Translating Cuba – Page 127 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

‘The Government Must Understand That Only We Can Provide Food to the People’

Faced with the new restrictive measures, many Cienfuegos merchants have closed their businesses

The caution of private entrepreneurs is noticeable even on their product boards / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 31 December 2024 — The before and after that marks the arrival of a new year raises a universal question: what will 2025 bring? Cienfuegos, immersed in a deep crisis like so many places in Cuba, is no exception. Doubts are greater among entrepreneurs, a sector that in recent months has changed from initial euphoria to fear of the new official measures that regulate wholesale trade.

On Dolores road, in stores with wide portals on both sides, the caution of private business owners is noticeable even on their product boards. Where before there was a long list of sweets, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and all kinds of imported food, now you can barely find anything.

Norberto avoids making predictions for the new year. “They have shaken up the board,” he explains to 14ymedio about the new regulations that force micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to sell wholesale with the mediation of the State and the explicit prohibition of doing so for self-employed workers. His small private store was fed, precisely, by a private business that imported large volumes from Mexico.

“In our establishment, the stable sale of oil, chicken, picadillo and other products highly demanded by our customers was guaranteed,” Norberto points out. This end of the year, however, in fridges and on shelves, the frozen chicken drumsticks have disappeared, along with the wide variety of beans that until recently were offered and the decreased options for pasta and tomato sauce. continue reading

Entrepreneurs avoid making predictions for 2025 and are careful with the products they exhibit / 14ymedio

Norberto’s store is a distillate of the effort of several generations of his family. The large family estate, on the outskirts of the city, was for decades the productive epicenter of his grandparents and parents. But a few years ago, when the purchase and sale of houses and land was finally allowed, his relatives decided to finish planting the farm with crops, fruit trees and add a pigsty. The resulting money went to a house on the Dolores road and a small grocery store.

Now, the Cienfuegos man has many questions about the future of his business: “Will state-owned companies be able to maintain a permanent assortment of the merchandise we need? Will there be new measures with more restrictions and prohibitions? Will they include more products on the list of capped prices that they now impose on us?” His doubts are not exaggerated, because since he opened the doors of his store less than two years ago “there has been only bad news.”

However, Norberto is not going to give up for the moment. “Our MSME will renew the license, but we are also preparing in case we finally have to close,” he admits. “The problem is that you can’t have it both ways: either I stay open or I close. There comes a time when you have to choose.”

Gonzalo is one of many entrepreneurs who, this Christmas, instead of garlands and red hats, has dressed in the costume of uncertainty. In a space on San Carlos Street, near Martí Park, the owner of another shop repeats similar questions. “I bought directly from a private person in Punta Gorda, but they are already liquidating the products they have left because they don’t want to do business with the Government. Who am I going to buy from in January?” he asks.

Many merchants maintain the illusion that “something will happen” that forces the authorities to implement greater economic openness

At the moment, he is not considering liquidating his business. Hope is the last thing that is lost when there is so much money at stake. Many merchants maintain the illusion that “something will happen” that will force the Cuban authorities to implement greater economic openness and eliminate the restrictive measures recently adopted. “We can see that it will be very difficult next year, and it is possible that this will make the Government understand that only we can provide food to the people.”

For Gonzalo, there is an inversely proportional relationship between what happens in the stores of the rationed market and the role that private shops are playing. “To the same extent that the supply of rationing is smaller and more unstable, MSMEs have been growing in offers and variety, and we also have places that make you want to enter – beautiful, well-decorated with good attention to the customer. Buying right now at a state ration store is depressing.”

The entrepreneur, however, recognizes that many Cubans cannot pay the high prices of the MSMEs: a liter of vegetable oil, 800 pesos this last week of December in Cienfuegos; a pound of chicken around 310, and a 500-gram package of spaghetti for 300 pesos. For retirees and state employees who do not receive remittances from abroad or have any informal sources of money, the private shops are prohibitive.

“We do not set prices on a whim. Our business has many expenses to cover, and the lack of fuel has made the transfer of goods, the payment of employees and the investment to turn the main room and the door of the house into a pleasant little shop are expenses that prevent us from selling cheaper.” Christmas offers and year-end sales are not the order of the day because the bills keep coming.

Christmas offers and year-end sales are not the order of the day because the bills keep coming. /

Other merchants got ahead of events. Liuba, 48 years old, sensed what was coming. Resident in the Junco Sur neighborhood, the businesswoman liquidated her small business earlier this year, a tiny store where customers could find everything from sweet cookies, malts and beer to packages of minced turkey, a food very helpful for those who cannot pay for other animal proteins. “I knew all this was coming because I have a relative who works in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and he warned me of what was being cooked up.”

Liuba didn’t lose too much money. “I finished selling the merchandise I had in stock and told the owner of the house, who was renting me the space, that I was no longer going to continue and handed over my license.” Now, Liuba offers some products through WhatsApp groups. “We have food combos that are paid for from abroad by Zelle. My husband, my eldest son and I deliver them to your home.” The new modality, absolutely informal, has given her a break: “I got rid of the inspectors, the prices and the maintenance of the premises.” Now, I put together the packages by buying goods from agricultural producers and other MSMEs. “I sell less, but I’m calmer.”

On the wide road of Dolores, the offer boards have very few products at the end of the year, but the new official restrictions have not affected the combos that Liuba has prepared for Christmas. “If next year they remove all these absurd laws, I will reopen my little grocery store,” she says, but for the moment she prefers to stay “under the radar” and sell outside the law.

Translated by Regina Anavy

See here for one report on average incomes in Cuba for 2024.

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Cuba Closes 2024 With Fewer Femicides but More Children Orphaned for This Reason

The number of femicides on the Island exceeds the 47 recorded in Spain.

Of the femicides in Cuba in 2024, according to this newspaper’s count, eight were recorded in November / EFE

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 31 December 2024 — Machista violence in Cuba claimed the lives of 54 women this year (the 14ymedio database counts 52 verified cases; the number is lower because two cases are not considered femicides). However, despite the fact that the number was lower than in 2023 (85), the number of orphans increased significantly: a total of 62 (21 more than in 2023).

Of the femicides in Cuba in 2024, according to this newspaper’s count, eight were recorded in November, the month this year with the most crimes of this kind, leaving behind October, when seven were counted. Of the total, 41 were committed by the partner or ex-partner of the victims.

The number of femicides on the Island exceeds those recorded in Spain, with a population that is five times greater. Hours before the end of 2024, the Spanish authorities confirmed the murder of a woman, adding up to 47 sexist crimes, and the murder of 9 girls and boys in vicarious crimes committed by their mothers’ abusers.

Of the femicides in Cuba in 2024, according to the count of this newspaper, matched by EFE, eight were recorded in November, the month with the most sexist crimes in the year

As happened the previous year, most of the femicides on the Island, based on the records of Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo, were committed by current partners (25) and former boyfriends (20).

