Translating Cuba – Page 120 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

The Prensa Latina Correspondent in New York Abandons Her Post and Stays in the United States

The agency has experienced several casualties in recent years and lacks staff

Borrego graduated from the Marta Abreu Central University of Las Villas / LinkedIn/Elizabeth Borrego

14ymedio, Havana, 4 January 2025 — Prensa Latina lost one of its key correspondents this week. Elizabeth Borrego Rodríguez, head of the official Cuban news agency at UN headquarters in New York, informed Prensa Latina that she was leaving her position to stay in the United States, after more than a year of reporting for the organization, reported El Vigía de Cuba.

The resignation of the 31-year-old journalist after little time in the position affects Prensa Latina, which increasingly resorts to younger collaborators, who, like Borrego, do not seem to last. “She had only been on the job at United Nations headquarters for a little over a year. She called Prensa Latina in Havana to say that she was not returning,” an employee of the agency confirmed to Cubanet.

Before arriving in New York, Borrego was a correspondent in Venezuela, from where she sent articles validating the actions of the Caracas regime, an ally of Havana, which were then reproduced in the provincial press of the Island. The Cuban government has stationed several of its most notable propagandists in Caracas, such as Pedro Jorge Velázquez, known as El Necio [The Fool].

Born in Sancti Spíritus and graduated from the Marta Abreu Central University of Las Villas with a thesis about Noticiero Estelar [another official news source], Borrego is the daughter of Juan Antonio Borrego Díaz, who continue reading

died in 2021. He was the director for almost 24 years of Escambray, the newspaper of the Communist Party in Sancti Spíritus. In addition, he was a correspondent for the State newspaper Granma for 30 years and a collaborator of Cubadebate, where his articles appeared frequently. After his death, the Journalistic Innovation Award that bears his name was created.

After his death, the Journalistic Innovation Award that bears his name was created

From the UN, Borrego diligently performed her work, which consisted mainly of criticizing the economic “blockade” of the United States, asking that Cuba be removed from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism and applauding the pleas of the foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla. “Unilateral coercive sanctions prevent enjoyment of the rights to food, education, health and development [of Cubans],” she wrote in her last article, published by Prensa Latina on December 10.

Occasionally, she also worked on other topics, such as a report dedicated to Latin American women that she published in 2024, or the recent deliveries of UN donations to those affected by hurricanes Oscar and Rafael on the Island. “Borrego did her job very well. She is a good journalist, but, like every young person, she dreams of having children and leading a dignified life, and that is impossible here,” explained a source close to El Vigía de Cuba.

He also said that Prensa Latina has a lack of journalists: “The blow is hard, because more and more young journalists are leaving, the most talented, some with important positions or in wonderful places, without us being able to do anything at all to avoid it.”

However, he says that the reactions within the agency do not always support the decision of the young reporter, and some believe that her departure is a “treason” to the agency that entrusted her with an important position.

Inside the agency, some believe that her departure is “treason”

According to Cubanet, with a source in Havana, the agency tries to keep the UN correspondent active with the support of Washington correspondent Daisy Francis Texidor, of “very discreet professionalism as she showed in Mexico, but an old collaborator of Cuban intelligence.”

He also adds that Francis “was closely linked to the environment of Los Cinco,” – The Five – in reference to the spies in the service of the Cuban government that Washington arrested in 1998. He also recalled the departure in recent years of two other important correspondents of Prensa Latina: Néstor Marín, in London, and Miguel Lozano, in Madrid.

On December 30, the arrival at Miami International Airport of sports commentator Sergio Ortega and his family, who emigrated definitively to the United States and plan to settle in southern Florida, was also in the news. The journalist is the son of Manolo Ortega, who was a “personal friend” and official presenter of Fidel Castro in political events.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A New Year’s Eve without Pork, Rice, Beans, Yucca or Tomato — the Five Pillars of the Cuban Family Dinner

Many Cuban households are reducing portion sizes, cutting back on the number of traditional items on the menu or simply working with whatever happens to be available.

Rice for sale at the Young Labor Army market in Havana’s Nuevo Vedado district. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 31 December 2024 — On December 31, the Cuban dinner table will reflect a year marked by higher food prices and shortages of basic products. New Year’s dishes will cost more to prepare than they did twelve months ago. While imported ingredients will play a larger role, the holiday meal will be little different at some homes from the meager rations of any other day.

Pork, rice, beans, yucca and tomato — the inseparable quintet of the Cuban New Year’s Eve meal — are among the ingredients in shortest supply. The situation is such that some households are opting to reduce portion sizes, cut back on the number of traditional items on the menu or simply work with whatever is available and affordable.

Among the items seeing the largest price increases in 2024 is pork, which sold for 1,000 pesos a pound in December. At some markets in Havana, such as the one on 19th and B streets in Havana’s Vedado district, it was going for 1,200 pesos, almost double what it cost at Christmas in 2023. A shortage of animal feed has hampered domestic production, resulting in a proliferation of American pork loins, which now dominate the market. Steak, pork rinds continue reading

and fried pastries have become luxuries in a country where the average monthly income is 4,648 pesos (USD $193.62 at the official exchange rate) according to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).

One of the main price increases in 2024 has been for pork / 14ymedio

The tomato is not far behind. The fruit — typically thinly sliced, seasoned and served with lettuce or cabbage — was 400 pesos at the Plaza Boulevard market in Sancti Spíritus in December 2024. The previous January it was going for only 100 pesos at the same market. By July it had completely disappeared due a supply shortage. The market, which is located in a region with a long agricultural tradition and whose prices 14ymedio tracks every week, has become a gauge for measuring a crisis that has burned through wallets and charred household finances.

The fruit has reached 400 pesos in the Plaza Boulevard market in Sancti Spíritus this last month of the year. / 14ymedio

In Cienfuegos province, another agricultural region, black beans closed out the year at 400 pesos a pound, a price in excess of $1.30 USD at the informal exchange rate. In other regions the price exceeded $1.50. The legume is one of the foods most severely impacted by the drop in domestic production. Faced with an avalanche of foreign labels, Cubans now find themselves having to learn the names of this product in other countries, buying packages whose labels read “porotos,” “alubias” or “habichuelas.”

In the province of Cienfuegos, black beans closed the year at 400 pesos per pound. / 14ymedio

However, it is rice that has undoubtedly been the biggest headache for Cuban cooks in 2024. Stores selling rationed goods are only now, in late December, getting around to selling November’s allotment of the popular grain. After seeing prices soar in the last five years, rice is now selling on the open market for close to 200 pesos a pound.

Imported 0ptions, sold mainly in one-kilogram packages, are of higher quality and are more carefully presented but cost more than 400 pesos. This basic ingredient, essential to almost every lunch or dinner, has driven the island’s food costs through the roof. At Holguín’s Los Chinos marketplace, the prized item was going for as much 240 pesos a pound in August. Though it had fallen to 190 pesos by year’s end, this is cold comfort to those households whose only source of income is a state pensions or a government salary.

Rice has undoubtedly been the biggest headache for Cuban kitchens this year. / 14ymedio

The news is not good for yucca either. In December 2023 it cost 50 pesos a pound at Cienfuegos’ Plaza La Calzada market. A year later it is nearly 70 pesos at the same location. The dramatic fall in domestic production threatens to further reduce the number of cassava crops, a food inextricably linked to national identity. The steepest decline can be seen in the state sector as evidenced by this graph prepared by economist Pedro Monreal based on data from ONEI.

