Translating Cuba – Page 126 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

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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Cuban Faces 2024: Omara Portuondo, 94 Years Old and Postponing Retirement

“Each person decides how he wants to live and die too,” the artist said

Portuondo was born in 1930 and remains one of the great references of Cuban music abroad /EFE

14ymedio, Havana, December 30, 2024 — Omara Portuondo has long been taking two fundamental things to her concerts: a doctor who monitors her health and a chair from which she offers her songs. It’s also been a long time since the followers of the 94-year-old artist predicted her departure from music, and last October the news finally arrived.

After an episode of disorientation on a stage in Barcelona, Ariel Jiménez, son and agent of the diva of the Buena Vista Social Club, announced her retirement. However, exactly a month later, another statement by Portuondo left the public perplexed: “I am not retiring from music.”

Before the stumble at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, Portuondo’s active career was already generating controversy among her followers, but the episode of “fatigue” that caused the artist to stop singing Lágrimas negras was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The audience, who paid up to 75 euros for a ticket, shouted “exploiters” and “let her rest” to the organizers, to which Ethiel Failde, director of the homonymous orchestra that accompanies her on stage, replied that the screams showed a lack of respect. “She herself asked to sing,” he said, and recalled that “Omara has always said that she wanted to die on stage.” continue reading

The audience, who paid up to 75 euros for a ticket, shouted “exploiters” and “let her rest” to the organizers

The justifications of the Portuondo team came shortly after, when Jiménez alluded to a “definitive retirement.” “By medical recommendation, the possibility that she continue to sing, rehearse and record, contributes favorably to her mental health, although at a moderate pace and always according to her physical condition. For this, periodic examinations are carried out, and her indicators are monitored,” he said at the time.

That same enthusiasm, Jiménez defended, was what led the family to organize together with the Cuza Agency and the Failde Orchestra, a tribute to the legendary Buena Vista Social Club group. “She would appear to interpret a few songs, from her condition as an exceptional protagonist of that project and in the same way she did with the original group,” said her son. There would be four concerts outside Cuba, two of which had already ended, in Gran Canaria and Colombia.

However, a statement from Portuondo weeks later explained that, although long and live concerts were now out of her reach – “I get tired, and it’s natural at my age” – she would continue to make recordings and “other activities” that her health allows.

A statement from Portuondo weeks later explained that she would continue making recordings

Also known as the Bride of Filin* she added: “As long as I have strength and people who want to listen to me, I will continue to sing. Because as I always tell you: music is in me, heaven, earth, sea and sun, joy and reason.”

Portuondo was born in 1930 and continues to be one of the great references of Cuban music abroad, but her career, especially on the Island – where she stopped singing years ago – was not free of stumbles either. Her loyalty to the regime and, in 2003, her initials on the letter that supported the shooting of the young people who hijacked the Regla ferry to escape to the United States, cost her the animosity of many followers.

However, if Omara Portuondo has made something clear, it is that she has always lived according to her own rules. “With respect for all the people who sincerely appreciate me, each person decides how they want to live and die too.”

* A style of singing resembling a jazz ballad, championed by Portuondo.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Birth Rate in Cienfuegos Fell by More Than 25 Percent in 2024

There are 24,000 Cuban doctors on “international missions” and 32,000 who emigrated from the Island this year

Cuban authorities are concerned about the low birth rate, but they put it into perspective in public / Flickr/Sanutri

14ymedio, Madrid, 30 December 2024 — This year 703 fewer children were born in Cienfuegos than last year, the provincial newspaper 5 de Septiembre published this Sunday in a very short report. It expresses concern about the province’s low birth rate, which is among the worst in the country.

The data are confusing, however, since the media points out that in 2024 2,127 cienfuegueros arrived in the world, but the demographic yearbook indicates that in 2023 there were 2,895, a difference of 768. In any case, taking the gross numbers for granted, the drop in births is 26.5%, well above the average that was offered for the Island with the data of the first semester.

In the middle of the year, in the ordinary session held by Parliament in July, Catherine Chibás Pérez, national head of the Maternal and Child Program (Pami) indicated that in the first six months of 2024, 34,648 live births were recorded throughout the country, 19% less than in the same period of the previous year. On that date, there were 8,157 fewer births in Cuba than in the same period of 2023.

“For 2025, work is already underway to increase birth rates and thus achieve the replacement that society needs”

“For 2025, work is already underway to increase birth rates and thus achieve the replacement that Cuban society needs, which is noticeable in the demographics of difficult times in the face of the phenomenon of emigration,” says the newspaper, without specifying what measures are expected to stimulate the birth rate in the midst of a galloping economic crisis and with the massive emigration of people of childbearing age. continue reading

The information appears on the same day that the Latin American edition of the leftist American magazine Jacobin publishes an interview with Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which he openly talks about the problem posed by the lethal combination of the Island’s demographics.

“Cuba resembles European countries in terms of social development. Advances in education, professional opportunities for women and women’s rights in general have an impact on the reduction of fertility rates,” the senior official said in response to a question about the decrease in young adults in Cuba.