The average age for victims rose to 36 years – there was a 90-year-old – from an average of 35 in 2023.

The victims include two teenagers – 15 and 16 years old – both in Santiago de Cuba, because of the injuries inflicted, one of them by her ex-partner and the other by her boyfriend, who killed her on the street, a space that has been the scene of several of these events. continue reading

At least five of the femicides were by men with a history of violence against women, and one of them was in pre-trial detention for acts of that nature. In addition, there is the death of a trans woman and another of a man for gender reasons (he was murdered along with the woman).

A protest in Spain against femicide; the country closes 2024 with 47 sexist crimes, a figure lower than that of the Island / EFE

The provinces with the most significant indices – in correspondence with their population – were Santiago de Cuba (11), followed by Havana (8) and Holguín (6).

Cuba closed the first semester with 28 machista crimes verified by independent feminists, 43% fewer than for a similar period in 2023. This drop can be attributed mainly to the difficulties in confirming cases due to the fear of reporting by relatives and because most activists operate anonymously or from outside the Island.

As an example, Alas Tensas has cited six cases that are pending confirmation because they need to access the police investigation. In addition, there is a general lack of public information.

Their report indicates that at least two out of three victims of such violence in Cuba were under 40 years old, and in more than half the cases they had dependent minors. In 46% of these cases, the alleged aggressors were their partners, and in 42% they were ex-partners.

According to the references documented in those reports, 2023 remains the worst year for femicides in Cuba since the independent registrations began. There were a total of 85 fatalities, compared to 36 in 2022 and 36 in 2021.

In the Criminal Code of Cuba, femicide is not classified as a specific crime, and the terms ’femicide’ or ’machista crime’ are not used in the official media

The independent groups mentioned have insisted on the importance of the Government of Cuba declaring a “state of emergency for gender violence,” and they demand the promulgation of a comprehensive law against sexist violence on the Island.

In the Criminal Code of Cuba, femicide is not classified as a specific crime, and the terms “femicide” or “machista crime” are not used in the official media.

The Government confirmed last August that the courts identified a total of 110 women over 15 years of age murdered by their partners or ex-partners in trials held in 2023.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel declared “zero tolerance” against such violence, and although information about femicides is not frequent in the state media, in recent months reports and articles have appeared about this problem, and its dimension has been recognized.

At the end of last July, the Government of Cuba approved a national system of “registration, attention, follow-up and monitoring” of machista violence in the country and announced the launch of the “No More” campaign, focused on the prevention and response to aggression against women, with the participation of official organizations, the Italian association Cospe, and the Martin Luther King Christian Center, among other groups.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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I Left Home on an Adventurous Night

Cuba is still the same at the end of this year, and according to Dr. House, it will continue like this, because people never change

“Chicharrón y frijoles negros” Chicharrón and Black Beans], oil on canvas by Roberto Fabelo, painted in 2016 // Fabelo Studios

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, December 29, 2024 — If you are given the choice between staying at home and watching “Dr. House” – especially that episode in which Wilson asks him not to confuse medicine with metaphysics and he answers that it doesn’t matter, because the truth is the truth – or visiting a place related to Cuba, even if it is the most innocent, always choose the first. And not only because House’s philosophy is always better than nationalism and nostalgia, but because everything that has to do with that country is tired, historical or transcendental. Even more so if it is the end of the year, when every act is a summary, a compendium of what has been lived and an announcement of the future.

But it happens that one chooses both things, and with the promise of returning to television at midnight – tea or cigar in hand – he immerses himself in the cold of Salamanco, zero degrees while I write for the reader’s information, and overcomes the mileage that separates him from the Domus Artium, the monstrous enclosure that houses the collection of Cuban art by Luciano Méndez.

Méndez, an old banker born in Salamanca, is one of the quietest and most famous collectors of Cuban works. Money, more will, more contacts. Residence – I think – in Havana. More than 600 pieces preserved, judging by the explanation of the attentive receptionist of the Domus Artium, in vaults safer than Winston Churchill’s bunker. Of these, the work of several contemporary painters is on display until February. Take advantage, boy, whispers a little devil or a cemí [Taino spirit] on my shoulder. continue reading

Deliciously touristy, very warm, the guide gives her best so that the Europeans can savor the tropical flavor

Well, here I am, eight at night, about to start a tour. I am accompanied by my wife and, together but not scrambled, a tall German woman who looks like Tilda Swinton, a couple of university students – I would say they appear to be stoned if it were not a cliché – two French housewives and the guide, Cuban by the way. It promises to be an immersive experience, so I stay away from the motley group as much as possible.

Deliciously touristy, very warm – did I mention that we are now at minus one degree? – the guide gives it her best so that the Europeans can savor the tropical flavor. The excess of maritime metaphors – the exhibition is called “Log of an Unfinished Journey” – leaves Swinton and company cold, and they soon disperse and contemplate the paintings, turning their necks with the elasticity of those possessed.

So much solemnity overwhelms me, and I begin to see the exhibition from the end to the beginning. If the crossing is unfinished, if the logbook is incomplete, if the sailor has an elegant name for the raft, I will have no problems. Serious mistake. Because of my recklessness, Fabelo assaults me at the start. Fabelo is to painting what Padura is to literature. They no longer surprise us but we like to have them on hand, on the wall, in the shower or on the bookshelf, the better to insult them.

For his ornamental vocation and how good he looks on a coaster or a curtain, Fabelo is a great favorite of collectors

For his ornamental vocation and how good he looks on a coaster or a curtain, Fabelo is a great favorite of collectors. The guide explains to the survivors that the master is not only a prodigy at painting tits – we are facing a great breast observer – but also works with everyday objects of the country, and that the blackened coffee maker, that Celtic cauldron, that toothless fork truly belong to the families of that aboriginal civilization. I am amazed, because Fabelo’s junk enjoys better health than the utensils of any Cuban house.

I come across Alejandro Gómez Cangas’ megalithic lines. Lines that are scary, lines that confirm what we already knew: even after death we Cubans form a line. Faceless faces, broken flip-flops, the eternal string bags. It makes you want to ask who’s the last [in line], but we get to Sosabravo’s paintings. I am bewitched looking at the transparent indigo of “La Soprano Calva” [The Bald Soprano]- death, according to Cabrera Infante – and I pass by Sandra Ramos, Daniela Águila, the photos of Roberto Chile, that Landaluze of Castroism, and Manuel Mendive.

I have always wondered why a country that has Belkis Ayón needs Manuel Mendive and if the Devil would not allow us the metaphysical trick of exchanging him for her. In the Cuban afterlife, Belkis is the queen, and Mendive, if anything, an altar boy. But, according to taste, there are orishas and the Sikanese.