The debacle is most evident in the state sector. / Pedro Monrael

Those who decide to forego the usual New Year’s Eve dinner in favor of a popular lifesaver in times of scarcity will not have an easy task either. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz recently recalled Raúl Castro once saying that it would be a shame if we ever had to import sugar. “Well, we are now experiencing that shame because we are now importing sugar,” he admitted. Even without data on the sugar sector for the past year, the average Cuban knows what is going on. There is no sugar and prices are skyrocketing, hovering around 400 to 600 pesos per pound in recent weeks.

The situation is summed up in the November consumer price index. ONEI reports that raw sugar rose by 16.12% while the refined version rose by 10.98%. “Milordo” or “munga” — a recipe in which a couple of spoonfuls of sugar are mixed in a glass of water — has also become unattainable for many Cubans this New Year’s Eve.

The crude product rose by 16.12%, while the refined product rose by 10.98%.

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Beggars Proliferate on the Streets of Cuba, Living Replicas of San Lázaro

Many are accompanied by a small statuette of the saint and a cardboard box to deposit the quilos.

The glances, always on the ground or lost somewhere in the street, say it all. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, 17 December 2024 — In Cuba, every corner has its Saint Lazarus. Bent over, propped up by crutches or moving in a wheelchair, dressed in the jute that characterizes the saint or in the rags of Babalú Ayé. You don’t have to go to the famous Havana sanctuary to find yourself face to face with an old man, a sick person or a beggar.

People are not sure whether this December 17th is celebrated by the Catholic saint who got up and walked, St Lazurus — the beggar with dogs — or the Yoruba orisha. The only thing that is clear is that Lázaro – a name that Cuban mothers often give to their children if the pregnancy was difficult – is synonymous with suffering, and that is never lacking.

Since colonial times, when African slaves mixed their tradition with that imposed on them by their masters, Saint Lazarus was the saint closest to the terrestrial and, therefore, the most venerated; sometimes even above the Virgin of Charity (Ochún) or Saint Barbara (Changó). The drums of his “wake,”as in the song by Bola de Nieve, can be heard from the night of December 16th in any part of the country and the church collection boxes are filled with coins collected throughout the year in homes.

Silent and in the company of these symbols, Cuban beggars rarely really ask for anything. / 14ymedio

The average Cuban cares little about the theological boundaries between the orisha and the biblical figure. There is no beggar on the island who does not carry a small statuette of the saint and a cardboard box to deposit the
quilos, pesetas and pesos, and sometimes a few bills.

Silent and in the company of these symbols, Cuban beggars rarely really ask for anything. You see them – like the one that on Tuesday was near the Parque de la Fraternidad – hunched over, with nylon bags around him, a bottle with a little soda and some violet piece, the color of Babalú.

Reduced to pure bones, a beggar washes his feet in a ditch on Reina Street. / 14ymedio

The glances, always on the ground or lost somewhere in the street, say it all, like that of the old woman who – cart in hand, jute robe, and a little box with Saint Lazarus on it – was selling oil sitting near a line.

On Rodríguez Street, a “diver” explores a gigantic landfill with his crutch. Reduced to pure bones, another beggar washed his feet in a ditch on Reina Street. It is enough to continue walking through Havana for the list to continue.

On Rodriguez Street, a diver uses his crutch to explore a giant landfill. / 14ymedio

In the land of the Lazaruses, the gigantic advertisement on the scaffolding surrounding the old Payret cinema, opposite the Capitol, is shocking. The photographic exhibition Grandmothers and Grandfathers on loan, by Monik Molinet, is the exact opposite of reality. Rosy-cheeked, peaceful, in houses made of slabs and with happy faces, the “borrowed” elderly have little to do with the mistreated Babalú Ayé or with so many Cubans who resemble him.

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Cuba’s Military Company Gaesa is Responsible for the ‘Abrupt Impoverishment’ of the Country

‘The Miami Herald’ reveals that the hotel arm of the conglomerate has 4.261 billion dollars in its accounts

The K Tower in Havana, a symbol of Gaesa’s opulence, whose construction continued despite all the crises. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 1 January 2025 — Gaviota, one of the hotel companies owned by Gaesa — the economic and financial arm of the Cuban military — has roughly 4.261 billion dollars in “current assets.” The figure, accessed by The Miami Herald after the military conglomerate’s “rare leak of financial records,” gives an idea of the power of the Armed Forces, which several economists describe as the Island’s “parallel government.”

The amount is one of the few that the documents express in dollars. Between Gaviota and Almest, the all-powerful real estate company from which the hotel investments come, the figure totals 22,765 billion pesos.

The report, signed this Monday by journalist Nora Gámez, states that if the amount is converted into pesos using the state exchange rate of 24 pesos per dollar, the figure is close to 95 million dollars, an overwhelming number considering the extreme crisis situation in the country. Gaviota also has 51 billion pesos in “long-term or permanent investments” and 1.7 billion pesos in food.

The case of Almest, founded in 1994 as the “main investor” in Gaesa hotels, is notable in fiscal terms.

The case of Almest, founded in 1994 as the “main investor” in Gaesa hotels, is notable in fiscal terms. The company received 668 million pesos from state coffers, but paid only two million pesos in taxes, the newspaper says.

The Miami Herald points to Gaviota and Almest as the main culprits of the country’s “abrupt impoverishment” and the worsening of the current Cuban crisis. Gaesa has spent years “diverting billions of dollars of the continue reading

country’s foreign exchange earnings to relentlessly build new hotels despite the deteriorating situation.”

According to economist Pavel Vidal, interviewed by The Miami Herald regarding the leak, Gaesa has not only harmed Cubans, but also the government of the regime, whose authority has been reduced to a symbolic level.

The frantic construction of hotels by order of the Armed Forces, in a context in which the economy “is falling apart,” is the greatest evidence that centralized government planning belongs to the past, Vidal believes.

Gaviota’s financial assets are, they say, 13 times greater than the amount Havana needs, but lacks, to supply the Island’s pharmacies

To underscore the contrast between Gaviota’s coffers and the government’s difficulties in sustaining the country, The Miami Herald cites Cuban authorities, who say they need $339 million annually to supply the Island’s pharmacies. Gaviota’s financial assets are, they say, 13 times greater than the amount Havana is lamenting the lack of.

Gaesa’s millions are “hidden.” The military has been clever at registering its business abroad and maintains the opacity of its transactions at all costs. In addition, thanks to its control of remittances entering the country, it has seized a large amount of foreign currency since 1990, the year it was founded, the newspaper reports.

By referring only to Gaviota and Almest, the leaked documents only offer “a glimpse” of Gaesa’s true power, The Miami Herald acknowledges. To properly gauge its reach, one would need to know the financial ins and outs of other companies under the military umbrella, such as Cimex, Etecsa, Habaguanex, Almacenes Universal and Grupo Palco.

Gaesa has also protected itself from government auditors, who are not authorized to inspect the conglomerate’s records. Not even the Comptroller General’s Office has jurisdiction over the Armed Forces, which invoke “superior discipline and organization,” as former Comptroller General Gladys Bejerano, who was dismissed shortly after the interview, admitted to EFE.

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A ‘Coyote’ Abandons 25 Cubans in an Area of Mexico Controlled by Narcos

The Mexican Border Police transferred the Cuban migrants to the Immigrant Prosecutor’s Office /FGE of Chiapas

14ymedio, Mexico City, 3 January 2024 — A coyote abandoned 25 Cubans on Thursday in the trailer of a cargo truck on a road in the Ignacio Zaragoza ejido, in the municipality of Suchiate, Chiapas, bordering Guatemala. The migrants were rescued by state police, who after a medical check-up, handed them over to the Immigrant Prosecutor’s Office to determine their status.

