would never be grateful for my release if it came in an exchange that was an unclear, unethical, undignified agreement,” he said. “I said verbatim: I prefer death to owing my release to an undignified agreement.”
Ferrer said that the Government of the Island mocked both Biden and the Vatican, which should adopt a firmer stance against human rights violations in Cuba. Similar statements were made in a video on social networks by Luis Robles Elizastigi, another well-known opponent.
I have spoken with several of the released prisoners, whose names I prefer not to mention so that they can remain at home. The reality is that they have not been freed but released from prison. They are still hostages and at any time can be returned to prison until another possible negotiation to buy time, as happened in 1980. And the dinosaur is still there.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Much cheaper than tricycles and scooters, cart drivers do not enjoy the sympathy of the authorities
14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 19 January 2025 – “State-run busses are no competition for us, because they are virtually non-existent,” gibes a driver waiting to load his horse-drawn carriage precisely where La Calzada de Dolores in Cienfuegos begins. Although the area designated by the government for pick-up, far from the downtown, has become a dumpsite of animal urine and feces, people are not dissuaded from climbing on board the rickety carriages to go anywhere in the city.
“We would welcome a better location. People in El Prado, for example, who’re going to Tulipán need to walk at least ten blocks to get here through El Parque Villuendas,” explains Jorge, who’s been driving his carriage for eighteen years.
These drivers report that, far from providing the opportunities they seek, the local authorities have been “on the verge of wiping out the carriages entirely.” Jorge is grateful that each time those measures have been about to take effect, the fuel crisis and the scarcity of buses have tipped the balance in favor of the carriage drivers. Nonetheless, the government’s stance remains hostile.
“The only thing left for Party leaders to do is blame us for causing an epidemic. Together with Community Services and the Ministry of Labor, they have changed our routes, raised our taxes, controlled our prices—all with the goal of making us gradually disappear,” he stated.
When the law leans on them, says the man, the horse-carriage drivers find a way to survive. What’s most common, he affirms as he turns the queue over to a colleague who had just arrived at La Calzada, is renting the vehicle. “Whenever we can, we have to rent out the carriage; it’s the only way we can afford to pay the tax authorities, maintain the carriage, and take care of the horse,” he affirms. But since so many are doing the same thing, it’s not easy to get more than three or four rentals per week. continue reading
Jorge also bemoans the fact that the horse-carriage routes are not as flexible as those of the three-wheelers and motorcycles.
Jorge also bemoans the fact that the horse-carriage routes are not as flexible as those of the three-wheelers and motorcycles, which also offer trips downtown. But the driver knows that compared to motorized vehicles, his trade has an advantage: the prices. “Not everyone can rent a scooter to La Juanita or Junco Sur, because they can easily be charged 1,000 pesos for the trip,” he estimates.
Osmani, the young driver to whom Jorge gave the last one, almost completely agrees with the man who has become a kind of mentor in the trade to him. “Lots of people complain that our routes are limited, but we know we aren’t the ones to blame.”
It’s been seven months since the young man began the process of finally putting his carriage in circulation. “Instead of making things easier, they put up bureaucratic roadblocks that would discourage anyone. And after overcoming the initial hurdles, then the daily struggle begins with the inspectors who are ready to issue fines even for the animal’s excrement,” he complained.
At the pick-up spot, time is money. That’s why the drivers try to fill the carriages quickly, and when they can’t, the clients become impatient. “When they say they’re going to the stop at the Provincial Hospital or the bus terminal, they really stop two or three blocks before. It’s not the drivers’ fault they can’t go all the way there, but we are paying for a trip that is never completed,” bemoans Idania from the seat of one of the carriages waiting to be filled. “When I get off, I still have to take another means of transportation to get to my house in the Reina neighborhood.”
With 20 pesos for the trip in hand, Idania attempts a brief analysis of the problem with transportation in the city. Her conclusions aren’t good: There are no buses; alternative forms of transportation are expensive; and the cheapest, like the horse-drawn carriages, don’t cover all the routes they could.
The woman also dislikes the idea that hundreds of Cienfuegos’s residents rely on animal-drawn transport daily. “Obviously, I am in favor of protecting animals, but in our country, you can’t dispense with this form of transportation.” With the carriage now full and ready to leave, Idania winds up the conversation with a truism with which the rest of the passengers concur: “If it weren’t for the horses, we’d have to cover the entire city on foot.”
Translated by Cristina Saavedra
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