In Cuba artists have to express themselves in allegories, she says, because there may be censorship

Before Elizabeth Cerviño’s El Deshielo [The Thaw] the guide stops. Absorbed in front of the canvas, without sparing opinions, she explains the ideological caliber of the painting and its historical dimension. In Cuba, artists have to express themselves in allegories, she says, because there may be censorship. Tilda Swinton, until now half-dead, wakes up. “Das darf doch nicht wahr sein!” [That can’t be true!] she exclaims. “And critical artists, can they return to their country?” “Of course not!” answers the guide. “As long as you don’t attack the Government head-on, you can return, of course.”

Mein Gott, I think, and I vanish. Ciao, Chano, and thank you for the paintings. With citizens like that who needs counterintelligence? Dr. House says that everyone is lying and I hope he’s right. He also says that the truth is the truth, and that the idea of nation is one of the most stupid and dangerous that the human being has devised.

It’s now the end of the year and every act smells like a summary, a compendium of what has been experienced and an announcement of the future. Cuba is still the same, and according to House’s diagnosis, it will continue to be so, because people never change. Or the change is slow and sometimes life is not long enough to see it. Hope is a narcotic that my generation, unlike the previous ones, never smoked. I go back home and thaw out. My little thaw. Is there more homeland than this sofa?

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Faces 2024: Priest Leandro Naun, Chef and ‘War Correspondent’ in Santiago de Cuba

Naun’s style is not that of other priests like Alberto Reyes or Lester Zayas, who are much more direct when it comes to criticizing the regime.

For some time now, the voices of the clergy and nuns have been the only ones within the Catholic Church that question the Government. / Facebook/Leandro Naun

14ymedio, Havana, 27 December 2024 — The Catholic priest Leandro Naun made headlines in the independent press abruptly. Three masked men had entered his parents’ house in Santiago de Cuba. They slashed his father with a machete and beat his mother. He was out of the country and told 14ymedio how for him this event, in addition to being a family incident, was confirmation of the absolute moral deterioration in which the country finds itself.

He concluded his story with a gesture: instead of stealing and leaving, the thieves were caught ransacking the refrigerator and devouring the food they found. Naun told the story not so much to vent about the theft as to denounce a wave of violence that has only worsened since then.

Naun’s style is not like that of other priests such as Alberto Reyes and Lester Zayas, who are much more direct when it comes to criticizing the regime. He advances at full speed through the mountains of Santiago de Cuba, distributing food and teaching the guajiros how to improve their lives with few resources. Most of the time, in fact, it is he and his gang of collaborators who provide food or ingredients to prepare it on site.

In almost 70 YouTube videos, the priest has filmed – between laughs and jokes – the hardships of life in the mountains of Santiago. Born in El Cobre, he knows every hamlet like the back of his hand and does not need to say a word about what the camera records: the old women thin to the bone, the grateful faces before continue reading

a jar of jam or a loaf of bread, the guajiros who welcome him with relief.

In almost 70 YouTube videos, the priest has filmed the harshness of life in the mountains of Santiago

His mantra is that “there is nothing more subversive than living and being happy where many barely survive.” His ideal mission, he told this newspaper: to have waited “in a clearing in the Darien jungle” for the Cubans who were traveling the route of the volcanoes to the United States. For him, the relationship between the Cuban person and the Cuban State is that of a 19th century slave with his master: when he gives him a little rum and a party, he lowers his head and submits. Priests and nuns must, above all, teach Cubans to open their eyes.

For months now, the isolated voices of the clergy and nuns have been the only ones within the Catholic Church to question the government. With a Bishops’ Conference in check by the Office of Religious Affairs of the Communist Party, a Pope who appears to be in favour of the regime and a cardinal who has disappeared from the public scene, priests like Naun are aware of their solitude in the face of any aggressive move by the system.

But Naun doesn’t let that bother him. The text that accompanies his latest video – the artisanal production of a papaya candy – is a profession of faith: “While our friends in other lands talk to us about the latest car models, artificial intelligence, cyborgs and other unimaginable scientific advances, I am going back in time to meet Columbus. We Cubans have the time machine calibrated to the past! I am not creative, I am just trying to survive without perishing in the attempt.”

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Cuba’s Tourism Projects in Ciego de Ávila Are Going Full Steam Ahead, While Housing Construction Stagnates

Delivery of materials to rehabilitate the runway of the Jardines del Rey International Airport and the roads in the area is guaranteed

The works aim to increase hotel and other vacation-rental capacities “with high-standard facilities.” / ’Granma’

14ymedio, Havana, 31 December 2024 — Despite “a difficult economic situation in the country” and a 45% deficit in the housing plan for 2024, work in the tourism sector in Ciego de Ávila is going full steam ahead. According to the newspaper Invasor, the province is working on developing the tourist destination Jardines del Rey, “the second sun and beach enclave in Cuba and one of the most prominent in the Caribbean region.”

Although the article does not indicate how long the works will take or the total investment, it indicates that the Provincial Construction Materials Company (Avilmat) is participating in the project on the keys located in the north of Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey, with the aim of increasing hotel and non-hotel tourist capacity, “with high-standard facilities.”

To do this, Avilmat, “an example of a socialist state entity,” sells and transports construction materials to Cayo Cruz. The company, according to the text, will produce more than 260,000 cubic meters of materials such as sand, granite and gravel, despite the “complex situation with energy carriers, interruptions in the electrical service and the allocation of only 49% of the fuel planned for the year.” continue reading

Invasor also highlights that to ensure that tourism development takes place, Avilmat will produce 660,000 blocks of different sizes, “a figure greater than 30,000 square meters of flooring, 4,500 tons of mortar and more than 18,000 tons of crushed gypsum, the latter being an essential raw material for making cement.”

To ensure that tourism development takes place, Avilmat will produce 660,000 units of blocks of different dimensions

However, just over a month ago, the same newspaper reported, when assessing the residential housing plan in the province for this year, that only 240 of the 670 planned houses would be built. Much of the problem, according to the official newspaper, was due to the lack of construction materials throughout the country. “The main obstacles facing the territory are related to the lack of cement and steel, the lack of financing for subsidized housing and the still scarce local production of construction materials.”

The newspaper was critical in its report, saying that 2024 will join a long history of deficiencies and failures in the construction sector. “Currently, the housing stock in Ciego de Ávila shows a deficit of around 35,000 homes. At this rate, it will take almost 40 years to meet all the demand; and that assumes that in the next four decades cyclones and construction deterioration do not demolish a single house,” it reported on November 26.

Regarding road works for tourism in Jardines del Rey, Alberto Suárez Cid, deputy director of Avilmat, also reported that they provided resources for the repair of the runway at the archipelago’s airport.