These Cubans, among whom are several women and minors, asked to communicate with 14ymedio, but the authorities denied it, arguing that “the investigation could be hindered.” The minors were taken to a shelter of the National System for the Integral Development of Families (DIF) in Tapachula.

From Tecún Umán, in Guatemala, to Suchiate and Tapachula, in Mexico, the authorities carry out tours to combat irregular entries. However, they have not been able to eradicate the networks of coyotes in the service of criminal groups.

Of an average of 1,200 migrants who illegally enter Mexico daily through the Guatemalan border, at least 50% are being kidnapped by “cartels in the municipality of Suchiate,” denounced priests from the San Andrés Apóstol parish and the Pastoral Coordination of Migrants in Guatemala. continue reading

The Chiapas State Prosecutor’s Office is investigating a network of coyotes in the state / FGE of Chiapas

Father Percy Cervera of Guatemalan Pastoral confirmed the increase of “migrants of 56 nationalities” in the last quarter of 2024 who seek to reach the United States. They have become a vulnerable group that is “prey to criminals, authorities, transporters and many people who take advantage of their situation,” he said.

For his part, the priest of the parish of San Andrés Apóstol de Ciudad Hidalgo, Heyman Vásquez Medina, warned Diario del Sur in August last year of the presence of coyotes under the control of factions of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. They “arrive in vans wearing balaclavas and with weapons. They intercept the migrants and take them to farms, where they keep them for days until their relatives pay the sums they demand,” he said.

The Associated Press agency documented the kidnapping of migrants in Suchiate last November. Before crossing the river that separates Guatemala from Mexico, they are detained by human traffickers. Heyman Vázquez, parish priest in Ciudad Hidalgo – a town near the border – said in the same interview that the cartels dominate both sides of the border. “They are the ones who say who passes and who doesn’t.”

The migrants are grouped and taken to a farm known as “the chicken coop” or “la gallera.” There they demand 100 dollars for transit duty, and those who pay are marked and released. Those who cannot cover the fee remain in place, but the sum is increased by the food they receive. “When they can’t pay with money, they pay with their bodies, especially women, adolescents and homosexual men,” Enrique Vidal Olascoaga, general director of the Fray Matías de Córdova Human Rights Center in Tapachula, told the same agency.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Truck Carrying Passengers Overturns in Camagüey Leaving One Dead and Dozens Injured

The vehicle overturned on a bridge known as El Francés

The injured were taken to the José Espiridón Santiesteban Báez municipal hospital. / Radio Santa Cruz

14ymedio, Havana, 2 January 2025 — One dead and 63 injured, including 13 minors, was the toll of an crash this Thursday morning at kilometer 71 of the highway that connects Camagüey with Santa Cruz del Sur. According to information from the official profile of Radio Santa Cruz, a private truck used for transporting passengers overturned on a bridge known as El Francés.

According to the report, the driver lost control of the vehicle. The first published images of the crash show the truck that fell to the side of the road in an area full of vegetation. The front area, where the engine is located, and part of the driver’s seat were practically crushed.

The photographs show the presence of neighbors who are assisting and trying to help those left behind in the truck, something that is also mentioned in the Radio Santa Cruz report: “The solidarity of the locals was not long in coming, who massively went to the institution in the white coat sector to support in whatever was necessary.”

The same profile also stated that “members of the Ministry of the Interior and the main political, governmental and Public Health authorities immediately went to the scene.” continue reading

The photographs show the presence of neighbors who assist and try to help those who remained in the truck.

Reporting on Facebook, the witness said that “at all times, the necessary medical and nursing staff and the essential resources for the care of all these people have been available.” He also detailed that the injured were transferred to the José Espiridón Santiesteban Báez municipal hospital in ambulances and alternative transport.

The incident had already been reported on social media hours earlier. “We had been hearing the ambulances passing by for a while and we knew that something had happened,” said one Facebook user, adding that “these accidents are preventable. They are racing around in trucks and this is not the first time that a truck on the Santa Cruz highway has overturned on a bridge.”

Several Facebook users initially reported that there were at least two dead, an eight-year-old child and an adult. However, the official report stated that the deceased is Ramón Chávez Águila, although it did not specify his age. An Internet user, Yanecita Mesa, said in the Revolico Santa Cruz del Sur group that the person who died is her “cousin Ramoncito,” a name that matches the one in the report.

After the crash, many Internet users in the province called on the population to come and donate blood.

This is the third traffic crash in less than two weeks on the island that has resulted in deaths. During the last days of December, the deaths of five people, two of them minors, were reported in two crashes in Ciego de Ávila.

The government has blamed the “human factor ” for the crashes in the country. “The frequency and dynamics of traffic accidents in the country continue to be marked by the irresponsibility of drivers and pedestrians,” said the official newspaper Granma in January of last year, which attributed 91% of the accidents to the population.

This is the third crash in less than two weeks on the island that has left people dead

However, in many cases, the wear and tear of the cars, which exceed their useful life by years, with between 40 and 70* years of operation, as well as the poor condition of the roads in the country that are used by the majority of the population, have contributed to the constant occurrence of traffic accidents in the country.

According to data published by the Ministry of the Interior’s traffic authorities, crashes on Cuban roads decreased by 13% (543 fewer) in the first half of last year compared to the same period in 2023, and the number of deaths and injuries fell by 23% and 5%, respectively. However, these data do not reflect the decrease in the population, mainly due to emigration.

Meanwhile, 8,556 crashes occurred throughout 2023, which represented a 13% decrease compared to the 9,848 reported in 2022. There were 5,938 injuries, 7% less than the previous year, but the number of deaths increased (729), according to official figures.

*Translator’s note: Many American cars manufactured as early as the 1950s remain in daily use in Cuba.

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In 2024 Oil Shipments From Venezuela to Cuba Fell by Almost Half

Although Venezuelan fuel exports increased by 10%, donations to the Island fell from 56,000 barrels per day to 32,000

The ship ’Alicia’, one of the tankers that usually bring oil from Venezuela

14ymedio, Madrid, 3 January 2025 — Fuel shipments from Caracas to the Island fell by more than 42% in 2024. The data, published by Reuters, is even more striking if we take into account that Caracas increased its oil exports in the same period by 10.5%, and its crude oil production by 17%, from the 780,000 barrels per day (bpd) of the first 11 months of 2023 to the 914,000 bpd of the same period last year.

“While Venezuela struggled with frequent refinery cuts last year, exports of crude oil and fuel to its political ally Cuba, which has been facing a severe energy crisis, fell to about 32,000 bpd from 56,000 bpd the previous year,” the British agency reported.

On the other hand, total exports decreased to 756,000 bpd in December, compared to a maximum of 974,000 bpd in November, because, explains Reuters, “one of the four Pdvsa crude upgraders had operational problems.”

The annual increase in exports took place despite the political instability in Venezuela, because partners of the Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA who have licenses granted by Washington took more shipments. Reuters alluded to the results of the presidential elections last July, whose triumph was attributed to Nicolás Maduro. This result has been questioned internationally and gave rise to demonstrations with hundreds of arrests. continue reading

Pdvsa and its joint ventures exported 772,000 barrels per day last year, the highest figure since 2019

These individual licenses, in force since the beginning of 2023, are the main element that caused Venezuelan fuel exports to the United States to skyrocket exponentially, by 64%, to about 222,000 bpd last year. The numbers make the United States the second largest export market for Caracas, behind China, which took 351,000 bpd, 18% less than the previous year.