“However, we have practically no immigration and emigration is relatively high,” he says. Labelling this ‘relative’ is surprising, when the Island has lost 18% of its population in the last two years according to official data. In the United States alone, in the last fiscal year, from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 217,615 Cubans arrived. The US Customs and Border Protection Office counts 860,000 Cuban migrants who entered in the last four years. To this must be added thousands of migrants to other countries, mainly Spain.

“Does this put the continuity of the social security network in imminent danger?” asks the interviewer. To this, Fernández de Cossío responds bluntly: “It puts it in danger, yes. I wouldn’t say that it leaves it on the verge of collapse, but it puts it in tension.” Next, the deputy minister strives to argue that many of those who appear as emigrants are not really emigrants, but temporarily reside outside Cuba. “Some go and work part-time in the United States or other countries and return,” he says.

The official rejects the argument, raised by the journalist, of whether the Island is more like other Latin American countries due to its high emigration

In addition, the official rejects the argument, raised by the journalist, of whether the Island is already more like other Latin American countries due to its high emigration – although Cuba has been expelling population for 60 years – and affirms that this happens because the United States stimulates the exodus with its legislation.

In the interview, Fernández de Cossío also provides official data for the doctors who are abroad. He defends them abundantly for their solidarity, because – he maintains – they only receive compensation “in the case of economies greater or better than the Cuban one.” “If any institution in the world provided vital services,” he says, “an administrative expense of, let’s say, 30% would be needed to cover the services. But when the Cuban government does it, it is called ‘slavery’.”

He places the number of doctors on “international missions” at 24,000, doctors needed on the Island, where the Maternal and Child Care Program (Pami) has been suffering for years from the lack of professionals. To them should be added the 32,000 doctors that, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and Information, Cuba has lost this year. The 5 de Septiembre report speaks of an improvement in the data of recent years, for example in the low birth weight index of 6.3%, where there were 30 cases fewer than in 2023.

Last week, the Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, announced the improvement of the infant mortality data, which stood at 7 per thousand for all of Cuba, excluding the data by provinces, where recent abysmal differences are seen. In 2023, the rate had already improved slightly compared to the pandemic years, which led to catastrophic data.

Last year the rate was 7.1 deaths per thousand live births, compared to 7.5 per thousand in 2022 and 7.6 in 2021. However, in 2018 there were barely 3.9 per thousand, so the indicator, while good in relation to the surrounding countries, has worsened significantly. Although the pandemic aggravated the situation, in the case of Cuba there are key elements, as experts have highlighted: the lack of professionals due to the exodus – both abroad and to the private sector – and the disinvestment in the Pami, which for decades had enviable figures for a Latin American country.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Faces 2024: Martha Beatriz Roque, the Woman Most-Hated by the Cuban Regime

The tireless opponent will turn 80 on May 16, and she has dedicated more than 35 of those years to the fight for democracy

Roque has been working for years to constantly support the families of political prisoners. / EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa

14ymedio, Havana, December 28, 2024 — The cell phone of former political prisoner Martha Beatriz Roque doesn’t stop ringing. People call from the most remote prisons, from the most humble homes and from countless radio stations in exile. Her wisdom, deep knowledge of Cuba and wide network of contacts within the Island have made her an essential reference to understand the Cuban dissent that still resides within national borders.

The tireless opposition leader will turn 80 on May 16, and she has dedicated more than 35 years to the struggle for democracy in Cuba from within the Island. This year she was one of the 12 winners of the 2024 Women of Courage International Award.

The award is given by the United States Government to recognize the work of women worldwide who “have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength and leadership in defending peace, justice and human rights.” Roque could not collect the prize in Washington because she is not allowed to leave the country.

The only woman in the group of 75 opponents arrested by the Fidel Castro regime during the Black Spring of 2003, the opponent told foreign media that this international award is the first she has received of this magnitude. “For me, it is as if all the dissidents received it.” continue reading

“The people of Cuba have no food, no medicine, no transportation, no water, no electricity, nothing”

About her condition of being regulated [forbidden to travel] and not being able to attend the ceremony, she told 14ymedio that the regime preferred “an empty chair” to listening to what she had to say, and added: “The hatred they have for me is terrible.”

As the doyenne of the Cuban opposition, for years Roque has carried out a work of constant support to the families of political prisoners. Mothers desperate about their children in Cuban prisons and activists seeking help have passed through her house, with their health affected after years of opposition. Her solidarity and perseverance have earned her a special place among those most affected by repression and harassment.

Regarding the current situation on the Island, she recently told The Associated Press that she is “pessimistic.” “The people of Cuba have no food, no medicine, no transportation, no water, no electricity, nothing. And the dictatorship is still there,” she explained.

Given this scenario, “what people are looking for is to leave.” “The current opposition does not suffer prison; it goes to the United States before anything happens,” she said. However, Roque thinks “firmly” that the solution of the Cuban people is “within the country, just as other countries have come to solve their dictator problem.”