According to Invasor, this material also made possible “the improvement and construction of roads in the aforementioned tourist development area, ensuring appropriate conditions for the safe movement of visitors and workers who provide services in these places.”

This “prosperity” highlighted by the newspaper contrasts with the poor conditions of the province’s roads, which have claimed five lives in recent days.

This “prosperity” highlighted by the newspaper contrasts with the poor conditions of the province’s roads, which are used by the majority of the population and which have contributed to two road accidents in the last eight days, which have claimed the lives of five people, two of them minors .

The policy of prioritising tourism development at the expense of the housing plan is repeated in other provinces of the country, such as in Sancti Spíritus, where, of the 390 million pesos that the Ministry of Construction dedicated to the sector in 2023, almost 60% – 227 million – went to the Meliá Trinidad Península hotel project, owned by the State and managed by the Spanish company. This measure meant that, of 100 homes planned that year, barely 35 were built.

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The Prosperity of Cuba’s Sugarcane Fields of La Julia, Where the Guajiros Barely Survive, Is Over

Ruined by the decline of the sugar industry, a cooperative rents the land to grow beans, rice or vegetables

“The land was in poor condition and we had to prepare it with our own hands,” lament the guajiros. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yankiel Gutierrez Faife, La Julia (Villa Clara Province), 1 January 2025 — “It was hard work, but it was worth it. Now we have beans to eat at home this year,” says Jorge Luis Pérez. The 46-year-old farmer from Villa Clara decided to plant beans on a plot of land provided by the Dagoberto Cubela cooperative, in a desperate attempt to revitalize its former sugarcane fields, which, this time, is working.

“The land was in poor condition and we had to prepare it with our own hands, but I don’t have any land of my own and this was an opportunity,” says Pérez, who achieved his first harvest in less than four months thanks to the support of his family and despite his limited resources.

For decades, the Dagoberto Cubela was a symbol of prosperity in La Julia, Villa Clara. During the glory days of the sugar industry, the sugarcane fields stretched out like an endless sea of green, reflecting the hope of a community that lived to the rhythm of the harvest. The grinding was an event in the batey, the sugar company town. Curious people came to watch how the combines – an agricultural machine designed in the Soviet Union (KTP-1 and KTP-2) – harvested the sugarcane, and the loaded trucks crossed the town with the sweet aroma of molasses permeating the air.

For decades, Dagoberto Cubela was a symbol of prosperity in La Julia. / 14ymedio

“It was a different time,” recalls Roberto Machado, a farmer who still works in the cooperative. “All the men in the village were linked in one way or another to sugar. There was work for everyone, and sugar cane was the most common thing in the landscape.”

Over the years, that image faded. The lack of inputs, the deterioration of machinery and structural problems in the sugar industry began to take their toll. What were once lush fields were transformed into damaged lands, invaded by weeds – especially continue reading

the aroma plant, an invasive plant in many regions of the Island – and marked by abandonment.

“We saw how life was fading away from these lands,” says Marta Álvarez, one of the current directors of the unit. “Year after year, we tried to recover production, but the lack of fertilizers, herbicides and fuel made us fall further and further behind.”

During the glory days of the sugar industry, the sugarcane fields stretched out like an endless green sea. / 14ymedio

In the last year, the situation reached a critical point. With seven fields planted with sugarcane in terrible conditions, the cooperative was faced with an unsustainable reality: the crop was not thriving, animals were devouring the shoots and the resources were simply not enough to save the harvest.

“The decision to look for an alternative was not easy,” explains Alvarez. “We are a sugar-growing-unit by essence, but to insist on cane under these conditions was to condemn us to the end of the unit.” Thus the idea arose to temporarily hand over the land to local farmers, allowing them to grow other crops while an almost impossible solution to recover sugar production was sought.

What were once lush fields have been transformed into damaged lands, invaded by weeds. / 14ymedio

Pedro González, a 56-year-old widower, is another who has found in this initiative a way to support his family. “I decided to plant peanuts because it does not require as much effort as other crops. Now I can sell my production and pay the cooperative its percentage without any problems,” he explains.

According to the agreement, farmers assume 100% of the investment and work on the plots ceded and, in exchange, give 30% of their production to the cooperative if they grow basic foodstuffs such as beans, rice or vegetables. In the case of products less consumed in local dining rooms, such as peanuts or sesame seeds, farmers can keep 100% of their production, but must pay in cash the equivalent of 30% of the value of the harvest.

With seven sugarcane fields in terrible conditions, the cooperative faced an unsustainable reality. / 14ymedio

“It’s a win-win model,” Alvarez says. “They have access to land that would otherwise be abandoned, and we get income to maintain the unit.”

Despite the initial success, the farmers of La Julia face the usual difficulties, including a lack of inputs, such as fertilizers and pesticides, which they must acquire on their own. In addition, the cooperative cannot offer them logistical support, since their machinery is paralyzed by the lack of fuel. This is what condemns this initiative to being a simple survival option for guajiros without access to credit or state aid.

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Cuban Faces 2024: Bernardo Espinosa, the Face of Every Day’s Bad News

In a year marked by blackouts, this journalist tells how much darkness awaits Cubans, although many of them can’t even tune in to Canal Caribe

Bernardo Espinosa is based at the headquarters of the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba / Canal Caribe

14ymedio, Havana, December 29, 2024 — One of the most popular faces on Cuban television is that of Bernardo Espinosa Moya, and not precisely because of the joy he usually brings. This journalist, based at the headquarters of the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba, has almost had to form a duet with Lázaro Guerra, engineer and general director of electricity of the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

In a year marked more than ever by blackouts and total disconnections, Espinosa is the voice that every morning tells how much darkness awaits Cubans, although many of them cannot even tune in to Canal Caribe, because a programmed or untimely power cut prevents them from turning on the television or seeing a fragment of the Buenos Días Magazine on social networks.

Espinosa graduated in journalism in 1990 from the University of Oriente and has specialized ever since in hydraulic resources, transport and the mining and energy sectors. His official biography indicates that he has carried out missions in several Latin American countries (Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia) and African countries (Zimbabwe and Mozambique). He was given awards by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua, by Félix Elmusa of the Union of Journalists and by the Ministry of Public Health for his coverage of the so-called “medical missions.”

Another recognition that draws attention in his career is the one made by the Ministry of the Armed Forces for his coverage of the “funeral honors of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz”

Another recognition that draws attention in his career is the one made by the Ministry of the Armed Forces for his coverage of the “funeral honors of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz.” Among his special reports, in continue reading

addition, are those of the 7th Congress of the Communist Party, the 6th plenary of the Central Committee of the PCC, sessions of the National Assembly and “weather events and National Energy Contingency.”