On average, the British agency indicates, Pdvsa and its joint ventures exported 772,000 barrels per day last year, the highest figure since 2019, when Washington, under the presidency of Donald Trump, imposed energy sanctions for the first time.

Much of last year’s export profits, Reuters highlights, come from the American oil company Chevron. In addition, shipments to Europe tripled in 2024, up to about 75,000 bpd, thanks to the authorization of the US to European producers such as the Italian Eni, the Spanish Repsol and the French Maurel et Prom.

These gains, Reuters also estimates, “could be in danger” in the face of Trump’s imminent arrival at the White House for the second time. The president-elect and his team appointed for the State Department, headed by Cuban-American Marco Rubio, have already announced more pressure on the Maduro regime.

For the specialist, in any case, 2025 will be an “extremely difficult” year for the Island

The reinstatement of sanctions against Caracas by the next US president would, however, be beneficial for Cuba and Mexico, in the opinion of Jorge Piñón, a Cuban analyst at the University of Texas in Austin.

In an interview with the Spanish agency EFE published this Thursday, the specialist, a 14ymedio source for information on energy, indicated that Pdvsa, in fact, has given priority to companies such as Chevron and Repsol and has left Cuba “at the end of the line.” He pointed out the minimum shipment from Caracas to the Island, 23,000 barrels per day, compared to the 2023 average of 55,000 bpd.

Given this scenario, Piñón also commented that Mexico has displaced Caracas as the main sender of fuel to Havana, which is a problem for President Claudia Sheinbaum with Trump’s arrival in power on January 20.

“The United States and Mexico have a very close relationship in energy matters. That is not something that can be closed or turned off overnight,” the expert told EFE, pointing out that it is a card that Trump can play, as well as for the Pemex refinery in Texas. “Ninety percent of the natural gas that the United States exports through pipelines goes to Mexico, which represents 65% of Mexico’s natural gas consumption.”

“If Marco Rubio and Trump say: ’Fine, we are going to go back to the sanctions again,’” Piñón declared. It would benefit Cuba and Mexico, because the oil Venezuela sends to the US would go to Cuba instead, and on the other hand, Mexico would not have to send crude to Cuba, for that matter, and would not be exposed to possible sanctions from Washington.

For the specialist, in any case, 2025 will be an “extremely difficult” year for the Island, which has just ended 2024 with three total collapses of the National Electric System (SEN).

Based on official data from 2022, Piñón told EFE that Cuba has a daily deficit of about 80,000 barrels of liquid fuel. He calculates, based on international shipments from Venezuela and above all from Mexico, that the demand in 2024 was reduced by 20,000 barrels per day.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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After Hurricane Rafael, All the Resources of the Cuban State Were Put at the Service of the Mariel Special Development Zone

With more than 10,000 workers in its facilities, the Zone is the most important economic enclave in Cuba / Canal Caribe

14ymedio, Havana, 4 January 2025 — The Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM) in Artemisa recovered in record time after the passage of Hurricane Rafael in November. Construction materials of military origin arrived; fuel was allocated in the midst of a supply crisis, and there was direct supervision of the regime’s main plan, headed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

The impact of the hurricane was considerable: 29 of the 49 businesses based in Mariel suffered damage. “Catastrophic” was the adjective used by its managers to describe the panorama in an extensive report on Cuban Television. However, neither the blackout nor the crisis in which the country was immersed during those days was an obstacle to sending all possible resources to the ZEDM.

Ana Igarza, director of the Free Zone, said that before 36 hours had passed, reconstruction activities had already resumed. Electricity for the entire area was restored in less than three days, thanks to a legion of workers from the Electric Union who arrived the day after the hurricane.

Electricity for the entire area was restored in less than three days, thanks to a legion of workers from the Electric Union

The Army also intervened from the first moment. The governor of Artemisa, Ricardo Concepción, said that the Cuban military sent him more than 40,000 fiber cement tiles manufactured in entities of the Military Industry Company. “Today all municipalities now have materials,” he said. The role continue reading

of the Western Army in Mariel’s record reparation has been “determining,” Concepción admitted.

The foreign companies that operate in the ZEDM, according to Televisión Cubana, are “godparents” for Mariel’s schools, and financed their recovery. For the governor, the visits of Díaz-Canel and Ramiro Valdés also had a military character: both were wearing olive green uniforms.

Most of the report deals with the opinions of foreign managers in the ZEDM, especially those who suffered the most damage. This is the case of Brascuba Cigarrillos, whose director, the Brazilian Gustavo Leite Machado, said that his factories had lost 50% of the roofing. The chimneys, machines and power plants were damaged by the rain. “The water fell directly on the machines, and the parts rusted. A dismantling and cleaning process was necessary,” said Robinson Tamayo, Cuban director of Brascuba.

Most of the report deals with the opinions of foreign executives in the ZEDM

Maylin Carmente, director of administration of the Mexican Richmeat, said that the blackouts affected the production of processed meat “considerably.” The plant, like that of Brascuba, suffered structural damage.

About 25% of the roof of the company Nescor – which produces crackers, coffee and similar products – was cut down by the hurricane. “It was quite difficult to see a factory like Nescor in that condition,” said its director, Jorge Rivas. Although he claims to have enough raw materials to continue working, he predicts that 2025 will be a hard year for the company.

Suchel, another of the famous tenants of the Zone, had damage to its drying tower, ceiling and walls. The hurricane prevented the launch of several lines of detergent, which the company expected to sell this year.

Thai Binh Green, a disposable diaper and paper factory that built an extensive photovoltaic park in Mariel, was badly damaged by the hurricane. They need “more than a million dollars to rebuild the park,” said its director. The shipments of solar panels promised by China as the “definitive solution” to the Cuban energy crisis arrived a few days later.

With more than 10,000 workers in its facilities, the Free Zone is the most important economic enclave in Cuba. The Government spends about 300 million dollars a year maintaining its structure, according to Ecured. Its area is 213 square kilometers and has four large Chinese cranes. Not willing to lose its most important economic bet, the Cuban Government has a motto for the ZEDM, according to Igarza: “There is no pause.” And, unlike what happens in the rest of the country, there was a lot of hurry.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Letter to the Three Wise Men, an Impossible Mission for Cuban Parents

In Cienfuegos, families avoid walking with their children along the boulevard, where toys are sold at unattainable prices

Older children know that magic also has its limits. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio Cesar Contreras, Cienfuegos, 5 January 2025 –“Dear Three Wise Men, we want a stuffed panda bear and a soccer ball,” is how the letter from Susana’s seven-year-old twins begins. The paper, folded and placed inside a shoe near the window, has sparked a constant calculation in the family to determine whether they will be able to fulfill these wishes. Unlike other years: “there are products, what there is not is money,” says the worried mother.

On the boulevard of the city of Cienfuegos, stuffed animals, dolls and all kinds of children’s entertainment have been gaining ground in recent days. Private merchants, who display their wares on tables, small kiosks or rented state premises, know that the tradition of Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar remains deeply rooted in Cuba despite official attempts to eliminate it.

Susana, 39, grew up in a time when Christmas and the Three Wise Men were considered “petty bourgeois weaknesses” by the government. “That’s why I take it very seriously that my children can live this illusion that I didn’t have,” she tells 14ymedio. But the Cienfuegos native’s efforts are not enough to satisfy the wishes of both children. “It’s very hard to tell them that I can’t spend so much.”

Susana earns about 7,000 pesos a month from her job as a university professor. “I’ve seen the stuffed panda bear on the boulevard and it costs 20,000 pesos, the ball costs about 3,000, that’s more than three months’ salary without spending a centavo on anything else,” she estimates. In other years, continue reading

however, the problem has been the lack of products on the market and the limited variety of toys for children.