Roque signed in 1997, together with Félix Bonne Carcassés, René Gómez Manzano and Vladimiro Roca, the document La patria es de todos ’The homeland belongs to everyone’

Roque signed in 1997, together with Félix Bonne Carcassés, René Gómez Manzano and Vladimiro Roca, the document La patria es de todos, which criticized the management of the Castro regime and called for an opening. The so-called Group of Four was given sentences of between three and five years in prison for the alleged crimes of “actions against the national security of the Cuban State” and “sedition.”

Amnesty International considered Roque and her three companions prisoners of conscience. She was released in May 2000 and three years later received a 20-year prison sentence after being arrested during the Black Spring. Then, the former professor at the University of Havana obtained an extra-penal release for health reasons.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The 14 Cuban Faces of 2024: Fugitives, Deceased, Priests, Freemasons, Athletes, Artists and Ministers

This year has been especially hard, because we have had to put together the faces of a year that, in reality, is missing too many pieces.

Choosing among those Cubans who stood out, based on their contribution or their detriment to the country, was traditionally a difficult task. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 24 December 2024 — For a decade, 14ymedio has shared each December the 14 faces that marked the year that is ending. More often than not, the task of discarding some names from the long initial lists has been complicated by the many people who stood out with resounding achievements or resounding failures. Choosing from among those notable Cubans, based on their contribution or their detriment to the country, has traditionally been a difficult task. However, in 2024 it has been especially hard because we have had to put together the face of a year that, in reality, is missing too many pieces.

To achieve this list that we present today, we have even had to break two important initial rules. Until this year, the group had to be made up of living people residing in Cuba, but we have come to understand that in a country that escapes and dies, maintaining both premises is unsustainable. So among these faces there are the dead and the fugitives; ministers in disgrace and loyal athletes; released prisoners and fuel distribution bosses; murdered reggaeton singers and priests who distribute prayers or food in the mountains of the Island. All of them are the pieces that we have managed to put together and that make up the torn and irregular appearance of the nation.

Faces of 2024:

Melody González, a repressive judge with ’parole’ for the US

“It is forbidden to be discouraged”: Angélica Garrido’s message for Cuban political prisoners

Esther Lilian Pérez Trujillo, the big shot of Havana’s gas stations

El Taiger, a Cuban celebrated in Miami and on the Island

Mijaín López, 130 kilograms in the service of the Cuban regime

Omara Durand conquered Paris 2024 with three gold medals

Mario Urquía Carreño, the man who almost destroyed Cuban Freemasonry

Priest Leandro Naun, chef and “war correspondent” in Santiago de Cuba

Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, another ‘done for’ under the shadow of corruption

Martha Beatriz Roque, the woman most hated by the Cuban regime

Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, the “minister of Facebook”

Bernardo Espinosa, the face of the bad news of every day

Omara Portuondo, 94 years old and postponing retirement

Marta Valdés, the discreet velvet voice

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Cuban Faces 2024: Marta Valdés, the Discreet Velvet Voice

The singer, composer and music critic passed away on October 3 in Havana at the age of 90.

Marta Valdés was fascinated by the idea of “remembering”, especially about Cuban music / sancristobal.cult.cu

14ymedio, Havana, 30 December 2024 — The artist Marta Valdés died in 2024 at the age of 90. Although she did not have the fame of other musicians of her generation, notably all those from the Buena Vista Social Club project, her talent as a lyricist and composer was extraordinary, and her songs became immortal.

She herself told this newspaper ten years ago that although she did not enjoy recognition from the market or the media, she was lucky enough to have her songs become famous before she turned 25. “My songs have never been, nor will they be, songs for the market, or for the media. Above all because they were not made for that, they were songs made from the heart, for the love of music. The singers who understand that are those who have sung my songs,” she said then.

Songs such as Palabras, Deja que siga sola, En la imaginación, Canción simple, José Jacinto, Llora o Tú no sospechas, full of complexity in form and content, took the traditional bolero to another level.

They became famous in the interpretations of legendary singers such as Bola de Nieve, Elena Burke, Fernando Álvarez, Omara Portuondo, Vicentico Valdés, Cheo Feliciano, Miriam Ramos and Pablo Milanés, and, more recently, Haydée Milanés, Martirio and Sílvia Pérez Cruz. However, in her velvet voice, discreet like herself, but deep and exciting, they were unmatched.

Her role as a music critic was also very relevant. She herself explained that she was fascinated by the idea of “remembering,” especially about Cuban music, because the Island, she said, “is a goldmine of music.” Her influence on the new generations of creators, for whom she served as a teacher and mentor, is exemplified by her important role in the creation of the Cuban musical duo Gema and Pavel, and in her work as a promoter of artistic spaces.

Although she was marginalized in the 70s and 80s for being a symbol of a night-time Havana showbiz uninhibited in its sexuality, both the official press and government websites never stopped referring to her as an artist “faithful to the process.” During her lifetime she even received awards from state institutions, including the 2007 National Music Prize, the Replica of Máximo Gómez’s Machete from the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and various distinctions from the Hermanos Saíz Association and the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, of which she was, incidentally, a founder.

Thus, she was “honored” upon her death by the Ministry of Culture, which praised her “artistic sensitivity, her poetic word and her great musical talent.”

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