Little or none of this matters to most Cubans, who only see in Espinosa’s face the bad news of each day. Although they sometimes wake up with happy news, such as that the payment was finally made that allows a ship to unload liquefied gas or oil that temporarily relieves their worries, or that some thermoelectric plant or the other was back online, the expert usually talks about a growing deficit in electricity generation.

The blackouts are nothing new in Cuba, which has experienced two years of pain in this regard. Thermal power plants are dying from old age, and “maintenance” consists of a bandaid on an open wound. The supply of crude oil is increasingly inaccessible due to the lack of foreign exchange, despite the efforts of Venezuela, Mexico and Russia. These problems, in addition to the lack of governmemt investment when it was still possible to avoid this disaster, suffocate the national electricity system (SEN) so much that this end of the year has been agonizing, with three total disconnections and the constant threat of another one at any time.

In summer, the Ministry of Energy and Mines presented a plan for the construction of solar parks with the collaboration of China that, if it had been implemented ten years ago, would have been timely. Minister of Energy and Mines Vicente de la O Levy announced in September – coinciding with the decommissioning of the 60-year old Tallapiedra thermoelectric plant – that in early 2025 there would be almost 500 megawatts of installed solar power that would improve the situation. The minister then believed that after the winter, when demand falls due to the relief of temperatures, the new year would give a break to the sector. The worst was yet to come, with the complete collapses of the National Electric System in October, November and December. Experts predict that, at best, the Chinese solar parks will not begin generating electricity until 2027.

Translated by Regina Anavy

Cuba Releases Salvadoran Raúl Cruz León, After He Completed a 30-Year Sentence for Terrorism on the Island

Arrested in Cuba on September 4, 1997, the foreigner was accused of placing six explosive devices

Archive photo of Raúl Ernesto Cruz León / EFE

14ymedio, Havana, 31 December 2024 — Salvadoran Raúl Ernesto Cruz León was released this Monday in Cuba, where he served a 30-year prison sentence for carrying out terrorist attacks against tourist facilities on the island, official media reported. “Today, after serving his sentence, Cruz León has been released, demonstrating that Cuba respects its laws and guarantees justice, even for those who have committed serious crimes,” said a statement published in Cubadebate.

The article notes that Cruz León, “was arrested, tried and sentenced to death in Cuba. However, in an act of coherence and humanity, the Cuban legal system commuted his sentence to 30 years in prison.” In addition, the statement points out that his release, after serving his sentence, “is an example of the fairness of the Cuban legal system, which applies the laws impartially and consistently.”

However, it adds: “We cannot forget that the intellectual authors of these terrorist acts, who planned and financed the attacks, have lived and died in the United States without facing justice.”

It also states that Cuba “has faced terrorism with firmness and respect for legality, investigating and sanctioning those responsible for criminal actions that have caused pain and loss to its citizens and visitors.” The note reiterates that the United States “has allowed the intellectual authors and financiers of these terrorist attacks to live free and unpunished in Miami.” In that sense, it points to Luis Posada Carriles, who died “without being tried for his crimes,” and to “other promoters of terrorism against the Island who continue to enjoy impunity on US territory.” continue reading

Posada Carriles acknowledged in statements to The New York Times that he had organized the attacks with financing from the FNCA

Cruz León was arrested in Cuba on September 4, 1997 and accused of placing six explosive devices between July and September of that year in the hotels Nacional, Capri, Copacabana, Tritón, Chateau-Miramar and the well-known restaurant La Bodeguita del Medio, all in Havana.

One of those bombs caused the death of Italian businessman Fabio di Celmo, 32, and injured seven other people.

In the trial held in 1999, Cruz León was found guilty of the crime of “continuous terrorism” and sentenced to death after proving that he was sent to the island for those purposes by the anti-Castro organization Fundación Nacional Cubano Americana (FNCA), based in Miami, and by the Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, who died in 2018 in that city of Florida.

Posada Carriles, a former CIA collaborator, acknowledged in statements to The New York Times that he had organized the attacks with financing from the FNCA.

In 2010, the People’s Supreme Court of the Island decided to replace the original sanction imposed on Cruz León with that of 30 years of deprivation of liberty, at the conclusion of his appeal of the death penalty.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Coppelia, the ‘Cathedral’ of Ice Cream and of the Cuban Regime, Has Died

Not even the ice cream shop employees know when it will reopen its doors.

Inside, only a few foreigners, loaded with cameras and lenses, stroll around and take pictures / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 26 December 2024 — Nobody knows when Coppelia will reopen. Cuba’s most famous ice cream parlor, located on the emblematic corner of 23rd and L, in El Vedado, has been closed for months. “The cathedral of ice cream is dead,” was the verdict of a Havana resident when, on Thursday morning, she saw only two employees reluctantly selling cookies.

To 14ymedio’s questions, the workers answered, holding their treats and seated at one of the many entrances of the centrally located establishment: “There is no ice cream and we don’t know when there will be any.”

As the passers-by who walk around the ice cream parlor remind themselves, “Nothing has been sold there since Hurricane Rafael struck,” last November 6.

The crooked sign at the entrance, and the fallen tree trunks and poles, augur that Coppelia’s bad season continues until further notice. / Juan Diego Rodríguez

A month later, at the beginning of December, the Coppelia ice cream factory on Rancho Boyeros Avenue gave the final blow to production after running out of ammonia to refrigerate the product.

The chains that, placed from one fence to another at the entrance, have been blocking the entrance to Coppelia for weeks, are not the only ones that draw the attention of Havana residents. “They also removed the huge continue reading

awnings where the tables were placed for customers to sit and there are many fallen trees.” Even the craftsmen who used to sell their items in front of the establishment have disappeared. “They dismantled all that and we don’t know if the vendors will return, ” another Havana woman admits.

Inside the utopian revolutionary ice cream parlor – created with the idea of giving Cubans a taste of the most exclusive flavors – only a few foreigners, loaded with cameras and lenses, walk around and take pictures after getting the workers’ approval. The crooked sign at the entrance, evoking the legs of a ballerina, and the fallen poles in its gardens, seem to announce the inevitable: after several crises and temporary closures in recent years, Coppelia has finally hit rock bottom.

Translated by LAR

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Cuban Commentator Sergio Ortega, Famous for Inventing Soccer Goals, Settles With His Family in the United States

Sergio Ortega is the son of Manolo Ortega, who was a “personal friend” and official presenter of Fidel Castro at political events.

Sergio Ortega had some privileges on the Island, such as his vacations in the Varadero Hotels. / Adults Only Hotel Los Cactus

14ymedio, Havana, 30 December 2024 — Sports commentator Sergio Ortega of Tele Rebelde has left Cuba. The reporter and his family arrived this Sunday at Miami International Airport. According to journalist Henry Morales, they plan to settle “in South Florida,” where 1.1 million Cubans reside.