At another point of sale, the merchant has dressed up as a clown to attract child customers. / 14ymedio

“Now there is everything, I have seen dolls that cry, cars operated by remote control and every toy one can imagine.” The parents of many Cienfuegos children have chosen not to walk with them along the boulevard. “If by any chance they pass by there with their children or grandchildren, they take them away quickly to avoid a bad time,” she explains. But it is difficult to hide the plastic cars, the stuffed dinosaur or the Superman that jumps out at you on one of the tables on the central street.

At another point of sale, the shopkeeper has dressed up as a clown to attract child customers unaware of the tightness of their parents’ wallets. “I want a Mickey Mouse,” dictated a little girl to her grandmother who was helping her write her letter to the Three Wise Men earlier this year. “I also want a kitchen set with some pink pots,” the little girl added. In the old lady’s mind, each new order was adding up numbers, zeros and costs.

Other, older children know that magic also has its limits. “You have always been good to me, but my mom told me that things are bad,” wrote a fourth grade student who wants a water pistol and a new school backpack with a picture of Spiderman. The total of his requests is around 15,000 pesos in the stores on the boulevard.

“When I was a child, my parents had it easier because nobody received anything from the Three Wise Men,” Susana reflects. In those years, the mid-80s and early 90s, all the toys sold in the country came through the rationed market for industrial products. “There weren’t, like now, all these very attractive imported products.”

On the boulevard, stuffed animals, dolls and all kinds of children’s entertainment have been gaining ground. / 14ymedio

Previously, through a complex sales mechanism, Cuban families had the opportunity to purchase gifts for their children during the month of July. These toys were divided into three groups, according to the complexity and quality of each one: basic, non-basic and targeted. After long lines and after presenting the ration book, parents could buy dolls, board games and other children’s entertainment.

“Most of the time you got something you didn’t like,” Susana recalls. “Now there are many options and also many contrasts. In my block there are several children whose parents live abroad and they send them good toys or money so that their grandparents can buy them here. You can’t compete with that,” she stresses. The woman has tried to warn her twins that it is likely that the Three Wise Men will not be able to fulfill all their requests.

Susana feels that she needs to write her own letter to Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar. As an adult who grew up without following traditions, her letter will begin by asking for a salary that will allow her not to have to choose between feeding her children or buying them toys.

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Faced With a Disastrous Planting Season, Sancti Spíritus Tobacco Growers Lower Their Expectations for the Harvest

To improve last year’s results, planting had begun “early in October,” but it was in vain

Sancti Spíritus tobacco growers expect to harvest about 1,520 tons of the leaf / ‘Escambray’

14ymedio, Havana, January 2, 2025 — After a depressing year for tobacco production in Sancti Spíritus and facing another one that doesn’t offer great promise, tobacco growers have carried out a “readjustment” of their expectations. They promise the State, according to the province’s Escambray newspaper, to harvest about 1,520 tons of the leaf, 1,000 less than the target set in August, when it was hoped to reach 2,596 tons.

The number reported this week is still just an estimate that reflects not the reality – treacherous when it comes to Cuban agriculture – but the best possible scenario.

The original plan, according to Clemente Hernández Rojas, director of the State’s Acopio y Beneficio de Tabaco Company in the province, was to plant 2,000 hectares of tobacco “sol en palo” (in the sun), and 260 of “tapado,” (shaded by a mosquito net), the two variants* that are grown in Sancti Spíritus. Due to the lack of “some inputs,” he said, only 62% of the plan could be carried out.

To improve last year’s results, planting had begun “early in October.” It was in vain. Hernández claimed that the “inclement weather,” especially the rains that hit the territory that month and the following, delayed the planting.

However, the problems were seen coming from August, when the growers, with optimal conditions to start planting and over a third of the land destined to plant tobacco for export, counted only on one variety that contributes the most income to the state coffers.

According to Escambray, the end of the year “became demanding for the growers, who sought to increase the pace of planting to conclude 2024 with more than 850 hectares covered.” The State executed an old trick and extended the campaign until the first days of January. “We must finish before the 20th of this month,” Hernández explained.

To this list of difficulties is added the energy situation in the country, which does not seem to abate this year. Many growers who use an irrigation system powered by electricity have been affected. With the usual triumphalism, the leader assured that “the farmers are recovering, looking continue reading

for alternatives, making sacrifices, and it is expected that this plan will be fulfilled in Sancti Spíritus.”

Escambray reported that the omens “are favorable” for growers. From an agricultural point of view, “the tobacco plantations look healthy, with leaves of very good quality.” The media added that “there is a favorable climate for tobacco” and that there have been no intense attacks of disease, although “yes, there are some plagues, but they have what they need to fight them.”

The difficulties faced by growers for the profitability of the product contrast with what the tobacco of the Island represents anywhere in the world: a symbol of luxury. Despite this and the large resources that the industry collects annually (721 million dollars in 2024 alone), only the minimum is reinvested to keep the business afloat.

The numbers that are glimpsed in the province, the second largest production territory in the country, follow the same route as last March, when the plan was barely fulfilled at 49%. One of the consequences of low production was that only one sixth of the tobacco harvested in Sancti Spíritus met the quality parameters necessary for export.

Then, according to the official press, the main causes of the debacle were the lack of fuel to carry out the planting and the fact that “many producers did not plant because the crop is not profitable.”

Despite the fall of the tobacco industry, which every year reports more- diminished and lower-quality productions, attributed to the passage of Hurricane Ian in 2022, Habanos S.A. continues to obtain increasingly higher profits.

In March of last year, the Cigar Festival, held annually in Havana, raised 19.3 million dollars from the sale of eight humidors alone – six were traditionally sold. The Government claims to invest this record amount in Public Health, despite all the evidence pointing to another pocket.

*Translator’s note: “Sol en palo” is used mainly for cigar wrappers; “tapado”
is protected from insects and direct sunlight and used as cigar filler and for cigarettes.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Independent Yorubas Dare To Foresee Dismissals ‘At the Highest Levels’ in Cuba

“The attachment to the past does not let us see present solutions, nor future plans,” warns the Miguel Febles Padrón Commission

The Miguel Febles Padrón Commission meets at its headquarters at 1509 Diez de Octubre Avenue, in Havana

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 3 January 2025 — Two predictions for 2025 – both political and social – stand out in the Letter of the Year prepared by the Cuban independent Yorubas this Thursday. The first, that there will be dismissals “at the highest levels”; the second, that crimes related to children and infant mortality will increase.

The Miguel Febles Padrón Commission, which meets at its headquarters on Avenida de Diez de Octubre 1509, in Havana, offered its Letter one day after the official Yoruba Cultural Association published its own. Both religious institutions, with similar prestige and seniority, are – after a brief period of union a few years ago – in full schism. The reason: the Government’s preference for the Association, which is totally loyal to it and whose Letter even mimics the official press.

More critical in other times, Miguel Febles has gradually lowered the tone of its “Events of social interest” and its “Recommendations” – the two sections that usually contain warnings against bad government and descriptions of the Cuban crisis.

More critical in other times, Miguel Febles has gradually lowered the tone of its “Events of social interest” and its “Recommendations”

The letter published this Thursday predicts that in 2025 – under the protection of two ominous orishas, Odua and Yewa, respectively incarnations of the divine king and death – there will be a drop in the birth rate and an increase in the abandonment of children. In addition, it foresees continue reading

no loss of jobs and says that violence will continue to rise in the country.