The abandonment of Ortega, son of Manolo Ortega, who was a “personal friend” and official presenter of Fidel Castro in political events, caused surprise. As the page La Tijera on Facebook recalls, the communicator “had certain privileges on the Island, such as his vacations in the hotels of Varadero,” whose images he himself spread on social networks, and “other facilities that the rest of his colleagues in the guild could not enjoy.”

Ortega, 67, has not commented on his departure, which could be via humanitarian parole – which has allowed the entry of more than 110,000 compatriots since January 2023 – or through a family reunification visa. In any case, his departure is part of the unstoppable migratory wave, driven by economic and social deterioration, blackouts, and lack of healthcare in Cuba.

A hydraulic engineer by profession, Ortega broke into the Cuban media in 1994. The Coco station – where his father worked – in Havana, gave him his first opportunity in sports announcing. Throughout a career of 30 years, he ventured into the narration of basketball, volleyball and soccer matches, continue reading

among other disciplines. Alongside Renier González, he covered World Cups and Olympic Games.

More than this trajectory, however, he is known by fans for his blunders and his narratives about Cuban athletes who competed under another flag. In the World Cup Brazil 2014, for example, he said, “What a cannon shot!” about a kick by Englishman Raheem Sterling that hit one side of the goal post defended by the Italian Salvatore Sirigu. Seconds later he recognized his mistake: “Ay, if it had gone in, my God!”

An Internet user considered that Sergio Ortega was “the worst thing about the World Cup” in Brazil 2014. “We have bad commentators; they are also partial, which doesn’t go over very well,” said a reader in a Cubadebate article. Cuban sports announcers deserve “expulsion from Cuban TV,” he stressed.

His false goals were common. He celebrated an alleged score by Real Madrid striker Eden Hazard against RB Leipzig. “Real Madrid’s superb collective goal,” he narrated. “Goal at (minute) 80: they were tied and now secures first place in the Champions League group (European club tournament).” The ball never entered the goal.

Ortega was also very loud after he fell asleep during a broadcast, then woke up and invented a soccer play.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Christmas For Emilio, Jorge and Carmelo: Three Beggars Who Sleep on the Streets of Matanzas

Lack of food and cold are no worse than the lack of hope for the most vulnerable these days

Religious institutions and associations put on recitals and encourage cultural activities, but the poor of Matanzas aren’t up for partying. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Matanzas 24 December 2024 – “I sleep wherever I can” is the ’calling card’ of Emilio, one of the beggars who trawl through Matanzas after sunset looking for a shop doorway in which to bed down. A quiet man, he asks for 20 pesos as a condition of talking to us. “I’ll buy a coffee with this”, he says, putting the note in his pocket. “It was quite cold last night and it got very uncomfortable towards dawn”.

His worst enemy is a cold weather front. “When one of those arrives I think I’m going to die”, he says. “So far it hasn’t happened. I try to keep going. I sell stuff that I find in people’s refuse, and if I can’t find anything I just beg for something to eat”.

His base for the moment has been the area around Matanzas Cathedral. The two yellowish towers of the old church shield him against the light. “They say that before Christmas they are going to have a dinner and there’ll be a crate of food”, he says, pointing towards the church door. “I’ve been invited. After that, who knows what’ll happen”.

As in other dioceses on the island, the bishoprics and parishes usually organise initiatives for the city’s beggars, at which Cáritas (the international support agency of the Catholic Church) distributes food and clothing. They also put on recitals and encourage cultural activities, but the poor of Matanzas, Emilio admits, aren’t up for partying.

It’s enough just to take a stroll around the centre of Matanzas or around the cathedral to see that the number of beggars has grown. / 14ymedio

It’s enough just to take a stroll around the centre of Matanzas or around the cathedral to see that the number of beggars has grown. With his bits of junk and improvised sales displays, his mission is to “find a few pesos to get through the day”, as Emilio puts it.

For Jorge, who has suffered from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for years (a degenerative illness which gives rise to progressive muscular paralysis and is ultimately fatal) the kindness of strangers is indispensable. When he needs breakfast he goes to the dining room at the Kairós centre, continue reading

which is an institution run by the Baptist church. From time to time he also attends other religious centres.

“Not even adding that one to my coupon book is enough to get me to the end of the month”, he says, sorrowfully. With his physical condition “every mouthful counts”. Every minute too.

Matanzas (’massacre’) lives up to its name – a name which, according to legend, came from the slaughter of a group of Spaniards by indigenous people in 1510. And life is hard not only for its citizens but for its animals too. Just like during the Special Period [after the fall of the Soviet Union] the rumour now is that when there’s nothing to eat, people have to go out hunting for cats, or dogs.

Nor is it unusual to find beggars living off families’ discarded food scraps (frequently used to make “sancocho” pork stew), collecting them to use as raw material whenever they can. You can also often see them at the city’s refuse tip “diving” amongst the rubbish to fill up a bag with old tin cans or scrap metal. Sometimes you’ll even see the families themselves doing this kind of scavenging – including the children.

In the city, the beggars’ worst enemy is a cold weather front. / 14ymedio

Living like this finishes you off in the end. Carmela knows this well enough. By trade a “seller of mousetraps and other useful items”, he suffers from untreated ulcers on one of his feet, which was injured in an accident. He has worn the same clothing for years, and his hands, full of calluses, are testimony to his way of life.

Carmelo used to be a delivery man. Riding on his work tricycle – a very creole artifact – he would deliver whatever his customers ordered from him. But after his accident he had to find another way to make a living. Now he sells what he can find, and if “things get bad” he goes to the notorious Calle del Medio to beg.

He says he doesn’t like going to the charity canteens. This New Year’s Eve he plans only to shut himself up in his tiny single room. The silence inside the little cubicle – without any visitors – is the closest thing he’ll have for a party.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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2024, The Year of Darkness in Cuba

This year that ends, Castroism has lost a good part of the little popular support it had left and will limp into January. Unfortunately, so will Cubans.

Cuba has suffered very prolonged power cuts in 2024 / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 30 December 2024 — 2024 has been the most difficult year that Cubans have lived in this century. Everything that could go wrong became worse in these last twelve months. The economic crisis, inflation, the deterioration of basic services, insecurity and the migratory exodus have marked the passage of days on the Island. This has been a time of darkness, not only because of the constant blackouts and the three total collapses of the national energy system, but also because not a single ray of hope has shone.

While in the streets there was talk of collapse, the official discourse defined the situation as a “complex” scenario. As the number and volume of voices calling for economic openness grew, regulations were raining down from the Government to put rigid limits on the private sector and stop the development of private companies. While on social networks, in the long lines in front of ATMs and at family tables consensus was reached on the urgency of a political change, official propaganda insisted on continuity.