Coinciding with the Association, which asked this Wednesday to “eliminate the agglomeration of garbage and outbreaks that facilitate the proliferation of epidemic diseases,” Miguel Febles demands a total “sanitation” of the cities.

The Letter, which many exiled Cubans consider legitimate – because their babalawos have not been pressured by the Party when writing it – indicates that it will be a year of “new wars.” Other fragments, which could be interpreted as critical allusions to the Cuban leadership, are: “Do not repeat procedures that have turned out to be obsolete” and “The attachment to the past does not let us see present solutions, nor future plans.”

The election of the governing deities of the year also has a certain political connotation. Odua, a divinized ancient Yoruba king, is credited with the unification of several African kingdoms. Therefore, it is the orisha that grants authority to the rulers, without whose approval every mandate is doomed to failure.

Odua is the ’orisha’ that grants authority to the rulers, without whose approval every mandate is doomed to failure

Yewa, on the other hand, is a goddess of cemeteries and destiny. For the Yorubas, she is the one who “governs existence” and provides at a symbolic level – for believers – a powerful counterpoint to the power of Odua. In the message offered by the Letter, power and death go irretrievably together.

This Wednesday, the message of the Yoruba Association also had, against all odds, a certain critical flavor. They predicted a year of “sadness and melancholy” and “vandalism and crime,” two attributes of Cuban society so obvious that you don’t need fortune tellers to see them coming. The symbol that summarized the year – protected by Changó, according to this group – is the “common grave.”

“Measures must be taken for the intensification of criminal acts,” they asked, in addition to “analyzing well the economic investments and their consequences.” Like Miguel Febles, they urged paying more attention to adolescents and young people, and to “take care of and respect marital and family integrity.”

For its part, in Miami, the Kola Ifá Ocha Commission also published a preview of its Letter. For the exiled Santeros, the reign of 2025 will not be in the hands of Changó or Odua, but of Oggún – the orisha blacksmith and rival of Santa Barbara – and by Oyá, associated with the Virgen de la Candelaria, who in Yoruba mythology abandons Oggún for Changó.

Despite the variety of predictions, the Kola Ifá Ocha, the Yoruba Association and the Miguel Febles all have the same aspiration: to send a message urbi et orbi, “for Cuba and the world,” which is still the charter of behavior for hundreds of Cubans, no matter where they are.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Revolution, 66 Years of a Dream Turned Into a Nightmare

So it did not occur to anyone that the Cuban Revolution, in a few years, would deny its reason for being.

The police had disappeared and the boy scouts were directing traffic at one of the capital’s most important intersections. / Archive

14ymedio, Frank Calzón, Miami, 3 January 2024 — Then no one could imagine what would come next.

It was January 1959 and neither my friend Guillermo nor I were bothered by the “northern wind,” the winter front that had been lashing Havana for several days. The two of us, aged 13 and 14, were happily controlling the traffic at one of the capital’s most important intersections.

Fulgencio Batista had left, while Fidel Castro slept far away in the Sierra Maestra. It would take a week for the rebel leader and his bearded army, and those who joined him along the way, to reach Havana.

The police, both the traffic police and the other police, which had been pursuing those who opposed the Batista government, had vanished as if by magic. A few weeks earlier, the United States had approved an embargo on the sale of weapons and spare parts and refused to hand over to Batista the shipment for which he had already paid.

Fidel (now the whole world called him Fidel), from Santiago de Cuba to the other end of the country, advised calm and congratulated all Cubans for the historic moment we were living. In Miami, the anti-Batista exiles and the activists of the 26th of July Movement were preparing for their return to their homeland.

Traffic lights at that time were not automatic, and they needed a police officer to change the lights. Fidel asked the boy scouts to take care of traffic in the capital. continue reading

We were happy: the country, the people, even the little children sensed that something very good had happened.

We were happy: the country, the people, even the little children sensed that something very good had happened. The people of Havana laughed at seeing us so serious, in our shorts, directing traffic. The ladies in the building across the street brought us lemonade and ham and cheese sandwiches.

And hope was reflected in the faces, in the comments, in the expectation of those people who had read with approval Fidel’s statement when he was tried after the attack on the Moncada Barracks: “I am going to tell you a story,” the leader, still without a beard, had said at that trial. “Once upon a time there was a Republic. It had its Constitution, its laws, its liberties; a president, Congress, courts; everyone could meet, associate, speak and write with complete freedom.”

That was what Fidel had said. To restore laws and rights, they had fought in Sierra Maestra and in the cities, the young people had faced reprisals, torture and even death at the hands of the forces of the dictatorship.

But that was the past and the nation was living a new day. Cuba was a party, and Fidel, in that speech of 1953 that would later be titled History Will Absolve Me, had said it very clearly:

“The government did not satisfy the people, but the people could change it and it was only a few days away. There was a respected and accepted public opinion, and all problems of collective interest were freely discussed. There were political parties, hours of doctrine on the radio, controversial television programs, public events, and the people were full of enthusiasm.”

That’s what Fidel had said, and who would dare to contradict him, if it was a truth that was well known to all? To restore those radio programs, the Constitution and the discussions to the public light the Revolution had been made.

And now, while Fidel’s arrival was awaited, that enthusiasm was palpable. Flags were waving on the balconies, on the eve of the arrival of the heroes.

I remember it well, but it happened 66 years ago. At that time, no one thought that the Cuban Revolution, in a few years, would deny its reason for being. At that time, no one spoke of Marxism, or of the Soviet Union, or of Yankee imperialism, or of the Communist Party, or used words like the proletariat, surplus value, means of production and others that would take the stands by storm months later. The revolutionaries were patriots, they were democrats, and only the few involved in the old regime dared to insinuate what was clearly not true. “Fidel is not a communist; those are lies from the Batista followers,” was the general consensus.

And what about the Cubans in political prison who refuse to emigrate, who despite the falsifications of history dare to think of a better future?

Then, fairly quickly, came the threats, imprisonment and even the shooting of several of the heroes who accompanied Fidel on that triumphal march. Later, there were confiscations, not only of the large landowners and foreign firms, but of practically all the property in the country, including the social centers for Galicians and Asturians — the emigrants from Spain — their schools and clinics, although neither the Galicians nor the Asturians were allies of Batista, nor of the Americans.

Then the shortages and rationing would begin. We were told that it was a temporary and emergency measure in 1961. Then the State production company Acopio would begin and the guajiros sentenced to prison for selling a chicken, a pound of rice, or the milk from their cows to someone else. Later, the so-called UMAP camps (Military Units to Aid Production), where thousands of Cubans ended up without cause or trial: the young people with long hair, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gays and some Catholic militants who, over the years, would become bishops.

In the balance of more than six decades, one should include perhaps two million Cubans who left for other countries with a simple suitcase or even less. And the rafters who disappeared in the Straits of Florida trying to escape, those killed in wars and “internationalist” missions in Angola, Ethiopia, Grenada, the Golan Heights, the Congo, Bolivia and other Latin American countries. And the Cubans killed and wounded in Ukraine, who like the North Korean contingent today serve in Vladimir Putin’s army.

The terrible year that has just ended is also part of the indispensable balance of Cuban reality, of political prisoners, blackouts, shortages, epidemics, hurricanes, thousands of families who have spent years in emergency shelters waiting for the construction of the promised homes while five-star hotels are being built for foreigners.

And what can be said about the Cubans in political prison who refuse to emigrate, who despite the falsifications of history dare to think of a better future, and in the diaspora around the world, others who try to help them and obtain the solidarity of governments and international organizations.

The future is uncertain, but today the international situation does not favor continuity, neither in Baghdad, nor in Caracas, nor in Havana. Perhaps Karl Marx was not wrong when he said that those who try to stop the march of history are condemned to failure.