As the months went by, the faces of Cubans became longer, their cheekbones more prominent and the circles under their eyes darker

As the months went by, the faces of the Cubans became longer, their cheekbones more prominent and the circles under their eyes darker, but before the news cameras the Communist Party leaders became plumper and pinker, their necks thicker and their waists more difficult to contain by belts and buttons. The divorce between Cuban reality and the group in power became impossible to hide. That pronounced fracture was evidenced not only through body weight, but, especially, through words.

At the plummet of the rationed market, countless statements from ministers and officials came out claiming that no one would be left helpless. While the streets were filled with beggars and children asking for money or food, propaganda directed its spotlights towards poverty in liberal democracies. When the doors and windows were opened to the Kremlin’s continue reading

interference on the Island, the tone on the supposed sovereignty of the country was raised. Instead of listening to the crying of mothers watching their children leave through Central America, the official press preferred to place the microphone on the voice of others displaced by distant conflicts. Faced with the increase in crime, the regime’s spokesmen pointed out incidents on American and European streets.

Two diametrically different countries lived in Cuba this year. On the one hand, the empty pharmacies and hospitals with hardly any medical staff; on the other, the one that exports health workers anywhere in the world and boasts of its novel drugs. The number of femicides exceeded 50 murders throughout 2024, but the Federation of Cuban Women boasted of the low incidence of sexist violence on the Island.

If there was something that was planned to improve, this year it was ruined even more

Despite the hundreds of political prisoners who are still locked up in prisons, Havana pretended to show respect for human rights before international organizations, judged other countries that did not pay it ideological homage and gave a lecture on the benefits of its prison system. In November alone, seven prisoners died behind bars for situations that point to the responsibility or complicity of their jailers.

The economic projection was not accomplished by even one decimal point. If there was something that was planned to improve, this year it was ruined even more. Food production continued to collapse, and farmers responded with fewer deliveries despite the pressures of the state monopoly Acopio. The fields became unsafe spaces where animal slaughterers and thieves didn’t let the rural population sleep. The industry almost disappeared, and the numbers of tourists fell below those of the previous year, for the first time since the pandemic.

If the previous Christmas we thought we had hit rock bottom, this shows that our assessment was naive. This December it seems that there is absolutely nothing to celebrate, but there are reasons to harbor a modest optimism: the Cuban dictatorship will enter 2025 very weakened. To the financial and productive crisis must be added the galloping decrease in support within the sectors that, until recently, blindly defended it. This year that ends, Castroism has lost a good part of the little popular support it had left and will limp into January. Unfortunately, so will Cubans.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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November Rumors in Cuba: Militarization, Protests, Diversion of International Aid

It is alleged that doses of the synthetic drug known as ‘químico’ are being sold on the online platform Revolico

Several Cuban soldiers in an operation on the Malecón of Havana, in November 2021. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 29 December 2024 — A theme prevailed over the vortex of rumors in Cuba in November and defined the tone of the comments: total blackouts. Everything, from the alleged militarization of cities to information about protests – confirmed in some cases – had darkness as a backdrop. The intermittencies of the internet connection contributed to the representation of the crisis being even more exorbitant and alarming.

An old myth – that the authorities energetically favor Havana and despise the eastern region – circulated again as an argument for an alleged cruelty against Santiago de Cuba and the surrounding provinces. According to several rumors, electricity returned to the capital faster, to avoid the risk of protests, while in the east the police acted with a heavy hand and more blackouts against the populations that demonstrated.

It was also said that the center, and not only the east, suffered the repression of the Government to “save” Havana. In Santa Clara, for example, it was pointed out that there were only two circuits with power after the total blackouts: the one corresponding to the neighborhood of El Condado – where the neighbors, many of them illegally installed in the marginal areas, usually protest violently – and in which the house of the first secretary of the Communist Party in the province is located. continue reading

According to several rumors, the electricity returned to the capital faster, to avoid the risk of protests, while in the east the Police acted with a heavy hand

There were gestures of protest throughout the country, according to rumors. Users reported a graffiti on Cristo de Camagüey Street, between Santa Catalina and Bembeta. The poster said: “Down with communism. The people are tired.” Another sign of discontent was the alleged theft of rails from the Colón-Matanzas railway line, on which several trains have been derailed for months.

Along with the total Island-wide blackout, the passage of two cyclones and the occurrence of several earthquakes fueled the discomfort of Cubans. In the midst of the crisis, it was reported that the telephone lines provided by the National Institute of Meteorology to inform the population collapsed. Others claimed that the blackout and the ravages of both hurricanes caused the disconnection.

Cuba has not lacked international aid in recent weeks, but, according to rumors, the Government uses it to benefit a select few, especially hierarchs and owners of MSMEs related to the regime. The same happens, it is claimed, with hospital resources, which are distributed to the medical institutions of the Army and not to Public Health. As for the food, donated by several United Nations agencies for soup kitchens, it ends up on the tables of the leaders.

The same happens with hospital resources, which are distributed to the medical institutions of the Army and not to Public Health

The life of prisoners in Cuban prisons continues to be the subject of rumors that, due to the isolation suffered by many prisoners, usually cannot be confirmed. Prisoner Nelson Caballero Díaz was brutally beaten by guards in the cells of Villa María Luisa – the State Security barracks in Camagüey – according to several complaints. After the beating, he was incommunicado and for several weeks his family has not heard anything about him. De Caballero is said to have two small children and his doctors have issued him several certificates accrediting that he has been beaten.

Another inmate, also in Camagüey, commented that his hands were amputated and that the Ministry of the Interior turned a deaf ear to his constant requests for medical assistance. Finally, there was talk of the death of a prisoner in Ariza prison, in Cienfuegos, after being beaten by seven policemen.

The information about violent events of which the Police rarely offer an official version also follow. In Camagüey, according to several users, a man who was looking after a house was killed to steal the valuables of the property. The case of an 18-year-old who assaulted a Basic High School student, took her phone at knife point and fled was reported. He was arrested by the people before the delay of the police.

Minors are involved in some of these events. Two boys are accused of breaking into an apartment in Santiago de Cuba. After being discovered and fleeing, the neighbors themselves managed to catch up with them. According to a neighbor, “the boys were closing the door of the apartment since the oldest warned them that people were not going to be in the house today. Quickly the neighbors heard the noise and went out.” The police put both children in custody.

Some rumors point to an alleged legalization of narcotics in Cuba by Miguel Díaz-Canel, given the ineffectiveness of the police to control traffic

Rumors have multiplied about el químico* [the chemical], the fashionable drug in Cuba, as well as videos of people under its influence. Some rumors point to an alleged legalization of narcotics in Cuba by Miguel Díaz-Canel, given the ineffectiveness of the police to control trafficking. Some doses of el químico, it is said, have come to be sold on the online sales platform Revolico.