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Cuban Faces 2024: Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, Another One ‘Done For’ Under the Shadow of Corruption

Not a single rumor has clarified the situation of the former deputy prime minister.

Nothing would suggest that Perdomo would have been implicated in any corruption issue if it were not for two reasons: the opacity of the regime and the dismissal of Gil. / Mesa Redonda

14ymedio, Havana, 28 December 2024 — Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella disappeared from the Cuban scene on October 28, a personal black Monday for the former vice prime minister, removed from office for “errors in the performance of his duties.” Almost two months later, nothing is known about the father of the scourge law – officially known as Decree-Law 370– approved under his tutelage at the head of the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications. Under the law opponents, activists and independent journalists have been sanctioned for “disseminating, through public data transmission networks, information contrary to the social interest.”

The reasons why Perdomo Di-Lella left through the back door after so many years of service are only known in the highest circles of power. Not a single rumor has allowed the situation of the former vice prime minister to be clarified, beyond the mentions of his brother Yoel’s lucrative businesses in Havana, which have invited the official to be linked to corruption.

While Jorge Luis (now 53) was studying – he is an electronic engineer and has a PhD in Technical Sciences from the German University of Münster – and was growing in the public sector – first at the Center for Microelectronics Research and then as director of the Technological University of Havana (Cujae) and dean of the University of Computer Sciences – Yoel began to associate with the right people at the Comodoro Hotel, where he was head waiter in the 1990s. There he became friends with Abraham Maciques, an oligarch of Castroism and former president of the Palco Group, which opened the doors for him in the private sector, in a big way.

The reasons for Perdomo Di-Lella leaving through the back door after so many years of service are only known in the highest circles of power

At the time of his brother’s dismissal, Yoel was linked to two MSMEs that manufacture, sell and distribute food, beverages, hardware and household appliances, and a joint venture with foreign capital registered in Panama continue reading

and the Cuban Chamber of Commerce, Camax Chile SA, allegedly an off-shore company of the Palco Group. These businesses are joined by two restaurants in Havana and the online store Tuambia SURL.

Nothing would suggest that Jorge Luis would have been implicated in any corruption issue if it were not for two reasons: the opacity of the regime and its most direct antecedent, the dismissal of Alejandro Gil.

The mystery of Perdomo Di-Lella’s “demotion,” as the Council of State called his dismissal, occurred, paradoxically, just three weeks after the new Law of Social Communication came into force, which was intended to increase information transparency. Far from that, a common expression was used that precedes mountains of speculation: “serious errors in the performance of his duties,” the exact phrase used in the case of the former Minister of Economy and Planning.

Alejandro Gil, one of 14ymedio’s faces of the year 2020 on his own merits, also suffered a forced retirement in 2024

Alejandro Gil, one of the faces of 14ymedio in 2020 in his own right, also suffered a forced retirement in 2024, and in his case, the corruption theory was not a figment of popular imagination. The official note on his dismissal, on February 2, did specify that there was a “rigorous investigation” and that the Ministry of the Interior had been ordered to initiate “the corresponding actions for the full clarification of these conducts.”

It was confirmed by his own sister, the presenter María Victoria Gil – now living in Spain – that the former minister was detained along with his wife. It also became clear that it was a matter of corruption when Gladys Bejerano, the Comptroller General of Cuba, spoke of this type of crime and referred to the case of the former minister as a “betrayal.” The specific motive remains an enigma, but its shadow has reached as far as Perdomo Di-Lella and no one has done anything to remedy it.

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“On the Southern Route, the Coyotes, Drivers and Hostel Owners Are All Cubans”

For Juliet, a 29-year-old nurse, the trip to Uruguay cost less than $2,000 and without the mistreatment of the northern route.

Migrants arriving in Rivera, Uruguay, from where many are trying to reach Montevideo. / Unicef

14ymedio, Madrid, 2 January 2025 — Juliet has just arrived in Uruguay on a journey that took less than two weeks and cost her less than 2,000 dollars. A nurse by profession, the 29 year old woman – who prefers to use a pseudonym – is one of the thousands of Cuban nationals who, faced with the growing difficulties in emigrating to the United States and transatlantic countries such as Spain, are changing the “northern route” for a new “southern route,” towards Brazil, Chile or Uruguay.

In her case, she opted for South America after waiting for two years, since January 2023, to qualify for the humanitarian parole program to go to the US, where her sister lives, which never arrived. “As the months went by without any news, my sister and brother-in-law began to investigate, and friends who had emigrated by these routes recommended it to them.”

The price was certainly a determining factor. As an example, she mentions her acquaintances who emigrated to Miami via Nicaragua and spent more than 10,000 dollars. When one of her friends told her what he had paid to go to Montevideo, $1,150 for the plane ticket to Surinam and $750 for the rest of the land transfers, she said: “With what my journey through the volcano route would cost, I can do five of these routes and arrive in Uruguay with dollars.”

“With what my journey through the volcanoes would cost, I can do five of these routes and arrive in Uruguay with dollars”

The conditions in Uruguay, which she had heard about, and the language, also affected her decision. “It wasn’t like coming to the United States, where I would have family, people to guide me, but I would have a better quality of life than in Cuba.”

At first, the journey south seemed to her to be free of the dangers of the sea route in the Florida Straits, or the organized crime in countries like Mexico or Guatemala, or the harsh Darien jungle. Even so, she admits that she had some misgivings – “that, after all, is human trafficking” – and so she was continue reading

surprised by the safety and organization of the journey, through Surinam, French Guiana and Brazil, in a total of 13 days.

And her route, she says, was long. “There is a much faster way, all by plane, through Guyana, the English one, to Brazil, and then to Uruguay, but it was almost $3,000 in total, and my family couldn’t afford it.” Everything is through the same network. “They have something for everyone: for those who have money or for those who don’t have enough. Packages for all budgets.”

They also have “different forms of payment”: either from abroad, through relatives, by transfer and as they advance along the route, or in cash, all at once, upon arriving in Suriname, the first stop on the trip, which is reached from Havana by plane.

“I never thought that it would be so well coordinated as I experienced it”

“I never thought that it would be so well coordinated as I experienced it,” says Juliet. “If there is one thing I can highlight, it is how they treat Cubans. From the moment I arrived in Suriname to Uruguay, the coyotes, the guides, the drivers, everyone, everyone, everyone, at least in the experience I had, gave us spectacular attention. You were the priority at all times.”

Juliet says the network even has a WhatsApp group through which the “organizers” communicate constantly with the relatives. “Every second they ask for a photo, to see what condition we are in, to see if it is us, to inform the families when we lose internet. And the family asks and immediately they answer: ‘look, they are going here, they are going there.’ That was something that really impressed me, to be honest, because I had the idea that it would be chaotic.”

Juliet does not know who these “organizers” are, nor does she want to go into too much detail, but she does know that all the “guides” who assisted them on the trip were compatriots, “from the coyotes to the drivers and the owners of the hostels, they are all Cuban.” And she continues: “It is a very large human trafficking network. Perhaps not like the one in Nicaragua, but it is getting bigger.” The recent figures revealed by Brazil – almost 20,000 Cubans settled in its territory between January and November of this year – confirm her assessment.

“According to what we were told, we were the largest group of Cubans that had ever crossed on this route: 180 adults and 49 children.”

Another of her surprises was precisely “the number of Cubans” who had the same idea as she did: “According to what they told us, we were the largest group of Cubans that had ever crossed on this route: 180 adults and 49 children.” The entire group met in Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana, but normally traveled divided among vehicles of eight or nine people.