Many Cubans have no doubt that the system is giving multiple signs of crisis and future restructuring, for the sake of their survival. According to a rumor, the Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, is in prison for having revealed the magnitude of the network of illegal businesses he protected. De Marrero, who appeared in several photos with an arm in plaster and a sling, was said to have been beaten by some soldier – probably Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, El Cangrejo [the Crab], grandson and bodyguard of Raúl Castro – for mistakes in his management.

Reality has denied that Marrero has fallen from grace. This month, in front of Parliament, it was his turn – under the attentive gaze of Raúl Castro – to make an act of contrition over the country’s multisectoral debacle.

*Translator’s note: ‘El químico‘ is a synthetic drug based on cannabis laced with other substances and is said to be highly dangerous and addictive.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Sin-Eaters Return

There are people who have never stopped blaming the United States for the failures and mistakes of Cuban totalitarianism

Perhaps, the most conspicuous of those sin-eaters* is President Barack Obama / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 29 December 2024 — It is not new that US politicians and officials believe that they are responsible for all the evils suffered by others, as can be seen in a recent letter that former diplomats and National Security officials addressed to President Joe Biden and his vice president Kamala Harris, in relation to Cuba.

The United States has its own “sin-eaters“: people who, through ritual meals, free individuals who have recently died or are close to death from their sins. Perhaps the most conspicuous of these is President Barack Obama, who re-established relations with Cuba without demanding changes on the Island.

In my opinion, the letter should have been addressed to the dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel, since they recognize that it is the Government of Cuba itself that has created “insufficient and incoherent political reforms that have largely caused this crisis.” However, the sin-eater aspect of the letter appears when they claim that “the current policy of the United States has exacerbated the difficulties of Cubans.”

There are people who have never stopped blaming the United States for the failures and mistakes of Cuban totalitarianism, stating that the embargo and US policies forced Fidel Castro to be hostile to this country. They ignore that the Cuban system has concluded 66 years with political prisoners and a people immersed in misery for the failed policies of the regime, and not for real or alleged foreign aggressions. continue reading

I remember reading the opinions of compatriots who blamed the US for having led Castro to ally with the Soviet Union

Even more, I remember reading the opinions of compatriots who blamed the US for having led Fidel Castro to ally with the Soviet Union. They ignore that on June 5, 1958, he wrote to Celia Sánchez: “When I saw the rockets they threw at Mario’s house, I have sworn to myself that the Americans will pay dearly for what they are doing. When this war is over, a much longer and bigger war will begin for me: the war I’m going to wage against them. I realize that this is going to be my true destiny. Fidel.”

The petition also requests that Cuba be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, ignoring that the Cuban government, for more than six and a half decades, has systematically supported the violent groups that have tried to destroy democracies in their own countries.

Finally, they very discreetly ask that the White House be the savior of tyranny by increasing humanitarian aid and simplifying the rules for Cuban citizens to access the US financial system.

They are well informed about the critical situation of Cubans, but apparently they prefer to ignore who is responsible for the situation they describe by saying: “The country’s energy network is failing, child malnutrition is increasing, basic services are deteriorating, and most Cubans have lost hope, precipitating the largest exodus of migrants from Cuba in its history.”

Many of those who signed this document are former officials of the government of Barack Obama

Many of those who signed this document are former officials of the government of Barack Obama, such as former ambassador to Cuba Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who denies that the Obama-era thaw has been a failure, without presenting evidence of its success. Vice President Harris said in 2020 that the embargo policy only helps supporters of confrontation, ignoring that the ones who have promoted confrontation are the rulers of Cuba, from the Castro brothers to the hand-picked dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel.

I ask those who signed, do not play into the game of the enemies of democracy. A license that allows United States citizens to invest in Cuban companies will not change the situation of Cubans for the better. Spaniards and Canadians have made large investments in Cuba without the Island prospering. Finally, the Cuban state under Castro’s totalitarianism was failing long before some of you voted for Barack Obama or Joe Biden.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Faces 2024: Mario Urquía Carreño, the Man Who Almost Destroyed Cuban Freemasonry

Protected by the authorities, the Grand Master began to take action against those who demanded his immediate resignation.

The attention the crisis received was another weapon of the Grand Master against his enemies. / Grand Lodge of Cuba/FB

14ymedio, Havana,27 December 2024 — No ingredient was missing from the drama that Cuban Masons have been involved in for almost ten months this year. The scandal, last January, over the theft of 19,000 dollars from the top – and safest – floor of the Grand Lodge building in Havana, led to a whirlwind of accusations and pronouncements that plunged the order into disrepute. The man whom all the fingers were pointed at was the Grand Master himself: Mario Urquía Carreño.

Even today it is not clear why the money, which belonged to the Llansó Masonic Asylum, was subjected to such irregular transactions among the high officials who were supposed to guard it. Urquía Carreño, who initially assumed responsibility – although not guilt – for the theft, entrenched himself in office and found an unexpected ally: the Ministry of Justice.

Protected by the authorities, the Grand Master began to take action against those who demanded his immediate resignation. Cuban Masons, historically intolerant of all forms of authoritarianism, counterattacked using the fraternity’s legal tools. During a meeting in March, he was expelled from the premises with cries of “Get out, thief!” Humiliated by his adversaries, but shrewd and well advised, Urquía Carreño demonstrated that his opponents had not followed the rules correctly and, with an endorsement from the Ministry of Justice, he was reinstated in his office. continue reading

Another variable was added to the equation: the independent press. The attention that the crisis received was another of the Grand Master’s weapons against his enemies: he accused them of revealing Masonic matters to the layman. The irony of the argument was that both State Security and some of its propaganda channels – especially the so-called Cuban Warrior – were tearing their hair out at such a lack of respect for the order.

When the situation could not be more surreal, Caridad Diego, the regime’s chief for religious affairs, intervened.

When the situation could not be more surreal, Caridad Diego, the regime’s chief for religious affairs, a person experienced in dialoguing with the fraternity, intervened. In a meeting with a group of Masons, the Communist Party official ordered the cell phones to be confiscated from the attendees and confessed that she “knew nothing of what was happening.” She urged, however, for a return to the fold of the Ministry of Justice, which is essential for the Grand Lodge to remain legal in the country.

In August, Urquía Carreño capitulated “for the good of the institution” and resigned from office. There had been months of extreme tension and schism, in practice, with the Supreme Council for the 33rd Degree – the second most important Masonic institution in Cuba – and with its leader, José Ramón Viñas, his antagonist. He had left Freemasonry on the brink of institutional abyss and one step away from losing the recognition, and therefore the financing, of Masons from other countries. Cuban emigrants in Florida already considered him an agent of counterintelligence.

A month later, in another equally unexpected move, the former Grand Master was arrested at the police station in Zanja y Dragones. He seemed to have lost the favor of his former protectors and his Masonic status was in question. Since then, it is unknown what has become of him.

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