Juliet tells 14ymedio in detail the stops on her journey. First, from Havana to Suriname, with the Surinamese airline Fly All Ways, having purchased a round-trip ticket. In that Caribbean country, Cubans obtain a tourist visa valid for seven days.

The day after their arrival, they were taken from the capital, Paramaribo, to the border with French Guiana, a six-hour bus ride. “The road has two checkpoints where we have to hand in our passports. There is no problem as long as it is within the seven-day visa period,” Juliet explains. “We arrived at the border around six or seven in the morning. Everything happened very quickly, they give you bottles, they give you a snack and they put you in canoes. These canoes, in a matter of ten minutes perhaps, take you to the other side, and you are already in French Guiana.”

In French Guiana, the guides give the group several instructions: “These guides are in charge of explaining to you that you must not leave a casetica, a small piece of land where they tell you that you cannot move, because if you move you are illegal and you could be assaulted and such.” They spent a whole day there, until, at two in the afternoon, when the Attorney General’s Office opened where they gave them a paper “that allows you to be legal throughout the entire route of French Guiana.”

The next stop is the capital, where the Cubans are asking for asylum. “That day in Cayenne was extremely tiring. We arrived around seven in the morning and we spent the whole morning lying there waiting,” she says. “Of course, they gave us a good explanation the whole time, and they gave us snacks, water, lunch.” In the queue, she says, they tried to keep quiet as they were asked to, “but well, Cubans are always a bit undisciplined, and sometimes they scolded us for that.”

That day in Cayenne was extremely tiring. We arrived around seven in the morning and we spent the whole morning lying there waiting”

Once they had obtained the papers in Cayenne, they were taken to the border with Brazil, a journey that was particularly difficult. “It’s an eight-hour journey, most of it with lots of curves, and those buses go too fast. You open and close your eyes and it’s one curve, another curve, and it’s quite stressful.” The contingent left French Guiana across the Oyapoque River, the natural border with Brazil, again in groups of eight and nine, in canoes.

Juliet’s account of the legal procedure they undergo in Brazil provides one of the keys to why so many Cubans choose the South American giant as their destination. Before the Federal Police, they all ask for asylum. “With this refugee paper, you can stay in Brazil and you will have the same rights as a Brazilian,” says the young woman, who took the paper to travel legally to the next border, because she was sure that she would end up in Uruguay.

“In my group, half of us stayed in Brazil and half of us came to Uruguay,” she says. “There was a certain disagreement there, because everything has its pros and cons. In Brazil, things are very cheap, but many people didn’t stay because of the language issue and because they fear that salaries are also cheap.”

To get to Rivera, already in Uruguay, is a journey of thousands of kilometers passed through Macapá, Belem, Florianópolis and Porto Alegre, sometimes by bus, sometimes by ferry. Before leaving Brazil, Cubans must “give up the refuge” that they have been granted, and go to Uruguay to request it. “They are next to each other: Brazilian Immigration and Uruguayan Immigration,” Juliet says. That is the extent of the “package” originally purchased. “From Rivera you leave on a bus or pay out of your own pocket for a taxi to the very door of your house where you are going to live, in my case, Montevideo, but you pay for that.”

Throughout the trip, she kept noticing that even in the “most extremely poor” places, such as villages in the Amazon, “there was no shortage of water, electricity or food.” And she added bitterly: “You realize that these serious problems in Cuba do not exist outside, that basic needs are covered.”

Despite her good spirit in telling her story, Juliet first confesses that she still finds it difficult to talk about the fact of migrating: “It makes my chest tighten, I feel a deep sadness that only those who emigrate, leaving everything behind, understand.”

“It makes my chest tighten, I feel a deep sadness that only those who emigrate, leaving everything behind, understand.”

The young woman had left her job as a nurse at the Eusebio Hernández hospital, known as Maternidad Obrera, in Havana, before the pandemic, “because I couldn’t make a living from it, I couldn’t get ahead.” In addition, the disorganization irritated her and the lack of hygiene made her sick. “The ones who cleaned the hospital rooms were the inmates, who were brought from El Guatao, and many times due to lack of fuel they didn’t bring them and we ourselves had to clean. No matter how many protective measures one took in the face of that cleaning, there came a time when I caught a bacteria, then a staphylococcus…” she details.

For the past two years, she has worked in a private institution. “I was not one of those who lived badly in Cuba, if I told you otherwise I would be lying, but I lived depending on the help I received from abroad,” she confesses. “Maybe other people like to live like that, but I don’t.”

Her dream, now in Montevideo, is to be able to support herself and help her family. “The ultimate goal would be to go to the United States, but at the moment that is not possible, because I don’t have the money and also because of the current situation. At the moment the idea is to establish a life here, work, move forward, start a business here.”

In addition to her partner, with whom she will reunite at some point, she left on the island her father, her aunt, her cousins, her grandmother… All of them originally from Pinar del Río, “where the situation is extreme, worse than in Havana.”

Arriving in the South American country gives her a bittersweet feeling. “Getting on a plane and leaving Cuba is not as easy as you might think. It hurts a lot to leave your family, to leave everything behind. Even if Cuba is in bad shape, even if it is broken into tiny pieces, it is the land where you were born. It is heartbreaking,” she admits.

“Here you have everything with money. You see very nice things, enormous development, a kindness that nobody in your country offered you, because in Cuba any process is cumbersome. And when you leave, you realize that in every place you arrive, which is neither your country nor your land nor your acquaintances nor your anything, they treat you super well… Everything is so, but so, so different, and at the same time you feel a longing, because you say: if my country had these opportunities, if in my country we could live this…”

It hurts her, in a certain sense, to be privileged: “because there are many people who live in Cuba and will never really know how the world moves, how things move.”
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Cuban Faces 2024 – Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, the ‘Facebook Minister’

The bad situation in his sector has made Dávila a frequent bearer of bad news

The minister even responds to some scoldings, like when a user questioned the new transport laws / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 29 December 2024 — He is very active on Facebook. His daily quota varies from two to three posts, although sometimes, due to the situation, he can respond to four to five messages on his page. That interaction has given the head of Transport, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, a popularity that his colleagues in the Council of Ministers of Cuba lack.

Born in Villa Clara, the bad situation of his sector has made him a frequent bearer of bad news, since the problems on the Island in terms of transport never end. The shortage of fuel and vehicles, many of them “in the bones,” which exceed their useful life by years, are part of the information shared daily by the man known as the “Facebook Minister.”

After the total blackout that hit the Island at the end of October, he reported that the “contingency of the electrical system” – the usual euphemism with which the official press insists on qualifying the massive energy debacle – was disastrous for mobility throughout the country. continue reading

The informative work of Rodríguez Dávila is recognized by the majority of users, who repeatedly point out his “sense of belonging”

In his message he broke down the disaster that corresponds to his sector. He said that there was a lack of “tires, batteries, spare parts and tools, grease, oil and special liquids for the sustainability of the fleets” and that only a little more than half of the fuel planned for the first eight months of the year would be available.

However, the official got away with it, as with most of his posts. Although the announced measures are criticized, Rodríguez Dávila himself is recognized for providing information by most users, who repeatedly point out his “sense of belonging.”

The minister even responds to some scoldings, such as when a user questioned the new transport laws: “Regrettably, the conciliation and final adjustments of the rules with all the agencies and entities that participate have taken a little longer than expected.”

In one of his posts, on December 3, he said that he has felt “great pressure in the face of difficult circumstances” in his position. Hours later, it had been shared 53 times, with 128 comments and 703 reactions, almost all positive.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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